Growing Into God
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Growing Into God: A Beginner’s Guide to Christian Mysticism By John R. Mabry 1700 Shattuck Ave. #81 Berkeley, CA 94709 510-290-4349 [email protected] Mabry | Growing Into God 2 Copyright 2011 by John R. Mabry Some of the mystics’ biographies are adapted from Heretics, Mystics & Misfits by John R. Mabry (Berkeley: Apocryphile Press, 2004). All rights held by the author and used by permission. All scripture quotations from the New Revised Standard Version, unless otherwise identified. Mabry | Growing Into God 3 OTHER BOOKS BY JOHN R. MABRY Faithful Generations: Ministry for the Five Generations Alive Today Salvation of the True Rock: The Sufi Poetry of Najat Ozkaya Sermons That Connect: A Beginner’s Guide to Crafting and Delivering Powerful, Excellent Sermons The Kingdom: A Berkeley Blackfriars Novel People of Faith: An Interfaith Companion to the Revised Common Lectionary The Way of Thomas: Nine Insights for Enlightened Living from the Secret Sayings of Jesus The Monster God: Coming to Terms with the Dark Side of Divinity Noticing the Divine: An Introduction to Interfaith Spiritual Guidance Faith Styles: Ways People Believe God Has One Eye: The Mystics of the World’s Religions God is a Great Underground River: Articles, Essays, and Homilies on Interfaith Spirituality I Believe in a God Who is Growing: Process Perspectives on the Creed, the Sacraments, and the Christian Life Who Are the Independent Catholics? (with John P. Plummer) Crisis and Communion: The Re-Mythologization of the Eucharist Heretics, Mystics & Misfits God As Nature Sees God: A Christian Reading of the Tao Te Ching Mabry | Growing Into God 4 Dedication For my dear wife, LISA FULLAM for her tireless support (and because she “gets it”) Mabry | Growing Into God 5 Contents Notes & Acknowledgements............................................................................................................00 Introduction............................................................................................................................................00 Chapter One: Awakening...................................................................................................................00 Chapter Two: Purgation ....................................................................................................................00 Transition: Dark Night of the Senses ...........................................................................................00 Chapter Three: Illumination............................................................................................................00 Transition: Dark Night of the Spirit..............................................................................................00 Chapter Four: Union............................................................................................................................00 Conclusion: This Tradition Belongs to You...............................................................................00 Questions & Answers..........................................................................................................................00 The Mystics, in their Own Words ..................................................................................................00 Spiritual Practices ................................................................................................................................00 Appendix A: The Mystic’s Journey in Liturgy & Tradition..................................................00 Appendix B: The Mystic’s Journey & Spiritual Development Theory............................00 References ...............................................................................................................................................00 Index...........................................................................................................................................................00 Mabry | Growing Into God 6 Notes & Acknowledgments This book began—as so many of my books do—in a fit of frustration over the lack of appropriate materials for a class I was teaching—specifically a Christian Mysticism class at John F. Kenney University in Pleasant hill. It arose directly from my sympathy for my students, who had to wade through nearly 400 pages of Evelyn Underhill’s Mysticism. Now, don’t get me wrong, Mysticism is a classic, a masterwork, an unparalleled document in the field of world mysticism. It’s also one difficult read. It is, by turns, sublimely evocative and maddeningly opaque. It is also written in a stilted early-twentieth century style with one foot still firmly planted in Victorian academia, which is a friend to nobody. Thus, it was my intention to adapt Underhill, to create a reader-friendly version of Mysticism. My debt to Underhill, therefore, is enormous. I claim little wisdom of my own, Evelyn Underhill is my master, and I feel privileged to have been able to sit at her literary feet. If you like this book, I recommend you turn next to its inspiration and source, and pick up a copy of Mysticism. You won’t be sorry. You’ll also note that I have quoted some of Underhill’s more outstanding lines from this book as quotations from the mystics, placing her among their august number. This is, I think, entirely appropriate, as she was a practicing Anglican, and a very mystical soul indeed. her feast day is celebrated in the Anglican Communion on June 15th. She’s not officially St. Evelyn, but for many of us, she’s close. I’m also indebted to several other authors, translators, and compilers whose work sorting and presenting excerpts from the writings of the mystics made my job of selecting quotations so much easier, especially Bear & Co.’s Meditations With… series, John Anthony McGuckin’s The Book of Mystical Chapters, Bernard McGinn’s The Essential Writings of Christian Mysticism, and, of course, Underhill’s Mysticism. Even when I chose not to quote from them directly, they pointed me in the right directions. The foundation of the text that follows was laid during a series of sermons delivered to my parish, Grace North Church, in Berkeley, as well as several lectures for my JFK students. I’m grateful to my parishioners for their interest in the subject, their encouragement, and their suggestions. Likewise, my JFK students, who asked great questions and delighted in putting me on the spot. My thanks to Vernice Solimar for asking me to teach the Christian Mysticism class, and to Lola McCrary for her enthusiastic encouragement. I am also indebted to Mabry | Growing Into God 7 my interfaith spiritual guidance students at the Chaplaincy Institute for Arts and Interfaith Ministry and the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, as well as my spiritual direction clients, in whom I watched so much of this book’s contents “made flesh and dwelling among us.” The questions for the “Question & Answer” chapter were not generated by me, but were real questions submitted by friends who read this. Thank you John C. Robinson, Gina M. Steele, Kevin Filocamo, Deni Harding, Faith Freed, Grace Gilliam, Nancy Schluntz, Sharon Lehman, Sharon Moody, Tony Lorenzen, Pamela Falkowski, and Keith Johnston. They also pointed out typos. Thank you! Thanks also to my research assistants who worked so hard to help me meet the deadline for this manuscript, especially Jackie Gamble, Rachel Bauman, and Keith Johnston. Also much thanks to Bishop Michael Milner for keeping me honest, and for his assistance during the final stages of this manuscript. If I forgot anyone, I owe you dinner. A final note regarding inclusive language in this text, or the lack of same. I consider myself a feminist—one of those occasionally tiresome folk who are of the opinion that women are the equal of men in every way. In theory, I agree with the importance of inclusive language in liturgy and God-talk. In practice, however, this is an exceedingly clumsy proposition. Any attempt to remove masculine pronouns— such as using gender-neutral language—distances God, and obliterates or diminishes the relational character of one’s language. Changing the pronouns from masculine to feminine is equally problematic—it is so jarring that it leaves the reader thinking only about the oddness of the language, completely distracting one from the point of the text. No, for all of its evils, I have decided to retain the masculine references to God in this text. For one thing, changing them all would have done violence to the intended language of every mystic I quote. They all wrote using masculine imagery and pronouns for God, and I would rather err on the side of being thought backwards and sexist than I would on the side of untoward revisionism, distortion, and distraction. There’s no easy answer to this one, and I hope that you will be a forgiving reader and allow grace where greater errors might easily have followed had I chosen a different strategy. Mabry | Growing Into God 8 Whoever believes, fears. Whoever fears is humble. Whoever is humble becomes gentle. Whoever is gentle pacifies the unruly forces of desire and aggression and begins to keep the commandments. Whoever keeps the commandments is purified. Whoever is purified is illuminated. Whoever is illuminated is made a spouse of the divine Logos-Bridegroom and shares with him the bridal chamber of mysteries. —Maximos the Confessor1 Mabry | Growing Into God 9 Introduction A pear seed grows up into a pear tree, a nut seed grows up into a nut tree—but a seed of God grows into God, to God. —Meister Eckhart2 In the second century Acts