The Mystic Way - A Psychological Study in Christian Origins #225112

We are still too often told that Christian mysticism is no integral part of Christianity. Sometimes, even, that it represents an opposition to the primitive Christian ideal. Sometimes we are asked to believe that it origin ated from Neoplatonic influence; that Pagan blood runs in its veins, and that its genealogy goes back to Plotinus. Far from this being the case, all the doctrines and all the experiences characteristic of genuine Christian mysticism can be found in the New Testament; and I believe that its emergence as a definite type of spiritual life coincides with the emergence of Christianity itself, in the person of its Founder.