Henry Epps | monograph | [Date]

School of the Crimson Mystics MONOGRAPH 1

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Monograph 1

Christian Mysticism

Christian mysticism refers to the development of mystical practices and theory within

Christianity. It has often been connected to mystical theology, especially in the Catholic

and Eastern Orthodox traditions.

The attributes and means by which Christian mysticism is studied and practiced are

varied and range from ecstatic visions of the soul's mystical union with God to simple

prayerful contemplation of Holy Scripture (i.e., Lectio Divina).

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"Mysticism" is derived from the Greek μυω, meaning "to conceal", and its derivative

μυστικός, mystikos, meaning 'an initiate'. In the Hellenistic world, a "mystikos" was an

initiate of a mystery religion. "Mystical" referred to secret religious rituals and use of the

word lacked any direct references to the transcendental.

In early Christianity the term "mystikos" referred to three dimensions, which soon

became intertwined, namely the biblical, the liturgical and the spiritual or contemplative.

The biblical dimension refers to "hidden" or allegorical interpretations of Scriptures. The

liturgical dimension refers to the liturgical mystery of the Eucharist, the presence Christ

at the Eucharist. The third dimension is the contemplative or experiential knowledge of

God.

Presence

Bernard McGinn defines Christian mysticism as:

[T]hat part, or element, of Christian belief and practice that concerns the preparation for,

the consciousness of, and the effect of [...] a direct and transformative presence of [the

Christian] God.

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Presence versus experience

McGinn argues that "presence" is more accurate than "union", since not all mystics spoke

of union with God, and since many visions and miracles were not necessarily related to

union. He also argues that we should speak of "consciousness" of God's presence, rather

than of "experience", since mystical activity is not simply about the sensation of God as

an external object, but more broadly about

...new ways of knowing and loving based on states of awareness in which God becomes

present in our inner acts.

William James popularized the use of the term "religious experience" in his The Varieties

of Religious Experience. It has also influenced the understanding of mysticism as a

distinctive experience which supplies knowledge.

Wayne Proudfoot traces the roots of the notion of "religious experience" further back to

the German theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768–1834), who argued that religion

is based on a feeling of the infinite. The notion of "religious experience" was used by

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Schleiermacher to defend religion against the growing scientific and secular critique. It

was adopted by many scholars of religion, of which William James was the most

influential.

Personal transformation

Resurrection of Jesus, Matthias Grünewald.

Related to this idea of "presence" instead of "experience" is McGinn's emphasis on the

transformation that occurs through mystical activity:

This is why the only test that Christianity has known for determining the authenticity of a

mystic and her or his message has been that of personal transformation, both on the

mystic's part and—especially—on the part of those whom the mystic has affected.

Other critics point out that the stress on "experience" is accompanied with favoring the

atomic individual, instead of the shared life on the community. It also fails to distinguish

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between episodic experience, and mysticism as a process, that is embedded in a total

religious matrix of liturgy, scripture, worship, virtues, theology, rituals and practices.

Richard King also points to disjunction between "mystical experience" and social justice:

The privatisation of mysticism - that is, the increasing tendency to locate the mystical in

the psychological realm of personal experiences - serves to exclude it from political

issues as social justice. Mysticism thus becomes seen as a personal matter of cultivating

inner states of tranquility and equanimity, which, rather than seeking to transform the

world, serve to accommodate the individual to the status quo through the alleviation of

anxiety and stress.

Social constructionism

Mystical experience is not simply a matter between the mystic and God, but is often

shaped by cultural issues. For instance, Carolyn Walker Bynum has shown how, in the

late Middle Ages, miracles attending the taking of the Eucharist were not simply

symbolic of the Passion story, but served as vindication of the mystic's theological

orthodoxy by proving that the mystic had not fallen prey to heretical ideas, such as the

Cathar rejection of the material world as evil, contrary to orthodox teaching that God

took on human flesh and remained sinless. Thus, the nature of mystical experience could

be tailored to the particular cultural and theological issues of the time.

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Development

The idea of mystical realities has been widely held in Christianity since the second

century AD, referring not simply to spiritual practices, but also to the belief that their

rituals and even their scriptures have hidden ("mystical") meanings.

The link between mysticism and the vision of the Divine was introduced by the early

Church Fathers, who used the term as an adjective, as in mystical theology and mystical

contemplation

In subsequent centuries, especially as Christian apologetics began to use Greek

philosophy to explain Christian ideas, Neoplatonism became an influence on Christian

mystical thought and practice via such authors as Augustine of Hippo and Origen.

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Jewish antecedents

Jewish spirituality in the period before Jesus was highly corporate and public, based

mostly on the worship services of the synagogues, which included the reading and

interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures and the recitation of prayers, and on the major

festivals. Thus, private spirituality was strongly influenced by the liturgies and by the

scriptures (e.g., the use of the Psalms for prayer), and individual prayers often recalled

historical events just as much as they recalled their own immediate needs.

Of special importance are the following concepts:

Da'at (knowledge) and Chokhmah (wisdom), which come from years of reading, praying

and meditating the scriptures;

Shekhinah, the presence of God in our daily lives, the superiority of that presence to

earthly wealth, and the pain and longing that come when God is absent;

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The hiddenness of God, which comes from our inability to survive the full revelation of

God's glory and which forces us to seek to know God through faith and obedience;

"Torah-mysticism", a view of God's laws as the central expression of God's will and

therefore as worthy object not only of obedience but also of loving meditation and Torah

study; and

poverty, an ascetic value, based on the apocalyptic expectation of God's impending

arrival, that characterized the Jewish people's reaction to being oppressed by a series of

foreign empires.

In Christian mysticism, Shekhinah became mystery, Da'at became gnosis, and poverty

became an important component of monasticism.

Gospels

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Transfiguration of Jesus depicting him with Elijah, Moses and 3 apostles by Carracci,

1594

The Christian scriptures, insofar as they are the founding narrative of the Christian

church, provide many key stories and concepts that become important for Christian

mystics in all later generations: practices such as the Eucharist, baptism and the Lord's

Prayer all become activities that take on importance for both their ritual and symbolic

values. Other scriptural narratives present scenes that become the focus of meditation: the

Crucifixion of Jesus and his appearances after his Resurrection are two of the most

central to Christian theology; but Jesus' conception, in which the Holy Spirit

overshadows Mary, and his Transfiguration, in which he is briefly revealed in his

heavenly glory, also become important images for meditation. Moreover, many of the

Christian texts build on Jewish spiritual foundations, such as chokhmah, shekhinah.

But different writers present different images and ideas. The Synoptic Gospels (in spite of

their many differences) introduce several important ideas, two of which are related to

Greco-Judaic notions of knowledge/gnosis by virtue of being mental acts: purity of heart,

in which we will to see in God's light; and repentance, which involves allowing God to

judge and then transform us. Another key idea presented by the Synoptics is the desert,

which is used as a metaphor for the place where we meet God in the poverty of our spirit.

The Gospel of John focuses on God's glory in his use of light imagery and in his

presentation of the Cross as a moment of exaltation; he also sees the Cross as the example

of agape love, a love which is not so much an emotion as a willingness to serve and care

for others. But in stressing love, John shifts the goal of spiritual growth away from

knowledge/gnosis, which he presents more in terms of Stoic ideas about the role of

reason as being the underlying principle of the universe and as the spiritual principle

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within all people. Although John does not follow up on the Stoic notion that this principle

makes union with the divine possible for humanity, it is an idea that later Christian

writers develop. Later generations will also shift back and forth between whether to

follow the Synoptics in stressing knowledge or John in stressing love.

In his letters, Paul also focuses on mental activities, but not in the same way as the

Synoptics, which equate renewing the mind with repentance. Instead, Paul sees the

renewal of our minds as happening as we contemplate what Jesus did on the Cross, which

then opens us to grace and to the movement of the Holy Spirit into our hearts. Like John,

Paul is less interested in knowledge, preferring to emphasize the hiddenness, the

"mystery" of God's plan as revealed through Christ. But Paul's discussion of the Cross

differs from John's in being less about how it reveals God's glory and more about how it

becomes the stumbling block that turns our minds back to God. Paul also describes the

Christian life as that of an athlete, demanding practice and training for the sake of the

prize; later writers will see in this image a call to ascetical practices.

Early church

The texts attributed to the Apostolic Fathers, the earliest post-Biblical texts we have,

share several key themes, particularly the call to unity in the face of persecution and

internal divisions, the reality of the charisms, especially prophecy, visions and Christian

gnosis, which is understood as "a gift of the Holy Spirit that enables us to know Christ"

through meditating on the scriptures and on the Cross of Christ. (This understanding of

gnosis is not the same as that developed by the Gnostics, who focused on esoteric

knowledge that is available only to a few people but that allows them to free themselves

from the evil world. These authors also discuss the notion of the "two ways", that is, the

way of life and the way of death; this idea has biblical roots, being found in both the

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Sermon on the Mount and the Torah. The two ways are then related to the notion of

purity of heart, which is developed by contrasting it against the divided or duplicitous

heart and by linking it to the need for asceticism, which keeps the heart whole/pure.

Purity of heart was especially important given the real threat of martyrdom, which many

writers discussed in theological terms, seeing it not as an evil but as an opportunity to

truly die for the sake of God—the ultimate example of ascetic practice. Martyrdom could

also be seen as symbolic in its connections with the Eucharist and with baptism.

Hellenism

The Alexandrian contribution to Christian mysticism centers around Origen and Clement

of Alexandria. Clement was an early Christian humanist who argued that reason is the

most important aspect of human existence and that gnosis (not something we can attain

by ourselves, but the gift of Christ) helps us find the spiritual realities that are hidden

behind the natural world and within the scriptures. Given the importance of reason,

Clement stresses apatheia as a reasonable ordering of our passions in order to live within

God's love, which is seen as a form of truth. Origen, who had a lasting influence on

Eastern Christian thought, further develops the idea that the spiritual realities can be

found through allegorical readings of the scriptures (along the lines of Jewish aggadah

tradition), but he focuses his attention on the Cross and on the importance of imitating

Christ through the Cross, especially through spiritual combat and asceticism. Origen

stresses the importance of combining intellect and virtue (theoria and praxis) in our

spiritual exercises, drawing on the image of Moses and Aaron leading the Israelites

through the wilderness, and he describes our union with God as the marriage of our souls

with Christ the Logos, using the wedding imagery from the Song of Songs. Alexandrian

mysticism developed alongside Hermeticism and Neoplatonism and therefore share some

of the same ideas, images, etc. in spite of their differences.

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Philo of Alexandria was a Jewish Hellenistic philosopher who was important for

connecting the Hebrew Scriptures to Greek thought, and thereby to Greek Christians,

who struggled to understand their connection to Jewish history. In particular, Philo taught

that allegorical interpretations of the Hebrew Scriptures provides access to the real

meanings of the texts. Philo also taught the need to bring together the contemplative

focus of the Stoics and Essenes with the active lives of virtue and community worship

found in Platonism and the Therapeutae. Using terms reminiscent of the Platonists, Philo

described the intellectual component of faith as a sort of spiritual ecstasy in which our

nous (mind) is suspended and God's Spirit takes its place. Philo's ideas influenced the

Alexandrian Christians, Clement and Origen and through them, Gregory of Nyssa.

Desert Fathers

Desert Fathers and Desert Mothers

Inspired by Christ's teaching and example, men and women withdrew to the deserts of

Sketes where, either as solitary individuals or communities, they lived lives of austere

simplicity oriented towards contemplative prayer. These communities formed the basis

for what later would become known as Christian monasticism. Mysticism is integral to

Christian monasticism because the goal of practice for the monastic is union with God.

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Monasticism

The Eastern church then saw the development of monasticism and the mystical

contributions of Gregory of Nyssa, Evagrius Ponticus and Pseudo-Dionysius.

Monasticism, also known as anchoritism (meaning "to withdraw") was seen as an

alternative to martyrdom, and was less about escaping the world than about fighting

demons (who were thought to live in the desert) and about gaining liberation from our

bodily passions in order to be open to the Word of God. Anchorites practiced continuous

meditation on the scriptures as a means of climbing the ladder of perfection—a common

religious image in the Mediterranean world and one found in Christianity through the

story of Jacob's ladder—and sought to fend off the demon of acedia ("un-caring"), a

boredom or apathy that prevents us from continuing on in our spiritual training.

Anchorites could live in total solitude ("hermits", from the word erēmitēs, "of the desert")

or in loose communities ("cenobites", meaning "common life").

Monasticism eventually made its way to the West and was established by the work of

John Cassian and Benedict of Nursia. Meanwhile, Western spiritual writing was deeply

influenced by the works of such men as Jerome and Augustine of Hippo.

Middle Ages

Stigmatization of St Francis, by Giotto

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The Early Middle Ages in the West includes the work of Gregory the Great and Bede, as

well as developments in Celtic Christianity and Anglo-Saxon Christianity, and comes to

fulfillment in the work of Johannes Scotus Eriugena and the Carolingian Renaissance.

The High Middle Ages saw a flourishing of mystical practice and theorization

corresponding to the flourishing of new monastic orders, with such figures as Guigo II,

Hildegard of Bingen, Bernard of Clairvaux, the Victorines, all coming from different

orders, as well as the first real flowering of popular piety among the laypeople.

The Late Middle Ages saw the clash between the Dominican and Franciscan schools of

thought, which was also a conflict between two different mystical theologies: on the one

hand that of Dominic de Guzmán and on the other that of Francis of Assisi, Anthony of

Padua, Bonaventure, Jacopone da Todi, Angela of Foligno. Moreover there was the

growth of groups of mystics centered around geographic regions: the Beguines, such as

Mechthild of Magdeburg and Hadewijch (among others); the Rhenish-Flemish mystics

Meister Eckhart, Johannes Tauler, Henry Suso and John of Ruysbroeck; and the English

mystics Richard Rolle, Walter Hilton and Julian of Norwich. This period also saw such

individuals as Catherine of Siena and Catherine of Genoa, the Devotio Moderna, and

such books as the Theologia Germanica, The Cloud of Unknowing and The Imitation of

Christ.

Reformation

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With the Renaissance came the Protestant Reformation, which in many ways downplayed

mysticism, although it still produced a fair amount of spiritual literature. Even the most

active reformers can be linked to Medieval mystical traditions. Martin Luther, for

instance, was a monk who was influenced by the German Dominican mystical tradition

of Eckhart and Tauler as well by the Dionysian-influenced Wesonmystik ("essence

mysticism") tradition. He also published the Theologia Germanica, which he claimed was

the most important book after the Bible and Augustine for teaching him about God,

Christ, and humanity. Even John Calvin, who rejected many Medieval ascetic practices

and who favored doctrinal knowledge of God over affective experience, has Medieval

influences, namely, Jean Gerson and the Devotio moderna, with its emphasis on piety as

the method of spiritual growth in which the individual practices dependence on God by

imitating Christ and the son-father relationship. Meanwhile, his notion that we can begin

to enjoy our eternal salvation through our earthly successes leads in later generations to

"a mysticism of consolation".

Counter-reformation

But the Reformation brought about the Counter-Reformation and, with it, a new

flowering of mystical literature, often grouped by nationality.

Spanish mysticsim

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Ecstasy of St. Theresa depicts Teresa of Ávila's meditation

The Spanish had Ignatius Loyola, whose Spiritual Exercises were designed to open

people to a receptive mode of consciousness in which they can experience God through

careful spiritual direction and through understanding how the mind connects to the will

and how to weather the experiences of spiritual consolation and desolation; Teresa of

Ávila, who used the metaphors of watering a garden and walking through the rooms of a

castle to explain how meditation leads to union with God; and John of the Cross, who

used a wide range of biblical and spiritual influences both to rewrite the traditional "three

ways" of mysticism after the manner of bridal mysticism and to present the two "dark

nights": the dark night of the senses and the dark night of the soul, during which the

individual renounces everything that might become an obstacle between the soul and God

and then experiences the pain of feeling separated from God, unable to carry on normal

spiritual exercises, as it encounters the enormous gap between its human nature and

God's divine wisdom and light and moves up the 10-step ladder of ascent towards God.

Another prominent mystic was Miguel de Molinos, the chief apostle of the religious

revival known as Quietism. No breath of suspicion arose against Molinos until 1681,

when the Jesuit preacher Paolo Segneri, attacked his views, though without mentioning

his name, in his Concordia tra la fatica e la quiete nell' orazione. The matter was referred

to the Inquisition. A report got abroad that Molinos had been convicted of moral

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enormities, as well as of heretical doctrines; and it was seen that he was doomed. On

September 3, 1687 he made public profession of his errors, and was sentenced to

imprisonment for life. Contemporary Protestants saw in the fate of Molinos nothing more

than a persecution by the Jesuits of a wise and enlightened man, who had dared to

withstand the petty ceremonialism of the Italian piety of the day. Molinos died in prison

in 1696 or 1697.

Italy

The Italians had Lorenzo Scupoli.

French school of spirituality

The French had Francis de Sales, Jeanne Guyon, François Fénelon, Brother Lawrence

and Blaise Pascal.

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England

The English had a denominational mix, from Catholic Augustine Baker to Anglicans

William Law, John Donne and Lancelot Andrewes, to Puritans Richard Baxter and John

Bunyan (The Pilgrim's Progress), to the first "Quaker", George Fox and the first

"Methodist", John Wesley, who was well-versed in the continental mystics.

Germany

Similarly well-versed in the mystic tradition was the German Johann Arndt, who, along

with the English Puritans, influenced such continental Pietists as Philipp Jakob Spener,

Gottfried Arnold, Nicholas Ludwig von Zinzendorf of the Moravians, and the hymnodist

Gerhard Tersteegen. Arndt, whose book True Christianity was popular among

Protestants, Catholics and Anglicans alike, combined influences from Bernard of

Clarivaux, John Tauler and the Devotio moderna into a spirituality that focused its

attention away from the theological squabbles of contemporary Lutheranism and onto the

development of the new life in the heart and mind of the believer. Arndt influenced

Spener, who formed a group known as the collegia pietatis ("college of piety") that

stressed the role of spiritual direction among lay-people—a practice with a long tradition

going back to Aelred of Rievaulx and known in Spener's own time from the work of

Francis de Sales. Pietism as known through Spener's formation of it tended not just to

reject the theological debates of the time, but to reject both intellectualism and organized

religious practice in favor of a personalized, sentimentalized spirituality.

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Pietism

This sentimental, anti-intellectual form of pietism is seen in the thought and teaching of

Zinzendorf, founder of the Moravians; but more intellectually rigorous forms of pietism

are seen in the teachings of John Wesley, which were themselves influenced by

Zinzendorf, and in the teachings of American preachers Jonathan Edwards, who restored

to pietism Gerson's focus on obedience and borrowed from early church teachers Origen

and Gregory of Nyssa the notion that humans yearn for God, and John Woolman, who

combined a mystical view of the world with a deep concern for social issues; like

Wesley, Woolman was influenced by Jakob Böhme, William Law and The Imitation of

Christ. The combination of pietistic devotion and mystical experiences that are found in

Woolman and Wesley are also found in their Dutch contemporary Tersteegen, who

brings back the notion of the nous ("mind") as the site of God's interaction with our souls;

through the work of the Spirit, our mind is able to intuitively recognize the immediate

presence of God in our midst.

Mystic traditions

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Eastern Christianity

Eastern Christianity has especially preserved a mystical emphasis in its theology and

retains a tradition of mystical prayer dating back to Christianity's beginnings.

Catholicism

The practice of Lectio Divina, a form of prayer that centers on scripture reading, was

developed in its best-known form in the sixth century, through the work of Benedict of

Nursia and Pope Gregory I, and described and promoted more widely in the 12th century

by Guigo II. The 9th century saw the development of mystical theology through the

introduction of the works of sixth-century theologian Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite,

such as On Mystical Theology. His discussion of the via negativa was especially

influential.

Protestantism