Author of "MYSTICISM," "THE ESSENTIALS OF MYSTICISM," etc.
NEW YORK
E.P. DUTTON & COMPANY
681 FIFTH AVENUE
BY E.P. DUTTON & COMPANY
All rights reserved
This book owes its origin to the fact that in the autumn of 1921 theauthorities of Manchester College, Oxford invited me to deliver theinaugural course of a lectureship in religion newly established underthe will of the late Professor Upton. No conditions being attached tothis appointment, it seemed a suitable opportunity to discuss, so far aspossible in the language of the moment, some of the implicits which Ibelieve to underlie human effort and achievement in the domain of thespiritual life. The material gathered for this purpose has now beenadded to, revised, and to some extent re-written, in order to make itappropriate to the purposes of the reader rather than the hearer. As theobject of the book is strictly practical, a special attempt has beenmade to bring the classic experiences of the spiritual life into linewith the conclusions of modern psychology, and in particular, to suggestsome of the directions in which recent psychological research may castlight on the standard problems of the religious consciousness. Thissubject is still in its infancy; but it is destined, I am sure, in thenear future to exercise a transforming influence on the study ofspiritual experience, and may even prove to be the starting point of anew apologetic. Those who are inclined either to fear or to resent theapplication to this experience of those laws which—as we are nowgradually discovering—govern the rest of our psychic life, or who areoffended by the resulting demonstrations of continuity between our mosthomely and most lofty reactions to the universe, might take tothemselves the plain words of Thomas à Kempis: "Thou art a man and notGod, thou art flesh and no angel."
Since my subject is not the splendor of historic sanctity but the normallife of the Spirit, as it may be and is lived in the here-and-now, Ihave done my best to describe the character and meaning of this life inthe ordinary terms of present day thought, and with little or no use ofthe technical language of mysticism. For the same reason, no attentionhas been given to those abnormal experiences and states ofconsciousness, which, too often regarded as specially "mystical," arenow recognized by all competent students as representing the unfortunateaccidents rather than the abiding substance of spirituality. Readers ofthese pages will find nothing about trances, Ecstasies and other rarepsychic phenomena; which sometimes indicate holiness, and sometimes onlydisease. For information on these matters they must go to larger andmore technical works. My aim here is the more general one, of indicatingfirst the characteristic experiences—discoverable within all greatreligions—which justify or are fundamental to the spiritual life, andthe way in which these experiences may be accommodated to theworld-view of the modern man: and next, the nature of that spirituallife as it appears in human history. The succeeding sections of the booktreat in some detail the light cast on spiritual problems by mentalanalysis—a process which need not necessarily be conducted from thestandpoint of a degraded materialism—and by recent work on thepsychology of autistic thought and of suggestion. The