(RNS) — Shannon Evans, spirituality and culture editor at the National Catholic Reporter, was feeling disillusioned with contemporary Christian thinkers.
“I had a snobby chip on my shoulder about everything that was popular and what people were reading,” Evans said with a laugh in a phone interview with RNS. “I wanted something ancient. I wanted to go back and see if the old women spoke to me or if it feels as irrelevant and fleeting as everything else.”
Fleeting it wasn’t. What started as her own seeking turned into her latest book, “The Mystics Would Like a Word.” The book unpacks teachings from six mystics: Teresa of Ávila, Margery Kempe, Hildegard of Bingen, Julian of Norwich, Catherine of Siena and Thérèse of Lisieux. “I thought, ‘More people should know about this. I’m going to make it into a book!’” she said.
We spoke to Evans about what she learned about her own spirituality as she did just that. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
You define mystics as those who have experienced a glimpse of the eternal and have chosen to pursue more. What else do you want people to know about them?
There’s this idea the mystics were constantly living in this supernatural experience we can’t relate to, like levitating on a hillside and having ecstatic visions of Christ. You’ll find some of that, but what I want people to know is that most of their lives are very ordinary and very much relatable. They spent time caring for people they lived with — normal life things that don’t feel all that far removed from most of our experiences. They helped form what it looks like to have a faith that captivates you and feels energizing, not a to-do list or a set of obligations. I find that inspiring.
You quote Jesuit theologian Karl Rahner, who said, “The Christian of the future will either be a mystic or will not exist.” Was he predicting our renewed interest in the mystics in Western Christianity today?
A lot of us are disillusioned with Christianity as an institution. We’re asking good questions about institutional power, colonization and imperialism and the way institutional Christianity has done a lot of harm over the course of history and continues to do so with clergy abuse across denominations. People are hungry to hold on to what is good, true and beautiful in Christianity, and what has survived the test of time and borne good fruit. This mysticism, this internal examination, this life of prayer and devotion to God and to humankind — those are the things we want to carry on and pass on to our children and live out in the world.
For someone wanting to explore contemplative Christianity, how can these historical mystics help?
I found Teresa of Ávila’s book “The Interior Castle,” so helpful and instructive. People of all or no religious background study her. She’s very practical in this mother hen, grandma way. For example, if you’re too worn out, she says, stop fasting, eat a bowl of soup and take a nap. That’s the voice we need. It can’t all be this rapture up in the heavens. We live in bodies. Teresa comes to mind of these women who prioritize their inner life and their inner knowing.
It’s about working that muscle of learning to trust what is inside of us. We talk about the Holy Spirit living active within us, but when push comes to shove, sometimes it’s easier to just let somebody else tell us what to believe. Studying the mystics can help us learn to mine the depths of ourselves, how to discern what we trust within ourselves and what we maybe mine further. These women find their own way and voice for themselves but are also accountable to others and Scripture. They’re not off on their own like a lone wolf; they are committed to the whole.
Who were the most surprising figures in the book?
I expected Catherine of Siena to be perfect, but she’s really imbalanced. I wrote a chapter on action and contemplation and the balance of those two things. I thought she would teach us how to do that, but what I found was she failed and burned out more than she triumphed. But we still learn from her life. I think that’s how we do learn: from our own mistakes and from mistakes of people we admire.
Do you have a mystic you feel most connected to?
Margery Kempe struggled so intensely with the desire to follow her own vision for her life, her spiritual desire for travel and pilgrimages and devotion. But then she had a gaggle of children! She made this major decision in her 40s to leave her children with her mother and go off on pilgrimage for a couple of years. She came back and took her place in the home and raised them, as far as we know, and she nursed her husband until his death. I related to that so much — this tension between loving my children and knowing they need me and also being a woman apart from being a mother and having passions, desires and longings to live out my own life in the world.
How can the mystics help us navigate modern society and its challenges?
My hope with this book is to show how the presence of the Holy Spirit inside of us is directive, instructive and enough to keep us and hold us. We’re not trying to figure out everything from scratch. There’s a lot of confusion and noise in the world. These women teach us how to go inward, still ourselves and hear that small voice. That’s what I hope women take away, just to get permission to use their own voice and to be unapologetic about how they see the world and speaking their truth.
How have readers from different faith backgrounds and spiritual seekers received the book?
I have been a part of a lot of spiritual communities over the years, and that has served me well to put my thoughts and spiritual interpretations into words that feel accessible to a wide variety of people. These women crossed religious lines to speak to people of different faiths or no particular faith. When we read or hear something true, there is something in us that responds to it. I hope this book crosses any barriers and just hits the heart.