Curious Christian

Reflections on culture, nature, and spirituality from a Christian perspective

Mysticism

Published by

Matt Stone

2007-10-14

What is the difference between pantheistic mysticism and monotheistic mysticism?

(Pan)theistic mysticism is about “awakening” to the essential equivalence of creation and Creator. It comes out of experiencing God as all and everything. It is known for its emphasis on ontological unity, on denying the reality of the self, on just being.

(Mono)theistic mysticism is about “awakening” to the radical dependency of creation on Creator. It comes out of experiencing God as one and only. It is known for emphasis on relational unity, on denying the centrality of the self, on falling in love.

The mystery before us. As these realizations are mutually incompatible, one must ask, which is more plausible? As a Christian, as someone who affirms the resurrection of Jesus, an event which points to our radical dependency of God, as historical, you can take it I affirm the latter approach.

Tags God, Mystery

7 responses to “Mysticism”

kay

2007-10-15

Any experiences I have had that I might label as mystical have definitely fallen into the latter category.

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Matt Stone

2007-10-15

I started with the first but I shifted to the second, partly on account of answered prayer. I came to the realization that God was far more initiative taking than the first view allowed for 🙂

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Steve Hayes

2007-10-15

I think the pantheist view (as you describe it) also has a lot in common with atheist views that deny the reality of the person — at the risk of being repetitious I refer to my synchroblog post some months ago on consciousness. Affirming the reality of the person is relational.

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Matt Stone

2007-10-16

Hey, Steve, have you got a direct link, or could you point us to the specific month. Had a look but I couldn’t find it.

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Steve Hayes

2007-10-17

Here’s the direct link: Notes from underground: Consciousness of absurdity and the absurdity of consciousness

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Matt Stone

2007-10-20

Thanks Steve, yes I agree with you. Particularly liked this quote:
“If we rely solely on what neuroscience can tell us, the only system of values we can derive from it is nihilism: nothing exists, nothing is knowable, nothing has value.”
Ecclesiastes reloaded eh?

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Steve Hayes

2007-10-20

Yup — and the brain trying to understand its own functioning is bound to lead to circular reasoning ere long!

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