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The Roots of Christian Mysticism

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The Roots of Christian Mysticism By linking together a series of brilliantly chosen texts frolll the early centuries of the Church, the author lays bare the roots of the deeply mystical spirituality that has flourished among Christians throughout the ages. This is a book that will appeal to anyone who is interested in the field of spirituality; it is a masterly. contribution to Christian scholarship. "There are some books so good that all one wants to say is: go out, buy it and read it -it is marvellous! And so it is with this fine translation." Andrew Louth, Fairacres Chronicle "The Roots of Christian Mysticism with its carefully selected texts from Christian tradition, east and west, demonstrates the constant thirst of the human being for the transcendent. Clement shows that our life is ever a mystical wonder." John E. Rotelle, O.S.A., Director Augustinian Heritage Institute, Villanova, PA "A book of uncommon interest and importance." A.M. Allchin, Church Times "Without any forcing of the sense, the book makes the Fathers seem our contemporaries." John Lawrence, The Tablet Olivier Clement is one of the foremost Orthodox theologians of the day. He teaches at the Institute of St. Sergius at Paris and is a member of the Ecumenical Institute founded by L'lnstitut Catholique. His many works, published in various languages, cover a wide range of subjects. THE ROOTS OF CHRISTIAN MYSTICISM Olivier Clement The Roots of Christian Mysticism Text and commentary K-P New City Press New York Published in the United States by New City Press 202 Cardinal Rd., Hyde Park, NY 12538 ©1995 New City, London Translated by Theodore Berkeley, O.C.S.O. and Jeremy Hummerstone from the original French edition Sources ©1982 Editions Stock, Paris Cover picture: La resurrection by ARCABAS Eglise de Saint Hugues de Chartreuse, France Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data: Clement, Olivier. [Sources. English] The roots of Christian mysticism text and commentary I Olivier Clement. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1-56548-029-5 : $19.95 l. Mysticism-History-Early church, ca. 30-600. 2. Fathers of the church. I. Title. BV5075.C5713 1995 248.2'2'09015-dc20 94-32957 Printed and bound in Great Britain hy The Cromwell Press, Melksham, Wiltshire CONTENTS Prefa ce 7 Introduction 9 Abbreviations 12 PART ONE: Understanding the Mystery 1. Quest, Encounter and Decision 15 2. God, Hidden and Universal 26 3. The God-Man 35 4. God: Unity and Difference 58 5. The Human Vocation 76 PART TWO: Initiation for Warfare 1. Ecclesia: A Place for Rebirth 1. Bride and Mother 95 2. Scripture, the First Sacrament 97 3. Baptism: Entry into New Life 103 4. The Eucharist, Power to make Divine 107 5. The Eucharist, Foundation of the Church 115 6. Eucharistic Practices 121 7. Stones and People 125 2. The Interior Combat 130 3. Confidence and Humility 149 4. Passions Transfigured, Thought Transcended 166 6 Contents PART THREE: Approaches to Contemplation 1. On Prayer 1. What is Prayer? 181 2. Trials 187 3. Times and Postures fo r Prayer 191 4. How to Pray? 199 5. To become Prayer 209 2. The Glory of God Hidden in Creatures 213 3. Enstasy - Ecstasy 1. Into the Unknown 230 2. Love and Inebriation 241 3. Darkness and Light, God's House, Inward Birth 246 4. The Embrace of the Infinite; the Birth of the Glorious Body 252 5. Martyrdom: Death-and-Resurrection 257 6. Deification 263 4. The DifficultLove 1. The Foundations of Love 2 70 2. The Demands of Love 276 3. A Paradoxical Morality 280 4. In the World but not of it 286 5. Hell and the Communion of Saints 296 Biographical Notes 309 Theological Notes: Arianism, Monophysitism, Early Monasticism 373 PREFACE Christianity is in the first place an Oriental religion, and it is a mystical religion. These assertions sound strange today, in an age when it is generally assumed that to be a Christian means to lead a good life. As for prayer, what does that amount to but a set of exercises which are both pointless and tedious? Nevertheless, whilst our consumer society has lost all feeling for mysticism, on the fringes there are thousands of people thirsting for it. When we see the shallow syncretism, the sentimental fascination with anything Eastern, and the bogus 'gurus' crowding round for the pickings, it is easy to sneer. But instead of laughing the Churches ought to be examining their consciences. Whose fault is it that so many have to resort to Tao or Zen in order to rediscover truths which were actually part of the Christian heritage right from the beginning? Who has hidden from them the fact that of all Oriental religions Christianity is the best and most complete; that mysticism is as necessary to humanity as science, if not more so? Intellectual research may be exciting, but it will not lead us to the secret of life. Nor will the truth be found through consumerism, though of course we must eat. Nor will it be found through action, although action is inevitable if we are to restrain our tendency to exploit one another. The researcher, the consumer, the politician are merely the avatars of a much deeper human nature. Intellectual knowledge, possession, action, all express a desire which transcends them. The human being is a craftsman - fa ber - and rational - sapiens - qualities which we share with the higher animals (the difference between us being one of degree and not of kind), but more importantly than that, we are mystical. In other words our roots are in fact religious and artistic, and therefore non-rational, or rather supra-rational. As soon as our material needs are satisfied, deeper needs assert themselves. It is now twenty centuries since Jesus declared that 'man does not 8 Preface live by bread alone', and we know today that not even the most effective psychoanalytical treatment can cure us of a deep sense of disquiet within us. There is not a superman or revolutionary who is not beset by unappeased desires. The Fathers of the Christian Church, for whom prayer was as natural as breathing, discovered this truth before we did, saying, 'Birds fly, fishes swim and man prays'. Islamic spiritual writers would later express the same idea, saying that the firstcry of the new-born babe and the last breath of the dying person together make up and proclaim the divine name. This anthology of the first Christian mystics therefore meets an urgent need, that of rediscovering the mystical sources of Christianity. It is not so much an anthology as a selection of passages with an extended and lively commentary. The authors represented here do not appear in chronological or alphabetical order. The extracts are arranged according to a theological plan, since the book deals specifically with 'Christian' mystics, those whose spirituality bears the deep marks of the revelation received from God. Most of these texts are hard to find, and many have been out of print for a long time. Some of them will seem astonishingly modern, others more obscure, but all should prove interesting. For mysticism is an existential attitude, a way of living at a greater depth. It is not the possession of any one religion or of any one Church; even atheists can be mystics. But perhaps Christianity with its fresh vitality was able to reconcile negation and affirmationin a new way. Perhaps it was able to unite together the divine and the human whilst neither confusing nor separating them. That vitality is still possible today; indeed the very future of the human race depends upon it. It is my hope that Olivier Clement's finework will convince the reader of this truth. Jean-Claude Barreau INTRODUCTION This book is intended not so much to popularize its subject as to make it known in the first place. Not only is Christianity something strange to people today, but it cannot even attract by its strangeness, because people are familiar with the distortions and caricatures of it which are constantly being hawked about. Therefore, in response to many requests, I have tried to allow the chief witnesses of the undivided Church to speak for themselves, to make audible the voice of Tradition, from which all the Churches spring and which alone enables them to share in an 'ecumenism in time', by recalling the experience in which they had their common origin. Tradition is not a written text with which we can choose to agree or disagree; it is not material suitable for dissection by scholars. It is the expression of the Spirit juvenescens, as Irenreus of Lyons says, 'in its youthfulness'. It is of course our foundation history, but it is also a living force, a tremendous 'passover', a passing over from the God-man to God-humanity and to the universe, to quote the Russian religious philosophers, whose disciple I gladly acknowledge myself to be. There can be no doubt that since the fourth or seventh century our spiritual awareness has changed profoundly. We live in the aftermath of Auschwitz, Hiroshima and the Gulag. Christendom, the society in which Christianity was, to the great detriment of freedom, the dominant ideology, has finallycollapsed, and we can no longer talk about matters of faith in the way that we used to do. The living God is no longer the Emperor of the World but crucified Love. Remember that many of the witnesses whose voices we are about to hear lived in times of persecution, when society veered between scepticism on the one hand and various forms of gnosis on the other. Others lived during the emergence of the monastic movement, which, in the face of the blandishments of the 'establishment', sternly and 10 Introduction recklessly asserted the irreducible nonconformity of the person who is 'drunk with God', the one who, 'after God, regards his brother as God'.
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