Examples Of Mysticism

In the dawn of the modern age, the western European society that had once revered mysticism and allowed it to shape and recreate Christianity began to see mystics as a hostile force against reason and science. While many ideas held by the medieval mystics echo still in many protestant and even some Catholic churches, much of society has dismissed the revelations and visions seen by these mystics as nonsensical and a likely result of several psychological disorders. Those who experience the abstract, fantastic visions and spiritual phenomenon in today’s world are subject to much more scrutiny than those of medieval Europe, as the general individualistic populace cannot quite comprehend the idea of the experiential union between God and man that

With Christian mysticism being defined as a primarily Catholic in origin and some of the visions so abstract and nonsensical that surely they cannot possibly be a true divine message from God. In protestant theology, mystical and divine experiences are lost. W.H Stace, a protestant philosopher, even remarked once that “there are no protestant mystics”. However, in the defense of Stace, it is very likely that those who could come close to the definition of a mystic in protestant communities would never refer to themselves as such. C.S Lewis himself explicitly disclaimed himself as a mystic in his “Letters to Malcolm”, even though his spiritual experiences could very easily fall under the mystical category. Even female spiritual leaders like Beth Moore even demonstrate female mystic attributes but likely would never declare herself one. In the wake of the Reformation, Protestants discarded mysticism because it seemed too “Catholic”, while Catholics discarded mysticism because it seemed too “Protestant”. (McColman) So the question arises: Should the protestant community even accept mysticism as a reality? Or should it be discarded as obsolete and unnecessary? Most Protestant theologians will agree upon the goal of mysticism without necessarily referring to it as such, i.e. seeking an intimate and experiential union with God that transcends beyond the intellectual and the physical. In fact the defining mark of a Protestant mystic seems to be “an experiential and direct knowledge/relationship with God, informed almost exclusively by scripture, and completely unconcerned to label itself as ‘mystical’ or ‘contemplative.;” (McColman) On the Catholic side of things, mysticism became increasingly associated with persons who had little to no ecclesiastical power and with typically obscure women post-reformation. In modern Catholic society, mysticism survives as a non-threatening