Mysticism

Mysticism is the idea that special mental states allow the communion with, or direct experience of, God. Mystics can use texts which are, or are not, canonical, like the Book of Revelation. Practices said to lead to this state are prayer, fasting and self-denial.

Mystical tradition in Christianity

The mystical tradition in Christianity is 2000 years old. Important texts are:

Galatians 2:20

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me

1 John 3:2

Beloved, now we are the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

II Peter 1:4

exceedingly great and precious promises [are given unto us]; that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust

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.

People claimed as mystics include John the Baptist, Saint Peter, St. Francis of Assisi, Meister Eckhart (Eckhart von Hochheim), T. S. Eliot, and Vernon Howard.

Compare Beatific vision.

Varieties of mysticism

Mystic traditions are influential in most religions. In Christianity, the Greek Hesychasts are important as well as the writings of Meister Eckhart, Julian of Norwich, Bridget of Sweden and many others. The mystic tradition in Christianity began in the Eastern Church in Greece and has always pervaded Eastern Orthodoxy. The Middle Ages saw a rise in mystic thought throughout Western Europe. In broad terms, the Christians of Eastern Europe have been more comfortable with mystical thought than their Western European counterparts. See Christian mysteries.

The mystic tradition in Islam is known as Sufism. Muslim Sufis have enjoyed a longstanding influence on mainstream Islam, although that influence has been in decline for a few centuries. There have been many varieties of Sufism (from those who have strictly adhered to Islamic law to those who have reveled in drunkenness and pleasure) all across the Muslim world, but India has been the most common home to Sufis.

The Jewish mystical discipline is Kabbalah, developed in Medieval Europe. There are mystical traditions within Hinduism and Buddhism as well.

Mysticism tends to have a focus on the broad human identity and the nature of God. Mystics tend to emphasize the personal religious experience rather than doctrine, which has caused distrust between orthodox and mystic traditions in almost every religion.

Protestantism as a form of Gnostic Christianity

Relativist interpreters emphasize that "the true value of the Gospel" lies primarily in its profound psychological and emotional impact, in the telling of the story, without the necessity of it being factually and historically true, as a powerful means of causing spiritual transformation through personal identification with "the struggle and triumph of the mythical Jesus invented by Paul and the Gospel writers and the developed tradition of Christianity". The Historical-grammatical method (Literal hermeneutic) of orthodox catholic biblical hermeneutics directly contradicts this approach.

The "myth" assertion that the story of Jesus is an archetypical iconic pattern for personal insight and development—being profoundly "awakened" and transformed by being dynamically engaged and absorbed in the telling of the story—is a prime element of gnostic initiation and Cosmic Humanism, which is in direct opposition to the grounded reality of the Christian mysteries. See

• Joseph Campbell & The Hero's Journey - Odyssey Online. Antioch University, Santa Barbara (odyssey.antiochsb.edu)
• Excerpts from Myth and the Movies, Stuart Voytilla, by Christopher Vogler (tlu.ee) pdf (9 pages)
• Does Jesus follow Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey? (asyourpoetshavesaid.com)
• Are the Gospels a Myth?, by Fr. Dwight Longenecker - Strange Notions: The Digital Areopagus—Reason. Faith. Dialogue (strangenotions.com) They only seem to be, but they are not a myth.—see Fallacy of analogy.
• Are The Gospels Mythical? by Rene Girard (firstthings.com) Some people insist that they are, in spite of evidence to the contrary.

Author Philip J. Lee, Against the Protestant Gnostics shows that Gnostic tendencies are being taught alongside Christian orthodoxy, and that the Reformation at its heart fostered the inherent Gnostic tendencies toward a disdain for authority and the physical nature of things, and the Gnostic disdain of the sacraments and disdain of the doctrine of the physical resurrection of the body, and a sola scriptura reading of scripture sola spiritu with the hope of a bodiless spiritual-only salvation forever in heaven after death, through a direct "personal relation with Christ" (as a cosmic spiritual entity) and "knowing Jesus" by the "chosen elect". He demonstrates how these teachings of Gnosticism have wormed their way into Christian teachings, particularly in North American Protestantism. Pastor and author Peter Dietsch, in summarizing Lee's book, says, "In both the Old and New Testaments, the knowledge of God is not self-discoverable. God has revealed Himself in and through a community (His people, the Church), therefore He may be known only through that community."

External links

• Mysticism in the Encyclopedia of Religion and Society
• Mysticism, Christian Churches of God
• Mysticism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)