A STUDY IN THE CONCEPT OF MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE
Rereading recently that admirable edition of Augustine's Confessions, 1 I was reminded of that somewhat moot problem of Augustine's mysticism. It is frequently contended that Augustine was a mystic and that his mysticism is particularly well established in chapter IO of Book IX of the Confessions. Father Paul Henry has written a small but highly influential book on this particular text entitled La Vision d'Ostie. 2 Many commentators of Augustine are inclined to agree with the judgment of Fr. Henry that this experience at Ostia described by Augustine is a genuinely mystical experience sufficiently important to put Augustine's mysticism beyond question.
In this paper I wish to reexamine Augustine's account of what transpired at Ostia and evaluate the judgment of Fr. Henry and others of this episode. 3 This will entail an examination of the Ostia text, as I shall call it from now on, a comparison of that text with the Confessions VII. i o, and also a brief consideration of the Confessions X. 4 ~ which Fr. Solignac in his introduction to the Confessions believes to be even more important than the Ostia text for Augustine's mysticism. These textual analyses will then be supplemented by more general considerations relevant to the whole problem of Augustine's mysticism. First, however, it will be necessary to make a few brief remarks on the meaning and the nature of the mystical experience.
Generally speaking it may be agreed that a mystical experience is a religious experience but that not every religious experience can be termed mystical. The mystical experience is but one of the many