Christianity.^77 Further, Cook maintains, “[t]he true mystic is unconcerned with
doctrine. He worships in a richly symbolic atmosphere, whereas the Puritan rejected
such symbolism as dishonouring to God.”^78
However, it is essential to inquire about the reasons for this resistance and
why some scholars find mysticism incompatible with Puritanism. The primary
motivation for this rejection is fear based upon a distorted perception of mysticism.
Arie de Reuver, describing the sixteenth-century, provides a helpful commentary that
was still accurate in the next century for the Puritans. He insists, “the rejection of
mysticism by the reformers involved only a certain form of it.” The type of
mysticism rejected can be summarized as one that sought a union of absorption or
indistinction, “practices as a meritorious pre-condition for salvation that ignored
grace”, restricted to the monastery, and “upset the balance between faith and love at
the expense of faith.”^79 Additional concerns of some contemporary Puritan scholars
regarding mysticism include the perceived rejection of Christ’s mediatorial role and
undervaluing of Scripture.^80 Gordon Mursell’s qualifications of Puritan mysticism
provides a valuable summary on this topic. He writes,
This kind of spirituality may be termed ‘mysticism’ if by that is implied a
direct and unmediated experience of God that is vouchsafed to the individual
Christian, provided we remember three things: first, that this experience happens within the context of a personal intimacy, for which marriage is the
natural analogy ...; secondly, that ...there is no suggestion of an ontological
union, a mutual absorption of the soul into the Godhead; and, thirdly, that the
natural context for the development of this intimacy is not ... in the monastic
life, but precisely in the midst of the Christian community, and supremely in
its worship.^81
(^77) Cook, “Thomas Goodwin (^) - Mystic?” 46. (^)
(^78) Cook, “Thomas Goodwin-Mystic?” 48.
(^79) de Reuver, Sweet Communion, 22. cf. Hambrick-Stowe, Early New England
Meditative Poetry 80 , 10; and Hartley Hall, “Shape of Reformed Piety,” 213.
81 Andrew Davies, “Holy Spirit in Puritan Experience,” 29. Mursell, English Spirituality: From Earliest Times, 369.^