Mystical Tradition:
Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
Parts I-III

Professor Luke Timothy Johnson


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Luke Timothy Johnson, Ph.D.

Robert W. Woodruff Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins
at Candler School of Theology, Emory University

Luke Timothy Johnson, Ph.D., is the Robert W. Woodruff Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins at Candler
School of Theology, Emory University, in Atlanta, Georgia. Born in 1943, he was a Benedictine monk from the ages of 19 to
28. He received a B.A. in Philosophy from Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans, an M.Div. in Theology from Saint
Meinrad School of Theology in Indiana, and an M.A. in Religious Studies from Indiana University before earning a Ph.D. in
New Testament Studies from Yale University in 1976.
Professor Johnson taught at Yale Divinity School from 1976 to 1982 and at Indiana University from 1982 to 1992 before
accepting his current position at Emory. He is the author of 20 books, including The Writings of the New Testament: An
Interpretation (3rd edition, 2003), which is used widely as a textbook in seminaries and colleges. He has also published
several hundred articles and reviews. He is currently at work on several books, including one on the Christian creed, one on
the future of Catholic biblical scholarship, and one on the influence of Greco-Roman religion on Christianity.
Professor Johnson has taught undergraduates, as well as master's level and doctoral students. At Indiana University, he
received the President's Award for Distinguished Teaching, was elected a member of the Faculty Colloquium on Excellence
in Teaching, and won the Brown Derby Teaching Award and the Student Choice Award for teaching. At Emory, he has twice
received the On Eagle's Wings Excellence in Teaching Award, and in 2007, he received the Candler School of Theology
Outstanding Service Award. In 1997 and 1998, he was a Phi Beta Kappa visiting scholar, speaking at college campuses
across the country.
Professor Johnson is married to Joy Randazzo. They share 7 children, 13 grandchildren, 4 great-grandchildren, and a
Yorkshire terrier named Bailey. Professor Johnson's other courses for The Teaching Company are: The Apostle Paul; Early
Christianity: The Experience of the Divine; Great World Religions: Christianity (2nd edition); Jesus and the Gospels;
Practical Philosophy: The Greco-Roman Moralists; and The Story of the Bible.
(c)2008 The Teaching Company.
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Table of Contents

Mystical Tradition: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

Professor Biography ...................................................................................................................................................................i
Course Scope .............................................................................................................................................................................. 1
Lecture One

A Way into the Mystic Ways of the West ............................................................ 2
Lecture Two

Family Resemblances and Differences................................................................. 4
Lecture Three
The Biblical Roots of Western Mysticism ........................................................... 7
Lecture Four
Mysticism
in
Early Judaism ................................................................................. 9
Lecture Five
Merkabah
Mysticism.......................................................................................... 11
Lecture Six

The Hasidim of Medieval Germany ................................................................... 13
Lecture Seven
The Beginnings of Kabbalah .............................................................................. 15
Lecture Eight

Mature Kabbalah--Zohar .................................................................................. 17
Lecture Nine

Isaac Luria and Safed Spirituality ...................................................................... 19
Lecture Ten

Sabbatai Zevi and Messianic Mysticism ............................................................ 21
Lecture Eleven
The Ba'al Shem Tov and the New Hasidism ..................................................... 23
Lecture Twelve
Mysticism in Contemporary Judaism ................................................................. 25
Lecture Thirteen
Mystical Elements in the New Testament .......................................................... 27
Lecture Fourteen
Gnostic Christianity............................................................................................ 29
Lecture Fifteen The
Spirituality
of the Desert ............................................................................. 31
Lecture Sixteen
Shaping Christian Mysticism in the East............................................................ 33
Lecture Seventeen
Eastern Monks and the Hesychastic Tradition ................................................... 35
Lecture Eighteen
The Mysticism of Western Monasticism............................................................ 37
Lecture Nineteen
Medieval Female Mystics .................................................................................. 39
Lecture Twenty
Mendicants as Mystics ....................................................................................... 41
Lecture Twenty-One
English Mystics of the 14th Century ................................................................... 43
Lecture Twenty-Two
15th- and 16th- Century Spanish Mystics ............................................................ 45
Lecture Twenty-Three
Mysticism among Protestant Reformers............................................................. 47
Lecture Twenty-Four
Mystical Expressions in Protestantism ............................................................... 49
Lecture Twenty-Five 20th-Century Mystics .......................................................................................... 51
Lecture Twenty-Six
Muhammad the Prophet as Mystic ..................................................................... 53
Lecture Twenty-Seven
The House of Islam ............................................................................................ 55
Lecture Twenty-Eight The
Mystical
Sect--Shi'a .................................................................................. 57
Lecture Twenty-Nine
The Appearance of Sufism ................................................................................. 59
Lecture Thirty
Early Sufi Masters .............................................................................................. 61
Lecture Thirty-One
The Limits of Mysticism--Al-Ghazzali............................................................. 63
Lecture Thirty-Two
Two Masters, Two Streams................................................................................ 65
Lecture Thirty-Three
Sufism in 12th-14th Century North Africa .......................................................... 67
Lecture Thirty-Four
Sufi Saints of Persia and India ........................................................................... 69
Lecture Thirty-Five
The Continuing Sufi Tradition ........................................................................... 71
Lecture Thirty-Six
Mysticism in the West Today............................................................................. 73
Timeline .................................................................................................................................................................................... 75
Glossary .................................................................................................................................................................................... 80
Bibliography............................................................................................................................................................................. 85
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(c)2008 The Teaching Company.

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Mystical Tradition: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

Scope:
The greatest human ambition is to seek God, and the only true tragedy is failing to become a saint. These are the convictions
of the men and women that others often call mystics, although they more often speak of themselves simply as seekers,
servants, lovers, and disciples. They are the most passionately personal practitioners of religion. Their chosen instrument is
prayer. Their lifelong quest is to experience the living God. They regard their search for God as the expression of what is
most authentic within themselves, as well as the greatest service they could pay to their fellow humans: If the greatest part of
humanity is blind, is it not the truest form of love to show them a glimpse of light?
This course examines the magnificent tradition of mysticism within the major Western religions of Judaism, Christianity, and
Islam. These religions are usually thought of in terms of external observance--doctrines, laws, rituals--rather than in terms
of intense prayer experiences or forms of contemplation. In fact, however, all three monotheistic religions of the West have
robust and complex mystical traditions. Indeed, those who follow the path of contemplation would argue that their way of
being Jewish, Christian, or Muslim was the purest realization of that religion's essence.
For whatever reason, mystics are also responsible for some of the most impressive literature produced by their respective
religions. Mystics authored interpretations of Scripture, theological treatises, sermons, meditations, letters, stories, and
poems, and all of them testify to the fact that a fervent love of the divine--and a search for contact with the inexpressible--
does not require the rejection of literary art or the love of human beauty. Some mystical literature, indeed, is suffused with an
intense eroticism that fuses human and divine passion in a single fire.
An introduction to the varieties of mystical literature through the ages, and to the great spiritual teachers within each tradition
who composed such writings, is an important element in this course. It is impossible to appreciate the richness of the mystical
way without some direct contact with the words that were forged out of the experience of prayer. As much as possible, then,
this course will use the words of the mystics themselves.
A major goal of this course, however, is to create a context for those words. First, it places mystical literature squarely within the
exoteric forms of each religion. There are, to be sure, clear similarities in mysticism across religious traditions, but it is worth
asking about the forms it adopts within specific beliefs and practices. Second, despite being a highly personal form of religious
sensibility, mysticism has flourished most within well-developed and firm communities of shared practice. Jewish mystics found
their place within a community of halachic observance; Christian mystics are frequently located within monastic communities;
and in Islam, Sufi fellowships support the practices that enable a personal quest for the divine. The tensions--creative and
destructive--inherent in an esoteric appropriation of an exoteric tradition require attention, but such tensions exist because of a
state of mutual dependence. Third, even though mysticism tends to exist with little reference to outside events, it is often
important to situate specific forms of mystical expression within historical and social circumstances.
The course begins with three ground-laying presentations. The first takes up the matters of definition (what do we mean by
"mysticism"?) and scope (literature rather than direct experience) and raises some preliminary questions (for example, why
do mystics write at all?). The second sketches the family resemblances and squabbles within the three traditions that share
common roots, as well as a history of controversy. The third examines the most important of the common roots, namely, the
biblical basis for mystical experience and symbolism.
Lectures Four through Eleven trace the historical stages of mysticism in the Jewish tradition, beginning with the inchoate
expressions of the Hellenistic period, moving through Merkabah and Kabbalah, and ending with Hasidism. Lectures Thirteen
through Twenty-Four provide a similar survey of mysticism within Christianity, beginning with the figures of Jesus and Paul,
then considering the radical challenge to exoteric Christianity posed by Gnosticism, before examining major movements and
figures in the Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant forms of Christianity. Lectures Twenty-Six through Thirty-Four are devoted
to mysticism in Islam, beginning with Muhammad as mystic, then sketching the exoteric form of the "House of Islam" and
the mystical character of the Shi'a, before surveying the development of Sufism, with special attention to its great early
teachers and masters in the West (North Africa) and East (India and Persia). At the end of each unit (Lectures Twelve,
Twenty-Five, and Thirty-Five) are presentations devoted to contemporary expressions of mysticism within each of the three
traditions. Although the greater part of this course is devoted to foundational figures of the distant past, it is necessary to note,
however briefly, the continuation of the same pilgrimage toward God in the present.
The final lecture of the course will take up two questions that, in one way or another, run through all the preceding
presentations. The first question concerns the truth claims of mystics: Are they merely writers of considerable charm, or are
they in touch with what is most real? Are they self-deluded fools or the wisest of humans? Are they tragically mistaken, or
are they, in fact, witnesses to a truth hidden to others because of distraction and denial? The second question concerns the
viability of mysticism in the contemporary world: Will it survive the onslaughts of aggressive secularism, or will it survive
and possibly even surmount a world shaped around the denial of what it holds most dear?
(c)2008 The Teaching Company.
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Lecture One

A Way into the Mystic Ways of the West

Scope: Understanding the mystical path in Western religions begins with some preliminary questions and basic definitions
of terms: What do we mean by "religious experience," "religion," "mysticism," and "prayer"? Defining these terms
leads, in turn, to a consideration of the premises concerning the construction of reality shared by mystics: What is
the relation of the exoteric to the esoteric? What is the relation of mystical experience and mystical writing? What is
the range of evidence available for the study of mysticism in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam? This opening
presentation then sketches the logic of the entire sequence of lectures.

Outline
I.
This lecture begins with a set of opening questions, the answers to which can provide some guidance for the remaining
35 lectures.
A. Is "mysticism" another term for the irrational and, therefore, undeserving of serious scholarly analysis?
1. To some extent, the question arises from loose popular usage that links mysticism, mystery, magic,
mystification, and even self-delusion.
2. But it also arises from the rationalistic bias of contemporary science and technology, which equates the
verifiable with the true and the "mystical" with the avoidance of real life.
3. To some extent, the same charge can be made against all religion and every claim concerning reality beyond the
empirical.
4. Mystics claim, however, to be in contact with what is most real, with that which is not irrational but super-
rational, and that a reduction of truth to the pragmatic and provable is tragic.
B. Are mystics, then, always extraordinary adepts constantly in a state of ecstasy or constantly having visions?
1. We shall see that mysticism does, in fact, include such extraordinary religious types as visionaries and ecstatics.
2. But the term can also be used to include all those who seek a personal and passionate devotion to the divine and
need not involve psychic fireworks. Mysticism embraces every social class, level of intelligence, and degree of
emotional health.
3. We can appreciate the greatness of music through the genius of a Mozart, but we can see, too, that piano
students struggling with simple tunes also participate in music. In the same way, the great mystics and
visionaries show us the range of what is possible in the life of devotion to God while including those at a much
lower scale of performance.
C. Isn't mysticism really the distinctive quality in Eastern religions, such as Hinduism and Buddhism?
1. It is true that Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are usually associated with external observance of religious law,
ritual, and morality within a community.
2. But all three traditions have a long and robust tradition of mysticism, whose practitioners claim to represent
those religions in their essence.
3. We should also note that Asian religions have as great a commitment to the same elements of law, ritual, and
morality as do the religions of the West.
II. We can move even further into the subject matter by defining some basic terms that will recur in the course, keeping in
mind that all these definitions are the instructor's and not necessarily universally held.
A. We begin by defining "religious experience" with a basic definition from Joachim Wach: "Religious experience is a
response of the whole person to what is perceived as ultimate, characterized by a peculiar intensity, and issuing in
appropriate action."
1. The element of "response" indicates the conviction that religious experience is not fantasy or self-generated.
2. "The whole person" indicates that religious experience is not merely a matter of ideas, or of will, or of emotions
but involves the whole person, including the body.
3. "Perceived as ultimate" points both to the subjective character of religious experience and its claim to
"transcendence."
4. "Characterized by peculiar intensity" points to the aspect of "realness"; religious experience is not something
vague or uncertain but definite and impressive.
5. The "appropriate action" is the organization of life in a new manner around the experience.
B. A "religion" is a way of life organized around experiences and convictions concerning ultimate power.
1. The way of life involves a community of shared practice: Ritual and myth, doctrine, sacred books, and codes of
morality are all ways of mediating the power of religious experience in indirect and nonthreatening ways.
2. One way of viewing mysticism is as the individual search for unmediated contact with ultimate power.
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C. The term "mysticism" retains some elements of its Greek etymology.
1. The
mystes is one who has been initiated into a cult and, thereby, has access to status and lore not available to
the uninitiated.
2. The term "mystic" is usually used for an individual rather than a group and suggests entry into a new realm and
access to knowledge not available to others and not fully expressible in ordinary speech.
D. In general, the term "prayer" refers to the practice of human communication with respect to the divine.
1. Community prayer most often takes a verbal form in petition, praise, confession, vow, or hymn.
2. The prayer of mystics may involve words but often transcends speech, either through ecstatic utterance or
silence.
3. Contemplation, meditation, or the Prayer of Silence are almost universally attested as mystical practices.
III. A number of questions will preoccupy us as we study the mystical tradition in Western religions.
A. What construction of reality is presupposed by the practice of mysticism?
1. A dimension of being that is greater and truer than that visible to the senses exists.
2. Some capacity within humans enables them to gain access to that dimension of reality.
3. Those who have already gained such access can instruct others in the methods of gaining it.
B. What is the relationship between the exoteric (outer) and esoteric (inner) in mysticism?
1. How does mysticism relate to the outward observances shared by a religious community? To what extent does it
affirm or slight the outward?
2. How does the inner experience of contemplation or ecstasy find expression exoterically in the symbolism of
gesture or language?
C. Why do some mystics write about their experiences, and why do they write what they do?
1. Certainly, many mystics never write, and indeed, the logic of mysticism tends away from literary expression.
2. Some mystical writing serves as instruction; some, as speculation; and some, it seems, as a medium of
experience.
D. What sources are available for the study of mysticism in the religions of the West?
1. We have an abundance of literature from Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in English translation, including
tractates, poetry, instructions, wisdom writings, prayer, and narratives.
2. English sources represent only a small portion of the works in the original languages of Hebrew, Greek, and
Latin, as well as modern European languages, Arabic, and Persian.
3. The instructor in this course has a grasp of some of these languages (Hebrew, Greek, Latin, French, and
German) but not others, most notably, the most important languages for the Islamic tradition (Arabic and
Persian).
IV. We will approach this course in a fundamentally chronological sequence for each of the traditions in turn, beginning with
Judaism, then Christianity, then Islam.
A. The opening lectures provide a necessary framework with a review of the exoteric traditions and the biblical basis of
mystical symbolism.
B. The treatment of mysticism within each tradition seeks to make clear both what is distinctive and what is common.
1. The main focus is on mystical literature as produced by great masters within the traditions.
2. Through the examination of this literature, we will explore analytic questions concerning mysticism.
C. Although the focus is on the classical sources of the past, each unit concludes with some consideration of the
practice of mysticism today.
D. The course ends with a set of questions concerning the truth of mystical claims and the viability of mystical practice
in a secular world.

Recommended Reading:
Smith, M. "The Nature and Meaning of Mysticism," in Understanding Mysticism, pp. 19-25.

Questions to Consider:
1. Consider the ways that mystical experience is necessarily "mediated," both by the symbols made available by an exoteric
tradition and by the constraints of literary composition.
2. Discuss the characteristic of religious experience as "peculiarly intense": What forms might this intensity take?
(c)2008 The Teaching Company.
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Lecture Two

Family Resemblances and Differences

Scope: Mysticism is an important facet of the three great monotheistic religions of the West. This lecture provides a
necessary framework for placing mysticism within each tradition by a broad introduction to the three traditions in
their complex interconnections. In what sense is it appropriate to think of them together as "Western religions"?
Considered exoterically as religious systems, what elements do the three religions share, and what features
distinguish each of them? Such comparisons help locate the focus of mystical devotion within the respective
traditions. Finally, this lecture provides an overview of the role played by each tradition in history, comparing their
arcs of growth and influence.

Outline
I.
Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are commonly grouped together as "Western religions," a designation that is both
inappropriate and appropriate.
A. Understood geographically or demographically, the characterization is inaccurate.
1. Today, the West tends to be identified with Europe and the Americas. Although more geographically western in
origin than Hinduism or Buddhism, all three religions arose in the Middle East.
2. All three religions--particularly, Islam and Christianity--have adherents in every part of the world. Judaism
retains a family dimension, but the other two traditions transcend ethnicity.
B. Understood in terms of cultural influence and religious type, the designation "Western religions" has merit.
1. These three traditions all exercised their first and greatest influence on Western culture, whether as formative or
challenging. Medieval European philosophy, for example, is impossible to understand apart from the challenge
of Islamic philosophy.
2. The three Western religions share common family features that distinguish them from the Eastern family
(Hinduism, Taoism, and Buddhism), which likewise share common features.
II. That these three traditions share certain common elements is clear, even though the precise understanding or practice of
even these shared elements is subject to variation within each.
A. Most obviously, they share an understanding of God in relation to the world that is distinct both from the ancient
religions out of which they emerged and the great religions of the East.
1. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are monotheistic religions: There is but one ultimate power in the world who is
the source and goal of everything.
2. The one God has created the world, which is real but also relative, distinct from God but also dependent on the
creator.
3. This one God who created the world also has a character (intelligence and will) and seeks communication with
humans through revelation.
B. All three traditions are prophetic religions and religions of the book; note, too, that these two notions are connected.
1. God reveals through creation but also through chosen humans who are prophets: Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad.
2. Prophets "see" or "hear" in the sights and sounds of ordinary life what they understand as God's word and
communicate that word to others.
3. In each tradition, sacred texts (TaNaK, the Bible, and the Qur'an) contain prophecies that reveal God's word
and will for humans.
4. The prophetic impulse can arise outside the frame of the written word but not in contradiction to it.
C. The three traditions all recognize the need to interpret the sacred books.
1. Scriptures have intrinsic complexities, including the use of poetic language, metaphor, allusion,
anthropomorphism, and simile, and are characterized by density.
2. For this reason, sources other than the sacred text must be invoked as a means of interpreting Scripture,
including oral Torah, the Holy Spirit, and the Hadith.
3. The religions' interpretations of their sacred books are elaborated into systems of community law: Talmud for
Judaism, canon law and theology for Christianity, and Shari'ah for Islam.
D. The three religions all assert that humans are free and agree on the basic form of human response to God.
1. The positive response is obedience, faith, or submission to God's will.
2. The negative response is idolatry, disobedience, apostasy, sin, or shirking.
3. Humans express their obedience to God through acts of justice and love toward other humans.
(c)2008 The Teaching Company.
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E. All three traditions share a sense that individual and communal life, the world itself, has a future, as well as an end
(eschatology).
1. God, the keeper of the book, judges humans on the basis of their deeds.
2. Humans are assigned to a future of bliss or torment on the basis of God's judgment.
3. God also works positively for those who are faithful at the communal level.
F. In each religion, the human response to God is expressed in common forms of piety.
1. Each has set times and seasons of prayer, as well as forms of prayer that share certain features.
2. In each tradition, fasting is valued as a way of expressing the seriousness of one's commitment to God.
3. Each of these traditions has a firm commitment to sharing possessions with others, above all, the poor
(almsgiving).
4. Pilgrimage has been a more sporadic practice in Judaism and Christianity but a constant one in Islam.
III. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam also have major points of difference, sometimes within their shared framework.
A. They clearly disagree on which prophet is ultimate, Moses, Jesus, or Muhammad.
B. They have different understandings of revelation through prophetic books.
1. In Judaism and Christianity, human authorship is acknowledged, and Scripture remains sacred even in
translation.
2. In Islam, human authorship is denied, and the Qur'an is sacred only in Arabic.
C. The religions assign different levels of authority to sacred texts.
1. Judaism regards neither the New Testament nor the Qur'an as authoritative.
2. Christianity accepts the Old Testament as normative but only as read through the lens of the New Testament; it
does not recognize the Qur'an as revelatory.
3. Islam recognizes the Old Testament and New Testament as prophetic books but only as understood within the
rewriting of the Qur'an.
D. Messianism (expectation of a Messiah) plays a distinct role in each tradition.
1. In Judaism, Messianism has been a sporadic and not necessarily dominant feature.
2. Christianity is defined by the conviction that Jesus is the Messiah.
3. In Islam, Messianism is significant only within Shiism.
E. The traditions place a different emphasis even on shared elements.
1. Law is central to Islam and Judaism in a way that it is not in Christianity.
2. Pilgrimage is important to Islam in a manner not found in Judaism and Christianity.
3. Christianity has a more elaborate system of rituals (sacraments) than Islam or Judaism.
IV. The three religions have had distinct political visions and roles within history.
A. Classical Judaism has been the religion of a diasporic minority since the fall of the Jerusalem Temple in 70 C.E.
1. Jews have had to find a place within an often hostile Gentile majority. Throughout history, Muslims have been
far more hospitable to Jews than Christians have been.
2. The emancipation of the 19th century and the Holocaust of the 20th century threatened the continued existence of
Judaism.
3. The existence of Israel as a Jewish state represents an ambiguous reality for Judaism.
B. Christianity originally had no vision for a larger society but has gone through dramatic political changes.
1. In
the
4th century C.E., Christianity was transformed from the religion of a persecuted minority to the imperial
religion.
2. The vision of "Christendom" meant battle against "infidels," persecution of Jews, and suppression of heretics.
3. The disestablishment of Christianity (leading to the "post-Constantinian era") creates divisions among
Christians concerning the desirability of a "Christian culture."
C. Islam had a definite political vision from the start but has had an inconsistent ability to enact it.
1. The Shari'ah is not "religious law" so much as a way of structuring all of life in accordance with the will of
Allah.
2. Islam's first great expansion involved military means and political negotiations among states.
3. After a long period of cultural and political ascendance, Islam went into an age of eclipse.
4. Reform movements in Islam today argue for the earlier vision: Both individuals and nations must be islama,
that is, submissive to the will of Allah.

Recommended Reading:
Peters, F. E. Children of Abraham: Judaism, Christianity, Islam.

(c)2008 The Teaching Company.
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Questions to Consider:
1. Consider the meaning of the terms "exoteric" and "esoteric" and the ways in which they are related to each other in
religious traditions.
2. Examine the ways in which "prophecy" is a useful category for perceiving what is common and what is distinctive in
these three religious traditions.
(c)2008 The Teaching Company.
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