Christian Mystics: Five Characteristics

Mysticism has been a vital part of Christianity over the last two millennia. While Christian mystics recorded a wide range of experiences in their writings, there are common characteristics among Christian mystics.

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The topic of mysticism is confusing to many people.  In addition, few people are aware that there’s a long history of mysticism within the Christian tradition.  Christian mysticism grew out of roots in Judaism and has flourished for the last two millennia. Christian mysticism is unique from other mystical paths.

At its heart, mysticism is the experience of encountering and growing toward union with the Divine.  Mysticism is a natural part of spiritual growth within many religious traditions. Mystical experience is sometimes sought after for its own sake by people today as a spiritual path.  Within this context, there are five characteristics that I find to be important within Christian mysticism.

First, Christian mystics understand God as being larger than any definition, dogma, or theological concept.  In one sermon, Meister Eckhart wrote that “God is beyond being.”  In another, he stated, “If I were to say, ‘God exists,’ this would not be true.  God is being beyond being. God is nothingness beyond being.”  In trying to capture a similar perspective, St. Augustine wrote, “The best thing to be said about God is silence.”

Second, Christian mystics understand that communion with God, who is larger than any definition or concept, is the heart of the spiritual journey.  There are two aspects of this.  One is that the essence of the Divine is already present in every human being.  As John of the Cross wrote, “God inhabits every soul, even the greatest sinners of this world. There is always union between God and God’s creatures.”  The other aspect is that the spiritual journey is growing into the truth of the union we share with God.  Julian of Norwich describes the process as growing in greater knowledge of ourselves.  As she wrote, “The passing life of the senses doesn’t lead to knowledge of what our self is.  When we clearly see what our self is, then we shall truly know our Lord God in great joy.”  In other words, allowing our lives to be caught up in ephemeral, passing things doesn’t take us deeper into ourselves. Instead, it is through our inner growth, the inner journey, that we become more wholly ourselves and grow in union with the Divine.  This is key for Christian mysticism.

The third characteristic of the mystics is the focus on the spiritual path.  For the mystics, the spiritual path is to let go of everything that does not lead further into the reality of God’s presence.  Remembering that growing more in the knowledge of self leads one to a deeper experience of the Divine, the mystics focused on letting go of what was not authentic for them to grow more fully into the reality of the Divine.  In his rule for monks, St. Benedict wrote: “Let them prefer nothing to the love of Christ.”  In his brief treatise, The Practice of the Presence of God, Brother Lawrence wrote, “Having read many books containing different methods of reaching God, I felt that they would confuse me rather than help me find what I was looking for, which was to become completely God’s.  This led me to resolve to give all for the All.  I renounced, for the love of God, everything that was not God, and I began to live as if there was nothing but God and I in the world.” 

Fourth, in following the spiritual path, humility is critical.  Humility is not about putting oneself down.  Humility is recognizing one’s own strengths and limitations.  Humility is honestly appraising ourselves.  Humility is key to understanding oneself. In humility, overly focusing on one’s sinfulness and failings is not appropriate.  As Julian of Norwich wrote, “God doesn’t want us to busy ourselves with self-accusations about our sins, and feeling wretched about ourselves, but to quickly turn ourselves to God.”

Fifth, at the heart of it all, the life of the Christian mystic is characterized by love:  love of God, love of others, and love of self.  I find that the unknown writer of the Cloud of Unknowing says it best, “God cannot be comprehended by the faculty of intelligence but is totally and perfectly intelligible through the power of love.  Every single creature, moreover, will know God differently.  Dwell on this if you have the grace to do so because to experience this for oneself is everlasting joy.”

The Christian mystics point us to the awareness that our spiritual growth can take us to deep dimensions, passing beyond theological definitions as we encounter the very life of God. While individual spiritual paths differ one from another, the Christian mystics share common themes with each other.