Call of Lay People to the Mystical Life
Wojciech Zyzak
The Person and the Challenges May 23, 2017 DOI: 10.15633/pch.857 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Mysticism |
| Keywords | Spirituality Laity Contemplation Action Baptism World |
| Key points | Argues that every Christian receives the basis for the mystical life through baptismal grace, and that active life in the world does not hinder its development. |
Abstract
The subject of this article is the call of lay people to the mystical life. The topic under consideration indicates two poles, around which the main re fl ection revolves: the mystic and the lay state of life. The call of lay people to mysticism is not just a hypothesis, but a real experience, researched and decribed by theologians. So re fl ecting on the call to the mystic life of lay people is not so much a matter of ‘whether’, but of ‘how’. In the light of the above, four issues are fundamental: the impossibility to provoke the mystical experience, its dependence on the spirituality of the baptism, the relation of contemplation to action and the relation to the world. It occurs however, that every Christian, together with God’s life of grace bestowed in baptism, receives the basis for the mystical life. Neither an active life in the world, nor work or marriage, hinders the development of this gift.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on mysticism, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| The mystical mind: probing the biology of religious experience | 2000 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Religious and Mystical Experiences as Artifacts of Temporal Lobe Function: A General Hypothesis | 1983 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| The Problem of Pure Consciousness: Mysticism and Philosophy | 1993 | Edited collection of essays | |
| Irreducible Mind: Toward a Psychology for the 21st Century | 2020 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mysticism and schizophrenia: A phenomenological exploration of the structure of consciousness in the schizophrenia spectrum disorders. | 2016 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |