Download or read book Reality and Mystical Experience written by F. Samuel Brainard and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2010-11-01 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Responding to our modern disillusionment with any claims to absolute truth regarding morality or reality, this book offers a conceptual approach for discussing absolutes without denying either the relevance of divergent religious and philosophical teachings or the evidence supporting postmodern and poststructuralist critiques. Case studies of mysticism within Advaita-Vedānta Hinduism, Mādhyamika Buddhism, and Nicene Christianity demonstrate the value of this approach and offer many fresh insights into the metaphysical presuppositions of these religions as well as into the nature and value of mystical experience. Like Douglas Hofstadter's Gōdel, Escher, Bach, this book finds ultimate reality to be rationally graspable only as an eternal fugue of pattern and paradox. Yet it does not so much counter other philosophical views as provide a conceptual tool for understanding and classifying incommensurable views.
Download or read book Everything Is Spiritual written by Rob Bell and published by St. Martin's Essentials. This book was released on 2020-09-15 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "An exciting vision of the future" --Michael Eric Dyson Everything Is Spiritual is an unexpected and compelling invitation to see your life in a whole new way. We have the great moments of our lives, the highs, those times when we soar, when it all makes sense, when it feels like it all has purpose and meaning. And then there are all those other moments—the lows and aches and failures and struggles and experiences that leave us wondering what the point of it all is. Are our lives ultimately bits and pieces and fragments—you try to find a little peace and hope and then it’s over? Or is there more going on here? In our increasingly polarized and disoriented world, Everything Is Spiritual gives us a radical new take on how it all fits together, how it works, how it’s all connected. Part memoir, part extended riff on the quantum nature of reality, part history of the universe, Rob Bell takes us back through the twists and turns and struggles of his story in order to help us see the larger story so that we can reconnect with our story.
Download or read book Mystical Reason written by William Earle and published by Regnery Publishing. This book was released on 1980 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Mystical Mind written by Andrew B. Newberg, Eugene G. D'Aquili and published by Fortress Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How does the mind experience the sacred? What biological mechanisms are involved in mystical states and trances? Is there a neurological basis for patterns in comparative religions? Does religion have an evolutionary function? This pathbreaking work by two leading medical researchers explores the neurophysiology of religious experience. Building on an explanation of the basic structure of the brain, the authors focus on parts most relevant to human experience, emotion, and cognition. On this basis, they plot how the brain is involved in mystical experiences. Successive chapters apply this scheme to mythmaking, ritual and liturgy, meditation, near-death experiences, and theology itself. Anchored in such research, the authors also sketch the implications of their work for philosophy, science, theology, and the future of religion.
Download or read book A Brief Systematic Theology of the Symbol written by Joshua Mobley and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-11-18 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How do Christians understand the Trinity? How does this understanding relate to other Christian teachings? In conversation with key thinkers in contemporary and classical theology, particularly Henri de Lubac, Karl Rahner, Thomas Aquinas and Augustine, this book argues that a theology of symbols can help us glimpse the mystery of the Trinity and see how this central Christian teaching corresponds to Christian understandings of creation, humanity and the church. A symbol is not here understood as an arbitrary sign, but as a sign that mediates the presence of the symbolized. Joshua Mobley examines the understanding of the Father as “symbolized” in the Son who is the “symbol” of the Father by the “symbolism” of the Spirit, the personal agent of unity between Father and Son. These trinitarian relations then structure creaturely relations to God: God is symbolized in creation, which is a symbol of God by participation in the Son, and the church is symbolism, the union of creation with God by the power of the Spirit. Mobley thus argues that a theology of symbol helps coordinate trinitarian theology with key themes in Christian dogmatics.
Download or read book Mystical Activism written by John C. Robinson and published by John Hunt Publishing. This book was released on 2020-02-28 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Mystical Activism, we each hold the power to change the world right where we are. To call these "end times" is not hyperbole. We are in trouble and the signs are everywhere: extreme political divisions; xenophobic violence; enormous wealth inequity; poverty and homelessness; racism, sexism, and ageism; arms buildups and unending wars; and, most critical of all, terrifying climate disruption associated with man-made global warming. We are the cause of these dark times. Driven by left-brain beliefs, illusions and obsessions, humanity races headlong toward the collapse of civilization. Fortunately, the solution to these mounting crises also lies in the human psyche, arising from a most surprising source: the right-brain’s natural mystical consciousness. Our survival depends on whether we grasp and resolve this paradox in time.
Download or read book Redefining Reason written by Bradley W. Patterson and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2018-11-16 with total page 482 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Throughout the twentieth century, Western thinkers engaged in a politically charged, often highly personal and acrimonious debate over the mental and rational capacity of people from traditional nonliterate societies. The issue was a question of whether or not humanity was, at bottom, psychologically and rationally unified and equal as a species. Redefining Reason offers the first in-depth, critical history of that debate and its repercussions in modern Western thought and society. Divided into three sections, this book first sets the twentieth-century “primitive” mentality debate within its historical context so that it may be better understood. It then focuses on some of the highlights of the debate. The next section suggests that this debate was, in reality, a chapter itself in (or in an aspect of) a much larger story: the story of what may be appropriately referred to as the hyperrationalization of human society. To conclude, this book follows the debate into the twenty-first century and offers the clarification and resolutions developed in earlier chapters to contemporary students, scholars, and educated lay readers.
Download or read book Mysticism written by Jess Byron Hollenback and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 1996 with total page 660 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This sweeping study of mysticism by Jess Hollenback considers the writings and experiences of a broad range of traditional religious mystics, including Teresa of Avila, Black Elk, and Gopi Krishna. It also makes use of a new category of sources that more traditional scholars have almost entirely ignored, namely, the autobiographies and writings of contemporary clairvoyants, mediums, and out-of-body travelers. This study contributes to the current debate about the contextuality of mysticism by presenting evidence that not only are the mystic's interpretations of and responses to experiences culturally and historically conditioned, but historical context and cultural environment decisively shape both the perceptual and affective content of the mystic's experience as well. Hollenback also explores the linkage between the mystic's practice of recollection and the onset of other unusual or supernormal manifestations such as photisms, the ability to see auras, telepathic sensitivity, clairvoyance, and out-of-body experiences. He demonstrates that these extraordinary phenomena can actually deepen our understanding of mysticism in unexpected ways. A unique feature of this book is its in-depth analysis of "empowerment," an important phenomenon ignored by most scholars of mysticism. Empowerment is a peculiar enhancement of the imagination, thoughts, and desires that frequently accompanies mystical states of consciousness. Hollenback shows its cross-cultural persistence, its role in constructing the perceptual and existential environments within which the mystic dwells, and its linkage to the fundamental contextuality of mystical experience.
Download or read book What I Know For Sure written by Oprah Winfrey and published by Flatiron Books. This book was released on 2014-09-02 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The inspirational wisdom Oprah Winfrey shares in her monthly O., The Oprah Magazine column updated, curated, and collected for the first time in a beautiful keepsake book. As a creative force, student of the human heart and soul, and champion of living the life you want, Oprah Winfrey stands alone. Over the years, she has made history with a legendary talk show - the highest-rated program of its kind, launched her own television network, become the nation's only African-American billionaire, and been awarded both an honorary degree by Harvard University and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. From all her experiences, she has gleaned life lessons—which, for fourteen years, she's shared in O, The Oprah Magazine's widely popular "What I Know For Sure" column, a monthly source of inspiration and revelation. Now, for the first time, these thoughtful gems have been revised, updated, and collected in What I Know For Sure, a beautiful cloth bound book with a ribbon marker, packed with insight and revelation from Oprah Winfrey. Organized by theme—joy, resilience, connection, gratitude, possibility, awe, clarity, and power—these essays offer a rare, powerful and intimate glimpse into the heart and mind of one of the world's most extraordinary women—while providing readers a guide to becoming their best selves. Candid, moving, exhilarating, uplifting, and frequently humorous, the words Oprah shares in What I Know For Sure shimmer with the sort of truth that readers will turn to again and again.
Download or read book Kant and Mysticism written by Stephen R. Palmquist and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2019-07-10 with total page 183 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is happening when someone has a mystical experience, such as “feeling at one with the universe” or “hearing God’s voice?” Does philosophy provide tools for assessing such claims? Which claims can be dismissed as delusions and which ones convey genuine truths that might be universally meaningful? Valuable insights into such pressing questions can be found in the writings of Immanuel Kant, though few philosophical commentators have appreciated the implications beyond his famous “Copernican hypothesis.” In Kant and Mysticism, Stephen R. Palmquist corrects this skewed view of Kant once and for all. Beginning with a detailed analysis of Kant’s 1766 work Dreams of a Spirit-Seer, Palmquist demonstrates that in Dreams Kant first discovers and explains his plan to write a new, “critical” philosophy that will revolutionize metaphysics by laying bare the limits of human reason. Palmquist shows how the same metaphorical relationship—between reason’s dreams (metaphysics) and sensibility’s dreams (mysticism)—permeates Kant’s mature writings. Clarifying how Kant’s final (unfinished) book, Opus Postumum, completes this dual project, Palmquist explains how the “critical mysticism” entailed by Kant’s position has profound implications for contemporary understandings of religious and mystical experience, both by religious individuals and by philosophers seeking to understand such experiences.
Download or read book A History of Mysticism written by Richard H. Jones and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2024-04-01 with total page 681 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers a historical overview of mysticism in the world's major religious traditions. Beginning with a chapter on the nature of mystical experiences, A History of Mysticism then turns to a discussion of mysticism's prehistory in shamanism and the early use of psychedelics. The possible role of mystical experiences among early Greek philosophers (including Socrates and Plato) is subsequently addressed, followed by chapters on mysticism in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Daoism, and a variety of present-day iterations, including New Age mysticism, secular mysticism, and the scientific study of mystical experiences. An appendix covering popular misunderstandings of mystical experiences and mysticism is also included. Written in a clear, accessible style, this book is suitable for students of religion and philosophy as well as general readers interested in mysticism and the world's variety of mystical traditions.
Download or read book The Great German Mystics written by James M. Clark and published by Courier Corporation. This book was released on 2013-05-22 with total page 129 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fourteenth-century Germany produced three authors — Eckhart, Tauler, and Suso — who wrote numerous sermons, tracts, and anecdotes in the vernacular rather than Latin. This survey chronicles their lives, critiques their works, and discusses their influence on the development of Christian spiritual expression along with that of their contemporaries, the Friends of God and the Franciscan friars.
Download or read book The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Christian Mysticism written by Julia A. Lamm and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2017-02-06 with total page 672 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Christian Mysticism brings together a team of leading international scholars to explore the origins, evolution, and contemporary debates relating to Christian mystics, texts, and the movements they inspired. Provides a comprehensive and engaging account of Christian mysticism, from its origins right up to the present day Draws on the best of current scholarship by bringing together a collection of newly-commissioned readings by leading scholars Considers examples of mysticism in both Eastern and Western Christianity Offers a brilliant synthesis of the key figures and historical periods of mysticism; its core themes, such as heresy, gender, or aesthetics; and its theoretical considerations, including theological, literary, social scientific, and philosophical approaches Features chapters on current debates such as neuroscience and mystical experience, and inter-religious dialogue
Download or read book Corpus Mysticum written by Henri Cardinal de Lubac S.J. and published by University of Notre Dame Pess. This book was released on 2007-09-01 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the major figures of twentieth-century Catholic theology, Henri Cardinal de Lubac was known for his attention to the doctrine of the church and its life within the contemporary world. In Corpus Mysticum de Lubacinvestigates a particular understanding of the relation of the church to the eucharist. He sets out the nature of the church as communion, a doctrine that influenced the thinking of the Second Vatican Council. With the publication of Corpus Mysticum, this important text of contemporary Catholic ecclesiology and sacramental theology is available for the first time in an English translation. Its publication fills a significant gap in the range of de Lubac's works available to English-speaking scholars. It will be an important resource in the widespread and ongoing ecumenical discussions among Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox theologians.
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 The Meaning and Value of Mysticism written by Emily Herman and published by . This book was released on 1922 with total page 430 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Mysticism and Experience written by Alex S. Kohav and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2020-08-31 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mysticism and Experience: Twenty-First-Century Approaches embarks on an investigation of the concept of mysticism from the standpoint of academic fields, including philosophy, anthropology, religious studies, mysticism studies, literary studies, art criticism, cognitive poetics, cognitive science, psychology, medical research, and even mathematics. Scholars across disciplines observe that, although it has experienced both cyclical approval and disapproval, mysticism seems to be implicated as a key foundation of religion, alon with the highest forms of social, cultural, intellectual, and artistic creations. This book is divided into four sections: The Exposure, The Symbolic, The Cognitive, and The Scientific, covering all fundamental aspects of the phenomenon known as mysticism. Contributors, taking advantage of recent advances in disciplinary approaches to understanding mystical phenomena, address questions of whether progress can be made to systemically enrich, expand, and advance our understanding of mysticism.
