c. 2004 Religion News Service
(UNDATED) To the uninitiated, the mystic’s path seems otherworldly, a road into the unknown taken by people like cloistered Christian nuns, whirling Sufis and wandering Hindu holy men. But do the mystics seek the mysticism or does it seek them?
Two new books suggest that mystics _ especially Christian ones _ are formed by their encounters with the Divine but rarely seek the more amazing things that happen to them.
In “Wonderful and Dark Is This Road” (Paraclete Press), Emilie Griffin traces mysticism’s biblical roots and modern manifestations. She focuses on Christianity, yet notes that mystical traditions are found within many religious groups including Roman Catholics, Shakers, Sufis, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus and Quakers.
“All the great religions have their mystics,” she says, “who claim a direct encounter with the Infinite. Mystics in the differing great religions may disagree about the nature of the Deity; yet they seem to follow a path that has certain commonalities.”
In “Radiance: A Spiritual Memoir of Evelyn Underhill,” also published by Paraclete, editor Bernard Bangley reveals the wellspring that fed Evelyn Underhill’s extraordinary spirituality.
Widely regarded as one of the greatest Christian mystics, Underhill was a gifted spiritual writer, novelist and poet who authored more than 30 books, including the landmark “Mysticism,” published in 1911.
In “Radiance,” Bangley uncovers Underhill’s amazing story, from the rare spiritual awareness of her childhood through the intense curiosity and keen intelligence of her adult life.
From the human point of view, Underhill wrote, a spiritual life is one marked by a gradual unfolding sense of the eternal. “For what it means for us,” she said, “is surely this: that we are meant, beyond the physical, to contribute to, indeed collaborate in God’s spiritual creation, to be the willing and vigorous tools and channels of his action in time.”
Both new books will shape their readers and show how mysticism shapes the mystics, modeling and molding the willing spirit in a deepening awareness of grace.
In her carefully organized work, Griffin offers a primer on mysticism, which is defined in a bewildering number of ways. She hopes to “offer a simple entrance into this vast territory.”
Then she begins, noting that the Bible’s first mystics were Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, people who knew God, who talked with God. Her more modern examples include Julian of Norwich, Simone Weil, Edith Stein and Padre Pio.
Most often, mystics come from the ranks of people far advanced in the spiritual life, individuals who spent time in prayer and worship, Griffin says. Such people have experiences and symptoms of unusual spirituality: dreams, visions, prophecies or spiritual gifts. But they may also be people with a simple devotion to God and an open heart. Such people embrace an intimate relationship with the Divine.
“My own notion is that we are meeting mystics every day, but we do not recognize them,” Griffin says, adding that true mystics practice their love of God “in ways that may fly below the radar, unobtrusively, transforming the lives of others in ways that seem sublimely plain-spoken and level-headed.”
Indeed, Underhill argued that the great mystics offer “the master-key” to humankind’s puzzlement over the meaning, direction and purpose of life.
As a person climbs the spiritual ladder, he or she may feel the ascent is slow and clumsy, Underhill said. To find sure footing, turn to the mystics. “The mystics, expert mountaineers, go before him and show him, if he cares to learn, the way to freedom, to reality, to peace,” she wrote.
(Cecile S. Holmes, longtime religion writer, is an assistant professor of journalism at the University of South Carolina. Her e-mail address is cholmes(at)sc.edu.)
DEA/PH END HOLMES
