Religions and mystics

Gerhard Tersteegen représente un autre univers spirituel plus proche de la simplicité évangélique et de la grande tradition mystique chrétienne. Il a marqué ses contemporains par l'adéquation forte entre son existence et son enseignement, sa foi et sa personne, sa pensée et son action. Il est né en 1697 à la frontière entre l'Allemagne et les Pays Bas dans une famille d'artisans relativement aisée pour lui permettre de faire de bonnes études dans lesquelles il excelle notamment dans l'apprentissage des langues (ce qui lui permettra de traduire des textes mystiques). Mais il se voit dans l'obligation financière de travailler jeune et deviendra tisserand. Il fait une expérience spirituelle forte, sous l'influence notamment de cercles piétistes, et décide de vivre une vie ascétique, en traduisant des textes de la tradition mystique catholique (notamment les écrits de Madame Guyon^[1], qui l'ont fortement influencé) – tout en exerçant le métier de « rubanier ».

We should pause here to consider the word 'Pietism' It was a movement of renewal, revelation and reform in the Protestant churches. One may date the emergence of Pietism from the publication in1676 of Pia desideria ('pious desires') by Philip Jacob Spener (1635-1705), a Lutheran theologian from Alsace. The text was a call to German Lutheran churches to set up communal groups for mutual edification through the Bible called 'prayer groups'. It was therefore a movement for religious study like that of the Quakers, the Methodists and all those movements focused on morality, rigour, and ostentatious piety. Pietism emphasised a Christianity of everyday life, of spirituality capable of transforming man and allowing him to live his faith. It was about the faithful breaking with their former life: it speaks openly of a conversion understood as a spiritual and personal journey. It required spiritual reading of the Bible to find in it the real Word of God which addressed the heart of the believer. Finally, Pietism once more emphasised the value of 'sentiment' as a means to know God. Pietism was characterised, thus, by the importance of an interior faith which inspired man and gave him the strength to become involved in society: Spener advocated charitable work, the creation of orphanages and the education of the faithful.

So Pietism was a spiritual movement, not unduly mystical, but which often integrated elements of medieval mysticism into Protestant piety (Pietists often cite The Imitation of Christ attributed to Thomas a Kempis, written at the end of the 14^th/ beginning of the 15^th century).

Another point we should return to in understanding Tersteegen is the influence of Mme Guyon, or Jeanne-Marie Bouvier de la Motte (1648-1717). This well known 17^th century Catholic mystic advocated the practice of prayer, or “the orison of peace”, which allows entry to interior silence, there to “enjoy the divine presence”.She also proposed a mysticism of radical renunciation of all self will, to be given over entirely to the divine will. Then the tests endured by a person on this road allows for a progressive purification which opens them to the action of God. Some Protestants were aware of her writings and it was a pastor exiled in the Netherlands, Pierre Poiret, who edited a collection of her work and promoted it in Pietist circles. Protestantism received through her a whole inheritance of texts from the mystical tradition, in particular from Spain, which had been little known until then by reformists.

Tersteegen was one of those Protestants influenced by Pietism and by Mme Guyon. He would go on to write numerous poems which, in short form, would be a condensation of mystical experience. To these he added spiritual teachings, especially that of seeking God in the silence of the interior, as is shown in extracts from Tersteegen's poems .

Tersteegen's mysticism is very close to that of Madame Guyon, perhaps calmer, without her excesses. One may describe it as ascetic, because it is guided by a retreat from the world, an exterior silence which allows for interior silence, a rejection of the sound and fury of the exterior to achieve interior unification. Tersteegen often speaks of returning to himself, thereby advocating a journey of interiorisation to discover (by progressive abandonment of the senses, the feelings, the ideas) this 'depth', where God 'reveals his presence'. In this he is developing the themes of the mystical tradition; this depth is similar to the 'divine spark' of Meister Eckhart or the 'fine point of the soul' of François de Sales.

Tersteegen, following Madame Guyon, but also Luther, insists on the 'passive' character of the mystical life and the importance of allowing the Holy Spirit free rein. Tersteegen's mysticism is therefore profoundly biblical. In his treatise 'Instruction for a correct understanding and good use of Scripture' which opens The way to the truth, he proposes a genuine Protestant approach to lectio divina. In this treatise, Tersteegen makes five main points for a correct understanding of Scripture, five spiritual attitudes which allow one to receive what is given: prayer, practice, renouncement of the self, contemplation, and suffering. As well as these principles, Tersteegen also gives concrete advice on the practice of “Christian meditation' centred around Holy Scripture. One must separate oneself from daily preoccupations in order to enter into contemplation to gain strength to put it into practice. For this, one must let the Holy Spirit into one's heart. The main goal of Scripture is thus to lead to Christ, but Tersteegen does not confuse Scripture with the Word of God (as fundamentalists do): Scripture leads to Christ, only the Word of God is capable of giving life to man. Finally, Tersteegen ends his instruction with a reminder that everyone is a holy Scripture for all his life, a “living gospel”, as Madame Guyon says.

What can we learn from this survey of Protestantism and mysticism, definitively?

First, the existence of a spiritual pathway since the beginnings of the Reformation. Since Luther, knowledge of how to approach God and the place of this question has been at the heart of Protestantisms.

In fact, within Reform in the modern era, one finds elements which attest to a possible relationship between mysticism and Protestantism. Certain figures discussed here show a correspondence, common questions. One had also seen, in particular with Tersteegen, the reality of a porosity between Catholic and Protestant mysticism.

Some issues have been raised which demonstrate the necessity to take into account the diversity of Protestant mysticism and also the importance of thinking about it in its historical context. Moreover, this allows us to understand the hazards of mysticism within Protestantism: while having an affinity with the thinking of the first reformers, it has progressively been rejected by other theologians who joined the Reform movement.