Mysticism: Troeltsch's Third Type of Religious Collectivities

Abstract

The author shows that “religious individualism”, in combination with highly subjective experiences and with a tendency to renounce any religious community, is the core of Troeltsch's third type. He also shows that Troeltsch regards mysticism as a phenomenon of modernity which is rooted in Christianity, particularly in Protestant mysticism and Protestant spiritualism. For the author, the significance of the present discussion rests in the discovery of the importance of a religion which has relatively little external organization. The unstable social forms of this religion, however, are only briefly mentioned by Troeltsch.