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Mysticism and Vocation PDF

121 Pages·1996·8.57 MB·English
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EDITIONS SR Volume 18 Mysticism and Vocation James R. Home Published for the Canadian Corporation for Studies in Religion/Corporation Canadienne des Sciences Religieuses by Wilfrid Laurier University Press 1996 Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data Home, James R., 1931- Mysticism and vocation (Editions SR; 18) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-88920-264-8 1. Mysticism. 2. Vocation (in religious orders, congregations, etc.). I. Canadian Corporation for Studies in Religion. II. Title. III. Series. BV5083.H67 1996 248.2'2 C95-932267-1 © 1996 Canadian Corporation for Studies in Religion / Corporation Canadienne des Sciences Religieuses Cover design by George Kirkpatrick using an illustration by Nicole Bauberger Printed in Canada Mysticism and Vocation has been produced from a manuscript supplied in camera-ready form by the author. All rights reserved. No part of this work covered by the copyrights hereon may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means—graphic, electronic or mechanical—without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any request for photocopying, recording, taping or reproducing in information storage and retrieval systems of any part of this book shall be directed in writ- ing to the Canadian Reprography Collective, 214 King Street West, Suite 312, Toronto, Ontario M5H 3S6. Order from: WILFRID LAURIER UNIVERSITY PRESS Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3C5 Contents Acknowledgements v Introduction Mysticism and Vocational Choice 1 Chapter One Moral Perfection and Mysticism 9 Chapter Two Public Criteria of Vocational Choice 31 Chapter Three Private Criteria of Vocational Choice 57 Chapter Four Taking Vocational Choices Seriously 83 Select Bibliography 105 Index 109 111 This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgements I first encountered mysticism as an experience and an academic subject in the 1950s, when my own calling was an intense personal concern for me. Now, having sufficiently settled into a rather complex and paradoxical vocation as mystic, scholar, and priest, I offer some thoughts about the relationship of mysticism and vocational choice. I do this with the sceptical reserve of a scholar addressing his fellows in the academic community, but here and there drop my guard and reveal that I also live in a community of faith. After a long career on the boundary between the two, I realize how much I owe to many kind people, too many to name, in both worlds. One small group that I should mention consisted of several World War II veterans with whom I worked in 1948-50. They were very kind to an intense, rather eccentric teenager, and imparted, with other good advice, the homely insight contained in the Canadian army joke cited in Chapter Four. I thank them as representatives of many people who kept me "down to earth" when I was inclined to be too theoretical and other-worldly. More recently, Jay Newman gave me help of a similar nature with regard to this book. I thank him for his invaluable practical advice when I was struggling with revisions. Donald Evans provided important inspiration and advice at an earlier stage. My wife Jean had done research on Vera Brittain's experiences and one evening at dinner granted me permission to use it. My dean, Brian Hendley, my departmental chairman, Richard Holmes, and my colleagues in the philosophy department have been supportive friends, cheerfully harbouring a theologian in wolf's clothing. The University of Waterloo granted me a sabbatical leave to write this book and a half-sabbatical to finish revising it, and the university's SSHRC Small Grants Committee equipped me with a computer. Some ideas and passages in Chapter One are from my article, "Saintliness and Moral Perfection" (Religious Studies 27, 4 [December 1991]: 463-71, ©Cambridge University Press 1991, reprinted with the permission of Cambridge University Press). Parts of Chapter Two are from my article, "Two Ethical Modes and MacIntyre's Narrative Ideal" (The Scottish Journal of Religious Studies 14, 2 [Autumn 1993]: 89-101), and appear by permission of that journal. This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Canadian Federation for the Humanities, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. v This page intentionally left blank Introduction Mysticism and Vocational Choice In 1901 William James introduced scholars to the serious study of mysticism, describing a visionary experience that is transient, passive, noetic, ineffable, and conveys "a curious sense of authority for aftertime."1 Ever since, it has been a subject of active investigation and dispute, but in spite of this scholarly interest a universally acceptable definition of mysticism has proved to be elusive. This problem is illustrated in a striking way in a long discussion by W.T. Stace in Mysticism and Philosophy,2 as well as in Dean Inge's list of twenty-six different definitions of mysticism.3 Yet, in spite of scholars' problems with definition, the average informed reader has no difficulty in recognizing accounts of mystical experience when she sees them. Even unusual examples, like this incident in the life of the American philosopher John Dewey, somehow convey the mood of the experience: One evening while he sat reading he had what he called a "mystic experience." It was an answer to that question which still worried him whether he meant business when he prayed. It was not a very dramatic mystic experience. There was no vision, not even a definable emotion—just a supremely blissful feeling that his worries were over. Mystic experiences in general, Dewey explained, are purely emotional and cannot be conveyed in words. But when he tried to convey his in words, it came out like this: "What the hell are you worrying about, anyway? Everything that's here is here, and you can just lie back on it." "I've never had any doubts since then," he added, "—nor any beliefs. To me faith means not worrying."4 Dewey's experience is recognizably mystical, although, consistent with his matter-of-fact pragmatism, it is not dramatic or colourful, and simply produces appropriate results. It bears the marks of mysticism, including the "curious sense of authority" mentioned by James. It also has significant elements of mystical paradoxicality and ineffability in that it involves no "definable emotion" but nevertheless is "supremely blissful." It "cannot be conveyed in words," and yet Dewey's words do help us to understand it. The Vermont philosopher was not given to doctrinal, literary, or symbolic embellishment, as his spare account illustrates. Dewey shows us how to describe a mystical or quasi-mystical experience in a style we would call literal and prosaic, using behavioural and psychological terms. The modem person, wanting to know only "what happened" or "how it was done," may find this refreshingly informative. However, traditional mystical reports have frequently been more colourful, and have employed a great deal of moral, religious, and poetic 1 2 Mysticism and Vocation interpretation. Consider, for example, this report by the sixteenth-century mystic, Jacob Boehme: For I saw and knew the Being of all Beings, the Byss and the Abyss, and the Eternal Generation of the Holy Trinity, the Descent and Original of the World, and of all creatures through the Divine Wisdom: knew and saw in myself all the three Worlds, namely, The Divine, angelical and paradisical; and the dark World, the Original and the Nature to the Fire; and then, thirdly, the external and visible World, being a Procreation or external Birth from both the internal and spiritual Worlds.5 In contrast to Dewey's report, this passage displays the style characteristic of mystical writings through the centuries. That is, the writer shows a strong tendency to describe his experiences figuratively, in poetic and religious language. Evelyn Underhill has, in fact, pointed out that certain symbolic patterns recur in such reports. The three most frequently invoked images are of loving personal relationships, "quests" for saving knowledge, and personal transformation. In addition, the image of light has always been associated with the central mystical experience of illumination: The illuminatives seem to assure us that . . . they do experience a kind of radiance, a flooding of the personality with new light. A new sun rises above the horizon and transfigures their twilight world. Over and over they return to light imagery in this connection.6 There is no doubt that mystics frequently use a rich variety of striking symbols. In contrast, Dewey's brief report would strike most people as totally lacking in such aesthetic or poetic figures, as well as in metaphysical or religious doctrines. He describes a psychological event in simple, predominantly behavioural language, which most of us would accept as literal. However, there is more interpretation involved in Dewey's account than he would care to admit, although it is interpretation that is appropriate to our matter-of-fact times. Note that he sees the experience as "an answer to that question which still worried him." He states the question rather naively, as having to do with his prayer life, but the total account suggests that he has been worrying about a problem closely related to those Underhill describes more figuratively. In his case it is that of having confidence in himself as he decides what course he will follow in life. This is the classical problem of "vocation," of deciding how one will view the world and what sort of life one will lead. Of course, this kind of vocational choice is traditionally conceived as made under divine influence, as when one chooses "the Christian vocation." However, it can be understood in a secular sense, as discovery of and assent to one's abilities, circumstances, and tendencies. It would be an event that paradoxically involved both passive acceptance and active decision. In some respects it would resemble the mystical experience. In fact, one can surmise that Dewey's "mystic experience" could have happened as a culminating event in a personal process that mystics have Introduction 3 described systematically. They tell us of trying to solve apparently insoluble problems related to the conduct of their lives (temporal matters) or to knowledge of God (eternal things). The frequency with which they can be seen to be involved in this pattern has led me (in previous writings) to advance the hypothesis that mysticism is essentially "a creative transformation of the personality, characterized by an intellectual, emotional or visionary illumination experience at its critical stage."7 In it, the person resolves "a religious or metaphysical problem" which has been experienced with great intensity.8 I have chosen this definition fully understanding that any such formulation, even in language merely describing behaviour, involves interpretation. The advantages of this definition are that it is in language that is understandable to most people at this time in history, it permits further interpretation, and it agrees with traditional accounts of mystics' lives, as well as with their advice about the mystical life. Mystical doctrines and traditions are available in many well-known works. A compilation that can be highly recommended is Evelyn Underhill's Mysticism. Underhill depicts mysticism as a way of resolving spiritual problems. As she describes it, the mystic first becomes aware of, even obsessed with, an insoluble problem such as death, moral justification for one's whole life, or the meaning of life. Engagement with the problem is followed by attempts to solve it by direct and conventional means that have been taught in a community (usually a religious one). For example, the mystic might try to comply perfectly with formulas for living a blameless and dutiful life. Virtually everyone fails in any attempt to do such things, but mystics are very serious about their attempts, and when self-discipline and other straightforward strategies fail, they cannot simply accept the situation. There are then two ways in which mystics try to solve such "insoluble" problems. Those who follow the "introvertive" way concentrate on their own personal state and attempt to purify themselves of sin or other shortcomings, using ascetic or meditative techniques. Mystical illuminations following upon these procedures give the impression of resulting from concentrated effort, so that Aldous Huxley has said that such mystical experience is obtained or induced.9 However, we should note that although the mystics do make the efforts mentioned, they commonly report that the ultimate insight experience, the illumination, follows upon such exercises not with the regularity of an effect following a cause, but more as an answer or a reward. There is no guarantee that it will occur. The passivity of the illumination experience is much more obvious in the second mystical mode of responding to insoluble problems. Mystics in this mode ("extrovertive") appear at first to have no system at all, since their visionary illuminations occur as sudden interruptions in the midst of ordinary life. Yet, spontaneous as their experiences appear to be, studies of extrovertive mystics reveal that they too have been struggling with

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We tend to think that a person who is both reasonable and moral can have a good life. What constitutes a life that is not only good but superlative, or even “marvellous” or “holy”? Those who have such lives are called sages, heroes or saints, and their lives can display great integrity as we
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