Western Mysticism is the major monograph by the English Benedictine historian Cuthbert Butler, Abbot of Downside, first published by Constable & Co. in 1922 and reissued by Dover in 2003. Butler reconstructs the contemplative theology of Augustine of Hippo, Gregory the Great, and Bernard of Clairvaux as a single Latin-Christian tradition oriented around the direct experience of God, and uses that reconstruction to argue that pre-Reformation Western Christianity carried a robust mystical lineage of its own — distinct from, and not reducible to, the Eastern hesychast or the later Spanish-Carmelite traditions.
First lines
The writings of the mystics may be studied from three distinct points of view: (1) They may be read for the sake of their religious philosophy and their theology. (2) Or they may be taken as affording material for the study of that branch of modern psychology called Psycho-physiology, the borderland between mind and body, which investigates such phenomena as auto-suggestion, auto-hypnotism, ecstasy and trance, and such-like frequent psycho-physical concomitants of higher states of prayer.
Contents
Prologue: What Mysticism Is
Part I — St Augustine: Contemplation
Part I — St Gregory the Great: Contemplation
Part I — St Bernard: Contemplation
Part I — Summary: Characteristics of Western Mysticism
Part II — St Augustine: The Contemplative and Active Lives
Part II — St Gregory the Great: The Contemplative and Active Lives
Part II — St Bernard: The Contemplative and Active Lives
Part II — Summary: The Contemplative Life
Epilogue: The Validity of the Mystics' Claim
Appendix: Nature Ecstasy; Intellectual Ecstasy of Plotinus
Reception
Butler's book is widely treated as the founding monograph in English-language Christian mysticism scholarship; Evelyn Underhill cited it approvingly in her later editions of Mysticism, and it set the syllabus for two generations of work on Patristic and monastic contemplation. Specialists writing later in the 20th century (Bernard McGinn, Andrew Louth, Denys Turner) have argued that Butler's reading of Augustine in particular flattens the apophatic-cataphatic tension that the texts themselves carry, and that the strict 'three-author' canon overrepresents Latin sources at the expense of Greek and Syriac contemporaries. The book has nonetheless remained continuously in print since the Dover reissue and is routinely set as a primary historical source on early Western contemplative theology.
Frequently asked
What is Western Mysticism about?
It is Cuthbert Butler's study of the contemplative theology of three Latin-Christian writers — Augustine of Hippo, Gregory the Great, and Bernard of Clairvaux — presented as a single, coordinated tradition of direct experience of God. Butler argues that Western Christianity had a robust mystical tradition of its own, distinct from Eastern hesychasm and later Spanish Carmelite mysticism.
Who was Dom Cuthbert Butler?
Dom Cuthbert Butler (1858–1934) was an Irish Benedictine monk and ecclesiastical historian who served as Abbot of Downside Abbey from 1906 to 1922. In addition to Western Mysticism, he wrote The Vatican Council (1930), considered the standard English-language account of the First Vatican Council.
How has Western Mysticism been received by scholars?
The book is widely regarded as the founding text of English-language Christian mysticism scholarship. Evelyn Underhill cited it approvingly; later scholars including Bernard McGinn and Denys Turner raised concerns that Butler's reading of Augustine flattens apophatic tensions in the texts, and that his three-author canon underrepresents Greek and Syriac sources. The Dover reissue has kept it in continuous print.