Christian Mysticism

So what is mysticism?Mr. Inge in an appendix offers us twenty-six definitions, from Goethe's 'Mysticism is the scholastic of the heart, the didactic of the feelings,' to Hinton's 'Mysticism is the claiming authority for our own impressions: 'Of these twenty-six definitions Mr. Inge himself has most sympathy with that of Charles Kingsley. 'The great Mysticism,' says Kingsley (Life, i. 55), 'is the belief, which is becoming every day stronger with me, that all symmetrical natural objects are types of some spiritual truth or existence. When I walk the fields, I am oppressed now and then with an innate feeling that everything I see has a meaning, if I could but understand it. And this feeling of being surrounded with truths which I cannot grasp, amounts to indescribable awe sometimes. Everything seems to be full of God's reflex, if we could but see it. Oh, how I have prayed to have the mystery unfolded, at least hereafter! To see, if but for a moment, the whole harmony of the great system! To hear once the music which the whole universe makes as it performs His bidding! 'That is still a little vague. Mr. Inge himself draws the outline more sharply. 'Mysticism,' he says, 'has its origin in that which is the raw material of all religion, and perhaps of all philosophy and art as well, namely, that dim consciousness of the beyond, which' is part of our nature as human beings. Men have given different names to these "obstinate questionings of sense and outward things." We may call them, if we will, a sort of higher instinct, perhaps an anticipation of the evolutionary process; or an extension of the frontier of consciousness; or, in religious language, the voice of God speaking in us. Mysticism arises when we try to bring this higher consciousness into relation with the other contents of our minds. Religious Mysticism may be defined as the attempt to realize the presence of the living God in the soul and in nature, or, more generally, as the attempt to realize, in thought and feeling, the immanence of the temporal in the eternal, and of the eternal in the temporal. 'The italics are Mr. Inge's own. They contain his conception of mysticism. It is with Religious Mysticism, or more restrictedly Christian Mysticism, that Mr. Inge has to do. Now in Christian Mysticism there are four axioms. The first is that the soul of man can see as well as the body. The second is that man is a partaker of the divine nature. The third, that without holiness no man may see the Lord. And the fourth, that the key to the mystery of God is love. Given then these four, a seeing soul, a soul akin to God, a soul purified, a soul filled with love, and the man is fit for the beautiful vision, ready to enter into that communion with God in Christ which is called Christian Mysticism. For this is Christian Mysticism, to hold communion with God in Christ, and thereby to be transformed into the same image from glory to glory. In this progress there are three stages: the purgative, the illuminative, and the unitive. Their names express their meaning; we may not stay to explain them. More important is it to note that the first serious difficulties regarding mysticism arise when we ask how the communion or fellowship is realized. Is it in thought? The intellect being alive and active; or is it also (and perhaps mainly) by trances, visions, ecstatic revelations? Was Wordsworth the ideal mystic when he sang of That serene and blessed mood, In which ... the breath of this corporeal frame, And even the motion of our human blood, Almost suspended, we are laid asleep In body, and become a living soul: While with an eye made quiet by the power Of harmony, and the deep power of joy, We see into the life of things? There is no doubt that visions and dreams have always been found in close touch with mysticism. Yet Mr. Inge holds they are no essential part of it. The mind should enter into mystic contemplation.