The Mystic Way: A Psychological Study in Christian Origins

IT is the object of this book to trace out that type of life, that peculiar quality of consciousness, which is called “mystical,” from its earliest appearance within Christianity; to estimate, so far as is possible, the true character and origin of the Christian mystic, and define the qualities which differentiate him from those other mystics who have been evolved along other lines of spiritual development, Oriental, Neoplatonic, or Mahomedan. It is now acknowledged by many psychologists—amongst whom Leuba and Delacroix are of special importance, since their conclusions are entirely free from theological bias—that the Christian mystic does possess such differentiating characters; and represents, so far as the psychical nature of man is concerned, a genuine species apart. Leuba, indeed, does not hesitate to call him “one of the most amazing and profound variations of which the human race has yet been witness.”