Mysticism and the Doctrine of Atonement

Mysticism and the Doctrine of Atonement

Evelyn Underhill's "Mysticism and the Doctrine of Atonement" asks whether the mystical view of Christianity, which stresses the individual soul's growth and ascent to union with God, can be reconciled with the doctrine of the Atonement. Many people see these as rival ideas: in one, each person must achieve salvation through effort and growth, and in the other, a historic act of Christ on the Cross does for people what they cannot do for themselves. Underhill grants that extreme views of the Atonement, which stress man's impotence, "imputed righteousness" and a single propitiatory act done to the soul from outside, do conflict with mysticism. She still asks whether the two ideas are sides of one greater whole. She notes that grace, which mystics treat as a new dower of transcendent vitality added to the human creature, resembles the way Calvary is thought to make good the shortcomings of the whole race. She turns to St. Paul, who was both the greatest Christian mystic and the theologian of the Atonement. She argues that his utterances come from first-hand mystical experience, not from the schools. When he says he is "crucified with Christ" or "hid in God with Christ," he is describing a real state of union. For Paul, the Atonement follows from that union. He saw the individual as responsible and as a member of a corporate body whose head is Christ-Spirit. Underhill rejects any "commercial" theory of atonement as foreign to his spirit. A loving soul wants atonement as a road-making act, a bridge on which man can travel home to God. In Christ's death, she says, total dependence on God was perfectly achieved "once for all," and because humanity is corporate, that victory is conferred on the race. Christians also approach God with the Cross already in their "apperceiving mass," so the Cross shapes even the most transcendental Christian contact with God. Underhill then argues that the essence of the Atonement lies less in the sacrificial act than in the lifting of the human spirit which the act guarantees. The mystics follow the curve of Christ's life, so the Cross is a pioneer act, the first cutting of a road, and each mystic is a road-maker or road-mender in the race's gradual atonement. She rejects the charge that mysticism is only the "flight of the alone to the Alone." The mystic acts as a specialized organ of the whole body. His attainment is conditioned by the race and its tradition and is made for the race. As examples she cites the Cistercian stamp on St. Bernard and the Carmelite stamp on St. John of the Cross, and she describes St. Teresa as Carmel incarnate, whose own achievement in turn shaped her order. She extends the principle to every great personality, including artists and musicians, who atone for humanity's falling short and give others a wider universe. She cites Burke's idea of society as a partnership between the living, the dead and the unborn. The mystical saints link the Atonement to the Communion of Saints and to the "prevailing merits" of the saints. She names three types: the apostolic, the prophetic and the martyr. Their lives rise from the common plain like a mountain crowned by a Calvary, and the long slope of that hill makes the Cross accessible. She concludes that the Atonement and the mystical life depend on each other. Without the Atonement the mystics would be mere individualists, and without the continuing mystical life the historic Atonement would stand isolated from the processes of the spiritual world.

By Evelyn Underhill · First published 1920 · Genre: Christian mystical theology, Theology of the Atonement (soteriology), Devotional and spiritual writing · 7,831 words

First lines

Amongst the problems which have to be met by those who incline to a mystical view of Christianity -- that view which lays special emphasis on the growth and experience of the individual soul, its ascent to union with God, as the very aim and object of religion -- one of the most pressing is that which centres on the doctrine of the Atonement. It is clear that many people feel that such a mystical and empirical view of religion leaves no room for this doctrine, or for the idea which it represents; that they are convinced that there is here a real conflict between two incompatible views of the Christian faith. On the one hand, they see orthodox Christianity still centred on the "atoning act" of Christ, with its implications of reconciliation and vicarious suffering, of the divine life humiliating itself, in order to do within the temporal order something for man which man cannot do for himself; a doctrine which retains its attraction and value, because so full of hope and mercy for the sinful and the weak. On the other hand, they see that demand of personal and individual growth, purification, life-enhancement, progressive union with God -- helped doubtless by grace, but no less dependent on will -- as the condition of attaining Eternal Life, which seems to be made by mystical theology. The opposition, in fact, is supposed to be between a concept of spiritual life in which each man must himself do and be, achieve and actualize in his own person, and not merely as the acceptor of a creed or the member of a Church -- must not only accept the gift, but must set himself to be an imitator, so far as he may, of the Giver -- and one in which a special manifestation in time and space of the divine power and love, for Christians the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross, does something for the man accepting it, which he cannot do for himself. In the one case, we are saved one by one, by effort, response, growth; in the other, we are saved as members of a group.

Similar titles

Genres

Tags

Christian mysticism · Atonement · Doctrine of the Atonement · Union with God · Individual and corporate salvation · Saint Paul · Pauline theology · Divine grace · Mystical body of Christ · Communion of Saints · Calvary and the Cross · Vicarious atonement

What this Textopian page supports

Mysticism and the Doctrine of Atonement is listed on Textopian as an essay by Evelyn Underhill, dated 1920 CE.

This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.

Good citation fit

More by Evelyn Underhill