Into The Mystic (Apologies to Van): Duane W.H. Arnold, PhD

Into The Mystic (Apologies to Van)

I’ve always wondered why, especially in the West, mysticism and/or contemplation is feared. Recently, I came across a quote by Vladimir Lossky in his work on the mystical theology of the Eastern Church that I found instructive.  “Mystical theology is a spirituality which expresses a doctrinal attitude. In a certain sense all theology is mystical, inasmuch as it shows forth the divine mystery, that is the data of revelation…”

The Eastern approach has never made a sharp distinction between mysticism and theology. It also has not made a sharp distinction between the personal experience of the divine mysteries and the dogma which is affirmed by the church. To put it another way, we are called to live out a dogma that expresses a revealed truth, one which appears to us as an unfathomable mystery, and to do it in such a fashion that instead of a adapting the mystery to our mode of understanding, we should on the contrary, look for a profound change, or an inner transformation of our own spirit enabling us to experience the mystery of God in the reality of our own lives.  In this way, far from being mutually opposed, theology and contemplation support and complete each other. One is impossible without the other.

Now, if the mystical or contemplative experience is a personal working out of the content of our common faith, theology itself is the expression that is given to that faith for the profit of all. That is, it is that which can be experienced and understood by everyone equally (and not just “professional” theologians).  In some sense, while the contemplative is personal, theology is corporate. Yet, the personal does not stand outside of the corporate, and the corporate incorporates and gives structure and voice to the personal. All this is to say, theology is not a “dry as dust” catalog of dogmatic propositions to be parroted.  Rather, it is to be lived.  Moreover, it is in the living of that theology that we actually begin to enter into the mystery of God and his work within our lives.

This is the delicate balance of the Christian life that we all too often ignore.  It is a complicated dance in which our personal experience of the mystery of God encounters the theology that gives voice to that experience.  Or, put another way, there is no Christian contemplation or mysticism without theology, and there is no theology without the personal encounter with the mystery of God.  After decades of study, I’ve come to the conclusion that, in the last resort, Christian theology is almost always a means to an end.  That is, it is a unified system of knowledge and propositions that serves an end which transcends all knowledge and propositions.  This ultimate end is the imitation of Christ in the Incarnation and our union with God.  This is the deification, or the ‘theosis’ of the patristic writers. Here is mystery, indeed…

If we think about it, all the developments that arose from the theological battles and councils, with which the church was involved through the early centuries, had this mystery as being central as to what they chose to safeguard.  From debates on the deity of Christ to the formulations regarding the hypostatic union of the divine and human natures in the Incarnation, the Church maintained for all believers, at each moment of her history, the possibility of attaining to the fullness of a mystical union in which God will be “all in all”.   The main preoccupation, the issue at stake, in all the questions which arose respecting the nature of Christ, the Holy Spirit and, indeed, the nature of the Church itself, always hinged on the possibility, the manner, or the means of the believer’s union with God.  All of the history of Christian doctrine in the early centuries unfolds about and around this mystical center.

In our own time there are many “shiny objects” strewn across our path calling for our attention.  Politics, wars, scandals, economics, cultural debates and all the rest shout at us from television and computer screens.  I’m beginning to believe, however, that the path that leads us toward that mystic encounter with God should not be ignored or dismissed.  In fact, following that path  is what we were created to do.

Duane W.H. Arnold, PhD

The Project