MYSTICISM, CHRISTIAN. Mysticism is the effort to enter into close touch or union with the Divine Being, with Eternal Life. The mystic seeks to penetrate into and to absorb himself in that Life which is infinite. " By getting rid of everything that makes for separation and distinction, by casting off the chains of what men call happiness, and by freeing himself from all the narrowness and insufficiency of the mere unit, the mystic believes that in extinction itself he gains an incompar ably higher life and genuine blessedness " (Rudolf Eucken). Mysticism " strives to free human life more and more from every element of time, to make man younger every day, and to transport him entirely into a permanent present.' The man for whom time becomes as eternity and eternity as time, seems to escape all pain and to be brought into a state of pure bliss." Such a state of mind does not necessarily preclude joyous activity in the world. It may even bring quite the opposite of this. " The close connection between God and the world which mysticism stands for. may reduce both the visible world and time to an illusion and a dream, a morning-glow which disappears at the rising of the sun. But this may easily lead to the thought that the world and time, as expressions of eternal being, gain a closer connection and a greater significance." Rudolf Eucken thinks it a remarkable feature that in the pre sent day Mysticism is regaining its old power of attrac tion. The Americans, it may be added, have discovered that mysticism of a kind, Whether Christian or not, is of great practical value (see HIGHER THOUGHT). The Christian mystics are associated particularly with the Middle Ages. According to Inge, the mediaeval mystics were " steeped in " Dionysius the Areopagite. The sup posed works (sixth century) of Dionysius were trans lated into Latin by John Scotus Erigena. (ninth century). At the same time Erigena worked up the theories of Dionysius " into a consistent philosophical system " (Inge). In the twelfth century Mysticism had in France, in particular, very eminent representatives. One of these was Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1153). Another was Hugo of St. Victor near Paris (10974141). To a later period belongs, in France. Bonaventura (John of Fidanza), the " Doctor seraphicus" (1221-1274). In the fourteenth century Germany produced mystics of great fame and influence. One of these was Master Eckhart (c. 1260-1329), the " Doctor Ecstaticus," who has been described as the greatest of all speculative Mystics. According to Eckhart, God is Being. To God time is Now, which embraces together past, present, and future. The ground of the soul is an " uncreated and uncreatable light," a " soul-spark " which is divine. This spark enables man to penetrate intuitively into the kingdom of light. If we are to see and know God we must turn away our gaze from everything that belongs to time and space. Another of these Mystics was John Tauler (1300 '361), the " Doctor Illuminates." His mysticism was less speculative. He has been classed as one of the Devotional Mystics. But he attached great importance to practical Christianity. If necessary, a man should interrupt his devotions in order to do a service for a sick person, " believing not only that God would be with him, but that He would vouchsafe him, it may be, even greater grace and blessing in that external work, under taken out of true love, in the service of his neighbour, than be should perhaps receive in the loftiest contempla I ion." Jan van Ruysbroek (1293-1381), another " Doctor ecstaticus," was a famous Flemish mystic. Ruyshroek speaks of " being swallowed up in the unfathomable abyss of eternal happiness." Max B. Weinstein describes him as the most thoroughgoing theosophist of the Middle Ages. Another famous mystic was Henry Suso (von Berg; 12954366), who wrote a " Book of Eternal Wisdom." He was a pupil of Eckhart and friend of Tauler. Suso was an ascetic, a visionary, and a poet.
The name of Thomas a Kempis (Thomas Hamerken of Kempen; 1380-1471) may be said to be a household word. Mysticism continued to be a force in Germany. In 151S Martin Luther (14834546) published a remarkable work by an unknown writer, " German Theology," which is thought to have prepared the way for the Reformation and given it a mystical tone. The book seems to have been written about 1350. The author contends that " the more the Self, the I, the Me, the Mine, that is. self seeking and selfishness, abate in a man, the more doth God's I, that is God Himself, increase in him." Sir Frederick Pollock finds much in common between this book and parts of the Ethics of Baruch Spinoza (1632 1677; see SPINOZISM). J. H. Blunt thinks that it exhibits the germ of the "Heine Vernunft " of Immanuel Kant (1724-1804). A different kind of mysticism was introduced by Paracelsus (Philippus Aureolus Paracelsus Theophrastus von Hohenheim; 1493-1541), who was a physician and chemist. His mysticism was affected by his acquaintance with astrology and astronomy, alchemy and medicine. It has been described as Nature Mysticism, or as Theosophy. According to Mrs. Besant (" Theosophy " in R.S.W.), Paracelsus was one of the disciples of the Secret Wisdom. " Now and then one of its disciples appeared in Christendom, and gave to the world some discovery' which started thought on some new and fruitful line; thus Paracelsus, with his dis covery ' of hydrogen, his magnetic treatment for the cure of disease, and his many hints at secrets of nature not even yet worked out." The followers of Paracelsus have been called Paracelsists. Another Reformation mystic and theosophist was Valentine Weigel (15334588). He founded a new system, and gave birth to a new school. Weigelians. He held that God is conscious in man of His own being, and that in pitying man He has pity on Himself. There were Weigelians even in the eighteenth century. Another famous Nature mystic was Jacob Boehme or Behmen (1575-1624), the shoemaker of Goerlitz. In 1612 he published a work, " Aurora oder Morgenrfite im Anfgang," Which was condemned by the Church authorities. Before this he had had wonderful visions and reveries. Boehme held that no knowledge is possible without opposition and division. All things consst of Yes and No. They are either divine or devilish or earthly. The Yes is the Divine itself, simply power and love. The No is the retort to the Divine. Through it the Divine is made manifest. It is a necessary con trary In which divine love becomes operative. God repre sents a polarity, a conflict with Himself. He is both Good and Evil. •` For the holy world God and the dark world God are not two gods: they are a single God. He is in Himself all Being. He is Evil and Good. Heaven and Hell, Light and Darkness, Eternity and Time, Beginning and End. Wherever in a being His love is hidden, there His anger is manifest." Boehme's mystical work. " The Supersensual Life," was translated into English by William Law (10S3-1761), the author of the " Serious Call." Law was a disciple of Jacob Boehme. The founder of Quietism (q.t.), Michael Molinos (1640 1696) is an example of Spanish mysticism. His teaching influenced the French mystic, NIme. Guyon (164S-1717). A " modern " Catholic mystic of great repute is St. John of the Cross (San Juan de In Cruz: 1542-1591). He is spoken of as a Doctor in Mystical Theology, " Whose works are the most complete and luminous, the most sublime. and at the same time the most philosophically exact and precise, and whose authority is the highest which any private theologian can have " (Cath. Diet.). See B. Puenjer; J. H. Blunt; Chr. Joh. Deter, Abriss der Gesehichte der Philosophie, 1906; E. C. Gregory. Introduction to Christian Mysticism, 190S; Rudolf Eucken, The Life of the Spirit, 1909: Max B. Weinstein, Welt-und Leben-Ansehauungen. 1910; William James, varieties of Religious Experience: E. Underhill.