The Wandering Bishops: Apostles of a New Spirituality - Home Temple

WANDERING BISHOPS 24
Chapter Two: A NEW APOSTOLIC
MYSTICISM
Whatever one thinks of these early Vagantes, their lives had resulted in a significant state of
affairs. The Apostolic authority had been wrested free from centuries of bondage to church
orthodoxies. The symbolic succession of Christ was once again the property of free and
independent Wanderers. In the long haul, Christianity would be forced to assin~ilate radically
new ideas.
Perhaps the most radical of these ideas was that other religions, most especially those of the
East, were not only divinely inspired, but offered hitherto undiscovered wellsprings of wisdom
and spirituality to complement the Christian revelation.
The Quest for a World Religion
The warfare of Science and Religion was old stuff to many of the advanced thinkers of the late
19th century. The discoveries of Science were taken to illuminate, not negate, the insights of
Religion. Biblical criticism seemed the only intelligent way of arriving at the earliest text of the
Bible. Archeology and geology seemed the best approaches to man and the earth. After all, the
early Christians such as Paul had interpreted their Bible (the Old Testament, Apocrypha and
Pseudepigrapha) allegorically rather than literally. Why should we not have the same freedom,
under the guidance of the Spirit? We are under no obligation to consider our Holy Scripture as a
textbook of geology, although it is useful if properly understood. The Spirit within us tells us that
many of the things which we find repugnant in the Old and New Testaments, such as the
subOrdination of women, belong to a past culture rather than an ongoing revelation. That same
Spirit tells us that the Christ speaks to us through many other Scriptures as well, especially
those of the East.
So reasoned many of the best educated persons of Europe and America, and a romance was
developing about the exciting new discoveries in Egypt and India. It was a time of spiritual
renaissance. The numen was rediscovered by no less a thinker than Rudolph Otto. The prehistoric
Matriarchy was shown to be credible by Bachoffen in his researches on ancient law.
New Scriptures of the early Christian churches were edited, and new papyruses made public.
Ever since Napoleon had made his expedition to Egypt new discoveries were happening in the
Near East--the Rosetta Stone, the Sumerian libraries. The historic city of Troy, long assumed to
be mythical, was unearthed.
Scientific discovery led to more mystery than knowledge, and the simple Newtonian model of
the Universe was shown to be inaccurate. The German expedition to Jericho showed that there
had indeed been an ancient battle with Hebrew forces, and that indeed the walls had tumbled
outward, rather than inward (as was the case with all other beseiged cities of the Near East).
What mysterious event had caused this effect, and the biblical story of Joshua's trumpet?
Anthropologists left their armchairs and ventured out to see for themselves. The tales they
brought back were amazing, describing shamans who could foresee the future, yogins who
could walk on fire and stop their hearts from beating, or even levitate. Great interest in the
impossible asceticism of saints like Theresa, who lived on thin air and exhibited stigmata, was
kindled in the mind of Europe.