From the old encyclopedia of Catholicism at
newadvent.org:
With
Christianity, the history of Mysticism enters into a new period. The Fathers recognized indeed the partial
truth of the
pagan system, but they pointed out also its fundamental
errors. They made a distinction between
reason and
faith,
philosophy and
theology; they acknowledged the aspirations of the
soul, but, at the same
time, they emphasized its essential inability to penetrate the mysteries of Divine life. They taught that the
vision of God is the work of grace and the reward of
eternal life; in the present life only a few
souls, by a special grace, can reach it. On these principles, the
Christian school of
Alexandria opposed the
true gnosis based on grace and
faith to the
Gnostic heresies. St. Augustine teaches indeed that we
know the essences of things
in rationibus aeternis, but this
knowledge has its starting point in the data of sense (cf. Quæstiones, LXXXIII, c. xlvi).
Pseudo-Dionysius, in his various works, gave a systematic treatment of
Christian Mysticism, carefully distinguishing between rational and mystical
knowledge. By the former, he says, we
know God, not in His
nature, but through the wonderful order of the
universe, which is a participation of the Divine
ideas (“De Divinis Nomin.”, c, vii, §§ 2-3, in P. G., III, 867 sq.). There is, however, he adds, a more perfect
knowledge of
God possible in this life, beyond the attainments of
reason even enlightened by
faith, through which the
soul contemplates directly the mysteries of Divine light. The
contemplation in the present life is possible only to a few
privileged souls, through a very special
grace of God: it is the
theosis, mystike enosis.
