MYSTICISM
665
MYTHOLOGY
more truth and perfection than we can ever acquire
through the knowledge of created things. We realize
that God alone is the end of man, that in the posses-
sion of God alone we can reach the satisfaction of our
aspirations. Cf.S. Thorn., Theol., I, Q. ii, a. 1, ad 1"™;
Q.xii, a. 1;Q. xliv, a.4, ad3um; I-II, Q.iii, a. 8; "Con-
tra Gentes", III, cc. i, xxv, 1; "De Veritate", Q. xxii,
a. 2; "Compend. Theologiae", 104, etc. Cf. Sestili,
"De naturali intelligentis animae appetitu intuendi
divinam essentiam", Rome, 1896. But the rational
effort of our intelligence and positive aspirations of
our will find here their limits. Is there truly possible
a union of our reason and will with God more inti-
mate than that which we possess through created
things? Can we expect more than a knowledge of
God by analogical concepts and more than the beati-
tude proportionate to that knowledge? Here human
reason cannot answer. But where reason was power-
less, philosophers gave way to feeling and imagination.
They dreamt of an intuition of the Divinity, of a di-
rect contemplation and immediate possession of God.
They imagined a notion of the universe and of human
nature that would make possible such a union. They
built systems in which the world and the human soul
were considered as an emanation or part of the Divin-
ity, or at least as containing something of the Divine
essence and Divine ideas. The logical outcome was
Pantheism.
This result was a clear evidence of error at the starting-point. The Catholic Church, as guardian of Christian doctrine, through her teaching and theolo- gians, gave the solution of the problem. She asserted the limits of human reason: the human soul has a naturalcapacity (potera(ia obedieTitialis), hut no exigency and no positive ability to reach God otherwise than hy analogical knowledge. She condemned the immedi- ate vision of the Beghards and Beguines (cf . Denzinger-
Bannwart, "Enchiridion", nn. 474-5), the pseudo-
Mysticism of Eckhart (ibid., nn. 501-29), and Molinos
(ibid., nn. 2121-88), the theories of the Ontologists
(ibid., nn. 1659-65, 1891-19.30), and Pantheism under
all its forms (ibid., nn. 1801-5), as well as the vital
Immanence and religious experience of the Modern-
ists (ibid., nn. 2071-109). But she teaches that,
what man cannot know by natural reason, he can
know through revelation and faith; that what he can-
not attain to by his natural power he can reach by the
grace of God. God has gratuitously elevated human
nature to a supernatural state. He has assigned as its
ultimate end the direct vision of Himself, the Beatific
Vision. But this end can be reached only in the next
life; in the present life we can but prepare ourselves for
it with the aid of revelation and grace. To some
souls, however, even in the present life, God gives a
very special grace by which they are enabled to feel
His sensible presence: this is true mystical contempla-
tion. In this act, there is no annihilation or absorption
of the creature into God, but God becomes intimately
present to the created mind and this, enlightened by
special illuminations, contemplates with ineffable joy
the Divine essence.
Preoer, Gesch. der deulschen Mystik im Mittelalter (Leipzig, ISSl): SCHMID, Der Mysticismus in seiner Entstehungsperiode (Jena. 1824): GoRHEa, Die christl. Mystik (Ratisbon, 1836^2); Cousin. Histoire generate de la philosophie (Paris, 1863): Idem, Du Vrai, du Beau et du Bien (23rd ed., Paris, 1881), v; Gennari, Del falsa Misticismo (Rome, 1907): Delacroix, Essai sur le mysticisme spiiiilntif en Allemagne au xiv sihde (Paris, 1900); Ueberweg, Hist, of Philos., tr. Morris with additions by Porter (New York, 1894): De Wulf, Hist, de la Philos. medievale (Lou- vain, 1900); Turner, Hist, of Philos. (Boston, 1903).
George M. Sauvage. Mysticism, Theological. See Theology, Mys-
TICAI..
Mythology. See Paganism.
