Christian Mysticism Part 23

[Footnote 393: Browning, _Paracelsus_, Act i.]

[Footnote 394: Browning, "Saul," xvii.]

[Footnote 395: Browning, "Cristina."]

[Footnote 396: Browning, "Christmas Eve and Easter Day," x.x.x., x.x.xiii.]

[Footnote 397: Browning, "_Any Wife to any Husband._"]

[Footnote 398: Compare Plato's well-known sentence: [Greek: di algedonon kai odynon gignetai he opheleia, ou gar oion te allos adikias apallattesthai].]

[Footnote 399: Browning, _Paracelsus_.]

[Footnote 400: Compare Pascal: "No one is discontented at not being a king, except a discrowned king."]

[Footnote 401: It is almost as prominent in Tennyson as in Browning: "Give her the wages of going on, and not to die," is his wish for the human soul.]

[Footnote 402: I had written these words before the publication of Princ.i.p.al Caird's _Sermons_, which contain, in my judgment, the most powerful defence of what I have called Christian Mysticism that has appeared since William Law. On p. 14 he says: "Of all things good and fair and holy there is a spiritual cognisance which precedes and is independent of that knowledge which the understanding conveys." He shows how in the contemplation of nature it is "by an organ deeper than intellectual thought" that "the revelation of material beauty flows in upon the soul." "And in like manner there is an apprehension of G.o.d and Divine things which comes upon the spirit as a living reality which it immediately and intuitively perceives." ... "There is a capacity of the soul, by which the truths of religion may be apprehended and appropriated." See the whole sermon, ent.i.tled, _What is Religion?_ and many other parts of the book.]

[Footnote 403: Cf. Hegel (_Philosophy of Religion_, vol. ii. p. 8): "The Beautiful is essentially the Spiritual making itself known sensuously, presenting itself in sensuous concrete existence, but in such a manner that that existence is wholly and entirely permeated by the Spiritual, so that the sensuous is not independent, but has its meaning solely and exclusively in the Spiritual and through the Spiritual, and exhibits not itself, but the Spiritual."]

[Footnote 404: Some reference ought perhaps to be made to Drummond's _Natural Law in the Spiritual World_. But Mysticism seeks rather to find spiritual law in the natural world--and some better law than Drummond's Calvinism. (And I cannot help thinking that, though Evolution explains much and contradicts nothing in Christianity, it is in danger of proving an _ignis fatuus_ to many, especially to those who are inclined to idealistic pantheism. There can be no progress or development in G.o.d, and the cosmic process as we know it cannot have a higher degree of reality than the categories of time and place under which it appears. As for the millennium of perfected humanity on this earth, which some Positivists and others dream of,--Christianity has nothing to say against it, but science has a great deal.) See below, p. 328.]

[Footnote 405: In the Life of Charles Darwin there is an interesting letter, in which he laments the gradual decay of his taste for poetry, as his mind became a mere "machine for grinding out general laws" from a ma.s.s of observations. The decay of religious _feeling_ in many men of high character may be accounted for in the same way. The really great man is conscious of the sacrifice which he is making. "It is an accursed evil to a man," Darwin wrote to Hooker, "to become so absorbed in any subject as I am in mine." The common-place man is _not_ conscious of it: he obtains his heart's desire, if he works hard enough, and G.o.d sends leanness withal into his soul.]

[Footnote 406: The metaphysical problem about the reality of time in relation to evolution is so closely bound up with speculative Mysticism, that I have been obliged to state my own opinion upon it.

It is, of course, one of the vexed questions of philosophy at the present time; and I could not afford the s.p.a.ce, even if I had the requisite knowledge and ability, to argue it. The best discussion of it that I know is in M'Taggart's _Studies in Hegelian Dialectic_, pp.

159-202. Cf. note on p. 23.]

APPENDICES

APPENDIX A

Definitions Of "Mysticism" And "Mystical Theology"

The following definitions are given only as specimens. The list might be made much longer by quoting from other Roman Catholic theologians, but their definitions for the most part agree closely enough with those which I have transcribed from Corderius, John a Jesu Maria, and Gerson.

1. _Corderius_. "Theologia mystica est sapientia experimentalis, Dei affectiva, divinitus infusa, quae mentem ab omni inordinatione puram per actus supernaturales fidei spei et caritatis c.u.m Deo intime coniungit.... Mystica theologia, si vim nominis attendas, designat quandam sacram et arcanam de Deo divinisque rebus not.i.tiam."

2. _John a Jesu Maria_. "[Theologia mystica] est caelestis quaedam Dei not.i.tia per unionem voluntatis Deo inhaerentis elicita vel lumine caelitus immisso producta."

3. _Bonaventura_ (adopted also by Gerson). "Est animi extensio in Deum per amoris desiderium."

4. _Gerson_. "Theologia mystica est motio anagogica in Deum per amorem fervidum et purum. Aliter sic: Theologia mystica est experimentalis cognitio habita de Deo per amoris unitivi complexum. Aliter sic: est sapientia, id est sapida notio habita de Deo, dum ei supremus apex affectivae potentiae rationalis per amorem iungitur et unitur."

5. _Scaramelli_. "La theologia mistica esperimentale, secondo il suo atto princ.i.p.ale e piu proprio, e una notizia pura di Dio che l' anima d'ordinario riceve nella caligine luminosa, o per di meglio nel chiaro oscuro d' un' alta contemplazione, insieme con un amore esperimentale si intimo, che la fa perdere tutta a se stessa per unirla e transformarla in Dio."

6. _Ribet_. "La theologie mystique, au point de vue subjectif et experimental, nous semble pouvoir etre definie: une attraction surnaturelle et pa.s.sive de l'ame vers Dieu, provenant d'une illumination et d'un embras.e.m.e.nt interieurs, qui previennent la reflexion, surpa.s.sent l'effort humain, et pouvent avoir sur le corps un retentiss.e.m.e.nt merveilleux et irresistible.... Au point de vue doctrinal objectif, la mystique peut se definir: la science qui traite des phenomenes surnaturels, qui preparent, accompagnent, et suivent l'attraction pa.s.sive des ames vers Dieu et par Dieu, c'est a dire la contemplation divine; qui les coordonne et les justifie par l'autorite de l'ecriture, des docteurs et de la raison; les distingue des phenomenes paralleles dus a l'action de Satan, et des faits a.n.a.logues purement naturels; enfin, qui trace des regles pratiques pour la conduite des ames dans ces ascensions sublimes mais perilleuses."

7. _L'Abbe Migne_. "La mystique est la science d'etat sur naturel de l'ame humaine manifeste dans le corps et dans l'ordre des choses visibles par des effets egalement surnaturels."

In these scholastic and modern Roman Catholic definitions we may observe (a) that the earlier definitions supplement without contradicting each other, representing different aspects of Mysticism, as an experimental science, as a living sacrifice of the will, as an illumination from above, and as an exercise of ardent devotion; (b) that symbolic or objective Mysticism is not recognised; (c) that the sharp distinction between natural and supernatural, which is set up by the scholastic mystics, carries with it a craving for physical "mystical phenomena" to support the belief in supernatural interventions. These miracles, though not mentioned in the earlier definitions, have come to be considered an integral part of Mysticism, so that Migne and Ribet include them in their definitions; (d) lastly, that those who take this view of "la mystique divine" are constrained to admit by the side of true mystical facts a parallel cla.s.s of "contrefacons diaboliques."

8. _Von Hartmann_. "Mysticism is the filling of the consciousness with a content (feeling, thought, desire), by an involuntary emergence of the same out of the unconscious."

Von Hartmann's hypostasis of the Unconscious has been often and justly criticised. But his chapter on Mysticism is of great value. He begins by asking, "What is the _Wesen_ of Mysticism?" and shows that it is not quietism (disproved by mystics like Bohme, and by many active reformers), nor ecstasy (which is generally pathological), nor asceticism, nor allegorism, nor fantastic symbolism, nor obscurity of expression, nor religion generally, nor superst.i.tion, nor the sum of these things. It is healthy in itself, and has been of high value to individuals and to the race. It prepared for the Gospel of St. John, for the revolt against arid scholasticism in the Middle Ages, for the Reformation, and for modern German philosophy. He shows the mystical element in Hamann, Jacobi, Fichte, and Sch.e.l.ling; and quotes with approval the description of "intellectual intuition" given by the last named. We must not speak of thought as an ant.i.thesis to experience, "for thought (including immediate or mystical knowledge) is itself experience." This knowledge is not derived from sense-perception,--the conscious will has nothing to do with it,--"it can only have arisen through inspiration from the Unconscious." He would extend the name of mystic to "eminent art-geniuses who owe their productions to inspirations of genius, and not to the work of their consciousness (e.g. Phidias, aeeschylus, Raphael, Beethoven)", and even to every "truly original" philosopher, for every high thought has been first apprehended by the glance of genius. Moreover, the relation of the individual to the Absolute, an essential theme of philosophy, can _only_ be mystically apprehended. "This feeling is the content of Mysticism [Greek: kat exochen], because it finds its existence _only_ in it." He then shows with great force how religious and philosophical systems have full probative force only for the few who are able to reproduce mystically in themselves their underlying suppositions, the truth of which can only be mystically apprehended. "Hence it is that those systems which rejoice in most adherents are just the poorest of all and most unphilosophical (e.g. materialism and rationalistic Theism)."

9. _Du Prel_. "If the self is not wholly contained in self-consciousness, if man is a being dualised by the threshold of sensibility, then is Mysticism possible; and if the threshold of sensibility is movable, then Mysticism is necessary." "The mystical phenomena of the soul-life are antic.i.p.ations of the biological process." "Soul is our spirit within the self-consciousness, spirit is the soul beyond the self-consciousness."

This definition, with which should be compared the pa.s.sage from J.P.

Ritcher, quoted in Lecture I., a.s.sumes that Mysticism may be treated as a branch of experimental psychology. Du Prel attaches great importance to somnambulism and other kindred psychical phenomena, which (he thinks) give us glimpses of the inner world of our _Ego_, in many ways different from our waking consciousness. "As the moon turns to us only half its...o...b.. so our Ego." He distinguishes between the Ego and the subject. The former will perish at death. It arises from the free act of the subject, which enters the time-process as a discipline. "The self-conscious Ego is a projection of the transcendental subject, and resembles it." "We should regard this earthly existence as a transitory phenomenal form in correspondence with our transcendental interest." "Conscience is transcendental nature." (This last sentence suggests thoughts of great interest.) Du Prel shows how Schopenhauer's pessimism may be made the basis of a higher optimism. "The path of biological advance leads to the merging of the Ego in the subject." "The biological aim for the race coincides with the transcendental aim for the individual." "The whole content of Ethics is that the Ego must subserve the Subject." The disillusions of experience show that earthly life has no value for its own sake, and is only a means to an end; it follows that to make pleasure our end is the one fatal mistake in life. These thoughts are mixed with speculations of much less value; for I cannot agree with Du Prel that we shall learn much about higher and deeper modes of life by studying abnormal and pathological states of the consciousness.

10. _Goethe_. "Mysticism is the scholastic of the heart, the dialectic of the feelings."

11. _Noack_. "Mysticism is formless speculation."

Noack's definition is, perhaps, not very happily phrased, for the essence of Mysticism is not speculation but intuition; and when it begins to speculate, it is obliged at once to take to itself "forms."

Even the ultimate goal of the _via negativa_ is apprehended as "a kind of form of formlessness." Goethe's definition regards Mysticism as a system of religion or philosophy, and from this point of view describes it accurately.

12. _Ewald_. "Mystical theology begins by maintaining that man is fallen away from G.o.d, and craves to be again united with Him."

13. _Canon Overton_. "That we bear the image of G.o.d is the starting-point, one might almost say the postulate, of all Mysticism.

The complete union of the soul with G.o.d is the goal of all Mysticism."

14. _Pfleiderer_. "Mysticism is the immediate feeling of the unity of the self with G.o.d; it is nothing, therefore, but the fundamental feeling of religion, the religious life at its very heart and centre.

But what makes the mystical a special tendency inside religion, is the endeavour to fix the immediateness of the life in G.o.d as such, as abstracted from all intervening helps and channels whatever, and find a permanent abode in the abstract inwardness of the life of pious feeling. In this G.o.d-intoxication, in which self and the world are alike forgotten, the subject knows himself to be in possession of the highest and fullest truth; but this truth is only possessed in the quite undeveloped, simple, and bare form of monotonous feeling; what truth the subject possesses is not filled up by any determination in which the simple unity might unfold itself, and it lacks therefore the clearness of knowledge, which is only attained when thought harmonises differences with unity."

15. _Professor A. Seth_. "Mysticism is a phase of thought, or rather, perhaps, of feeling, which from its very nature is hardly susceptible of exact definition. It appears in connexion with the endeavour of the human mind to grasp the Divine essence or the ultimate reality of things, and to enjoy the blessedness of actual communion with the highest. The first is the philosophic side of Mysticism; the second, its religious side. The thought that is most intensely present with the mystic is that of a supreme, all-pervading, and indwelling Power, in whom all things are one. Hence the speculative utterances of Mysticism are always more or less pantheistic in character. On the practical side, Mysticism maintains the possibility of direct intercourse with this Being of beings. G.o.d ceases to be an object, and becomes an experience."

This carefully-worded statement of the essence of Mysticism is followed by a hostile criticism. Professor Seth considers quietism the true conclusion from the mystic's premisses. "It is characteristic of Mysticism, that it does not distinguish between what is metaphorical and what is susceptible of a literal interpretation. Hence it is p.r.o.ne to treat a relation of ethical harmony as if it were one of substantial ident.i.ty or chemical fusion; and, taking the sensuous language of religious feeling literally, it bids the individual aim at nothing less than an interpenetration of essence. And as this goal is unattainable while reason and the consciousness of self remain, the mystic begins to consider these as impediments to be thrown aside....

Hence Mysticism demands a faculty above reason, by which the subject shall be placed in immediate and complete union with the object of his desire, a union in which the consciousness of self has disappeared, and in which, therefore, subject and object are one." To this, I think, the mystic might answer: "I know well that interpenetration and absorption are words which belong to the category of s.p.a.ce, and are only metaphors or symbols of the relation of the soul to G.o.d; but separateness, impenetrability, and isolation, which you affirm of the _ego_, belong to the same category, and are no whit less metaphorical.

The question is, which of the two sets of words best expresses the relation of the ransomed soul to its Redeemer? In my opinion, your phrase 'ethical harmony' is altogether inadequate, while the New Testament expressions, 'membership,' 'union,' 'indwelling,' are as adequate as words can be." The rest of the criticism is directed against the "negative road," which I have no wish to defend, since I cannot admit that it follows logically from the first principles of Mysticism.

16. _Recejac_. "Mysticism is the tendency to approach the Absolute morally, and by means of symbols."

Recejac's very interesting _Essai sur les Fondements de la Connaissance mystique_ has the great merit of emphasising the symbolic character of all mystical phenomena, and of putting all such experiences in their true place, as neither hallucinations nor invasions of the natural order, but symbols of a higher reality. "Les apparitions et autres phenomenes mystiques n'existent que dans l'esprit du voyant, et ne perdent rien pour cela de leur prix ni de leur verite.... Et alors n'y a-t-il pas au fond des symboles autant _d'etre_ que sous les phenomenes? Bien plus encore: car l'etre phenomenal, le reel, se pose dans la conscience par un enchainement de faits tellement successif que nous ne tenons jamais 'le meme'; tandis que sous les symboles, si nous tenons quelque chose, c'est l'identique et le permanent." Recejac also insists with great force that the motive power of Mysticism is neither curiosity nor self-interest, but love: the intrusion of alien motives is at once fatal to it. "Its logic consists in having confidence in the rationality of the moral consciousness and its desires." This agrees with what I have said--that Reason is, or should be, the logic of our entire personality, and that if Reason is so defined, it does not come into conflict with Mysticism. Recejac also has much to say upon Free Will and Determinism. He says that Mysticism is an alliance between the Practical Reason (which he identifies with "la Liberte") and Imagination. "Determinism is the opposite, not of 'Liberty,' but of 'indifference.' Liberty, as Fouillee says, is only a higher form of Determinism." "The modern idea of liberty, and the mystical conception of Divine will, may be reconciled in the same way as inspiration and reason, on condition that both are discovered in the same fact interior to us, and that, far from being opposed to each other, they are fused and distinguished together _dans quelque implicite reellement present a la conscience_." Recejac throughout appeals to Kant instead of to Hegel as his chief philosophical authority, in this differing from the majority of those who are in sympathy with Mysticism.

17. _Bonchitte_. "Mysticism consists in giving to the spontaneity of the intelligence a larger part than to the other faculties."

18. _Charles Kingsley_. "The great Mysticism 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 G.o.d'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! Oh, that heaven! The thought of the first glance of creation from thence, when we know even as we are known. And He, the glorious, the beautiful, the incarnate Ideal shall be justified in all His doings, and in all, and through all, and over all.... All day, glimpses from the other world, floating motes from that inner transcendental life, have been floating across me.... Have you not felt that your real soul was imperceptible to your mental vision, except at a few hallowed moments? That in everyday life the mind, looking at itself, sees only the brute intellect, grinding and working, not the Divine particle, which is life and immortality, and on which the Spirit of G.o.d most probably works, as being most cognate to Deity" (_Life_, vol. i. p. 55). Again he says: "This earth is the next greatest fact to that of G.o.d's existence."