Download or read book Mystical Experience and Religious Doctrine written by Philip C. Almond and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2015-02-06 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sinceits founding by Jacques Waardenburg in 1971, Religion and Reason has been a leading forum for contributions on theories, theoretical issues and agendas related to the phenomenon and the study of religion. Topics include (among others) category formation, comparison, ethnophilosophy, hermeneutics, methodology, myth, phenomenology, philosophy of science, scientific atheism, structuralism, and theories of religion. From time to time the series publishes volumes that map the state of the art and the history of the discipline.
Download or read book Mystical Experience Religious Doctrine and Philosophical Analysis written by Philip C. Almond and published by . This book was released on 1978 with total page 600 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Mysticism and Philosophical Analysis written by Steven T. Katz and published by London : Sheldon Press. This book was released on 1978 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Varieties of Religious Experience Complete Edition written by William James and published by DigiCat. This book was released on 2023-12-26 with total page 435 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This eBook has been formatted to the highest digital standards and adjusted for readability on all devices. The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature is a book by Harvard University psychologist and philosopher William James. It comprises his edited Gifford Lectures on natural theology, which were delivered at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland in 1901 and 1902. The lectures concerned the nature of religion and the neglect of science in the academic study of religion.
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 The Problem of Pure Consciousness written by Robert K. C. Forman and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1997 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Are mystical experiences formed by the mystic's cultural background and concepts, as ""constructivists"" maintain, or do mystics sometimes transcend language, belief, and culturally conditioned expectations? Do mystical experiences differ throughout the various religious traditions, as""pluralists"" contend, or are they somehow ecumenical? The contributors to this collection scrutinize a common mystical experience, the ""pure consciousness event""--The experience of being awake but devoid of intentional content--in order to answer these questions. Through the use of historical Hindu, Buddhist,
Download or read book Philosophy of Mysticism written by Richard H. Jones and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 2016-03-23 with total page 440 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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
Download or read book Infinite Paths to Infinite Reality written by Ayon Maharaj and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-10-08 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sri Ramakrishna is widely known as a nineteenth-century Indian mystic who affirmed the harmony of all religions on the basis of his richly varied spiritual experiences and eclectic religious practices, both Hindu and non-Hindu. In Infinite Paths to Infinite Reality, Ayon Maharaj argues that Sri Ramakrishna was also a sophisticated philosopher of great contemporary relevance. Through a careful study of Sri Ramakrishna's recorded oral teachings in the original Bengali, Maharaj reconstructs his philosophical positions and analyzes them from a cross-cultural perspective. Sri Ramakrishna's spiritual journey culminated in the exalted state of "vijñana," his term for the "intimate knowledge" of God as the Infinite Reality that is both personal and impersonal, with and without form, immanent in the universe and beyond it. This expansive spiritual standpoint of vijñana, Maharaj contends, opens up a new paradigm for addressing central issues in cross-cultural philosophy of religion, including divine infinitude, religious pluralism, mystical experience, and the problem of evil. Sri Ramakrishna's vijñana-based religious pluralism--when grasped in all its subtlety--proves to have major philosophical advantages over dominant Western models. Moreover, his mystical testimony and teachings not only cut across long-standing debates about the nature of mystical experience but also bolster recent defenses of its epistemic value. Maharaj further demonstrates that Sri Ramakrishna's unique response to the problem of evil resonates strongly with Western "soul-making" theodicies and contemporary theories of skeptical theism. A pioneering interdisciplinary study of one of India's most important philosopher-mystics, Maharaj's book is essential reading for scholars and students in philosophy of religion, theology, religious studies, and Hindu studies.
Download or read book The Varieties of Religious Experience written by William James and published by . This book was released on 1958 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: William James believed that individual religious experiences, rather than the precepts of organized religions, were the backbone of the world's religious life. His discussions of conversion, repentance, mysticism and saintliness, and his observations on actual, personal religious experiences -- all support this thesis. In his introduction, Martin E. Marty discusses how James' pluralistic view of religion led to his remarkable tolerance of extreme forms of religious behaviour, his challenging, highly original theories, and his welcome lack of pretension in all of his observations one the individual and the divine.
Download or read book Religious Experience and the Knowledge of God written by Harold A. Netland and published by Baker Academic. This book was released on 2022-02-08 with total page 421 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For many Christians, personal experiences of God provide an important ground or justification for accepting the truth of the gospel. But we are sometimes mistaken about our experiences, and followers of other religions also provide impressive testimonies to support their religious beliefs. This book explores from a philosophical and theological perspective the viability of divine encounters as support for belief in God, arguing that some religious experiences can be accepted as genuine experiences of God and can provide evidence for Christian beliefs.
Download or read book The Varieties of Religious Experience Unabridged written by William James and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2017-06-21 with total page 410 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature is a book by the Harvard psychologist and philosopher William James comprising 20 lectures given at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. These lectures concerned the nature of religion and the neglect of science, in James' view, in the academic study of religion. Soon after its publication, the book found its way into the canon of psychology and philosophy, and has remained in print for over a century. James was most interested in direct religious experiences. Theology and the organizational aspects of religion were of secondary interest. He believed that religious experiences were simply human experiences: ""Religious happiness is happiness. Religious trance is trance."" He believed that religious experiences can have ""morbid origins"" in brain pathology and can be irrational but nevertheless are largely positive. Get Your Copy Now.
Download or read book Behold the Spirit written by Alan Watts and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2011-04-06 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The perfect guide for a course correction in life" (Deepak Chopra) that teaches us how to enjoy a deeper, more meaningful relationship with the spiritual in our present troubled times. Drawing on his experiences as a former priest, Watts skillfully explains how the intuition of Eastern religion—Zen Buddhism, in particular—can be incorporated into the doctrines of Western Christianity, offering a timeless argument for the place of mystical religion in today’s world.
Download or read book The Mystical Element of Religion written by Friedrich von Hügel and published by DigiCat. This book was released on 2023-11-13 with total page 1111 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hügel's The Mystical Element of Religion features a critical but largely appreciative philosophy of mysticism. The author's "three elements of religion" are his most enduring contribution to theological thinking. The human soul, the movements of western civilization, and the phenomena of religion itself he characterized by these three elements: the historical/institutional element, the intellectual/speculative element, and the mystical/experiential element. This typology provided for him an understanding of the balance, tension, and 'friction' that exists in religious thinking and in the complexity of reality and existence. It was an organizing paradigm that remained central to his project. The effort to hold these sometimes disparate dimensions together was structurally and theologically dominant throughout his writing. The main subject of Hügel's study are the life and teaching of Catherine of Genoa (1447-1510), the Italian Roman Catholic saint and mystic, admired for her work among the sick and the poor and remembered because of various writings describing both these actions and her mystical experiences. Contents: The Three Chief Forces of Western Civilization The Three Elements of Religion Catherine Fiesca Adorna's Life, up to her Conversion; and the Chief Peculiarities predominant throughout her Convert Years Catherine's Life from 1473 to 1506, and its Main Changes and Growth Catherine's Last Four Years, 1506-1510 Catherine's Doctrine Catherine's Remains and Cultus Battista Vernazza's Life Psycho-physical and Temperamental Questions The Main Literary Sources of Catherine's Conceptions Catherine's Less Ultimate This-World Doctrines The After-Life Problems and Doctrines The First Three Ultimate Questions The Two Final Problems: Mysticism and Pantheism, the Immanence of God, And Spiritual Personality, Human and Divine Back Through Asceticism, Social Religion, and the Scientific Habit of Mind, to the Mystical Element of Religion
Download or read book Zen and the Unspeakable God written by Jason N. Blum and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2015-09-21 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Zen and the Unspeakable God reevaluates how we study mystical experience. Forsaking the prescriptive epistemological box that has constrained the conversation for decades, ensuring that methodology has overshadowed subject matter, Jason Blum proposes a new interpretive approach—one that begins with a mystic’s own beliefs about the nature of mystical experience. Blum brings this approach to bear on the experiential accounts of three mystical exemplars: Meister Eckhart, Ibn al-ʿArabi, and Hui-neng. Through close readings of their texts, he uncovers the mystics’ own fundamental assumptions about transcendence and harnesses these as interpretive guides to their experiences. The predominant theory-first path to interpretation has led to the misunderstanding and misrepresentation of individual mystical experiences and fostered specious conclusions about cross-cultural comparability among them. Blum’s hermeneutic invites the scholarly community to begin thinking about mystical experience in a new way—through the mystics’ eyes. Zen and the Unspeakable God offers a sampling of the provocative results of this technique and an explanation of its implications for theories of consciousness and our contemporary understanding of the nature of mystical experience.
Download or read book Quietism Agnosticism and Mysticism written by Krishna Mani Pathak and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022-01-01 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents a unique collection of papers on various philosophical aspects of the unknown and unvoiced truth and reality of the cosmic world. It offers a systematic analysis of the three philosophical theories of Quietism, Agnosticism and Mysticism and introduces readers to the fundamentals of mystical knowledge claimed by philosophical schools of the east and the west. It discusses, debates and deliberates on philosophical issues concerning the acquisition of truth, its objectivity and its various dimensions along with the application of thoughts pertaining to Quietism, Agnosticism, and metaphysical-mystic traditions in philosophy. It examines and precisely defines the scope and limits of knowledge, the respective way of life, its expressions and morality, mystical revelation, ineffability of the ultimate, value realism, and faith and reason - with a primary focus on the classical Indian schools of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Agnosticism, the Bāuls, Greek traditions, modern western meta-philosophy, and contemporary quietist debate in religion and theology. This insightful collection should be of great interest to independent researchers, students and teachers of philosophy, theology, Mysticism and Agnosticism, cultural studies and religious studies.
Download or read book Religious Experience written by Wayne Proudfoot and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 1987-09-14 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How is religious experience to be identified, described, analyzed and explained? Is it independent of concepts, beliefs, and practices? How can we account for its authority? Under what conditions might a person identify his or her experience as religious? Wayne Proudfoot shows that concepts, beliefs, and linguistic practices are presupposed by the rules governing this identification of an experience as religious. Some of these characteristics can be understood by attending to the conditions of experience, among which are beliefs about how experience is to be explained.
Download or read book Varieties of Religious Experience written by William James and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 492 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: William James' series of lectures on religion as it is is apprehended by, and affect, the individual.
