Mystizismus war immer in der einen oder anderen Form in der christlichen Kirche gegenwärtig. Bavinck definiert treffend:
The object of mystical theology, however, is the mystical communion with God granted by special grace to a small number of privileged persons.
Mysticism describes how and by what way the soul could attain to such communion with God and what light could be shed on the truths of faith from that vantage point. In that sense mysticism has always had its representatives in the Christian church and occurs in greater or lesser measure in all the church fathers.
It is most intimately bound up with the monastic ideal and proceeds from the assumption that there is a twofold knowledge of God, that of the mind and that of the heart’s experience and communion with God.
By practical exercises such as those of asceticism, purification, self-torture, world flight, etc., or by theoretical reflection, such as listening [for the voice of God] reading [Scripture], prayer, logical thought, contemplation, and meditation, the soul on earth could already enter a state of beholding or enjoying God.
Herman Bavinck. Reformed Dogmatics. Prolegomena, 46.
P. S. Zum Thema empfehle ich die kurze Ausarbeitung von Ron Kubsch “Die Mystik oder das Wort”. Er schreibt:
Warum sind die Menschen so an einer mystischen Gotteserfahrung interessiert? Sie sind es darum, weil einzig vom mystischen Prinzip aus eigene Gedankenspiele das geistliche Leben erobern können und die Selbstrechtfertigung des Menschen möglich ist.
