Christian Mysticism
The contemplative and mystical currents of Christianity, East and West, centred on union with God in love.
Also called Christian contemplative tradition
Introduction
History
- The desert monks; Gregory of Nyssa’s Life of Moses
- Augustine writes the Confessions
- The writings of Pseudo-Dionysius
- Bernard of Clairvaux’s sermons on the Song of Songs
- Propositions of Meister Eckhart condemned
- The Cloud of Unknowing; Julian of Norwich’s Revelations
- Teresa of Ávila’s Interior Castle
- Evelyn Underhill’s Mysticism
Major thinkers
- Augustine of HippoBishop and theologian whose Confessions describe the soul’s restless search for God.
- Gregory of NyssaCappadocian Father and theologian of the soul’s endless ascent into God.
- Pseudo-Dionysius the AreopagiteAnonymous author of the Mystical Theology, the classic of the Christian negative way.
- Meister EckhartDominican theologian and preacher of the ground of the soul and the Godhead.
- The author of The Cloud of UnknowingAnonymous English author of a classic guide to contemplative prayer.
- Julian of NorwichEnglish anchoress and author of the Revelations of Divine Love.
- Teresa of ÁvilaSpanish Carmelite reformer and author of The Interior Castle.
- John of the CrossSpanish Carmelite poet and theologian of the dark night.
- Evelyn UnderhillEnglish writer on mysticism and editor of The Cloud of Unknowing.
Key concepts
- ContemplationLoving, attentive gazing on what is most real; in Christian use, a gift of prayer.
- GodheadIn Eckhart, the hidden ground of God beyond the persons and every name.
- SoulThe life and inner self of a person, in Greek philosophy and Christian thought.
- Apophatic theologySpeaking of God by negation: saying what God is not.
- The three waysPurgation, illumination and union: the classic stages of the Christian spiritual life.
- The beatific visionIn Christian theology, the direct vision of God that is the soul’s final happiness.
- Mystical experienceExperience reported as direct contact with, or union with, ultimate reality.
Important texts
- The Confessions of S. AugustinePusey’s translation of Augustine’s Confessions, the account of his restless search for God, his reading of the Platonists, his conversion in a Milan garden and the vision at Ostia shared with his mother, followed by meditations on memory, time and creation.
- Dionysius the Areopagite on the Divine Names and the Mystical TheologyRolt’s translation of two treatises of Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names, on the names of God drawn from scripture, and the short Mystical Theology, on the soul’s ascent beyond every affirmation and negation into the divine darkness.
- Meister Eckhart’s SermonsA short selection of Eckhart’s German sermons in an early English translation, presenting his teaching on detachment, the birth of God in the soul and the ground in which God and the soul are one. Modern critical translations should be used for close study.
- A Book of Contemplation the Which is Called The Cloud of UnknowingEvelyn Underhill’s edition, with modernized spelling and an introduction, of the anonymous fourteenth-century English guide to contemplative prayer, in which God is reached by love through a “cloud of unknowing”.
- Revelations of Divine Love: Recorded by Julian, Anchoress at Norwich, Anno Domini 1373Grace Warrack’s modernized edition of the long text of Julian’s Revelations, which did much to make her known. It includes the sixteen showings, the vision of the hazelnut, the parable of the lord and the servant, and the teaching that all shall be well.
- The Interior Castle: or The MansionsAn early twentieth-century English translation of Teresa’s Interior Castle, her account of the soul as a castle of seven dwelling places through which the soul passes in prayer, from self-knowledge to the spiritual marriage at the centre where God dwells.
- The Dark Night of the SoulDavid Lewis’s nineteenth-century English translation of John’s commentary on his poem “On a dark night”, describing the passive purifications of sense and spirit through which God brings the soul to union.
- The Vision of GodSalter’s translation of De visione Dei, written for the monks of Tegernsee, which begins from an icon whose gaze follows every viewer and leads to God beyond the wall of the coincidence of opposites, with an introduction by Evelyn Underhill.
- The Works of John Cassian: In A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, second series, vol. 11Gibson’s translation of Cassian’s Institutes and Conferences, the record of the Egyptian monks’ teaching on the eight vices, discretion, chastity, grace and unceasing prayer, as it was passed to the Latin West.
Convergence and divergence
Resemblance and difference, given equal room. Each note is marked with the kind of statement it makes.
Areas of convergence
Transcendence, with Neoplatonism
Apophatic theology, with Madhyamaka
Areas of divergence
God, with Advaita Vedānta
Non-self (anātman), with Buddhism
In Metanoia
Cite this entry
“Christian Mysticism.” Tradition. The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society. Last modified November 7, 2026. https://www.unitiveknowledge.org/library/traditions/christian-mysticism.
“Christian Mysticism,” tradition, The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society, last modified November 7, 2026, https://www.unitiveknowledge.org/library/traditions/christian-mysticism.
“Christian Mysticism.” The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society, 7 Nov. 2026, www.unitiveknowledge.org/library/traditions/christian-mysticism.
@misc{traditions-christian-mysticism, title = {{Christian Mysticism}}, howpublished = {The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society}, note = {Tradition. Last modified November 7, 2026}, year = {2026}, url = {https://www.unitiveknowledge.org/library/traditions/christian-mysticism} }
Parallels
Schools and branches
- Desert MonasticismThe monks and nuns of the Egyptian, Palestinian and Syrian deserts, whose sayings and practices founded Christian contemplative life.
- Rhineland MysticismThe mystical movement of the fourteenth-century Rhine valley and Low Countries: Eckhart, Tauler, Suso and Ruusbroec.
- Carmelite mysticismThe contemplative tradition of the Carmelite order, above all Teresa of Ávila and John of the Cross.
- HesychasmThe Eastern Orthodox tradition of inner stillness and the Jesus Prayer, defended by Gregory Palamas.
Reading lists
Also in this tradition
- Thomas à KempisCanon of the Devotio Moderna and the most probable author of The Imitation of Christ, the most widely read Christian book after the Bible.
- Brother LawrenceCarmelite lay brother whose practice of the presence of God in the kitchen became a classic of everyday prayer.
- Angelus SilesiusGerman poet whose rhymed couplets, The Cherubinic Wanderer, distil the mysticism of Eckhart into epigrams.
- Catherine of SienaItalian mystic and reformer whose Dialogue records the soul’s conversation with God on truth, love and the bridge of Christ.
- BonaventureFranciscan theologian and mystic, whose Journey of the Mind into God maps the ascent through creatures to God.
- Hildegard of BingenBenedictine abbess, visionary, composer and naturalist, who saw the cosmos and the body as the living work of God.
- Maximus the ConfessorByzantine monk and theologian of deification, for whom the reasons of all things are gathered in the divine Logos.
- John CassianMonk who brought the wisdom of the Egyptian desert to the Latin West in his Institutes and Conferences.
- Evagrius PonticusDesert monk who gave Christian contemplative practice its first systematic form: the eight thoughts, apatheia and pure prayer.
- OrigenAlexandrian scholar and theologian, the first great Christian interpreter of scripture as a path of the soul’s ascent.