Christian Mystics: Their Lives and Legacies throughout the Ages Kindle Edition
by Ursula King (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.3 out of 5 stars 57 ratings
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Introduces sixty men and women whose great devotion and mystical relation to God transformed the times in which they lived and continues to affect our search for spirituality today.
Print length
226 pages
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Review
'Ursula King has succeeded admirably ... with a sure grasp of the subject and a clear prose style, she takes us on a journey through the lives and works of some of the great spiritual teachers of the Church.' - Church Times
'This is an excellent book for the reader new to the field and a good refresher for those more familiar.' - The Scientific and Medical Network
'Attractive and stimulating ... This is an invaluable introduction to a highly complex subject. It is succinctly written ... [and] is an ideal introduction for students and those interested in this rich tradition.' - Theology
'Ursula King has succeeded admirably ... with a sure grasp of the subject and a clear prose style, she takes us on a journey through the lives and works of some of the great spiritual teachers of the Church.' - Church Times--This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.
About the Author
Ursula King is Professor Emertius in Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Bristol. Widely known internationally, her many publications include several books on Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and women in world religions. She now works freelance on comparative spirituality, interfaith dialogue and wider issues of religion and gender. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.
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Product details
ASIN : B00CTPUJIM
Publisher : Paulist Press™ (22 May 2013)
Language : English
File size : 523 KB
Text-to-Speech : Enabled
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Not Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
Print length : 226 pagesBest Sellers Rank: 999,689 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)4,440 in History of Christianity (Books)
7,181 in Christian Church & Bible History
627,813 in Textbooks & Study GuidesCustomer Reviews:
4.3 out of 5 stars 57 ratings
Customer reviews
4.3 out of 5 stars
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Lissa U
4.0 out of 5 stars Good read!Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on 16 February 2018
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Wow, I didn't know much about mystics until I read this book! Good read!
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Stephen P. Smith
5.0 out of 5 stars God is joined to God`s creationReviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 24 August 2007
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Technology offers the attraction for hot new inventions, and these can even seduce our nature into accepting change for changes's sake. And confronted with secular pretense and it is easy to miss the subtleness of mystical experience altogether. Ursula King's "The Christian Mystics" provides an account of this other activity that is possible to miss. The alternative activity cannot be dismissed easily seeing that King catalogues the life of numerous mystics, from early Christians (e.g., Clement of Alexandria, Origen) to those contemporary mystics (e.g., Simone Weil, Thomas Merton).
King (page 15) writes: "All mysticism is characterized by a passion for unity. To the mystic, true Being and Ultimate Reality are One. This can be experienced as both impersonal and personal, as Ground of Being, Ultimate Source, Perfect Goodness, Eternal Wisdom, Devine Love, God, or the Godhead. This Reality contains, yet transcends, everything there is. It is the One whom all is lost and all is found." Mystics share the same experiences, and as these experiences are common they provide a level of validity that is not so easily ignored.
I must comment here. God is not found separate from God's creation, God is with us. The dualism that finds God apart from our world, either coming from theists or atheists, does not find support coming from mystical experience. I need only point to King. The situation is reversed from dualistic constraints, it is mysticism that is open to scientific investigation of a kind proposed by Wallace in "The Taboo of Subjectivity".
King (page 19) writes: "Of Great importance also is the concept of God who is not simply One, Ultimate Reality or the Absolute, but a personal Being who yet transcends all notions of personhood found among human beings by forming a community of persons with the mystery of the Trinity."
King (page 80) writes of Hildegard of Bingen: "She describes her visions in terms of light, speaks of mystical rapture and prophecies, and expresses her passionate desire for God with great intensity. Her visions are marked by brilliant colors, her descriptions by apophatic negations."
King (page 109) quotes Meister Eckhart: "The union of God with the soul is so great that it is scarcely to believe. And God is in himself so far above that no form of knowledge or desire can ever reach him... Desire is deep, immeasurably so. But nothing that the intellect can grasp and nothing that desire can desire is God. Where understanding and desire end, there is darkness and there God's radiance begins."
King (pages 152-153) writes on St. Teresa of Avila: "For Teresa, mental prayer was the beginning of the path to new ways of understanding, to the tasting of deep mysteries of faith, which included the indwelling presence of the Trinity and of Jesus Christ in his humanity and divinity, as well as insights into sin and grace, the Church and the sacraments. Her visions were both spiritual and physical, and she eventually experienced the grace of perfect union with Christ so that she became inseparable from him `as when a little stream enters the sea'."
King (page 235) writes on Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: "As a child he had experienced a deep sense of oneness with nature, later followed by mystical experiences linked to `vast open spaces' of sea and desert, to the riches of fossil life and the vibrant energy of cosmic evolution. All these made him ecstatically perceive `that through all of nature I was immersed in God.' For him Jesus `comes to us clothed in the glory of the world.' "
Trinity finds agreement with the Advaitic experience. King (page 241) writes: "Swami Abhishiktananda's experience included the belief that there is an Advaitic dimension, an experience of deep, underlying unity, in Christianity itself which must be recovered." On page (242): "He realized a profoundly personal synthesis of Hindu-Christian spirituality in his own life."
King (page 247) writes: "Reading the stories of past Christian mystics, it is remarkable how often mystical experiences of union and communion occur through intimate contact with nature, with the haunting beauty of its myriad forms of life. Hildegard of Bingen saw God's fiery essence in the beautiful meadows and waters, the blossoms, fruits and breeze, but also the sun, moon and starts, whereas Fracis of Assis spoke to the animals and praised Brother Sun."
King (page 248) writes on the basic message of all mystics: "Divine radiance, light and life suffuse all there is. It is for us to accept this, and just let be or, in the words of the Christian mystics, to conform our will to God's will."
Disclosure: My agenda is declared in my profile.
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wandering monk
4.0 out of 5 stars Mysticism in a NutshellReviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 20 July 2006
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Writing a book on the history of Christian mysticism would be a daunting task for any historian, because everyone is looking for something different. This book delivers neat, concise and well written mini biographies of the famous and infamous mystics of ancient, Western, Eastern and modern Christianity. Each installment gives you enough information to get you interested to study further, but not too much to make you bored. I recommend this book for all levels of mature readers.
5 people found this helpfulReport
