Mystical Theology
Mystical Theology - 20” x 15”
The theologian Friedrich von Hügel taught that there are three elements to religion: the institutional, the theological and the mystical. The institutional is the culture and traditions of a denomination, the theological is obviously the official creeds and teachings, and the mystical is the individual’s direct experience of God, as fostered by the church.
In my experience, when a person has a crisis of faith, it is the institutional and the theological that have caused the most problems. They can’t abide by how their faith community is living out their faith and/or they just can’t go along with some of the official teachings. The mystical element doesn’t cause problems as often except when one is experiencing a “dark night of the soul” in which one can’t sense the presence of God.
How this is often played out in recent years is the phenomenon of “spiritual, not religious”. A person values their spiritual experiences but pulls away from the institutional and theological elements of religion.
In this art piece I portray this mystical element. At first glance, it is a Celtic cross. But upon second glance, not really. The shape and outline of the Celtic cross is there (representing that mystical theology exists within the borders of established institutional and theological religion) but it “breaks the rules”. The knotwork is not of traditional Celtic design. And a Celtic cross does not have a rose in its centre. In other words, this piece pushes against the rules, while remaining in the general framework.
Why a rose in the middle? There is symbolism behind the colors of roses. The red rose is a symbol of romantic love, but the white rose is a symbol of the mystical marriage of the soul with God. (Sometimes a priest is given a white rose upon his ordination). But note here that this is a wild rose, not your tame garden variety. This signifies that mystical theology is holy, but not tame.
The background is rough, used pallet boards. This symbolizes that mystical theology often embraces poverty – both spiritual and temporal. It is not at home in the rich vestments or the expensive buildings of the institutional church.
And yet it is true to the Cross.
