Paul, the Mystic; A Study in Apostolic Experience (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. A CHRISTIAN MYSTIC. PAUL, as we have seen, often takes his stand as a mystic upon common theistic ground. He speaks as a religious man; he feels his oneness with all who worship the Father in spirit and in truth, and who take a religious view of God, of nature, and of the universe. But at other times he enters within the gate of Christian faith, and stands distinctly upon Christian ground. Then he speaks, not as one to whom Christianity is a refined form of theism, but as one whose' thought and experience are rooted and grounded in Christ. His theology is positively and uncompromisingly Christocentric. Hence it follows that, while there are many of his mystical utterances which non-Christian readers unhesitatingly accept, there are others which find a responsive echo only in the hearts of Christian believers. To Paul as a Christian mystic the Reality of Realities whom he sought to know was manifested in Christ. Through Christ the personalknowledge of God, for which his spirit craved, was mediated. Christ had to him, as Ritschl has put it, " the religious value of God." The doctrine of the divine immanence was to him simply another form of the doctrine of the Real Presence. By baptizing it into the name of Christ, he gave to it a new significance. Interpreted in the light of his teaching, the declaration, " God is in His world," means, Christ is in His world; for " God in history" we are warranted to read, Christ in history; for " God in nature " we have the right to substitute, Christ in nature. Henceforth to us " There are no Gentile oaks or pagan pines, The grass beneath our feet is Christian grass." In Christ is found the key which unlocks the secrets of the universe. As a Christian mystic, Paul held direct communion with the Father through Christ. T...