The Tension Between The Erotic Element in Mystical Experience And Authority in The Christian Tradition

The Tension Between

The Erotic Element in Mystical Experience

And

Authority in The Christian Tradition

COURSE: Religion 785

Seminar: Religious Perspectives on

Selfhood and Sexuality!

Dr. Sandra Zimdars-Swartz

Eleanor M. Cooley

May 14, 1980

A problem of contemporary interest and concern for the mystic of the Christian tradition is the resolution of the tension between the authority of Christian tradition, as it has been handed down and internalized, and the personal confrontation of the erotic aspects frequently present in the mystical experience. The technical vocabulary involved in this formulation of the problem require definition.

The authority of the Christian tradition will be considered with the explanation laid out by Richard Sennett in his new book Authority as "an attempt to interpret the conditions of power, to give the conditions of control and influence a meaning by defining an image of strength. . . .In ordinary life, authority is not a thing. It is an interpretative process which seeks for itself the solidity of a thing."[i] Sennett points out that the process of interpreting power raises the issue of how much the sentiments of authority lie in the eye of the beholder. Authority is usually understood in a more precise definition. Two definitions, one by Max Weber and one by Sigmund Freud, give insight which are particularly appropriate in relating Christian tradition to the often inhibited eroticism present in mystical experience.

Max Weber describes three categories, of which two apply for the purposes of this paper. The first he calls traditional authority based on "an established belief in immemorial traditions.”[ii] A good example of this, for our purposes, might be the Platonic, neo-Platonic understanding of mystical experience coming to the Christian tradition through Origen, Augustine, and Dionysius the Areopagite. The sense of authority, of stability, comes from the very length of time that this memory has endured."[iii] The other category of Weber's which applies is that of charismatic authority which "rests upon the uncommon and extraordinary devotion of a group of followers to the sacredness of the heroic force or the exemplariness of an individual and the order revealed or created by him."[iv] Jesus, of course, fits in this category even though his influence has often been filtered through the theology of others beginning with Paul and the church fathers. Nevertheless, his charismatic nature clearly comes through the filters of those who wrote afterward.

Freud, in contrast, emphasizes the process by which people perceive strength in others apart from the content of what they perceive. He argues (particularly in Moses and Monotheism and Civilazation and its Discontents) that "beneath the adult struggles with power, right, and legitimacy, there remain these archaic images of what strength and power should be, so that as adults we are interpreting not what is but really what once was in our lives, like reading a hidden text with more powerful messages.”[v] Freud is pessimistic about the maturation process. He feels that in no person's life is the conversion process ever erased by adult- hood. Freud did not believe that many people would come to make an adult interpretation of strength, but that the masses are always in danger of regressing to an earlier phase where the comforts of a stronger person are desired. At its most extreme Freud saw the moral content of adult controls as a pretext, or like strategic weaponry in a game of psychological chess begun at the moment of birth[vi]. What people are willing to believe is not simply a matter of the credibility or legitimacy of the ideas, rules, and persons offered them but a matter of their own need to believe. Weber's view seems to assume that adults can make choices based on fact and circumstances while Freud believes that we are primarily a product strictly of our childhood understanding of authority from which we more or less free ourselves as adults. This seems to be a black/white dichotomy, but I will illustrate these in a softer contrast with neither being a totally adequate understanding of authority.

The other term which requires definition is that of mystical experience. Basically, mystical experience is synonymous with being in touch with what is "really real." This Reality abides not in the changing or temporal but in the unfathomable abyss where God speaks within, the heart of man in silence. It is a living experience of God, not as an object outside us but as an encompassing power of permeating love.[vii] Involved with this permeating love some mystics also experience what they believe to be a view of Reality as it is, ie. an understanding of Heaven and Hell, the world, etc. Jacob Boehme was one of these. This is not necessarily part of mystical experience but is present on occasion. mystics, though, the goal is to come to a union with God which means having His will, outlook and love constantly with you. This does not always mean one is in ecstasy, but it is a state of consciousness of union. involved with this is a state of feeling of the body which can perhaps be best described as 'polymorphously perverse sexuality' to use Freud's terminology. It is polymorphous because it encompasses the whole being. Though at times it can be genitally centered, it is never exclusively genital. Most often it is not centered anywhere. It is perverse at times because, at least for some Christian mystics, there can be the experience of the pain of the stigmata (wounds of Christ), and this paradoxically cany be a wonderful experience. It is sexual because now, in light of Freud's definitions of sexuality, these feelings engendered in the body are, without doubt, sexual. For purposes of this paper I am accepting Freud's understanding.

It is this sexual overtone to the experience that has historically been a problem for mystics. This is still a problem today for those who experience God in an erotic way if they have not internalized the Freudian insights and accepted their sexual nature. Andrew Greeley in a recent article[viii] confronts this problem. The article cites a conference he had just attended in Santa Barbara, California at the University there, called "In Her Image.” This was a world-wide conference which attempted to lift up the feminine aspects of God, covering not only Christian but Indian and other traditions as well. It made a great impression on Fr. Greeley for he observes that there are two areas in which we of the Christian tradition have been cheated. Men, as well as women, have been cheated in the possibility of closeness to God because of the basic fear of homosexual relationship engendered in men in relation to God in terms of male imagery. The other area of inadequate understanding, for both men and women, is understanding God not as male/female but neuter or a-sexual. The result of this is the presence of our prudery limiting the experience of the passion ate love of God and the sexual overtones accompanying it, because we have been raised to think of sex as inherently evil, or at best part of our carnal nature. He points out that God's passion is different from ours in being stronger, not in its non-existence.

Different mystics have handled this sexual aspect in different ways. How it is handled depends a great deal on how autonomous the mystic has become in regard to authority. By this I mean how strongly s/he looks to the traditional authority of the church (Weber's definition) and how completely s/he has been able to interpret strength for her/himself as an adult (Freud's view). In order to look at authority in relation to this erotic aspect I have chosen two mystics which represent two degrees of adult strength and two views of traditional authority. These will be John of the Cross of Spain (1542-1591), a Roman Catholic, and Jacob Boehme of Germany (1575-1624), a Lutheran. I do not believe the denominational affiliation is a significant variable for this examination, for there are other mystics of Protestant and Catholic tradition where the denominational affiliation can be reversed and the positions with respect to authority remain the same. For example, Watchman Nee, a contemporary Protestant, has a view as orthodox as John, while Julian of Norwich, a Roman Catholic, is as free with respect to tradition and authority as Jacob. Though John and Jacob will be my major thinkers in regard to authority and sexuality in mystical experience, I will not confine myself totally to them but bring in others as is appropriate. I will do this particularly in the section dealing with how this tension is handled.

I have chosen these two men because they are contemporaries, not only in time, but in the fact that they both grew up in cultures with similar world views concerning the universe (three storied cosmos), Both churches (Lutheran and Roman) looked to Augustinian theology as a basis for their belief, and both were mechanically and scholastically oriented. Both men were, to a documented degree, exposed to the current tension between scholasticism and the more pietistic, devotional ideas developing in their respective churches, and both had major mystical experiences. John of the Cross, though trained thoroughly in philosophy and Aquinas, as well as the humanities, was exposed to the "Scripturist Movement" which wanted to do away with scholasticism and go back to the Bible'. His professor, who exposed him to this was later imprisoned by the Inquisition. However, this influence can be seen in his work for he uses the Bible more than most Catholic mystics as his base. John was also primarily active in a conservative reform movement in the Carmelite Order which met his desire for solitude and prayer."[ix] Jacob, likewise, was exposed to both the Lutheran orthodoxy, which was taking the scholastic approach, and the beginning of the German pietistic movement which was reading the older, medieval German mystics. In addition, Jacob was acquainted with and incorporated in his thought the alchemist tradition (Paracelsus), the Jewish mystical tradition of the Kabbalah, and some neo-Platonic thought of the Renaissance.

THE PATH

The goal of union with God, common to Christian mysticism, is best illustrated by the concept of a path or way of growth which leads through various stages to the desired goal of union. John and Jacob understand this path in a sufficiently different way that an overview of their path, is appropriate before examining the tension between the mystical-erotic and authority which is evident in the respective paths of both men. After diagraming their respective paths (see appendix 1) they are remarkably similar in event[x] though differing in the understanding and interpretation of what takes place on the path. Both mystics are conscious that a total surrender to God of the personal will and a heartfelt resolve to follow Christ are the first step. For John the first steps include a desire to imitate Christ and a willingness to remain empty of sensual satisfaction except for the glory of God.[xi] The first step for Jacob involved repentance and confession and the first experience of Sophia (wisdom) presenting herself to the soul (see below).[xii] Following the initial fervor there is for both a time of testing (for John, the Dark Night of the Sense, for Jacob a testing of the soul's resolution to be faithful and grow in humility and in love of God and neighbor-both are essentially the same). As the next step, the mystics begin to experience internal unrequested prayer (contemplation), which for John is understood as transient union with God.[xiii] For Jacob this is the marriage to the Virgin Sophia (as the worthy humanity of Christ) which will lead to marriage to Christ.[xiv]Following this step both describe the experience of suffering as further purging. For John this is the Dark Night of the Spirit, which is the final purging before the betrothal and permanent union.[xv] For Jacob it is entering the way of the cross which is an entering into Christ's death and suffering leading to the marriage of the Lamb when Sophia is wed to Christ in the mystic.[xvi]

DOCTRINES OF THE FALL AND FINAL RESURRECTION

Both John and Jacob include the purging of carnal lust in the early section of their understanding of the path, Jacob, as a protestant, sees the married state and the sex that goes with it as normal, while John, of course, sees the highest calling as celibacy. However, their mutual response to the internalized authority of the Christian tradition towards the evils of lust are very similar. John's Augustinian view of lust being punishment for the fall is not exclusively Roman Catholic vs. Protestant, for again Watchman Nee of modern protestant thought maintains the same position as do most fundamentalists regardless of denomination.

It is in the doctrine of the fall of man and the understanding of the final resurrection that we first see that Jacob has been able to interpret for himself the strength of tradition and move autonomously beyond his internalized Christian upbringing, while John, I believe, is much more a product of his upbringing and environment in the Freudian understanding. This is not based on the Catholic/Protestant dichotomy, for theologically they are similar in these doctrines. Rather Jacob is not drawing from Christian tradition but from the Jewish Kabbalistic and alchemist traditions and re-interpreting them for a Christian understanding.

In traditional theology (which includes John's view) the doctrines of Adam and the fall are part of a linear religious development. Briefly, this consists of Eve being created from Adam's rib, then being deceived by Satan and eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil and then offering the fruit to Adam, who also ate. (I would add here that the Christian tradition usually relies on the older (Jahwehistic) creation account of Gen. 2:43:24 dated about 900 B.C.) This is interpreted as disobedience caused by pride and, as a result, their genital organs which had been under the total control of Adam and Eve's will, and already part of the creation, experienced lust, against their will, as punishment for this disobedience.[xvii] Thus sexual arousal is evil because it’s a sign of the original sin.

Jacob departs radically from this tradition and separates the doctrine of Adam from the creation of man and woman. Adam (generic for mankind in Hebrew), in Jacob's anthropology, was created androgynous. This was in the image of God who Her/Himself was androgynous. (I would add here that Jacob, as well as the Jewish mystics, uses the newer creation account of Genesis 1:1- 2:3, the Priestly account of about 600. B.C. and after). In this understanding Adam could eat and reproduce in a magical, paradisaical way and so needed no teeth, intestines, or reproductive organs. This did not mean he couldn't enjoy eating and sex, for quite the contrary, s/he could. S/he could bear one like him/herself without tearing and opening the body and spirit just as God bore the external world and did not tear Him/Herself, Thus man was created eternal without antagonism and opposition.[xviii] The fall of man was twofold according to Jacob. God saw that Adam was lusting after good and evil, so he could no longer beget magically. Thus God decided to make him a helper. Since God knew that Adam did not want to remain in obedience to the divine harmony, He caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam (this was the first part of the fall). It was in this sleep that Adam died to the angelic world and was divided into male and female. It was at this division that they (male and female) were given genital organs for reproduction, and intestines (which seem more gross than the genitals to Jacob) like the beasts. Thus Adam, while still in the androgynous state, began the process of the fall which ended in separation into male and female and bodies like the beasts. After this separation, Eve's first desire was to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. When she and Adam did, this finalized the fall, (this was the second part, the sin of vanity). It was then that they died to the Kingdom of Heaven and awoke to the external world and the world of darkness which was Satan's domain.18 Shame, as a result of the sin of vanity (not lust) caused man to start wearing clothes.[xix]

The final resurrection is seen in a light consistent with each man's theology. John sees, along with Aquinas, et. al,, that our resurrection bodies will be with sexual organs and in the same sex we were when we died, However, we will not have any sexual contact but will be in the same state as Adam and Eve before the fall, ie., the genitals will be under the total control of the will but not needed anymore since procreation is the only reason for copulating. This is consistent with his view of the fall. Jacob, also consistent with his view of the fall, believes that we will return to the original state, ie., androgynous. He says: "There shall be neither man nor woman, but all shall be like God's angels, androgynous virgins, neither daughter, son, brother, nor sister, but all one sex in Christ…19 Thus we will be fullfilled as the beings we were intended to be, without oral, anal, or genital organs, yet able to take pleasure in both eating and sexual activity." [xx]

What does this have to do with the problem of erotic overtones in the mystical experience? The whole concept of man as being fulfilled in a body (whether it is androgynous or not) in a sexual way, with pleasure in sex being accepted as part of fulfillment, is a great divergence from the traditional view which sees escape from our carnal (read 'erotic') nature as the fulfillment. Thus for Jacob man became a beast after the fall as in the traditional view, but this does not mean the body is to be rejected. While John requires complete control of the genital organs in order to come to perfection, Jacob believes even this body is to be enjoyed. For Jacob, sexual response and desire were a by-product of the fall (the female desires the males 'limbus', the male desires the females 'matrix'), This desire is not seen as punishment for the fall."[xxi] Rather, Jacob states that after the fall God asks us for total trust and obedience and that we work with Her/Him to rule over all things, as God Him/Herself, yet not with possessiveness but in and with God. "It (ie. the soul) is to use the body as its tool that is to be the servant of Your creatures: You have given it everything for its pleasure and joy and put all things under it."[xxii] Thus, even though we are now on the level of the beasts as far as these bodies are concerned, our bodies are hot only a tool but also to be enjoyed.[xxiii]

Thus Jacob has shown indication of having though through his understanding of the creation, fall and final resurrection of man in a creative, autonomous way. I am not trying to put John down, but simply observe that he has totally accepted, at least in regard to this theology, the traditional view as handed to him by the Church. In Freudian understanding Jacob has gone further in the conversion process with regard to interpreting authority, than John has.

CONFRONTING THE PROBLEM--SOME EXAMPLES

In this section I need to bring in several other persons who have experienced the tension which results from the erotic overtones of the experience of God versus the internalized traditional authority which negates sex as inherently evil. To do this I will refer to the path as laid out by both John of the Cross and Jacob Boehme for each of these person's experience falls along that path (please see appendix 2). Then I will conclude with John and Jacob who write from a mature position yet still show the tension.

One excellent example of this tension, which comes fairly early in the path when fervor is high, is written about by Saint Maria Maddalena de' Pazzi (1566-1607). She speaks of a nun who would run down the halls of the convent crying with a loud voice: "Love, love, love!" and "O Lord! no more love, no more love!" because of the felt impossibility of bearing any more love. Once she stripped an image of Jesus saying: "For me you shall be naked, O my Jesus, for I cannot endure your boundless virtues and perfections. I want your naked, naked humanhood.”[xxiv] This has obvious Freudian interpretations, and in this case the nun is obviously not sublimating the erotic nature of this encounter but is expressing it openly, though not physically.

Another example, and one with which I am personally acquainted, is a woman (a protestant) who felt this same fervor and love of God. However (and this is a to common occurrence in many charismatic prayer groups) the fervor of love for God was expressed towards another member of the prayer group, in an intimate way and over a long period of time. This caused great problems for all involved, needless to say, but with maturity this ceased to be a problem. In speaking to this person later about it she realized what had happened and that the loves "got mixed up somehow." However, in light of the realization of the erotic nature of the experience of God, the love is really very much the same. In this understanding, love of God is different in degree not in kind.

Another prime example is the lay woman Saint Catherine of Genoa (1447- 1510). She was married when she began to experience the fervor of mystical prayer in 1473. This was not her first experience, for as a young teenager she had been devout. However, her reaction at this juncture is what is important. With her husband’s conversion the same year, they lived in continence (definition: self-restraint-- especially with regard to sex; complete sexual continence is considered an essential feature of the monastic life) from then on, until his death a few years later.[xxv] This is not at all uncommon in the Roman church, but she is an excellent example of the fact that, according to tradition, once the mystical experience begins the tension with the human sexual relations has to be resolved in light of the attitude that one cannot belong both to the Lord and to an earthly man or woman. There are several women of this century spoken of by Henry Leuba in his work The Psychology of Religious Mysticism who have either become continent in their marriage or, if allowing any sex, are absolutely frigid with their husbands, though experiencing union with God. Obviously these cases denote a very real tension between the experience of God and normal human sexual behavior which is not resolvable for them in light of the internalized attitude towards sex which they have acquired from Christian theology.

Another good example of a different way of dealing with this tension is found in the writings of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus (1870-1893). In her short life she reached great heights of mystical insight and experience. However, the way she handled the tension of love versus authority was by (as her name indicates) thinking of Jesus as a child and herself as a toy (a ball or little bowl) which He could play with, or not, anytime he wished.[xxvi] This apparently solved the problem of this tension for her since Jesus in his pre-puberty state couldn't be sexual in her mind. This maybe for her a very creative way of getting around this problem.

Another way within the Catholic tradition of handling this tension is somewhat harder to pinpoint because of the immense popular piety involved, and the fear of trying to get into peoples heads which I have. However, it bears mentioning. This is the cult of Mary. Again I will use someone I know, a Trappist monk of New Mallory Abbey near Dubuque, Iowa. I have been in contact with him quite a bit in the past three years so feel he is the only one I know well enough to comment upon. All I can really say about this is the feeling that for him and many others Mary serves as an intermediary between God and man and provides a way around (perhaps) the homosexual aspect (for men). In dealing with Jacob later in this section I see parallels with his use of Sophia.

From the Protestant tradition George Fox (1624-1690), who was greatly influenced by Jacob Boehme, has a very different way of handling this tension. He was an extremely ardent lover of God and had many mystical experiences.

There is one historical incident with which I want to deal. During one of the many times he was in prison, a guard expressed great love for him and, after much pleading, Fox agreed to a homosexual relationship with him. He was married at this time though very seldom at home. It is not the relationship to this man that I noticed when reading Fox's Journal, but rather his very detached attitude toward the homosexual contact even knowing the Biblical injunction against it. He indicated no guilt associated with the event.

Along the same line in the reformation period is the fact that the Anabaptist movement in Munster, Germany in 1534 agreed to accept polygamy based on the scripture 'Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the Earth' because of the fact there were three women to every man. In spite of a battle over accepting this based on the internalized authority which says marriage must be monogamous, this was agreed to on the basis of argument. A law was passed saying every man must marry and every woman must be under the authority of a husband.[xxvii] This law did not last, of course, but it was an interesting part of the attempt to overthrow previous authority at this time.

Last, before getting back to John and Jacob, I want to include a woman (a protestant) who has dealt with this tension by accepting the sexual overtones of the mystical experience and internalizing the Freudian understanding. Her first reaction upon experiencing this highly erotic feeling at the beginning of infused prayer (contemplation) was fear. Before this it was not much of a problem, she says. Slowly in her progression on the path this tension has been resolved by accepting the sexual nature both of herself and of God. She says far from interfering with her response to her husband, that relationship has improved also. It has not been easy at times because of the ingrained attitudes which were part of her upbringing. These attitudes caused guilt and anxiety at many junctures along the path, especially as she moved into deeper experiences of union with God. It was, she says, the psychological insights and the tool of 'inner healing' (a Christian interpretation and use of Freud's tool 'abreaction' which is a reliving of the past in the imagination in order to bring healing, only with the Lord present) that helped her come to the freedom necessary for a healthy relationship with God. What this has meant is replacing the internalized authority of tradition, which defines sex negatively, with the internalized experience of God and the positive affirmation of our erotic nature which this brings.

Now it is time to return to John and Jacob. Both of these men are writing from the mature view of those who have reached the goal of permanent union with God as described earlier. All of John's writings are from this mature view and Jacob's The Way to Christ is his last and most mature book.

John, like most mature mystics, has resolved the tension between the erotic overtones of the experience and the negative attitudes of his tradition towards sex, but it is interesting to examine how he has done this. John's sexual imagery, on the positive side, is confined to his poetry, especially the "Spiritual Canticle" (based on the "Song of Solomon"), "The Living Flame of Love," and "The Dark Night." In these the soul is consistently in the feminine gender and Christ (the bridegroom) is 'the Beloved' and always addressed in the masculine gender. Two examples of his poetry follow:

The Dark Night [xxviii] (Stanza 5)

O guiding night!

O night more lovely than the dawn!

O night that has united

The Lover with His beloved,

Transforming the beloved

in her Lover.

The Spiritual Canticle[xxix] (Stanza 27)

The bride has entered

The sweet garden of her desire

And she rests in delight

Laying her neck

On the gentle arms of her

Beloved.

These two examples in English do not do justice to John's poetry, for he is acknowledged as one of the greatest of the Spanish poets, sacred or secular. Nevertheless, one can see his consistent imagry of Christ as the bridegroom and the soul of the mystic as the bride. It is important to note, however, that he is following a long tradition (Weber's view) of expression of the mystical experience which has its roots in the Song of Solomon" as interpreted by the Church with the allegorical method, beginning with Origen and followed by others. such as Bernard of Clairvaux.

It is in John's Prose that one more clearly perceives how he has resolved the tension of this highly erotic quality of union with God versus tradition. In all cases his prose is written as explanation of his poetry to help others understand what is involved in the path to this highest union with God. In his prose writing The Dark Night he discusses "impure movements" which happen even to spiritual persons, particularly those just beginning the path, but John explains that these are purged out of a person's life with the purgation’s of the Dark Nights. Once this has occurred one can receive God's Spirit int their spirit without any impure' reaction.[xxx] Thus, John believed that when a person was totally purified they would experience union with God without any reaction from the sensual nature (read genitals). As he says at the end of The Living Flame of Love in regard to souls not yet perfected:

He grants them some delightful awakening but such an awakening is not of this kind and high quality, nor is it comparable to these, nor as secret to the intellect and the devil, which are still able to understand something through the movements of the senses. For the senses are not fully annihilated until the soul reaches this union, and they still have some activity and movements concerning the spiritual, since they are not yet totally spiritual. . .But in this awakening of the Bridegroom in the perfect soul, everything that occurs and is caused is perfect, for He is the cause of it all.[xxxi]

Thus John handles this tension by believing that once the genitally organized part of sex is out of the picture one is purified and can receive God in his/her spirit. This is very dualistic. However, in light of Freud, I believe what happens in this purging is a return to the polymorphous perverse sexuality of early childhood, which Freud says is the desire of all. John, with great psychological insight, sees this process through 'reliving events so they may be healed", as well as activity on God's part to lead one to freedom which for him is to return to the innocence of Adam before the fall. The perverse aspect comes in a passage where John speaks of the stigmata as an effect of the spirit extending to the bodily senses, sometimes visibly, as in the case of St. Francis, but more often invisibly. This causes pain and torment to the flesh but extreme delight to the spirit. He sees this as one of the most wonderful experiences one can have, though he points out that one does not attain to this peak without leaving behind the activity of the senses.[xxxii] Thus John handles these overtones of sexuality in a manner perfectly acceptable in his tradition by the language of his poetry which has precedent, and, in pre-Freudian understanding, explaining that once the 'sensual nature' is purified one is 'spiritual.'

Jacob handles this tension in a way apparently unique to Christian mystics. He again shows that he has thought through and interpreted strength for himself in an adult way by accepting as authoritative for him the Jewish understanding of Sophia (Wisdom) as part of God. By doing this he has added a fourth and female principle to the trinitarian Godhead. It is she who presents herself to the soul of the Christian at the time of repentence and begins leading the soul to marriage, first to herself and then, with Sophia, to Christ. Jacob speaks of the movement after repentance towards this marriage, saying:

The more a man moves himself from the images, the more he enters into God until Christ becomes live in embodied grace, which occurs in great earnestness of resolution. Immediately the marriage with the Virgin Sophia begins when the two lovers receive each other in joy, and press into each other with completely inner desire, in the sweetest love of God. Then in a short time the marriage of the Lamb is prepared when the Virgin Sophia (as the worthy humanity of Christ) is wedded with the soul.[xxxiii]

In another place he speaks of Christ covering his bride under the cross so that it may not be known in the world.[xxxiv] In this sense he is consistent with his view of the androgynous nature of God in his imagery.

The fact remains that he is hedging God by having an intermediary, Sophia, as the one who weds the mystic and then is wed to Christ in the mystic. This 'hedging is more Jewish than Christian. This is open to a number of interpretations! I don't feel its right to 'get inside his head' in this but will mention a couple of possible views. One is that this fear of the homosexual relationship with God for the male is present and he guards against it by having Sophia be the lover, though in Jacob's theology this applies to women as well as men. Another is, of course, the view that God Him/Herself cannot be a sexual being so an intermediary is necessary. However, this is refuted in part because for Jacob Sophia is God. Either one or both, or perhaps neither are right. We cannot know what was his precise understanding, but I would note for this paper the very creative way Jacob handles the problem of the sexual nature of the mystical experience and the tension with authority created by that experience.

There are a couple of other aspects to this which Jacob handles in a unique way. I have already explained his view of the doctrine of Adam and of the fall, as well as his view of the final resurrection in which all will be androgynous virgins as Adam was before the fall. What does this have to say about tradition versus the tension of the erotic experience? I believe he may be projecting into the final resurrection the fact of the erotic experience he was having in his earthly body. Logically we would find complete fulfillment in our androgynous bodies. Again, I am not trying to get inside his head but I will quote another passage in which he tries to handle this tension. In a conversation between the soul and Sophia he has Sophia saying:

I shall keep my pearl to myself and shall dwell in your corrupted humanity now again made alive in me in the heaven within you and preserve my pearl for Paradise, until you lay aside your earthiness. But I will eagerly give you my presence and the sweet beams of the pearl, during the time of this earthly life. . .I do not marry your earthly flesh for I am a Queen of Heaven and my kingdom is not of this world. Yet I shall not cast aside your outward life, but I shall often visit it with my love-beams for your external humanity shall return.[xxxv]

In this passage he accepts the fact that we can and do receive love within the earthly body, and that, in fact, Sophia (God) wants to give us love in this way. I believe he projects to the future when we can receive love in the heavenly, and perfect way which he sees after the final resurrection. In regard to authority he shows an extremely creative way of handling the erotic overtones and, I believe, a great ability to rethink and accept for himself what seems appropriate to his situation in the mystical life.

RESPONSE OF EXAMPLES TO AUTHORITY

Each of the preceding illustrations of the erotic elements in Christian mystical experience include contact and, on occasion, tension with the understanding of authority of the tradition. Just as in some ethnic branches of the Roman Catholic Church today the young woman professing her vows is attired in a wedding gown, so the reaction observed by Saint Maria Maddalena dè' Pazzi is acceptable under the authority of the tradition, since there was no overtly genital eroticism involved. The problem of the love of God in the context of a charismatic prayer group may have been aggravated by the lack of the knowledge of either ecclesiastical authority or Christian Tradition in this particular prayer group. As observed above, Saint Catherine of Genoa and others who respond with continence of frigidity in regard to their husbands are subservient to the presence of authority in the Freudian sense. Saint Thérèse protects her understanding of the Christian tradition by placing herself in the control of a pre-puberty and therefore non-sexual Jesus. For the Trappist monk, and for many others, the worship and love of Mary is a way of dealing with the tension of the erotic nature of God's love in a way which is both hallowed by the past (Weber) and possesses a popular childlike acceptance of authority of tradition (Freud). George Fox is sufficiently in tune with the love of Jesus in what Weber would understand as the Charismatic sense that he can accept non-traditional erotic acts as a means of sharing love while neither endorsing nor choosing them as a life-style. Though the Christian mystical element was almost certainly present among the Anabaptists, their antagonism towards ecclesiastical authority and their historical malignment by their victorious opponents makes their understanding of authority with respect to the erotic nature of their religious experience impossible to recover. The internalization of the Freudian understanding of the all pervasiveness of human sexuality has given legitimacy to this portestant woman's mystical erotic experiences. She has apparently been able to integrate the erotic overtones of the mystical experience and the erotic love of husband to a remarkable degree.

John of the Cross has internalized his tradition in a stable and conservative manner which not only resolves the erotic of the mystical experience and his somewhat anti-erotic authority, but John has become the standard of written authority for those who come after. Evelyn Underhill observes this in saying that John uses the "map of the community in which he finds himself, when it comes to showing other people the route which he has pursued.” Jacob Boehme is perhaps the most charismatic of all, in accepting the authoritative importance of his mystical experiences. Even in the face of religious questioning and challenge he continued in his life the consistency which speaks of self-assurance and, in Freudian terms, an adult response to authority.

CONCLUSION

The tension between the erotic aspects of the mystical experience and the internalized authority of the Christian tradition has by no means been exhausted in the above paper. It is quite probable that erotic overtones in Christian religious experience is a rather widespread phenomena. Andrew Greeley, in the article referred to earlier, says as many as 4/5 of the people have experienced this at one time or another. However, the document ed devotional life of the Christian mystic can be shown to have this erotic aspect which can be at best inferred in the religious life of the more general population, I have however presented divergent personalities, viewpoints, and solutions from both protestant and catholic traditions. Collectively these have application for those who are today experiencing a similar tension, even though the sexual self-awareness of the post- Freudian era may be more comfortably accepted. As can be seen, especially in Jacob Boehme, the possibilities for new formulations of mystical self- understanding in light of modern science and psychology are far greater then the usual defenders of Christian tradition and authority can accept or even conceive.

APPENDIX

APPENDIX I: THE PATH TO UNION WITH GOD

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Endnotes

  1. Richard Sennett, Authority, (N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, 1980) p. 19, (hereafter referred to as "Sennett, p. "Sennett, p.) ↩
  2. Sennett, p. 21 ↩
  3. Sennett, p. 21 ↩
  4. Sennett, p. 21 ↩
  5. Sennett, p. 23 ↩
  6. Sennett, p. 24 ↩
  7. George A. Maloney, S.J., The Breath of the Mystic, (Danville, N.J.: Dimension Books, 1974) p. 7 ↩
  8. Fr. Andrew Greeley, "Wanted:-More women deities," Albuquerque Tribune, (May 3, 1980) p. 4. ↩
  9. St. John of the Cross, The Collected Works, trans. by K. Kavanaugh, 0.C.D., et. al., (Washington, D.C.: Institute of Carmelite Studies, 1973) (hereafter cited as: John, p.) p. 18. ↩
  10. Jacob Boehme, The Way to Christ, trans. by Peter Erb, (N.Y.; Ramsey, N.J.: Paulist Press, 1978) p. 5. (hereafter cited as Jacob, p.) ↩
  11. John, p. 140-141 ↩
  12. Jacob, p. 56 ↩
  13. John, p. 140-141 ↩
  14. Jacob, p. 69 ↩
  15. John, p. 366 ↩
  16. Jacob, p. 69 ↩
  17. St. Augustine, The City of God, trans. by Marcus Dods, D.D., (N.Y. Modern Lib., 1950) p. 422 ↩
  18. Jacob, p. 145 ↩
  19. Jacob, p. 187 ↩
  20. Jacob, p. 145 and 187 ↩
  21. Jacob, p. 147 ↩
  22. Jacob, p. 103 ↩
  23. Jacob, p. 4 ↩
  24. H. A. Reinhold, Ed., The Soul Afire: Revelations of the Mystics, (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday Image Books, 1973) p. 342-343 ↩
  25. Catherine of Genoa, Purgation and Purgatory & The Spiritual Dialogue, translated by Serge Hughes, (N.Y, Ramsey, N. J.: Paulist Press, 1979) p. 3-5 ↩
  26. Saint Therese of the Child Jesus, Thoughts of the Servant of God Therese of the Child Jesus, (NY: ?, 1915) p. 165 ↩
  27. Thomas M. Lindsay, A History of the Reformation, vol. II, (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1908 (2nd ed.) p. 463ff. ↩
  28. John, p. 711 ↩
  29. John, p. 715 ↩
  30. John, p. 303-304 ↩
  31. John, p. 649 ↩
  32. John, p. 599-600 ↩
  33. Jacob, p. 69-70 ↩
  34. Jacob, p. 46 ↩
  35. Jacob, p. 60 ↩