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1
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2
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- Neither post-Reformation Protestantism or Catholicism was as open to the
mystics as the church of the Middle Ages.
- Heavy Emphasis on correct teaching:
- Council of Trent
- The Protestant Confessions
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3
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- Aside from a handful of Protestant liberals, most Protestant
theologians have been opposed to mysticism and the mystical impulse.
- Martin Luther’s favorite phrase for his non-
- Catholic enemies was “Swarming Spirits,” and he pictured many of his
opponents as mystics who replaced the sure Word of God with the
vagaries of their own experience.
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4
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- I would argue that much of Protestant mysticism went underground and
adopted a language that was self-consciously different from that of
Catholic mysticism to describe somewhat similar experiences:
- Conversion
- Presence of the Holy Spirit
- The religion of the heart
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5
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- Protestantism rarely generated the various religious orders,
monasteries, confraternities, etc. that provided special places for
women in Catholic Europe.
- Interestingly, although they were not published, some Protestant groups,
such as the Puritans that stressed religious experience did have many
women diarists and writers of private papers.
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6
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- Modern liberationist theologians have rediscovered Thomas Muentzer.
- A contemporary of Luther, he served the radical parish of Zwickau (home
of the Zwickau prophets) and the parish at Allsted.
- Rejected infant baptism in favor of a baptism of the spirit.
- Caught up in the interpretation of Daniel and Revelation
- Became a leader in the Peasant’s Revolt of 1525 and was executed when
the great cause failed.
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7
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- 1489 Birth in Ossig, Silesia.
- 1518 Spiritual Awakening
- 1523 Rejects Luther’s Understanding of the Supper
- Series of Public Debates with
Lutheran Pastors, separated by periods of exile
- 1551 Dies and his body secretly buried, perhaps in Ulm.
- His followers still have a “church” in Philadelphia
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8
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- Jesus' flesh, he taught, was increasingly divinised by his divine
nature during his earthly sojourn, so that it was transfigured and
thereafter resurrected, taken up, and glorified at the right hand of
the Father. It is on this glorified flesh that the believer feeds by
faith; it is this flesh which by faith believers spiritually partake
of, and which, in turn, grows like a grain of mustard in them as they
grow daily in the image of Christ.
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9
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- From this it is clear that even the beloved disciples of Christ did not
know or understand everything at once, that the Lord did not reveal
everything to them in the years He was with them, nor did he bind their
consciences to his oral teachings alone, much less present them with
Articles of faith; rather, He let their minds open to the Holy Spirit
and preserved for Him a free judgment in His disciples. It was then for
the Holy Spirit to take from the riches of Christ whatever He wished to
teach them; indeed, He is the Spirit of the Lord who honors and
glorifies Christ, and leads Christians into all truth.
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10
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- Persecuted until the 18th century
- Were protected for a season on
the estate of Count Nicholas von Zinzendorf
- Forced to flee after the death of the Prince in 1733, they went to
Pennsylvania where a handful continue the traditions of Schwenckfeld’s
mystical views of Christ and the Sacrament.
- One congregation in Norristown, Pa is part of the United Church of
Christ.
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11
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- Contemporary of Luther
- Early forced into exile for his view that Christians did not doctrinal
standards but could trust the Holy Spirit to lead them into truth.
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12
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- Graduate of the University of
Ingolstadt expert in Greek and Laton
- One of the original group that baptized themselves and founded the Swiss
Brethren in 1525.
- Died of the plague in 1527 after two years of wandering in exile.
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13
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- "It is better that he had ordained sin than that he had prevented
it, which he could not have done without having forced and driven men
like a stone or a block. . . . For sin is over against God to be
reckoned as nothing; and however great it might be, God can, will, and
indeed already has, overcome it for himself to his own eternal praise
without harm for any creatures." (Whether God is the Cause of Evil)
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14
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- God “speaks clearly in everyone,
in the deaf, dumb, and blind, even in unreasoning beasts, even in leaves
and grass, stone and wood, heaven and earth, and all that is in them,
that they may hear and do his will. In man alone, who does not want to
be nothing and yet is even more than nothing, is there resistance to
it."
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15
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- It is not enough for God to be in you; you must also be in God."
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16
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- “But you, if you hear your brothers say something that is strange to
you, do not at once contradict, but hear whether it be right, whether
you may accept it. If you do not like to hear it, still, do not condemn
him, and if it appears to you that he is mistaken, consider whether you
may not be more mistaken."
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17
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- Part of Franck’s significance is that he, along with Matthias Flacius
Illyricus (1520-1575) was among the first to give the heretics an
important place in the history of the church.
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18
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- Franck maintained that the real church was the group of people who had
experienced the Spirit and that no institution could stand in the place
of this body as God’s beloved child.
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19
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- “If I had the choice I should prefer to be among those whom the world
condemned as heretics rather than among those who have been esteemed as
saints”
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20
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- Greatest Protestant mystic
- Very difficult to read.
- Shoemaker and seller of gloves
- He was in constant tension with
the Lutheran Church authorities.
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21
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- Deeply interested in the idea of Sophia which he renewed for his own
time.
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22
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- Philippus Aureolus Paracelsus
- Very interested in alchemy, in the quest for new forms of natural
knowledge.
- Many words from the magical and alchemical vocabulary appear in his
writings/
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23
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- “No word can express the great joy and triumph I experienced, as of a
life out of death, as of a resurrection from the dead! . . . While in
this state, as I was walking through a field of flowers, in fifteen
minutes, I saw through the mystery of creation, the original of this
world and of all creatures. . . . Then for seven days I was in a
continual state of ecstasy, surrounded by the light of the Spirit, which
immersed me in contemplation and happiness. I learned what God is, and
what is his will. . . . I knew not how this happened to me, but my heart
admired and praised the Lord for it!"
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24
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25
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- God’s Movement from Godsself
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26
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27
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- Nicholas of Cusa had posed the problem.
- Boehme’s idea is the fact of Duality implies a deeper unity.
- God can do this by being the ground that lies beyond the opposition or
contradiction.
- “The Ungrund of the unmanifested Godhead is boldly represented in the
English translations of Boehme by the word Abyss, in a sense altogether
unexplained by its Biblical use.”
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28
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- During the Civil War, his English followers tended to merge with the
Quakers
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29
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- Born in 1624; died in 1691.
- Came to maturity in the period leading to the English Civil War.
- Period of intense controversy over religion as new groups, both somewhat
orthodox and less than orthodox, became common.
- One of the primary issues that separated Anglican from Puritan was the
question of regeneration and whether conversion was needed.
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30
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- Classical Seeker of the period, wandering from teacher to teacher for
answers.
- Increasingly found his answers within himself. God told him, for example, that one
did not have to go to Oxford or Cambridge to become a priest.
- God also told him that physical holy places or churches were not
necessary.
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31
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- As I cannot declare the misery I was in, it was so great and heavy upon
me, so neither can I set forth the mercies of God unto me in all my
misery. O the everlasting love of God to my soul, when I was in great
distress!
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32
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- One day, when I had been walking solitarily abroad, and was come home, I
was taken up in the love of God, so that I could not but admire the
greatness of His love; and while l was in that condition, it was opened
unto me by the eternal light and power, and I therein clearly saw that
all was done and to be done in and by Christ, and how He conquers and
destroys this tempter the devil, and all his works, and is atop of him;
and that all these troubles were good for me, and temptations for the
trial of my faith, which Christ had given me.
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33
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- In 1743, he had a deep spiritual crisis which he documented in his
Journal of Dreams.
- God became his teacher:I saw also in vision that fine bread on a plate
was presented to me; which was a sign that the Lord Himself will
instruct me since I have now come first into the condition that I know
nothing, and all preconceived judgments are taken away from me; which is
where learning commences; namely, first to be a child and thus be nursed
into knowledge, as is the case with me now.
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34
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- Began in 1648 when he began to preach publically and to gather
followers.
- Movement came to be called “Quakers”because they often shook when they
preached.
- Frequently imprisoned. Over 1,000
in prison in the 1650s.
- Puritans in Boston hung 4 Quaker women at this time.
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35
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- Everyone receives what they need from God in order to be accepted by
God.
- The Bible is valuable, but it is not as important as the God within who
validates the Scriptures or, in some cases, invalidates them.
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36
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- Religious Equality Between Men and Women
- A different way of raising children.
- Like the Anabaptists, no oaths; no signs of respect to worldly
authority.
- After the restoration, the Quakers came to accept pacifism on the basis
of the shared light of all people
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37
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- George Fox stands for something too—a thought—the thought that wakes in
silent hours—perhaps the deepest, most eternal thought latent in the
human soul. This is the thought of God, merged in the thoughts of moral
right and the immortality of identity. Great, great is this thought—aye,
greater than all else."
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38
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- Born in 1678 in Stockholm
- His father was a noted bishop
- Made his money the old-fashioned way: he inherited it from his second
wife
- Deeply interested in science: studied in England
- Founded the journal Daedalus Hyperboreus that became the foundation of
the Swedish Royal Society of
Sciences
- nebular hypothesis first published by him
- Interested in spiritualism and is said to have contacted the Queen of
Sweden’s brother for her.
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39
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- Eight quarto volumes were published anonymously in London between 1749
and 1756
- The work is a mystical meditation on the books of Genesis and Exodus.
- The theory of “correspondences” shows that what “is” on earth
corresponds to what “is” in the world beyond.
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40
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- Believed that the earth and heaven are separated by a world of spirits
that stands between the two.
- Argued that it was scientifically and religiously necessarily that human
life exist throughout the universe.
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41
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- Without such a Life, the Word as to the letter is dead. The case in this
respect is the same as it is with man, who--as is known in the Christian
world--is both internal and external. When separated from the internal
man, the external man is the body, and is therefore dead; for it is the
internal man that is alive and that causes the external man to be so,
the internal man being the soul. So is it with the Word, which, in
respect to the letter alone, is like the body without the soul.
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42
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- Man is altogether ignorant that he is governed of the Lord through
angels and spirits, and that with every one there are at least two
spirits, and two angels. By spirits man has communication with the world
of spirits, and by angels with heaven. Without communication by means of
spirits with the world of spirits, and by means of angels with heaven,
and thus through heaven with the Lord, man could not live at all; his
life entirely depends on this conjunction, so that if the spirits and
angels were to withdraw, he would instantly perish.
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43
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- Swedenborg deeply influential on Emerson, Blake, Henry and William
James, and others.
- One of the most important speculative systems proposed in the Protestant
church.
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44
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- William Law
- Henry More
- Jonathan Edwards
- Ephrata Cloister
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Notes
