Christianity, mystical traditions

Mystical Christianity This term describes various Christian ascetic traditions that sought a personal vision of God and made use of Neoplatonic ideas. Mystical Christianity has been part of the religion from its beginning in the first century. Notable Christian mystics are Ramon Hull (1236-1315), St. Francis of Assisi (1181 or 1182-1226), Meister Eckhart (c.1260-c.1328), and Teresa of Avila (1515-1582). 

Hermetic philosophy became a major influence on all Western magical practices and mystical traditions. Neoplatonism, alchemy, Gnosticism, Kabalah, Sufism, mystical Christianity, and occultism are included in this influence. There are seven basic concepts that make up this view. 

Delight, if properly understood, could be a path to self-knowledge. The city of Alexandria, then, represented not just a fantasy of sensuous release, but a spiritual signpost and cultural palimpsest a repository of the classical world where philosophers had sought to reconcile various esoteric and mystical traditions before the codification of orthodox Christian doctrine. 

Ault, Donald. "Blake and Newton." In Epochen der Naturmystik Hermetische Tradition im wissenschaftlichen Fortschritt. Grands moments de la mystique de la nature. Mystical approaches to nature. Unter Mitarbeit zahlreicher Fachgelehrter des In- und Auslandes, eds. Antoine Faivre and Rolf Christian Zimmerman. Berlin Schmidt, 1979. 

A deeply affirmative book, Theosophia introduces wholly unexpected aspects of Christian tradition. Where mainstream Christianity seems anti-nature, Christian theosophy affirms a profound nature-mysticism where it seems anti-erotic, theosophy affirms a powerful religious eroticism and where it is portrayed as rigidly patriarchal, theosophy affirms a mysticism founded in the divine Sophia, the feminine personification... 

Smith, Catherine. "Mysticism and feminism." In Women of spirit female leadership in the Jewish and Christian traditions, eds. Rosemary Radford Ruether and Eleanor McLaughlin. New York , 1979. 

The Christian Eucharist, as prefigured in the Jewish tradition, concerns itself with the bringing a Man to life in the Mystic Body of God ... 

The Hermetic writings formed the basis of the magical tradition in European science. The revival of these mystical and magical ideas received some sympathy from Christian theologians, as miracles were much easier to explain than under the Aristotelian system. The renewed interest in neo-Platonism exerted an influence on many of the later European alchemists and iatrochemists. 

---