why is mysticism considered a dirty word in some quarters of christianity?

Question

A mystic is someone who attains spiritual union with God. Jesus always talked of his relationship with his Father. Paul talked about his vision of the Third Heaven, where he heard things 'unlawful to be spoken.' If mystical experiences were good enough for Jesus and Paul [not to mention Moses, Isaiah etc. remember Mount Sinai and Isaiah's vision of the train filling the temple], why aren't they good enough for many modern Christians? Nowadays the word mystical seems to be used as a synonym for 'deception' or 'error.' How did it get to this stage of legalistic formalism, without the divine spark of mysticism? Take away the soul of religion and all you get is a shell......

Answer 1

In christian-think, Mysticism has an "ism" at the end, thus making it a belief system. If Christianity is a belief system and so is Mysticism, then in Christian's eyes, it's completely different than what they believe in.
Most Christians do not understand it. They think of people with funky jewelry and turbans that see things they can't explain. Usually if a vision is not proclaimed in front of a congregation on Sunday morning, they think one of two things...either they're schitzophrenic or their thoughts are being controlled by the devil. Very "burning times"- like thinking. Because Jesus, Paul, and Isaiah were mentioned in the Bible, they are considered Holy. Anyone that's just cruising down the street that has visions aren't.
It doesn't help with all these hokey infomercials on late at night of so-called "mystics" charging you 3.99 a minute. That's where "deception" comes in. It's also foretold of false prophets in the end times in The Bible, so Christians are on the look-out for that. Anyone proclaiming to have visions is evil.
I tried to explain best I could. Hope it helps.

Answer 2

Agreed; though I think it's primarily in the evangelical side of Christianity that you'll find mysticism is unwelcome or simply unknown. Still, if we ran across the range of mystics that existed in the Dark/Middle Ages, we'd send most of them to the nuthouse. Our Christianity has gotten smaller and is in desparate need of being enlarged once again.

Peace to you.

Answer 3

Actually mysticism was the true Christianity: "the Kingdom of God is within you". Teresa of Avila called it the "Inner Castle". My union with God is what brought me back to the faith. Read writings of the early Church Fathers of the secret gnosis, the tradition of the Church, which is why Catholicism teaches Scripture AND Tradition, both are true. The only difference now is, it is finally coming to the masses who are finding they don't need priests to truly spiritually commune with God. God's greatest pleasure to give to His children is to truly intimately know him, it happened to me and it changed my life. There is no contradiction between Science and God, both are true, and my experience put to rest any contradictions I saw in the Bible because of it. Scripture and Apocrypha now become alive because of it.

Enter through the narrow path! Long is the road and there are few who truly find it, once you do, you are enlightened by the Word. "If you know yourselves, then you know you are children of the Living Father. But if you do not know yourselves, then you dwell in poverty, and you are poverty."

Answer 4

Because the new "age of reason" interprets mysticism as a mental illness (at worst) or teenage attention-gluttons on MySpace and LiveJournal (at best).

Answer 5

A mystic is someone who makes claim to be after certain experiences. Whether or not these experiences can be associated with a deity is another matter. Besides, careful mystical practice is quite scientific, which bothers many believers.

Answer 6

Because it implies an experiential form of religion. If this form of experience is valid, it might mean that those who have DIFFERANT experiences of the Divine (such as polytheists) might just have EQUALLY TRUE religions as well......