title: Colonization

text: By the early 1930s, this extreme multiculturalist policy proved unworkable and the Soviet regime introduced a limited Russification for practical reasons; voluntary assimilation, which was often a popular demand, was allowed. The list of nationalities was reduced from 172 in 1927 to 98 in 1939, by revoking support for small nations in order to merge them into bigger ones. For example, Abkhazia was merged into Georgia and thousands of ethnic Georgians were sent to Abkhazia. The Abkhaz alphabet was changed to a Georgian base, Abkhazian schools were closed and replaced with Georgian schools, the Abkhaz language was banned. The ruling elite was purged of ethnic Abkhaz and by 1952 over 80% of the 228 top party and government officials and enterprise managers in Abkhazia were ethnic Georgians (there remained 34 Abkhaz, 7 Russians and 3 Armenians in these positions). For Königsberg area of East Prussia (modern Kaliningrad Oblast) given to the Soviet Union at the 1945 Potsdam Conference Soviet control meant a forcible expulsion of the remaining German population and mostly involuntary resettlement of the area with Soviet civilians.


title: Colonization

text: Large numbers of ethnic Russians and other Russian speakers were settled in the three Baltic countries—Lithuania, Latvia, amd Estonia—after their reoccupation in 1944, while local languages, religion and customs were suppressed. David Chioni Moore classified it as a "reverse-cultural colonization", where the colonized perceived the colonizers as culturally inferior. Colonization of the three Baltic countries was closely tied to mass executions, deportations and repression of the native population. During both Soviet occupations (1940–1941; 1944–1991) a combined 605,000 inhabitants of the three countries were either killed or deported (135,000 Estonians, 170,000 Latvians and 320,000 Lithuanians), while their properties and personal belongings, along with ones who fled the country, were confiscated and given to the arriving colonists – Soviet military and NKVD personnel, as well as functionaries of the Communist Party and economic migrants from kolkhozs.


title: Colonization

text: The most dramatic case was Latvia, where the amount of ethnic Russians swelled from 168,300 (8.8%) in 1935 to 905,500 (34%) in 1989, whereas the proportion of ethnic Latvians fell from 77% in 1935 to 52% in 1989. Baltic states also faced intense economic exploitation, with Latvian SSR, for example, transferring 15.961 billion rubles (or 18.8% percent of its total revenue of 85 billion rubles) more to the USSR budget from 1946 to 1990 than it received back. And of the money transferred back, a disproportionate amount was spent on the region's militarization and funding of repressive institutions, especially in the early years of the occupation. It has been calculated by a Latvian state-funded commission that the Soviet occupation cost the economy of Latvia a total of 185 billion euros.


title: Colonization

text: Conversely, Marxian economist and world-systems analyst Samir Amin asserts that, in contrast to colonialism, capital transfer in the USSR was used to develop poorer regions in the South and East with the wealthiest regions like Western Russia, Ukraine, and the Baltic Republics being the main source of capital. Estonian researcher Epp Annus acknowledges that the Soviet rule in the Baltic states did not possess every single characteristic of traditional colonialism since the Baltic states were already modern industrial European nation states with an established sense of national identity and cultural self-confidence prior to their Soviet invasion in 1940 and proposed that the initial Soviet occupation developed into a colonial rule gradually, as the local resistance turned into a hybrid coexistence with the Soviet power. The Soviet colonial rule never managed to fully establish itself and began rapidly disintegrating during "perestroika", but after the restoration of independence, the Baltic states similarly had to deal with problems of a characteristically colonial nature, such as pollution, economic collapse and demographic tensions.


title: Colonization

text: In 1934, the Soviet government established the Jewish Autonomous Oblast in the Soviet Far East to create a homeland for the Jewish people. Another motive was to strengthen Soviet presence along the vulnerable eastern border. The region was often infiltrated by the Chinese; in 1927, Chiang Kai-shek had ended cooperation with the Chinese Communist Party, which further increased the threat. Fascist Japan also seemed willing and ready to detach the Far Eastern provinces from the USSR. To make settlement of the inhospitable and undeveloped region more enticing, the Soviet government allowed private ownership of land. This led to many non-Jews to settle in the oblast to get a free farm.


title: Colonization

text: By the 1930s, a massive propaganda campaign developed to induce more Jewish settlers to move there. In one instance, a government-produced Yiddish film called "Seekers of Happiness" told the story of a Jewish family that fled the Great Depression in the United States to make a new life for itself in Birobidzhan. Some 1,200 non-Soviet Jews chose to settle in Birobidzhan. The Jewish population peaked in 1948 at around 30,000, about one-quarter of the region's population. By 2010, according to data provided by the Russian Census Bureau, there were only 1,628 people of Jewish descent remaining in the JAO (1% of the total population), while ethnic Russians made up 92.7% of the JAO population. The JAO is Russia's only autonomous oblast and, aside of Israel, the world's only Jewish territory with an official status.


title: Colonization

text: According to Elia Zuriek, in his book "Israel's Colonial Project in Palestine: Brutal Pursuit", Israeli settlements in the West Bank is an additional form of colonization. This view is part of a key debate in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Law professors Steven Lubet and Jonathan Zasloff describe the "Zionism as settler colonialism" theory as politically motivated, derogatory and highly controversial. According to them, there are important differences between Zionism and settler colonialism, for instance: (1) Early Zionists did not seek to transport European culture into Israel, they sought to revive the culture of a indigenous people of the land, the culture of their ancestors (e.g. they left their European languages behind and adopted a Middle Eastern\Semitic one: Hebrew); (2) No settler colonial movement ever claimed to be "returning home"; (3) Jews had already been living in the "colonized" region for thousands of years. Both professors also point out that the academic journal where Wolfe published his essay fails to mention the Islamic military campaign that captured the region in the 7th and 8th centuries.


title: Colonization

text: The transmigration program is an initiative of the Indonesian government to move landless people from densely populated areas of Java, but also to a lesser extent from Bali and Madura, to less populous areas of the country including Papua, Kalimantan, Sumatra, and Sulawesi.


title: Colonization

text: In 1884 Britain declared a protective order over South East New Guinea, establishing an official colony in 1888. Germany however, annexed parts of the North. This annexation separated the entire region into the South, known as "The Territory of Papua" and North, known as "German New Guinea".


title: Colonization

text: Due to marginalisation produced by continuous Resettlement Policy, by 1969, political tensions and open hostilities developed between the Government of the Philippines and Moro Muslim rebel groups in Mindanao.


title: Colonization

text: Many colonists came to colonies for slaves to their colonizing countries, so the legal power to leave or remain may not be the issue so much as the actual presence of the people in the new country. This left the indigenous natives of their lands slaves in their own countries.


title: Colonization

text: The Canadian Indian residential school system was identified by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (Canada) as colonization through depriving the youth of First Nations in Canada of their languages and cultures.


title: Colonization

text: During the mid 20th century, there was the most dramatic and devastating attempt at colonization, and that was pursued with Nazism. Hitler and Heinrich Himmler and their supporters schemed for a mass migration of Germans to Eastern Europe, where some of the Germans were to become colonists, having control over the native people. These indigenous people were planned to be reduced to slaves or wholly annihilated.


title: Colonization

text: Many advanced nations currently have large numbers of guest workers/temporary work visa holders who are brought in to do seasonal work such as harvesting or to do low-paid manual labor. Guest workers or contractors have a lower status than workers with visas, because guest workers can be removed at any time for any reason.


title: Colonization

text: Colonization may be a domestic strategy when there is a widespread security threat within a nation and weapons are turned inward, as noted by Paul Virilio:


title: Mike Capuano

text: Michael Everett Capuano ( ; born January 9, 1952) is an American politician and attorney who served as a U.S. Representative from Massachusetts from 1999 to 2019. A Democrat, his district included the northern three-fourths of Boston, as well as parts of Cambridge, his hometown of Somerville, and other communities immediately north and south of Boston. Prior to being elected to Congress, he served as an Alderman and Mayor of Somerville.


title: Mike Capuano

text: Capuano was born and raised in Somerville. After graduating from Dartmouth College and Boston College Law School, he worked as an attorney and Somerville alderman. After losing two mayoral elections in 1979 and 1981, he worked as legal counsel for the Massachusetts General Court. In 1989 Capuano ran for mayor a third time and won, serving from 1990 to 1999.


title: Mike Capuano

text: In 1998 Capuano won a crowded Democratic primary to replace Joseph Kennedy II in Congress and was re-elected nine times. He represented the state's 8th district until it was redrawn in 2013 into the . In Congress he was a staunch liberal and member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. He ran in the 2010 special election to fill the seat in the United States Senate made vacant by the death of Ted Kennedy, his Congressional predecessor's uncle, but lost the primary to Martha Coakley, who in turn lost the general election to Republican Scott Brown. In 2018, he was defeated by Ayanna Pressley in a House Democratic primary.


title: Mike Capuano

text: In March 2019, Capuano joined the law firm Foley & Lardner, to serve as public affairs director. The same month, he also joined Boston University to teach at the university's Initiative on Cities and help organize the program.


title: Mike Capuano

text: Capuano was born January 9, 1952 in the Spring Hill neighborhood of Somerville, Massachusetts, the son of Rita Marie (née Garvey) and Andrew Capuano. His father left to serve in World War II shortly after getting married, and after returning ran for the Somerville Board of Aldermen, and became the first Italian American elected to the board. His mother was of Irish descent.


title: Mike Capuano

text: Capuano graduated from Somerville High School in 1969, and later attended Dartmouth College, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1973. Capuano later went on to earn his Juris Doctor in 1977 from Boston College Law School, specializing in tax law.


title: Mike Capuano

text: In 1976, Capuano was elected to the Somerville Board of Aldermen representing Ward 5, once served in by his father. Capuano served one term, stepping down in 1979 to run for Mayor of Somerville. In the 1979 mayoral election he faced Eugene Brune, Paul Haley, and incumbent, Thomas August. He lost the nomination to Brune, who went on to defeat August. Capuano ran again in 1981 to challenge Brune, placing second in a three-person runoff election. Capuano promoted his opposition to the state ballot question Proposition 2½ and criticized Brune for expanding the mayoral staff in the face of tight city budgets, while Brune touted his prevention of service cuts after the proposition passed. Capuano lost in the general election with 40% of the vote.


title: Mike Capuano

text: From 1978 to 1984 Capuano served as chief legal counsel for the Massachusetts General Court's Joint Committee on Taxation. Capuano left the committee in 1984 to join the Beacon Hill law firm and lobbying group Joyce & Joyce. In 1985 he returned to the Somerville Board of Aldermen as an at-large member.


title: Mike Capuano

text: In 1989 Capuano ran for mayor a third time and won. Capuano served as mayor from 1990 to 1999, where he earned a reputation as a hands-on administrator. One of his priorities was to lower the city's population density, which at the time was the highest of any New England municipality, by using state grants to demolish several buildings and replace them with playgrounds and parking spaces. As mayor, Capuano oversaw the reduction of school class sizes to a maximum of 19 students.


title: Mike Capuano

text: In 1998, Joseph Kennedy II announced his retirement after six terms in what was then the 8th District. Capuano entered a crowded 10-way Democratic primary—the real contest in this heavily Democratic district, which was once represented by John F. Kennedy and Tip O'Neill. The early front-runner was former Boston Mayor and US Vatican Ambassador Raymond Flynn. However, Capuano won the primary with 23%, largely due to large turnout in Somerville, all but assuring him of election in November. He easily won the general election in November, taking 81 percent of the vote. He was reelected nine times, never dropping below 80% of the vote in what has long been the most Democratic district in New England. Since his initial run for the seat, Capuano was unopposed in all but two reelection bids; he faced a minor-party candidate in 2006 and an independent in 2012. He faced a Republican only once, during his initial run in 1998.


title: Mike Capuano

text: Capuano was defeated by Boston City Councilor Ayanna Pressley in the September 4, 2018 primary election, receiving 41.3% of the vote versus Pressley's 58.5%. "The Boston Globe" reported that Capuano did not get the endorsement of either U.S. Senator from Massachusetts, Elizabeth Warren and Edward J. Markey, nor was he endorsed by Representatives Seth Moulton and Niki Tsongas. Capuano did receive the support of the majority of the Massachusetts federal delegation, including Representatives William Keating, Katherine Clark, James McGovern, Joseph Kennedy III, Stephen Lynch, and Richard Neal. Capuano was endorsed by Congressman John Lewis (D-GA), on March 7, 2018; Lewis described Capuano as "a champion and fierce advocate for those who have often been forgotten or left behind" and "a leader alongside those of us opposing the unfair and immoral policies of the Trump Administration." In its editorial endorsement of Pressley, the "Boston Globe" noted that the state Legislature had drawn the 7th district to favor minority candidates. No Republican even filed, all but assuring Pressley of being the district's next congresswoman.


title: Mike Capuano

text: During his tenure, Capuano helped found five congressional caucuses, on: Community Health Centers; Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities; Sudan; and Korea; as well as one for former Mayors.


title: Mike Capuano

text: Capuano voted against the War in Iraq and supported immediate withdrawal of troops. In 2005 Capuano visited Iraq and met with military leaders to assess the future of the region. Capuano is considered to be one of the biggest supporters in Congress for increasing international aid funding, and has advocated bringing attention to the crisis in Sudan and helped secure funding aimed at assisting developing African nations.


title: Mike Capuano

text: Capuano is pro-choice and supports open access to abortions. In 2012 a fundraiser hosted by Pope John XXIII High School where Capuano and fellow Massachusetts Congressman Ed Markey were to receive awards was cancelled due to their "positions [being] inconsistent with church doctrine;" both were humble in response to the news. During the 2010 Senate Democratic primary Capuano criticized his opponent Martha Coakley, claiming she wouldn't have voted for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act with Stupak–Pitts Amendment which would have barred federal funding of abortions; which Capuano said he only did to "keep the health care debate alive." Capuano's comments were characterized by WBUR political analyst as "an empty charge against her since he has the same position as she does."


title: Mike Capuano

text: After the 2006 election that created a Democratic majority in the House, he was appointed Chairman of the Speaker's Task Force on Ethics Enforcement by Nancy Pelosi, with whom he has a close relationship. After serving as the Chairman of the Task Force on Ethics Enforcement, in 2008 Capuano introduced which established the Office of Congressional Ethics. Capuano has had a long-running relationship with former Congressman Anthony Weiner, whom he shared a Washington, D.C. apartment with for 12 years. Following Weiner's sexting scandal Capuano did not call on him to resign, saying: "I am not the guy who likes to judge other people. I figure that is between them and the people who are appropriately named to do that – and that is the Ethics Committee."


title: Mike Capuano

text: Capuano is a strong supporter of labor rights and unions; in February 2011 during a rally at Beacon Hill in Boston, in support of the 2011 Wisconsin budget protests, Capuano told the crowd, "I'm proud to be here with people who understand that it's more than just sending an email to get you going. Every once and awhile you need to get out on the streets and get a little bloody when necessary". Following criticism, especially when such a statement was made just days after the attempted assassination of Gabby Giffords, Capuano expressed regret for his "choice of words."


title: Mike Capuano

text: Following the 2008 financial crisis and subsequent bank bailouts, at a House Financial Services Committee hearing Capuano berated the bank CEOs for their practices, saying at one point: "You come to us today on your bicycles after buying Girl Scout cookies and helping out Mother Teresa and telling us, 'We're sorry, we didn't mean it, we won't do it again, trust us.' Well, I have some people in my constituency that actually robbed some of your banks and they say the same thing." Capuano's speech was included in the 2010 documentary film "Inside Job", described by director Charles H. Ferguson as being about "the systemic corruption of the United States by the financial services industry and the consequences of that systemic corruption."


title: Mike Capuano

text: A self-described "fiscal conservative" who opposed the Bush-era tax cuts that provided tax reductions for the wealthy because they "created a deficit for no good reason," in 2013 Capuano joined Senator Elizabeth Warren and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino in a rally against the then-upcoming sequester, with Capuano calling it "stupid." In 2012 Capuano along with fellow Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank introduced legislation to combine the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission into the "Securities and Derivatives Commission."


title: Mike Capuano

text: Capuano ran for Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth in the 1994 election, running against former State Representatives Augusto Grace and William F. Galvin for the Democratic nomination. During the race he framed himself as an advocate for the poor and urban communities, and criticized aid formulas which he argued left less-wealthy municipalities with less per-capita revenue. To appear on the Democratic primary required the support of at least 15% of delegates in the state party convention. In what the "Boston Globe" deemed "an embarrassing defeat," he failed to obtain the necessary delegate votes to be nominated to participate in the primary election, with only 13%. When asked why he undertook the difficult race to begin with, he responded, "Because I wasn't ready to run for Governor."


title: Mike Capuano

text: After the death of incumbent Senator Ted Kennedy, a special election to succeed him was scheduled. On September 8, 2009, Capuano collected nomination papers to run for the seat and on September 18, he announced his candidacy. Capuano ran as a "Washington insider," comparing himself to Kennedy saying: "was [Kennedy] not the ultimate insider ... I think that's probably one of the best things that we share." In his campaign Capuano received several high-profile endorsements, including House Speaker Pelosi and former Massachusetts Governor and 1988 Democratic presidential nominee, Michael Dukakis.


title: Mike Capuano

text: Consistently polling below incumbent Massachusetts Attorney General, Martha Coakley, on December 8, 2009 Capuano lost the Democratic primary to Coakley, winning only 28% of the vote to Coakley's 47%, amongst a field of four candidates.


title: Mike Capuano

text: Capuano considered running for Governor of Massachusetts in 2014. On January 21, 2013, former Mayor of Springfield, Massachusetts and member of the Massachusetts Governor's Council Michael Albano endorsed Capuano to run, posting on his Facebook page: "while the Congressman has not made a decision to compete for the [Democratic] nomination [for Governor] at this time, it is not too early to make the case and encourage his candidacy." When asked in February 2013 whether he might run for governor, Capuano responded: "Part of me thinks that some of the more interesting, more important fights over the next several years might be conducted at statehouses around the country and not necessarily on Capitol Hill." In a statement in September 2013, Capuano announced he would not run for governor, and would instead focus on running for re-election to Congress.


title: Mike Capuano

text: Capuano was named after his two grandfathers, and has seven siblings, one of whom died in infancy, and another who died of polio at the age of 5. Capuano married Barbara Teebagy in 1974, and together they have two boys, Michael and Joseph. He is the uncle of actors Chris Evans of the "" film series, and Scott Evans of the soap opera "One Life to Live". In 2003, the City of Somerville dedicated a new school in Capuano's honor; the Michael E. Capuano Early Childhood Center officially opened in September that year.


title: Mike Capuano

text: Capuano is a Roman Catholic. Before Pope Francis became pope and shifted the tone of the Church, Capuano used to fear that his mother would be embarrassed if he was ever denied communion because of his support for gay marriage and abortion rights.


title: Arachne

text: Arachne (; from , cognate with Latin ) is the protagonist of a tale in Greek mythology known primarily from the version told by the Roman poet Ovid (43 BCE–17 CE), which is the earliest extant source for the story. In Book Six of his epic poem "Metamorphoses", Ovid recounts how the talented mortal Arachne, daughter of Idmon, challenged Athena, goddess of wisdom and crafts, to a weaving contest. When Athena could find no flaws in the tapestry Arachne had woven for the contest, the goddess became enraged and beat the girl with her shuttle. After Arachne hanged herself out of shame, she was transformed into a spider. The myth both provides an aetiology of spiders' web-spinning abilities and is a cautionary tale warning mortals not to place themselves on an equal level with the gods.


title: Arachne

text: According to the myth as recounted by Ovid, Arachne was a Lydian maiden who was the daughter of Idmon of Colophon, who was a famous dyer in purple. She was credited to have invented linen cloth and nets while her son Closter introduced the use of spindle in the manufacture of wool. She was said to have been a native of Hypæpæ, near Colophon in Asia Minor.


title: Arachne

text: In "Metamorphoses" the Roman poet Ovid writes that Arachne was a shepherd's daughter who began weaving at an early age. She became a great weaver, boasted that her skill was greater than Athena's, and refused to acknowledge that her skill came, at least in part, from the goddess. Athena took offense and set up a contest between them. Presenting herself as an old lady, she approached the boasting girl and warned: "You can never compare to any of the gods. Plead for forgiveness and Athena might spare your soul."


title: Arachne

text: "Ha! I only speak the truth and if Athena thinks otherwise then let her come down and challenge me herself," Arachne replied. Athena removed her disguise and appeared in shimmering glory, clad in a sparkling white chiton. The two began weaving straight away. Athena's weaving represented four separate contests between mortals and the gods in which the gods punished mortals for setting themselves as equals of the gods. Arachne's weaving depicted ways that the gods, particularly Zeus, had misled and abused mortals, tricking, and seducing many women. When Athena saw that Arachne had not only insulted the gods but done so with a work far more beautiful than Athena's own, she was enraged. She ripped Arachne's work to shreds and hit her on the head three times. Terrified and ashamed, Arachne hanged herself. Out of love for Arachne, Athena said, "Live on then, and yet hang, condemned one, but, lest you are careless in the future, this same condition is declared, in punishment, against your descendants, to the last generation!" After saying this she sprinkled her with the juice of Hecate's herb, and immediately at the touch of this dark poison, Arachne's hair fell out. With it went her nose and ears, her head shrank to the smallest size, and her whole body became tiny. Her slender fingers stuck to her sides as legs, the rest is belly, from which she still spins a thread, and, as a spider, weaves her ancient web."


title: Arachne

text: The myth of Arachne can also be seen as an attempt to show relation between art and tyrannical power in Ovid's time. He wrote under the emperor Augustus and was exiled by him. At the time weaving was a common metaphor for poetry, therefore Arachne's artistry and Athena's censorship to it may offer a provocative allegory of the writer's role under an autocratic regime.


title: Arachne

text: The metamorphosis of Arachne in Ovid's telling furnished material for an episode in Edmund Spenser's mock-heroic "Muiopotmos", 257–352. Spenser's adaptation, which "rereads an Ovidian story in terms of the Elizabethan world" is designed to provide a rationale for the hatred of Arachne's descendant Aragnoll for the butterfly-hero Clarion.


title: Arachne

text: Dante Alighieri uses Arachne in Canto XVII of "Inferno", the first part of "The Divine Comedy", to describe the horrible monster Geryon. "His back and all his belly and both flanks were painted arabesques and curlicues: the Turks and Tartars never made a fabric with richer colors intricately woven, nor were such complex webs spun by Arachne."


title: Arachne

text: The tale of Arachne inspired one of Velázquez' most factual paintings: "Las Hilanderas" ("The Spinners, or The fable of Arachne", in the Prado), in which the painter represents the two important moments of the myth. In the front, the contest of Arachne and the goddess (the young and the old weaver), in the back, an "Abduction of Europa" that is a copy of Titian's version (or maybe of Rubens' copy of Titian). In front of it appears Minerva (Athena) at the moment she punishes Arachne. It transforms the myth into a reflection about creation and imitation, god and man, master and pupil (and therefore about the nature of art).


title: Arachne

text: It has also been suggested that Jeremias Gotthelf's nineteenth century novella, "The Black Spider", was heavily influenced by the Arachne story from Ovid's "Metamorphoses". In the novella, a woman is turned into a venomous spider having reneged on a deal with the devil.


title: Christian mysticism

text: Christian mysticism is the tradition of mystical practices and mystical theology within Christianity which "concerns the preparation [of the person] for, the consciousness of, and the effect of [...] a direct and transformative presence of God" or Divine "love". Until the sixth century the practice of what is now called mysticism was referred to by the term contemplatio, c.q. theoria, from "contemplatio" (Latin; Greek θεωρία, "theoria"), "looking at", "gazing at", "being aware of" God or the Divine. Christianity took up the use of both the Greek ("theoria") and Latin ("contemplatio", contemplation) terminology to describe various forms of prayer and the process of coming to know God.


title: Christian mysticism

text: Contemplative practices range from simple prayerful meditation of Holy Scripture (i.e. Lectio Divina) to contemplation on the presence of God, resulting in theosis (spiritual union with God) and ecstatic visions of the soul's mystical union with God. Three stages are discerned in contemplative practice, namely catharsis (purification), contemplation proper, and the vision of God.


title: Christian mysticism

text: Contemplative practices have a prominent place in the Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy. Historically, the Catholic Church has been ambivalent, with periods of suppression and rejection of contemplative practices.


title: Christian mysticism

text: The Greek "theoria" (θεωρία) meant "contemplation, speculation, a looking at, things looked at", from "theorein" (θεωρεῖν) "to consider, speculate, look at", from "theoros" (θεωρός) "spectator", from "thea" (θέα) "a view" + "horan" (ὁρᾶν) "to see". It expressed the state of being a spectator. Both Greek "θεωρία" and Latin "contemplatio" primarily meant looking at things, whether with the eyes or with the mind.


title: Christian mysticism

text: According to William Johnston, until the sixth century the practice of what is now called mysticism was referred to by the term "contemplatio", c.q. "theoria". According to Johnston, "[b]oth contemplation and mysticism speak of the eye of love which is looking at, gazing at, aware of divine realities."


title: Christian mysticism

text: Several scholars have demonstrated similarities between the Greek idea of "theoria" and the Indian idea of "darśana" (darshan), including Ian Rutherford and Gregory Grieve.


title: Christian mysticism

text: "Mysticism" is derived from the Greek μυω, meaning "to conceal," and its derivative , "", meaning "an initiate." In the Hellenistic world, a "mystikos" was an initiate of a mystery religion. "Mystical" referred to secret religious rituals and use of the word lacked any direct references to the transcendental.


title: Christian mysticism

text: In early Christianity the term "mystikos" referred to three dimensions, which soon became intertwined, namely the biblical, the liturgical and the spiritual or contemplative. The biblical dimension refers to "hidden" or allegorical interpretations of Scriptures. The liturgical dimension refers to the liturgical mystery of the Eucharist, the presence of Christ at the Eucharist. The third dimension is the contemplative or experiential knowledge of God.


title: Christian mysticism

text: McGinn argues that "presence" is more accurate than "union," since not all mystics spoke of union with God, and since many visions and miracles were not necessarily related to union.


title: Christian mysticism

text: McGinn also argues that we should speak of "consciousness" of God's presence, rather than of "experience", since mystical activity is not simply about the sensation of God as an external object, but more broadly about


title: Christian mysticism

text: William James popularized the use of the term "religious experience" in his 1902 book "The Varieties of Religious Experience". It has also influenced the understanding of mysticism as a distinctive experience which supplies knowledge.


title: Christian mysticism

text: Wayne Proudfoot traces the roots of the notion of religious experience further back to the German theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768–1834), who argued that religion is based on a feeling of the infinite. The notion of religious experience was used by Schleiermacher to defend religion against the growing scientific and secular critique. It was adopted by many scholars of religion, of which William James was the most influential.


title: Christian mysticism

text: McGinn's emphasis on the transformation that occurs through mystical activity relates to this idea of "presence" instead of "experience":


title: Christian mysticism

text: Other critics point out that the stress on "experience" is accompanied by favoring the atomic individual, instead of the shared life on the community. It also fails to distinguish between episodic experience, and mysticism as a process that is embedded in a total religious matrix of liturgy, scripture, worship, virtues, theology, rituals and practices.


title: Christian mysticism

text: Mystical experience is not simply a matter between the mystic and God, but is often shaped by cultural issues. For instance, Caroline Bynum has shown how, in the late Middle Ages, miracles attending the taking of the Eucharist were not simply symbolic of the Passion story, but served as vindication of the mystic's theological orthodoxy by proving that the mystic had not fallen prey to heretical ideas, such as the Cathar rejection of the material world as evil, contrary to orthodox teaching that God took on human flesh and remained sinless. Thus, the nature of mystical experience could be tailored to the particular cultural and theological issues of the time.


title: Christian mysticism

text: In discursive meditation, mind and imagination and other faculties are actively employed in an effort to understand our relationship with God. In contemplative prayer, this activity is curtailed, so that contemplation has been described as "a gaze of faith", "a silent love". There is no clear-cut boundary between Christian meditation and Christian contemplation, and they sometimes overlap. Meditation serves as a foundation on which the contemplative life stands, the practice by which someone begins the state of contemplation.


title: Christian mysticism

text: John of the Cross described the difference between discursive meditation and contemplation by saying:


title: Christian mysticism

text: Within theistic mysticism two broad tendencies can be identified. One is a tendency to understand God by asserting what He is and the other by


title: Christian mysticism

text: asserting what He is not. The former leads to what is called cataphatic theology and the latter to apophatic theology.


title: Christian mysticism

text: Urban T. Holmes III categorized mystical theology in terms of whether it focuses on illuminating the mind, which Holmes refers to as speculative practice, or the heart/emotions, which he calls affective practice. Combining the speculative/affective scale with the apophatic/cataphatic scale allows for a range of categories:


title: Christian mysticism

text: According to the standard formulation of the process of Christian perfection, going back to Evagrius Ponticus (345–399 AD) and Dionysius the Pseudo-Areopagite (late 5th to early 6th century), there are three stages:


title: Christian mysticism

text: These stages correspond to body (soma), soul (psyche), and spirit (pneuma). In 869, the 8th Ecumenical Council reduced the image of the human to only body and soul but within mystics a model of three aspects continued. The three aspects later became "purgative, illuminative, and unitive" in the western churches and prayer of the lips, the mind, the heart in the eastern churches.


title: Christian mysticism

text: Purification and illumination of the noetic faculty are preparations for the vision of God. Without this preparations it is impossible for man's selfish love to be transformed into selfless love. This transformation takes place during the higher level of the stage of illumination called theoria, literally meaning vision, in this case vision "by means of unceasing and uninterrupted memory of God". Those who remain selfish and self-centered with a hardened heart, closed to God's love, will not see the glory of God in this life. However, they will see God's glory eventually, but as an eternal and consuming fire and outer darkness.


title: Christian mysticism

text: Author and mystic Evelyn Underhill recognizes two additional phases to the mystical path. First comes the awakening, the stage in which one begins to have some consciousness of absolute or divine reality. Purgation and illumination are followed by a fourth stage which Underhill, borrowing the language of St. John of the Cross, calls the dark night of the soul. This stage, experienced by the few, is one of final and complete purification and is marked by confusion, helplessness, stagnation of the will, and a sense of the withdrawal of God's presence. This dark night of the soul is not, in Underhill's conception, the Divine Darkness of the pseudo-Dionysius and German Christian mysticism. It is the period of final "unselfing" and the surrender to the hidden purposes of the divine will. Her fifth and final stage is union with the object of love, the one Reality, God. Here the self has been permanently established on a transcendental level and liberated for a new purpose.


title: Christian mysticism

text: In the Orthodox Churches, theosis results from leading a pure life, practicing restraint and adhering to the commandments, putting the love of God before all else. This metamorphosis (transfiguration) or transformation results from a deep love of God. Saint Isaac the Syrian says that "Paradise is the love of God, in which the bliss of all the beatitudes is contained," and that "the tree of life is the love of God" (Homily 72). "Theoria" is thus achieved by the pure of heart who are no longer subject to the afflictions of the passions. It is a gift from the Holy Spirit to those who, through observance of the commandments of God and ascetic practices (see praxis, kenosis, Poustinia and schema), have achieved dispassion.


title: Christian mysticism

text: Purification precedes conversion and constitutes a turning away from all that is unclean and unwholesome. This is a purification of mind and body. As preparation for "theoria", however, the concept of purification in this three-part scheme refers most importantly to the purification of consciousness ("nous"), the faculty of discernment and knowledge (wisdom), whose awakening is essential to coming out of the state of delusion that is characteristic of the worldly-minded. After the "nous" has been cleansed, the faculty of wisdom may then begin to operate more consistently. With a purified "nous", clear vision and understanding become possible, making one fit for contemplative prayer.


title: Christian mysticism

text: In the Eastern Orthodox ascetic tradition called hesychasm, humility, as a saintly attribute, is called Holy Wisdom or "sophia". Humility is the most critical component to humanity's salvation. Following Christ's instruction to "go into your room or closet and shut the door and pray to your father who is in secret" (Matthew 6:6), the hesychast withdraws into solitude in order that he or she may enter into a deeper state of contemplative stillness. By means of this stillness, the mind is calmed, and the ability to see reality is enhanced. The practitioner seeks to attain what the apostle Paul called 'unceasing prayer'.


title: Christian mysticism

text: Some Eastern Orthodox theologians object to what they consider an overly speculative, rationalistic, and insufficiently experiential nature of Roman Catholic theology. and confusion between different aspects of the Trinity.


title: Christian mysticism

text: The first, purification is where aspiring traditionally Christian mystics start. This aspect focuses on discipline, particularly in terms of the human body; thus, it emphasizes prayer at certain times, either alone or with others, and in certain postures, often standing or kneeling. It also emphasizes the other disciplines of fasting and alms-giving, the latter including those activities called "the works of mercy," both spiritual and corporal, such as feeding the hungry and sheltering the homeless.


title: Christian mysticism

text: Purification, which grounds Christian spirituality in general, is primarily focused on efforts to, in the words of St. Paul, "put to death the deeds of the flesh by the Holy Spirit" (Romans 8:13). This is considered a result of the Spirit working in the person and is not a result of personal deeds. Also in the words of St. Paul, "...he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." (Epistle to the Philippians 1:6). The "deeds of the flesh" here include not only external behavior, but also those habits, attitudes, compulsions, addictions, etc. (sometimes called "egoic passions") which oppose themselves to true being and living as a Christian not only exteriorly, but interiorly as well. Evelyn Underhill describes purification as an awareness of one's own imperfections and finiteness, followed by self-discipline and mortification.


title: Christian mysticism

text: Because of its physical, disciplinary aspect, this phase, as well as the entire Christian spiritual path, is often referred to as "ascetic," a term which is derived from the Greek word, ἄσκησις ([i]askesis[/i]), meaning "to train" or "to discipline." As the athlete trains and disciplines their body or eating habits, many mystics, following the model of Paul's metaphor of the athlete, as well as the story of the disciples sleeping while Jesus prayed, disciplined their bodies in order to train the soul and its appetites (passions). In ancient Christian literature, prominent mystics are often called "spiritual athletes," an image which is also used several times in the New Testament to describe the Christian life. In a religious context this [i]askesis[/i] serves to bring both body and the soul under control in order to diminish the passions which harm the soul and to elevate virtues for the purpose of "apatheia" (a state of being without passion), ultimately for the goal of theosis. "The purpose of Christian asceticism," therefore, "is not to weaken the flesh, but to strengthen the spirit for the transfiguration of the flesh." It is an active involvement in passitivity:


title: Christian mysticism

text: This training of the body and the spiritual discipline of the soul takes many forms, but fasting is among the primary means. Other practices often included sexual abstinence, self-imposed poverty, sleep deprivation, and solitude, while other more extreme practices such as self-flagellation have occurred, though this practice has been heavily discouraged by the Church and by many ascetical masters. The practice of "Lectio Divina", a form of meditative prayer that centers on scripture reading, was developed in its best-known form in the sixth century, through the work of Benedict of Nursia and Pope Gregory I, and described and promoted more widely in the 12th century by Guigo II.


title: Christian mysticism

text: An exercise long used among Christians for acquiring contemplation, one that is "available to everyone, whether he be of the clergy or of any secular occupation", is that of focusing the mind by constant repetition a phrase or word. Saint John Cassian recommended use of the phrase "O God, make speed to save me: O Lord, make haste to help me". Another formula for repetition is the name of Jesus. or the Jesus Prayer, "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner," which has been called "the mantra of the Orthodox Church", although the term "Jesus Prayer" is not found in the Fathers of the Church. The author of "The Cloud of Unknowing" recommended use of a monosyllabic word, such as "God" or "Love".


title: Christian mysticism

text: In the Orthodox Churches, noetic prayer is the first stage of "theoria", the vision of God, which is beyond conceptual knowledge, like the difference between reading about the experience of another, and reading about one's own experience. Noetic prayer is the first stage of the Jesus Prayer, a short formulaic prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner." The second stage of the Jesus Prayer is the "Prayer of the Heart" (), in which the prayer is internalized into 'the heart'.


title: Christian mysticism

text: The Jesus Prayer, which, for the early Fathers, was just a training for repose, the later Byzantines developed into hesychasm, a spiritual work of its own, attaching to it technical requirements and various stipulations that became a matter of serious theological controversy, and are still of great interest to Byzantine, Russian and other eastern churches. While he maintains his practice of the Jesus Prayer, the Hesychast cultivates "nepsis", watchful attention. Sobriety contributes to this mental askesis that rejects tempting thoughts; it puts a great emphasis on focus and attention. The Hesychast is to pay extreme attention to the consciousness of his inner world and to the words of the Jesus Prayer, not letting his mind wander in any way at all. The Jesus Prayer invokes an attitude of humility essential for the attainment of "theoria". The Jesus Prayer is also invoked to pacify the passions, as well as the illusions that lead a person to actively express these passions. The worldly, neurotic mind is habitually accustomed to seek perpetuation of pleasant sensations and to avoid unpleasant ones. This state of incessant agitation of the mind is attributed to the corruption of primordial knowledge and union with God (the Fall of Man and the defilement and corruption of consciousness, or "nous"). According to St. Theophan the Recluse, though the Jesus Prayer has long been associated with the Prayer of the Heart, they are not synonymous.


title: Christian mysticism

text: Methods of prayer in the Roman Catholic Church include recitation of the Jesus Prayer, which "combines the Christological hymn of with the cry of the publican () and the blind man begging for light (). By it the heart is opened to human wretchedness and the Saviour's mercy"; invocation of the holy name of Jesus; recitation, as recommended by Saint John Cassian, of "O God, come to my assistance; O Lord, make haste to help me" or other verses of Scripture; repetition of a single monosyllabic word, as suggested by the Cloud of Unknowing, such as "God" or "Love"; the method used in Centering Prayer; the use of Lectio Divina. The Congregation for Divine Worship's directory of popular piety and the liturgy emphasizes the contemplative characteristic of the Holy Rosary and states that the Rosary is essentially a contemplative prayer which requires "tranquility of rhythm or even a mental lingering which encourages the faithful to meditate on the mysteries of the Lord's life." Pope John Paul II placed the Rosary at the very center of Christian spirituality and called it "among the finest and most praiseworthy traditions of Christian contemplation."


title: Christian mysticism

text: In modern times, centering prayer, which is also called "Prayer of the heart" and "Prayer of Simplicity," has been popularized by Thomas Keating, drawing on Hesychasm and the "Cloud of Unknowing". The practice of contemplative prayer has also been encouraged by the formation of associations like The Julian Meetings and the Fellowship of Meditation.


title: Christian mysticism

text: The third phase, starting with infused or higher contemplation (or Mystical Contemplative Prayer) in the Western tradition, refers to the presence or consciousness of God. This presence or consciousness varies, but it is first and foremost always associated with a reuniting with Divine "love", the underlying theme being that God, the perfect goodness, is known or experienced at least as much by the heart as by the intellect since, in the words 1 John 4:16: "God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God and God in him." Some approaches to classical mysticism would consider the first two phases as preparatory to the third, explicitly mystical experience, but others state that these three phases overlap and intertwine.


title: Christian mysticism

text: In the Orthodox Churches, the highest theoria, the highest consciousness that can be experienced by the whole person, is the vision of God. God is beyond being; He is a hyper-being; God is beyond nothingness. Nothingness is a gulf between God and man. God is the origin of everything, including nothingness. This experience of God in hypostasis shows God's essence as incomprehensible, or uncreated. God is the origin, but has no origin; hence, he is apophatic and transcendent in essence or being, and cataphatic in foundational realities, immanence and energies. This ontic or ontological theoria is the observation of God.


title: Christian mysticism

text: A nous in a state of ecstasy or ekstasis, called the eighth day, is not internal or external to the world, outside of time and space; it experiences the infinite and limitless God. "Nous" is the "eye of the soul" (Matthew 6:22–34). Insight into being and becoming (called noesis) through the intuitive truth called faith, in God (action through faith and love for God), leads to truth through our contemplative faculties. This theory, or speculation, as action in faith and love for God, is then expressed famously as "Beauty shall Save the World". This expression comes from a mystical or gnosiological perspective, rather than a scientific, philosophical or cultural one.


title: Christian mysticism

text: Meister Eckhart did not articulate clear-cut stages, yet a number of divisions can be found in his works.


title: Christian mysticism

text: According to Aumann, "The first four grades belong to the predominantly ascetical stage of spiritual life; the remaining five grades are infused prayer and belong to the mystical phase of spiritual life." According to Augustin Pulain, for Teresa of Avila ordinary prayer "comprises these four degrees: first, vocal prayer; second, meditation, also called methodical prayer, or prayer of reflection, in which may be included meditative reading; third, affective prayer; fourth, prayer of simplicity, or of simple gaze."


title: Christian mysticism

text: For Teresa of Avila, in natural or acquired contemplation, also called the prayer of simplicity there is one dominant thought or sentiment which recurs constantly and easily (although with little or no development) amid many other thoughts, beneficial or otherwise. The prayer of simplicity often has a tendency to simplify itself even in respect to its object, leading one to think chiefly of God and of his presence, but in a confused manner. Definitions similar to that of Saint Alphonsus Maria de Liguori are given by Adolphe Tanquerey ("a simple gaze on God and divine things proceeding from love and tending thereto") and Saint Francis de Sales ("a loving, simple and permanent attentiveness of the mind to divine things").


title: Christian mysticism

text: In the words of Saint Alphonsus Maria de Liguori, acquired contemplation "consists in seeing at a simple glance the truths which could previously be discovered only through prolonged discourse": reasoning is largely replaced by intuition and affections and resolutions, though not absent, are only slightly varied and expressed in a few words. Similarly, Saint Ignatius of Loyola, in his 30-day retreat or Spiritual Exercises beginning in the "second week" with its focus on the life of Jesus, describes less reflection and more simple contemplation on the events of Jesus' life. These contemplations consist mainly in a simple gaze and include an "application of the senses" to the events, to further one's empathy for Jesus' values, "to love him more and to follow him more closely."


title: Christian mysticism

text: Natural or acquired contemplation has been compared to the attitude of a mother watching over the cradle of her child: she thinks lovingly of the child without reflection and amid interruptions. The "Catechism of the Catholic Church" states:


title: Christian mysticism

text: In the mystical experience of Teresa of Avila, infused or higher contemplation, also called intuitive, passive or extraordinary, is a supernatural gift by which a person's mind will become totally centered on God. It is a form of mystical union with God, a union characterized by the fact that it is God, and God only, who manifests himself. Under this influence of God, which assumes the free cooperation of the human will, the intellect receives special insights into things of the spirit, and the affections are extraordinarily animated with divine love. This union that it entails may be linked with manifestations of a created object, as, for example, visions of the humanity of Christ or an angel or revelations of a future event, etc. They include miraculous bodily phenomena sometimes observed in ecstatics.


title: Christian mysticism

text: In Teresa's mysticism, infused contemplation is described as a "divinely originated, general, non-conceptual, loving awareness of God." According to Dubay:


title: Christian mysticism

text: According to Thomas Dubay, infused contemplation is the normal, ordinary development of discursive prayer (mental prayer, meditative prayer), which it gradually replaces. Dubay considers infused contemplation as common only among "those who try to live the whole Gospel wholeheartedly and who engage in an earnest prayer life". Other writers view contemplative prayer in its infused supernatural form as far from common. John Baptist Scaramelli, reacting in the 17th century against quietism, taught that asceticism and mysticism are two distinct paths to perfection, the former being the normal, ordinary end of the Christian life, and the latter something extraordinary and very rare. Jordan Aumann considered that this idea of the two paths was "an innovation in spiritual theology and a departure from the traditional Catholic teaching". And Jacques Maritain proposed that one should not say that every mystic necessarily enjoys habitual infused contemplation in the mystical state, since the gifts of the Holy Spirit are not limited to intellectual operations.


title: Christian mysticism

text: According to Charles G. Herbermann, in the Catholic Encyclopedia (1908), saint Teresa of Avila described four degrees or stages of mystical union:


title: Christian mysticism

text: For Teresa of Avila, the Prayer of Quiet is a state in which the soul experiences an extraordinary peace and rest, accompanied by delight or pleasure in contemplating God as present. The Prayer of Quiet is discussed in the writings of Teresa of Ávila, Francis de Sales, Thomas Merton and others.


title: Christian mysticism

text: The transforming union differs from the other three specifically and not merely in intensity. It consists in the habitual consciousness of a mysterious grace which all shall possess in heaven: the anticipation of the Divine nature. The soul is conscious of the Divine assistance in its superior supernatural operations, those of the intellect and the will. Spiritual marriage differs from spiritual espousals inasmuch as the first of these states is permanent and the second only transitory.


title: Christian mysticism

text: The idea of mystical realities has been widely held in Christianity since the second century AD, referring not simply to spiritual practices, but also to the belief that their rituals and even their scriptures have hidden ("mystical") meanings.


title: Christian mysticism

text: The link between mysticism and the vision of the Divine was introduced by the early Church Fathers, who used the term as an adjective, as in mystical theology and mystical contemplation.


title: Christian mysticism

text: In subsequent centuries, especially as Christian apologetics began to use Greek philosophy to explain Christian ideas, Neoplatonism became an influence on Christian mystical thought and practice via such authors as Augustine of Hippo and Origen.


title: Christian mysticism

text: Jewish spirituality in the period before Jesus was highly corporate and public, based mostly on the worship services of the synagogues, which included the reading and interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures and the recitation of prayers, and on the major festivals. Thus, private spirituality was strongly influenced by the liturgies and by the scriptures (e.g., the use of the Psalms for prayer), and individual prayers often recalled historical events just as much as they recalled their own immediate needs.


title: Christian mysticism

text: In Christian mysticism, "Shekhinah" became mystery, "Da'at" (knowledge) became gnosis, and poverty became an important component of monasticism.


title: Christian mysticism

text: The term "theoria" was used by the ancient Greeks to refer to the act of experiencing or observing, and then comprehending through "nous".


title: Christian mysticism

text: The influences of Greek thought are apparent in the earliest Christian mystics and their writings. Plato (428–348 BC) is considered the most important of ancient philosophers, and his philosophical system provides the basis of most later mystical forms. Plotinus (c. 205 – 270 AD) provided the non-Christian, neo-Platonic basis for much Christian, Jewish and Islamic mysticism.


title: Christian mysticism

text: For Plato, what the contemplative ("theoros") contemplates ("theorei") are the Forms, the realities underlying the individual appearances, and one who contemplates these atemporal and aspatial realities is enriched with a perspective on ordinary things superior to that of ordinary people. Philip of Opus viewed "theoria" as contemplation of the stars, with practical effects in everyday life similar to those that Plato saw as following from contemplation of the Forms.


title: Christian mysticism

text: In the "Enneads" of Plotinus (c.204/5–270 CE), a founder of Neoplatonism, everything is contemplation ("theoria") and everything is derived from contemplation. The first hypostasis, the One, is contemplation (by the nous, or second hypostasis) in that "it turns to itself in the simplest regard, implying no complexity or need"; this reflecting back on itself emanated (not created) the second hypostasis, Intellect (in Greek Νοῦς, "Nous"), Plotinus describes as "living contemplation", being "self-reflective and contemplative activity par excellence", and the third hypostatic level has "theoria". Knowledge of The One is achieved through experience of its power, an experience that is contemplation ("theoria") of the source of all things.


title: Christian mysticism

text: Plotinus agreed with Aristotle's systematic distinction between contemplation ("theoria") and practice ("praxis"): dedication to the superior life of "theoria" requires abstension from practical, active life. Plotinus explained: "The point of action is contemplation. ... Contemplation is therefore the end of action" and "Such is the life of the divinity and of divine and blessed men: detachments from all things here below, scorn of all earthly pleasures, the flight of the lone to the Alone."


title: Christian mysticism

text: The Christian scriptures, insofar as they are the founding narrative of the Christian church, provide many key stories and concepts that become important for Christian mystics in all later generations: practices such as the Eucharist, baptism and the Lord's Prayer all become activities that take on importance for both their ritual and symbolic values. Other scriptural narratives present scenes that become the focus of meditation: the Crucifixion of Jesus and his appearances after his Resurrection are two of the most central to Christian theology; but Jesus' conception, in which the Holy Spirit overshadows Mary, and his Transfiguration, in which he is briefly revealed in his heavenly glory, also become important images for meditation. Moreover, many of the Christian texts build on Jewish spiritual foundations, such as "chokhmah", "shekhinah".


title: Christian mysticism

text: But different writers present different images and ideas. The Synoptic Gospels (in spite of their many differences) introduce several important ideas, two of which are related to Greco-Judaic notions of knowledge/"gnosis" by virtue of being mental acts: purity of heart, in which we will to see in God's light; and repentance, which involves allowing God to judge and then transform us. Another key idea presented by the Synoptics is the desert, which is used as a metaphor for the place where we meet God in the poverty of our spirit.


title: Christian mysticism

text: The Gospel of John focuses on God's glory in his use of light imagery and in his presentation of the Cross as a moment of exaltation; he also sees the Cross as the example of "agape" love, a love which is not so much an emotion as a willingness to serve and care for others. But in stressing love, John shifts the goal of spiritual growth away from knowledge/"gnosis", which he presents more in terms of Stoic ideas about the role of reason as being the underlying principle of the universe and as the spiritual principle within all people. Although John does not follow up on the Stoic notion that this principle makes union with the divine possible for humanity, it is an idea that later Christian writers develop. Later generations will also shift back and forth between whether to follow the Synoptics in stressing knowledge or John in stressing love.


title: Christian mysticism

text: In his letters, Paul also focuses on mental activities, but not in the same way as the Synoptics, which equate renewing the mind with repentance. Instead, Paul sees the renewal of our minds as happening as we contemplate what Jesus did on the Cross, which then opens us to grace and to the movement of the Holy Spirit into our hearts. Like John, Paul is less interested in knowledge, preferring to emphasize the hiddenness, the "mystery" of God's plan as revealed through Christ. But Paul's discussion of the Cross differs from John's in being less about how it reveals God's glory and more about how it becomes the stumbling block that turns our minds back to God. Paul also describes the Christian life as that of an athlete, demanding practice and training for the sake of the prize; later writers will see in this image a call to ascetical practices.


title: Christian mysticism

text: The texts attributed to the Apostolic Fathers, the earliest post-Biblical texts we have, share several key themes, particularly the call to unity in the face of internal divisions and perceptions of persecution, the reality of the charisms, especially prophecy, visions, and Christian "gnosis", which is understood as "a gift of the Holy Spirit that enables us to know Christ" through meditating on the scriptures and on the Cross of Christ. (This understanding of "gnosis" is not the same as that developed by the Gnostics, who focused on esoteric knowledge that is available only to a few people but that allows them to free themselves from the evil world.) These authors also discuss the notion of the "two ways", that is, the way of life and the way of death; this idea has biblical roots, being found in both the Sermon on the Mount and the Torah. The two ways are then related to the notion of purity of heart, which is developed by contrasting it against the divided or duplicitous heart and by linking it to the need for asceticism, which keeps the heart whole/pure. Purity of heart was especially important given perceptions of martyrdom, which many writers discussed in theological terms, seeing it not as an evil but as an opportunity to truly die for the sake of God—the ultimate example of ascetic practice. Martyrdom could also be seen as symbolic in its connections with the Eucharist and with baptism.


title: Christian mysticism

text: "Theoria" enabled the Fathers to perceive depths of meaning in the biblical writings that escape a purely scientific or empirical approach to interpretation. The Antiochene Fathers, in particular, saw in every passage of Scripture a double meaning, both literal and spiritual. As Frances Margaret Young notes, "Best translated in this context as a type of "insight", "theoria" was the act of perceiving in the wording and "story" of Scripture a moral and spiritual meaning," and may be regarded as a form of allegory.


title: Christian mysticism

text: The Alexandrian contribution to Christian mysticism centers on Origen (c. 185 – c. 253) and Clement of Alexandria (150-215 AD). Clement was an early Christian humanist who argued that reason is the most important aspect of human existence and that "gnosis" (not something we can attain by ourselves, but the gift of Christ) helps us find the spiritual realities that are hidden behind the natural world and within the scriptures. Given the importance of reason, Clement stresses "apatheia" as a reasonable ordering of our passions in order to live within God's love, which is seen as a form of truth. Origen, who had a lasting influence on Eastern Christian thought, further develops the idea that the spiritual realities can be found through allegorical readings of the scriptures (along the lines of Jewish aggadah tradition), but he focuses his attention on the Cross and on the importance of imitating Christ through the Cross, especially through spiritual combat and asceticism. Origen stresses the importance of combining intellect and virtue ("theoria" and "praxis") in our spiritual exercises, drawing on the image of Moses and Aaron leading the Israelites through the wilderness, and he describes our union with God as the marriage of our souls with Christ the Logos, using the wedding imagery from the Song of Songs. Alexandrian mysticism developed alongside Hermeticism and Neoplatonism and therefore share some of the same ideas, images, etc. in spite of their differences.


title: Christian mysticism

text: Philo of Alexandria (20 BCE – c.  50 CE) was a Jewish Hellenistic philosopher who was important for connecting the Hebrew Scriptures to Greek thought, and thereby to Greek Christians, who struggled to understand their connection to Jewish history. In particular, Philo taught that allegorical interpretations of the Hebrew Scriptures provides access to the real meanings of the texts. Philo also taught the need to bring together the contemplative focus of the Stoics and Essenes with the active lives of virtue and community worship found in Platonism and the Therapeutae. Using terms reminiscent of the Platonists, Philo described the intellectual component of faith as a sort of spiritual ecstasy in which our "nous" (mind) is suspended and God's Spirit takes its place. Philo's ideas influenced the Alexandrian Christians, Clement, and Origen, and through them, Gregory of Nyssa.


title: Christian mysticism

text: Inspired by Christ's teaching and example, men and women withdrew to the deserts of Sketes where, either as solitary individuals or communities, they lived lives of austere simplicity oriented towards contemplative prayer. These communities formed the basis for what later would become known as Christian monasticism.


title: Christian mysticism

text: The Eastern church then saw the development of monasticism and the mystical contributions of Gregory of Nyssa, Evagrius Ponticus, and Pseudo-Dionysius. Monasticism, also known as anchoritism (meaning "to withdraw") was seen as an alternative to martyrdom, and was less about escaping the world than about fighting demons (who were thought to live in the desert) and about gaining liberation from our bodily passions in order to be open to the Word of God. Anchorites practiced continuous meditation on the scriptures as a means of climbing the ladder of perfection—a common religious image in the Mediterranean world and one found in Christianity through the story of Jacob's ladder—and sought to fend off the demon of "acedia" ("un-caring"), a boredom or apathy that prevents us from continuing on in our spiritual training. Anchorites could live in total solitude ("hermits", from the word "erēmitēs", "of the desert") or in loose communities ("cenobites", meaning "common life").


title: Christian mysticism

text: Monasticism eventually made its way to the West and was established by the work of John Cassian and Benedict of Nursia. Meanwhile, Western spiritual writing was deeply influenced by the works of such men as Jerome and Augustine of Hippo.


title: Christian mysticism

text: Neo-Platonism has had a profound influence on Christian contemplative traditions. Neoplatonic ideas were adopted by Christianity, among them the idea of "theoria" or contemplation, taken over by Gregory of Nyssa for example. The "Brill Dictionary of Gregory of Nyssa" remarks that contemplation in Gregory is described as a "loving contemplation", and, according to Thomas Keating, the Greek Fathers of the Church, in taking over from the Neoplatonists the word "theoria", attached to it the idea expressed by the Hebrew word "da'ath", which, though usually translated as "knowledge", is a much stronger term, since it indicates the experiential knowledge that comes with love and that involves the whole person, not merely the mind. Among the Greek Fathers, Christian "theoria" was not contemplation of Platonic Ideas nor of the astronomical heavens of Pontic Heraclitus, but "studying the Scriptures", with an emphasis on the spiritual sense.


title: Christian mysticism

text: Later, contemplation came to be distinguished from intellectual life, leading to the identification of θεωρία or "contemplatio" with a form of prayer distinguished from discursive meditation in both East and West. Some make a further distinction, within contemplation, between contemplation acquired by human effort and infused contemplation.


title: Christian mysticism

text: In early Christianity the term "mystikos" referred to three dimensions, which soon became intertwined, namely the biblical, the liturgical and the spiritual or contemplative. The biblical dimension refers to "hidden" or allegorical interpretations of Scriptures. The liturgical dimension refers to the liturgical mystery of the Eucharist, the presence of Christ at the Eucharist. The third dimension is the contemplative or experiential knowledge of God.


title: Christian mysticism

text: The 9th century saw the development of mystical theology through the introduction of the works of sixth-century theologian Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, such as "On Mystical Theology". His discussion of the "via negativa" was especially influential.


title: Christian mysticism

text: Under the influence of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite (late 5th to early 6th century) the mystical theology came to denote the investigation of the allegorical truth of the Bible, and "the spiritual awareness of the ineffable Absolute beyond the theology of divine names." Pseudo-Dionysius' apophatic theology, or "negative theology", exerted a great influence on medieval monastic religiosity. It was influenced by Neo-Platonism, and very influential in Eastern Orthodox Christian theology. In western Christianity it was a counter-current to the prevailing Cataphatic theology or "positive theology".


title: Christian mysticism

text: Eastern Christianity has preserved a mystical emphasis in its theology and retains in hesychasm a tradition of mystical prayer dating back to Christianity's beginnings. Hesychasm concerns a spiritual transformation of the egoic self, the following of a path designed to produce more fully realized human persons, "created in the Image and Likeness of God" and as such, living in harmonious communion with God, the Church , the rest of the world, and all creation, including oneself. The Eastern Christian tradition speaks of this transformation in terms of theosis or divinization, perhaps best summed up by an ancient aphorism usually attributed to Athanasius of Alexandria: "God became human so that man might become god."


title: Christian mysticism

text: According to John Romanides, in the teachings of Eastern Orthodox Christianity the quintessential purpose and goal of the Christian life is to attain "theosis" or 'deification', understood as 'likeness to' or 'union with' God. "Theosis" is expressed as "Being, union with God" and having a relationship or synergy between God and man. God "is" the Kingdom of Heaven.


title: Christian mysticism

text: "Theosis" or unity with God is obtained by engaging in contemplative prayer, the first stage of "theoria", which results from the cultivation of watchfulness (Gk: "nepsis"). In "theoria", one comes to see or "behold" God or "uncreated light," a grace which is "uncreated." In the Eastern Christian traditions, theoria is the most critical component needed for a person to be considered a theologian; however it is not necessary for one's salvation. An experience of God is necessary to the spiritual and mental health of every created thing, including human beings. Knowledge of God is not intellectual, but existential. According to eastern theologian Andrew Louth, the purpose of theology as a science is to prepare for contemplation, rather than theology being the purpose of contemplation.


title: Christian mysticism

text: "Theoria" is the main aim of hesychasm, which has its roots in the contemplative practices taught by Evagrius Ponticus (345–399), John Climacus (St. John of Sinai)(6th-7th century), Maximus the Confessor (c. 580–662), and Symeon the New Theologian (949–1022). John Climacus, in his influential "Ladder of Divine Ascent", describes several stages of contemplative or hesychast practice, culminating in "agape". Symeon believed that direct experience gave monks the authority to preach and give absolution of sins, without the need for formal ordination. While Church authorities also taught from a speculative and philosophical perspective, Symeon taught from his own direct mystical experience, and met with strong resistance for his charismatic approach, and his support of individual direct experience of God's grace. According to John Romanides, this difference in teachings on the possibility to experience God or the uncreated light is at the very heart of many theological conflicts between Eastern Orthodox Christianity and Western Christianity, which is seen to culminate in the conflict over hesychasm.


title: Christian mysticism

text: According to John Romanides, following Vladimir Lossky in his interpretation of St. Gregory Palamas, the teaching that God is transcendent (incomprehensible in ousia, essence or being), has led in the West to the (mis)understanding that God cannot be experienced in this life. Romanides states that Western theology is more dependent upon logic and reason, culminating in scholasticism used to validate truth and the existence of God, than upon establishing a relationship with God (theosis and theoria).


title: Christian mysticism

text: In the Latin or Western Church terms derived from the Latin word "contemplatio" such as, in English, "contemplation" are generally used in languages largely derived from Latin, rather than the Greek term "theoria". The equivalence of the Latin and Greek terms was noted by John Cassian, whose writings influenced the whole of Western monasticism, in his "Conferences". However, Catholic writers do sometimes use the Greek term.


title: Christian mysticism

text: The Early Middle Ages in the West includes the work of Gregory the Great and Bede, as well as developments in Celtic Christianity and Anglo-Saxon Christianity, and comes to fulfillment in the work of Johannes Scotus Eriugena and the Carolingian Renaissance.


title: Christian mysticism

text: The High Middle Ages saw a flourishing of mystical practice and theorization corresponding to the flourishing of new monastic orders, with such figures as Guigo II, Hildegard of Bingen, Bernard of Clairvaux, the Victorines, all coming from different orders, as well as the first real flowering of popular piety among the laypeople.


title: Christian mysticism

text: The Late Middle Ages saw the clash between the Dominican and Franciscan schools of thought, which was also a conflict between two different mystical theologies: on the one hand that of Dominic de Guzmán and on the other that of Francis of Assisi, Anthony of Padua, Bonaventure, Jacopone da Todi, Angela of Foligno. Moreover, there was the growth of groups of mystics centered on geographic regions: the Beguines, such as Mechthild of Magdeburg and Hadewijch (among others); the Rhenish-Flemish mystics Meister Eckhart, Johannes Tauler, Henry Suso, and John of Ruysbroeck; and the English mystics Richard Rolle, Walter Hilton and Julian of Norwich. This period also saw such individuals as Catherine of Siena and Catherine of Genoa, the "Devotio Moderna", and such books as the "Theologia Germanica", "The Cloud of Unknowing" and "The Imitation of Christ".


title: Christian mysticism

text: The Protestant Reformation downplayed mysticism, although it still produced a fair amount of spiritual literature. Even the most active reformers can be linked to Medieval mystical traditions. Martin Luther, for instance, was a monk who was influenced by the German Dominican mystical tradition of Eckhart and Tauler as well by the Dionysian-influenced "Wesenmystik" ("essence mysticism") tradition. He also published the "Theologia Germanica", which he claimed was the most important book after the Bible and Augustine for teaching him about God, Christ, and humanity. Even John Calvin, who rejected many Medieval ascetic practices and who favored doctrinal knowledge of God over affective experience, has Medieval influences, namely, Jean Gerson and the "Devotio Moderna", with its emphasis on piety as the method of spiritual growth in which the individual practices dependence on God by imitating Christ and the son-father relationship. Meanwhile, his notion that we can begin to enjoy our eternal salvation through our earthly successes leads in later generations to "a mysticism of consolation".


title: Christian mysticism

text: Nevertheless, Protestantism was not devoid of mystics. Several leaders of the Radical Reformation had mystical leanings such as Caspar Schwenckfeld and Sebastian Franck. The Magisterial traditions also produced mystics, notably Peter Sterry (Calvinist), and Jakob Böhme (Lutheran).


title: Christian mysticism

text: As part of the Protestant Reformation, theologians turned away from the traditions developed in the Middle Ages and returned to what they consider to be biblical and early Christian practices. Accordingly, they were often skeptical of Catholic mystical practices, which seemed to them to downplay the role of grace in redemption and to support the idea that human works can play a role in salvation. Thus, Protestant theology developed a strong critical attitude, oftentimes even an animosity towards Christian mysticism. However, Quakers, Anglicans, Methodists, Episcopalians, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Local Churches, Pentecostals and Charismatics have in various ways remained open to the idea of mystical experiences.


title: Christian mysticism

text: But the Reformation brought about the Counter-Reformation and, with it, a new flowering of mystical literature, often grouped by nationality.


title: Christian mysticism

text: The Spanish had Ignatius Loyola, whose "Spiritual Exercises" were designed to open people to a receptive mode of consciousness in which they can experience God through careful spiritual direction and through understanding how the mind connects to the will and how to weather the experiences of spiritual consolation and desolation; Teresa of Ávila, who used the metaphors of watering a garden and walking through the rooms of a castle to explain how meditation leads to union with God; and John of the Cross, who used a wide range of biblical and spiritual influences both to rewrite the traditional "three ways" of mysticism after the manner of bridal mysticism and to present the two "dark nights": the dark night of the senses and the dark night of the soul, during which the individual renounces everything that might become an obstacle between the soul and God and then experiences the pain of feeling separated from God, unable to carry on normal spiritual exercises, as it encounters the enormous gap between its human nature and God's divine wisdom and light and moves up the 10-step ladder of ascent towards God. Another prominent mystic was Miguel de Molinos, the chief apostle of the religious revival known as Quietism. No breath of suspicion arose against Molinos until 1681, when the Jesuit preacher Paolo Segneri, attacked his views, though without mentioning his name, in his "Concordia tra la fatica e la quiete nell' orazione". The matter was referred to the Inquisition. A report got abroad that Molinos had been convicted of moral enormities, as well as of heretical doctrines; and it was seen that he was doomed. On September 3, 1687 he made public profession of his errors, and was sentenced to imprisonment for life. Contemporary Protestants saw in the fate of Molinos nothing more than a persecution by the Jesuits of a wise and enlightened man, who had dared to withstand the petty ceremonialism of the Italian piety of the day. Molinos died in prison in 1696 or 1697.


title: Christian mysticism

text: Lorenzo Scupoli, from Otranto in Apulia, was an Italian mystic best known for authoring "The Spiritual Combat", a key work in Catholic mysticism.


title: Christian mysticism

text: French mystics included Francis de Sales, Jeanne Guyon, François Fénelon, Brother Lawrence and Blaise Pascal.


title: Christian mysticism

text: The English had a denominational mix, from Catholic Augustine Baker and Julian of Norwich (the first woman to write in English), to Anglicans William Law, John Donne, and Lancelot Andrewes, to Puritans Richard Baxter and John Bunyan ("The Pilgrim's Progress"), to the first "Quaker", George Fox and the first "Methodist", John Wesley, who was well-versed in the continental mystics.


title: Christian mysticism

text: An example of "scientific reason lit up by mysticism in the Church of England"is seen in the work of Sir Thomas Browne, a Norwich physician and scientist whose thought often meanders into mystical realms, as in his self-portrait, "Religio Medici", and in the "mystical mathematics" of "The Garden of Cyrus", whose full running title reads, "Or, The Quincuncial Lozenge, or Network Plantations of the ancients, Naturally, Artificially, Mystically considered". Browne's highly original and dense symbolism frequently involves scientific, medical, or optical imagery to illustrate a religious or spiritual truth, often to striking effect, notably in "Religio Medici", but also in his posthumous advisory "Christian Morals".


title: Christian mysticism

text: Browne's latitudinarian Anglicanism, hermetic inclinations, and Montaigne-like self-analysis on the enigmas, idiosyncrasies, and devoutness of his own personality and soul, along with his observations upon the relationship between science and faith, are on display in "Religio Medici". His spiritual testament and psychological self-portrait thematically structured upon the Christian virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity, also reveal him as "one of the immortal spirits waiting to introduce the reader to his own unique and intense experience of reality". Though his work is difficult and rarely read, he remains, paradoxically, one of England's perennial, yet first, "scientific" mystics.


title: Christian mysticism

text: Similarly, well-versed in the mystic tradition was the German Johann Arndt, who, along with the English Puritans, influenced such continental Pietists as Philipp Jakob Spener, Gottfried Arnold, Nicholas Ludwig von Zinzendorf of the Moravians, and the hymnodist Gerhard Tersteegen. Arndt, whose book "True Christianity" was popular among Protestants, Catholics and Anglicans alike, combined influences from Bernard of Clairvaux, John Tauler and the "Devotio Moderna" into a spirituality that focused its attention away from the theological squabbles of contemporary Lutheranism and onto the development of the "new life" in the heart and mind of the believer. Arndt influenced Spener, who formed a group known as the "collegia pietatis" ("college of piety") that stressed the role of spiritual direction among lay-people—a practice with a long tradition going back to Aelred of Rievaulx and known in Spener's own time from the work of Francis de Sales. Pietism as known through Spener's formation of it tended not just to reject the theological debates of the time, but to reject both intellectualism and organized religious practice in favor of a personalized, sentimentalized spirituality.


title: Christian mysticism

text: This sentimental, anti-intellectual form of pietism is seen in the thought and teaching of Zinzendorf, founder of the Moravians; but more intellectually rigorous forms of pietism are seen in the teachings of John Wesley, which were themselves influenced by Zinzendorf, and in the teachings of American preachers Jonathan Edwards, who restored to pietism Gerson's focus on obedience and borrowed from early church teachers Origen and Gregory of Nyssa the notion that humans yearn for God, and John Woolman, who combined a mystical view of the world with a deep concern for social issues; like Wesley, Woolman was influenced by Jakob Böhme, William Law and "The Imitation of Christ". The combination of pietistic devotion and mystical experiences that are found in Woolman and Wesley are also found in their Dutch contemporary Tersteegen, who brings back the notion of the "nous" ("mind") as the site of God's interaction with our souls; through the work of the Spirit, our mind is able to intuitively recognize the immediate presence of God in our midst.


title: Christian mysticism

text: In the Orthodox Churches, theoria is regarded to lead to true spiritual knowledge, in contrast to the false or incomplete knowledge of rational thought, c.q. conjecture, speculation, "dianoia", "stochastic" and dialectics). After illumination or theoria, humanity is in union with God and can properly discern, or have holy wisdom. Hence theoria, the experience or vision of God, silences all humanity.


title: Christian mysticism

text: The most common false spiritual knowledge is derived not from an experience of God, but from reading another person's experience of God and subsequently arriving at one's own conclusions, believing those conclusions to be indistinguishable from the actual experienced knowledge.


title: Christian mysticism

text: False spiritual knowledge can also be iniquitous, generated from an evil rather than a holy source. The gift of the knowledge of good and evil is then required, which is given by God. Humanity, in its finite existence as created beings or creatures, can never, by its own accord, arrive at a sufficiently objective consciousness. Theosis is the gradual submission of a person to the good, who then with divine grace from the person's relationship or union with God, attains deification. Illumination restores humanity to that state of faith existent in God, called "noesis", before humanity's consciousness and reality was changed by their fall.


title: Christian mysticism

text: In the orthodox Churches, false spiritual knowledge is regarded as leading to spiritual delusion (Russian prelest, Greek plani), which is the opposite of sobriety. Sobriety (called nepsis) means full consciousness and self-realization (enstasis), giving true spiritual knowledge (called true gnosis). Prelest or plani is the estrangement of the person to existence or objective reality, an alienation called amartía. This includes damaging or vilifying the nous, or simply having a non-functioning noetic and neptic faculty.


title: Christian mysticism

text: Evil is, by definition, the act of turning humanity against its creator and existence. Misotheism, a hatred of God, is a catalyst that separates humanity from nature, or vilifies the realities of ontology, the spiritual world and the natural or material world. Reconciliation between God (the uncreated) and man is reached through submission in faith to God the eternal, i.e. transcendence rather than transgression (magic).


title: Christian mysticism

text: The Trinity as Nous, Word and Spirit (hypostasis) is, ontologically, the basis of humanity's being or existence. The Trinity is the creator of humanity's being via each component of humanity's existence: origin as nous (ex nihilo), inner experience or spiritual experience, and physical experience, which is exemplified by Christ (logos or the uncreated prototype of the highest ideal) and his saints. The following of false knowledge is marked by the symptom of somnolence or "awake sleep" and, later, psychosis. Theoria is opposed to allegorical or symbolic interpretations of church traditions.


title: Christian mysticism

text: In the Orthodox practice, once the stage of true discernment (diakrisis) is reached (called phronema), one is able to distinguish false gnosis from valid gnosis and has holy wisdom. The highest holy wisdom, Sophia, or Hagia Sophia, is cultivated by humility or meekness, akin to that personified by the Theotokos and all of the saints that came after her and Christ, collectively referred to as the ecclesia or church. This community of unbroken witnesses is the Orthodox Church.


title: Christian mysticism

text: Wisdom is cultivated by humility (emptying of oneself) and remembrance of death against thymos (ego, greed and selfishness) and the passions. Practicing asceticism is being dead to the passions and the ego, collectively known as the world.


title: Christian mysticism

text: God is beyond knowledge and the fallen human mind, and, as such, can only be experienced in his hypostases through faith (noetically). False ascetism leads not to reconciliation with God and existence, but toward a false existence based on rebellion to existence.


title: Christian mysticism

text: Fifteen Carmelite nuns allowed scientists to scan their brains with fMRI while they were meditating, in a state known as Unio Mystica or "Theoria". The results showed that multiple regions of the brain that were activated when they considered themselves to be in mystical union with God. These regions included the right medial orbitofrontal cortex, right middle temporal cortex, right inferior and superior parietal lobules, caudate, left medial prefrontal cortex, left anterior cingulate cortex, left inferior parietal lobule, left insula, left caudate, left brainstem, and extra-striate visual cortex.


title: Christian mysticism

text: In modern times "theoria" is sometimes treated as distinct from the meaning given to it in Christianity, linking the word not with contemplation but with speculation. Boethius (c. 480–524 or 525) translated the Greek word "theoria" into Latin, not as "contemplatio" but as "speculatio", and "theoria" is taken to mean speculative philosophy. A distinction is made, more radical than in ancient philosophy, between "theoria" and "praxis", theory and practice.


title: The Exorcist (franchise)

text: The Exorcist is an American media franchise that originated with William Peter Blatty's 1971 horror novel of the same name and most prominently featured in a 1973 film adaptation of the novel, and many subsequent prequels and sequels. All of these installments focus on fictional accounts of people possessed by Pazuzu, the main antagonist of the series, and the efforts of religious authorities to counter this possession.


title: The Exorcist (franchise)

text: The films have grossed over $661 million at the worldwide box office and the novel has sold over 13 million copies. 20th Century Fox Television developed a 2016 television series as a continuation of the 1973 film, to generally positive reviews. As of 2020, a reboot of the film series which was later changed to a direct sequel to the 1973 film is in development with David Gordon Green as director.


title: The Exorcist (franchise)

text: "The Exorcist" is a 1971 novel by American writer William Peter Blatty. The book details the demonic possession of twelve-year-old Regan MacNeil, the daughter of a famous actress, and the two priests who attempt to exorcise the demon. It was published by Harper & Row.


title: The Exorcist (franchise)

text: The novel was inspired by a 1949 case of demonic possession and exorcism that Blatty heard about while he was a student in the class of 1950 at Georgetown University. As a result, the novel takes place in Washington D.C. near the campus of Georgetown University. In September 2011, the novel was reprinted by HarperCollins to celebrate its 40th anniversary, with slight revisions made by Blatty as well as interior title artwork by Jeremy Caniglia.


title: The Exorcist (franchise)

text: "Legion" is the 1983 follow-up to the "Exorcist" novel. It was made into the movie "The Exorcist III" in 1990. Like "The Exorcist", it involves demonic possession. The book was the focus of a court case over its exclusion from "The New York Times" Best Seller list.


title: The Exorcist (franchise)

text: Blatty based aspects of the Gemini Killer on the real-life Zodiac Killer, who, in a January 1974 letter to the "San Francisco Chronicle", had praised the original "Exorcist" film as "the best satirical comedy that I have ever seen".


title: The Exorcist (franchise)

text: A novelization of the film of the same name. Written by Steven Piziks, it was released by Pocket Star on October 4, 2004.


title: The Exorcist (franchise)

text: "The Exorcist" is a 1973 American supernatural horror film directed by William Friedkin, adapted by William Peter Blatty from his 1971 novel of the same name, and starring Ellen Burstyn, Linda Blair, Max von Sydow, and Jason Miller.


title: The Exorcist (franchise)

text: The book, inspired by the 1949 exorcism of Roland Doe, deals with the demonic possession of a 12-year-old girl and her mother's attempts to win back her child through an exorcism conducted by two priests. The adaptation is faithful to the book, which itself has been commercially successful (appearing on the "New York Times" bestseller list).


title: The Exorcist (franchise)

text: John Boorman's "" was released in 1977, and revisited Regan four years after her initial ordeal. The plot centers on Father Philip Lamont (Richard Burton), who is struggling with his faith, as he is assigned by the Cardinal (Paul Henreid) to investigate the death of Father Lankester Merrin (Max von Sydow). Merrin was killed during "The Exorcist" as he performed the titular exorcism of Regan MacNeil (Linda Blair). In flashback sequences, Regan gives Merrin his fatal heart attack, as well as scenes from the exorcism of a young boy named Kokumo in Africa many years earlier. The Cardinal informs Lamont (who has had some experience at exorcism, and has been exposed to Merrin's teachings) that Merrin is being investigated posthumously for heresy. Despite approval for the MacNeil exorcism by a bishop, the Church is no longer convinced that MacNeil was truly possessed, and the controversial nature of Merrin's books on the subject are being reconsidered as politically and theologically suspect.


title: The Exorcist (franchise)

text: Adapted and directed by Blatty from his 1983 novel "Legion", the film stars George C. Scott and several cast members (Jason Miller (reprising his Academy Award-nominated role from "The Exorcist"), Ed Flanders, Scott Wilson and George DiCenzo) from Blatty's previous film "The Ninth Configuration". The film's continuity completely ignores the events of "Exorcist II". The story takes place 15 years after the events of "The Exorcist" and turns a supporting character from the first film (philosophical police detective William F. Kinderman (Scott)) into the main protagonist. He investigates a series of brutal murders in Georgetown that resemble the "modus operandi" of a serial killer executed about the time of the MacNeil exorcism.


title: The Exorcist (franchise)

text: Originally titled "Legion", the film was drastically changed after rewrites and re-shoots ordered by the studio Morgan Creek Productions. Studio executives demanded the addition of an exorcism sequence and retitled the film as "The Exorcist III" in order to more strongly tie the film to the rest of the franchise. All of the deleted footage is apparently lost.


title: The Exorcist (franchise)

text: Despite his misgivings about the studio-imposed reshoots, Blatty is proud of the finished version of "The Exorcist III", having said: "It's still a superior film. And in my opinion, and excuse me if I utter heresy here, but for me, it's a more frightening film than "The Exorcist"". Nevertheless, Blatty had hoped to recover the deleted footage from the Morgan Creek vaults so that he might re-assemble the original cut of the film which he said was "rather different" from what was released, and a version of the film fans of the "Exorcist" series had been requesting. In 2007, Blatty's wife reported on a fan site that "my husband tells me that it is Morgan Creek's claim that they have lost all the footage, including an alternate opening scene in which Kinderman views the body of Karras in the morgue, right after his fall down the steps". According to Mark Kermode, the search for the missing footage is "ongoing".


title: The Exorcist (franchise)

text: Because of the studio's dissatisfaction with Schrader's version of the prequel (see below section "Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist"), Renny Harlin was hired as director to retool the movie. Harlin reused some of Schrader's footage but shot mostly new material to create a more conventional horror film. Harlin's new version "" was released, but it was not well received.