Sarah Coakley, the 2025-2026 McDonald Chair, delivers the second of two lectures examining mystical theology on October 21, 2025. In this lecture, Coakley probed back to the origins of “Mystical Theology” in the patristic period and beyond, and compare its demanding ascetical vision with current perceptions of “mysticism” in the churches and wider culture. Coakley mounted the thesis that classic apophatic “contemplation” has, today, a very particular challenge and application to our current political world circumstances.