"An Introduction to Christian Mysticism" (Jason M. Baxter)

TITLE: An Introduction to Christian Mysticism: Recovering the Wildness of Spiritual Life
AUTHOR: Jason M. Baxter
PUBLISHER: Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2021, (208 pages).

In the evangelical tradition, many of us yearn to know God more. Whether it is through Bible study or prayer, devotional practices or spiritual disciplines, we try to know God based on our own knowledge or backgrounds. If we are willing to admit, we often do these things on our own strength rather than to wait upon the LORD. We think we can know God more by mining the Bible, forgetting that it is one thing to know the Word of God, but yet another to know the God of the Word. We think we know God's Thoughts by praying according to our needs instead of needing God regardless of our needs. We forget that prayers are less about telling God about how great our problems are, but to tell the problems of the world, how great God is. In trying to master the Bible, we end up forgetting that spirituality is about the Word mastering us in order to know God more deeply and to make God known more widely. For us to grow into this level of spirituality, we need the help of those who have traveled those paths of spirituality. Mysticism is one of these paths. In our world of Do-It-Yourself spirituality, we tend to gravitate toward how-to manuals even in the area of Christian spirituality. There are steps to do this and steps to do that. It takes mystics like Meister Eckhart to remind us a rather controversial thought: that "in created things, ...., there is no truth." It is a reminder that our own perceptions of truth is imperfect or partial at best. Even our interpretations of God's Word is fallible. That is why we need the Holy Spirit to teach and to guide us. Having said that, moving into the mystical world can be a nervous experience. Aren't Eastern religions practicing mysticism too? How do we know when we are treading to an extreme? Is there such a thing as a correct approach? Even great teachers in the past, such as BB Warfield and CS Lewis, have cautioned us on the mystic practices. Author and Professor Jason Baxter assures us that in this book, he is not trying to convince us to accept all of Christian Mysticism but to "make it easier" for readers to be willing to be patient, to listen, and to be open to it. He does this by describing mysticism like what many mystics do: apophatically. Like the classic work, "The Cloud of Unknowing" by an anonymous writer, the deep desire for God is not through our eyes but through God's eyes. It is to let God be God instead of trying to make God into our own image. Baxter asserts that society in spite of its widespread secularism, there is still a hunger for spiritual and religious thought. He seeks to offer the Christian mystical teachings as an alternative in a world of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism (MTD) and a "nice and polite God" we conjured up in our heads. He then shares snippets of spiritual wisdom throughout the centuries. People such as Plato, Plotinus, Gregory of Nyssa, Evagrius, John Cassian, etc, in the first millennium; Bernard of Clairvaux, Hildegard of Bingen, Guigo II, Bonaventure, Meister Eckhart, Julian of Norwich, Thomas Merton, etc in the second millennium. 

Interestingly, Baxter begins with the 20th Century, observing that people in our modern era are living as if there is no God. In a stunning introduction, he notes how Shusaku Endo's book, "Silence" casts a light on the emptiness of modern spirituality. Rudolf Ott's "The Idea of the Holy" laments the loss of what it means to be holy. Mircea Eliade's "The Sacred and the Profane" contrasts the past era of people centering their lives on the sacred vs modern people scattered by their diverse interpretations of secularism. Baxter then makes an intriguing statement, that devout Christians in the future will either be mystics or nothing at all! This sets the tone for the other practitioners of mysticism through the ages. Even pagans desire new ways of worship to a higher being. There is a certain "weariless optimism" to seek out the transcendent. The great Augustine of Hippo was one who was influenced by the pagans. While many of the pagan spirituality focuses on "going within" to find God, Augustine knows that spirituality is acknowledging God's presence both in and outside of himself. 

My Thoughts

The key inspiration for this book is to help us see God beyond our limited eyes and imagination. We learn from the spiritual masters of old to look for alternatives to our "Nice God" paradigm and to let God be God. Let me give three thoughts about this book. First, it brings us a fresh perspective of spirituality that is up close and personal. We live in a world of facts that oddly do not reveal much truth. If facts are the sciences, then the interpretation is the art of searching for Truth. It is true that our secular world leaves little room for spiritual thoughts and reflections on the mysteries of life. Sometimes I feel that our scientific advancements have diminished our patience for contemplative spirituality. We prefer to rush, to see visible results, and to make things happen. Expecting the same to happen for spiritual matters would be barking up the wrong tree. Without the foresight of the future, the next best thing would be to gain some hindsight wisdom from the past. Many saints, scholars, theologians, pilgrims, and devout believers have taken a path less traveled. We can learn of many beneficial insights and wisdom from them. Christian mysticism is one such channel of insight. 

Second, I want to address those who are suspicious of the unknown and especially about mysticism in itself. In our world of seeing-is-believing, faith is something that reverses such a paradigm by saying believing-is-seeing. Just because we have never experienced it for ourselves does not necessarily mean mysticism is erroneous best or paganistic at worse. The spiritual masters of the ancient world knew what they are seeking, namely, God. One example is the practice of the "holy poverty": purification (physike), illumination (theoria), and union (theologia). We purify ourselves because God is holy. We seek illumination from God to us so that we can see God as what Matthew 5:8 teaches us. Our goal is to be with God. Just as Augustine has confessed that restless people can only find true rest in God alone, mysticism is about finding that rest, or if one prefers, to let rest comes to us. Just because we are fearful or have never experienced such mystical spirituality does not mean we ought to jettison this practice. If we maintain a grounded comprehension of the Word of God, we can still practice our prayers, contemplation, and disciplines to seek God in God's way. Chapter 6 on "How to Perform Scripture" would speak into such strategies.

Finally, why should anyone read this book? I would say it humbles us from pride in our modern advances. In our modern world, there is a danger of what CS Lewis calls, "chronological snobbery," a strongly held belief in the latest-is-the-greatest. Perhaps, a look at Ecclesiastes could offer us a respite from the worldly wisdom and technological pride that are growing by the day. The wise Qohelet had said that all is vanity, and that would include our present world of science and technology. We need meaning far beyond efficiency and efficacy. After all, what good is a man if he gains the whole world technologically and yet loses his sense of the significance of his soul? Like how Baxter concludes, spirituality is less about knowing our love for God but about receiving God's love for us. Those who have grasped a little of God's love would want more. That desire for God translates into using whatever tools available to us, and that includes Christian Mysticism.

Jason M. Baxter (PhD, University of Notre Dame), an expert in medieval Catholic thought, is associate professor of fine arts and humanities at Wyoming Catholic College in Lander, Wyoming. He speaks at universities across the country and has written several books, including A Beginner's Guide to Dante's "Divine Comedy."

Rating: 4.75 stars of 5.

conrade

---

This book has been provided courtesy of Baker Academic and NetGalley without requiring a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.