Christian mysticism — the contemplative tradition

Christian mysticism is the tradition that reaches beneath the doctrines and the institutions to the direct encounter with the divine — the apophatic theology of Meister Eckhart, the luminous visions of Hildegard of Bingen, the anonymous Cloud of Unknowing, the Dark Night of John of the Cross, the Jesus Prayer of the Eastern hesychasts. These mystics do not replace orthodox Christianity — they go deeper into it, finding at its center not a set of propositions but an abyss of love that swallows the self whole. The contemplative tradition has always been present in Christianity, sometimes celebrated, sometimes suppressed — and it remains the living root from which the tradition can continually renew itself.