' f CHAPTER 7 Mysticism in the New Testament Alan C. Mitchell T he word "mysticism" appears in none of the twenty-seven books of the New Testa- ment. Therefore, it may seem peculiar to include an essay on mysticism in the New Testament in a companion volume to the study of Christian mysticism. And yet, schol- ars have written about "mysticism" in the New Testament or "mystical themes" in New Testament authors. When they do so, they do not point to a fully developed understand- ing of mysticism, as found in"later Christian authors, but rather they explore the ways New Testament authors describe access to the divine, or how union with God and Christ is experienced in the lives of the earliest Christians. And so, rather than isolating the elements of a full-blown mysticism in the New Testament, it is preferable to explore the ways New Testament books attest to palpable awareness of God, sometimes employ- ing the vocabulary associated with revelations and visions, but more often attending to how faith makes possible a lived experience of God. Until recently, those religious experiences received little attention as "religious experience" per se. Currently, however, New Testament scholars are less reticent to isolate and discuss the religious experiences of early Christians and how they may have been recorded within given New Testament books. In particular, Luke Timothy Johnson has offered a definiton of religious experi- ence that he has adapted from the work of Joachim Wach (Wach 2 7-58) and that is very helpful for assessing what may have constituted this phenomenon among Early Christians: "Religious experience is a response to that which is perceived as ultimate, involving the whole person, characterized by a peculiar intensity, and issuing in action" Gohnson 60). This study relies on this definition of religious experience, but it focuses on particular types of religious experiences - namely, those related to having access to God and achieving union with God and Christ. This essay explores, first, religious experience in the earliest New Testament author, Paul of Tarsus. Drawing on his Jewish origins, Paul speaks of his religious experience in language at home in Jewish apocalyptic literature, where revelations and heavenly journeys are commonly the means of access to God and the vehicles for apprehending TheWiley-Blackwell Companion to Christian Mysticism, First Edition. Edited by Julia A. Lamm. © 2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published 2013 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.