Thursday, December 13, 2007

Mysticism...

Kevin Edgecomb has a nice quote from The Origins of the Christian Mystical Tradition: From Plato to Denys over on Biblicalia. Here is an excerpt:

...what we find in the Fathers undermines any tendency toward seeing mysticism as an elite, individualist quest for ‘peak’ experiences; rather for them the ‘mystical life’ is the ‘life with Christ hid in God’ of Colossians 3:3, a life which is ecclesial, that is lived in the Body of Christ, which is nourished liturgically, and which is certainly a matter of experience, though not of extraordinary ‘experiences’.

<idle musing>
I like that. It speaks of God's abundant grace, poured out on all who want it. The only qualification is faith, which God gives, if we allow him to. And it is lived out in community, not in the individualistic—I would even say narcissistic—way that so much of evangelical christianity seems to prefer.
</idle musing>

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