inaccurate understanding tends to “block access to mysticism.” This is especially
true of Protestants whose distorted categories have produced an “understanding of
mysticism [that] has also been prejudiced.”^12 Perhaps the most common
misconception people associate with mysticism is that voiced by Dennis Tamburello,
“[t]he problem in these discussions is that mysticism is assumed to mean a pantheistic
absorption into God or merging of identities between the believer and God.”^13
Unfortunately, this perception of mysticism is difficult to shed and many writers who
address this from within Protestantism raise this as a primary concern. Friedrich
Heiler, a convert from Roman Catholicism, is one person responsible for creating this
distortion of a union of absorption.^14 Significantly for the purposes of this thesis
McGinn reminds his readers that if a “union of absorption” is used to define
mysticism, then there “are actually so few mystics in the history of Christianity that
one wonders why Christians used the qualifier “mystical” so often.”^15 Further,
Oberman articulates another common Protestant concern that mysticism is too closely
associated with Roman Catholicism and marginalizes the usage of Scripture.^16
However, Oberman clearly reveals his own position in concluding, “without Christian
mysticism, there is no faithful and living Church to withstand the Hell of the Last
Days.”^17
(^12) Oberman, “Meaning of My (^) sticism,” 80. (^)
(^13) Tamburello, “John Calvin’s Mysticism,” 504. cf. Tamburello, Union with Christ,
(^2114) Wakefield, -2, 103. (^) Puritan Devotion, 89.
(^15) McGinn, Foundations of Mysticism, xvi, cf. 83. McGinn clarifies the difference
between the “union of identity” or “union of indistinction” that is partaking of the
actual essence of God found in Meister Eckhart and some of the Beguines and the
older teaching of the “loving union of wills” (1 Cor 6:17) found in Bernard.
“Mysticism.” s.v., 3:119. 16
Oberman, “Meaning of Mysticism,” 80. cf. Nuttall, “Puritans and Quaker
Mysticism,” 522 for additional Protestant suspicions of mysticism. (^17) Oberman, “Meaning of Mysticism,” 90.