I'm not familiar with Johnston or Rast, so for now I'll have to take your word for it. When I think of mystical Christianity I think of contemplative prayer, the Desert Christians of the 3rd century, Gregory of Nyssa, St. John of the Cross, Meister Eckhart, Catherine of Sienna, and a host of others. I don't necessarily see the mystical tradition as contrary to the dogmatic tradition. I can see how some expressions of it may seem to be, and maybe some are. But, it seems hasty to cast it all aside as heretical (if that's what you mean by an "upside down view of the gospel").
What to check when people are mystics is what meaning they put in the cross. Do they say Jesus bore our sins? And what do they mean when they say sin. A friend of mine who is a mystic means sin is the same as suffering. You see how wrong this can get?
Mystics generally talks more about our transformation than the person of Jesus. Sin seems to be the state of man, which will be conquered by a new state attained by spiritual practice. It's has not much to do with the cross.
Johnston says we are to let go of all attachments ... but we Christians should be very attached to Jesus Christ. It's through the love of the person of Jesus we can be less attached to all the hassel in this world.
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