Böhmistiese voluntarisme, transmutasie van die wil en verenigingsmistiek in Andrew Murray se Dying to Self

Abstract

The end of the eighteenth century witnessed an upsurge in deterministic theologies of freedom of will. Jonathan Edwards, for example, combined Protestant theology (which to him was a celebration of the greatness of God) with the new scientist philosophical thinking of John Locke. Edwards propounded a solution to the free-will issue which raised more problems than it solved. The root of the problem lies in Edwards’ arguments based on assumptions gathered from the physical world and posing the problem of free will in quasi-physical terms. In opposition to scientist approaches to the problem of free-will, Platonically inclined theological views inspired by Romantic idealism shifted the emphasis from materialistic scientism to grace, personality and love in Medieval mysticism ? particularly the tradition of Augustine, Ockham and Eckhart. The German mystic, Jacob Boehme, gained in influence in Britain towards the end of the eighteenth century through the works of the Anglican theologian William Law. Boehme’s views on free-will shaped Andrew Murray’s spirituality on this issue to a significant degree. This article investigates the contours of Murray’s voluntaristic mysticism, the connection between will and desire in his theology, and the implications of the dialectics between self-will and love-will in his work Dying to Self. Murray’s mystical spirituality juxtaposes God’s love-will and human self-will. When the intelligent creature turns from God to self, or nature, he acts unnaturally, he turns from all that which makes nature to be good; he finds nature only as it is in itself, and without God. And then it is that nature, or self, has all evil in it. If you ask why the Spirit of Love cannot be displeased, cannot be disappointed, cannot complain, accuse, resent, or murmur, it is because Divine love desires nothing but itself; it is its own good, it has all when it has itself, because nothing is good but itself and its own working; for love is God, and he that dwells in God, dwells in love. The dialectical tension between determination and freedom of will is transcended by appealing to the mystical power of love-will. To Murray, the transmutation of self-will to love-will is possible because every spirit stands in the place where it was created in equal weight, and has its free will where into it introduces its longing imagination, the essence and property of that it receives in the great mystery of all beings. The will is free in Christ when our sins are drowned in the blood and Death of Christ, and He is a member of us. His will becomes our will; for He gives Himself through Christ into the Bride, as into our will, which is also God’s will; and we receive Him with good cause into our Love, into our Will, which is also God’s will; and sink ourselves down in him through Christ into God. The divine birth is the culmination of man’s will surrendered to the Will of Christ and the apex of man’s unification with God. Freed from the miserable labour of self, to rest in meekness, humility, patience, and resignation under the Spirit of God, is like the joyful voice of the Bridegroom to the soul. To Murray, goodness, piety, holiness can only be ours as thinking, willing, and desiring are ours, by being in us as a power of heaven in the birth and growth of our own life. The freedom of the soul dedicated to God finds its highest culmination in Love and not in determination or libertarianism because Divine Love desires nothing but itself and he that dwells in God, dwells in Love and Liberty.