Christian mysticism


Christian mysticism is the tradition of mystical practices and mystical theology within Christianity which "concerns the preparation for, the consciousness of, and the effect of a direct and transformative presence of God" or divine love. Until the sixth century the practice of what is now called mysticism was referred to by the term contemplatio, c.q. theoria, from contemplatio, "looking at", "gazing at", "being aware of" God or the divine. Christianity took up the use of both the Greek and Latin terminology to describe various forms of prayer and the process of coming to know God.
Contemplative practices range from simple prayerful meditation of holy scripture to contemplation on the presence of God, resulting in theosis and ecstatic visions of the soul's mystical union with God. Three stages are discerned in contemplative practice, namely catharsis, contemplation proper, and the vision of God.
Contemplative practices have a prominent place in Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy, and have gained a renewed interest in Western Christianity.

Etymology

''Theoria''

The Greek theoria meant "contemplation, speculation, a looking at, things looked at", from theorein "to consider, speculate, look at", from theoros "spectator", from thea "a view" + horan "to see". It expressed the state of being a spectator. Both Greek θεωρία and Latin contemplatio primarily meant looking at things, whether with the eyes or with the mind.
According to William Johnston, until the sixth century the practice of what is now called mysticism was referred to by the term contemplatio, c.q. theoria. According to Johnston, "oth contemplation and mysticism speak of the eye of love which is looking at, gazing at, aware of divine realities."
Several scholars have demonstrated similarities between the Greek idea of theoria and the Indian idea of darśana, including Ian Rutherford and Gregory Grieve.

Mysticism

"Mysticism" is derived from the Greek μύω, 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 of Christ at the Eucharist. The third dimension is the contemplative or experiential knowledge of God.

Definition of mysticism

Transformative presence of God

defines Christian mysticism as:
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.

Presence versus experience

McGinn 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
William James popularized the use of the term "religious experience" in his 1902 book 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, who argued that religion is based on a feeling of the infinite. The notion of religious experience was used by 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.

Interpersonal transformation

McGinn's emphasis on the transformation that occurs through mystical activity relates to this idea of "presence" instead of "experience":
Parsons points out that the stress on "experience" is accompanied by favoring the atomic individual, instead of the shared life of the community. It also fails to distinguish 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:

Social construction

Mystical experience is not simply a matter between the mystic and God, but is often shaped by cultural issues. For instance, Caroline 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.

Origins

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 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.

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, and individual prayers often recalled historical events just as much as they recalled their own immediate needs.
Of special importance are the following concepts:
  • Binah, and Chokmah, 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, the pain and longing that come when God is absent; and the nurturing, feminine aspect of God;
  • 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;
  • 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.

Greek influences

The term theoria was used by the ancient Greeks to refer to the act of experiencing or observing, and then comprehending through nous.
The influences of Greek thought are apparent in the earliest Christian mystics and their writings. Plato is considered the most important of ancient philosophers, and his philosophical system provides the basis of most later mystical forms. Plotinus provided the non-Christian, neo-Platonic basis for much Christian, Jewish and Islamic mysticism.

Plato

For Plato, what the contemplative contemplates are the Forms, the realities underlying the individual appearances, and one who contemplates these atemporal and aspatial realities is enriched with a perspective on ordinary things superior to that of ordinary people. Philip of Opus viewed theoria as contemplation of the stars, with practical effects in everyday life similar to those that Plato saw as following from contemplation of the Forms.

Plotinus

In the Enneads of Plotinus, a founder of Neoplatonism, everything is contemplation and everything is derived from contemplation. The first hypostasis, the One, is contemplation in that "it turns to itself in the simplest regard, implying no complexity or need"; this reflecting back on itself emanated the second hypostasis, Intellect, Plotinus describes as "living contemplation", being "self-reflective and contemplative activity par excellence", and the third hypostatic level has theoria. Knowledge of the one is achieved through experience of its power, an experience that is contemplation of the source of all things.
Plotinus agreed with Aristotle's systematic distinction between contemplation and practice : dedication to the superior life of theoria requires abstention from practical, active life. Plotinus explained: "The point of action is contemplation.... Contemplation is therefore the end of action" and "Such is the life of the divinity and of divine and blessed men: detachments from all things here below, scorn of all earthly pleasures, the flight of the lone to the Alone."

Early church

New Testament writings

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 chokmah, shekhinah.
But different writers present different images and ideas. The Synoptic Gospels 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 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 peoples' 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.