The essentials of mysticism, and other essaysUnderhill, Evelyn
Religion
The essentials of mysticism, and other essays
Underhill, Evelyn
Mysticism
The old mystics were fond of saying that “Man is a made trinity, like to
the unmade Blessed Trinity.” That particular form of words comes to us
from Julian of Norwich; but it expresses a thought which we often meet
in the spiritual writers of the Middle Ages. Further, these writers were
disposed to find in man’s nature a reflection of the three special
characters which theology attributes to the Christian Godhead. They
thought that the power of the Father had its image in the physical
nature of man: the wisdom of the Son in his reason: the creative vigour
of the Holy Spirit in his soul. Some taught also that each of these
three aspects of humanity corresponded with one aspect of the triune
reality of the universe: the physical world of nature, the mental world
of idea, the ultimate world of spirit. The sceptic of course would
express this differently, and see in it but one more illustration of the
fact that man always makes God in his own image. But without scepticism
I think we may explain it thus: that those who have pondered most deeply
on the Divine Nature have most easily found in its richness, and have
best understood, just those attributes which are most clearly marked in
human nature. Man has inevitably been for them a key to God.
These speculations seem at first sight to have little bearing upon the
problems of education. But they are in reality intimately connected with
it: for their consideration leads us back to the central fact out of
which they have arisen—namely, the abiding truth that man’s deepest
exploration of his own nature gives again and again this threefold
result, that he feels that his real self-hood and real possibilities are
not wholly exhausted by the terms “body” and “mind.” He knows in his
best moments another vivid aspect of his being, as strong as these,
though often kept below the threshold of his consciousness: the spirit,
which informs, yet is distinct from both his body and his mind.
Now the question which all serious educationalists are called upon to
ask themselves is this: To what extent does that three-fold analysis of
human personality influence our educational schemes? The object of
education is to bring out the best and highest powers of the thing
educated. Do we, in our education, even attempt to bring out the best
and highest powers of the spirit, as we seek to develop those of the
body and the mind?
The child as he comes to us is a bundle of physical, mental, and
spiritual possibilities. He is related to three distinct yet
interpenetrating worlds; all accessible to him, since he is human, and
all offering endless opportunities of adventure to him.
“Heaven lies about us in our infancy,
Shades of the prison-house begin to close
About the growing boy.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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