Introducing the Christian Mystics
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Why We Read the Mystics
There have always been men and women in the Church whose hearts burned to know God not only in doctrine but in experience. They were not content to describe Him; they longed to behold Him. These are the mystics—those whose lives became laboratories of communion. While theologians gave us the grammar of faith, the mystics gave us its music.
This reading track exists because the mystical tradition is not a fringe or an embellishment—it is one of the Church’s oldest and most enduring ways of knowing God. Its voice is contemplative, interior, and often achingly beautiful. Our hope is that, through these readings, you will discover that the mystics do not stand apart from orthodoxy but inside it. Their burning desire for direct intimacy with the Triune God became a living witness to what theology means when it reaches the heart.
You will find no secret knowledge here, no hidden ladder to heaven. Rather, you’ll encounter the simple but demanding invitation of Christ: “Abide in Me, and I in you.” (John 15:4) The mystics are those who took that command with utmost seriousness.
Who the Mystics Represent
If it were music, it would be an ancient hymn,
the kind that plays softly in the background when no service is being held—just the sound that reminds you you’re in holy ground.
If it were a painting, it would be its shadows,
the calm that gives color its meaning.
If it were a dance, it would be its slow waltz,
the turning that happens closest to the heart.
If it were a body, it would be its heartbeat,
felt more than heard, pulsing beneath the noise of thought and speech.
If it were a car, it would be its old diesel engine,
slow to start, but faithful through the miles—made for long roads and quiet endurance.
The mystics represent the introspective side of the Christian personality: those drawn to stillness, interior prayer, and the mystery of divine union. They are not necessarily dreamers or romantics; many were profoundly disciplined thinkers and pastors. Yet they all shared a trait that marks the contemplative soul: they sought to know God not merely through ideas, but through transformation.
The mystic’s temperament often lives in tension with the practical or the dogmatic. It is a personality that senses there is more to faith than comprehension—something that must be experienced. For such people, prayer is not only petition but participation. Silence is not absence but presence. Reading this track will feel like coming home to those who have long felt that God is most clearly found in the quiet center rather than the noisy crowd.
Who Else Might Benefit
Even those who do not naturally lean contemplative will find much here to steady and deepen their faith. The restless mind will learn to rest; the anxious spirit will be invited into trust. The mystics teach not by argument but by witness. Their pages can free the pragmatic believer from a faith that lives only in activity, and they can remind the intellectual believer that knowing God is not the same as knowing about Him.
You may not see yourself in their experiences—few will share Symeon’s ecstasies or Teresa’s visions—but you can learn from their orientation. The mystics teach us that intimacy with God is not achieved by sensation but by surrender. They remind every kind of Christian that theology is fulfilled not in mastery but in love.
The Three Periods of Mysticism
1. The Early and Eastern Mystics
The earliest voices of Christian mysticism emerged from the desert. Evagrius Ponticus, Macarius the Egyptian, Pseudo-Dionysius, and Symeon the New Theologian all sought a purified vision of God through prayer and stillness. Their writings are spare, disciplined, and deeply Scriptural. The desert fathers and early contemplatives believed that every thought could either obscure or reveal the divine light. For them, the goal of the Christian life was theosis—to become by grace what Christ is by nature.
These early mystics will appeal to readers who love clarity and order, who find beauty in restraint, and who long for the peace that comes through self-forgetfulness. Their spirituality is not emotional but luminous. It teaches that union with God begins in the purification of the heart and ends in unending adoration.
2. The Medieval Mystics
The Middle Ages brought a flowering of mystical theology. Voices like Eckhart, Ruusbroec, Julian of Norwich, the author of The Cloud of Unknowing, and later Teresa of Ávila and John of the Cross opened the door between contemplation and affection. Their writings carry both the rigor of scholasticism and the tenderness of devotion.
If the early mystics wrote in the language of ascent, the medieval mystics wrote in the language of love. They explored the soul’s interior journey—its purgation, illumination, and eventual union with God. Their metaphors became bolder, their intimacy more daring. They wrote of divine marriage, of the dark night where love refines the soul through seeming absence.
These works speak powerfully to readers who have known both longing and dryness. They teach that faith does not always feel like light; sometimes it is the night that hides the sun. Yet the medieval mystics insist that God is most active in the silence between His words.
3. The Early-Modern and Modern Mystics
By the seventeenth century, mysticism moved from monasteries to kitchens and cellars. Brother Lawrence, Madame Guyon, Miguel de Molinos, and later Thomas Merton all taught that holiness was not confined to solitude but could fill the common life. Their spirituality is simpler, more immediate, and more accessible to the everyday believer.
In these writings, the language of rapture gives way to the practice of presence. You will hear less of visions and more of obedience. The modern mystics remind us that the contemplative life does not belong to specialists. Anyone can live in awareness of God amid the noise of the world. Their words bring the mystical tradition back to the heart of ordinary devotion.
What You’ll Notice Across All Periods
While their settings differ, every mystic speaks a common dialect: humility, silence, and love.
- Humility, because the mystical path begins when self-confidence ends.
- Silence, because the deepest truths of God are better received than reasoned.
- Love, because no vision, no ecstasy, no illumination is greater than charity itself.
You will also see that each age balances the others. The early mystics guard us from sentimentality; the medieval mystics guard us from aridity; the modern mystics guard us from detachment. Taken together, they reveal a Church always rediscovering that the goal of theology is not speculation but participation in the life of God.
For Those Deciding Whether to Join
If you have found that faith sometimes feels mechanical, if your prayers feel rushed, if your heart longs for depth but cannot find language for it, this track was written with you in mind. Reading the mystics is not an escape from doctrine—it is an immersion in its living source.
You will not need to agree with every vision or adopt every practice. You will only need to come willing to listen. The mystics invite us to recover a lost capacity: to be still before God and know that He is God. (Psalm 46:10)
If you are already walking through the Church Fathers, this track will complement that journey. The Fathers will teach you the faith; the mystics will teach you to dwell in it.
Our prayer is that, over these months, you will learn the art of interior prayer—not by technique, but by love. And when you finish, you may find that the mystics were not so different from you after all; they were simply Christians who took the command to “love the Lord your God with all your heart” as an invitation to love without measure.
Possible Reading List
Early & Eastern Mystics (4th – 11th Centuries)
- Evagrius Ponticus (345–399) – The Praktikos and On Prayer – ≈ 50,000 words
- Macarius the Egyptian (c.300–390) – Fifty Spiritual Homilies – ≈ 120,000 words
- Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite (fl. late 400s–early 500s) – The Divine Names, The Mystical Theology, The Celestial Hierarchy – ≈ 90,000 words
- Symeon the New Theologian (949–1022) – The Discourses – ≈ 95,000 words
Subtotal ≈ 355,000 words
Medieval Mystics (13th – 15th Centuries)
- Meister Eckhart (c.1260–1328) – Complete Sermons and Treatises – ≈ 100,000 words
- Jan van Ruusbroec (1293–1381) – The Spiritual Espousals – ≈ 45,000 words
- Anonymous (England, c.1370) – The Cloud of Unknowing – ≈ 55,000 words
- Julian of Norwich (1342–1416) – Revelations of Divine Love – ≈ 95,000 words
- Teresa of Ávila (1515–1582) – The Interior Castle – ≈ 150,000 words
- John of the Cross (1542–1591) – Dark Night of the Soul – ≈ 75,000 words
Subtotal ≈ 520,000 words
Early-Modern & Modern Mystics (17th – 20th Centuries)
- Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection (1614–1691) – The Practice of the Presence of God – ≈ 30,000 words
- Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon (Madame Guyon) (1648–1717) – A Short and Easy Method of Prayer (+ Letters) – ≈ 40,000 words
- Miguel de Molinos (1628–1696) – The Spiritual Guide – ≈ 80,000 words
- Thomas Merton (1915–1968) – New Seeds of Contemplation – ≈ 80,000 words
Subtotal ≈ 230,000 words
(Special Note: Total Estimated Reading Length: ≈ 1,105,000 words)
Supplemental / Optional Mystics for Extended Study
Gregory of Nyssa (335–395) – The Life of Moses – ≈ 60,000 words
Maximus the Confessor (580–662) – Four Hundred Chapters on Love – ≈ 70,000 words
Catherine of Siena (1347–1380) – The Dialogue – ≈ 85,000 words
Richard Rolle (1300–1349) – The Fire of Love – ≈ 60,000 words
Walter Hilton (1340–1396) – The Scale of Perfection – ≈ 95,000 words
Angela of Foligno (1248–1309) – The Book of the Experience of the Truly Faithful – ≈ 65,000 words
Gertrude the Great of Helfta (1256–1302) – The Herald of Divine Love – ≈ 70,000 words
Thomas à Kempis (1380–1471) – The Imitation of Christ – ≈ 90,000 words
Francis de Sales (1567–1622) – Introduction to the Devout Life – ≈ 100,000 words
John Tauler (1300–1361) – Sermons – ≈ 75,000 words
Jacob Böhme (1575–1624) – The Way to Christ – ≈ 80,000 words
Evelyn Underhill (1875–1941) – Practical Mysticism – ≈ 45,000 words
Raimon Panikkar (1918–2010) – The Experience of God – ≈ 90,000 words
(Special Note: Supplemental Total ≈ 985,000 words)
A Final Word and Invitation
Wherever you’ve come from in the Church, you’ve likely already been nourished in ways that matter.
You may have grown up in a Bible church, learning to love the exegesis of Scripture and handle it rightly.
You may have belonged to a high church tradition, formed by liturgy, beauty, and reverence.
You may have been shaped in a charismatic community, learning to expect God’s nearness and power.
Or perhaps you’ve walked among the apologists and theologians, sharpened by truth, rationality, and clarity of the big picture.
Each of these traditions provides something essential—each one a different kind of nutrition for the body of Christ. Yet the mystical tradition offers something that often goes missing: the meal of stillness.
If the Christian life were the ingredients of your daily diet, mysticism would be the olive oil—the silent necessity. It seeps into everything without demanding attention, yet you notice when it’s gone. It keeps the soul from growing dry, gives depth to what would otherwise be plain, and ties every other nourishment together. It anoints, heals, and sustains; it burns quietly in the lamp of prayer and gives grace its glow.
You don’t have to leave your tradition to taste this. You only have to come hungry.
If that hunger has been stirring in you, you can find more at Through the Church Fathers in a Year. Membership there is free, and you can see whether the Christian Mystics track has begun or add your voice as we discern together.
If you’re reading or listening to this on the Through the Church Fathers website, simply join the Christian Mystics track from this post—it’s free, and you’ll be added automatically when the readings begin.
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If the track has already begun by the time you arrive, don’t worry—you can start right where you are. Every reading is available, and you’ll be walking alongside others who are learning, slowly and quietly, to love God in stillness.
