Ernst Troeltsch : The Divine Seed

Time and Creation
In Gregory of Nyssa and
Meister Eckhart

MYSTICISM AND THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION

Now, however, we must seek to distinguish mysticism in the narrower, technical concentrated sense in which it is used in the philosophy of religion from this wider mysticism with its immense variety. The phenomena which have just been described proceed directly from the emotional sphere, and for that reason they are comparatively instinctive and spontaneous, and can be combined with every kind of objective religion, and with the customary forms of worship, myth, and doctrine. They contain no kind of doctrine and theory about themselves; at the most all they possess is a primitive technique of religious self-cultivation and the production of a certain temper. Their varied forms of expression - enthusiasm, orgiasm, contemplation and Gnosticism, allegorical and spiritualizing tendencies, the renewal or the bringing forth of forms of worship - are quite different from each other, and they develop very different results which often cancel each other out. Hence they do not essentially affect the existing sociological connection with religion, for they simply mean an intensification of its powers, or a particular emphasis upon some of its elements, or perhaps they add new forms of worship; but concrete religion they do not deny.

The whole question can, however, sometimes assume a far more unified aspect, and then a considerable sociological element is introduced into the situation. The active energies in mysticism of this kind can become independent in principle, contrasted with concrete religion; they then break away from it and set up a theory of their own which takes the place of the concrete religion and of its mythos or doctrine; this may take place either by means of open denial, or through an allegorical change in interpretation. When this takes place, however, mysticism realizes that it is an independent religious principle; it sees itself as the real universal heart of all religion, of which the various myth-forms are merely the outer garment. It regards itself as the means of restoring an immediate union with God; it feels independent of all institutional religion, and possesses an entire inward certainty, which makes it indifferent towards every kind of religious fellowship. This is its fundamental attitude; it does not vary whether the mystic adheres externally to the religious community or not. Henceforward union with God, deification, self-annihilation, become the real and the only subject of religion.

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