Experientia spiritualis et visio Dei: The Religious and Mystical Sources of Spirituality in St. Augustine

Abstract

The analyses carried out in the paper demonstrate the relationship between religious and mystical experience. It is difficult to draw the line between the two experiences. However, considering the author’s personal experiences, it should be assumed that his mysticism was preceded by deep ascetic exertion. For him, mystical experience implies the most intimate and complete comprehension of God’s reality in which the relationship of “I and God” transcends the conventional “here and now.” However, as with other mystics, the experience under discussion does not completely exhaust the knowledge of God’s nature. The Bishop of Hippo acknowledged cognition of the Creator through mystical experience. Incidentally, this does not indicate a stance in the light of which the Augustinian visio would imply a direct vision of the nature of God. By referring to the theology of Saint John, the author emphatically pointed to the epistemological aporia in the light of which God goes beyond human cognitive abilities and therefore remains unfathomable to a certain extent (John 1:18). Our author was aware that the primary purpose of mystical cognition is the gradual presentification of the mystery of God. Yet, the religious experience is manifested, for instance, through prayer, thanksgiving, living the liturgy and pastoral activity. A juxtaposition of these two experiences correlates the issues of Christian mysticism, intuition and God’s enlightenment. The sum of these two experiences brings together the problem of Christian mysticism, intuition and illumination, reminding us of the important truth that Augustine’s views constitute a psychological phenomenology of human spirituality which has been, in a way, a generator for many pastoral ministries.