Blackwell Reference Online

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[xiii.d] The Christian mystic seeks the most total union possible with God. Through prayer and self-discipline the mystic seeks to go beyond the concepts and images of theology and come to God himself. Whether it is possible to attain direct, unmediated knowledge of God is a matter of controversy. Diadochus of Photike presents the spiritual life as a path of continual transformation under the influence of the fire of God's love, but one which can never result in the direct cognition of God. St Gregory Palamas speaks of seeing the Uncreated Light that transfigured Christ on Mt Tabor, the immediate experience of God in his energies. For St Gregory of Nyssa the mystic is led beyond the illuminating knowledge of God to an ‘unknowing’ of him in darkness, just as Moses encountered God first in the burning bush, then in the cloud, and then (Exodus 33) in thick darkness. St Bernard of Clairvaux, St Teresa of Avila and St John of the Cross use images of sexual love and spiritual marriage to express the reality of union with God.The origins of Christian mysticism are to be sought in the New Testament, in the experience of Jesus himself, in the theology of St John's Gospel, in the visionary experience recorded in Revelation and in the teachings of St Paul. The forms of Christian mystical practice owe much to the impact of philosophical and Egyptian Asceticism and Platonic philosophy. It is ... log in or subscribe to read full text