How did this article end up in the Adventist Review?
It was Entitled "What is a Mystic"? by Eric Anderson (Eric Anderson is president of Southwestern Adventist University in Keene, Texas)
He writes in the Adventist Review:
"Evelyn Underhill, another poet and student of spirituality, complained that the words “mystic” and “mysticism” were so misused that they were in danger of losing their meaning." AR
widely read writers on such matters in the first half of the 20th century. No other book of its type—until the appearance in 1946 of Aldous Huxley's The Perennial Philosophy—met with success to match that of her best-known work, Mysticism, published in 1911.
Initially an agnostic, she gradually began to acquire an interest in Neoplatonism and from there was increasingly drawn to Catholicism...in 1925, her writings became more focused on the Holy Spirit and she became prominent in the Anglican Church as a lay leader of spiritual retreats,.... and proponent of contemplative prayer....In her first novel, The Grey World, described by one reviewer as an extremely interesting psychological study, the hero's mystical journey begins with death, and then moves through reincarnation, beyond the grey world,...Underhill's greatest book, Mysticism...divided her map of "the way" into five stages: the first was the "Awakening of Self", second stage she presents as psychological "Purgation of Self", third stage she titles "Illumination", fourth stage she describes as the "Dark Night of the Soul" wherein one is deprived of all that has been valuable to the lower self, last she devotes a chapter to the unitive life, the sum of the mystic way:
A Neoplatonist as well as a spiritual guide, Plotinus writes regarding both formal
philosophy and hands-on, personal, inner experience. Underhill makes the distinction between the geographer who draws maps of the mind, and the seeker who actually travels in the realms of spirit.
In her earlier writings Underhill often wrote using the terms "mysticism" and "mystics" but later began to adopt the terms "spirituality" and "saints" because she felt they were less threatening.
One of her most significant influences and important collaborations was with the Nobel Laureate, Rabindranath Tagore, the Indian mystic, author, and world traveler. They published a major translation of the work of Kabir together in 1915, to which she wrote the introduction.
....her ten-year friendship with Catholic philosopher and writer Baron Friedrich von Hügel turned into one of spiritual direction....More than any other person, she was responsible for introducing the forgotten authors of medieval and Catholic spirituality to a largely Protestant audience and the lives of eastern mystics to the English-speaking world." Wikipedia
"If this much-abused word is used correctly, however, I may be a “Christian mystic.” Let me quickly explain myself—before readers write me off as superstitious or silly. In doing so, I want to draw attention to an experience that is at the heart of Christian life, and to testify how Christian
mysticism, rightly understood, has changed my life....The English writer Evelyn Underhill first studied mysticism as a scholar and artist, but then was converted to Christian faith and drawn into Christian spirituality as a participant. As a believer she wrote Concerning the Inner Life, a small book based on a series of talks that she gave to a group of English ministers in 1926....She told her audience of clergy that the cure for spiritual exhaustion and restlessness was a certain kind of prayer—the prayer of adoration. “This prayer of adoration exceeds all other types in educative and purifying power. It alone is able to consolidate our sense of the supernatural, to conquer our persistent self-occupation, to expand our spirits, to feed and quicken our awareness of the wonder and delightfulness of God.” By the right kind of beholding, in other words, we are changed." AR
BUT-as pointed out on Wikipedia the Christianity she was drawn to was Catholicism and the late medieval mystics of contemplative prayer as well as "Eastern" mystics and reincarnation.
such as Ambrose, Francis of Assisi, Thomas à Kempis, and Bernard of Clairvaux. ...I did not start out with a desire to be a mystic. Far from it. About 25 years ago I helped design a capstone seminar for honor students at Pacific Union College, and somehow we chose “the Christian tradition” as our theme. Each year we read great examples of this tradition, ranging from Augustine’s Confessions and Dante’s Divine Comedy ... The Brothers Karamazov, and the modern Japanese classic Silence. I joined a weekly prayer group comprising both Adventists and non-Adventists, and together we read devotional writings, some old and some new, from different faith backgounds." AR
Q: How did this end up in the Adventist Review????
Q: Did not editor Bill Knott check this article out? Or does he sympathize with the same contemplative views?
Q: What is a man as spiritually confused as Anderson doing in charge of one of our Universities?
-- Bill Knott needs to be removed from his position---this nonsense winding up in our periodicals isn't just damaging to Adventists, but gives a wrong impression to Christians who see it thinking that Adventists adhere to the spiritual formation/contemplative forces sweeping Christendom. This is SERIOUS. When our periodicals begin to promote mystics like Underhill, Francis of Assisi and Bernard of Clairvaux we have SERIOUS problems in judgment with the AR staff starting at the top with Bill Knott.
LET PAUL GIVE A SUMMARY OF ANDERSON:
Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
2 Timothy 3:7
BTW, As for Ambrose- "Ambrose’s sermons were often modeled on Cicero, ...He had no scruples in borrowing at length from pagan authors. He gloried in the pulpit in his ability to parade his spoils—“gold of the Egyptians”—taken over from the pagan philosophers." FranciscanMedia
It was Entitled "What is a Mystic"? by Eric Anderson (Eric Anderson is president of Southwestern Adventist University in Keene, Texas)
He writes in the Adventist Review:
"Evelyn Underhill, another poet and student of spirituality, complained that the words “mystic” and “mysticism” were so misused that they were in danger of losing their meaning." AR
First, who is Evelyn Underhill?
"English Anglo-Catholic writer and pacifist known for her numerous works on religion and spiritual practice, in particular Christian mysticism. In the English-speaking world, she was one of the most 
Initially an agnostic, she gradually began to acquire an interest in Neoplatonism and from there was increasingly drawn to Catholicism...in 1925, her writings became more focused on the Holy Spirit and she became prominent in the Anglican Church as a lay leader of spiritual retreats,.... and proponent of contemplative prayer....In her first novel, The Grey World, described by one reviewer as an extremely interesting psychological study, the hero's mystical journey begins with death, and then moves through reincarnation, beyond the grey world,...Underhill's greatest book, Mysticism...divided her map of "the way" into five stages: the first was the "Awakening of Self", second stage she presents as psychological "Purgation of Self", third stage she titles "Illumination", fourth stage she describes as the "Dark Night of the Soul" wherein one is deprived of all that has been valuable to the lower self, last she devotes a chapter to the unitive life, the sum of the mystic way:
When love has carried us above all things into the Divine Dark, there we are transformed by the Eternal Word Who is the image of the Father; and as the air is penetrated by the sun, thus we receive in peace the Incomprehensible Light, enfolding us, and penetrating us.The book ends with an extremely valuable appendix, a kind of who's who of mysticism, which shows its persistence and interconnection from century to century.
"The Mysticism of Plotinus" (1919)
An essay originally published in The Quarterly Review (1919), and later collected in The Essentials of Mysticism and other essays. Underhill here addresses Plotinus (204–270) of Alexandria and later of Rome.A Neoplatonist as well as a spiritual guide, Plotinus writes regarding both formal
 |
| Tagore |
In her earlier writings Underhill often wrote using the terms "mysticism" and "mystics" but later began to adopt the terms "spirituality" and "saints" because she felt they were less threatening.
One of her most significant influences and important collaborations was with the Nobel Laureate, Rabindranath Tagore, the Indian mystic, author, and world traveler. They published a major translation of the work of Kabir together in 1915, to which she wrote the introduction.
....her ten-year friendship with Catholic philosopher and writer Baron Friedrich von Hügel turned into one of spiritual direction....More than any other person, she was responsible for introducing the forgotten authors of medieval and Catholic spirituality to a largely Protestant audience and the lives of eastern mystics to the English-speaking world." Wikipedia
Second, Anderson attempts blending the nonsense he has immersed himself in of Underhill with Adventism--
Anderson continues:"If this much-abused word is used correctly, however, I may be a “Christian mystic.” Let me quickly explain myself—before readers write me off as superstitious or silly. In doing so, I want to draw attention to an experience that is at the heart of Christian life, and to testify how Christian
BUT-as pointed out on Wikipedia the Christianity she was drawn to was Catholicism and the late medieval mystics of contemplative prayer as well as "Eastern" mystics and reincarnation.
Thrid, in case you aren't convinced yet what Anderson has slipped into let Anderson continue:
"Let us not miss echoes of other saints. Suspicious, sometimes, of instruction from other Christians, we should candidly acknowledge our multidenominational heritage,...pre-Reformation Christians  |
| Ambrose |
Q: How did this end up in the Adventist Review????
Q: Did not editor Bill Knott check this article out? Or does he sympathize with the same contemplative views?
Q: What is a man as spiritually confused as Anderson doing in charge of one of our Universities?
-- Bill Knott needs to be removed from his position---this nonsense winding up in our periodicals isn't just damaging to Adventists, but gives a wrong impression to Christians who see it thinking that Adventists adhere to the spiritual formation/contemplative forces sweeping Christendom. This is SERIOUS. When our periodicals begin to promote mystics like Underhill, Francis of Assisi and Bernard of Clairvaux we have SERIOUS problems in judgment with the AR staff starting at the top with Bill Knott.
LET PAUL GIVE A SUMMARY OF ANDERSON:
Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
2 Timothy 3:7
BTW, As for Ambrose- "Ambrose’s sermons were often modeled on Cicero, ...He had no scruples in borrowing at length from pagan authors. He gloried in the pulpit in his ability to parade his spoils—“gold of the Egyptians”—taken over from the pagan philosophers." FranciscanMedia
