Christian Mysticism: The Awakening

Kelly Wnuk: David W. Dorries Spirit Filled Christology: Merging Theology and Power Chapters 25 and 26

In his book, “Integrative Approaches to Psychology and Christianity,” David Entwistle (2010) provides a persuasive discourse for the assimilation of psychology and theology; secular and religious disciplines that present a “multifaceted dialogue shaped by historical interactions and tensions.” (p. 51) Of the two systems, psychology is by much of the Church thought to advocate reason over revelation whereas theology is, by more secular-leaning scholars, thought to be wanting of intellect. With Tertullian 's libretti, “what indeed has Athens to do with Jerusalem?” (p. 8) in addition to modernism’s philosophy of self-consciousness and the skepticism of postmodernism continuing to fan the flames of segregation, the flawed logic that an integration of psychology and theology is not possible ensues.

In the book “The Unexpected Christian Century,” the author Scott Sunquist believes that the twentieth century is the most recent one in the Christian history. During the time of the geometric era, it was believed that the importance of gravity moved from the Christian nations of Europe and North America to the “Global South,” where Christians were done wrong minority. Simply in the third and the sixteenth centuries was when Christianity had experienced a change of comparable greatness.

We have now come to the fourth and final book of Mere Christianity. In this book, the author takes us to the place in our Christian growth where we begin to rely more heavily on the power of God and less on ourselves to become the being that God originally intended for us to be — a son of God. He begins with an explanation of the difference between “making” and “begetting”.

Ramsey explains how Underhill “analyzed the mystical factors is a psychological way” (Ramsey 275) within her book about the five-stage process and the way the mystic behaves using this process. Underhill is described not as an “exponent of mysticism, but as a doctor of the Christian Church” (Ramsey 277). She is believed to be someone who has influenced the way mysticism has progressed into an identity and religion instead of a single male dominated entity. Ramsey states that Underhill’s writing and philosophy is as follows “though the mystic life means organic growth… but in the metaphysical object which the subject apprehends” (Ramsey 276). Ramsey agrees with Underhill’s principle of the concept of being is based upon the mystic’s relation of two aspects. The two aspects are the relation to mystic appearance and the ultimate union between the mystic and

In the first chapter of “Christianity Rediscovered” by Vincent J. Donovan he is introducing us to the idea that missionaries now have a poor reputation due to their history. He says “History has offered the opportunity to deflect and distort the meaning of missionary work in every age”. For a long time a missionary was a person spreading the word of God and after years of doing so we have diminished many different beliefs, practices, cultures and history. At the time it was thought to be the right thing, to spread out and share the gospel to help people find meaning and acceptance. In today’s age a missionary is a lot of different things, in many cases it is more focused on the health and physical wellbeing of the people. Many people still share the gospel through missionary work, but in other cases it is more of a material aid. Donovan introduces the book as a voyage of discovery he wants us to put our normal beliefs aside to see his perspective of living a missionaries life and struggling with the fact of if you are helping or hurting.

Spiritual disciplines will prepare us for our journey in Christ. I feel if understanding correctly, the classical Christian Pilgrimage remind us that we all have issues requiring regular examination. In chapter eight, the classical Christian Pilgrimage tells us we are at different stages on the path of wholeness in Christ. However, in my thoughts some areas of our Christian journey we may be doing well, but in other areas we have not touched at all. Not to mention, these are the place we are not ready or capable of handling yet, however, as we mature in God and He knows what we can handle, then we are awakened. God awakens us to our true selves which have not been completely revealed. In reality, once we reach maturity to God, he reveals all that is hidden deep inside of us (the real us/you). By the same token, he let us see the inner behaviors, attitudes, desires, in fact how we measure up in them being Christ-like. I feel the awakening stage deals with the comfort of being set free of these issues that are holding us back also causing detours on our path to wholeness in Christ. Equally, the threat is being afraid to see who we really are; also how far from Christ-like we really are. We must first be awakened from our separation also alienation from God (Mulholland 79-82).

Now knowledge is this article is Christianity. This is because we learned so much about this religion and we still use it today. Humans have attempted to gain knowledge is by practicing the religion so that is is now forgotten which is hasn’t been a hopefully won’t ever be. They translated this into the new world by preserving the Christian religion and how it has grown to millions of followers today.It’s cool to see where it came from and how it is today.

Enwistle’s book, Integrative approaches to psychology and Christianity: An introduction to worldview issues, philosophical foundations, and models of integration (2010) is a text that explores integrating psychology and Christianity. We start out by learning about integration related to both psychology and Christianity. Is this a thing? Is integration between these two subjects a subject itself? Enwistle explores through time to reveal how psychology and Christianity have been both closely studied and intertwined throughout time. Enwistle (2010) defines Christian psychology as “ a commitment to a Christian worldview that shapes how psychology is studied and applies, and that recognizes that there are specific Christian resources that uniquely reveal crucial aspects of what it means to be human (p. 14). Those in the psychology or counseling field who are also Christian have unique and different approaches but they draw from both Christianity and psychology to help them succeed.

There are many different components that can be combined to define Christianity. For example, The life and teachings of Jesus Christ is a element, along with the Church and its mission. But, can any of these events be more prominent than the other? Each factor has its own importance to the overall idea of Christianity; so,can they be ranked? In essence, the revelation of the Church is more important than the basic belief of Christianity .

The humanly gift of imagination is a unique power within that subconsciously is a locomotor to both the body and spirit to a person 's individual Elysium. It goes far and beyond our cognition into an exuberant fantasy molded by our wants and desires, reaching untamed worlds. Turning imagination into realism is denounced as an impossible being, but it 's in fact the awakening to our lucid dreaming. Edna Pontellier is a woman with a heart that soared beyond the horizons into a limitless world, forced into cage by the inevitable way of life. Kate Chopin through the beautifully sculpted novel “The Awakening” condemned Edna with a mindset beyond her years, finding meaning through her unsocial actions shunned by the eyes of others. Edna used her

Some believe there are two ways of interpreting the religious proposition of mysticism. One is the indirect experience of God. It takes the form of reported mystical experiences, which are believed to be the experiences of the foundations for what a mystical experience is all about. The other is the intellectual aspect. Individuals believe that as a result of the mystical experience, a better knowing and revelations are attained from the mystical experience.

No doubt that in the book written by David N. Entwistle Integrative Approaches to Psychology and Christianity, the author leaves the truths embodied in his book. Truths that for many to this day are still trying to accommodate in their vast knowledge they have concerning the psychological science. Many still fail to understand that both psychology and theology when they go hand in hand they can become allies in treating those who for one reason or another have external and internal conflicts.

The charismatic movement1 began within the historic churches in the 1950s. On the American scene it started to attract broad attention in 1960, with the national publicity given to the ministry of the Reverend Dennis Bennett, an Episcopalian in Van Nuys, California. Since then there has been a continuing growth of the movement within many of the mainline churches: first, such Protestant churches as Episcopal, Lutheran, and Presbyterian; second, the Roman Catholic (beginning in 1967); and third, the Greek Orthodox (beginning about 1971).2 by now the charismatic movement has become worldwide and has participants in many countries

From the introduction of this book, Francis Nigel Lee describes his purpose of this book to introduce the history of philosophy from Christian understanding, so he calls this book ‘prolegomena to the history of philosophy’. Contents of this book are quite interesting; differing from a common book about the history of philosophy, Lee starts from God as the beginning of the history and philosophy. A structure of this book is following a biblical understanding of human history.