ommunitDiscipleship in C y: Discipleship in …...Christian mysticism, and we have talked about their view of God, their view of man, faith, grace, authority, and the three-stage ascent

Discipleship in Community:

Transcript - SF501 Discipleship in Community: © 2019 Our Daily Bread University. All rights reserved.

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LESSON 14 of 24SF501

Historical Factors: Mystical Spirituality – Part II

Discipleship in Community:

In this session, we want to continue in our consideration of those factors that have influenced our way of thinking today, those historical factors in particular that have contributed to the individualistic approach that we typically take to spiritual formation and spirituality. We’ve been looking in particular at mysticism and the development and theology of mysticism within the church. The last session we were talking about the theology of Christian mysticism, and we have talked about their view of God, their view of man, faith, grace, authority, and the three-stage ascent to God.

In this session, we want to begin by considering that aspect of their theology and that aspect of their Christian practice which I feel is central to an understanding of Christian mysticism. And that has to do with their doctrine of prayer. Prayer, for the most part in Christian mysticism, is interpreted primarily as meditation and contemplation rather than supplication. Aldous Huxley in his study of mysticism in general said that “The practical teaching of Indian and Christian mystics is identical in such matters as renunciation of petitionary prayer in favor of simple abandonment to the will of God.” Now this is illustrated for us as we look at a quote from Teresa of Jesus who was alive and ministering in the 1500s during the Catholic Reformation. In one of her works discussing prayer she says, “Pray as you can, for prayer doesn’t consist of thinking a great deal but of loving a great deal. And God can lead to the heights of contemplation one who uses no other words than those of the Lord’s Prayer.” What we see in that is that for Teresa and other mystics of both her time and following as well as before, is that prayer involves some aspect of this mystical quest, some aspect of what we called the “illuminative stage” in which one is basically drawing nearer to God and is moving beyond, to quote the mystics, the rational aspects into the trans-rational realm and experiencing the ultimate reality, experiencing God in an immediate or a direct sense.

John R. Lillis, Ph.D.Experience: Dean and Executive Officer

at Bethel Seminary in San Diego, CA.



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A contemporary of Teresa, John of the Cross, and one whose writings have formed a foundation for the development of Christian mysticism from the 1500s to the present maintained that prayer within the mystical perspective involved several things. He said that there must be serious effort to pray accompanied by continual reflection on the truths of the Christian faith without which love for God would be lacking in substance and, indeed, illusory. And so here as John was talking about what you and I would probably call prayer and what the mystics end up calling ordinary prayer, he talks about the need for rational processes, that is the reading of the Word and the understanding of the Word, reflecting upon the Word, the truths of the Christian faith, in order to give substance to one’s relationship with God. It’s interesting however, as you read on into John of the Cross, he says that “Such reflections, however, can achieve no more than an understanding of God by analogy. One, in prayer, will reach a stage where ordinary prayer (according to John of the Cross) is no longer possible. When the soul has in a manner received all the spiritual benefit which it was to find in the things of God by way of meditation. And when without additional mental effort in prayer, the soul is given the prayer of passive contemplation.”

Now John is using the words meditation and contemplation here to talk about two levels or two stages. And they correspond roughly to what we mentioned in a prior session to the purgative stage and the illuminative stage. Meditation in which there is a more active involvement by the mystic is the prayer that they would call ordinary prayer and that which relates to the purgative stage. Contemplation, on the other hand, that passive prayer without further effort in which one is lifted up, so to speak, corresponds to the illuminative stage—the higher stage of the mystical quest. We’ll come back to that in a moment as we look at these types of prayer in greater detail.

For John, as he talks about this passive contemplation, this mystic prayer he maintains that God now, in this type of prayer, communicates to the Christian without the medium of intelligible or imaginable thought. So here as we move into that passive contemplative prayer, as we move into that level of the illuminative stage, again we’re moving beyond rational processes not into irrational processes but into the trans-rational, into that realm where one is growing closer and closer to God, that dark night of the faith as John described it. The former knowledge of God which the Christian thought he possessed is replaced by a knowledge which cannot be verbalized or even imagined.



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Now there is a certain aspect of validity underlying the entire discussion. Aquinas was the one to develop it most thoroughly, and that was the idea that we can only know God by analogy because of who God is and so that the rational knowledge that we have is a limited knowledge, and it is indeed knowledge by analogy. The question arises as we will see later, is it valid however to talk about another type of knowledge, a trans-rational knowledge that one achieves as one enters into the upper stages of the mystical ascent into the illuminative stages practicing the passive contemplative prayer. John of the Cross goes on to say that “The Christian must now grow in knowledge of God by learning what He is not rather than what He is. And in order to come to Him, he must reject all that can be rejected of what he can grasp whether natural or supernatural.” Again moving into the trans-rational region, and this type of theology is often labeled a “negative theology”—negative in the sense that as in many aspects of the mystical ascent and the mystical experience, the mystic because it is ineffable, is limited to saying what the experience is not. And hence, since the experience is a direct and immediate experience of God, what God is not. So God becomes described not by what He is but by what He is not.

Now this passive contemplation of the night of faith has very little in common with the kinds of prayer most commonly spoken of as contemplation in the present day. And you need to be mindful of that especially as you’re reading contemporary non-mystical writers who are talking about the spiritual disciplines and who talk about contemplative prayer. The contemplative prayer, the practice of contemplation that they’re describing has very little to do with the contemplation that traditionally and historically has been part of the quest of the Christian mystic. Thomas Merton provides a good summary for us of John of the Cross’s views of contemplative prayer in a quote that he makes from John’s book The Dark Night of Soul. He says, “Here it might be well to recall briefly that for St. John of the Cross, this night is by no means a pure negation if it empties the mind and heart of the co-natural satisfactions of knowledge and love on a simply human plain. It does so in order to fill them with a higher and purer light which is darkness to sense and to reason.” So indeed as we’re looking at this quote, we need to realize that in spite of what Merton is saying, it is a negation. It is a negative theology when we talk about the rational understanding. “The darkening is, therefore, at the same time (Merton goes on to say) an enlightenment. God darkens the mind only in order to give a more perfect light. The reason that the light of faith is darkness to the soul is, (says St.



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John) that this is in reality an excessive light. Direct exposure to supernatural light darkens the mind and heart and it is precisely in this way that being led into the dark night of faith one passes from meditation in the sense of active mental prayer (remember I mentioned to you that meditation corresponds to that active level, the purgative level) passes from the active mental prayer to contemplation or a deeper and simpler intuitive form of receptivity in which if one can be said to meditate at all, one does so only by receiving the light with passive and loving attention.” So St. John of the Cross says, and this is a quote from John of the Cross, “For the soul, this excessive light of faith which is given is thick darkness. For it overwhelms that which is great. And it does away with that which is little even as the light of the sun overwhelms all other lights whatsoever so that when it shines and disables our power of vision, they appear to be no lights at all. Even so, the light of faith by its excessive greatness oppresses and disables that of the understanding. For the latter of its own power extends only to natural knowledge although it has a faculty for the supernatural when our Lord may be pleased to bring it to a supernatural action.”

So this is prayer and the higher forms of prayer as some of the classic mystics, John of the Cross, Teresa, and then more contemporary Thomas Merton describe it. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, a man named Poulain, a mystic, wrote a helpful little treatise called The Graces of Interior Prayer. And by the way, if you do further study in mysticism, that’s a key phrase there—that “interior prayer”—the concept of interior experience, going within to find God. And so that often can be an indicator to you of a mystical approach to spirituality. Nonetheless, Poulain in his treatise The Graces of Interior Prayer, proposed to write a purely practical treatise on mysticism as he says in which he gave very clear and very accurate descriptions as well as very plain rules of conduct. That treatise provides for us some interesting insight into a further understanding of the practice of mystical prayer, especially in this century. Poulain begins by making the point that in ordinary prayer, what you and I would probably call prayer, only faith makes one aware that the act of ordinary prayer is supernatural and not a purely natural act. In mystic prayer on the other hand, something shows more or less clearly that God is intervening. It’s an interesting concept. He’s saying that as you move to the higher stages of this mystic prayer, as you move from purgative to the illuminative stage, the illuminative stage is characterized by something definitely happening, some experience that shows manifestly that one is experiencing God.



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And as we’ll see, this experience, this thing that happens is the “blinding light,” as the mystics call it that literally blinds the reason. Whereas in purgative prayer, the ordinary prayer in which one is actively involved, one has to merely believe that one is indeed communicating with God because the individual is actively speaking and there is no sign that indeed there is a link with God.

Poulain goes on to say that mystic, or what he calls extraordinary prayer, involves supernatural acts or states which our own industry is powerless to produce even in low degree, even momentarily. Now with that general description, it’s helpful then to see the stages of prayer that Poulain suggests. And basically he has two essential levels. There is what he calls ordinary prayer which has four degrees or four steps and then there is the prayer of mystic union which also has four degrees or four steps. And again these two roughly correspond to the earlier writings and the earlier concepts of the purgative stage for ordinary prayer and then the illuminative stage with respect to the prayer of mystic union. In each of these two basic levels, ordinary prayer and then the prayer of mystic union, as one progresses up this ladder of prayer so to speak, as one progresses in this ascent to God, the progression, the ascent itself is characterized by an increasing degree of passivity with a decreasing degree of active involvement. One attains to the higher levels of prayer as one becomes less actively involved in the process and more passive. And in fact, the step between the upper level of ordinary prayer, the fourth degree of ordinary prayer, and the first level or first-degree of the prayer of mystic union, according to Poulain and most mystics, is achieved purely by the grace of God, by God’s infused power into the individual. That power of course being infused due to some act on the part of the individual in which they place themselves in a position to receive that power, to receive that grace.

Well, as we look at the first level, the first stage, ordinary prayer corresponding to the purgative stage, the four degrees of ordinary prayer begin with what Poulain calls vocal prayer. And vocal prayer is just the prayer in which one is articulating to God one’s needs, one’s worship, the reason. Rational powers are actively engaged. One is thinking. The whole process involves that active level of consciousness in which one is entirely in control. It’s what most Protestant Christians—most Christians who are practicing what Donald Bloesch calls the “evangelical strain of spirituality” —it’s what most of those people call prayer.



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The second degree, the next level up within this stage of ordinary prayer Poulain refers to as meditation. And meditation he refers to as “unforced reflection.” Now to help us understand what he means by that, perhaps the three rules of conduct that he gives for those who are having difficulty with meditation would be helpful. He says first of all the person practicing meditation, practicing this second degree of ordinary prayer should not force themselves to reflection. They should not force themselves to vocal prayers or vocal petitions for which they have no inclination but rather be content with a passive prayer of simplicity. Yield to the inclination to act in a particular way while praying. Take advantage of opportunities for instruction in order to promote this passive reflection. Or take advantage of opportunities for arousing the will, something from without whether that be instruction, reading, thinking about the truths of the Word, exhortation, whatever that might arouse this reflection and promote one in a more passive way to think in an unforced reflection about some aspect. So this is meditation. This is the second degree. Now you can see again that it is characterized or it is differentiated and distinguished from the first degree, vocal prayer, by an increase in the degree of passivity.

The third degree of ordinary prayer Poulain describes as affective prayer. And here the prayer that he’s describing is a mental prayer in which the affections or the sentiments, emotions such as love, gratitude, contrition outbalance thoughts and arguments whether they’re active thoughts such as in vocal prayer or the passive reflection such as meditation. The affective prayer is characterized by the predominance of a single emotion—feeling love, feeling thanksgiving, feeling gratitude towards God. Now as we look at each of these, I think that although we’re identifying them with part of the mystic quest, we are by no means saying that these are not legitimate experiences and legitimate parts of a Christian experience of biblical spirituality. Indeed certainly we have all at various times for a variety of reasons, reading the Scripture, thinking about God’s goodness, whatever, have practiced this prayer of affection, the affective prayer, prayer of emotion in which our total prayer has consisted of an overwhelming emotion towards God, perhaps gratitude or love. And so indeed this is legitimate just as the meditation, the unforced reflection. Indeed again as we have read Scripture, perhaps we’ve sat back to think in an unforced way but to allow the mind to mull over the truth that we’ve just read and to reflect upon its implications in terms of our own lives or in terms of the character and attributes of God. And often one can lead to the other, the meditation, the unforced



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reflection upon the character of God or upon a particular truth can lead to the affective prayer, this overwhelming sense of an emotion directed towards God, love, gratitude, whatever. Nonetheless, as we look at this from Poulain’s structure here, we see again that as we go from vocal prayer to meditation to affective prayer, that they’re each distinguished by an increasing degree of passivity, a decreasing degree of active involvement of the reason in the process.

The final degree of ordinary prayer, the final degree of prayer that we might associate with what we earlier called the purgative stage, that stage at which the individual is actively involved in the process, is what Poulain calls the prayer of simple regard. And here knowing by intuition the intuitive aspect replaces reasoning. And a dominant intuitive thought prevails over a variety of emotions and affects. A dominant and intuitive thought also prevails over the use of words. So that in the prayer of simple regard, rather than even the relative simplicity of emotion, we realize that emotions as we analyze them are rather manifold in their character. Here we move to the prayer of simple regard characterized by a simple, intuitive aspect, an intuition. Simplistic, not as manifold as a multiplicity of emotions and definitely not as complicated as the prayers that would involve use of words, the reflective meditation or even the vocal prayer but a prayer of one simple, intuitive aspect being the final degree of ordinary prayer. And as you read the mystics Poulain and others, one gathers the sense that when one has achieved this stage of ordinary prayer, when one has achieved this level in the purgative stage, then one is poised on the brink for moving now into the illuminative stage for moving into that stage which is now characterized by various degrees of mystic union with the divine, mystic union in the sense of immediate experiences of some type with God.

And so that brings us then to the second stage of prayer, that which Poulain calls, in contrast to the ordinary prayer that we’ve just described, the prayer of mystic union. And this is sometimes, as I’ve indicated to you, categorized under the concept of contemplation. The four degrees that I’ve mentioned earlier, the four degrees of ordinary prayer in spite of the fact that meditation is included as one of them specifically, often the purgative stage, these degrees of ordinary prayer are often labeled as mediation. In the quote that I read to you earlier from Merton’s book in which he was discussing John of the Cross, he did just that. He talked about moving from the meditation type of prayer to the contemplative type of prayer in John of the Cross’s theology. So indeed as we



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move to this higher prayer, the prayer of mystic union, we need to be aware that sometimes it is called contemplative prayer. And like ordinary prayer, Poulain as he describes this, as he is essentially summarizing for us centuries of mystic writing, also has four degrees in this level of prayer.

The first degree is what Poulain calls the prayer of quiet. And the prayer of quiet is basically what he calls an incomplete mystic union involving a repose. The individual has moved beyond the intuitive prayer of simple regard and has now achieved a level of union with the Divine. This level of union is being characterized, as Poulain says, by some supernatural act or state which our own industry is powerless to produce. Mystics throughout the centuries have described it as “shafts of light” for want of a better term. The prayer of quiet is an incomplete mystic union in that the individual can still be distracted quite easily, distracted from outside sources as well as distracted by one’s own body and various physical functions. Because one in this prayer of quiet repose is still very much aware of surroundings, one is very much aware of one’s body and so forth in this prayer of quiet.

The second degree is called the full or semi-ecstatic union. And basically this is a prayer of union in which, according to Poulain and others, the soul is fully occupied with the divine object; one’s interior man, one’s interior being is completely and totally absorbed with God. The body, however, is still capable of sensing and acting and so one can be brought out of this. One can come out of this from external disturbances so to speak.

The third degree is what they describe as the ecstatic union in contrast to the semi-ecstatic union. And it’s usually described by one word—ecstasy. Here in this degree of mystic union, in this degree of the prayer of mystic union, bodily action and sensing are not possible. And one cannot, at will, come out of this. One is in a trance completely. One is locked totally into this. One is caught totally, according to the Christian mystic, by the grace of God in a union with God the divine source of all being. And of course, this union, as each of them are to a degree, but this one more so, is completely ineffable. One has moved beyond the reason of rational thought and power. One has moved into the region of a union with a God who is beyond reason. He is a trans-rational being.

The final degree of the prayer of mystic union is what Poulain calls the transforming union. And this is the spiritual marriage of



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the soul with God. This is the final and complete merging and losing of one’s own being into that undivided one, if we go back to that neo-platonic perspective there. It is a transforming union in that through the grace of God, through this infused power into one’s being an individual becomes one with God, totally lost into the being of God.

Now we need to understand as we’re talking about this prayer of mystic union that throughout the writings, throughout the centuries, all four degrees of this prayer of mystic union whether we’re talking about the transforming union, the ecstatic union, the semi-ecstatic union, or the prayer of quiet, all four involve divine action rather than human effort. This is the key distinction between the prayer of mystic union and ordinary prayer. In the prayer of mystic union, one is totally according to the mystic in the hands of God and dependent upon the grace of God as that grace has infused power into the individual; whereas in ordinary prayer, in spite of the increasing degree of passivity and the decreasing degree of active involvement of the reason, one is still praying in human effort.

Well, as you look at that idea of the prayer of mystic union, you realize that there are two fundamental characteristics of that prayer of mystic union. First of all, God’s presence is felt clearly. And then secondly, God gives knowledge of His presence through the spiritual senses and not the physical senses, not through the reason. And this is, of course, in this whole anthropology, the spiritual senses are not related to the reason and, therefore, it is ineffable. One cannot describe it when one comes back. One can simply say what it is not.

Poulain pointed out 10 subsidiary features as he was also articulating in more detail this prayer of mystic union. He said, “It does not depend on the individual’s will that the knowledge of God that one obtains (and we should probably put knowledge in quotes), the knowledge of God that one obtains in the mystical union is obscure and confuses, and hence, we often hear described as the dark night of faith. What’s very interesting is that term is sometimes applied by contemporary writers of spirituality to our own spiritual quest. We use it to describe those times when we are furthest from God, the dark night of faith. When in fact, in the mystic writings, it’s talking about those times when the mystic was drawing the closest to God and because of who God is as he draws closer and closer as he enters into the dark night. It’s a dark night because reason, rational powers cannot comprehend it.



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The mode of communication in this mystic union is partially incomprehensible, according to Poulain. The mystic union is not produced by reasonings, considerations, or sensible images as in meditation, as in the ordinary prayers whether meditation, the affective prayer, or the prayer of simple regard. And as we’ve seen Poulain points out the prayer of mystic union varies in intensity. It varies in degree. According to Poulain and other mystics, this prayer of mystic union demands less effort than meditation. It’s accompanied by sentiments of love, by sentiments of repose, pleasure and often suffering, often confusion and frustration as the mind, as the reason is unable to decipher that which is going on. Poulain also maintains, as do other mystics throughout the ages, that the prayer of mystic union inclines the soul to different virtues. He also points out that it acts upon the body and is acted upon by the body. The whole process is both influenced by and influences the physical body itself. It also impedes interior acts of the will by binding one to the reception of what God gives.

I have collected a series of quotes from Thomas Merton’s work. I’ve mentioned Thomas Merton to you before, a Catholic monk who has functioned out of a monastery in Kentucky before his untimely death in Bangkok when he was there dialoging with Buddhist monks. But from a variety of his works, there are some quotes that help us to understand this mystical idea of contemplative prayer and provide a summary for us of this very central doctrine of mystical spirituality. Let me share some of those with you. In talking about some of the earlier mystics, Merton says, “Peter the Venerable, St. Bernard’s contemporary, an Abbot of Cluny, was less hesitant and even more explicit than Bernard in encouraging solitary private prayer. Not only were monks of Cluniac houses granted permission to live in complete solitude as hermits or recluses, but the Cenobites might be permitted to spend an exceptional amount of time praying or meditating in secluded places apart from the community.” Now this points out something that we’re going to talk about a little later too. And that’s the isolated individualistic aspect of this entire quest. Talking about one particular Benedictine monk, Merton says, “There he remained (in the tower of the monastery) day and night intent on divine contemplation. With his mind, he ascended above all mortal things. At all times in the company of the most blessed angels he stood by interior vision in the presence of the Creator.” And then in another place, Merton describes the prayer of the heart. He says, “In the prayer of the heart, we seek first of all the deepest ground of our identity in God. We do not reason about dogmas of faith or the mysteries. We seek rather to gain



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a direct existential grasp, a personal experience of the deepest truths of life and faith, finding ourselves in God’s truth. Inner certainty depends on purification. The dark night rectifies our deepest intentions. In the silence of this night of faith we return to simplicity and sincerity of heart.” Just a few sentences later he says, “Prayer then means yearning for the simple presence of God for a personal understanding of His Word, for knowledge of His will, and for capacity to hear and obey Him. It is thus something much more than uttering petitions for good things external to our own deepest concerns.” Another quote Merton says, “We wish to gain a true evaluation of ourselves and of the world so as to understand the meaning of our life as children of God redeemed from sin and death. We wish to gain a true, loving knowledge of God our Father and Redeemer. We wish to lose ourselves in His love and rest in Him. We wish to hear His Word and respond to it with our whole being. We wish to know His merciful will and submit to it in its totality. These are the aims and goal of meditation and contemplation.”

Now as we read these quotes, that all sounds very good. It sounds very pious. But we need to ask ourselves is this indeed what the Bible says about prayer? Is this indeed the nature of the relationship that the Christian is to have with the living God? Is the relationship that the Christian is to have with the living God, to be a trans-rational relationship, a relation that goes beyond reason? I want to pose the question, and then we’ll answer it in another session. Continuing with Merton, in another chapter of the book he says—as he is talking about the inner depths of the spiritual life—he says, “They can hardly be described accurately in scientific language, in rational language. And for that reason even theology barely touches on the subject except in the poetic and symbolic language of the fathers of the church and of the mystical doctors.” He then gives a quote from John Towler in which Towler says, “By darkness, here you must understand a light which will never illuminate a created intelligence, a light which can never be naturally understood. And it is called desolate because there is no road which leads to it. To come there, the soul must be led above itself beyond all its comprehension and understanding.”

Now as we look at quotes like that, granted as we consider the being of God, God is beyond our reason. God is beyond our rational understanding. However, is the relationship that we are to have with Him to be characterized by that kind of knowledge? Is that what He would have for us? Another quote Merton says, “In a word, God is invisibly present to the ground of our being. Our belief and



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love attain to Him, but He remains hidden beyond the arrogant gaze of our investigating mind which seeks to capture Him and secure permanent possession of Him in an act of knowledge that gives power over Him. It is in fact absurd and impossible to try to grasp God as an object which can be seized and comprehended by our minds.” Finally, as he is describing contemplative prayer, Merton says,

Contemplative prayer is in a way simply the preference for the desert, for emptiness, for poverty. One has begun to know the meaning of contemplation when he intuitively and spontaneously seeks the dark and unknown path of aridity in preference to every other way. The contemplative is one who would rather not know than know, rather not enjoy than enjoy, rather not have proof that God loves him. He accepts the love of God on faith in defiance of all apparent evidence. This is the necessary condition and a very paradoxical condition. For the mystical experience of the reality of God’s presence and of His love for us only when we are able to let go of everything within us, all desire to see, to know, to taste, and to experience the presence of God do we truly become able to experience that presence with the overwhelming conviction and reality that revolutionize our entire life.

Now again we want to come back later and consider the validity of that in terms of our relationship to God, in terms of that which God has created us to be. Let’s conclude our thoughts on the theology of mysticism by pointing out a couple of more aspects of their theology related now to this doctrine of prayer. As you have seen in the quotes and in our own discussion of mystic union, the stress is in the mystical quest on solitude and detachment from the things of the world. Plotinus, as he described intellectual mysticism from the neo-platonic perspective, said that, “Mysticism is the flight of the alone to the alone.” And that thing, that third century, secular thing if you would, has been picked up throughout the Christian mystic writings as well. Thomas à Kempis, “Seek out a place apart and love the solitary life. Do not engage in conversations with men. Remain detached from acquaintances and friends and independent of this world’s consolations.” Meister Eckhart in his description of the mystic quest said “Seclusion and disinterestedness are preferable to love.”


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The absence of sensory and experiential supports, according to the mystics, is exactly that which allows for the journey to the center, the core of the soul where one enters the domain of eternity. The emphasis upon detachment and separation also accounts for the glorification of celibacy. Now as we listen to that description of spirituality, as we listen to that description of the goal of spiritual formation, the ultimate goal of spiritual formation is the ecstatic union or actually the transforming union that individualistic involvement, immediate experience of God. Is that consistent with the biblical picture that we have seen in terms of spiritual growth, spiritual development, and spiritual maturity? It’s a very isolated and individualistic experience to say the least. And we need to be aware of that, because it does sound very pious. It does sound very, and I’ll use the word loosely here, spiritual to talk about the mystical quest in this way. Thomas Merton is one of my favorite authors in terms of enjoying to read as I’ve studied the mystics, for Merton seems to have feet in both camps. But he very clearly says that his mysticism is an individualistic quest. Ultimately he is seeking for that transforming union, that spiritual marriage of the soul with God.

And as you read throughout the history of mysticism, the various writers down through the centuries, it is a very isolated quest of solitude and detachment from the things of the world. I am brought back time and time again to Meister Eckhart’s quote, “Seclusion and disinterestedness are preferable to love.” And as we think about that in terms of spirituality, as defined in the Word, that seems very disturbing. In our next session we want to look at the theology of evangelical spirituality in terms of the points that we have seen here in mystical theology.

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ommunitDiscipleship in C y: Discipleship in …...Christian mysticism, and we have talked about their view of God, their view of man, faith, grace, authority, and the three-stage ascent