#Christian Mysticism

[thyateira]

Medievalists speculate that the wound, pictured as a slit in Jesus’s side emitting blood and clear liquid, led some mystics to imagine other bodily slits that emanate blood and clear fluids. [...] Additionally, the blood of Jesus’s wounds is said to bring forth life; likewise, life is brought forth through the blood-discharging female sexual organ.

The idea of Jesus’s side wound being like a womb then led to artists showing a female — either baby or adult — being birthed from that wound. The birthed human is the Church, born through the life-giving blood of the Son of God … delivered through Jesus’s vagina. Jesus, then, becomes gender non-binary, bearing both male and female sexual organs.

Jesus’s Vagina: A Medieval Meditation // Emily Swan

[reality-nihilism]

"The Vision of the Cross"

Gustave Doré, 1832.

[psalmlover]

mary in a flower crown, st gabriel of the sorrowful mother, pennsylvania, usa

[nyxshadowhawk]

Amazing Christian mystical art from a medieval manuscript!

@cryptotheism Get a load of the colors on this one! I don’t know which one this is because I didn’t call it up myself (and I think this is one of the ones you needed special permission for, anyway), but it’s incredible.

[tending-toward-silence]

*through clenched teeth* All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well

[idylls-of-the-divine-romance]

Other Christians: Yeah I’m a Christian, but don’t worry, I’m normal.

Meanwhile, Christian Tumblr: I worship a triune God who emptied themself to become a human. He was born a poor teenager and grew up in poverty and at risk of homelessness. He was fully God and fully Human. He taught and lived in radical indiscriminate self giving love and subversive peaceful resistance of oppression. He fought the cause of the widow, orphan, immigrant, poor, and oppressed. He loved the sinner so much they left their sin and followed him, and reconciled both the government allying capitalist and the rebel freedom fighter to harmony in himself. He invites us to take his prescience into ourselves by eating his flesh and drinking his blood. My God then enthroned himself as the exalted king of the world by dying the death of a cursed blaspheming slave. He then rose from the dead and decided his first witnesses would be women, whose witness is worthless in court. His followers then went on to live in voluntary communism, to advocate radical generosity, to destroy ethnic barriers, to elevate the inherent humanity of women and the enslaved, to self identify as exiled and enslaved refugees and pilgrims, to equate God with Love, to diagnose the government as a necessary evil worth responding to with equal parts submission and resistance, and to make the preposterous claim that we conquer the world by giving our lives in self sacrificing love. In my faith, normalcy is heresy.

[undaughtered]

do you have any favourite historical overviews or introductions to christian mysticism that you could please recommend? ilysm habibti

works marked with * are what i would recommend for absolute beginners on the topic.

introductory works:

thomas merton, a course in christian mysticism: thirteen sessions ith the famous trappist monk*

william a. richards, sacred knowledge: psychadelics and religious experiences (on the practical applications of entheogenic, or drug-induced, mysticism)

william james, the varieties of religious experience, especially lectures 16 and 17*

bernard mcginn, the essentials of christian mysticism (arguably the best starter anthology of christian mystical writing)*

mircea eliade, the sacred and the profane

robert s. ellwood, mysticism and religion*

ed. amy hollywood, the cambridge companion to christian mysticism*

steven t. katz (ed.), mysticism and sacred scripture, especially the first chapter, "mysticism and the interpretation of sacred scripture," and the second chapter, "mysticism and scriptural justification"

primary works:

anon, the cloud of unknowing and other works (a.c. sperings translation for penguin is probably the most accessible)

teresa of avila, the life of saint tereesa of avila by herself

simone weil, waiting for god*

julian of norwich, revelations of divine love*

john of the cross, spiritual canticle (i recommend this to newcomers to christian mysticism over dark night of the soul, which is extremely dense and often devastating)

meister eckhart's sermons- though the book i'm linking is essentially a primer to german mystics

hildegard of bingen's scivias; but this selected works is a good place to start

margery kempe, the book of margery kempe by herself*

bernard of clairvaux’s sermons on song of songs*

marguerite porete, the mirror of simple souls

rebecca jackson, gifts of power*

catherine of siena, dialog

secondary works:

evelyn underhill, mysticism: a study in the nature and development of spiritual consciousness

evelyn underhill, practical mysticism*

caroline walker bynum, jesus as mother: studies in the spirituality of the high middle ages

caroline walker bynum, wonderful blood: theology and practice in late medieval northern germany and beyond

caroline walker bynum, holy feast and holy fast: the religious significance of food to medieval women*

grace m. jantzen, "eros and the abyss: reading medieval mystics in postmodernity"

grace m. jantzen, becoming divine: towards a feminist philosophy of religion

denys turner, the darkness of god: negativity in christian mysticism

jeffrey kripal, roads of excess palaces of wisdom: eroticism and reflexivity in the study of mysticism (+a lecture by him)

marsha aileen hewitt, freud on religion*

sarah clairmont, "she'll eat him up she loves him so" (one of my all time favourite papers)

also, the bible: which is probably the most vital of works on christian mysticism, as nothing you read about mysticism will not be influenced by it. i personally have recently been reading a combination of the JPS tanakh and the jewish annotated new testament, but the new revised standard edition (+apocrypha) is generally standard. if you are reading the bible academically for learning about mysticism, or have absolutely no background with reading the bible, i recommend the following books specifically:

the torah (genesis*, exodus*, leviticus, numbers, deuteronomy*)

the major prophets isaiah* and ezekiel*

the minor prophets (all of which constitute my favourite part of the bible) joel*, jonah*, micah*, malachai*

psalms*, job*, the song of songs*

the gospels, especially mark* and john (mark is the oldest and most "jewish," john is the most recent and most "gentile"; matthew and luke are probably more familiar than both)

the epistles: james*, jude*, 1-3 john, 1-2 peter, hebrews

the revelation to john

everything i've recommended here you can find online (internet archive or annasarchive); i've also tried to keep it extremely general and limited to work that i've personally read and vetted. if there's specific aspects or topics you're interested in (ie women's mysticism, medieval mysticism, mysticism and eating, freud and mysticism, commentaries on specific mystics etc) just drop me an ask! very honoured you've asked me beloved <3

[hairtusk]

Caroline Walker Bynum, The Female Body and Religious Practices in the Later Middle Ages

[thurifer-at-heart]

Love people even in their sin, for that is the semblance of Divine Love and is the highest love on earth. Love all of God's creation, the whole and every grain of sand of it. Love every leaf, every ray of God's light. Love the animals, love the plants, love everything. If you love everything, you will perceive the divine mystery in things. Once you perceive it, you will begin to comprehend it better every day. And you will come at last to love the whole world with an all-embracing love.

—Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

[many-sparrows]

Almost started crying because I was thinking about how I'll never be able to physically kiss Jesus's hands (I would have made a superb ecstatic mystic). But my boyfriend's strong hands are right here, in mine. And I can talk to my bestfriend late into the night just like I would talk to God in a prayer and her voice will answer back. I think it's imperative that we take our love and devotion to the divine and project it outward. What is the point of devoting your life to 12 hrs of prayer a day or poverty or silence if it does not move you to enrich the lives of others? Serving the Light we find in each other is the chief way to serve the Savior. Kiss Him by kissing the hands of those you love, see His face in the ones who need you, listen when He speaks through others, and so forth

[noosphe-re]

[reality-nihilism]

A veiled Carmelite nun.

[psalmlover]

[jesawyer]

Hello, I started reading about anchorites because of playing Pentiment, but it sounds like the whole "receiving visions from God" part isn't really a central part of anchorites? Is that correct?

Either way, is there a different term used within (medieval/renaissance) Christianity to refer to people who regularly received visions, like the character in Pentiment?

And do you have any recommendations for where I could read more about the prophecy aspect specifically?

Thank you ^•^

That's correct; visions were not assumed to be part of living as an anchorite. However, in addition to being an anchorite, Sister Amalie is also a mystic. The closest historical analogue would probably be Julian of Norwich, who was an English anchorite and mystic in the 14th/15th centuries.

One of the saints mentioned frequently in Pentiment, Hildegard of Bingen, was also a mystic.

Christian mysticism is a really fascinating topic. Prophecy is only a small part of it and many mystics did not have prophetic visions. Anyway, great thing to dive into IMO.

[n3p2ne]

Simone Weil, Gravity and Grace, 1947

[idylls-of-the-divine-romance]

In this house, we do philosophy in the kitchen, theology in the bedroom, and mysticism in the garden. As God intended.