Geert Grote and the Status and Functions of Images in Meditative Practices

In 1379, Geert Grote (founder of the devotion moderna), wrote his "Tractatus de quattuor generibus meditabilium". His aim was to guide devotees in their meditation by analysing four subjects of meditation. When dealing with the fourth type, namely the products of the imagination, Grote offers a comprehensive reflection on the role of images in meditative practices. Based upon Ruusbroec’s concept of the ghemeine leven, Grote’s image theory is far more subtle than scholarship usually acknowledges. Indeed he presents meditation as a process of abstraction, which does not lead to a complete and voluntary evacuation of images, but rather to a transformation of the devotee who can thus apprehend the sensible world in a new way. The aim of this paper is to shed new light on Grote’s conception of images and to draw parallels with visual strategies in contemporary paintings in order to show that images were dynamic spiritual instruments