What would happen if Christian spiritual life is seen, not as a pilgrimage through a
landscape, but as the landscape itself? In order to explore this question, this thesis
expands the metaphor of the 'landscape of the soul' into a model of Christian
spiritual life. The 'landscape of the soul' is treated as a system; with its input being
God's self-revelation of love through Jesus Christ; its transformational process being
the re-creation of a person through the love of God; and its output being union with
God. In a representational mapping of the model, three interrelated networks of
systems are identified: a geology representing physical and psychological processes
relating to human experiencing; a geomorphology connected with human growth and
development; and an ecology depicting the flow of God's love through various
interrelationships present in the 'landscape of the soul'. These systems are
considered with reference to three characteristics of landscape: matrix, the area that is
most prominent; patches, areas that are different from the common matrix; and
corridors, areas that facilitate the flow of information, energy or materials. The
'landscape of the soul' is also thematically mapped using different types of
understandings that are associated with mysticism. The geological network is seen
as analogous to those discourses that interpret mysticism as a distinct type of altered
state of consciousness; the geomorphological network, with those understandings
that link mysticism with stages in prayer or psycho-spiritual development; and the
ecological network, with those understandings that associate mysticism with the
encounter and relationship with God in Christ. From this thematic exploration, the
model proposes that the altered state of consciousness in the geology of experiencing
be likened to being-in-love with God; that the process represented by stages in the
geomorphology of growing be seen as the deepening and honing of attention to God;
and the relationship depicted in the ecology of relating be perceived as a mutual selfgiving
between God and a person in an exchange of love. The model is tested in an
individual case study of the life and writings of Clare of Assisi and through a survey
of spiritual directors and therapists. A model of Christian life based upon the
metaphor of the 'landscape of the soul' emphasises an encounter with Christ in the
present moment and provides a framework in which some different understandings of
mysticism can be situated. Moreover, what emerges is a distinctly Christian
understanding of a mysticism of everyday in which the apophatic and
transformational encounter with God is grounded in Christ