Christian Mysticism

Harvey D. Egan, SJ, is a leading expert on Christian mysticism and the thought of Karl Rahner. He is Professor Emeritus of Systematic and Mystical Theology at Boston College, where he taught for thirty-five years. Fr. Egan received his doctorate of theology under the direction of Karl Rahner from Westfalische Wilhelms-Universitat in Munster, Germany, and is the recipient of the Robert H. Goddard Distinguished Alumni Award from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, from which he graduated with a bachelor's in electrical engineering. He has taught at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Loyola University Maryland, and earned the title of Bannon distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at Santa Clara University, California. He has written several books including Paul: Christianity's Premier Apostolic Mystic, translated many writings by Karl Rahner, and has published numerous articles in scholarly journals and entries in anthologies and encyclopedias.

Christian mysticism is unique in its view of Jesus' death and resurrection as the very cause and exemplar of the mystical life in all its purity. Jesus' saving death on the cross exemplifies the mystical letting-go of everything consoling, tangible and finite in order to surrender totally to the mystery of the Father's unconditional love.
In this introduction to Christian mysticism, Reverend Harvey Egan, S.J. presents four Christian mystics as paradigms of the classical tradition: St. Ignatius of Loyola, St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, and the unknown author of the Cloud of Unknowing. From this foundation he moves to two contemporary figures, Thomas Merton and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, each of whom reflects a contemporary transposition of the two mystical traditions, the apophatic, which emphasizes the radical difference between God and creatures, and the kataphatic, which emphasizes the similarity between God and creatures.