The Spiritual Anthropology of Rut Björkman

Imre Koncsik

doi:doi:10.11648/j.ijp.20261401.16

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The Spiritual Anthropology of Rut Björkman

Imre Koncsik^*

Published in International Journal of Philosophy (Volume 14, Issue 1)

Received: 30 January 2026 Accepted: 12 February 2026 Published: 27 February 2026

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Abstract

The following paper presents the anthropology of a rather unknown religious mystic author: Rut Bjoerkman (1901 – 1988) was a women's mystic who spent her life striving for union with God. However, a closer look at the writings she produced over more than 50 years—under her pseudonym Bjoerkman (her grandmother's maiden name; Bjoerkman’s real name was Bahlsen)—seems worthwhile, especially since they were not written with the intention of publication and were thus composed with emotional authenticity. Despite the tension that exists among mystics toward science as a—in her view—"merely" rational approach to reality, her underlying anthropology shall be briefly outlined. A quote shall illustrate the seriousness of her struggle for a "real life", which implies a transcendental anthropology that defines the human being primarily through their relationship to transcendence. Although its anthropology initially arose from a Christian worldview, it underwent a philosophical generalization insofar as it thematizes man in his non-religion-specific relationship to God. Man stands at the intersection of immanence and transcendence. Therefore, if immanence or transcendence is overemphasized at the expense of the other constitutive pole, there is a risk of a loss of being. This loss of being is to be counteracted by a life from the spirit of the transcendent creative power, which is immanently constitutive, by the awareness one's own ontological constitution.

Published in	International Journal of Philosophy (Volume 14, Issue 1)
DOI	10.11648/j.ijp.20261401.16
Page(s)	53-57
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2026. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Female Spirituality, Philosophical Anthropology, Mystical Union, Fallenness, Transcendence, God, Creator, Existential Knowledge

1. Introduction

“I must confess that for years—from the standpoint of this world—my life had to be seen as a failed existence, for I remained in an inner preoccupation that proceeded invisibly and seemingly unproductively... The goals sought by people,... to build a successful life, could not stimulate me to do the same... I was inwardly available—for what? For the real life, for the creative life that was to carry me from one development to another.”

This intense focus on mystical union is preceded by feelings of alienation that mark a spiritually unreceptive era. The root of such negative feelings lies in the egocentric isolation of the human beings from their transcendent origin. This is accompanied by a certain split within the person themselves, insofar as the transcendent God is also deeply immanent to them, such that the loss of God simultaneously signifies a loss of self. The transcendence and immanence of God within the human being become anthropological constituents of being human, to such an extent that Bjoerkman conceives of God in a pantheistic sense as a "part" of man.

If a person now attains "knowledge" of their immanent divine source, this is already the path to mystical union with the Creator: the person needs to do nothing more than "recognize"—which sounds Gnostic. Thus, a universally conceived, impersonal "love" is only an accompaniment to the act of recognition. The decisive factor is the self-discovery of the human being mediated through the recognition of immanent divinity. Formulated almost Augustinianly, Bjoerkman states: "Come completely to yourself!" The goal is simultaneously transcendent and accordingly expands one's own humanity.

2. The Implicit Anthropology in the Writings of Rut Bjoerkman

2.1. Basic Elements of Spiritual Anthropology

The human being is reflected in their fundamental relationship to transcendence or in their immanent dependence on God: they are to be passive and, almost surrendering their autonomous self-determination, allow themselves to be determined by God. In the language of light imagery: they should allow the light of God to work within them. The human being can then even be understood as a manifestation of divine power. For this, a "resting in being" is sufficient, which is achieved through "silence" before God to "hear what he has to do".

Bjoerkman also tends to abandon human individuality in favor of a universal soul – a substitute of the „transcendental I“ of Immanuel Kant – which serves as the formal point of identification where God's transcendent reality manifests immanently. Unity with the universal soul is the concrete goal of human existence, which can be attained without an active effort through passive "letting-it-happen". When the universal (divine) soul comes to itself within the individual person, a true community of soulful beings arises. This represents an ideal type of being human sought after cultures and eras.

Contrary to egocentrism, a unity of love for God and love for neighbor is promoted. If God is "all in all," union with Him can only occur through union with fellow creatures. This implies an empathic participation in the suffering of others. Gender differentiation is seen as anthropologically secondary: the genders provide a mutual complementary unity, but the decisive factor is the human being in themselves.

2.2. Fallenness

Bjoerkman begins her anthropology with the fallenness and godlessness of human existence. The individual human being is—almost in Hegelian fashion—the antithetical contradiction, i.e., "a transition and a downfall". Their problem is a lack of the life-giving influx of creative power, leading to exhaustion, depression, and illness The fallenness refers to his concrete being “hic et nunc”.

Causes of fallenness which is a fact though not a necessity are identified: this fallenness results from a turning away from the divine source toward an egocentric existence based on "arbitrariness" and the ego—a "pseudo-life". It leads to isolation because people have fallen out of the original unity. The subject-immanent reason is a disordered desire for the external, which darkens the consciousness of God's immanent power. This desire opposes the establishment of a spiritual community among human beings: the fallen human being suffers "from inner poverty and lack of relationship with the creation that surrounds us".

The subject-immanent reason is a disordered desire for the external, which darkens the consciousness of God's immanent power. God is "forgotten as the reality of man's life." Man limits himself; the self-inflicted limitation seems to be identical with the negation of God in Rut Bjoerkman's work, or formally speaking: a negative difference is identified with indifference or non-difference and non-knowledge: the limitation of one's own being results in an abuse of the human mind. According to Bjoerkman, fallenness is identical to "ignorance" of God's presence. However, since "ignorance" does not establish ontological facticity, the separation exists only in consciousness and is never actually present. "For God cannot separate Himself from His creation.", but man can separate himself from God. Nevertheless, this separation is no more a reality than the so-called evil.

This results in an "evil" the basis of which is not the absolute God, but the human being. Due to the identification of consciousness and being, the evil of isolation is "unreal". If this difference is overcome, the human being reaches "heaven" instantaneously.^. Therefore, there is no need for an afterlife for maximum union.

The fallenness or „Godlessness“ affects the individual rather than being universal. Through "recognition," the human becomes "the light of the world". Until then, the human lives in "inner fear and restlessness" due to a disturbed relationship with the divine power. Their signature is that of "meaninglessness". With reference to the New Testament (John 8,31–36; 12,31; 14,30), man is lived, driven, confused by the powers of this world. We are not in the truth, because the truth as identical with God is absolute, is eternal life, is holy, perfect and good."

The separation of man from his divinely immanent-transcendent foundation can be remedied by "true knowledge of God", the one "conversion to the life that is essential in us from the creative spirit". It presupposes a corresponding "internalization".

2.3. The Goal of Human Being: Transcendence Through Mystical Union

The anthropologically constitutive goal of man consists in mystical union with God, so that through a) the increase of the immanence and transcendence of God at the same time the immanence and transcendence of man are reciprocally increased, and through b) the increase of human individuality the universality of man are also both increased: "He who gains unity with this Spirit is one with all life, which constantly proceeds from this Spirit. This unity is rebirth." In Buddhist terminology, it is about "enlightenment" and about "finding one's own self in the whole universe. He who sees unity everywhere has overcome delusion and worry."

Every human being has the task of becoming a "mystic" by discovering his life from "our truth as children of God, heirs of eternal life". Then the "outer appearance" is "pierced" by the power of God at work in the inner realm of all being and especially in the universal soul of man. The mystic man finds God in himself, when he seeks himself "in truth", i.e. in God, and recognizes man's "divine nature". This does not mean an identification of anthropology with theology, but the description of a mental transformation process on man's path to God, the "universal concretum", which is still reflected as "the essence of all things, the innermost reality in everything that works".

The driving force for true knowledge is existentially situated: it is love as the motor of the search for God and meaning. Its characteristic is a total devotion of man carried and made possible by God, so that man "unbinds" the "life of God in himself and around him" in order to make us "God-loving and God-worshipping people", "who fulfil their purpose and become the revelation of God through themselves".

Union with God is a dynamic process, which comes to an end in a state: "Mysticism is the state in which man experiences the unity between himself and the force that enlivens him." In this state, man's own activity is now suspended, so that God is not man's goal that makes selfhood possible: human activity is no longer integrated into the divine work. In order to truly love, man should first listen to and obey God and become receptive to His instructions and destinies. In this way, the "grace" of God is emphatically emphasized monocausally.

Ultimately, this is the existential-ontological consequence of Bjoerkman's pantheistic anthropology: the individual becomes a transit station of divine self-discovery through the process of self-alienation to self-alienation with a subsequent negative-dialectical existential movement of return: God is to be "redeemed" from his "invisibility". In a negative-dialectical way, however, through divine self-realization, man himself is also realized, so that through the abolition of man’s individuality nevertheless his individuality is also increased. Bjoerkman leans on Aristotle here: the mystic man is filled with the "desire" to remain in the "nearness" of the beloved, in this case: to remain with God in order to be able to be "in constant exchange" with him. If you think about it further, it means a dialectical inversion: the human subject and divine object of love are replaced by the human object and divine subject of love.

The result of the mystical union is a state of eternity in the midst of man's temporal limitations: Bjoerkman advocates a present eschatology: "The 'I Am', the power of being in man, is eternal life. Only when we become aware of this power that lives in us and turn to it does 'eternal life' begin to take effect." The heavenly state of eternal life is a universal completion of the entire creation. The completion of the world means the revelation of God in his creation. But Bjoerkman thinks less of a final completion of the universe itself, but of the completion of creation in and through the perfection of the individual human being. The mystic possesses this perfection within himself and becomes a sign of it in his humanity.

3. Summary

Bjoerkman outlines a transcendental anthropology, according to which the divine is maximally immanent and transcendent to man at the same time, so much so that the pantheistic and panpsychic universal soul uses the individual human being as a means to the end of self-realization through his negative-dialectical suspension – and vice versa.

In fact, however, man is turned outwards, so that the immanent-inner effect of the transcendent God cannot come to the existentially constitutive – and yet only passive – effect in man. This state of turning away from the immanent-transcendent divine source is now remedied by an act of "cognition" of one's own existential ontological constitution: since the mystical union is a purely spiritual process, "cognition" is sufficient as awareness and internalization, which means nothing other than the return of the spirit to its inwardly immanent divine ground.

Author Contributions

Imre Koncsik is the sole author. The author read and approved the final manuscript.

Conflicts of Interest

The author declares no conflicts of interest.

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Koncsik, I. (2026). The Spiritual Anthropology of Rut Björkman. International Journal of Philosophy, 14(1), 53-57. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijp.20261401.16

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Koncsik, I. The Spiritual Anthropology of Rut Björkman. Int. J. Philos. 2026, 14(1), 53-57. doi: 10.11648/j.ijp.20261401.16

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Koncsik I. The Spiritual Anthropology of Rut Björkman. Int J Philos. 2026;14(1):53-57. doi: 10.11648/j.ijp.20261401.16

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@article{10.11648/j.ijp.20261401.16,
  author = {Imre Koncsik},
  title = {The Spiritual Anthropology of Rut Björkman},
  journal = {International Journal of Philosophy},
  volume = {14},
  number = {1},
  pages = {53-57},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ijp.20261401.16},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijp.20261401.16},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijp.20261401.16},
  abstract = {The following paper presents the anthropology of a rather unknown religious mystic author: Rut Bjoerkman (1901 – 1988) was a women's mystic who spent her life striving for union with God. However, a closer look at the writings she produced over more than 50 years—under her pseudonym Bjoerkman (her grandmother's maiden name; Bjoerkman’s real name was Bahlsen)—seems worthwhile, especially since they were not written with the intention of publication and were thus composed with emotional authenticity. Despite the tension that exists among mystics toward science as a—in her view—"merely" rational approach to reality, her underlying anthropology shall be briefly outlined. A quote shall illustrate the seriousness of her struggle for a "real life", which implies a transcendental anthropology that defines the human being primarily through their relationship to transcendence. Although its anthropology initially arose from a Christian worldview, it underwent a philosophical generalization insofar as it thematizes man in his non-religion-specific relationship to God. Man stands at the intersection of immanence and transcendence. Therefore, if immanence or transcendence is overemphasized at the expense of the other constitutive pole, there is a risk of a loss of being. This loss of being is to be counteracted by a life from the spirit of the transcendent creative power, which is immanently constitutive, by the awareness one's own ontological constitution.},
 year = {2026}
}

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TY  - JOUR
T1  - The Spiritual Anthropology of Rut Björkman
AU  - Imre Koncsik
Y1  - 2026/02/27
PY  - 2026
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijp.20261401.16
DO  - 10.11648/j.ijp.20261401.16
T2  - International Journal of Philosophy
JF  - International Journal of Philosophy
JO  - International Journal of Philosophy
SP  - 53
EP  - 57
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2330-7455
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijp.20261401.16
AB  - The following paper presents the anthropology of a rather unknown religious mystic author: Rut Bjoerkman (1901 – 1988) was a women's mystic who spent her life striving for union with God. However, a closer look at the writings she produced over more than 50 years—under her pseudonym Bjoerkman (her grandmother's maiden name; Bjoerkman’s real name was Bahlsen)—seems worthwhile, especially since they were not written with the intention of publication and were thus composed with emotional authenticity. Despite the tension that exists among mystics toward science as a—in her view—"merely" rational approach to reality, her underlying anthropology shall be briefly outlined. A quote shall illustrate the seriousness of her struggle for a "real life", which implies a transcendental anthropology that defines the human being primarily through their relationship to transcendence. Although its anthropology initially arose from a Christian worldview, it underwent a philosophical generalization insofar as it thematizes man in his non-religion-specific relationship to God. Man stands at the intersection of immanence and transcendence. Therefore, if immanence or transcendence is overemphasized at the expense of the other constitutive pole, there is a risk of a loss of being. This loss of being is to be counteracted by a life from the spirit of the transcendent creative power, which is immanently constitutive, by the awareness one's own ontological constitution.
VL  - 14
IS  - 1
ER  -

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Imre Koncsik

Institute for Dogmatics and Fundamental Theology, Philosophical-Theological University Heiligenkreuz, Vienna, Austria

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http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1953-725X

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Koncsik, I. (2026). The Spiritual Anthropology of Rut Björkman. International Journal of Philosophy, 14(1), 53-57. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijp.20261401.16

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Koncsik, I. The Spiritual Anthropology of Rut Björkman. Int. J. Philos. 2026, 14(1), 53-57. doi: 10.11648/j.ijp.20261401.16

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Koncsik I. The Spiritual Anthropology of Rut Björkman. Int J Philos. 2026;14(1):53-57. doi: 10.11648/j.ijp.20261401.16

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@article{10.11648/j.ijp.20261401.16,
  author = {Imre Koncsik},
  title = {The Spiritual Anthropology of Rut Björkman},
  journal = {International Journal of Philosophy},
  volume = {14},
  number = {1},
  pages = {53-57},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ijp.20261401.16},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijp.20261401.16},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijp.20261401.16},
  abstract = {The following paper presents the anthropology of a rather unknown religious mystic author: Rut Bjoerkman (1901 – 1988) was a women's mystic who spent her life striving for union with God. However, a closer look at the writings she produced over more than 50 years—under her pseudonym Bjoerkman (her grandmother's maiden name; Bjoerkman’s real name was Bahlsen)—seems worthwhile, especially since they were not written with the intention of publication and were thus composed with emotional authenticity. Despite the tension that exists among mystics toward science as a—in her view—"merely" rational approach to reality, her underlying anthropology shall be briefly outlined. A quote shall illustrate the seriousness of her struggle for a "real life", which implies a transcendental anthropology that defines the human being primarily through their relationship to transcendence. Although its anthropology initially arose from a Christian worldview, it underwent a philosophical generalization insofar as it thematizes man in his non-religion-specific relationship to God. Man stands at the intersection of immanence and transcendence. Therefore, if immanence or transcendence is overemphasized at the expense of the other constitutive pole, there is a risk of a loss of being. This loss of being is to be counteracted by a life from the spirit of the transcendent creative power, which is immanently constitutive, by the awareness one's own ontological constitution.},
 year = {2026}
}

Copy | Download

TY  - JOUR
T1  - The Spiritual Anthropology of Rut Björkman
AU  - Imre Koncsik
Y1  - 2026/02/27
PY  - 2026
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijp.20261401.16
DO  - 10.11648/j.ijp.20261401.16
T2  - International Journal of Philosophy
JF  - International Journal of Philosophy
JO  - International Journal of Philosophy
SP  - 53
EP  - 57
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2330-7455
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijp.20261401.16
AB  - The following paper presents the anthropology of a rather unknown religious mystic author: Rut Bjoerkman (1901 – 1988) was a women's mystic who spent her life striving for union with God. However, a closer look at the writings she produced over more than 50 years—under her pseudonym Bjoerkman (her grandmother's maiden name; Bjoerkman’s real name was Bahlsen)—seems worthwhile, especially since they were not written with the intention of publication and were thus composed with emotional authenticity. Despite the tension that exists among mystics toward science as a—in her view—"merely" rational approach to reality, her underlying anthropology shall be briefly outlined. A quote shall illustrate the seriousness of her struggle for a "real life", which implies a transcendental anthropology that defines the human being primarily through their relationship to transcendence. Although its anthropology initially arose from a Christian worldview, it underwent a philosophical generalization insofar as it thematizes man in his non-religion-specific relationship to God. Man stands at the intersection of immanence and transcendence. Therefore, if immanence or transcendence is overemphasized at the expense of the other constitutive pole, there is a risk of a loss of being. This loss of being is to be counteracted by a life from the spirit of the transcendent creative power, which is immanently constitutive, by the awareness one's own ontological constitution.
VL  - 14
IS  - 1
ER  -

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