Early Christian Mysticism

In the early Christian Church, contemplation and mysticism was nearly universal. For evidence I offer the prayer of Saint Paul for the Church at Ephesus. There are actually two prayers Saint Paul writes in Ephesians, one in the first chapter (verses 17 through 23), and the other in chapter three (verses 14 through 21).

In chapter 1 verses 17 and 18, Saint Paul opens his prayer with an intercession for enlightenment of the Christians in Ephesus. The language he uses is explicitly mystical. Read it for yourself and you’ll see my meaning. The Greek words he uses are ones that crop up in mystical writings all the way down to this day. To the modern mystic, there is no doubt Saint Paul is asking God to reward the Ephesians’ attempts at mystic contemplation.

Note: Saint Paul never exhorts in his letters for Christians to contemplate or meditate. This seems to be assumed by all the Apostles, that Christians will contemplate. Mysticism was the norm, not something only practiced by monastic hermits. This was lost in the Fourth Century when the pagans entered the Church for political favor. The practice of contemplation became passe to these people who didn’t have any “skin in the game.” It became so bad that Anthony of Alexandria sold out his inheritance, provided for his sister, gave the balance to the poor, and hid himself in the desert so he could contemplate like an early Christian. Since this kind of prayer experience was the norm for three hundred years, it ought to be normal today as well. Unfortunately today’s Church sees contemplative prayer as the exclusive provenance of monks and nuns who have devoted their lives to it.

In verse 19, Saint Paul gets into the technical aspects of mystical experience, knowledge of the power of God toward believers. He goes on to define the power as that which God worked in the resurrection of Christ and His elevation to the right hand of God in Heaven. The final two verses of the first chapter make up a sort of doxology, telling of the glory of Christ’s spiritual position. The whole prayer in chapter one is a single, convoluted sentence in Greek. It was written as a single thought, and breaking it into verses that are quoted in isolation from the whole loses much of the meaning of the prayer.

Moving to the prayer in chapter three, we see more mystical references applied to the Ephesians. “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith;” is the linchpin of the entire prayer in both chapter one and chapter three. The early Christians were not to look for some divinity outside of themselves for their salvation, but to the Divine Anointed One of God Who sets up housekeeping in the hearts of those who exercise faith in Him. The expectation is that the believers experience this presence, not just give it lip service. To be “in Christ” is to have Christ in you. A profound paradox that makes up the body of the Christian mystical experience. When you sit in contemplation, listening to God, you are not listening to an outside entity, but an inner “still, small voice” that speaks in your heart, from your heart.

Saint Paul goes on in the rest of verse 17 through the end of verse 19 to explain the kind of growth this mystical contemplation encourages. The believer gains profound insight into the very foundation of all creation. This insight begins with love, the essence of the relationship of the Christian to God and fellow believers, and extending to the entire creation. Once love is realized in the heart of the believer, the knowledge of the fullness of God’s work in the universe is open to the contemplative. But the greatest knowledge, the end goal of Saint Paul’s intercession for the Ephesians and for us by extension, is the love of Christ, which he says is incomprehensible, yet still knowable by those who contemplate. This love is the opening for the believer to finally grasp the fullness of God, Who is both outside of, and infusing all of creation at one and the same time.

Saint Paul finishes the prayer in chapter three with the greatest doxology in the New Testament. The closing of this prayer with exalted praise is no accident. These doxologies were common to early prayers in both opening and closing. Today we pray like we shop online, by submitting a shopping list to God and expecting Him to fill our cart with the goods and services we demanded. We need to take time out to tell God what we think of Him, not for His enlightenment, He already knows, but for our own reminder of to Whom it is we speak in prayer.

All things God has us do serves the goal of our own growth into the likeness of Him for which we were created. That is the reason for contemplative prayer, growth in the likeness of God. To ignore this experience is to put off to eternity our progress in God’s own plan for our souls. That is the reason all Christians in the early Church practiced mystic contemplation. That is the reason we should too.