A Facebook friend recently posted a request for suggestions on books by or about Meister Eckhart. There are so many, that I couldn’t figure out a succinct way to respond to the request, so I figured I’d just post a list of books here instead. So what follows is a list of books featuring English translations of the writings of the medieval German theologian/mystic Meister Eckart, along with some books of commentary, and even a few collections of poetry inspired by (and drawing from) Eckhart’s own words. Once I started drawing up the list, I kept thinking of more books to add, and before I knew it, it had become a very long list indeed. If you are new to Eckhart, I hope this list will be a fun jumping-off point, and even if you are a long-time student of the Meister, maybe you’ll find a gem or two in this list that’s new to you.
I should mention that this is a general list and I haven’t made any attempt to sort the books out in any way other than the three general categories of translations, poetry, and commentary. The commentaries especially cover a wide terrain: some are interspiritual in nature, others written from a decidedly Catholic viewpoint, and others look at Eckhart from a scholarly or philosophical perspective. I doubt if any one person is going to love all these books, so look them over, read reviews and excerpts and decided for yourself which ones sound interesting to you. Please also note that some of these books are considered controversial in the field of Eckhart scholarship, which might be something to consider and which also could be evidence of, for example, how academics don’t always appreciate books written for the general public (and/or contemplative practitioners). At first I thought I’d annotate this list, but my time is limited so I decided just to encourage you to do your own due diligence and decide which of these books meets your criteria for something worth reading.
Of course, I can’t help expressing my opinion some how (!), so I’m putting in bold type several of these books that I think are especially suitable for contemplative practitioners and/or persons new to Eckhart. But all the other books on the list are worth considering, too!
A regular reader of this blog wrote to me and asked if I could recommend a good biography on Hildegard of Bingen. As I thought about what book to recommend, several noteworthy biographies — and autobiographies — of the renowned Christian mystics came to mind. So I figured to write an entire blog post about it, and here we are.
Hildegard of Bingen
Since the reader asked about Hildegard of Bingen, we’ll start with her. Because of her music, Hildegard is enough of a medieval “celebrity” that a variety of books, from scholarly studies to more accessible works for the general reader, continue to be published about her. I would suggest starting with Fiona Maddocks’ Hildegard of Bingen: The Woman of Her Age. Maddocks is a journalist, so this is a book that is readable and balanced in its presentation of one of the Christianity’s most colorful saints and mystics. After that, if you want to get a bit more academic, look for Barbara Newman’s Voice of the Living Light: Hildegard of Bingen and Her World. Meanwhile, to begin to dig into Hildegard’s own words, check out Carmen Acevedo Butcher’s Hildegard of Bingen: A Spiritual Reader (which also includes a brief biography).
So, now let’s look at some other books about the mystics and their life stories. The following list includes both autobiographies (written or dictated by the mystics themselves) and biographies, written by scholars, historians or journalists.
Thomas Merton
First, if you are like me — a white, college educated, middle-class American Christian — one of the ways you may have discovered Christian mysticism is through Thomas Merton’s celebrated autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain. It’s certainly a book worth reading, although it has its flaws. On the positive side, it’s a relatively modern (published seventy-five years ago) insight into intentional contemplative/monastic spirituality; it’s beautifully written, and documents at least one beautiful mystical experience (that occurred while Merton attended a Sunday Mass in Havana, see “Magnetic North” in part three). But Merton was only 33 when the book was published, a perilously young age to be writing one’s memoir, and it shows: the book is by turns arrogant and smug, dismissive of non-Catholic religion, and too uncritically accepting of the kind of reward/punishment theology that was so prevalent before Vatican II (and unfortunately still is prevalent in some circles). Still, despite its flaws The Seven Storey Mountain is well worth reading — but it’s only the tip of the proverbial iceberg, when it comes to mystical biographies and autobiographies.
I myself first encountered Merton through Monica Furlong’s accessible Merton: A Biography. But probably the most famous (or infamous) biography of Merton is Michael Mott’s The Seven Mountains of Thomas Merton, controversial when it was published because of how frankly it treated Merton’s affair with a young nurse that took place just a few years before he died.
Howard Thurman
I have previously praised Howard Thurman’s beautifully written memoir, With Head and Heart — so for now I’ll just reiterate that I think it is every bit as good and well-written and important as Merton’s more famous autobiography. In the long run, I think Howard Thurman will get the acclaim that he so richly deserves; not only was he a significant figure in the American Civil Rights Movement and deserves acclaim as a mentor to Martin Luther King, Jr., but his writings so richly reveal that he was a great mystic on top of everything else. For this reason, I also recommend Lerita Coleman Brown’s new book, What Makes You Come Alive— which is more of a spiritual reflection on Thurman’s teachings than just a straight biography, but it does tell his life story and presents it in the light of his rich and deep wisdom.
Evelyn Underhill
To my way of seeing, Merton and Thurman are two of the three greatest English-speaking mystics of the twentieth century: the other being Evelyn Underhill (yes, Bede Griffiths, Ruth Burrows, Richard Rohr and Caryll Houselander are all amazing as well, but I remain persuaded that the top three at least in the English language are Merton, Thurman and Underhill). Underhill, born in 1875 and dying in 1941, was the earliest of these three, and the only one not to write her own memoirs, so her story has had to be pieced together through her other writings (thankfully, we have many letters) and the memories of her friends and acquaintances. Fortunately, several biographies have been published over the years, but I would say the best is clearly Dana Greene’s Evelyn Underhill: Artist of the Interior Life. But if you want to go further, Margaret Cropper (who knew Underhill) and Christopher Armstrong also documented her life story.
Simone Weil
Before we leave the twentieth century, let’s take a look at two important French-speaking mystics. First up is Simone Weil, the radical Jewish philosopher who had mystical experiences of Christ and now is something of a patron saint of “religious outsiders” (it’s a matter of debate whether Weil was ever even baptized; if she was, it never got officially documented in a church). Two books to get to know this enigmatic but essential figure: Maria Clara Bingemer’s Simone Weil: Mystic of Passion and Compassionand Robert Zaretsky’s The Subversive Simone Weil: A Life in Five Ideas. Perhaps reading both of these together would be helpful, as sometimes when philosophers are mystics (and vice versa), biographers don’t always manage offer a well-rounded appraisal — so reading one biography that emphasizes the mystical dimension, and other that zeroes in on the ideas of the philosopher, probably makes for a fuller appreciation of the genius being celebrated (in this case, Simone Weil).
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Teilhard de Chardin is the other great French mystic of the twentieth century, and perhaps is the twentieth century Christian mystic mostly likely to be remembered a thousand years from now (although Thurman and perhaps Merton will probably have staying power as well). As Weil was a mystic-philosopher, so was de Chardin, although we could also rightly call him a mystic-scientist. Once again, I would recommend two studies of his life: Ursula King’s Spirit of Fire: The Life of Vision of Teilhard de Chardin and Kathleen Duffy’s Teilhard’s Mysticism: Seeing the Inner Face of Evolution (more recently, John Haught has authored The Cosmic Vision of Teilhard de Chardin which I haven’t read yet, and I believe it’s more of a study than a biography, but it looks pretty good so I’m giving it a mention).
Thérèse of Lisieux
Books by and about twentieth century mystics are pretty easy to come by, but let’s not lose sight of the some of the great figures of previous centuries. Since I’ve been talking about French mystics, we should acknowledge the Little Flower, the young Carmelite nun whose autobiography, The Story of a Soul, took the Catholic world by storm when they were published shortly after her premature death in 1897. If you want some other perspectives on this nineteenth century saint, check out Joseph Schmidt’s Everything is Grace: The Life and Way of Thérèse of Lisieuxand Thomas Keating’s St. Thérèse of Lisieux: A Transformation in Christ.
John of the Cross
The Little Flower was a Carmelite nun, so let’s turn our attention to the two greatest of Carmelite mystics: first, John of the Cross. John was a poet rather than a memoirist, so we don’t have an autobiography, but if you can find a copy of Silvano Giordano’s God Speaks in the Night: The Life, Times and Teaching of St. John of the Cross, grab it. It’s a lavishly illustrated, coffee-table sized book that makes John (and his rather challenging mystical doctrine) truly come alive.
Teresa of Ávila
Teresa of Ávila, John’s mentor and a world-class mystic as well, did write her own memoir, published under several slightly different titles (I recommend the Mirabai Starr translation, published as The Book of My Life). Teresa is brilliant but very right-brained, so her writing is not always that easy to follow, so I would recommend supplementing her memoir with one or two good biographies: check out Shirley Du Boulay’s Teresa of Ávila: An Extraordinary Lifeand Cathleen Medwick’s Teresa of Ávila: The Progress of a Soul.
There’s More!
I don’t want to over-do this blog post, so I’ll just list a few more biographies that I think are worth checking out…
Julian of Norwich — check out Amy Frykholm’s charming Julian of Norwich: A Contemplative Biography. Although it has its minor errors (in the fourteenth century Julian would not have been a tea drinker!), it does a lovely job of telling Julian’s story in a narrative way.
Margery Kempe — a contemporary of Julian’s, Margery is famous in her own right but especially loved in the contemplative world because she recounts going to Julian of Norwich for spiritual direction! The Book of Margery Kempeis her colorful and freewheeling biography, and while her spirituality is certainly more idiosyncratic than what we might think of as “mystical” today, it’s well worth reading; and if you can find a copy of Martin Thornton’s Margery Kempe, that’s worth picking up as well.
John Ruysbroeck — this gets an honorable mention because it’s one mystic writing about another: Evelyn Underhill’s short but insightful biography of the great Flemish mystic, titled simply Ruysbroeck, was published in 1915.
There are many other worthy biographies and autobiographies of mystics and contemplatives, from Augustine of Hippo to Bede Griffiths, but I’ll finish with one final book that I think anyone interested in Christian mysticism ought to read, and that’s Joel F. Harrington’s excellent biography of Meister Eckhart, Dangerous Mystic: Meister Eckhart’s Path to the GodWithin. Eckhart is another philosopher-mystic whose ideas can be frustratingly dense, but Harrington does an amazing job at making his work accessible even for the non-specialist reader. Don’t miss this one.
Well, that’s probably more reading material than you bargained for — but even if you find just one or two new books to check out here, then my work is done. Happy exploring!
Meister Eckhart is one of the most renowned of Christian mystics: a medieval philosopher who could have gone down in history as an equal to Augustine or Aquinas — but whose career (and legacy) as a theologian was forever tarnished by accusations of heresy at the end of his life.
His many sermons and treatises (in both Latin and Middle High German) show not only a brilliant mind, but a daring and visionary understanding of spirituality and the call of the Christian life — not just to salvation, not just to sanctification or holiness, but truly to deification: union with God.
But philosopher that he is, Eckhart is not always an easy read. Likewise, many scholars who have written about him, and have commented on his writings, are not always that much more accessible (compounding this problem: not all Eckhart scholars are necessarily happy with his reputation as a mystic — some just want to preserve his legacy as a philosopher or a theologian).
Julian of Norwich, Teresa of Ávila, even John of the Cross — many great mystics are suprisingly easy to read, particularly when presented in scholarly English translations. But for many, Eckhart reminds something of a puzzle.
Which is why I am so excited about a recently published book about Meister Eckhart, Joel F. Harrington’s Dangerous Mystic: Meister Eckhart’s Path to the God Within. While this is a “popular” (in contrast to “academic”) introduction to the life and teachings of Eckhart, it is nevertheless a thoughtful and carefully-researched biography.
Harrington is a professor of history at Vanderbilt University, and the author of several other books about German history, including The Faithful Executionerand The Unwanted Child. That his primary field of expertise is history, rather than philosophy or theology, serves this book well — Harrington is a gifted storyteller and has made Eckhart (and his world) come alive. He carefully describes the Germany of the late thirteenth and early fourteenth century, describing the social, political, educational, and ecclesiastical cultures in which Eckhart lived and worked.
By giving his readers a glimpse into Eckhart’s world, the book offers a nuanced and vivid portrait of the man — and of the ideas, both philosophical and theological, that inspired his work as a writer, teacher, and preacher. Perhaps best of all, the author is not shy about Eckhart’s reputation — both during his lifetime and since — as a mystic or spiritual master in the Christian world.
Eckhart was a Dominican friar — the same order that gave us luminaries like Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas — and so Harrington deftly describes the spiritual and intellectual world of this mendicant “Order of Preachers.” He also points out how other religious communities of the day — including the controversial lay movements, the Beguines and Beghards, as well as the Franciscans, who were the heart-centered rival to the coolly intellectual Dominicans — all helped to shape the life and teachings of the Meister. Of course, the political dynamics of the day, involving aristocratic authorities who were not always favorably disposed to the speculative teachings of figures like Eckhart — also played their part, especially in the tragic end of the great mystic’s career.
Harrington also offers an interesting perspective on Eckhart’s legacy — tarnished by accusations of heresy (even though he was never formally declared a heretic, the accusation was enough to damage his reputation literally for centuries), but gradually overcoming that setback to emerge as a great figure of his age, even if still under-appreciated by the church (or public) at large.
Dangerous Mystic is a wonderful book. I’m sure, like any other popular treatment of a figure who is commonly studied in the Ivory Tower, there doubtless will be scholars who will nitpick at this or that arcane issue in the book. But for me, reading the book simply as a contemplative Christian, I found nothing in it that set off alarm bells, and much to commend. This is clearly the book to start with for anyone who wants to learn about Meister Eckhart, especially from the perspective of what he has to say to contemplatives today.
What do mystics do? The following list can be a way to begin answering this question. I’m not suggesting that every mystic does everything on this list (for starters, this list is particularly aimed at Christian mystics), or that a person has to do all of these things to be considered a mystic. I’m trying to make the list general, so that it’s not just about persons who live in a cloister (monks and nuns) or who have ordained ministries of some sort. Think of this list as a glimpse into the variety of activities that persons we have come to know as mystics often engage in. Of course, the invitation is clear: even if you do not think of yourself as a mystic, and even if you have no desire to wear that label, perhaps if you are drawn to a deeper spiritual life you will find this list of activities inspiring.
Mystics pray. Christian spirituality is all about fostering a connection with God, and the single most effective way to do this is to pray. This includes many forms of prayer: communal or liturgical prayer, repetitive prayer like the Rosary of the Jesus Prayer, written prayers like the Psalms or the Daily Office, spontaneous prayer and charismatic prayer. Mystics take seriously Paul’s instruction to “pray without ceasing” (I Thessalonians 5:17). Indeed, all the other items on this list, in the hands of a mystic, are simply other forms of prayer.
Mystics write. No, not every mystic does this. But many do. We wouldn’t have the mystical wisdom of John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila, Julian of Norwich, John Ruusbroec, Meister Eckhart — or, for that matter, Thomas Merton, Cynthia Bourgeault, and Richard Rohr — is these great visionaries and contemplatives did not commit their thoughts and teachings to the page. This doesn’t mean that every aspiring contemplative needs to get published! Rather, for most spiritual seekers, the take-away is humble, but powerful: keep a journal. Journaling is a meaningful and rich spiritual discipline all its own — and yes, it can be a form of prayer.
Mystics meditate. Imagination is a wonderful thing — and using it to reflect on the great mysteries of the faith, the stories of the Bible, or the many ways in which we seek and find God’s presence, is a rich and nurturing from of what old-timers called “mental prayer,” and what remains a rich form of seeking communion with God for us today.
Mystics contemplate. Deeper than meditation, contemplation brings the seeker to a place where words fall away — and (paradoxically) in the words of Meister Eckhart, “The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God’s eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love.” This is not something we decide to do, like deciding to go to the grocery store. Rather, contemplation is a gift — a grace from God. What we can do is to dispose ourselves to receive this gift, by cultivating inner serenity and silence, as a part of our overall discipline of prayer and seeking after God’s will in our lives.
Mystics read. This one takes two forms. First and most important is lectio divina — the process of reading sacred scripture meditatively, which in turn leads to meditation, prayer, and contemplation. Also important is study: not only the Bible, but the writings of all the great saints and mystics who have gone before us. One way to grow in intimacy with the Word of God is to avail ourselves of the rich tradition of writings from throughout the ages.
Mystics relate. Love is the heart of Christianity: love of God, and love of neighbor. It may not seem very “mystical” to devote one’s energy to feeding those who hunger, or spending time enjoying one’s family, or contributing to the life of a church or faith community. But one of the meanings of “mystical” is “hidden.” Hidden in the most ordinary activities of life is the unseen but real presence of God. There’s an old joke that says “Christians pray, but Christian mystics mean it.” We could adapt that as “Christians love their neighbors as themselves, but Christian mystics mean it.” To be a mystic is to see Christ in all people, and most especially those who hunger, or who have been oppressed or marginalized.
Mystics sacrifice. It’s not a popular word in our society, but mysticism is timeless, not swayed by the fashions of the moment. Mystics give many things up: the quest for ego gratification, the hunger for material wealth, the jockeying for status in their social circle. Mysticism is all about simplicity and surrender: letting go of what is not necessary. The point behind calling all this “sacrifice” is that a true mystic practices self-denial not because he dislikes himself, but for a far richer reason: because his love and thirst for God is so great, that he wants to let go of anything that distracts him along the way.
Mystics give. If sacrifice (as I used it above) implies a surrendering for the purpose of simplification and focus on Divine Love, then giving represents a corollary function: sacrifice for the benefit of others. This can be small or large, an act of kindness or a major gift to a church or a non-profit. We give of our resources, but also of our time and our talents. Obviously there is a question of healthy boundaries — it is possible to give to one’s own detriment — but a healthy contemplative will make the effort to find the right balance between appropriate self-care and heart-felt giving to others.
Mystics sanctify. Holiness is another word that has fallen out of fashion; it basically means “set aside” for God. Relationship-building and giving reveal a social, communal side to mysticism, and at least in Christian terms, this is important. But there is also an essential solitary, hidden aspect to mysticism as well. “Whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” Mystics withdraw to nourish both inner and outer silence. Mystics go on retreat. Mystics cultivate inner peace and serenity. Mystics seek to live a holy life. Not a withered, prudish, pleasure-hating life: that’s Puritanism, not holiness. True holiness knows how to laugh, to love, to enjoy, to delight and take delight. But all is in appropriate and due measure. True holiness also knows how to be quiet, to avoid (or resolve) conflict, to listen, to ponder, to reflect, to watch, to act simply. It’s a balance we can all benefit from.
Mystics see. Finally, let’s expand on this idea that a holy person, or a mystic, knows how to listen and to watch. The New Testament has a very simple message: “Wake up!” Watch the signs of the times. Be alert for the coming of the Christ. This message is as important today as ever. Great mystics have often been visionaries, capable of seeing extraordinary or supernatural things, either through dreams, or meditation, or mystical visions. Not all of us are called to such lofty heights, but I do believe we are all called to wake up, to pay attention, to be mindful, to learn to discern the subtle and nuanced stirrings of the Spirit in our lives. Richard Rohr’s latest book, The Naked Now, is subtitled “learning to see as the mystics see.” He writes at length about mystical consciousness as unifying, non-oppositional, non-dual. Mysticism is about cultivating this higher, more unitive way of being. It’s a way of seeing, it’s a mode of awareness, it’s learning to live in the felt presence of the God who is always present, always loving, whether we know it or not. Mystics choose to know it. And that’s what makes all the difference.
Karl Rahner, one of the most renowned Christian theologians of the twentieth century, once famously remarked that “the Christian of the future will be a mystic or will not exist at all.”
For people whose experience of Christianity is, often, little more than a religion invested in obedience and in patriarchal morality, this seems to be a bold statement. After all, mysticism implies not legalistic religion, but living spirituality — heart-felt intimacy with God, centered on a miraculous and joyful appreciation of the Spirit’s ability to heal and transform lives. Can Christianity and mysticism really co-exist?
Mysticism on the Margins
Not only can Christianity be a mystical faith, but in fact a mystical element of Christianity has existed since the time of Jesus. But for a variety of historical, social and political reasons, Christian mysticism has always existed on the margins of the church. In the fourth and fifth centuries, as Christianity gradually moved into its position as the dominant religion in the Roman empire, the mystics, contemplatives, and others who sought profound intimate communion with God retreated from the cities into the deserts and the wilderness. These “Desert Fathers and Mothers” were the founders of the first monasteries — intentional communities of people who came together to live in perpetual prayer and meditation. By the middle ages, Christian mystics were, for the most part, found only in the monasteries and convents; then in the sixteenth century, when the Protestant Reformation led to religious strife (and, often, bloodshed), mystical spirituality fell under suspicion by both Catholics and Protestants. Although there have been mystics in every century of the Christian era, the sad reality is that, because of the political nature of the institutional church, many mystics have been persecuted, some even killed, and others learned to camouflage their wisdom teachings in carefully worded books and poems that appeared non-threatening to the religious authorities.
So the mystics (and their teachings) are, in a very real way, Christianity’s best-kept secret. And even though some Christians of the third millennium remain suspicious of mysticism, many others have begun to embrace the transfiguring beauty of such core spiritual practices as meditation, lectio divina (“sacred reading,” a meditative approach to the Bible and other wisdom texts), and contemplative prayer — the profound form of prayer in which meditative silence is offered directly to God for the purpose of seeking and fostering deeper spiritual intimacy and communion. Meanwhile, even familiar Christian practices such as the Catholic Rosary are being rediscovered as tools for entering into contemplative silence; while other, lesser known exercises (such as deeply meditative “prayer of the heart” from Eastern Orthodox Christianity) have gained newfound popularity as means for Christians to embrace unitive (nondual) states of consciousness, where — in the words of one great mystic, Meister Eckhart — “The eye with which I see God is the same eye with which God sees me. My eye and God’s eye is one eye, and one sight, and one knowledge, and one love.”
Biblical Roots
The roots of Christian mystical wisdom are found in the Bible itself. Unfortunately, centuries of reading and interpreting the Bible according to perspectives that have often been subtly (or explicitly) anti-mystical has made the visionary power of the New Testament’s wisdom teachings far too easy to miss. For example, the first verse of Psalm 65 makes the bluntly contemplative statement “To you, God, silence is praise” in the original Hebrew — but this verse has often been mistranslated when rendered into English or other languages; presumably many scholars who translate the Bible could not wrap their minds around the idea that silence could actually be a means for worship.
Julian of Norwich
But for those who have “eyes to see,” the mystical message of such writings as the Gospel of John or the Letters to the Ephesians can become obvious —just like the 3-D image in a “Magic Eye” poster is hidden at first, but becomes impossible to miss when we learn to look for it in just the right way. From a mystical perspective, “just the right way” means approaching the Bible as a document encoded with messages about what the ancient Greeks called theosis — participation in the very nature of the Divine.
Christianity is built on two controversial—but thoroughly mystical—teachings: first, that Jesus of Nazareth is both fully human and fully divine, and furthermore, that this same Jesus is, literally, one with God, one person in a trinity of persons who share the Divine Unity. For many Christians, these teachings have been interpreted to stress humanity’s separation from Divinity: Christ may be one with God, but no one else is. This, however, is not supported by the mystical wisdom found in the New Testament. Indeed, Jesus proclaims that he is one with God in the Gospel of John (see verse 10:30). But Biblical writings also stress the oneness between Jesus and those who follow his wisdom teachings. “We, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another,” proclaims Saint Paul in his letter to the Romans. Christ is one with God, and we are one with Christ. Saint Peter is even more blunt, proclaiming that by the promises of Christ, his followers become “partakers of the divine nature.” Mystically speaking, Christianity points toward Divine communion as the ultimate destiny of being human.
Granted, Christian mystical theology is not the same as other wisdom teachings from around the world. Some wisdom paths point toward union with the Divine as the ultimate truth, suggesting that the experience of being a separate human person is, ultimately, simply an illusion that will fall away when we finally, fully, recognize our oneness with the Sacred. Christianity offers a different approach: in which the distinction between God and humanity is taken at face value, understood not as an illusion but rather as a simple point of fact in how the cosmos is structured. Such a distinction exists, according to Christian mystical teaching, not because humanity is inferior, but rather because it is only in the distinction between Divinity and humanity that we are able to fully, truly and ecstatically love each other. Thus, Christian mysticism celebrates communion with God as the ultimate destiny of humankind: eternal life is a never-ending cosmic dance, in which humanity and Divinity interpenetrate one another, joyfully sharing love and communion like a flower that is forever opening wider and deeper, evolving into ever new dimensions of blissful celebration.
Ignatius of Loyola
Christian Mysticism and World Mysticism
While Christianity has its own distinctive mystical teachings that in some ways mark it as different from other spiritual paths, those who drink deeply from the wells of Christian contemplation tend, like mystics from all paths, to be far more interested in what unites people of different traditions, rather than what separates us. In the history of the Christian mystics, again and again the contemplatives have been the ones who reach out beyond the boundaries of institutional religion to embrace the teachings of other faiths. Clement and Origen, early mystics from the second and third centuries, embraced the wisdom of the pagan Greek philosophers in their teachings. Later, in Ireland and other Celtic lands, the saints of the Christian monasteries integrated druidic teachings and practices into their spiritual observance. In renaissance Spain, a number of Christians incorporated elements of the Kabbalah into their teaching; and the twentieth century was full of visionary Christians who reached out to the spiritual treasures of other cultures and paths: the Benedictine monk Bede Griffiths embraced Vedanta while the Trappist monk Thomas Merton explored Buddhism; Valentin Tomberg integrated Catholicism and Anthroposophy; and Mary Margaret Funk continues the work of deep interfaith encounter as she, a Benedictine nun, engages in constructive dialogue with members of the Muslim faith community. For Christians such as these, devotion to the wisdom teachings of Jesus and his followers is not about religious exclusivity or a belief that Christianity is superior to other faiths; rather it is about a joyful celebration of the beauty, splendor and diversity of all positive paths.
What difference can the mystical element of Christianity make in our world today? Sadly, most Christians remain unfamiliar with the spiritual wisdom hidden in their own tradition. But more and more people, both inside and beyond the institutional church, are turning to classic spiritual disciplines such as meditation, contemplation, lectio divina, regular chanting or recitation of the Psalms and other prayers (known as the Divine Office), devotion to Christ, Mary, and the saints, and turning to monasteries and convents for retreats grounded in silence and under the guidance of monks and nuns who have devoted their entire lives to prayer. The result, of course, is that more and more people are opening themselves up to joyful, visionary, and transfiguring encounters with Christ and the Holy Spirit. More and more Christians are finding in their faith not just the legalistic religion of old, but exciting possibilities of unitive consciousness found through silent communion with God. Such encounters may be thought of as “supernatural” but the case could be made that mystical spirituality is utterly natural: it is something that can reach us in the ordinary moments of life. At the same time, the encounter with God could also be so subtle that it is easily missed. No matter how glorious or humble, extraordinary or ordinary, such moments of communion with God often are marked by a profound sense of Divinely-given love, joy, and peace. They also can lead to a deeper sense of trust in God, love for other human beings, and — most crucial of all for our time — a profound respect for people of other cultures and faiths.
In other words, mystical wisdom and practice is not only the best hope for the future of Christianity, but it can also contribute to something that we all yearn for: a world shaped by peace and harmony among the people of all positive paths.
This article, in a slightly different form, originally appeared in the Summer 2010 issue of Evolve! (volume 9, number 3).
