Modern Mystics: An Introduction by Bernard McGinn (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Modern Mystics: An Introduction by Bernard McGinn Glenn Young (bio) Modern Mystics: An Introduction. By Bernard McGinn. New York: Crossroad Publishing Company, 2023. viii + 340 pp. $49.95. I admit to having felt some disappointment when Bernard McGinn announced that the seventh volume of his landmark study of Western Christian mysticism—The Presence of God—would bring the series to an end. That volume dealt with mysticism in the seventeenth century, a time he characterized as a crisis for mysticism that paused its further development. My disappointment was that this series, which has been so important to students of mysticism, would not go on to consider some of the compelling mystical figures who are closer to our own time. It was thus with joy that I heard the news that McGinn was writing this new book, Modern Mystics. While not technically a volume of The Presence of God, it might well be seen as a fitting coda to that series, as it addresses the development of Christian mysticism in the twentieth century. The book begins with an introductory chapter that offers a description of mysticism in general as well as a discussion of particular themes that are prominent in modern mysticism. This is followed by ten chapters, each of which addresses a twentieth-century mystic: Charles de Foucauld, Thérèse of Lisieux (who did not live into the twentieth century, though her influence was felt beyond her years), Elizabeth of the Trinity, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Edith Stein, Dag Hammarskjöld, Simone Weil, Henri Le Saux (Swami Abhishiktananda), Etty Hillesum, and Thomas Merton. Some observations about the diversity of the figures on this list are in order. While it is true that the mystics included here are predominantly Catholic, other traditions are represented. Dag Hammarskjöld's roots were in Lutheranism, and McGinn uses this as an opportunity to provide a brief survey of modern Protestant mysticism. Etty Hillesum was Jewish. And while Swami Abhishiktananda was a Catholic, he also incorporated significant elements of Hinduism into his mysticism. It is also noteworthy that the list of figures addressed is evenly divided between female and male mystics. The book ends with a brief chapter that asks what it might mean for present-day people to read mystical texts. In the book's introductory chapter, McGinn provides an in-depth discussion of his heuristic description of mysticism as "that part, or element, of Christian belief and practice that concerns the preparation for, the consciousness of, and the effect of what the mystics themselves have described as a direct and transformative [encounter with] the presence of God" (11). Following this, he names themes that are especially prominent in twentieth-century mysticism. These include "visions and [End Page 358] ecstasy" and "suffering and dereliction" in mystical consciousness, the relationship of "action and contemplation (the political and the mystical)," a "holistic perspective" that gives attention to the physical, a "return of the apophatic" in mystical discourse, "crossing traditions" in a mysticism that incorporates elements of other religions, and the "marginality" of mystics in relation to their social contexts (16–24). In addressing these themes, McGinn shows how modern mysticism is in continuity with prior mystical traditions while also having its own distinct character. Turning to the book's treatment of its ten modern mystics, each chapter includes a biography of the person. These sometimes involve descriptions of mystical states, though McGinn points out that not all mystics report on such states, and that sometimes mysticism is found more in the teaching the mystic gives to others. In writing about Elizabeth of the Trinity, for example, McGinn notes that she "based her teaching on a deep interior sense of God's presence. Like many of the great mystics, she does not speak much about her own experiences, but rather fashions her message out of these experiences" (88). Each chapter also includes substantial discussion of the mystic's teaching and considers its implications for an understanding of mysticism. McGinn clearly identifies key themes or questions in a mystic's writing. For example, in discussing Edith Stein, he focuses on the biblical statement, "May Your will be done," noting that this was "a major motif...