The Relevance of Mystical Spirituality in the Context of Today’s “Spirituality Phenomenon”

There is an awakening of spirituality in our times. We not only witness but also find ourselves being implicated in a “spirituality phenomenon,” that is, a significant increase of interest in the pursuit of spirituality even while the concept itself remains inadequately understood.¹ One commentator was even prompted to put forward this bold statement: “The turn to spirituality informs contemporary religious consciousness as the turn to the subject marked Enlightenment thought.”² This describes a virtually global fact of human life today. The notion of “spirituality” provides people of our times with a comprehensive name for designating whatever they seek consciously in an awareness of the reality of spirit. The world seems to be experiencing a return of the human spiritual impulse. It manifests itself today in people’s growing awareness of the necessity of restoring and renewing one’s life through greater interiority.

However, there is a real sense of disorientation as well as excitement. People feel lost and do not know how to respond to spiritual impulses. Hence, now more than ever, people are coming to realize the need for spiritual guidance. This calls for a mediating role of theology in a twofold task: historical and critical. On the one hand, a turn to history is desired for the sake of consulting well-tested and creative ways in which people in the past lived their spirituality in particular historical, social, and religious contexts. This will help us understand better the present situation with more clarity and offer us insights into authentic spiritual life. On the other hand, a critical and theological consideration of spirituality is needed so as to channel people’s spiritual impulses into a life project that would make genuine human flourishing possible.

This article will make a contribution to this twofold theological response to the exciting yet ambiguous situation of today’s renewed interest in spirituality. First, relying on several scholars of spirituality, I will sketch out the meaning of the phenomenon of spirituality and refer to some issues highlighted in contemporary discussions of the topic. Second, with those issues in mind, I will turn to a particular vision of spirituality found in the Flemish mystic Jan van Ruusbroec (1293–1381). By highlighting themes that have bearing on those issues, I will indicate the value of Ruusbroec’s vision as a resource for the task of envisioning an authentic contemporary spirituality. Finally, drawing upon Michel de Certeau’s insights into mysticism (la mystique), I will attempt to locate the essential and characteristic note of mysticism considered in relation to spirituality in its contemporary usage. I will end with a brief reflection on the meaning of mysticism in human life.

1. Scenes and Issues of Contemporary Spirituality

The notion of spirituality is of Christian origin. Historically speaking, concern with and discussion of spirituality was a Roman Catholic phenomenon.³ In recent years, however, the term’s usage has been broadened. Now, the notion includes non-Christian religious experience as well as experiences that seem unrelated to a religious approach to the world. Although the concept has retained a fairly defined meaning in the context of Christian religion, its broader meaning now is anything but clear.⁴ What are the salient features of the current phenomenon of spirituality?⁵

It is instructive to note the kinds of words that are circulated in various types of literature on spirituality: “the soul,” “the spirit,” “the sacred,” “healing,” “wholeness,” “journey,” “integration,” and the like. These words are suggestive of existential needs felt by human hearts in the contemporary world. They are indicative of interrelated dimensions of one reality that people today name “spirituality.” Spirituality, then, has to do with the eruption of the hunger or longing for the sacred in our own times. Hence, there is a strong interest in and desire for cultivating an intimate personal relationship and communion with the sacred that is the deepest, hidden dimension of reality. It also involves an awakening to the inner resources of life within the human person. With the awakening, it seems, there comes about...