Mystics (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Mystics Charlotte Radler (bio) Mystics. By William Harmless, S.J. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. 350 pp. $18.95. William Harmless's Mystics constitutes an intelligent and interesting introduction to the study of mysticism, in which he deftly introduces the reader to central methodological issues and significant mystics in Christianity, Islam, and Zen Buddhism. Although the focus is principally Christian (in terms of introducing representative mystics) and Western (in terms of methodological discourse), this beautifully written book will serve as an invaluable teaching tool in introductory courses and seminars on mysticism at both the undergraduate and graduate levels; it will prime students for the frequently complex primary sources. In addition to the first chapter on method that contrasts Jean Gerson's understanding of mystical knowledge as experiential knowledge (5–7) with William James's pragmatic, psychological approach to mysticism (11–12), the book—organized largely in reverse chronological order, at least with respect to the Christian mystics—covers Thomas Merton, Bernard of Clairvaux, Hildegard of Bingen, Bonaventure, Meister Eckhart, [End Page 118] Evagrius Ponticus, Rumi, and Dōgen. Harmless demonstrates an impressive grasp of both the significant primary and secondary sources, and he presents his findings in a compelling way. Harmless's skillful analyses of the mystics and his discussion of significant methodological problems in the study of mysticism make this volume much more than a "best-of" volume. Harmless is deeply critical of William James's pragmatist and psychological method that emphasizes the subjective religious feelings and peak experiences of individuals and disregards the importance of institutions, communities, traditions, texts, rituals, and doctrines (12, 16). Harmless's method also shares many of Steven Katz's concerns relating to James's and Walter T. Stace's universalist "common core" hypothesis (also embraced by, among others, Evelyn Underhill, Aldous Huxley, Rudolph Otto, Joseph Maréchal, William Johnston, Mircea Eliade, and Ninian Smart). The hypothesis holds that there is an eternal, irreducible mystical unanimity or common core experience that transcends particular religious traditions and historical epochs (14, 17); all mystical experiences are essentially the same although interpreted and expressed differently in distinct religious traditions and cultures (254–257). Harmless's criticism and repudiation of James's "sunny universalism" (159) and reductive, de-contextualized, and individualist methodology reverberate through the whole book. Arguing that "[m]ysticism needs to stay embedded in the thicket of the history that created it" (x), Harmless develops a contextualist case-study method that concentrates on individual mystics and their most renowned writings. The author carefully probes the mystics' lives, contexts, and texts, rather than engaging in "mystical anecdotalism" and cherry-picking quotable mystical passages and teachings (225–226). He contrasts James's approach to mysticism with the actual practices and beliefs of several mystics. For example, Bernard of Clairvaux puts into constructive dialogue the book of Scripture and the book of experience, privileging the former as "it is . . . the Bible that interprets the mystic" (57–58); Hildegard of Bingen views her visions as texts to be interpreted in order to illumine further Christian doctrine (77); and Rumi's Sufism is a communal and ritualized mysticism (cf. Rumi's emphasis on samā; 186). Harmless also underscores that many significant mystics (e.g., Meister Eckhart) do not record any auto-biographical accounts of mystical experiences (132), which further complicates the use of subjective peak-experiences as an appropriate method for studying mystics. Harmless, moreover, provides relevant biographical information of the mystics and traces the intellectual, theological, and cultural factors inscribed in their thought (e.g. the influences of Augustine, Dionysius the Areopagite, Francis, and Gothic architecture on Bonaventure's mystical theology [86–91, 93–95, 97, 99], and Origen's impact on Eckhart's notion of birthing [122]). Especially in his analysis of Christian mystics, Harmless effectively employs a dialogical approach, letting one mystic illuminate another (e.g., Bernard of Clairvaux helps elucidate Eckhart [126–127]) without attenuating the mystics' distinct contributions or reducing their thought to a fragmentary patchwork of influences. In the final chapter, Harmless offers a three-pronged contextualist approach for exploring the mystical that includes the study of mystical texts, mystical communities, and mystical experiences; though this "three-sided optic" outlines Harmless's own...