Mysticism

(From myein, to initiate). 

According to its etymology, implies a relation to mystery. In 
philosophy, Mysticism is either a religious tendency and desire of 
the human soul towards an intimate union with the Divinity, or a 
system growing out of such a tendency and desire. As a 
philosophical system, Mysticism considers as the end of philosophy 
the direct union of the human soul with the Divinity through 
contemplation and love, and attempts to determine the processes 
and the means of realizing this end. This contemplation, according 
to Mysticism, is not based on a merely analogical knowledge of the 
Infinite, but as a direct and immediate intuition of the Infinite. 
According to its tendency, it may be either speculative or 
practical, as it limits itself to mere knowledge or traces duties 
for action and life; contemplative or affective, according as it 
emphasizes the part of intelligence or the part of the will; 
orthodox or heterodox, according as it agrees with or opposes the 
Catholic teaching. We shall give a brief historical sketch of 
Mysticism and its influence on philosophy, and present a criticism 
of it. 

HISTORICAL SKETCH

In his "History of Philosophy", Cousin mentions four systems, 
between which, he says, philosophical thought has continually 
wavered, viz., Sensism, Idealism, Scepticism, and Mysticism. 
Whatever may be thought of this classification, it is true that 
Mysticism has exercised a large influence on philosophy, becoming 
at times the basis of whole systems, but more often entering as an 
element into their constitution. Mysticism dominated in the 
symbolic philosophy of ancient Egypt. The Taoism of the Chinese 
philosopher Lao-tze is a system of metaphysics and ethics in which 
Mysticism is a fundamental element (cf. De Harlez, "Laotze, le 
premier philosophe chinois", in "Memoires couronnes et autres de 
l'Academie", Brussels, January, 1886). The same may be said of 
Indian philosophy; the end of human reflection and effort in 
Brahmanism and Vedantism is to deliver the soul from its 
transmigrations and absorb it into Brahma forever. There is little 
of Mysticism in the first schools of Greek philosophy, but it 
already takes a large place in the system of Plato, e.g., in his 
theory of the world of ideas, of the origin of the world soul and 
the human soul, in his doctrine of recollection and intuition. The 
Alexandrian Jew Philo (30 B.C-A.D. 50) combined these Platonic 
elements with the data of the Old Testament, and taught that every 
man, by freeing himself from matter and receiving illumination 
from God, may reach the mystical, ecstatic, or prophetical state, 
where he is absorbed into the Divinity. The most systematic 
attempt at a philosophical system of a mystical character was that 
of the Neoplatonic School of Alexandria, especially of Plotinus 
(A.D. 205-70) in his "Enneads". His system is a syncretism of the 
previous philosophies on the basis of Mysticism--an emanative and 
pantheistic Monism. Above all being, there is the One absolutely 
indetermined, the absolutely Good. From it come forth through 
successive emanations intelligence (nous) with its ideas, the 
world-soul with its plastic forces (logoi spermatikoi), matter 
inactive, and the principle of imperfection. The human soul had 
its existence in the world-soul until it was united with matter. 
The end of human life and of philosophy is to realize the mystical 
return of the soul to God. Freeing itself from the sensuous world 
by purification (katharsis), the human soul ascends by successive 
steps through the various degrees of the metaphysical order, until 
it unites itself in a confused and unconscious contemplation to 
the One, and sinks into it: it is the state of ecstasis. 

With Christianity, the history of Mysticism enters into a new 
period. The Fathers recognized indeed the partial truth of the 
pagan system, but they pointed out also its fundamental errors. 
They made a distinction between reason and faith, philosophy and 
theology; they acknowledged the aspirations of the soul, but, at 
the same time, they emphasized its essential inability to 
penetrate the mysteries of Divine life. They taught that the 
vision of God is the work of grace and the reward of eternal life; 
in the present life only a few souls, by a special grace, can 
reach it. On these principles, the Christian school of Alexandria 
opposed the true gnosis based on grace and faith to the Gnostic 
heresies. St. Augustine teaches indeed that we know the essences 
of things in rationibus aeternis, but this knowledge has its