Are there any decent introductions to Christian mysticism and the weirder parts of Christianity that isn't just the Bible?
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Are there any decent introductions to Christian mysticism and the weirder parts of Christianity that isn't just the Bible?
Which languages do you speak?
I'm not much of a specialist in the matter, but as far as I know, I would suggest you read :
-Saint Thomas of Aquinas
-Meister Eckart
-Hildegarde of Bingen
-René Guénon (works concerning Chritian esotericism)
-Works published by Martinists
bonus: read anything related to the Chrisitan symbolism in the Arthurian Legends
The Wound of Knowledge by Rowan Williams is pretty good as an intro to Christian Mystics
Looking East in the Winter for EO stuff is also great but not beginner friendly
Generally, most of the stuff Rowan Williams writes is really good
Andrew Louth gives me the libby hibbyjibbies even more so than Rowan Williams but his history of Christian mysticism is also quite good
Now if you just want to read about the wackiest stuff in Christianity from a generally sympathetic but ultimately rc perspective, Henri de Lubac's history of Joachimism is really fun
None of what I've recommended to you is light reading but it's all good stuff
Read orthodox writers, anon.
>ancient
Pseudo-Dionysius
Philokalia
>medieval
Gregory Palamas
Meister Eckhart
Henrich Seuse
Cloud of Unknowing
>modern
John of the Cross
Valentin Tomberg
the philokalia actually has detailed instructions on their breathing technique that lets you make contact with the other side
the cloud of unknowing
john of the cross
the diary of saint maria faustina might not be exactly what you're looking but maybe you'll like it
meditations on the tarot
christian mysticism by bernard mcginn is a great collection
also the ladder of divine ascent
the works of louis de montfort
Theosophia by Arthur Versluis is the best introductory book
I cannot take Christianity seriously because they either believe that a man physically rose from the dead and performed miracles indistinguishable from magic a long time ago, which is insane, or they believe that it's "symbols all the way down, man" like that homosexual Jonathan Pageau, where apparently genesis 1 perfectly describes the human condition, except, you know, any non western/abrahamic culture for some reason, which is equally insane.
I'm moving to the Indian tradition before I lose my mind out of sheer anger towards the fricking DENIAL of these Christian idiots regarding how (self) limited their minds are, out of a gullible craving for some kind of ease of mind, aka "submitting your will to reach peace." Islam is similar and that information is literally in its name. I'm so done with this.
Hinduism is to Christianity what Lisp is to assembly language. Nietzsche was absolutely spot-on in that respect. Frick it, I'm DONE.
What's the problem with miracles and resurrection? Really?
I've seen many monks that are... different people. And I've encountered ones that healed many. When that kind of man looks into your eyes, you drop your doubt immediately lol.
I guess I would think the same as you if I didn't have the opportunity to see and experience stuff like that.
>>>/x/
Please to be smearing the cow piss on your face today saar
I'm from a mediterranean country.
Not a huge difference
well heil hitler b***h
I can't take braindead morons seriously.
>Nietzsche was absolutely spot-on in that respect. Frick it, I'm DONE.
You're completely illiterate and never had a thought in your life. I can't imagine the kind of subhuman that feels the need to interject how "done" he is every time a subject is mentioned in any context. If you're so done just frick off. Never post again. Everyone would be better off.
hmmm okay?
Nice argument? Oh wait, you didn't make one. Did I hurt your little religious feelings
>Never post again
LOL, maybe you should bleed to death? I'm done with you btw.
>I'm a coder
Ywnbaw
Not anymore. I quit. Looking now to make a career change because coding SUCKS (just like the Abrahamic tradition)
No because by nature of christianity you would be brutally tortured to death for heresy by early European christians
You're literally making things up aren't you?
what is the fricking protestant revolution and what followed it?
definitely not blooming flowers and rainbows, that's for sure
protestant-like cults also popped all around before Luther but they were simply crushed by catholic church
>early European Christians
>protestant revolution
pick one
man, people REALLY HATE Christianity... I was always like, that's a minority that actually hates (cause, one thing is to dislike it but to hate should statistically be in much lesser percent) but no, there's an actual agenda against Christianity in any form.
Not Hinduism, not even Islam, but Christianity. It drives people MAD.
But it's not nearly about crusades or burning witches (there are Hindu sects that literally eat people or do heavy black magic, there's an Islamic state, there were pagans that cooked and ate children...), nonononono
It's different... They actually can't stand the existence of Christ.
>If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin.
hits totally different now.
Think I'm gonna make this into a thread, to make the hate statistically official.
>not even Islam,
lol, Islam is the most disgusting out of all the religions
>It's different... They actually can't stand the existence of Christ.
I love Christ, and he changed the course of history. What I find baffling is the serious unironic belief that he was Omnipotent Omniscient Omnibenevolent Creator's "word" Incarnate, because... he just is okay?!
I see that there's this common point of misunderstanding.
It's really not that simple. If it was, do you really think that such a shallow and not-at-all-special thing would have SUCH an impact?
But at least you have an honest approach. The universal experience of the vast majority of people who actually dived into it is that the depth of His personality and acts has no end. I'm not talking myself, but the smartest people we as humanity had to offer.
Look at Pascal, for example, the first that came to my mind. And people think that those geniuses were so deep into Christianity because they didn't have electricity and the internet (=were actually primitive, because, you know, progress).
Look what one of the greatest scientists has said (Pascal):
"Not only do we know God by Jesus Christ alone, but we know ourselves only by Jesus Christ. We know life and death only through Jesus Christ. Apart from Jesus Christ, we do not know what is our life, nor our death, nor God, nor ourselves."
This is not some lunatic/fanatic. This is the dude who is among the best of the best. Do you think that such a nit-picky and almost OCD genius mathematician was superficial about anything, let alone Jesus Christ?
Start from there, and good luck.
I hate christianity because of its destruction and suppression of native european culture, the way it poisoned subsequent culture with a twisted anti-natural ethics, the way it caused a degenerate obsession with the middle east and especially hebrews, and the mental gymnastics christians go through to justify all their horrid behaviour. What's so hard to understand about all that?
>Don't let irrational thoughts, passions and desires consume you
>"It's so unnatural!"
Nietzsche and Tolstoy got it right. Jesus professed an ontology or way of being that is the purest form of life, making it divine unto itself. While Nietzsche still disagrees with it, seeing it as slave morality that negates master morality, Tolstoy brings the truth of the message to light in Gospels in brief. Also the crusades were based.
Jesus didn't have a wife and kids and seemed to be a really smart and snarky bum. That's kind of cool but not really ideal. Naturally the people who worship him come to totally opposite conclusions about how to live life.
Nature sets the conditions for our wellbeing. If you're doing something unnatural, like letting the ego completely dominate the psyche with rationality, then all you're doing is harming yourself and by extension those around you. Its absurd that you equate recognising instinct with being consumed. Can you not fathom balance and individuation?
>divine unto itself
Copout way of saying disjointed and made up
Also what is based about wasting white lives on capturing desert shitholes, or worse killing other whites? Do you think the recent wars in iraq and afghanistan were based too?
Every church, including catholic and orthodox ones that larpers never shut up about, is full of references to the middle east and israeli characters from biblical stories. Inb4 mental gymnastics about how biblical israelites weren't really israelites.
You don't even know the teachings of Jesus.
>what is based about blah blah blah
Internal war/External war. Go from there.
Wars have costs dumbass. What's the point of them if they're all cost and no gain? The crusades wasted thousands of lives to frick around in a desert and plunge people further into the fake identity of christianity. There's nothing based about self-harm and dishonesty.
>Unnatural obsession with thr Middle East and israelites.
It sounds like your exposure to Christians has been primarily to dispensationalist Evangelical protestants. these are a minority of Christians and exist primarily as a US phenomenon.
Correct, people hate Christ because they love sin. I don't know what that has to do with my post though.
Christian Mystics were usually very well respected Orthodox and Catholics.
John the Apostle was a great mystic and so was Saint Paul.
weirder than the Revelation of John??
Yes, William Harmless' Mystics. Absolutely hands down the best I've seen. Harmless is fantastic at letting authors speak in their own words through the use of skillfully selected excerpts and he has a gift for succinctly explaining thinkers and their context. IIRC, the work covers William James and Gerson's definition of mysticism, Thomas Merton, Hildegard, St. Bernard of Clairvaux, St. Bonaventure, Evargrius, Miester Eckhart, and then Rumi (Sufi) and Dogen (Zen) who are nice comparison studies.
His book on St. Augustine is excellent as well, as is the book on the Desert Fathers, but Mystics takes the cake.
The compilation Light From Light, which has many of the same figures but also St. John of the Cross, St. Augustine, St. Francis, Origen, and the Cloud of Unknowing is very good too but the introductions aren't as good.
Both are on Libgen. I think Harmless' book might be out of print unfortunately.
Pic related is also quite good, although not focused on Christianity at all. But it's a good explanation of the philosophical side of mysticism that heavily influenced Christianity.
There is a general for this topic on /x/, this chart comes from there. The suggestions itt are still mostly good though.
book of Enoch
Zodiacus Vitae - Palingenius. It’s like if Dante did a fully cosmology of the over world