Greetings in the Name of the Lord,
I have established a goal to be addressed across a series of newsletter articles around how we might find ways through the polarization of our time as well as finding ways we might be better able to connect with younger generations. To that end we have spent the last few weeks moving through quite a bit of early church history, and how that history is reflected in our liturgies and prayers today. Specifically, we have been looking at the phrase:
We discovered how the phrase reflects the ways in which the early Church was an evolving and emerging tradition forged within the dual influences of Judaic and Greek thought. We learned a little bit about the concept of “mysteries” and how they helped instruct the early Church on the nature of God. We also learned some about a debate that lasted more than a generation and almost tore the church apart. We were also introduced to the idea of mysticism, and that is where I would like to focus going forward.
My guess is that when I say mysticism, the first thought it evokes is a kind of new age spirituality that might rely on tarot or seances or palm reading, or something that involves communicating with ghosts or invoking earth spirits, etc. I once told someone that I consider myself a mystic and their response was “Yeah, me too, I definitely believe in ghosts and communicating with the dead”, at which point I stopped telling people I considered myself a mystic. The term Mystic may bring up for you images of monks who exist in caves and live on tiny morsels of food and who nearly never sleep, who meditate all the time and who might be able to levitate or control objects with their minds. I could maybe go on, but I have to imagine you are nodding along at least a little bit with me at the moment.
Suffice it to say, Christian Mysticism is none of those things. There is nothing magical about Christian Mysticism, and there is nothing magical about those we consider Christian Mystics. Christian Mysticism is a very rooted and grounded tradition, one that is ultimately about how a person approaches their relationship with God. That said, it is a broad and diverse current within Christianity, with three primary periods of heightened activity 200-600, 1200-1700 and 1850-today. Many of the practices and approaches, even theological cornerstones, have changed and shifted over the last 2000 years, but there are still a few things that have remained at the core of how we understand Christian Mysticism.
For starters, mysticism is not a denomination or even a school within Christianity. One does not become a Chrisitan Mystic the way they might become Eastern Orthodox or Lutheran or even the way one might become the member of a religious order (like the Jesuits or Trappists) or a member of the clergy. Instead, mysticism is better understood as an aspect of the Christian Tradition, always a part of the larger conversation, not its own separate conversation. It can be thought of more as an undercurrent to all sects of Christianity, not as its own “stream”. In other words, it is something that is just as accessible to a member of a Presbyterian church as it is to the Abbot of a Trappist monastery. An important side note: some argue that mysticism is an element of all religious traditions—Sufiism in Islam, Kabbalah in Judaism, Zen in Buddhism—but for our sake, we will focus on the specifics of the Christian understanding of mysticism.
Scholar Bernard McGinn, often considered the leading scholar on the Christian Mysticism, acknowledges that there is such a great diversity included under the moniker of Christian Mysticism that it can be hard to nail down even a basic definition, regardless, he stressed the concepts of Divine Encounter and Spiritual Transformation as central elements of mysticism. In fact, McGinn states: “the only test that Christianity has know 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.”[1] This is why most of those we now consider to be mystics did not see themselves as such, and the communities they were a part of may not have understood them as such either, only to be labeled a mystic after a period of historical reflection on their life.
As we work to dig deeper into what Christian Mysticism might ofter in terms of healing and restoration for a Church and world that feels hopelessly polarized, I hope that what I have offered above helps reframe the conversation going forward. My hope is that you can understand Christian Mysticism not as some esoteric fringe spiritual practice, but rather as something that is central to the Christian Tradition.
If I can be so bold, I suggest some homework before the next newsletter article: when have you felt an encounter with the divine, not as some historical figure from a book, but as a dear and close friend? How do you think you would describe that experience to others? Would you even be able to effectively put the fullness of that encounter into words? Thinking about this and maybe even journaling about it will help us dive even deeper next week.
In Peace, Mike
[1] McGinn, B. ed. The Essential Writings of Christian Mysticism. 2006. p xvii