What is mysticism and how is this related to Christianity?

Mysticism is from the Greek , meaning "to conceal." One of the earliest
forms of mysticism comes from the Eleusinian Mysteries. This mystery
religion held secret annual initiation ceremonies in honor of the cults of the
goddesses Demeter and Persephone. The Eleusinian Mysteries perhaps
begun as early as 1600 B.C and ending after the fall of the Roman Empire
were cause for a major festival in the Greek and Roman empires.
Neoplatonism developed a modern version of this mysticism. The Enneads
refer to the mysteries which are probably an allusion to the Eleusinian
initiation.
Mysticism is the search for God or an ultimate spiritual truth through direct
experience, intuition, or insight. To practice of mysticism one develops the
senses that nurture those experiences. Mysticism is not limited to
Christianity; the goal of Buddhism is the attainment of Nirvana to have union
with Mahamudra, the goal of Hinduism is the liberation from the cycle of
Karma by experiencing the ultimate reality, Jainism and Sikhism also
practices this liberation from the cycle of Karma, Judaism and Islam have
their forms of mysticism.
In both the Catholic and Orthodox traditions, meditation and contemplation
are routinely practiced. Often individuals or communities would live austere
lives in contemplative prayer. These communities would become known as
Christian monastics. They consist of Christian mystics who live lives of
seclusion while contemplating union with God. Eastern Christianity has a
tradition of mystical experience, prayer and dogmatism.
Catholicism prays the Lectio Divina, a form of prayer that centers on
scripture reading but promotes mystical theology. The Lectio Divina has four
steps: read, meditate, pray and contemplate. The last step of contemplate
is not based on discursive thought or understanding the literal reading of
Scripture. Contemplative prayer is silence. In this silence, the practitioner
believes the Father is speaking to us through the Son, and somehow we
share in Jesus prayer to God.
This silence is similar to the final stage of contemplation in Platonism. The
Platonist sees God directly without the aid of either noetic or discursive
thought. Augustine too would use Scripture in the same manner and
practice his own form of contemplation. From these practices, Augustine is

considered by many to be the Father of Christian mysticism by merging

Neoplatonic thought with Christianity.
For Plotinus, and Augustine will agree, there are four stages of rationality
which follow the ascent. There is the irrational being which is represented
by plants and animals. The next highest stage in human beings is rationality.
There are two types of rationality. The practice of reasoned knowledge is a
form of discursive thought: comparing logically the relationship between
things. The other form of rational thought is by perception which is in the
Intellect. The intellect does not have discursive thought, it knows things by
perception; having an image in the mind. The fourth type of knowing is
beyond rational and irrational. It is superior to perception because it
involves union with one.

But the human species occupies a middle position, and has chosen it, yet all
the same is not allowed by providence to perish in the place where it is set
but is always being lifted up to the higher regions by all sorts of devises
which the divine uses to give virtue the greater power, mankind has not lost
its character of being rational (), but is a participant, even if not to the
highest degree
Enneads III.2.9 p.75
Those then, who are corrupted, so that they come near to irrational ()
animals and wild beasts, pull down those in the middle and do them
violence
Enneads III.2.8 p.69
The perplexity () arises especially because our awareness of that One
is not by way of reasoned knowledge ()or of intellectual perception
(), as with other intelligible things, but by way of a presence superior
to knowledge (). The soul experiences its falling away from being
one and is not altogether one when it has reasoned knowledge of anything;
for reasoned knowledge ( is a rational process (), and a
rational ( process is many.
Enneads VI.9.4 p.315

Plotinus The Ascent

The Descent () and Ascent () in Platonism

In writing about theological issues such as the nature of God, theologians
tend to shy away from religious practices and concentrate on metaphysical
discourses. To understand Augustine, it is necessary to examine his religious
practice, more specifically, the ascent. The ascent is a form of
contemplation or meditation, where the practitioner looks inside of himself to
see God. What Augustine will see inside himself - before he becomes a
Christian as practicing Neoplatonist- will influence Augustines theology for
the rest of his life and Christian theology to this day.
In Neoplatonism, the ascent to God returns the soul to the One. The
Neoplatonist believes the highest being is the One and all things emanate
from the One in well-ordered stages of descent. All things descend from the
one because out of audacity, they seek independence from the one. From
the One, the Intellect proceeds. The Intellect contains the Forms of Plato
which represent the best and immutable concepts. From the Intellect
proceeds the Soul. The Soul in turn brings the physical world into existence
through the same process. The world becomes more evil, the more it is
removed from the One; the further it descends from these emanations. Just
as creation descended the ladder from the one, the Neoplatonist believes
man can return to the One following this same ladder through a process of
purification and contemplation.

What is it, then which has made the souls forget their father, God, and be
ignorant of themselves and him, even though they are parts which come
from his higher world and altogether belong to it. The beginning of evil for
them was audacity and coming to birth and the first otherness and the
wishing to belong to themselves. Since they were clearly delighted with
their own independence, and made great use of self-movement, running the
opposite course and getting as far away as possible, they were ignorant
even that they themselves came from that world; just as children who are
immediately torn from their parents and brought up far away do not know
who they themselves or their parents are. (Enneads V.I.I.1-7)
But if this is so, the soul must let go of all outward things and turn altogether
to what is within and not be inclined to any outward thing, but ignoring all
things (as it did formerly in sense-perception,, but then in the realm of
forms, and even ignoring itself, come to be in contemplation of that One,
(Enneads VI.9.7.19-21)
Here is the descent and ascent in summary form. First Plotinus describes the
evil which is the arrogant disregard for personal safety (audacity). This

audacity causes the soul to turn away from the one, forgetting its original
union with the one. Since the soul, by some innate memory of the one,
belongs to the higher world of the intellect and the one, the soul desires to
return to the higher world from which it came. This return is accomplished
by contemplation of the One.
Just does the soul commit fornication, when she turns from thee, seeking
those things without thee, which she can nowhere find pure and untainted,
till she returns again to thee. (Confessions II, vi)
By a humble devoutness must we therefore return unto thee. (Confessions
Book III, viii)
But our life descended hither, and took away our death, and killed him, out
of the abundance of his own life: and he thundered, calling unto us to return
hence to him into that secret place, (Confessions IV, xii)
To Augustine, the practice of the ascent, not only confirms his metaphysical
conception of God but also his metaphysical conception of man. Augustine
describes, in the same manner as Plotinus describes the soul in union with
God, turning away from God, seeking the things apart from God, but desires
to return to God. Augustine loves to mention the return to God. To return to
God, one must have already been with God. Also the figure of descent and
ascent is prominent in Confessions. What is this descent from? Conversion
is change from an evil nature to a good nature. Return is to go back to that
nature the soul was in union with in the past.
Likewise, the Plotinian One, the god of Plotinus, does not deliberate, but
creates from emanation, or an overflow of power. Emanation is from the
Greek word which means to beget but is usually translated as
generated. In order to explain generation Plotinus uses the analogy of the
Sun. The Sun emanates light indiscriminately without a purpose. The Sun
does not diminish itself in the process or become affected by the world which
receives light and heat.
Augustine will describe the eternal generation of Jesus Christ in much the
same way.
Jesus Christ our Lord, whom thou hast begotten co-eternal to thyself
Confessions VII, xxi) The term begotten in Latin is the equivalent term in
Greek. As far as the material substances of the sensible world, Augustine
will clearly say that God created (facet) matter. It is not emanated from the

Soul. This is a clear difference between Neoplatonism and Augustine

theology.
Plotinus describes how creation flows from the undiminishable essence of
God in the Enneads:
How then do all things come from the One, which is simple and has in it no
diverse variety, or any sort of doublenessthe One is not being, but the
generator of being. This we may say is the first act of generation; the One,
perfect because it seeks nothing has nothing, and needs nothing, overflows,
as it were, and tis superabundance makes something other than itself.
(Enneads V.2.11.4-9)
The One does not desire us, so as to be around us, but we desire it, so that
we are around it. And we are always around it but do not always look to it; it
is like a choral dance; in the order of its singing the choir keeps round the
conductor but sometimes looks away, so that he is out of their sight, but
when it turns back to him, it sings beautifully with him; so we too are always
around him and if we were not, we should be totally dissolved and no longer
exist-but not always turned to him; but when we do look to him, then we are
at our goal and at rest and do not sing out of tune as we truly dance our godinspired dance around him. (Enneads VI.9.8.15-20)
It is possible from this description of the emanation of the One to list some
attributes of the One:
1) Simplicity
2) Absolute Transcendence
3) Creator
4) Impassible
5) Aseity
6) Attraction
Of course the one is the creator and sustainer of the world. The One has no
diverse variety or any sense of compound being, it is simple. The One is so
removed from world (Transcendent) that it is not even considered a being.
God is aseitic, is he unaffected by the world. The one has no affection from
us (Apathy) but we are attracted to the One. It is difficult even to consider
the One a person. Being a person means to have some emotion and be
affected by things he loves.
This description of the ascent and descent is from Plato. In the Cave
Analogy, men sit in a row looking at the wall of the Cave. They see shadows
only. The shadows are from the forms behind the mens backs with the sun

at the back of the forms. The forms are the realities, the shadows are not
real. Men must turn around to look at the real forms. Man came into the
cave and observe only the shadows. To observe true reality man must turn
around and come out of the cave and observe the true forms. This is the
ascent in Plato.

Augustine The Ascent

Augustine will practice this contemplation and purification to return to the
One, first in Ostia - Chapter VII as a Neoplatonist- then in Milan -Chapter IX
as a Christian. The ascent in Milan with Augustines mother happens shortly
before his mothers death in 387 in Ostia. Augustine will write On the
Greatness of the Soul after his baptism in 388. (De Animae quantitate) The
title itself is a play from Plotinus in the Enneads. (you feel like this when you
see in yourself or in someone else, greatness of soul(I.6.5.9)),The timing of
this work is close to the shared ascent of Augustine and his mother in
Chapter IX. Augustine is clearly emotionally invested in the process of the
ascent and the subsequent vision of God because it verifies his shared
experience with his mother and his conversion. This emotional investment
will later be displayed in his vehement denouncement of the Biblical
literalists who disagree with him.
The Latin word contemplatio was used to translate the Greek word .
The Greek word means to looking at, to view, or to behold. The most
common English word derived from this Greek word is contemplation. The
process of the ascent is often called contemplation.
In the ascent to God, the individual becomes more and more alike to the
One through a series of steps. Augustine will model his contemplation on the
Plotinian ascent. The Plotinian ascent begins with soul being purified
through a series of steps leads to direct contemplation of the One.
Augustine begins the ascent in the lowest form of sensible life and moves up
in steps through purification to the One. These are Augustines seven steps
leading to unity with the One:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)

animation (the soul giving life to the body),

sensus (the soul seeing sensible things),
ars (the soul as practicing artistic skills),
virtus (the soul perfecting itself through purification)
tranqullitas (the soul at rest, with the power of discursive reasoning)
ingressio(the soul intuitively gazing at the intelligible forms)
contemplation (the soul gazing on the One, the true being)

Augustine will practice these seven steps in the ascent at Ostia in

Confessions XII.xvii.23:
1)-4)
5)
6)
7)

And so step by step I ascended from bodies to soul

From there I ascended to the power of reasoning
Raised itself to the level of its own intelligence
So in a flash of a trembling glance it attained to that which is

Plotinus who authored the Enneads wrote in Greek, Augustine wrote in Latin.
Of course Augustine was dependent on the translators on the Latin word for
the Greek text. The English word contemplation comes from the Latin. The
root templum means to cut or divide. Cutting or dividing would imply the
use of discursive thought; seeing similarities between ideas and things and
making a comparison. The modern use of contemplation is the negation of
discursive thought and viewing something intuitively.
Augustine will expand on the ascent of Plotinus. He begins his ascent in the lower reaches of the
soul (animation). Plotinus will describe the descent into the lower stages of the soul in the
Enneads. He uses a Greek form of the word animate to refer to the lowest form of life, plant life.
Plant life is irrational (). Since plants do not sense any events happening around them
and animals do, the next stage of the soul is animal life which Augustine will call sensus.
Animals also do not use discursive reasoning, they are irrational. ()
Humans have a higher form of life than animals because they are capable of thinking and using
discursive reasoning. ) This power of discursive reasoning is the same term John uses in
his gospel to describe the Word )of God; Jesus. The first stage of this life Augustine will
call ars, the practice of artistic skills. Of course some humans are vile living only in the flesh
and others seek god. These seekers Augustine will call virtus,a Latin word which is used in the
English as virtue. These seekers will practice virtue, good deeds, and become closer to God.
Even good people are not close enough to god. To become closer to god one must become more
like god. God lives in a state of tranquility, the next stage is practicing tranquility to become
more like god. (tranqullitas) After this stage, a person must discard discursive
reasoning and try to look directly at the forms of the world. This stage,
Augustine will call ingressio. Once he sees the forms of the world, it is
necessary to try to gaze upon the One. At this stage all form of rational
thought is discarded. The mind is concentrating on a formless, simple, and
immutable being that does not really have being either. In other words, the
mind is blank, thinking about nothing and open to all information.
Plotinus will begin his ascent in Augustines fourth stage. Augustine understood Plotinus In
reference to Augustines seven stages, Plotinus will begin the ascent in Augustines fourth stage.
However the other three stages are mentioned in Plotinus as degrees of the soul but not as
preparation or stages for the ascent. He describes these stages as descent from the One.

1) animation (the soul giving life to the body),

2) sensus (the soul seeing sensible things),
3) ars (the soul as practicing artistic skills),
So it goes from the beginning to the last and lowest, each remaining behind
it its own place..
When therefore soul come to exist in a plant,(animation)...the most
audacious and stupid part of itwhen it comes to exist in an irrational
animal(sensus), the power of sense perception (has prevailed
and brought it there: but when it comes to a man either the movement is
wholly in the souls reasoning () part of it come from Intellect ()
Enneads V,2,2 p.63
4) First stage of Plotinus : Katharsis, the goal of purification is to free man from the slavery of
the body by practicing the four cardinal virtues.
In order to ascend to the One or return to the one, an individual must go
through a process of purification. This process is accomplished in two stages
which are also related to the Platonist metaphysical concept of the nature of
human beings. Human beings have a body/soul and and a higher soul
without the body. This is Plotinus theory of dual selfhood, for convenience
this compound soul\body will be referred to as the lower self and the soul
without the body as the higher self.
The moral life in the Enneads is a life of self-perfection devoted to the ascent
to the one. The lower self is a compound of soul and body. Plotinus
deprecates the bodily part of the compound referring to the body as a beast.
The Greek term thrion refers to wild animals which are usually hostile to
humans. This metaphor suggest the body is an obstacle to the ascent and
must be overcome to achieve unity with the One.
we are used in two senses, either including the beast or referring to
that which even in our present life transcends it. The beast is the body
which has been given life. But the true man is different, clear of these
affections; he has the virtues which belong to the sphere of intellect
and have their seat actually in the separate soul, separate and
separable even while it is still here below. (Enneads I.1.10.5-10)
Those virtues which allow the lower self to overcome the body are the
traditional Greek virtues of wisdom, self-control, courage and justice. These
are called the civic virtues because society is benefitted by practicing these
virtues. However, in order to reach perfection, the Neoplatonist must

practice an exceptionally austere routine of depriving the body from the

normal pleasures of life.
FIRST ENNEAD II. 7,8
What desire there may be can never be for the vile; even the food and
drink necessary for restoration will lie outside of the Souls attention,
and not less the sexual appetite:
The civic virtues do genuinely set us in order and make us better by
giving limit and measure to our desires, and putting measure into all
our experience;and they abolish false opinions, by what is altogether
better and by the fact of limitation, and by the exclusion of the
unmeasured and indefinite in accord with their measuredness; and
they are themselves limited and clearly defined. (Ennead I.2.2)
The civic virtues in the Platonic ascent are not for the betterment of the
community. The goal of the Plotinist is for personal improvement in
preparation for the ascent. The Christian practice of virtues is for the love of
your neighbor. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The Ten
Commandments are mostly directed as limits against offenses to others; Do
not murder, Do not steal, do not commit adultery. The practice of lower
virtues is a first step towards escaping from what Plotinus calls the evils
down here (I.2.1).
5) Second stage of Plotinus: The rises above the body to the higher soul which is occupied with
the Nous, studying philosophy and science.
The next step is the practice of the higher, purificatory, virtues ().
The purpose of is to separate the soul/body from the soul. These
are still the traditional Greek virtues of wisdom, self-control, courage and
justice, but on a higher plane. Plotinus will allegorize these virtues to
promote attachment of the sensible to the intellect. It is necessary for the
higher self to act alone rather than under the influence of the body. This
purificatory ritual will focus the soul on the higher realities leaving the civic
virtues behind.
The practice of the civic virtues concentrates on the sensible or incarnate
condition of man. The practice of purificatory virtues concentrates on the
detachment of the soul from the body. The detachment of the soul involves
escape from the sensible world and the cares of the world. Should one
achieve this state of purification the vision is removed from the sensible
world. The sensible world, of life is the enemy of the ascent. Plotinus would
say purificatory is the process of stripping away everything alien. (I.2.4.6)
Alien means foreign to the Intellectual world which is the goal of the ascent.
The practice of the purificatory virtues is the tiresome preparation for the

vision, the vision is the goal. The soul is returned to the One after beholding
the Forms in Intellect.(I.2 . 3-4).
So we must fly from here and separate ourselves from what has been added
to us, and not be the composite thing, the ensouled body in which the nature
of body (which has some trace of soul) had the greater power, so that the
common life belongs more of the body; for everything that pertains to this
common life is bodily. But to the other soul, which is outside the body,
belongs the ascent to the higher world to the fair and divine which no one
masters, but either makes use of it that he may be it and live by it,
withdrawing himself;but every man double, one of him is the sort of
compound being and one of him is himself; and the whole universe is, one
part the composite of body and a sort of soul bound to body, and one the
soul of the All which is not in body but makes a trace of itself shine on that
which is in body. (II.3.9.24-34)
when he [the virtuous person] reaches higher principles and different
measures he will act according to these. For instance, he will not make
selfcontrol consist in that former observance of measure and limit, but will
altogether dissociate himself, as far as possible, from his lower nature and
will not live the life of the good man which civic virtue requires. He will leave
that behind, and choose another, the life of the gods: for it is to them, not to
good men, that we are to be made like ... likeness to the gods is likeness to
the model, a being of a different kind to ourselves. (I.2.7)

6) Third stage of Plotinus: The soul in union with the Intellect leaves discursive thought for
sensate thought and looks to the first beauty, the One.
The second stage is the ascent to Nous, is known as intellification. also called
eudaimonia. The soul is fully reintegrated into the individual intellect. This
is reintegration because it makes the soul what it always has been; part of
the intelligible realm. The activity of the intellectual realm is to think about
itself. The Soul must abandon the practice of discursive thought and move
onto noetic thought. In noetic activity the One is grasped only reflectively,
not by rational thought but by intuition. The soul comes into contact with
the Intellect by becoming more like the intellect. This is mental activity
which seeks to withdraw from the sensible world eventually become like the
one.
The Ascent is accomplished through assimilation, becoming more like the
one to whom it is ascending and through love. In Greek this love is called
eros? Eros moves the soul toward the One who is describes as Good and

Beautiful. This love is self-love because the soul has similarities with the
higher hypostases, the soul descended from the One and the soul is related
to the World Soul of the higher hypostases. By contemplating on the One the
soul ascends to the Intellect and then to the One.
But if this is so, the soul must let go of all outward things and turn altogether
to what is within and not be inclined to any outward thing, but ignoring all
things (as it did formerly in sense-perception,, but then in the realm of
forms, and even ignoring itself, come to be in contemplation of that One,
(Enneads VI.9.7.19-21)
The noetic activity is, by which the One is grasped, by reflection. The Nous
understands intuitively, the Soul understands discursively. The ascent to the
Nous from the soul leaves aside discursive reasoning based on sense
perception for reflection.

7) Final stage of Plotinus: Union with the One

Once the soul covers the distance to the One, the soul becomes fully
assimilated to One. The soul must subtract all that is alien to the One and be
transformed into the One. This ascent is accomplished through meditation in
ones own mind. Not thinking about the sensible things of the world but
concentrating on the eternal immutable light within ones own mind.
But if because it is none of these things you become indefinite in your
thought of it, stand fast on these and contemplate it from these. But
contemplate it without casting your thought outwards, For it does not lie
somewhere leaving the other things empty of it. But is always present to
anyone who is able to touch it, but is not present to the one who is unable. .
(Enneads VI.9.7.1-5)
Once the ascent is accomplished, even noetic thought is gone since the
individual becomes one with the one. Intellect is not perceived by the
senses. The contemplator perceives the one in a universal life and becomes
a god, at least momentarily.
For this reason any one of us which is like this would deviate very little from
the beings above as far as his soul itself was concerned and would only be
inferior by that part which is in bodyFor this reason no one would be so
unbelieving as not to believe that what is soul in men is altogether immortal.
Consider it by stripping or rather look at the man who has stripped looked at
himself and believe himself to be immortal when he looks at himself as he
has come to be in the intelligible and pure. For he will see an intellect which
sees nothing perceived by the senses, none of these mortal things, but

apprehends the eternal by its eternity, and all the things in the intelligible
world, having become itself an intelligible universe full of light, illuminated
by the truth from the Good, which radiates truth over all the intelligibles; so
he will often think that this was very well said Greetings, I am for you an
immortal god having ascended to the divine and concentrating totally on
likeness to it.(Enneads IV.7.10)
There one can see both him and oneself as it is right to see; the self
glorified, full of intelligible light-but rather itself pure light-weightless,
floating free, having become but rather, being-a god; set on fire then , but
the fires seems to go out if one is weighed down again.(Enneads VI.9.9.5560)
If he remembers who he became when he was united with that , he will have
an image of that in himself. He was one himself with distinct in himself
either in relation to himself or to other things-for there was no movement in
him and he had no emotion, no desire for anything else when he had made
the ascent-but here was no even any reason or thought, and he himself was
not there, if we must even say this; but he was as if carried away or
possessed by a god, in a quiet solitude and a state of calm, not turning away
anywhere in his being and not busy about himself, altogether at rest and
having become a kind of rest. (Enneads VI.9.11.13-16)
And when one falls from the vision, he wakes again the virtue in himself, and
considering himself set in order and beautiful by these virtues he will again
be lightened and come through virtue to Intellect and wisdom and through
wisdom to that Good. This is the life of gods and of godlike and blessed
men, deliverance from the things of this world, a life which takes no delight
in the things of this world, escape in solitude to the solitary. (Enneads
VI.9.11.40-45)
The goal of the mystic, is to retreat into God and lose ones self identity. In
the return to God, a person becomes god. The goal of the mystic is the goal
of Adam and Eve, to become like god.

The Ascent at Milan

After his Manichean period Augustine became a follower of Neoplatonism. In
his Platonist period he was again frustrated by his desire for sex. The
religious practice of the Neoplatonists was the ascent. After a period of
purgation and purification, a person was to look inward to see God. Of
course this purification included abstinence from sex. The religious discipline
and promise of rewards of either the Manicheas or the Platonists were not
adequate for Augustine to control his sexual desires.

However, before his complete purification, he did attain to the vision of the
One. Augustine understands this vision as inadequate:
And I wondered not a little that I was now come to love thee, and no
phantasm instead of thee; nor did I delay to enjoy my God, but was ravished
to thee by thine own beauty; and ye be and by I violently fell off again, even
by mine own weight; rushing with sorrow enough upon these inferior things.
This weight I spake of was my own fleshly custom. (Confessions VII, xvii,
p.385)
By practicing a pagan mysticism, Augustine imagines he see the real God
but only briefly. This brief vision was not brief because he was exploring
pagan gods, but because of his sexual habit. This sexual habit was supposed
to be extinguished in the Platonic purification process.
This sexual habit had a name. He had sent away his first concubine, so his
sexual habit must be his second concubine. The second concubine he will
not mention by name or even have any remorse when he discards her.
The life of an ascetic life has a real world human cost. The ascetic who
abandons his common law life, his temporary concubine and his fiance
leaves a behind a trail of broken promises, heartbreak and unfulfilled
obligations. Does God reward such a sinner with a vision of himself? The
Judeo-Christian conception of love between a man and woman is more
personal.
The women a man takes for a wife, or a concubine, is joined in oneness that
in many ways demonstrates the oneness man has with God. A man
becomes joined to his wife as one, so that consorting with prostitutes
destroys this unity and makes a Christian guilty of becoming one with a
prostitute.
(1 Corinthians 6:16) Do you not know that he who unites himself with a
prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, The two will become one
flesh.
So uniting with a prostitute is an insult to God and your wife. Although
Augustine does not marry his concubines, he is certainly united with them in
one flesh and owes some sort of faithfulness and love to them. Your wife or
your concubine is not a sexual habit to be discarded. Discarding your wife or
concubines is not a purification process that leads to the Christian God.
Speaking in the context of having read the Platonic books, Augustine
explains how those books encouraged him to practice the ascent. David will
say:
Psalm 51:11

Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit
from me.
David is worried that his sin will separate from God. Paul explains how only a
believer receives the Holy Spirit.
Ephesians 1:13
In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your
salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy
Spirit of promise,
Augustine believes God is in everyone; believer and nonbeliever. A
nonbeliever only has to look inside of himself to find God. The nonbelieving
Augustine will look inside of his mind and find God: the same God the
Platonist finds when he looks inside of himself. By the way this god is the
unchangeable god.

And being hence admonished to return to myself, I entered even into mine
own inwards, thou being my Leader: and able I was to do it, for thou wert
now become my Helper. In myself I went and with the eyes of my soul (such
as it was) I discovered over the same eye of my soul, over my mind, the
unchangeable light of the Lord. (Confessions VII, X, p.371)
At the end of the ascent in Chapter VII Augustine sees God as he expects
God to be in Platonic forms:
I had by this time found the unchangeable and true eternity of Truth,
residing above this changeable mind of mine. And thus, by degrees, passing
from bodies to the soul, which makes use of the senses of the body to
perceive by; and from thence to its inner faculties, unto which the senses of
the body are to represent their outwards objects; and so forward as far as
the irrational creatures are able to go; thence again I passed on to the
reasoning faculties, unto which whatever is received from the sense of the
body is referred to be judged. This also finding itself to be variable in me,
betook itself towards its own understanding(intelligentiam), drawing away
my thought (cogitationem) from custom and withdrawing itself from these
confused multitudes of phantasies which contradict one another; that so it
might find out that light which now bedewed it, when without all further
doubting, it cried out that what was unchangeable was to be preferred
before what was changeable, by it had come to know that unchangeable
thus by a flash of the twinkling eyesight it come so far as that which is. And
now came I to have a sight of those invisible things of thee, which are
understood by those things which are made.1
He starts the ascent (by degrees, passing from bodies to the soul). He
passes through the souls stages of the irrational creatures, animation and
sensus and passes on to the rational stage (ars and virtus). (as far as the
irrational creatures are able to go; thence again I passed on to the
reasoning faculties) He draws away from discursive thought (tranqullitas)
unto the confused fantasies of the forms (ingression) and finally arrives at
the unchangeable light (contemplation).

1 Augustine, Loeb Classical Library, St. Augustines Confessions I. Trans. W Watts. Ed. GP
Goold. Harvard University Press. Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1988. Book VII, Chapter XVII.
pp. 387

The Sight of the Immutable God

With the assistance of the Platonic books and the ascent, Augustine believes
in an immutable God. He believes this God is the true God. The ascent and
the vision of the ascent are proof enough for god. He does not need the
revelation of Scripture. In fact, any revelation from Scripture that differs
from this vision is just wrong. (Confessions XII.xiv.17) Just prior to the ascent
of Milan, where Augustine sees the immutable God, he credits the Platonic
books with providing incentive and methods to practice the ascent. The
practice of the ascent requires one to move from discursive thought, through
noetic thought, and emptying ones mind to look directly at god. At the
same time one looks at god, he become unified with god. If the mind is
empty what will the mind see? Probably what the mind is conditioned to see
from previous experience or books.
Augustine expects to find the immutable God of the Platonists when he
reaches the end of the Platonic ascent. He records the event in the Chapter
VII. by this time I found the unchangeable and true eternity of Truth Not
only does he claim to find god, he finds the true God who happens to be
unchangeable.
Augustine believes one of Gods attributes to be immutability. He obtained
these ideas from the Platonists and never abandoned them. Augustine will
credit the philosophers with seeing that God is immutable. In his Platonist
stage of life Augustine will discover immutability as a divine attribute of God.
This concept will color his subsequent Christian theology and serve as a
foundation for other attributes of God; omnipresence, omnipotence.
These philosophers, then, whom we see not
undeservedly exalted above the rest in fame and
glory, have seen that no material body is God, and
therefore they have transcended all bodies in
seeking for God. They have seen that whatever is
changeable is not the most high God, and therefore
they have transcended every soul and all
changeable spirits in seeking the supreme.....2
The Platonist philosophers have seen the most high God.
pagans see the real God.

The

2 Augustine, The City of God. Trans. Marcus Dods. The Modern Library, Random
House. New York, 1950. pp. 250-251

He who is clever judges better than he who is slow,

he who is skilled than he who is unskillful, he who is
practiced than he who is unpractised; and the same
person judges better after he has gained experience
than he did before. But that which is capable of more
and less is mutable; whence able men, who have
thought deeply on these things, have gathered that
the first form is not to be found in those things
whose form is changeable.i
This argument is a variation on theme from Platos Republic Book
II: If he change at all he can only change for the worse. God is
perfect, then only change possible in something perfect if for the
worse, therefore God cannot change.
The Platonists have
logically concluded that god does not change. Augustine agrees
with this premise and denies change in God. (But that which is
capable of more and less is mutable)
In another book, The City of God, Augustine tries to defend his
concept of the immutability of God with Platonic reasoning and
logic, apart from the Scripture. When Augustine attempts to
defend this concept from Scripture he uses Exodus 3, a chapter
without any references to immutability.
Then, as to Platos saying that the philosopher is a
lover
of
God,
nothing
shines
forth
more
conspicuously in those sacred writings. But the most
striking thing in this connection, and that which most
of all inclines me almost to assent to the opinion that
Plato was not ignorant of those writings, is the
answer which was given to the question elicited from
the holy Moses when the words of God were
conveyed to him by the angel; for, when he asked
what was the name of that God who was
commanding him to go and deliver the Hebrew
people out of Egypt, this answer was given: I am
who am; and though shalt say to the children of
Israel, He who is sent me unto you; as though
compared with Him that truly is, because He is
unchangeable, those things which have been created
mutable are not-a truth which Plato vehemently
held, and most diligently commended. And I know
not whether this sentiment is anywhere to be found
in the books of those who were before Plato, unless
in that book where it is said, I am who am; and thou

shalt say to the children of Israel, Who is sent me

unto you.3
Augustine freely admits the concept of Immutability is a Platonic idea. He
references these philosophers by which he means the Platonic philosophers
and he mentions Plato. He then attempts to draw an analogy between these
philosophic concepts and Gods Word. If there are sufficient parallel concepts
between Plato and Scriptures there might be some validation of this defense.
The Scriptures does not support the concept of immutability or the Platonic
reasoning which leads to immutability.
However what is the Biblical evidence? Augustine cites Exodus 3:14 And
God said to Moses, I AM WHO I AM. And He said, Thus you shall say to the
children of Israel, I AM has sent me to you. The exact meaning of the
Divine Name is not immutability. The context refers to the unbroken
relationship between the ancestral fathers of the people of Israel. However,
what is certain, is that there is no reference to immutability. The meaning
probably is a reference to the eternal existence or prescience of God. Citing
verses with obscure meanings is hardly proof of a major doctrinal concept.
By Book VII prior to his conversion in Book VIII Augustine will claim to have
already discovered immutability as an attribute of God. From the concept of
beauty in the Enneads to the unchangeable truth which is God.
In the next few chapters, Augustine will have a second ascent, this time with
his mother, and this time as a Christian. The ascent was never abandoned
by Augustine. He will become very renown as the father of Christian
mysticism. He will write a book, as a Christian, detailing the steps of the
ascent and encourage other Christians to practice the ascent.

Analysis of Chapter XII

In chapter XII Augustine describes two sets of persons. The first set accept
the metaphysical Platonic insights, the truth spoken to his inner ear, and the
scriptural literal meaning. The second set are hated by Augustine. They
should be destroyed with a two edged sword or, it is hoped, with a
metaphorical two-edged sword. (Confessions XII, xiv. 17) The second set of
opponents, the most interesting to the current theological climate, are the
contradictores (Latin), who believe the Bible, but reject the Platonic
overtones of Augustine.

3 Ibid. pp 256-257

Those with whom I wish to argue in your presence, my God, are those who
grant the correctness of all these things which your truth utters in my inner
mind. Those who deny them may bark as much as they like and by their
shouting discredit themselves. I will try to persuade them to be quiet and to
allow your word to find a way to them, If they refuse and repel me, I beg
you, my god, not to stay away from me in silence. Speak truth in my heart;
you alone speak so... I will leave my critics gasping in the dust, and blowing
the soil up into their eyes... you are the one supreme, and true Good, But
with those who do not criticize as falls all those points which are true, who
honor your holy scripture written by that holy man Moses and agree with us
that we should follow its supreme authority, but who on some point
contradict us, my position is this: You, our God, shall be arbiter between my
confessions and their contradictions.
Saint Augustine Confessions, trans. Henry Chadwick, Oxford University Press,
Aug 14, 2008,Bk XII, xvi, p.257-258
Augustine can spar verbally in a civil debate with the persons who agree to
his vision and agree to scriptures. His most ferocious personal attack is not
against the cults that deny both the Scriptures and the fine points of Platonic
reasoning. His most hated opponents, ones to whom Augustine does not
have good answers, are the literalists. Lacking a good answer he will use
verbal abuse. They are like dogs, they bark and do not reason. They should
be thrown to the ground and have dirt kicked into their eyes. But failing all
verbal venom to dissuade them from their views, Augustine, Catholic Bishop
of Hippo, the bully with all the authority of the church behind him, will ask
God to judge between the literalists and Augustine. Whom will God chose?
What is interesting is Augustines heated and painful reaction to the
literalists. Are they enough of a threat to warrant such response?
The attack of the literalists is an attack on the mystical experience of Ostia.
This gives us a clue to enlarger significance of the heaven of heaven in his
theology. The purpose of the ascent was to find god in the inner mind of
Augustine. Augustine argues against those who deny your truth utters in
my inner mind. This is a reference to the ascent as to return unto myself
and I entered with my souls eye a loud voice in my inner ear.
Augustine will seem more charitable to these literalists later. He will affirm
that the original authors of the Scriptures wrote some things which may be
true literally. Augustine will contend that even if these things were true
literally, there is also another sense of truth. God may reveal to another

person a separate truth from the same Scripture. What is the source of such
new truth? It is the inner eye of Augustine which also is the inner eye of his
ascent.
O my God, thou light of my inner eyes, since there may be several meanings
gathered out of the same wordsWhilst every man endeavors, therefore, to
collect the same sense from the Holy
Scriptures, that the penman himself intended; what hurt is it, if a man so
judge of it, even as thou, O the Light of all true-speaking minds, dost show
him to be true; even if the author whom he reads, perceived not so much,
seeing he also collect a truth out of it, though not this truth.
Augustine, Loeb Classical Library, St. Augustines Confessions II. Trans. W
Watts. Ed. GP Goold. Harvard University Press. Cambridge, Massachusetts,
1988. Book XII, Chapter XVIII. pp. 329-331
other who find no fault with the book of Genesis and indeed admire it. Yet
they say: the Spirit of God who wrote this by Moses did not intend this
meaning by these words; he did not mean what you are saying but another
meaning which is our interpretation.
Saint Augustine Confessions, trans. Henry Chadwick, Oxford University Press,
Aug 14, 2008,Bk XII, xiv, p.254
The literalist are arrogant. They believe Scripture says what is means and
means what it says. What is the meaning Augustine defends? Augustine is
not defending the literal interpretation of Genesis but he claims there are
two interpretations, the literal and the spiritual. Those contradictores who
dare to claim that Augustine has gone too far in applying Platonic overtones
are arrogant. They should open up to other interpretations like Augustines
interpretation.
They say although this may be true yet Moses did not have these two
things in mind when by the revelation of the Spirit he said In the beginning
god made heaven and earth. By the word heaven he did not mean the
spiritual or intellectual creation which continually looks on Gods face nor by
the word earth did he intend formless matter. What then? They say: What
that man had in mind was what we say he meant, and this is what he
expressed in those words.
Saint Augustine Confessions, trans. Henry Chadwick, Oxford University Press,
Aug 14, 2008,Bk XII, xvi, p.258

Augustine is offended, of course God meant to include the forms of the

Intellect from Plotinus in the creation story. These literalists do not accept
Augustines visions and the spiritual interpretation of heaven and earth as
including intellectual creation. The literalists reject this spiritual
interpretation. When Augustine says the spiritual or intellectual heaven, he
is referring to the heaven of heavens, the first created product of God.
(caelum caeli)
No doubt the heaven of heaven which you made in the beginning is a kind
of creation of heaven, which you made in the beginning is a kind of creation
in the realm of the intellect. Without being coeternal with you, O Trinity, it
nevertheless participates in your eternity,. From the sweet happiness of
contemplating you, it find the power to check its mutability.
Saint Augustine Confessions, trans. Henry Chadwick, Oxford University Press, Aug
14, 2008,Bk XII, ix, p.276

Already you have said to me Lord, with a loud voice in my inner ear, that you
are eternal...for you are changed by no form or movement, for does you will
undergo any variation at different timesAgain you said to me, Lord, with a
loud voice in my inner earAgain you said to me, in a loud voice in my inner
ear..the heaven of heaven is coeternal with you,..
Saint Augustine Confessions, trans. Henry Chadwick, Oxford University Press,
Aug 14, 2008,Bk XII, xi, p.251
(Confessions XII, xi, 11-12)
The heaven of heaven is a reference to some sort of form in the Intellect of
God. Of course the Scripture never mentions this heaven or the Intellect of
God. Augustine hears both in the inner ear of his mind.
It is impossible to debate a mystic who is entrenched in his visions from God.
After all, he must be correct, he received his information directly from God.
Even if contrary Scriptures are presented, the Scriptures may be interpreted
another way, in accordance with the mystic vision. It is not necessary to
debate if Augustine had a vision from God. Augustine admits his Platonic
references are outside of revealed Scripture and contrary to the literal
intentions of the authors.
Of course when Augustine is referring to the heaven of heavens what does
he mean? The forms are the most perfect copies of sensible objects. The

most perfect copy of heaven is the heaven of heavens. The Platonic

references to the heaven of heavens are evident:
1)
2)
3)
4)

it
it
it
it

exists outside space and time

exists at the intelligible level
exists by participation
contemplates

This spiritual interpretation is inspired by the voice in the inner ear. Is this
inner ear the intuitive inspiration of direct revelation from God or the vision
of the ascent? Augustine is not clear on the source of the revelation. It is
not the Scriptures, it is the voice of the inner ear. Many times in Chapter XII,
Augustine emphasizes that he has heard God by a voice in his inner ear.

The Biblical response to the ascent:

Are the Orthodox and Catholic Christians right? Is there a Christian
mysticism? A person cannot simply to place an adjective like Christian into
a phrase to turn something into a Christian value. One cannot say Christian
orgy and make the orgy godly. In the same manner, it is improper to say
Christian ascent, Christian contemplation or Christian mysticism. Using
Scripture devoid of the intended meaning or content does no honor to the
Biblical text. Rather, the God of Scripture intends us to understand him
cognitively in word communicated to us by his apostles and prophets.
The closest example of a Scriptural ascent comes from 2 Corinthians 12:2-4:
2 Corinthians 12:2-4
I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I
cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an
one caught up to the third heaven.
And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot
tell: God knoweth;)
How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words,
which it is not lawful for a man to utter.
In this account, the apostle Paul is caught up to heaven, not knowing if he is
in or out of the body. This ascent is nothing like the Plotinian ascent. Paul
distinctly hears discursive words. He is not unable to speak the words but it

is unlawful to speak these words. This is not an ineffable vision which is the
culmination of the ascent.
The purpose of the ascent is to see God. However, the Scriptural examples
of such events does not resemble the ascent. As an example, the Lord
appeared to Isaiah:
Isaiah 6:1-2

In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the LORD sitting upon a throne,
high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the
seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with
twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.
The vision of Isaiah is much like so many appearances of God. He is in the
form of a man, has the appearance of a man, is holy and apart from sinful
man but not an ecstatic vision of ineffable light.(See also Daniel 7:9-10,
Genesis 19, Numbers 14:14)
Isaiah 6:5-7
Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips,
and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen
the King, the LORD of hosts.
Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand,
which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar:And he laid it upon my
mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken
away, and thy sin purged.

When God appears to Isaiah, Isaiah is aware of his sinful state. He has not
purified himself to see God. God agrees with his sinful state, and it is God
who purifies him. It is God who takes away mans sin. In the ascent, a man
purifies himself from fleshly desires in preparation of his nonbodily ascent.

There are two types methods of obtaining righteousness in Scriptures. Of

course the only way one can be declared righteous and enter into a state of

salvation is through the imputed righteousness of Christ. Being righteous

before God is imputed to the Body of Christ by imputation through faith.

Purification in the Plotinian mode different from practicing righteousness, and

it is contrary to the hope of Christians. The Platonist wants to be united to
the one and separated from the impediments of his body. This is done by
subtracting the passions and desires of the body in order for the soul to god.
These passions and desires include love for your neighbor and concern for
your fellow believers and even love for your enemy.

It is possible to be righteous through following the law. Those persons made

righteous in this manner still need Christs imputed righteousness for
salvation but their lives are evidence in their performance of the law. Paul
recognizes this one he says the law is good.
1 Timothy 1:8
But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully,

As an example of this type of sanctification there is the example of Zacharias

and Elizabeth.

Luke 1:5-7
There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named
Zacharias, of the division of Abijah. His wife was of the daughters of Aaron,
and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God,
walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. But
they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both well
advanced in years.
The context leaves no doubt, the couple were blameless and righteous
before God by practicing the law. The law is recognized as code of conduct
directed at living with your neighbor. Seven of the ten commandments are
instructions about living with others: honor your father and mother, do not
steal, do not covet, etc. The most righteous couple in the Scripture were

Elizabeth and Zacharias. Not only did they keep all the ordinances, but they
were practicing sex. They were blessed by the Lord with a child which is a
physical blessing. Neither the Old Testament practice, of keeping the
commandments, or the New Testament practice, of imputed righteousness
through faith, is remotely similar to the purification practice of the ascent.
The practice of the ascent is the separation from the physical world. The
Scripture does not emphasize separation but living in the world and loving
your enemy, your neighbor and your fellow believers. The Christian will live
in a physical body and desires to be clothed in a spiritual body. The
Neoplatonist wants to escape from the body and be united with the One.
1 Corinthians 15:12-19

Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do
some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there
is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not
risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. Yes, and we
are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He
raised up Christ, whom He did not raise upif in fact the dead do not
rise. For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not
risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! Then also those who have
fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in
Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.

1 Corinthians 15:44

It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body,

and there is a spiritual body.

The Creeds are an attempt to exposit the essential beliefs of the Christian
faith. Christians are saved by faith but faith in what? The Apostle's Creed
posits the resurrection of the body as one of those essential beliefs,"I believe
in the resurrection of the body." In I Corinthians 15 Paul explains why the

resurrection of the body is central to the Christian faith. The denial of the
resurrection of the body is a denial of the resurrection of Christ.

2 Corinthians 5:8
We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to
be present with the Lord.
The whole process of the ascent is antithetical to the practice of Christian
ethics. The one is utterly transcendent and to practice the ascent the
individual must become like the one. He must become indifferent to the
cares of the world, the suffering of humanity, his love for his own family even
his own food and desires. This may be the ideal of the monks and nuns of
Catholicism but the New Testament Christian is involved with the world,
involved with the Church and involved with the sensible life.

When a believer dies his soul is separated from the body to be present with
the Lord. This is not the preferred condition of the believer. The bodies of all
believers, who have died, will be resurrected and reunited with their souls,
this is the Second Coming. (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17; 1 Corinthians 15:52).
The bodies of believers who are still alive will be changed to their spiritual
bodies.

Unfortunately, the ugly consequence of the transcendent god is the

impossibility of forming a true relationship with his creation. If Gods
creation cannot affect Him, then it can add nothing to him: no love, no
praise, no thanksgiving. The world desires (loves) the One, but this love is
not reciprocated. Rather, everything must be prescripted to preserve
perfection eternally. All of creation exists merely as a fixed description of the
superabundance and overflow of power of the One.
Ecclesiastes 9:7-9
Go, eat your bread with joy,
And drink your wine with a merry heart;
For God has already accepted your works.

8 Let your garments always be white,

And let your head lack no oil.
9 Live joyfully with the wife whom you love all the days of your vain life
which He has given you under the sun, all your days of vanity; for that is
your portion in life, and in the labor which you perform under the sun.

i Ibid.