Christian Hoburg and Seventeenth-century Mysticism

Extract

The subject of the present paper is only seemingly a national German development—it has, in fact, to do with the universal situation of the Christian Church in modern times. The question of mysticism runs through almost all denominations. The imposing French Roman Catholic Dictionnaire de spiritualité ascétique et mystique shows it in every column. We know how important a contribution to Christian preaching and devotional literature was made by the early Greek and Oriental monks, like Ephraem Syrus, Johannes Klimakos and others, how fundamental and lasting theological concepts were developed on mystical lines by Clement of Alexandria and Dionysius the Areopagite, by Bernard of Clairvaux, by the Victorine School, by Richard Rolle of Hampole. The mystical impact of the devotio moderna on Erasmus of Rotterdam was considerable. Luther praised, though with some reservations, John Tauler and the Theologia Germanica which he edited himself. In the Anglo-Catholic school of Lancelot Andrewes we find an original union of rational clearness and distinctiveness with mystical depth and personal feeling. The influence of Spanish mysticism was enormous in France, Germany, and also in England. Even John Wesley recommended throughout his whole life the biographies of Gregor Lopez of Mexico and of the French marquess de Renty, the disciple of Teresa of Avila, and was impressed by Henry Scougal, The Life of God in the Soul of Man and by Jeremy Taylor.