Mysticism and Social Transformation (review)

Mysticism and Social Transformation. Edited by Janet K. Ruffing, R.S.M. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 2001. 220 pp. $24.95.

The impulse to connect contemplation and action has never been lacking. Nevertheless, Janet Ruffing, R.S.M., the editor of Mysticism and Social Transformation, correctly observes that their conjunction represents a "relatively neglected theme" (2). Moreover, the neglect occurs on all sides: among activists passionately committed to social transformation, among serious devotees of various religious and spiritual traditions, and among scholars committed to studying one, the other, or both. In fact, many of those who consciously affirm the conjunction between mysticism and social transformation tacitly assume that the relation between the two is in fact a disjunction. They act as if one must choose either spirituality or practical action, interior life or life in the world, theory or praxis, religion or politics, individual transformation or social transformation. Admittedly, few serious commentators articulate this type of disjunction so starkly today. In fact, many efforts to import the values of one side into a commitment on the other also proliferate. However, because they require such intense philosophical and historical labor, and because they demand serious ethical and practical commitment, carefully articulated efforts at genuine integration of the two remain relatively rare. For this reason, Mysticism and Social Transformation represents an important contribution from the side of the study of spiritualities. In a variety of ways (albeit with varying degrees of success) the essays in this collection seek to validate and indeed, to ground the conjunction in the title.

The disjunctive assumption--mysticism or social transformation--has a long history. Although the impulse to link mysticism and action did not appear as a recent innovation, neither has it represented a dominant value or universal predilection in either Eastern or Western spiritual traditions. In ancient Greece, for example, a dichotomy appeared when the question was posed: What constitutes the good life? A dominant position likewise emerged: the life of philosophical contemplation (theoria) is superior to political life (praxis). Under the pervasive influence of neo-Platonism, patristic and later medieval Christian theology took up this distinction, transposing it into the language of contemplation and action. Recent scholarship, most notably the work of Dietmar Mieth and Giles Constable, traces this development through centuries of commentaries on symbolic biblical pairs such as Martha and Mary (Luke 10:38-42), associating the former with the active life and her sister with contemplation. Moreover, like the Greek philosophers of old, Christian commentators used Mary to argue the superiority of the spiritual life. This has led to the common but mistaken view that Christian mysticism equals "turning one's back on the world." After all, according to Luke's account, Jesus apparently ends all debate when he declares that it is Mary who has chosen "the better part."

Happily, the matter is not (and never has been) that simple. In the face of deep-rooted modern pressures to keep sacred and secular separate, against the inertia generated by the long-standing assumption that "life in the spirit" and "practical life" are simply and pervasively incongruous, the deeper logic of both "lives" seeks an integral relationship between them. Mary and Martha remain sisters after all! An important contribution of Mysticism and Social Transformation--beyond the sundry virtues of the individual essays--is the collective testimony it offers in support of this thesis. This can be further spelled out in terms of three significant achievements of the collection taken as a whole.

This book seriously reflects on the history of mysticism's social encounters. Herein lies its primary virtue. While nearly all the essays reflect serious historical scholarship, the longest and most important of the book's three sections specifically focuses on the lives and teachings of particular Christian political-mystics. From the Franciscan "mysticism of the historical moment" to Ignatian "contemplation in action," from Meister Eckhart's distinctive interpretations of Martha and Mary to Teresa of Avila's...