Lynn Bauman
Lynn Bauman is director of the Praxis Retreat and Learning Center in Telephone, Texas. He is a lecturer in Comparative Religion, Islamic Philosophy, Near Eastern Studies, Christian and World Spirituality. He lived for ten years in the Middle East, including seven years in Iran, where he studied Sufism and Islamic spirituality with Seyyed Hossein Nasr.
(Taken from the Journal of Contemplative Reflection, Vol. 1, Issue 1, April 1998)
It has been quite common in the contemporary world, especially among western theologians, to ridicule the notion of "mystical Christianity." The prevailing assumption has been that mysticism is only an accretion, added to Christianity after-the-fact and despite its origins. Anyone who sought to introduce mystical Christianity was subject to theological disdain. More recently, however, in light of current biblical scholarship and research into the origins of Jesus, this assumption has slowly begun to change. Marcus Borg, a well-known contemporary scholar, for example, talks openly now of the mystical and spiritual dimension not only of early Christianity, but of Jesus' own life. In his writings, he has called Jesus a "person of Spirit." This new attitude creates an opening today to rediscover and recover the mystical roots of Christianity.
At its heart, traditional Christianity is always a mystery, and about the Mystery, for the Christian faith is a mystical tradition of deep interiority.
