Pauline mysticism
From Self Indulgence
Pauline mysticism is mysticism associated with Pauline Christianity.
Pauline mysticism centres around the mystery of Christ in the believer and the believer in Christ, who is believed to be the One and Only mediator between man and God.
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The mystical teachings of Paul
A survey of the mysticism of Paul the apostle explains that there are different types of Mysticism. Paul's mysticism is not of the kind that attempts a contact with the cosmic or super-natural. It is of a different kind. This mysticism is not a God-Contact- Mysticism. It is a Christ-Mediation-Mysticism, in which man cannot achieve a union with God directly, but may enter into a union with Christ, who is both man and God. This contact is made not by magical rites, sacraments or any works on our part,; but by a literal co-experiencing of Christ's death and resurrection. Pauline mysticism and Gnostic or Hellenistic Christian mysticism have been considered to be in direct contrast with one another.
As per the Boston Collaborative Encyclopedia of Western Theology with regards to the views of Albert Schweitzer, Schweitzer did not believe that Paul represents an appropriation of Hellenistic or Greek ideas into Christianity. Pauline mysticism is not about “being one with God or being in God” (Schweitzer, 1930, 3) and sonship to God is not conceived as “an immediate mystical relation to God, but as mediated and effected by means of a mystical union with Christ”.
Paul does not commend any kind of “God-mysticism”, but rather saw human beings to enter into relation with God by means of a “Christ-mysticism”, and it is this mysticism which is central to Paul's message.
The fundamental thought of Pauline mysticism runs thus: in the mystery of "I am in Christ; in Him I know myself as a being who is raised above this sensuous, sinful, and transient world and already belongs to the transcendent; in Him I am assured of resurrection; in Him I am a Child of God"
Another feature of Paul’s mysticism is that the Christian is “conceived as having died and risen again with Him”, thus, the believer has been set free from sin and the Law and now possesses the Spirit of Christ and is thus assured of resurrection. .
According to Schweitzer, the Christ-mysticism experienced by Christians is reckoned by Paul to be a kind of co-experiencing of Christ’s death and resurrection: And as for redemption, it is accomplished by Jesus’ resurrection. The perishable world is a stage on which angels of heaven and demons do battle. Jesus also becomes a Messianic King with command over angels who is able to defeat all who oppose God.
Paul emphasise justification by faith alone (Sola fide), in the Epistle to the Romans. Christ’s death is portrayed as a sin offering, which erases sin and makes God’s forgiveness possible. This “righteousness by faith” is also individualistic and detached from participation in the mystical Body of Christ, and it does not lead to an ethical theory:
Paul arrives at the idea of a faith which rejects not only the works of the Law, but works in general. Yet, ethics are not absent from the thought of Paul, but rather they are re-conceived. By participating in Christ’s death and resurrection, the believer becomes a new creation. In principle the believer is no longer able to sin. However, this participation proceeds gradually making ethics necessary. “It is only in so far as a man is purified and liberated from the world that he becomes capable of truly ethical action”. Paul describes ethical action in many ways, including sanctification, giving up the service of sin, and living for God. Love is seen as the highest manifestation of this ethical life..
Paul is seen as the architect of this "cross centred" theology, referred to Jesus as "Christ" and stressing his messianic role. His resurrection is seen as the prototype for the future resurrection of all of humanity. St. Paul had often been criticized for directing attention away from the life and teachings of Jesus to a more mystical religion revolving around the godlike Christ, one focused upon his saving death. It had also been pointed out that his concept is almost entirely absent from the speeches of the disciples as described in the book of Acts.
Redemption is seen as an act of ascent, not mystical experience.
According to David Wells, the type of Christian spirituality that became increasingly popular in this postmodern age, is distinctly different from "Agape faith". In his book Above All Earthly Pow’rs: Christ in a Postmodern World
In the Pauline message, salvation is given and never forged or manufactured. In line with the description of Agape faith, Pauline mysticism is not a works based mysticism, but emphasizes the grace of God in Christ Jesus that becomes available to the believer by faith.
The wisdom revealed through the mystical teachings of the Apostle Paul, as well as the Soteriology, Christology, Redemption theology and interpretation of Scripture for Pauline mysticism differs significantly from Sophia (wisdom) and the mysticism associated therewith. Sophia (wisdom), also known as Christian Theosophy, is a central term in Hellenistic philosophy and religion, Platonism, Gnosticism, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and Esoteric Christianity (see main article Sophia (wisdom)).
See also
References
Bibliography
- Albert Schweitzer. The Mysticism of Paul the Apostle. Johns Hopkins University Press. 1998. ISBN 0-8018-6098-9. (German original published in 1930.)
- Alfred Wikenhauser (1960). Pauline Mysticism: Christ in the Mystical Teaching of St. Paul. Herder and Herder.
- Jonathan Hill (2006). Zondervan Handbook to the History of Christianity. Lion Publishing Plc. ISBN 978-0-310-26270-1.
- David F. Wells (2005). Above All Earthly Pow'rs: Christ in a Postmodern World. Wm. B. Eerdmans. ISBN 978-0-8028-2455-4.
