Walter Stace: mystical experience involves “an apprehension of an ultimate non-sensuous unity in all things … [that] entirely transcends our sensory-intellectual consciousness” (The Teaching of the Mystics, pp. 14-15).
William James: mystical experience is ineffable, noetic, transient, and passive.
The Biblical Origins of Mysticism
Epistemology in early tradition was both experiential and textual. The textual is tradition. So we begin with scripture, both a sacred text and a work of literature.
John MacQuarrie, in Two Worlds are Ours, argues that Moses and Paul both clearly have mystical experiences.
When God appears we use the word theophany, a showing of God.
In the episode of the burning bush, which is a holy event, Moses is called to respond in a particular, physical way, by removing his sandals.
If God revealed himself to us completely we would have no choice but to worship him, as in the final revelation, the Second Coming. But he wants us to choose, to come to him, and in our finitude this takes time. He gives us time before the end of time to come to know him, partially, historically (the God of your fathers), finitely, until his infinity will be revealed.
For Gregory of Nyssa, commentary is mystical because it reveals the inner sense of the Word. Mystikos or Mysticus in the Greek/Latin senses was very much this revelatory encounter with the word.
Gregory is the first of the apophatic way, via negativa, or negative theology. God is obtained by way of negation, in seeing that consists in not seeing.
Also: “this truly is the vision of God: never to be satisfied in the desire to see him”
Next class we move to the classical with Origen.