People have often asked or challenged me, “Why study mystics from so many centuries ago? What can they possibly have to say to us today?” It is true that early Christian mystics knew nothing about the Renaissance, the industrial and scientific revolutions, or the technological age. Yet, they knew most intimately what we postmoderns most desperately need: primordial freedom born of stillness.
The early mystics experienced awareness and divine union that eludes most people, including most Christians, today. They had holistic vision. Their educational and cultural development was occasionally (not always—have you met St. Augustine or St. Hildegard of Bingen?!) lacking by today’s standards. Yet, their state of consciousness was timeless. There are three themes of the great mystics that I want to explore in this chapter, explaining how and why I am personally drawn to each of them:
1) Nature Mysticism
2) Still Small Voice
3) Stillness and Silence
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Also by Amos Smith, Healing the Divide: Recovering Christianity’s Mystic Roots
The Way of the Wisdom Jesus: Going Beyond the Mind to the Heart of His Teaching – If you put aside what you think you know about Jesus and approach the Gospels as though for the first time, something remarkable happens: Jesus emerges as a teacher of the transformation of consciousness. In this online course, Episcopal priest, teacher, and retreat and conference leader Cynthia Bourgeault serves as a masterful guide to Jesus’s vision and to the traditional contemplative practices you can use to experience the heart of his teaching for yourself. Based upon her book the Wisdom Jesus.
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