Mysticism
As
recognized by all writers on this subject, whether they claim direct personal
mystical experience or not, both the definition and description of the mystical
encounter are difficult. Mysticism is not the same as magic, clairvoyance,
parapsychology, or occultism, nor does it consist in a preoccupation with
sensory images, visions, or special revelations. Nearly all Christian mystical
writers relegate these phenomena to the periphery. Nearly all Christian mystics
avoid the occult arts entirely. Briefly and generally stated, mystical theology
or Christian mysticism seeks to describe an experienced, direct, nonabstract,
unmediated, loving knowing of God, a knowing or seeing so direct as to be
called union with God.
History.
A brief historical survey of Christian mysticism is essential to an
understanding of the varied ways in which it is explained and defined. Although
the terms "mystery" and "mystical" are related
etymologically to ancient mystery cults, it is doubtful that NT and patristic
writers were dependent theologically upon these sources. A distinct mystical or
mystery theology emerged in the Alexandrian school of exegesis and spirituality
with Clement of Alexandria and Origen and their search for the hidden meaning
of Scripture and their exposition of the mystery of redemption. In its original philosophical meaning this
word (Gr. theoria) described absorption in the loving viewing of an object or
truth.
Only
in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, with the writings of Thomas Aquinas, do systematic descriptive
analyses of the contemplative life appear. Late medieval concern with practical
and methodical prayer contributed to a turning point in the sixteenth
century. Spiritual writers from these
traditions were concerned primarily with empirical, psychological, and
systematic descriptions of the soul's behavior in order to assist spiritual
directors.
Scriptural
sources for Christian mysticism are found largely in the Logos-incarnation
doctrine of John's Gospel, in imagery such as that of the vine and branches
(John 15) or Christ's prayer for union (John 17), as well as in aspects of the
Pauline corpus. The latter include the description of Paul's rapture into the
third heaven (II Cor. 12:1-4) or statements such as that referring to a life
"hid with Christ in God" (Col. 3:3). In all of these the essential
theological presuppositions involve belief in a personal God and in the
centrality of the incarnation. For medieval mystics Moses' "vision"
of God (Exod. 33:12-34:9) and his reflection of God's glory upon leaving Mount
Sinai (Exod. 34:29-35; cf. II Cor. 3:7) served as proof texts, and the
allegorized spiritual marriage of the Song of Solomon, together with the other
OT wisdom literature, provided unlimited scriptural resources until the shift
from spiritual to literal-grammatical humanist and Reformation hermeneutics
took place.