The Diffusion of Christian Mysticism: From the Medieval Rhineland to Contemporary China

It was 1938, between the two great World Wars. China was in upheaval, and the Middle Kingdom’s first experiment with Western-style democracy was in tatters. The Communists under Chairman Mao would not be able to consolidate their hold on the nation for another decade. But meanwhile, Japan was encroaching, and local gangs and militias roamed the country. Regional conflicts ebbed and flowed.

Against this volatile backdrop, a new, growing, fiercely independent and theologically conservative network of Protestant churches known as the Little Flock decided to prepare and publish the first-ever Chinese translation of the autobiography of the seventeenth century French mystic Madame Guyon. The title of this abridged translation was Sweet Smelling Myrrh.¹ Observing this is rather like wandering through some farmer’s pasture and discovering an asteroid. How on earth did this get here? By what sequence of events, what chain of relationships and baton relays did Madame Guyon and her Quietist mysticism show up in China, and to such a surprisingly warm welcome from earnest Chinese Protestants?

Not so long ago Jonah Berger published for a wide readership a book entitled Contagious: Why Things Catch On.² A lot of people found it quite fascinating. For a time, it enjoyed the spotlight as a New York Times bestseller. And in a more scholarly format, Everett M. Rogers has pioneered the sociological study of the diffusion of innovations.³

How do things catch on? Scholars of Christian spirituality should begin searching for answers to this question, which is so critical to the future of Christian spirituality itself. We need more studies of how various spiritual themes, practices, and experiences have traveled through time, diffused across geographic regions, and taken root in new settings. Such studies will also surely confirm that elements of Christian spirituality inevitably morph as they adapt to new traditions and contexts, and embrace local wisdom.

As a small contribution to this recommended genre of inquiry, this essay explores (admittedly, from a very high-altitude vantage point) the journey of Christian mysticism from the medieval Rhineland to parts of modern-day China via rather unexpected carriers—populist Protestant preachers, Holiness evangelists, and missionaries shaped by the Keswick Movement. It is a narrative that would have been difficult to predict, and one in which, incidentally, thin little books play pivotal roles.

THE NATURE OF CHRISTIAN MYSTICISM

In order to trace any historical pathway of Christian mysticism, we must first penetrate “the cloud of unknowing” that too often surrounds the term itself. If at all possible, we should try to put the mystification of mysticism behind us. Built into the very word mysticism is an acknowledgment of the ultimately ineffable nature of this experience. But the mystery in the experience does not justify murkiness in its definition.

I think it is best (and in our circles, probably safest) to align with Bernard McGinn’s generously inclusive depiction of mysticism as direct and immediate apprehension of the divine presence.⁴ The consciousness of which he speaks goes beyond, or moves deeper than, the more familiar and more objective experiences of sensing, knowing and loving.⁵ Karl Rahner has helpfully tagged at least a couple of important additional features of the mystical experience when he described it as “a genuine experience of God emerging from the very heart of our existence.”⁶ In the language of the biblical Psalmist, deep calleth unto deep.

The function of mystical theology is to provide seekers with an interpretive orientation to such a quest, and to guide them into proven pathways toward its realization. Typically, the term mystic is reserved for those who are “all in” in their yearning for, and their relentless pursuit of, such experience of the divine. Nevertheless, it must also be acknowledged that there is at least a mystical dimension to the experiences of most Christians, and it is difficult to imagine how a religious commitment can be sustained in the long haul without it.

A strain of the mystical has been present in the Christian tradition from the very beginning.⁷ Its earliest phase was catalyzed...