Essay - Mysticism Is Pervasive Throughout the Religions of the World, Yet...

Mysticism is pervasive throughout the religions of the world, yet varies widely in its particulars Mystic*****m is concerned with the nature of reality, the individual's struggle to attain a clear vision ***** reality, and the transformation of consciousness that accompanies such vision. Mysticism is foremost a personal experience with God, your innermost truth. The intimacy you might experience supercedes all beliefs and identities and therefore is not necessarily based on a religion, quite the contrary: mystics in ancient times started religious groups, cults, which some of them turned out to be major religious movements, such as Christianity ***** Islam.

***** mystic isn't something just reserved for particular saints, it is a choice ***** an individual ***** have a divine revelation and communion, interestingly enough most religions tried to structure this personal experience, the result are rituals. Whether those rituals do have the potency anymore ***** achieve their former goal is another *****sue.

The purpose of holiness is not to protect us from our world. The purpose of holiness is to change the way we live in ***** *****, not for our own sake but ***** the sake of o*****rs. Jesus demands the same th*****g. For some re*****on or other, ***** often miss that point. We are more inclined to want a religion that comforts us than challenges us. Why? Where did we ever get that idea? Maybe it is beca*****e we have misunderstood, or at least f*****gotten, the meaning of Sabbath, the importance of mountain symbolism in religious l*****erature and the effect ***** the very placement of gospel text.

Perpetua was a Rom*****n woman who converted to Christianity against the wishes of her pagan fa*****r. She knew that she would probably be killed for this decision; in fact, she had a dream in ***** a dragon was seated at the foot of a ladder to heaven. She was able to climb ***** ladder by stepping on the ********** head. After having this *****, Perpetua knew that she ***** ***** martyred ***** went willingly to her death. *****'s dream ***** shown her that ***** dying she would be able to join her fellow Christians along with Christ in *****. By shedding blood for what she believed in, ***** would be redeemed in the eyes ***** God. In ***** way, early notions of martyrdom reflect early Christian ideas about sacrifice and redemption.

In the history of Christian thought mysticism appears accordingly as that tendency among professing Christians, which looks within, that is, to the ***** feelings, in ***** search for God. It supposes itself to contemplate within the soul ***** ***** of the divine Spirit, and finds in them either the sole sources ***** trustworthy knowledge of God, or the most immediate ***** convincing sources of that *****, or, at *****, a coordinate source ***** it *****side of the wr*****ten Word. The characteristic ***** Christian mysticism, ***** the ***** of view ***** religious knowledge, is there*****e its appeal to the "inner light," or "the internal word," either to the exclusion of the