Reinforcing that "mysticism" is not a New Testament teaching...
The Christian mystic like the Zen Buddhist doesn't rely on others to tell him what to think. The Church Christian on the other hand, like the Buddhist does rely on others to tell him what to think.
You'd have to agree then that, since New Testament Christians found the writings of Paul, Peter, James, John and others to be important and relied on them for clarity of understanding, these Christians were far from being mystics.
Steve.
Oh, no doubt that Christians that follow the New Testament are not mystics except for the handful of monks and nuns living in monasteries. New Testament Christian follow the official teachings of men in a conclave who put together books that would reenforce their position as the ruling hierarchy of the Church.
The heretics known as the mystics, Gnostics, Cathars, etc disagreed with the orthodox teachings of the organized Church and paid for that disagreement with their lives.
The orthodox Church won the war or at least the battle to suppress the heretics that disagreed with them. However, it appears that the heretics are coming back from the dead or maybe I should say the underground.
