Download or read book Mysticism and Language written by Steven T. Katz and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1992 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Taken collectively, the original essays in this new collection make up the most important exploration of mysticism and language to appear in many years. Written from diverse perspectives on a wide variety of religious and mystical traditions, ranging from Judaism and Christianity to Zen Buddhism and Hinduism, all the essays exhibit great erudition, a mastery of the original mystical sources, and philosophical and hermeneutical sophistication. Further, all recognize the inadequacy of treating the questions surrounding this subject a-contextually - outside of their historic, intellectual, and sociological circumstances. As such, these studies deepen the on-going revisionist, contextualist study of mysticism so powerfully and influentially inaugurated by two previous collections also edited by Steven Katz, Mysticism and Philosophical Analysis and Mysticism and Religious Traditions. Like its predecessors, the present collection includes work by some of the world's leading authorities on mysticism, including Moshe Idel, William Alston, Bernard McGinn, Ewert Cousins, Bimal Matilal, Carl Ernst, and Steven Katz. It is sure to become essential reading for everyone interested in mysticism, as well as those who study religion, comparative religion, philosophy, and history.
Download or read book Language Mysticism written by Shira Wolosky and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 1995 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Language Mysticism explores the place granted to language within metaphysical and theological hierarchies traditional to Western culture. Within these hierarchies, language represents embodiment, division, and historical differentiation; whereas silence points to an eternal unity beyond linguistic form and limitation. But this reflects a deeply embedded ambivalence in the Western tradition toward material and temporal conditions in general. The author uses the writings of T. S. Eliot, Samuel Beckett, and Paul Celan to show how far-reaching and immediate this history of ambivalence remains in its influence and consequences. In each of these writers, theological traditions inform and situate linguistic imagery and practices, albeit in quite different ways. The author argues that the stances toward language of these three writers register values not only fundamental to their work but general to our culture. Language is the sign of body, of history, of difference; and a negative attitude toward language therefore implies a displacement of value away from concrete, historical condition. The approach to language of Eliot, Beckett, and Celan therefore inscribes their struggle to define and locate the values that endow our lives with meaning, and the possibility of translating these values into historical reality.
Download or read book Mystical Languages of Unsaying written by Michael A. Sells and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1994-05-02 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The subject of Mystical Languages of Unsaying is an important but neglected mode of mystical discourse, apophasis. which literally means "speaking away." Sometimes translated as "negative theology," apophatic discourse embraces the impossibility of naming something that is ineffable by continually turning back upon its own propositions and names. In this close study of apophasis in Greek, Christian, and Islamic texts, Michael Sells offers a sustained, critical account of how apophatic language works, the conventions, logic, and paradoxes it employs, and the dilemmas encountered in any attempt to analyze it. This book includes readings of the most rigorously apophatic texts of Plotinus, John the Scot Eriugena, Ibn Arabi, Marguerite Porete, and Meister Eckhart, with comparative reference to important apophatic writers in the Jewish tradition, such as Abraham Abulafia and Moses de Leon. Sells reveals essential common features in the writings of these authors, despite their wide-ranging differences in era, tradition, and theology. By showing how apophasis works as a mode of discourse rather than as a negative theology, this work opens a rich heritage to reevaluation. Sells demonstrates that the more radical claims of apophatic writers—claims that critics have often dismissed as hyperbolic or condemned as pantheistic or nihilistic—are vital to an adequate account of the mystical languages of unsaying. This work also has important implications for the relationship of classical apophasis to contemporary languages of the unsayable. Sells challenges many widely circulated characterizations of apophasis among deconstructionists as well as a number of common notions about medieval thought and gender relations in medieval mysticism.
Download or read book Between Mysticism and Philosophy written by Diana Lobel and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2012-02-01 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Judah Ha-Levi (1075–1141), a medieval Jewish poet, mystic, and sophisticated critic of the rationalistic tradition in Judaism, is the focus of this ground-breaking study. Diana Lobel examines his influential philosophical dialogue, Sefer ha-Kuzari, written in Arabic and later translated into Hebrew, which broke religious and philosophical convention by infusing Sufi terms for religious experience with a new Jewish theological vision. Intellectually engaging, clear, and accessible, Between Mysticism and Philosophy is an indispensable resource for anyone interested in the intertwined worlds of Jewish and Islamic philosophy, religion, and culture.
Download or read book Mysticism and Meaning Multidisciplinary Perspectives written by Alex S. Kohav and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2019 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The volume investigates the question of meaning of mystical phenomena and, conversely, queries the concept of "meaning" itself, via insights afforded by mystical experiences. The collection brings together researchers from such disparate fields as philosophy, psychology, history of religion, cognitive poetics, and semiotics, in an effort to ascertain the question of mysticism's meaning through pertinent, up-to-date multidisciplinarity. The discussion commences with Editor's Introduction that probes persistent questions of complexity as well as perplexity of mysticism and the reasons why problematizing mysticism leads to even greater enigmas. One thread within the volume provides the contextual framework for continuing fascination of mysticism that includes a consideration of several historical traditions as well as personal accounts of mystical experiences: Two contributions showcase ancient Egyptian and ancient Israelite involvements with mystical alterations of consciousness and Christianity's origins being steeped in mystical praxis; and four essays highlight mysticism's formative presence in Chinese traditions and Tibetan Buddhism as well as medieval Judaism and Kabbalah mysticism. A second, more overarching strand within the volume is concerned with multidisciplinary investigations of the phenomenon of mysticism, including philosophical, psychological, cognitive, and semiotic analyses. To this effect, the volume explores the question of philosophy's relation to mysticism and vice versa, together with a Wittgensteinian nexus between mysticism, facticity, and truth; language mysticism and "supernormal meaning" engendered by certain mystical states; cognitive-poetic analysis of mystical poetry; and a semiotic scrutiny of some mystical experiences and their ineffability. Finally, the volume includes an assessment of the so-called New Age authors' contention of the convergence of scientific and mystical claims about reality. The above two tracks are appended with personal, contemporary accounts of mystical experiences, in the Prologue; and a futuristic envisioning, as a fictitious chronicle from the time-to-come, of life without things mystical, in the Postscript. The volume contains fourteen chapters; its international contributors are based in Canada, Israel, United Kingdom, and the United States.
Download or read book Wittgenstein From Mysticism to Ordinary Language written by Russell Nieli and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2016-01-21 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wittgenstein: From Mysticism to Ordinary Language presents the Tractatus as a work of mystic theology intended to direct the reader to a transcendental plane from which human existence can be viewed from the divine perspective. More than any other work on Wittgenstein, this study integrates text material with personal biographical information, especially information dealing with his spiritual and psychological states. The result is a fresh, coherent, and extremely illuminating picture of Wittgenstein, successfully avoiding the pitfalls of either psychological reductionism or unfaithfulness to the text. It is bold without being reckless, passionately argued without being doctrinaire, and makes a very powerful and persuasive case for its main thesis.
Download or read book And They Shall Be One Flesh On The Language of Mystical Union in Judaism written by Adam Afterman and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2016-08-29 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In “And They Shall Be One Flesh”: On the Language of Mystical Union in Judaism Adam Afterman offers an extensive study of mystical union and mystical embodiment through the divine name and spirit in Judaism.
Download or read book The Mystical Language of Icons written by Solrunn Nes and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2009-04-10 with total page 113 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Solrunn Nes, one of Europe's most admired iconographers, illuminates the world of Christian icons, explaining the motifs, gestures, and colors common to these profound symbols of faith. Nes explores in depth a number of famous icons, including those of the Greater Feasts, the Mother of God, and a number of the better-known saints, enriching her discussion with references to Scripture, early Christian writings, and liturgy. She also leads readers through the process and techniques of icon painting, showing each step with photographs, and includes more than fifty of her own original works of art.
Download or read book Comparative Mysticism written by Steven T. Katz and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2013 with total page 644 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of primary texts introduces readers to the mystical literature of the world's great religious traditions. Beginning with an introduction by Steven T. Katz, a leading scholar of mysticism, the anthology comprises poetry, prayer, narrative, and other writings from Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Taoist, Confucianist, and Native American traditions. This collection provides readers not only with the primary mystical texts from each religious tradition, but with an explanation of the context of the source and tradition. Comparative Mysticism shows how the great mystical traditions of the world are deeply rooted in the religious traditions from which they originated. The contextual methodological approach taken throughout the anthology also addresses the critical question of what these mystical traditions, at their highest level, have in common. Despite the prevailing view that mystical traditions throughout the world are essentially similar, the presentation of the sources in this volume suggests that, in fact, the various traditions have distinct teachings and different metaphysical goals. The writings collected in Comparative Mysticism address the most fundamental and important methodological, epistemological, and hermeneutical questions regarding the study and interpretation of mysticism and mystical sources across cultures. This anthology will be an invaluable resource to students and scholars of mystic tradition for years to come.
Download or read book Jewish Mysticism written by and published by Westminster John Knox Press. This book was released on 2001-01-01 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents a historical overview of the movements and trends in Jewish mysticism including Hekhaloth mysticism, classical and Lurianic Kabbalah, Shabbetai Zevi, and Hasidism, seeking to define and explain how the various currents of tradition throughout the centuries are related. Original.
Download or read book Mystics written by William Harmless and published by Oxford University Press on Demand. This book was released on 2008 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Mystics, William Harmless, S.J., introduces readers to the scholarly study of mysticism. He explores both mystics' extraordinary lives and their no-less-extraordinary writings using a unique case-study method centered on detailed examinations of six major Christian mystics: Thomas Merton, Bernard of Clairvaux, Hildegard of Bingen, Bonaventure, Meister Eckhart, and Evagrius Ponticus. Rather than presenting mysticism as a subtle web of psychological or theological abstractions, Harless's case-study approach brings things down to earth, restoring mystics to their historical context.
Download or read book An Introduction to the Study of Mysticism written by Richard H. Jones and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2021-12-01 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 2022 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title The purpose of this book is to fill a gap in contemporary mystical studies: an overview of the basic ways to approach mystical experiences and mysticism. It discusses the problem of definitions of “mystical experiences” and “mysticism” and advances characterizations of “mystical experiences” in terms of certain altered states of consciousness and “mysticism” in terms of encompassing ways of life centered on such experiences and states. Types of mystical experiences, enlightened states, paths, and doctrines are discussed, as is the relation of mystical experiences and mysticism to religions and cultures. The approaches of constructivism, contextualism, essentialism, and perennialism are presented. Themes in the history of the world’s major mystical traditions are set forth. Approaches to mystical phenomena in sociology, psychology, gender studies, and neuroscience are introduced. Basic philosophical issues related to whether mystical experiences are veridical and mystical claims valid, mystics’ problems of language, art, and morality are laid out. Older and newer comparative approaches in religious studies and in Christian theology are discussed, along with postmodernist objections. The intended audience is undergraduates and the general public interested in the general issues related to mysticism.
Download or read book Gershom Scholem s Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism 50 Years After written by Peter Schäfer and published by Mohr Siebeck. This book was released on 1993 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sponsored by the Gershom Scholem Center for the Study of Jewish Mysticism.
Download or read book Jewish Mysticism written by Joshua Abelson and published by . This book was released on 1913 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Christian Mysticism written by Dr Kevin Magill and published by Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. This book was released on 2013-06-28 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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. The book sets out to provide students and other interested readers with access to the main theoretical approaches to Christian mysticism – including those propounded by William James, Steven Katz, Bernard McGinn, Michael Sells, Denys Turner and Caroline Walker-Bynum. It also explores postmodern re-readings of Christian mysticism by authors such as Jacques Derrida, Jean-Luc Marion and Jean-François Lyotard. The book first introduces students to the main themes that underpin Christian mysticism. It then reflects on how modern critics have understood each of them, demonstrating that stark delineation between the different theoretical approaches eventually collapses under the weight of the complex interaction between experience and knowledge that lies at the heart of Christian mysticism. In doing so, the book presents a deliberate challenge to a strictly perennialist reading of Christian mysticism. Anyone even remotely familiar with Christian mysticism will know that renewed interest in Christian mystical writers has created a huge array of scholarship with which students of mysticism need to familiarise themselves. This book outlines the various modern theoretical approaches in a manner easily accessible to a reader with little or no previous knowledge of this area, and offers a philosophical/theological introduction to Christian mystical writers beyond the patristic period important for the Latin Western Tradition.
Download or read book Approaches to Teaching Teresa of vila and the Spanish Mystics written by Alison Weber and published by Modern Language Association of America. This book was released on 2009-01-01 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The writings of Teresa of Ávila and the Spanish mystics, most notably John of the Cross and Luis de León, aroused passionate responses when they were composed. Though today's students realize that religious beliefs have wide-ranging consequences, they are presented with particular challenges in studying the Spanish mystics because of their unfamiliarity with the linguistic, social, and religious history of early modern Spain. This volume is designed to help instructors elicit students' curiosity, sympathy, and appreciation for writings that can at first seem alien or confusing. Part 1, "Materials," recommends accessible editions and translations; print, electronic, and visual resources; background and critical studies; and sources on the philosophical and theological responses to the Spanish mystics. Part 2, "Approaches," presents methods for teaching the historical contexts of and various theoretical perspectives on the mystics' works. Contributors consider these authors in relation to Islamic and Jewish mysticism, the traditions of women's writing, feminism, theology, and autobiography. They also recommend ways to teach particular texts in different kinds of courses and institutions.
Download or read book Trajectories of Mysticism in Theory and Literature written by P. Leonard and published by Springer. This book was released on 2000-05-15 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Trajectories of Mysticism in Theory and Literature is a collection of essays which considers how recent critical theory contributes to debates about mystical and negative theology. This collection draws upon a wide range of material, including Biblical texts, autobiographical, confessional and fictional writing from the sixteenth century to the twentieth century, divinity in English, German, Spanish and French traditions, as well as work on God and metaphysics by Schelling, Weil, Levinas, Derrida, de Ma, Irigaray, and Cixous.
