ADVANCE PRAISE FOR
THE BIG BOOK OF CHRISTIAN MYSTICISM
"McColman's book on Christian mysticism is a masterpiece of scholarship and wisdom. This author obviously earned his understanding of mysticism through years of research as well as his own personal spiritual journey and there is no more powerful combination for inspired writing."
Caroline Myss, author of Entering the Castle and Anatomy of the Spirit
"Mysticism is not mystifying at all, but simple, always available, and utterly clarifying. Carl McColman's much-needed book will allow you to experience this for yourself! Christians and all Seekers will find both meat and dessert in such a full meal."
-Richard Rohr, OFM, author of The Naked Now: Learning to See as the Mystics See and Everything Belongs
"Charmingly and conversationally written, but also rich in nuance and thorough in its coverage and its attention to detail, The Big Book is, as its name suggests, a big even an enormous-scontribution to our current literature on the subject. Highly recommended."
Phyllis Tickle, author of The Great Emergence: How Christianity is Changing andWhy and God-Talk in America
"Before I heard about The Big Book of Christian Mysticism, I had been thinking about how such a book has been needed for a long time. Now, having read it, I'm glad we waited for Carl McColman to come along to write it. It's accessible, human, well-informed, balanced, broad ... just what we needed."
-Brian D. McLaren, author of A New Kind of Christianity and A Generous Orthodoxy
"In the Big Book of Christian Mysticism, Carl McColman offers us a thorough and engaging exploration of Christian mysticism which he defines as a form of alchemy that is, transformation through the Source of all Love. His wise and clear writing takes us on a wide journey through both classical and contemporary mystic guides. Ultimately he invites us to catch a glimpse of the heart of Mystery through concrete suggestions for mystical practice and be transformed ourselves."
ChristineValters Paintner, PhD, author of Water, Wind, Earth, Fire: The Christian Practice of Praying with the Elements
"If you are looking for both a primer on Christian mysticism as well as an in-depth treatment of this oft-misunderstood aspect of the spiritual life, here is your book. Readable, useful, well-researched, Carl McColman's Big Book of Christian Mysticism helps both the novice and those already well along on the journey toward a deeper relationship with God to see that mysticism is ultimately not at all a mysterious quest, but a human and possible one."
-Paul Wilkes, author of Beyond the Walls: Monastic Wisdom for Everyday Life
"Carl McColman's new book is truly a work of art as well as a spiritual guide for those who want to know more about Christian mysticism. Writing for a broad audience of readers, Carl wants everyone to become aware of that rich history and its potential meaning for today. He writes in a lively, engaging style, but his work comes out of deep wells of spiritual wisdom. Appealing to both head and heart, his book not only makes the history of Christian mysticism accessible, but also provides for readers guidance in prayer, contemplation, and transformation itself. For Carl, the great mystics are not just people specially gifted, but soul friends and spiritual mentors for anyone who seeks to live today with some degree of interiority, integrity, and joy. I highly recommend this book not only for general readers interested in mysticism and spirituality, but also for undergraduate or graduate students who need an introduction to what Carl himself calls "this ancient wisdom tradition."
-Ed Sellner, author of Wisdom of the Celtic Saints and Finding the Monk Within: Great Monastic Values for Today
"McColman's book is wise and wonderful, deceptively simple! Are you interested in having a relationship with something that's ultimately unknowable? Me too. It's not easy, but dig in, here!"
Jon M. Sweeney, author of Almost Catholic and The St. Francis Prayer Book
"A wise and supportive guidebook for those going deeper on the Christian mystical path. This book is grounded in sound scholarship and thoughtful reflection (often surprisingly fresh and insightful!), but what makes it sing is the authenticity of the author's own contemplative journey."
-The Rev. Cynthia Bourgeault, Ph.D., author of Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening and The Wisdom Jesus
"With his "Big Book" McColman has pulled off a tour de force: a work on Christian mysticism that is broadly accessible, but deep; scholarly but not pedantic; reverent, but judicious; thorough, but a good read; an excellent introduction to the subject for the general reader, but with plenty of meat for the specialist. Highly recommended for the neophyte, the informed, and the expert alike."
-The Rev. Robert D. Hughes, III. Ph.D., author of Beloved Dust: Tides of the Spirit in the Christian Life
"In this delightfully accessible book, Carl McColman dispels the notion that Christian mysticism exists somewhere in the ether, and reveals its solid, earthy roots. If you want a rich, nourishing life of faith, and virtues that flourish like wildflowers, read Christian Mysticism, and let the good news in it transform you."
Claudia Mair Burney, author of God Alone is Enough: A Spirited Pilgrimage with St. Teresa ofAvila
"Carl McColman has both studied and practiced the Christian mystical tradition, stressing its earthiness and `ordinariness.' Like Thomas Merton, Michael Ramsey, and others, he holds that mysticism is not an esoteric realm reserved for the very holy, but is what all Christian life is about. I strongly commend this book."
Kenneth Leech, author of Soul Friend and Prayer and Prophecy
The Big Book of Christian Mysticism
THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE
TO CONTEMPLATIVE SPIRITUALITY
Carl McColman
Copyright © 2010 Bible, © 1989, Division of Christian Educa- by Carl McColman tion of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. All rights reserved, including the right to Used by permission. All rights reserved. reproduce this work in any form whatsoever, without permission in writing from the pub- Scripture texts marked "NAB" in this work lisher, except for brief passages in connection are taken from the New American Bible with with a review. Revised NewTestament and Revised Psalms © 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Hampton Roads Publishing Company, Inc. Doctrine, Washington, D.C., and are used by Charlottesville, VA 22906 permission of the copyright owner. All rights www.hrpub.com reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without perCover and text design byTracy Johnson mission in writing from the copyright owner. Cover photograph: Church of San Pantaleo, Martis, Sardinia © 2009 bacilloz/shutter- Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publica- stock.com. tion Data available upon request. Production Editor: Michele Kimble
Copy Editor: Laurel WarrenTrufant, Ph.D. ISBN: 978-1-57174-624-5 Proofreader: Audrey Doyle Typeset in Perpetua, Trade Gothic, and Printed in the United States of America Requiem. 1098765432 1 Unless noted otherwise, scripture quotations Text paper contains a minimum of 30% are from the New Revised Standard Version post-consumer-waste material.
PREFACE 7
PART I: THE CHRISTIAN MYSTERY 3
Chapter 1: Hidden in Plain Sight is
Chapter 2: Defining Mysticism 23
Chapter 3: How Mysticism Became Christian 37
Chapter 4:Thc Evolution of Christian Mysticism 47
Chapter 5: Christian Mysticism and World Mysticism 57
Chapter 6: Why Mysticism Matters 65
Chapter 7: The Mystical Paradoxes 7S
Chapter 8: Christianity's Best-Kept Secret i 2 1
PART I I: THE CONTEMPLATIVE LIFE 1 3 1
Chapter 9: The Mystical Body i 3 3
Chapter 10: Kenosis and Perichoresis i 59
Chapter 11: The Path of Holiness 16 7
Chapter 12: The Journey that Isn't a Journey i 8 3
Chapter 13: Lectio Divina 189
Chapter 14: The Heavenly Conversation 201
Chapter 15: Prayer Beyond Words 2 19
Chapter 16: Wood, Water, and Wine 235
Chapter 17: The Heart of the Mystery 247
Appendix A: The Communion of Mystics 2S8
Appendix B: A Contemplative Reading List 272
Appendix C: Online Resources 282
Endnotes 284
Selected Bibliography 289
Recent and Contemporary Christian Contemplatives 294
Resources on Christian Mysticism 299
Other Worthwhile Sources 3o6
The mystery of the kingdom of God has been granted to you.... for there is nothing hidden except to be made visible; nothing is secret except to come to light.
MARK 4: 1 1, 2 2 (NAB)
The Christian of the future will be a mystic or he will not exist at all.
KARL RAHNER`
Preface
Christian mysticism is many things.
It is Christianity's best-kept secret. It is a revolutionary way to approach God and Christ and spirituality. It is an ancient wisdom tradition, not a story line cooked up for an adventure novel or a feature film. It is a venerable lineage of spiritual teachings that can be traced back to the New Testament, which promises to transform the lives of people who seriously and sincerely apply its wisdom to their own life circumstances.
Christian mysticism is not the same as ordinary religious belief or observance. It has room for profound doubt and insistent questioning. It does not ask you to check your mind at the door and submit your will to some sort of external authority whether that be a church, a priest or minister, or a book. Rather, Christian mysticism argues that any respect you pay to external authority can emerge only from a profound inner experience or conviction that God is real and present, and that it is both possible and plausible for the average person to have a truly experiential relationship with God.
This is not to suggest that Christian mysticism is some sort of alternative to religious Christianity. Far from it! Religion, after all, is simply spirituality expressed in social and communal ways. Since Christianity is about loving God and loving our neighbors, Christian mysticism encourages an optimistic, positive outlook toward other people, despite our human failings. Think of mysticism as a tool that can help you find joy in relating to others even in organized religious settings like your neighborhood church.
Some interpreters of Christian mysticism insist that it necessarily involves supernatural visions and voices, or profound charismatic experiences that are miraculous in nature and extraordinary in scope. Indeed, such things are possible in the world of mysticism, because mysticism is all about possibility. But in its oldest and purest form, Christian mysticism is anchored in values like humility, trust, simplicity, and peacefulness. Christian mysticism is, in fact, completely ordinary, utterly down-to-earth, and entirely naturalistic. You can be a mystic without ever seeing visions or receiving secret messages from God. In fact, some of the greatest Christian mystics, like John of the Cross, felt that supernatural phenomena tended to be a problem, because they could so easily arise from non-mystical causes, like the human ego's need to feel important or special.
Christian mysticism invites us to look at God, Christ, the church, our own souls, and our understanding of such things as sin or holiness in new ways. Mysticism doesn't contradict traditional religious teaching. In many ways, however, it represents an element of Christianity that transcends human logic or reason. It can therefore appear, on the surface, to be subversive of mundane piety.
Well, it is subversive, and it has the potential to undermine everything especially all of our cherished beliefs, sacred cows, and dogmatic illusions. It undermines all of our settled ways of looking at things, not because it seeks to cause chaos, but rather because it helps us open our hearts and minds to something that cannot be captured in ideology, or dogma, or theology, or philosophy.
And that "something" is God.
THE PARADOX OF MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE
Here is a central truth about Christian mysticism: the more it reveals, the more it conceals. Mysticism is concerned with mystery spiritual mystery. Thus, its essence cannot be captured in words and any book on the subject will, of necessity, be incomplete, paradoxical, and, at times, confusing or ambiguous. Indeed, that confusion is rooted in the trans-rational nature of mysticism itself. Mystical experience opens you up to the love of God, yet forces you to give up all your limited ideas and concepts about God, discarding them all as mere mental idols. The deeper you go, the more elusive God becomes.
When you begin to explore mysticism through prayer, meditation, and contemplation, you embark on a journey by which you slowly respond to that elusive mystery we call God.Yet mysticism exists only in the present moment; it's not about what is going to happen tomorrow, or next year, or in the next life. It is about learning to live in joy, about transforming consciousness, about becoming holy. The world of Christian mysticism offers spiritual practices and exercises that help you cultivate a spiritual dimension to your life, yet the moment you focus your attention on practice, no matter how worthy or pious or spiritual it may be, you lose touch with the mystical. One popular notion of Christian mysticism depicts monks cloistered in monasteries, or hermits sheltered in the desert, or sages isolated on mountaintops, or women living sheltered from the noise of the world. In these antiseptic settings, they partake of sweet communion with God. Yet the famous twentieth-century mystic Thomas Merton had one of his most life-altering experiences not in a monastery but standing on a busy street corner in Louisville, Kentucky. The great fourteenth-century mystic Julian of Norwich did, in fact, withdraw from society, spending much of her life in a tiny cell sheltered from "worldly" concerns, where people came to seek her spiritual advice.Yet her most powerful mystical experiences occurred not while she was alone but during an illness, as she lay suffering in a room surrounded by loved ones. Others have reported that their most amazing encounters with God have occurred while working hard to alleviate the suffering of the poor, the sick, or the dying. Mysticism isn't about keeping your hands clean. Rather it impels you to get them dirty.
Christian mysticism is all about experience the experience of union with God, or of the presence of God. But it's also about a spiritual reality that undermines experience itself, deconstructing all your masks and selfdefenses and leaving you spiritually naked and vulnerable before the silence of the Great Mystery. It is the spirituality of bringing heaven to earth, and of going through hell while here on earth in order to get to heaven. While many books on mysticism approach it from a global, universal perspective, here I focus specifically on mysticism in the Christian tradition as a distinct, unique, and beautiful form of mystical experience. The Christian mystical tradition has a long and rich history that reaches back to the New Testament and the first 500 years of church history. Unlike other books that take a primarily historical approach to that tradition, focusing on the lives and words of the great mystics and contemplatives of the past, I focus more on the present.
What does mysticism mean today? How can we apply the mysteries of mysticism and contemplation and Christian meditation to our current circumstances and situations? Rather than tell you about mysticism, I invite you to encounter it as a reality that can transform you and your relationship with God. First we investigate the mystery and paradox of mysticism; then we explore how the wisdom of Christian mysticism can make a real difference in your own life.
While I encourage you to study the works of the great mystics as a way to foster a deeper understanding and appreciation of what is distinctively good and beautiful about their faith, my larger goal is to inspire Christians
and non-Christians alike to live according to their wisdom.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Christianity is all about community, and writing a book is truly a communal act. Many people have helped in the creation of this book, in small and large ways. As a sacramental Christian, I affirm that marriage and family life are intended to be a means of grace: an opportunity for us to "be" Christ to and for one another. I am truly blessed to have a family that encourages belief in such a noble calling. My wife, Fran, and daughter, Rhiannon, have been patient and loving over the many hours I have devoted to this book.
Thanks to Greg Brandenburgh for his insight, challenge, and support, and to Linda Roghaar for making the connections (and for playing amateur counselor when necessary). Thanks to Meg Anderson, Nancy Carnes, Claudette Cuddy, Cliff Post, Michael Morrell, Gini Eagen, Bob Hughes, Greg Kenny, Darrell Grizzle, Phil Foster, Kenneth Leech, Emmett Jarrett, Natalia Shulgina, John Skinner, Brittian Bullock, Peter Rollins, Richard Rohr, Brian McLaren, and Jon Sweeney for your feedback, insight, encouragement, and suggestions.
Thanks to the readers of my blog (www.anamchara.com), who have, in many cases, been the first people exposed to the ideas and perspectives that eventually shaped this book. Your comments, questions, and support inspired me to persevere and made the final project much more valuable. Its limitations, naturally, remain my responsibility.
I especially want to thank the Trappist monks of the Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Conyers, Georgia, where I am blessed to be both a member of the lay associates community and an employee of the monastery's business division (I work in the bookstore). I owe immense thanks, not only for their witness as a community of faith, but also for the many small gestures of kindness and hospitality they offered as I worked and prayed alongside them. Members of this community have related to me as mentors, spiritual directors, confessors, teachers, business colleagues, and most rewarding of all friends. In particular, I wish to mention Fr.Tom Francis, Fr. Anthony Delisi, Br. Elias Marechal, Fr. MattTorpey, and Fr. James Behrens, each of whom patiently endured my endless questions and occasional whining as I sought to understand the splendor of Christian mystical spirituality and to capture its beauty in the written word.
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