Heaven Opens: The Trinitarian Mysticism of Adrienne von Speyr by Matthew Lewis Sutton (review)

In 1968, Hans Urs von Balthasar famously wrote the following lines: “On the whole, I received far more from [Adrienne von Speyr], theologically, than she from me, though, of course, the exact proportion can never be calculated. … Today, after her death, Adrienne von Speyr’s work appears far more important than mine.”¹ Such a powerful statement from one of the greatest theologians of the twentieth century ought to give pause: who was Adrienne von Speyr, and what is so important about the writings that she has left to the Church? In his recent study, Heaven Opens: The Trinitarian Mysticism of Adrienne von Speyr, Matthew Sutton offers a scholarly and lucid answer to this pressing question. The careful work of this young scholar occasions a watershed moment in von Speyr studies and will demand the attention of anyone interested in the mystic’s life and work.

Sutton’s text has the merit of offering the first book-length introduction in English to von Speyr’s works and mystical experiences (besides, of course, the English translation of von Balthasar’s First Glance at Adrienne von Speyr). In a manageable eleven chapters spread over 244 pages, the author has achieved a noteworthy feat: he has provided a broad introduction to von Speyr’s voluminous work without sacrificing the depth that accompanies a more focused theological investigation. The lynchpin of Sutton’s success is his prudently chosen focus of study: the doctrine of the Trinity in von Speyr’s writings and mysticism. The selection of such an arterial theme for a theological study allows Sutton to touch all the essential threads that wind their way through von Speyr’s immense corpus of writings. In this sense, Sutton’s book harmonizes nicely with Balthasar’s explication of the many major themes in her writings given in his First Glance at Adrienne von Speyr and his “General Introduction to the Posthumous Works” in The Book of All Saints: Part One.

Unfortunately, Sutton’s book lacks a thematic index, which would have certainly added to its appeal as a general introduction to von Speyr’s work. Nonetheless, it is appropriately structured according to the requirements of his theological inquiry, which necessitates that the remarks upon other threads of von Speyr’s thought are scattered throughout the chapters of the text. The author embellishes his chapters with the poetry of T. S. Eliot, who was greatly impacted by von Speyr’s Commentary on John.

A glance at the bibliography reveals that Sutton is working with over eighty published and unpublished works of von Speyr in the original German. He offers his own articulate English translations throughout the text, in consultation with those English translations already published. Importantly, the texts engaged by Heaven Opens include the entirety of von Speyr’s posthumously published works (the Nachlassbände), which are of great importance for an understanding of her mystical and theological contribution to the Church despite the fact that they are unknown to most English readers. The breadth of von Speyrian sources employed by Sutton further secures the text’s place as a reliable introduction to the whole of von Speyr’s work. In refreshing opposition to some popular discussions of von Speyr, Sutton never cherry-picks quotes, but always understands particular passages in light of her whole oeuvre. The footnotes are strong and often locate apt places for future research.

After a thorough overview of von Speyr’s life and work in chapter 1, chapters 2–3 provide a theological analysis of “von Speyr’s theory and experience of Trinitarian mysticism” (3). Since the remainder of the book will address theological topics that form the content of von Speyr’s mysticism (Sutton approvingly cites Balthasar’s claim that her mysticism is an “experiential dogmatics”) these crucial chapters offer a “methodology of interpretation for the rest of the book” (85). A particularly insightful contribution of von Speyr’s account of mysticism is her identification...