SV: Mystics and Missionaries

[Lars Martin Fosse]

Shrinivas Tilak [SMTP:shrinivast at HOTMAIL.COM] skrev 10. februar 2001 16:19:
>     The recent flurry of exchanges between Aditya Mishra and Stephen
Hodge
> points to a deeper issue that I think warrants further discussion--the
> varying ways and patterns in which mysticism is connected with organized
> religion. Mystics affiliated with a given religion, for instance, may be
> recruited to attract newcomers and to "soften up" their initial
resistance.
> Missionaries then take over and complete the job of formal conversion.
>     S.Tilak

Isn't this a rather "conspiratorial" view of mysticism? As far as I can
see, most religions have their mystics, and the relationship between the
mystics and the clergy in general can be quite tense. This goes not only
for Islam but also for Christianity. I believe several Medieval Christian
mystics were condemned as heretics by the Church. As for the spread of
Christianity, I can't see that mysticism played an important part. In
Poland and Hungary, Christianity was adopted by the kings as a policy
measure. Further east, in the Baltic, Christianity was introduced by the
sword, an instrument which also played a part in the Christianization of
Norway. In general, political elites seem to have played a crucial role in
the spread of Christianity up through the middle ages. Modern missionary
activitities are of course somewhat different, but even here politics and
weaponry have played their part.

As for the spread of Islam, it has been argued that Sufi mystics had an
important role in the spread of Islam in South Asia. This is of course
possible, but it hardly supports the view that mystics in general function
as a kind of "third column" before missionaries start doing their dastardly
deeds :-).

Lars Martin Fosse

Dr. art. Lars Martin Fosse
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