Theology of Mystical Experience

Mystical theology is better understood as a "wisdom of experience" than a "wisdom of doctrine." It arises from bringing mystical experience into words, though such experience cannot be captured in doctrinal propositions. Consequently, mystical theology always describes the way, journey, or transition toward an ineffable experience of God. While its doctrinal content has often seemed unimpressive, tracing its historical roots—such as Augustinian, Neoplatonic, or gnostic motifs—misses the path of mystical theologians. To share in their experience, one should join them on their journey, for example with Bernard of Clairvaux on the "ladder of love" or Bonaventura on the "pilgrimage of the soul to God."

Study at a glance

Abstract

Mystical Theology aims to be a ‘wisdom of experience’, not a ‘wisdom of doctrine’. 1 It is not as theology that it is mystical, but in the fact that it brings mystical experience to expression in words. Mystical experience, however, cannot be communicated in doctrinal propositions. So the ‘theology of mystical experience’ always tells only of the way, the journey, the transition to that unutterable and incommunicable experience of God. So far as its doctrinal content is concerned, the theology of the mystics has up to the present seldom appeared particularly impressive. By tracing the history of ideas, one can easily enough recognise the augustinian, the neoplatonic and the gnostic motifs, and track them back to their roots. With this approach, however, one is not on the same path as the mystical theologians. It is therefore more appropriate to ask what experiences they were seeking to express with the help of those images and ideas. In order to share in their experience, it makes sense to join with them on the same journey, whether with Bernard of Clairvaux on the ‘ladder of love’, with Bonaventura on the ‘pilgrimage of the soul to God’, with Thomas à Kempis on the road of the Imitatio Christi or with Thomas Merton on the ‘seven-storey mountain’.