Christian mysticism

Mysticism is the philosophy and practice of a direct experience of God. In the Christian context it is usually practiced through pursuit of the three disciplines of contemplative prayer (including Christian meditation), fasting (including other forms of abstinence), and alms-giving, all discussed by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew Chapters 5-7). Another form of mysticism is participation in ecstatic worship. Many Christians believe that God dwells in all people (or at least in all Christians) through the Holy Spirit, and therefore all Christians can experience God directly.

Bibliography

• Bernard McGinn: The Foundations of Mysticism: Origins to the Fifth Century, 1991, reprint 1994, ISBN 0824514041
• Bernard McGinn: The Growth of Mysticism: Gregory the Great through the 12th Century, 1994, paperback ed. 1996, ISBN 0824516281
• Evelyn Underhill: Mysticism: A Study in Nature and Development of Spiritual Consciousness, 1911, reprint 1999, ISBN 1851681965
• Tito Colliander: Way of the Ascetics, 1981, ISBN 0060615265
• Thomas E. Powers: Invitation to a Great Experiment: Exploring the Possibility that God can be Known, 1979, ISBN 0385141874
• Richard Foster: Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth, 1978, ISBN 0060628316

Classics

• St. John of the Cross: Ascent of Mount Carmel, Dark Night of the Soul
• St. Teresa: Interior Castle
• Meister Eckhart: German and Latin sermons
• Jan van Ruysbroeck: The Adornment of Spiritual Marriage
• Anon.: Cloud of Unknowing
• Anon.: Theologia Germanica
• St.Ignatius Loyola: Spiritual Exercises
• William Law: Works
• George Fox: The Journal
• Heinrich Suso: The Book of Eternal Wisdom
• Thomas à Kempis: On the Imitation of Christ
• Jackob Lorber: The Great Gospel of John
• Max Heindel: The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception or Mystic Christianity
• Pseudo-Dionysius: Divine Names, Celestial Hierarchy, Mystical Theology
• Philokalia