Author: Louise Nelstrop Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. ISBN: 9780754657323 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 292
Book Description
This book introduces students to Christian mysticism and modern critical responses to it. Christianity has a rich tradition of mystical theology that first emerged in the writings of the early church fathers, and flourished during the Middle Ages. Today Christian mysticism is increasingly recognised as an important Christian heritage relevant to today's spiritual seekers.
Author: Arthur Versluis Publisher: SUNY Press ISBN: 1438466331 Category : Philosophy Languages : en Pages : 174
Book Description
Restores the Platonic history and context of mysticism and shows how it helps us understand more deeply the humanities as a whole, from philosophy and literature to art. In Platonic Mysticism, Arthur Versluisclearly and tautly argues that mysticism must be properly understood as belonging to the great tradition of Platonism. He demonstrates how mysticism was historically understood in Western philosophical and religious traditions and emphatically rejects externalist approaches to esoteric religion. Instead he develops a new theoretical-critical model for understanding mystical literature and the humanities as a whole, from philosophy and literature to art. A sequel to his Restoring Paradise, this is an audacious book that places Platonic mysticism in the context of contemporary cognitive and other approaches to the study of religion, and presents an emerging model for the new field of contemplative science. An important work on the mystical experience delving deep into its history, particularly from the Platonic perspective. An essential text for anyone interested in mysticism and its relationship to philosophy and creative expression. Andrew Newberg, author of How Enlightenment Changes Your Brain: The New Science of Transformation The present work, the latest from the pen of Arthur Versluis, provides a trenchant, learned, and illuminating analysis of the origins of Western mysticism in the Platonist tradition, relayed through such figures as Plotinus and Dionysius the Areopagite, down through Meister Eckhart and others, while suitably excoriating the attempts of certain modern philosophers and sociologists of religion to deconstruct it from a materialist perspective. I found it a rattling good read! John Dillon, author of The Heirs of Plato: A Study of the Old Academy (347274 BC)
Author: Eddie Ensley Publisher: Twenty-Third Publications ISBN: 9781585958436 Category : Body, Mind & Spirit Languages : en Pages : 148
Book Description
Here Deacon Eddie Ensley shows that mysticism isn't just for monastics and contemplatives. It's for each person, every day of their lives, every time they open their hearts to God. Mysticism, he says, is a simple and profound treasure, available to all of us.
Author: James R. Horne Publisher: Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press ISBN: 1554587077 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 169
Book Description
This study of the meaning and the experience of mysticism is a product of the author's personal interest in mysticism and his reflection, as a philosopher, on some of the philosophical questions raised by mysticism is a "a psychological process which occurs with varying degrees of intensity in everyone's life" and the observation that this process changes the experiencer, the author goes on to discuss such questions as "Can we define mysticism?" and "Can we describe mystical experiences?," "Is mysticism rational?," and "What is the meaning of mystical experience?"
Author: Jey Kanagaraj Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing ISBN: 0567310256 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 365
Book Description
This is the first detailed study of Johannine mysticism against a Palestinian Jewish background has been previously undertaken. This book investiages whether there was a "mystical" practice in first-century Palestine and whether John can be better understood in the light of such practice, if there was any. In analysis, two strands of Jewish mysticism, the early forms of Ma`aseh Merkabah and of Ma`aseh Bereshit, emerge as existing in first-century Palestine. While the former narrates by means of Ezek. 1 the experience of seeing God in His kingly glory, the latter describes the same expereince by using Gen. 1. This book consists of three parts. Part one analyses Hellenistic mysticism as expressed by the Hermetica and Hellenistic-Jewish mysticism as presented by Philo. Part two traces the important elements of Merkabah mysticism from the later Hekhalot literature and the Jewish and Christian writings belonging to 2 cent. BCE - 1 cent. CE by defining the term "mysticism" in terms of the fourteen aspects of Jewish mysticism, an exegetical study of seven themes is undertaken in Part Three. The study shows that the conceptual parallels in John with Hellenistic mysticism and Hellenistic-Jewish mysticism are very slender, but indicates John's polemical motive against the Merkabah mystics of his time. He calls them to believe in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, by proclaiming that the divine glory, claimed by them to be revealed in human-like form on the throne, is now visible in the historical person, Jesus, particularly in his death on the Cross. Thus Jewish Throne-mysticism seems to have been reinterpreted by John as Cross-mysticism.
Author: Kenneth Rose Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing ISBN: 1472571703 Category : Body, Mind & Spirit Languages : en Pages : 224
Book Description
Contemplative experience is central to Hindu yoga traditions, Buddhist meditation practices, and Catholic mystical theology, and, despite doctrinal differences, it expresses itself in suggestively similar meditative landmarks in each of these three meditative systems. In Yoga, Meditation and Mysticism, Kenneth Rose shifts the dominant focus of contemporary religious studies away from tradition-specific studies of individual religious traditions, communities, and practices to examine the 'contemplative universals' that arise globally in meditative experience. Through a comparative exploration of the itineraries detailed in the contemplative manuals of Theravada Buddhism, Patañjalian Yoga, and Catholic mystical theology, Rose identifies in each tradition a moment of sharply focused awareness that marks the threshold between immersion in mundane consciousness and contemplative insight. As concentration deepens, the meditator steps through this threshold onto a globally shared contemplative itinerary, which leads through a series of virtually identical stages to mental stillness and insight. Rose argues that these contemplative universals, familiar to experienced contemplatives in multiple traditions, point to a common spiritual, mental, and biological heritage. Pioneering the exploration of contemplative practice and experience with a comparative perspective that ranges over multiple religious traditions, religious studies, philosophy, neuroscience, and the cognitive science of religion, this book is a landmark contribution to the fields of contemplative practice and religious studies.
Author: Marvin A. Sweeney Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing ISBN: 1467458732 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 415
Book Description
Questions of how the divine presence is understood and interacts within the world have been around since the time of the biblical prophets. The Jewish mystical tradition conceives God as active, just, powerful, and present while allowing for divine limitation so as to understand the relationship between G-d and the Jewish people in their history. Jewish Mysticism surveys Jewish visionary and mystical experience from biblical and ancient Near Eastern times through the modern period and the emergence of modern Hasidism. Marvin Sweeney provides a comprehensive treatment of one of the most dynamic fields of Jewish studies in the twenty-first century, providing an accessible overview of texts and interpretative issues. Sweeney begins with the biblical period, which most treatments of Jewish mysticism avoid, and includes chapters on the ancient Near East, the Pentateuch, the Former Prophets and Psalms, the Latter Prophets, Jewish Apocalyptic, the Heikhalot Literature, the Sefer Yetzirah and early Kabbalistic Literature, the Zohar, Lurianic Kabbalah and the Shabbetean Movement, and the Hasidic Movement. Placing Jewish apocalyptic literature into the larger development of ancient Jewish visionary and mystical experience, Sweeney fills gaps left by the important but outdated work of others in the field. Ideal for the scholar, student, or general reader, Jewish Mysticism provides readers with a fresh understanding of the particular challenges, problems, needs, and perspectives of Judaism throughout its history.
Author: Richard H. Jones Publisher: SUNY Press ISBN: 1438461194 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 440
Book Description
A comprehensive exploration of the philosophical issues raised by mysticism. This work is a comprehensive study of the philosophical issues raised by mysticism. Mystics claim to experience reality in a way not available in normal life, a claim which makes this phenomenon interesting from a philosophical perspective. Richard H. Joness inquiry focuses on the skeleton of beliefs and values of mysticism: knowledge claims made about the nature of reality and of human beings; value claims about what is significant and what is ethical; and mystical goals and ways of life. Jones engages language, epistemology, metaphysics, science, and the philosophy of mind. Methodological issues in the study of mysticism are also addressed. Examples of mystical experience are drawn chiefly from Buddhism and Advaita Vedanta, but also from Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and Daoism. This is a significant extension of the seminal work by Walter Stace, Mysticism and Philosophy. That work has stimulated much literature, all of which Jones manages to review here. He critically extends Staces universal core and embeds it in a sophisticated discussion of the extent, range, and metaphysical implications of mysticism. Ralph W. Hood, Jr., coauthor of The Psychology of Religion: An Empirical Approach
Author: Rudolf Otto Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers ISBN: 1725237482 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 280
Book Description
"This book attempts to penetrate the nature of that strange spiritual phenomenon which we call mysticism by comparing the two principal classic types of Eastern and Western mystical experience. By means of this comparison, and by explaining the individual features of one type by those of the other, the nature of mysticism itself becomes gradually more comprehensible." --From the Foreword
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Author: Louise Nelstrop
Author: Evelyn Underhill
Author: Arthur Versluis
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