Preface

Theology Library
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THE LIVING CHURCH” SERIES
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T has of late become the fashion to belittle the Church as of negligible importance in the affairs of the great world. Those alike who love and who deride her
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The Church’s Charter. By Pror. Josep F. McFapyen, D.D., Kingston, Ontario.
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THE MYSTICS OF THE CHURCH
THE MYSTICS OF THE CHURCH _
At {,
BY
EVELYN UNDERHILL AUTHOR OF “ MYSTICISM,’ **THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT AND THE LIFE OF TO-DAY,’’ ETC., ETC.
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PREFACE
SINCE any real attempt to give an account of the Mystics of the Church must involve in the end a history of personal religion in its most intense form, and its relation to the corporate Christian life, it is obvious that such an undertaking would need many years, many volumes, and much deep knowledge of the human soul. This little book can only hint at the richness and variety of the material with which anyone who tries to tell the spiritual history of the Christian Church will have to deal. It does not even claim the completeness of a catalogue ; but selects from among the vast company of mystical saints a few of those whose greatness is most closely connected with their dependence on, and contribution to, the family life of the household of faith.
I have therefore left on one side the mystical philosophers, those mystics who are chiefly remark- able for their ecstatic or visionary experiences, and those spiritual individualists who have rebelled against the institutional side of religion. It is the mystic in his relation to the Church who is here considered ; the great creative soul whose special experience of God does something for his fellow- Christians, who deepens the corporate spiritual consciousness, brings in fresh news about eternal life. Mysticism of this sort is and has ever been 5
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THE MYSTICS OF THE CHURCH
essential to Christianity, and no account of the Church’s life which ignores it can claim to be complete.
Nothing perhaps has so much conduced to the misunderstanding and discrediting of the mystics as the tendency to isolate them from the Church in which they appear; to regard them as the representatives of a type of religion hostile to all ceremonial worship ; and to emphasize the abnormal features of their spiritual experience. I have tried in this little survey to suggest another, and I believe a more accurate, view of their character- istics and their vocation. Limitations of space have made any detailed treatment of individuals impossible. ‘Those who wish to continue the study of any period or group will find a short list of authorities at the end of each chapter. For convenience of reference English translations are always quoted where these exist.
BE. U,
CONTENTS
PREFACE ° .
CHAPTER