Category: Mysticism

Only in religion does it seem that people mistake the map for the territory. They have a deep relationship with the Book but know nothing about an experiential relationship with the God of the Book.

The Bible is the Map

Think of the Bible as a map. A map is not the territory. A map is a symbolic representation of an actual reality.

Now if I go to a map, I point to a city, and I say that’s New York. you know that it’s the symbol of New York City, not the actual City itself. That’s a metaphor.

Likewise, the Bible is a map, a symbolic representation of an actual reality. That reality is God and our relationship with Him.

Knowing God Personally

And we should never mistake the map for the territory. People have ended up having a relationship with the map, but never have had the experience of the territory. They know about God, but they don’t know God personally. What a shame.

It’s like looking at a menu and not realizing that it’s not food. People are eating the menu, rather than procuring the food. The Bible is the menu, personal experience is the food. “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good” (Ps. 34:8).

The mystic way refers to the stages in our journey into God. These are levels of oneness with God. They are rooted in the Bible, but explained by later Christian mystics.

For some people the traditional terminology (purgation, illumination, and union) is a stumbling block. Alternative language would be the beginner, the proficient, the advanced. Think of the child, the teen (young man), and the adult (father) (1 John 2:12-14).

1. Conversion

The Journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step. The first step on the Mystic path is conversion. This is the turning from a self-centered life to a God-centered life.

There are even stages in conversion. One begins as indifferent. The second phase is conviction. The final stage is repentance and belief, resulting in conversion.

2. Purgation

Most books on mysticism begin with this stage. This is the first part of sanctification, the separation from evil thoughts, words, and habits.

Most people struggle with this stage. For the tendencies of selfishness run deep. And it takes a lot of work to let go, surrender to God, and develop new habits of thoughts, words, and deeds.

3. Illumination

In this stage of the mystic way, one has to unlearn everything they learned before. They have to strip off the errors, the wrong ways of looking at things, the distorted perceptions.

Illumination is the process of trying to see things from God’s perspective. It is to think God’s thoughts after Him. It it a radical unknowing so that we may see things as they really are.

4. Union

Purgation is a oneness of our will with God’s will, illumination is a oneness of our mind with God’s mind, and union is a oneness of our being with Gods Being. In union we become “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet. 1:4).

Even in this stage there are levels. The first being the struggle to completely die to self. Here is the hardest part of union with God.

Before entering into full union with God most experience the dark night of the soul. Here everything is stripped away until there is nothing and nobody left. Only an empty vessel can receive the fullness of God.

Since I will be referring to Mysticism and quoting from Christian mystics, it might be best to define my terms.

Definition of Mysticism

I can think of no better authority on mysticism than the Anglican writer Evelyn Underhill. In one of her shorter books, she gives the following definitions:

Mysticism is the art of union with Reality. The mystic is a person who has attained that union in greater or less degree; or who aims at and believes in such attainment.

Christian Mysticism

For a Christian mystic, that “Reality” is God as revealed in the Holy Scriptures. My own definition would be that:

Christian mysticism is the study of, pursuit of, and the experience of oneness with God in and through Christ.

What Christian Mysticism is Not

The Christian mysticism I will be referencing has nothing to do with magic, astrology, crystals, alchemy, or the bizarre. Even dreams and visions are seen as suspicious. They are not essential to Christian mysticism, and can even be hindrances.

All are Called

Every Christian is called to this experience of oneness with God. Everyone is called to the mystic way. In fact, I think Karl Rainer might be right, “the Christian of the future will be a mystic or will not exist.”