MYSTICISM. – A term now generally used to denote either the state of mind of one who immerses himself in spiritual reality through religious contemplation (often called mysticism) or the doctrine relating to it (also called mystical theology).
OUTLINE:
I. Different meanings of the term
II. Christian mysticism. Its nature. –III. The principles of mysticism
IV. Vocation to the mystical life
V. Different degrees
VI. Mysticism outside the Church.I. DIFFERENT MEANINGS OF THE TERM
Derived from the verb μύσχω, “to close,” especially “to close the eyes,” the adjective μυστικός in the language of the mystery cults was used by the Greeks to signify not so much a doctrine (a meaning that is distinctly Christian) as the very secret that enabled that type of religiosity.Like so many others, the word mystikós passed into Christian usage without, however, any dependence on the doctrine or the new realities it came to signify, as Louis Bouyer has well demonstrated on the basis of a very careful semantic investigation (*Mystique. Essai sur l'histoire d'un mot*, in *La vie spirituelle*, Supplément, May 1949).
The Fathers used the term in three different but related senses (cf. ibid., and J. de Guibert, *Études de théologie mystique*, Toulouse 1930, ch. 1, § 1). First, mystikos was used by Clement of Alexandria and Origen to denote the allegorical meaning of Scripture, especially of the Old Testament, in reference to Jesus Christ, whose “mystery,” according to St. Paul himself, is the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets; Clement calls this interpretation μυστικός εμπνευσά (*Stromata*, V, 6: *PG* 9, 64). Then the sense shifted toward the meaning of a “sacramental” reality, of what is present but hidden under the veils of the sacraments, e.g., of Baptism, which Eusebius calls “mystical regeneration” (*Contra Marcellum*: ibid., 24, 728), and especially of the Eucharist, referred to as the “mystical Passover” (Hesychius of Jerusalem, *Quaest. Evangel.* 34: *PG* 93, 14, 1), “mystical sacrifice of his body and blood” (*Constitutiones Apostolorum*, VI, 23, 4: *PG* 1, 974), while the body of Christ present there is called “the Mystical Body.”
Finally, already prefigured by Origen but more explicitly by the Pseudo-Dionysius, we find the concept of an experimental or quasi-experimental knowledge of divine realities, which proceeds from an intimate εὐωσύχη “union” with God; such was the “mystical theology” of Hierotheus, who was “non solum discens sed et patiens divina,” according to the formula often cited later (*De Divinis Nominibus*, 2, 9: *PG* 3, 648 B; cf. *Summa Theologiae*, 1a-2ae, q. 68, a. 2). This knowledge, moreover, according to the Pseudo-Dionysius, is realized chiefly through the Eucharistic liturgy, as the term of the “Mystery of Christ” of which St. Paul speaks (Eph. 3:4), thus revealing its essential connections with the meanings indicated above. This third meaning, which prevailed throughout the Middle Ages, is the only one in use today in Christianity.
II. CHRISTIAN MYSTICISM. ITS NATURE. – Mysticism, in the precise theological sense here intended, is a higher state of spiritual life in which the soul, enriched with sanctifying grace and usually already purified not only of grave sins but also in large part of vicious tendencies and natural inclinations, trained in the practice of Christian virtues, attains an intimate union with God. This union is not the fruit of one’s own supernatural activity but an infused gift of God, often accompanied by spiritual delights. Illuminated by the Holy Spirit, the soul in this state contemplates the truths of faith not by discursive meditation but with a simple and steadfast gaze full of love, with a sense of savory experience and often of contact with God.
Jesus promised His disciples this intimate manifestation of God to the soul, though always in the darkness of faith: “If anyone loves me, he will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him” (John 14:21). St. Augustine speaks of this when commenting on the Beatitudes in relation to the gifts of the Holy Spirit, saying at the end: “The seventh is wisdom, that is, the contemplation of truth, which pacifies the whole man and gives him the likeness of God” (cf. *Dictionnaire de Spiritualité*, fasc. IV, col. 113). To this infused wisdom St. Augustine refers in his account of the contemplation at Ostia with St. Monica, in which, all created things being silenced, “only He who made them speaks... in such a way that we hear His word, not expressed by a carnal tongue nor by the voice of an angel, but in such a way that we feel Him whom in these things we love... with a swift flight of thought reaching eternal Wisdom”: a fleeting anticipation of eternal life “which ravishes the beholder with inward joys and absorbs and hides him in them” (*Confessions*, IX, 10: *PL* 32, 77).
An ample description of this mystical wisdom is found in the Pseudo-Dionysius and, among many others, in St. Gregory the Great and St. Bernard; with the school of St. Victor, especially Hugh and Richard, a more systematic exposition of mysticism begins, continued later by St. Albert the Great and St. Thomas Aquinas, by St. Bonaventure, and by the Franciscan school. But it was reserved to the Carmelite Order to give to mystical doctrine both a more detailed and ordered description and a more methodical interpretation, in the writings of St. Teresa of Jesus (*The Interior Castle*, Fourth Dwelling, ch. 2) and of St. John of the Cross (*Living Flame*, stanza 3).
From the doctrine of the saints, the characteristics of the mystical life may be deduced. Every operation, prayer, knowledge, or form of union with God that does not proceed from our activity, aided by common grace, but is the fruit of a divine initiative, of a “special” grace, which renders us passive under the impulse of the Holy Spirit, will be mystical. The twofold characteristic of the mystical life is therefore passivity and simplicity.
1. **Passivity.** – Mystical operations, though proceeding from the vital faculties of man divinized by grace and being free and meritorious, are produced in the soul by a special intervention of the Holy Spirit. While pre-mystical supernatural activity depends on human deliberation through the infused virtues (*Summa Theologiae*, 1a-2ae, q. 68, a. 2), mystical activity proceeds from the gifts of the Holy Spirit, by which He takes possession of the soul with power and sweetness and reduces it to a blessed passivity, superior in merit and efficacy to any human activity.
St. Teresa calls this “supernatural” in a restrictive sense, that of being passive under the hand of God: “This prayer is already something supernatural, and we could not procure it by ourselves, despite all our efforts” (*The Way of Perfection*, X, 31).
In what does this mystical passivity consist? Negatively, in the fact that “it is not in our power to produce such an act when we wish, as we can an ordinary act of faith” (R. Garrigou-Lagrange, *Perfection*, cited in bibliography, ch. 4, art. 11, 1). Human activity, even when aided by ordinary grace, cannot rise to this. Positively, the passivity of mystics comes from a special grace of God, which takes control of human action, seizes the soul, governs its activity, so as to realize in a manifest way the word of the Apostle: “Whosoever are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God” (Rom. 8:14).
Intimately connected with the dominating action of God that renders the soul passive is, as a prerequisite to divine union, the painful, complete stripping away of all that is natural and imperfect in the soul, which authors call the passive purifications (q.v.).
2. **Simplicity.** – This consists in the exclusion of the discursive process with its succession of multiple acts, which is the proper mode of natural reason and of the infused virtues, and its replacement by an almost unique, instinctive, spontaneous, and direct act (St. John of the Cross, *Dark Night of the Soul*, Bk. I, ch. 9).
A characteristic diversity which St Thomas designates by the terms “human mode proper to the virtues” and “superhuman or divine mode,” specific to the gifts of the Holy Spirit (III Sent., dist. XXXIV, c. 1, a. 3; Sum. Theol. 1.2.2a, q. 68, a. 2). A simplicity which is found both in mystical prayer called contemplation (v.) and in exterior mystical action. Treating of the former, St Thomas defines contemplation as “simplex intuitus veritatis” (ibid., 2.2.2a, q. 180, a. 3, ad 1): a simple and loving gaze of faith which, moved by the gift of wisdom, fixes upon its divine object and tastes its sweetness (ibid., q. 45, a. 2). If, instead, it is considered in exterior activity—which likewise can be mystical, passive, infused—simplicity will be that instinctive judgment of the gift of counsel which embraces the manifold investigations and necessary deliberations of the virtue of prudence, intuiting at once, under the light of God, what is to be done in most delicate situations. Examples of this abound in the lives of the saints, who often confound ordinary prudence.
From this twofold character of mysticism there often arises a most vivid sense of the presence of God, which, invading the soul with its dominating action beyond normal psychology, causes it to experience and almost touch His beneficent presence. Often, but not always, as is seen in certain forms of arid and painful contemplation; hence that feeling of God’s presence or awareness of His supernatural influence cannot be regarded as a characteristic and universal criterion of mysticism, as some have thought (cf. J. de Guibert, op. cit. in bibl., cap. 2).
III. THE PRINCIPLES OF MYSTICISM — Although produced in the soul by God Himself beyond human initiative, properly so-called mystical life is not to be conceived as a charismatic or miraculous phenomenon, such as prophecy or levitation, which are “graces gratis datae.” “It is difficult to imagine a greater confusion than that which has led certain Catholic authors to make the word mysticism synonymous with miracle. If the two concepts are compared, it will be evident that they are the very contradiction of one another” (S. Luismet, Miracle et mystique, cap. 2).
Mysticism is a “gratia gratum faciens,” ordained by God to the good of the recipient and tending to the full development of that supernatural life whose germ was implanted in man by Baptism. It is the ripe fruit of the infused principles then bestowed. Now these principles are sanctifying grace, together with the correlative habits— theological virtues and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. All have as their immediate or remote end the union of the soul with God, the progressive transformation into God, which perfectly realizes that being “divine consortes naturae” of St Peter (2 Pt 1:4). The radical principle of this union and transformation is sanctifying grace itself, which, besides formally sanctifying the soul and rendering it beautiful, procures for it the substantial presence of the Most Holy Trinity, as the Angelic Doctor teaches, following St Paul (1 Cor 3:16; 2 Cor 6:16): “Above the common presence of God in all things, there is a special presence which befits the rational creature, in which God is said to be present as the known in the knower and the beloved in the lover. And since, by knowing and loving the rational creature through His operation, He attains to Himself, in this way God is not only said to be in the rational creature but also to dwell in it, as in His temple” (Sum. Theol., 1.2, q. 43, a. 3). It should be noted that there is a difference between “being in” a place and “dwelling in” II. The latter adds to the former relations of cohabitation or friendship, which mere presence does not imply. God is present in every created being—in the flower, the animal, and even in man—as the efficient cause bestowing existence and life. But He dwells only in the sanctified soul as “a most sweet guest,” fostering there that friendly commerce of mutual knowledge and love which proceeds at first from faith and charity (cf. A. Cardell, Structure de l'âme, Part 3; R. Garrigou-Lagrange, L'habitation de la Ste Trinité et l'expérience mystique, in Revue thomiste, 33 [1928], pp. 439-74).
Yet for this purpose the obscure knowledge of faith is not sufficient, and so the gifts of the Holy Spirit intervene—or rather, as St Thomas puts it, the Holy Spirit Himself comes in person to move and direct, through His gifts, the Christian soul to a knowledge and love less disproportionate to their divine object. The gifts, according to the Angelic Doctor (Sum. Theol., 1.2.2a, q. 68, a. 1), differ from the virtues in that the virtues are primarily “active,” enabling one to act according to the direction of reason elevated by grace, while the gifts are primarily “passive,” rendering the soul docile to the impulse of the Holy Spirit. This is the “passivity” proper to mystics, who feel themselves as though invaded by the Spirit of God.
These gifts operate now one, now another, according to the field of application of the divine influence. In mystical prayer or contemplation, the gift of wisdom prevails, which, utilizing “the effect of filial love that it produces in us” (St Thomas, In Rom., VIII, 16), brings about in the soul an awareness of God.
St John of the Cross often establishes a causal connection between contemplation and love (Dark Night, Bk. II, ch. 17). The profound reason for this lies in the fact that love creates a “connaturality” or sympathy of the soul with divine things (Sum. Theol., 2.2.2a, q. 45, a. 2), which enables it to judge of them by a kind of instinctive spontaneity. The gift of wisdom, grounded in this divine sympathy, with a special illumination reveals to the soul the perfections of God, often with an intimate sense of His friendly presence. Love becomes, as it were, the “medium obiectivum” of the Scholastics for knowing God Himself in a knowledge that is savorous, from which “wisdom” derives its name.
At other times, in mystical prayer, the gift of understanding intervenes, enabling the soul to penetrate divine mysteries and discern their marvelous connections and harmonies (ibid., q. 8), or the gift of knowledge, which judges created things rightly in relation to God (ibid., q. 9, a. 2). There is also an exterior activity of a mystical nature, as is revealed, for example, in the Venerable Marie de l’Incarnation, the first female missionary to Canada, whose apostolic work often proceeded from a mystical impulse of God: such activity depends especially on the gift of counsel, far surpassing even infused prudence. “He who interrupts them puts into their minds at once what they should say or do” (Marie de l’Incarnation, Letter of September 1666). In other cases, in the exercise of charity, the gift of piety will intervene, as appears in the lives of St Elizabeth of Hungary or St Vincent de Paul. There is also a mystical suffering, a sharing in the sufferings of the divine Redeemer, in which, as St Paul of the Cross says, the soul “suffers the penalty of its Spouse infused into it” (cf. J. Lebreton, Tu solus Sanctus, Paris 1948, p. 222). Here the gift of fortitude is seen in an eminent way, uniting the soul to Christ in His work of redemption and enabling it to endure with courage the hard struggle against sin and hell.
An essential principle of all true mysticism in the present order of Providence is union with Christ, the recourse to Christ’s mediation. Universally valid is the word of Jesus: “No one comes to the Father except through me” (Jn 14:6). He is the way; the Incarnate Word is the necessary mediator of union with God as of salvation.
It is well known that St Teresa insisted on the necessity of never deviating from contemplation of the most holy humanity of Christ (Vita, ch. 22; Castello int., VI Mans., ch. 7). Nor is St John of the Cross less explicit when he cites Christ’s words: “Ego sum ostium” (John 10:9; Salita d. C., I. II, ch. 6). In Christ alone is found, in fullness, the revelation of God, the object of faith and the principle of mystical union.
IV. VOCATION TO THE MYSTICAL LIFE
From the principles that underlie mysticism the much-debated question must be resolved: is mysticism a privilege of the few, an extraordinary grace, or should it be regarded as the normal term of the Christian life? First, as R. Garrigou-Lagrange observes (op. cit., ch. 1, art. II; cf. J. Arittero, Cuestiones misticas, Salamanca 1927, p. 45; J. de Guibert, op. cit. in bibl., p. 37), “ordinary” may be taken in two senses: “de facto,” for something common to all or most concerned, and “de iure,” for what lies along the normal path of a given activity, not miraculous or charismatic in itself, though in practice it may occur only in a minority of cases. That the seeds of a plant grow into noble plants is an ordinary, normal process; yet how many of the fruits that ripen each year are never sown in fertile ground to grow? Likewise, mystical life may be regarded as “ordinary de iure,” even though many Christians either do not live in grace, or having grace do not cultivate it, or while taking some care of their inner life do not advance with the necessary seriousness, above all failing to achieve that mortification and purification of the soul which is the indispensable premise for the divine operation of the mystical order.Mystical life must be considered ordinary because it does not proceed from elements foreign to our supernatural life, but from the very principles infused into every baptised soul: sanctifying grace, the theological virtues and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The proper function of the gifts is their receptivity to the impulses of the Holy Spirit, rendering the soul passive (cf. R. Garrigou-Lagrange, op. cit., ch. 5). Now this passivity, together with the simplicity proper to the motions that come through the gifts, constitutes the mystical state. Yet at the outset this influence of the gifts, mingling with the activity of the infused virtues “in a human manner,” is not perceived, and does not yet constitute a “state” but rather more or less frequent “acts” of mysticism. It is, however, normal that the soul, careful not to hinder the action of grace, should through a growing intervention of the gifts arrive at a lasting, properly mystical state. By various paths J. de Guibert reaches the same conclusion, admitting the “normal” character of mysticism, apart from that of a miraculous order (op. cit., ch. 4, § 111). Nor is anything else to be inferred from the teaching of the masters—St Teresa, St John of the Cross, St Francis de Sales. And if certain passages seem to convey a different meaning, they are easily explained by what was said above regarding mystical grace, which, though lying along the normal path, encounters in its realisation manifold obstacles, some even not imputable, being dependent on temperament or external circumstances. “Consider,” writes St Teresa, “that the Lord invites all (to the fountain of water which is contemplation). He is the very Truth, and His word is beyond doubt. If His banquet were not universal, He would not call all, and even if He invited us, He would not say: ‘I will give you to drink.’ He might have said: ‘Come all; in the end you will lose nothing, and I will give drink to whom I will.’ But since He set no limit and said ‘all,’ I hold it certain that to all who do not stop along the way the living water will not be lacking. May the Lord who promises it grant us the grace to seek it as we ought” (Cammino di perf., ch. 19, at the end). At the beginning of the following chapter she insists even more strongly, despite the appearance of contradiction with what she said in ch. 17, where she strove “to console souls that in fact do not attain to contemplation.” Likewise St John of the Cross (Fiamma viva, stanza 2, V. 5).
Summarising the teaching of the later Carmelite mystics of the Reform, Fr Gabriel of St Mary Magdalene writes: “The Carmelite school taken as a whole has always recognised that the mystical life is the complete development of the supernatural life. Hence all its most notable authors teach that all interior souls can and indeed should desire infused contemplation” (Letter to Fr Garrigou-Lagrange, in Garrigou-Lagrange, op. cit., ch. 6, art. V).
V. VARIOUS DEGREES
Since mysticism is that “pati divina” of the Pseudo-Dionysius, its essential stages are determined by the degree to which the dominative action of the Spirit of God is complete. There are complete (or perfect) mystical states and incomplete (or imperfect) ones, according as the mystical passivity extends to all the faculties, or only to some, or to one alone.1. Incomplete mystical states: these are the states described by St Teresa in the Fourth Mansions of her Interior Castle (cf. also Cammino di perfezione, chs. 29–32): supernatural recollection, in which the faculties are gently drawn within the inner sanctuary of the soul to occupy themselves with God; and above all the prayer of quiet, in which a spark of love rises from the centre of the soul, inflaming the will with profound calm and sweetness, while the intellect and still more the imagination may wander, distracting the soul in its repose of love.
Often this mystical union of the quiet, especially in its beginnings, passes unnoticed by the soul that experiences it, as St John of the Cross observes (Salita d. Carm., I. II, p. 12). Such a mode of mystical prayer is easily seen, for example, in the life of St Thérèse of the Child Jesus, both in her Autobiography and in her Letters, where on every page her infused wisdom shines forth wonderfully, though the Saint generally gives no explicit descriptions of mystical states, unlike her seraphic Mother. There also exist mixed forms of contemplative prayer, in which infused elements mingle with the soul’s own activity and may therefore be called mixed contemplation (Gabriel of St Mary Magdalene, loc. cit.).
2. Complete mystical states
These are the states described by St Teresa in the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Mansions: the sleep of the faculties, where God already takes possession of all the soul’s faculties in holy inebriation, “a manifest union of the whole soul with God” (v. Mans. ch. 1); the most perfect prayer of union, where the intellect, will and imagination are ravished in God, and in which even the external senses are suspended and deprived of all contact with the world, though this ecstasy (v.), which so impresses the uninitiated, is a secondary and purely accidental phenomenon, a consequence of human weakness before the intense operation of God. Finally there is the transforming union, the summit of mystical ascent, after which the soul can only yearn for the consummation of the beatific union of the Fatherland, the specific end of all Christian life and the natural fulfilment of every mystical life.VI. MYSTICISM OUTSIDE THE CHURCH
A difficult problem is that which R. Garrigou-Lagrange calls the problem of the “mystics outside” (Il Salvatore e il suo amore per noi, Turin 1948, pp. 372 ff.). Do such authentic mystics exist? The documents brought to light especially in recent years do not permit an always negative answer. Caution is necessary so as not to affirm anything beyond the demands of the facts established, and discernment is required to determine their origin and meaning. Beyond the general problem, it is advisable to examine some specific cases: that of Plotinus among ancient philosophers, that of Sufism and especially of al-Ḥallāj among Muslims, and that of Hinduism.Here it must be recalled what is said to constitute the essence of mysticism: an experience of God present in the soul as an object of fruition—this is the “pati divina” of Pseudo-Dionysius or the “frui divina Persona” of St. Thomas Aquinas (Summa Theologiae, 1a, q. 43, a. 3). Now such an experience or fruition presupposes God present by a presence of grace, superior to the common presence of immensity, and attained through supernatural charity and the gift of wisdom, as a guest and friend of the soul. This in itself excludes from the purely natural order any possibility of a mystical experience of God.
Since a properly so-called mysticism is impossible outside of grace, there may, however, exist what R. Garrigou-Lagrange calls a natural pre-mysticism, which, without arriving at an experience of God in the sense explained, may rise to a profound philosophical contemplation of the Creator. This contemplation, as Pseudo-Albert the Great observes (De adhaerendo Deo, cap. 9), “sistit in intellectu,” unlike mystical contemplation, which “is through love” and proceeds from love. “Such natural contemplation,” notes R. Garrigou-Lagrange—prepared and sustained by appropriate asceticism (as was the case with Plotinus, for example), brought by a well-conceived method and training to an exceptional degree of intensity—may entail psychic consequences, and, with the intervention of temperament, especially where imagination and emotion are involved, bodily consequences materially similar to certain secondary mystical phenomena.
But, excluding the possibility of a true mystical experience outside Christian grace, a second question arises: does, or can there exist, a supernatural mysticism outside the one Church of Christ, and even more so among unbelievers? The problem is connected with the more general one of the possibility of salvation outside the Church. Now it is agreed among theologians that to all men, even non-Christians, a grace at least sufficient for obtaining justification is granted, and that to whoever does what they can with the help of this actual grace, the Lord also gives the grace to love Him efficaciously with true charity: this implies the baptism of desire with habitual grace and the right to beatitude. All this, however, is not possible without some knowledge, even minimal, of revealed truths, which, easily obtainable in separated Christian confessions, is not excluded even in the pagan world through various means of the salvific Providence. But if the attainment of grace is possible outside the Church, it is more difficult to reach that summit of Christian life marked by mystical gifts. Transitory infusions or touches of mystical grace, called minor mystical graces by Fr. Lemonnyer (La vie spirituelle, Suppl., May 1933), may more easily be admitted to compensate for the lack of spiritual aids in the environment. Even lasting mystical states “are possible outside the visible Church, since the grace of the virtues and gifts can develop there, though with greater difficulty. But it is highly probable a priori that such properly so-called mystical graces, rare even within the visible Church, are extremely rare in such environments” (R. Garrigou-Lagrange, op. cit., p. 400).
Among the specific cases, that of Plotinus presents itself first. His Neoplatonic philosophy, expounded in the Enneads, reached a very elevated abstract knowledge of God, which marks the apex of what human reason could attain, although it is not free from pantheistic tendencies. Not only this, but to his theoretical knowledge he added an ascetic discipline aimed at that purification or καθαρσις which resembles what Christian mystics teach about the prior purification necessary for union with God. Finally, he describes several times that “ecstasy” to which he was granted, rarely, to rise—a privileged union with the One, source of ineffable joys: “When I awaken to myself, emerging from what is not the self to return to myself, I see a marvelous beauty, convinced that then above all I participate in a superior nature living a life of excellence and made one with the divinity (τοῦ σέσῳ)… When, after this vision of the divinity, I descend again from νοῦς to reasoning, I do not know how I can descend nor how a soul can remain within the body, being in itself what has appeared to me” (Enn., IV, 8, 1; ed. E. Bréhier, Paris 1924–38). What is the nature of this ecstasy? From an examination of Plotinus’ entire work, it emerges that he is completely ignorant of the concept of the personal love of God, due to the determinism he attributes to the supreme “One,” which does not allow for Providence or friendly relations with the impersonal God. He does speak of ἔρως, love, but it is a natural inclination of the soul toward the divine Good, ὀρφανός, “consubstantial” with the soul, as Bréhier translates it; on this point see further Fr. R. Arnou (Le désir de Dieu dans la philosophie de Plotin, Paris n.d.). Therefore, in Plotinus there is no true mystical experience of God based on charity, in accordance with the principles outlined above. His case can be reduced to the possibilities of natural philosophical contemplation.
The radical pantheism of Hindu philosophies and of the Vedānta or religious books that inspire them is, however, well known: Brahman or God is not only the efficient cause of the world but also its material cause, the universe and thus individual souls being nothing but an evolution of God (cf. P. Johanns, Vers le Christ par le Vedanta, Louvain 1932). This original pantheism corrupts every order of relations between the soul and God. It was the singular merit of Greek philosophy, and first of all of Aristotle, to have analyzed with keen insight the deep roots of being and to have safeguarded the absolute transcendence of God, Pure Act. In such a system of metaphysical notions, the order of supernatural relations with God through faith and charity first, and then through the mystical activity that completes them, is clearly distinct from the purely natural rational process of religious psychology. This is not the case, however, in religious life inspired by pantheism, in which the logic of the system requires that philosophy and religion, natural and supernatural order, common religious piety and pure mysticism be confused. This is the case with the so-called Hindu mysticism (cf. J. Lacombe, L'absolu selon le Vedanta, Paris 1937; G. Dandoy, L'Ontologie du Vedanta, ibid. 1932).
In recent years much has been said about Muslim mystics, the so-called Sufis (cf. H. Asín Palacios, El Islam cristianizado estudio del «sufismo», Madrid 1931; G. Fausti, Asceti e mistici nell'Islam, in Civ. Catt., 1932, IV, pp. 344-52, 440-55), among whom the most typical case is that of al-Hallāj (cf. L. Massignon, La Passion d'al Hosayn-ibn-Mansour al-Hallaj, 2 vols., Paris 1932). He was martyred in Baghdad by his own people in 922 for his dissident interpretation of the Qur’ān, which placed Jesus, the “holy one” par excellence, above Muḥammad and acknowledged Him as the judge who will return to earth at the universal Resurrection. Extraordinary was the life of al-Hallāj, as described by Massignon on the basis of the documents, in which we see him, after years of ascetic life filled with frequent mystical experiences, undertake journeys of preaching through India and Turkestan, to communicate, both by word and in writing, the fruit of his inner life. Al-Hallāj himself writes: “At the summit of holiness, at the consummation of divine union, the saint is more than a prophet with an outward mission to fulfill, with a law to establish.”