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    Aspects of Christian Mysticism (Barnes & Noble Digital Library)
    Aspects of Christian Mysticism (Barnes & Noble Digital Library)
    Aspects of Christian Mysticism (Barnes & Noble Digital Library)
    Ebook118 pages1 hour

    Aspects of Christian Mysticism (Barnes & Noble Digital Library)

    By W. Major Scott

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    Prophets, visionaries, and revelations are the subjects of this 1907 introduction to the field of Christian mysticism. The author includes samples of principal mystics’ writings, and explores the lives and works of St. Paul, St. John, Clement of Alexandria, Dionysius the Areopagite, Master Eckhart, St. Teresa, St. John of the Cross, and others.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBarnes & Noble
    Release dateOct 18, 2011
    ISBN9781411460683
    Aspects of Christian Mysticism (Barnes & Noble Digital Library)

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      Aspects of Christian Mysticism (Barnes & Noble Digital Library) - W. Major Scott

      ASPECTS OF CHRISTIAN MYSTICISM

      W. MAJOR SCOTT

      This 2011 edition published by Barnes & Noble, Inc.

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher.

      Barnes & Noble, Inc.

      122 Fifth Avenue

      New York, NY 10011

      ISBN: 978-1-4114-6068-3

      CONTENTS

      I. CONCERNING MYSTICS AND MYSTICISM

      II. ST. PAUL AND ST. JOHN

      III. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA

      IV. DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE

      V. MASTER ECKHART

      VI. RUYSBROECK

      VII. SUSO

      VIII. TAULER

      IX. ST. TERESA

      X. ST. JOHN OF THE CROSS

      XI. JACOB BEHMEN

      XII. PETER STERRY

      CHAPTER I

      CONCERNING MYSTICS AND MYSTICISM

      IT has been said with much truth that mysticism is a word of evil sound in English ears, and it may even be affirmed, not untruly, that mystics are invariably regarded by the multitude with something like suspicion. Yet in a certain dim sense it is as true to say that all men are mystics as it is to say that all men are religious, for many are mystics after an unconscious manner—albeit, by them, the mystic realities are touched rather than grasped. Perhaps the vocation to the inward life is not for all.

      To give a definition of mysticism is at once fatally easy and exceedingly difficult, for it has been made to denote phenomena so diverse as crude supernaturalism on the one hand, and visions and revelations of the divine on the other. The simplest definition, however, will probably be found to be the truest as well as the most illuminating. We say, then, frankly that mysticism is the science of spiritual mysteries, and the mystic is one who is concerned with and who believes in spiritual mysteries.

      One of the commonest, and, it may be added, one of the falsest of popular errors, is to suppose that a mystery is necessarily something unfathomable. A mystery is rather something unrevealed, though not unrevealable. It is something hidden and obscure only to the uninitiated. It is ever a secret, but to the initiated it is an open one. The secret of the mystic may be, speaking strictly, indefinable, but it is also, speaking strictly, indisputable. One of our most brilliant men of letters has recently called attention to the fact that much of our modern difficulty, in religion and other things, arises merely from this: that we confuse the word indefinable with the word vague. If some one speaks of a spiritual fact as indefinable we promptly picture something misty, a cloud with indeterminate edges. The same writer goes on to affirm that it is just the indefinable that is the indisputable, and that there are some people to whom spiritual things have a fierce and practical proximity—to whom God is too actual to be defined. Thus there are many truths which may be rightly apprehended, though they cannot be made wholly transparent.

      The mystic recognises and holds that far removed from ordinary paths and interests, even in the order of the soul, there is a grand experiment possible, and that some have achieved it.¹ This experiment is a spiritual process which demonstrates the possibility in this present life and in this body of humiliation of knowing God. By means of this spiritual operation the mystic can accomplish a reversion to the fontal source of souls, and enter into an ecstatic communion with the universal consciousness.

      It is, however, untrue to say, as some critics of mysticism have said, that the ambition of the mystic has always been to transcend individuality and morality alike, or that the mystic has always striven to reach the consciousness of God through the negation of self-consciousness. Rather it would be more accurate to say that the mystic seeks to attain a fuller knowledge of God, through a deeper reading of the fact of self-consciousness. It was R. L. Nettleship who finely observed that "true mysticism is the consciousness that everything we experience is an element, and only an element in fact—i.e. that in being what it is, it is symbolic of something more."² Benjamin Jowett, who presents certain interesting affinities with the mystics, writes in his introduction to Plato's Phædrus: By mysticism we mean not the extravagance of an erring fancy, but the concentration of reason in feeling, the enthusiastic love of the good, the true, the one, the sense of the infinity of knowledge and of the marvel of the human faculties.

      The mystic proper, however, is a man who knows that there is only one character of true excellence in human life, and that is the seal or character which expresses the sanction of eternity; or, as Lasson phrases it, mysticism views everything from the standpoint of teleology. The mystic always regards life sub specie æternitatis. He thus escapes the thraldom of sense and the bondage of mere words. Rigorously cutting off temporal correspondences with things on the earth and turning resolutely from lower creations, the mystic establishes eternal correspondences with things unseen, and steadfastly looks for the Blessed Isles of the Elect Children and the Glory of the Rosy Cross. He undergoes a spiritual education, conducted in the main by means of type and symbol, for it is an axiom of mysticism that all things possess an interior and divine meaning. It is this meaning which the mystic waits to know.

      The vital things are the eternal and the unseen things. The mystical or sacramental view of life may be traced throughout the history of mystical thought; although, as Dr. Bigg has pointed out, there is properly speaking no history of the mystics; only biographies. They are like a chain of stars, each separated from the other by a gulf. We can trace resemblances, even connections; but they themselves tell us that the light comes direct from the sun, and is not passed on at all. Yet the mystic usually reads books, and the beacon of Dionysius, or Joachim, or Tauler wakes the kindred soul across seas or centuries. Thus the wind bloweth where it listeth, and we hear the voice thereof, but know not whence it cometh, and whither it goeth. This is true of every one that is born of the Spirit. It is only men like Blake who, having felt the breath of the Spirit, ever discern God's forehead at the window, or, like Elias, are caught up to God.

      When we speak of Christian mysticism we understand that process of initiation into fuller and deeper knowledge of divine things by which the spirit of man is led towards ultimate union with God. Therein the soul traverses a path which the vulture's eye hath not seen, but a path which leads to the Heart of the Rose. The exercised Christian believer is led into the mystery of union with the Son of God; and it is to the open mind and adoring heart of such that the flaming vision is vouchsafed and the Interior Translation and the Mystic Apocalypse known. This the Philistines understand not. It has been pointed out that the special patrimony of Christian Mysticism is the mystery of universal symbolism, which is intimately connected with the spiritual theory of life. And this precious heritage has charmed many to the Christ in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. The everlasting power and divinity of the invisible things are, since the creation of the world, clearly seen by the Christian mystic, being, as St. Paul says, perceived through the things that are made. By means of the Christian symbolism the soul that is clothed with humility advances by a sequence of mystic experience towards the supreme sacrament of the everlasting light. The dictum that esoteric Christianity holds all is to be interpreted in this sense. Undeniable though it be that the growing revelations and enlarged experiences of the Christian mystic are both sealed and secret things for all those who have never passed the mystic portal, and, in consequence, have never shared them, it is nevertheless true that if we desire, the door is opened to us, if we dare, the gain is glorious, if we will to do, the great achievement is possible. But we always need to remember that the subject of the art requires, as Raymund says, its proper earth.

      Any religion, it may be affirmed, to have life and power must be mystical; and all truly religious men are mystics. That contemplative author, Mr. A. C. Benson, writing From a College Window, has said in his essay on religion: There is a motto which I should like to see written over the door of every place of worship, both as an invitation and a warning: THOU SHALT MAKE ME TO UNDERSTAND WISDOM SECRETLY. It is an invitation to those who enter, to come and participate in a great and holy mystery; and it is a warning to those who believe that in the formalities of religion alone is the secret of religion to be found. Without the mystic element religion becomes always an external, and often an empty thing. The life-blood of the Christian faith is its mysticism; and the Church, to quote the words of Dr. Bigg, can never get rid of the mystic spirit, nor should she attempt to do so, for it is, in fact, her life. It is another name for conscience, for freedom, for the rights of the individual soul, for the grace and privilege of direct access to the Redeemer for the presence of the Divine Spirit in the heart. You cannot quench this prophecy.

      If we add to these

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