Spirituality & Mysticism

“Toward an Apophatic Pluralism: Beyond Confessionalism, Epicyclism, and Inclusivism in Theology of Religions.”

by Kenneth Rose

Journal of Ecumenical Studies, Winter 2011 issue (46:1): 67-75.

Grenzüberschreitungen in der Mystik? Neuere theologische Ansätze im Umgang mit einem (inter)kulturellen Phänomen [Crossing Borders in Mysticism? Recent Theological Approaches in Dealing with a (Inter)Cultural Phenomenon], in: Studia Universitatis Babes-Bolyai. Theologia Catholica Latina 56, 2011, Heft 2, S. 15-36

by Balázs J. Nemes

In einem trivialen Verständnis bedeutet Mystik das, was die Religionen der Erde jenseits ihrer... more In einem trivialen Verständnis bedeutet Mystik das, was die Religionen der Erde jenseits ihrer institutionell-dogmatischen Ausprägungen miteinander verbindet. Inwieweit ein solch entkontextualisierter Mystik-Begriff wissenschaftlich vertretbar ist, soll genauso diskutiert werden wie die christlichen Voraussetzungen und Möglichkeiten einer sinnvollen Verständigung über fremde mystische Überlieferungen im interreligiösen Dialog. In diesem Zusammenhang sollen zwei theologische Ansätze (Josef Sudbrack und John Hick) näher besprochen werden, um zu zeigen, wie die (christliche) Theologie der Religionen über die Rolle und den Stellenwert der Mystik in der interreligiösen Verständigung urteilt. Es wird sich dabei zeigen, dass in der Einstellung außerchristlichen mystischen Überlieferungen gegenüber dieselben Dichotomien obwalten wie in der Beurteilung von nichtchristlichen Religionen: Schroffe Ablehnung des fremden Mystischen bei zeitgleichem Anspruch auf die Exklusivität der eigenen mystischen Tradition ist eher untypisch; inklusivistische und pluralistische Tendenzen sind desto häufiger anzutreffen. Vor diesem Hintergrund stellt sich die Frage, ob sich in der eigenen zweitausendjährigen Theologiegeschichte einen Ansatz findet, der nicht nur die zum Dialog erforderliche Offenheit fremden religiösen Überlieferungen gegenüber aufweist, sondern auch ein wissenschaftlich verantwortbares Umgehen mit der eigenen Tradition ermöglicht. Dabei geht es um den Ansatz der Negativen Theologie, dem beim rechten Licht gesehen sowohl das Absolutheitsdenken als auch der religiöse Relativismus fremd sind.

THEORIAS - Réseau international de chercheurs pour la théorisation transdisciplinaire de la spiritualité

by Jean Ehret

On February 18, 2012, an international network for the transdisciplinary theorization of spirituality was founded at... more On February 18, 2012, an international network for the transdisciplinary theorization of spirituality was founded at the Catholic University of Louvain. People interested may find the statutes in this document. For more information and for joining the group, please email me.

The Nature of Soul

by Author Sam Oliver

Soul

It is the nature of soul to grow, to heal, and to love. As we enter into the world, we emerge as a tiny child. We are... more It is the nature of soul to grow, to heal, and to love. As we enter into the world, we emerge as a tiny child. We are open. We do not have conditions placed on us by our parents or ourselves. We have not closed ourselves off from any possibility. It is though the world lay at our feet. We are a bundle of unconditioned purity.

As we age, conditions are placed on us to direct us along our paths intended to keep us from harm. Even if we manage to stay out of harms way, we move into a state of stimulus-response reactions toward life. This draws us further and further away from the natural state of pure being we came into the world with as an infant.

How can we return to our natural state of being? How can we call our soul back and gain a sense of spiritual well-being? The following are ways we can return to the wholeness and healing we seek as spiritual beings incarnated into the human race:

1. Do Something Creative.

Creativity engages our heart, our mind, and our imagination. These activities allow us to utilize our whole being. Our attention moves from outer expressions of the world and enters the inner dynamics of living giving rise to our heart and our imagination. When our heart and our imagination are given attention, we enter into the realm of insight. Insight is our ability to see from within just how sacred and magical our lives really are.

In the realm of soul, our humanity becomes sacred. Through creativity we are aware how life flows through us and not from us. The more we identify with these qualities of attention flowing through us, the more we are identifying with qualities residing in us that are whole and healing. It is our natural state.

2. Spend Time With A Child.

Children have a way of drawing our attention away from activities and responsibilities defining us as adults. All a child wants to do in this world is have fun. They seem to never tire of such activities. Children are constantly motivated by play.

As adults, we tend to think of play as wasted time. Adults who lose a sense of play and joy in their lives are in danger of losing self-motivation. The kind of self-motivation I am referring to involves the desire to have fun in life. This can lead to a depressive state lacking creativity, spontaneity, and the heart of a child.

Each of us has the heart of a child within us that never tires. It is the part of us fully participating in and with life. As our imagination and heart begin to guide us over the mind, we are in soul. In soul, our mind is in its proper perspective. This part of us is our inner awareness not bound by the pressures of the world. When we return to soul, the possibility of living whole and healed becomes a reality.

3. Become A Child.

The next time you look into a child's eyes try to feel their heart. Notice the difference and similarities of your heart and their heart. Is there a difference? Is this awareness a long or short distance from where you were as a child?

What happened to that little boy or little girl inside you? Since we cannot retrieve childhood physically, maybe we can from within. Remember your past as a child - the good times and the bad times. As you look at your life through the eyes of a child, recall how active your heart and imagination were. Embrace it. Let this inner vision penetrate your entire awareness. Let go of your adult interpretations of your childhood and view it with innocence and love.

Our true nature is to live in the world without being fully of it. Inside us are endless avenues that can move us toward the experience of joy. When we let go of our tendency to view the world as right or wrong, good or bad, we leave behind dualism and enter into Unity.

This Unity behind all appearances of diversity is a healing state of unconditional love. It is the part of us bringing all life into being, leading us through life, and what will lead us home. It is the force of nature giving us life. It is our soul.


Sam Oliver

The Ultimate Reality and Meaning of Samkhya

by Shiv Talwar

Published in the Journal of Ultimate Reality and Meaning, Vol. 24, No.1, March 2001.
Print a copy by visiting spiritualeducation.org.

It is in the nature of thinking and feeling minds to attempt to explain the totality of human experience. In the... more It is in the nature of thinking and feeling minds to attempt to explain the totality of human experience. In the absence of a plausible explanation, humanity attempts to improve its understanding until a reasonably satisfactory explanation is found that satisfies both the human head and the heart. Sages around the world have always searched for such explanations. In India, a school of thought known as the Samkhya philosophy is an outstanding example of this universal search for global truth.

Samkhya seems to understand the universe of sense perception as resulting from an unseen ultimate reality. Although this reality is totally imperceptible in itself, it is capable of being felt by the human heart and it underlies the entirety of perceptible universe.

Samkhya thinking regards the perceptible as a manifestation of the imperceptible underlying reality through some process of successive discretization. It enumerates the sequentially concrete and ephemeral principles emerging from the infinitely subtle and eternal ultimate reality. These principles together culminate in the universe of sense perception.

Yoga: Attainment of Ultimate Reality and Meaning

by Shiv Talwar

Piublished in the Journal of Ultimate Reality and Meaning, Vol. 27, No.1, March 2004.
Print a copy by visiting spiritualeducation.org.

Yoga is a serious system of contemplation with an integrated approach towards both the objective and transcendental... more Yoga is a serious system of contemplation with an integrated approach towards both the objective and transcendental knowledge. Yoga is a Sanskrit word, which is derived from the root yuj, meaning ‘to join’. Its purpose is first to unite the contemplative with the objective reality of the object of contemplation and then to enable unity with the realm transcending objectivity.

Yogic process begins with consciously stilling the mind to free it of its usual disturbances and fleetingness in order to develop an incisive focus of intellect to enable uninterrupted contemplation of one object. Eventually, even this one object fades and disappears from consciousness, which is left completely free of ordinary activity. The contemplative must want passionately to know the object of contemplation, or the effort needed for the contemplative union will not be possible. Any object of contemplation can enable the transcendence of objectivity, if the contemplative effort is uninterrupted.

Un tratado pedagógico en los albores del siglo XVI: "El libro de doctrina christiana", de Gutierre González

by Amparo López Arandia

published in Elucidario, 4 (2007), pp. 9-48

Gutierre González, a priest from Jaén, who lived in Rome, wrote, in the twenties of the 16th century, the book... more Gutierre González, a priest from Jaén, who lived in Rome, wrote, in the twenties of the 16th century, the book entitled "Libro de doctrina christiana", in order to use it at the school which, thanks for his patronage, was founded next to Saint Andrew's church, in Jaén. The treatise, about that is has not realized a detailed study yet, show us a great influence of the reality of the Renaissance Rome, showing many common elements to humanists and Utopian writers of this century, matters we try to analyse in this article.

Шем'он д-Тайбуте и его письменное наследие; "Книга благодати". Ибранные главы

by Grigory Kessel

Shem’on d-Taybuteh and his literary heritage; ‘Book of Grace’ Selected chapters’

Символ 61 (2012) , с. 195-213
Simvol 61 (2012), pp. 195-213

LISY, Preliminary Remarks for the Comparative Study of Mysticism - Mysticism is, what unio mystica is, in Communio viatorum 54, 2012, (in print)

by Keren Mice

The article will be published in: Communio viatorum 54, 2012, pp. (in print). When I receive the article from the author it will be available here for free.

I found his article very interesting and useful in its new perspective. It is obvious that the author follows Huss' and Balagangadhara's approach and his final argument is based on Wittgenstein. Also, we can understand his article as a polemic with a book: The Origins of Jewish Mysticism by Peter Schäfer.

Interestingly, the author mentioned in the article that a part of the material was already discussed at the international conference Rethinking Religion in India III. I followed for some time links of its participants and it seems to me there is a research group using Balagangadhara's approach from different countries and from various fields in Humanities. If you follow their links it is possible to find more books and articles on the study of comparative religion and most of them you can download for free (see more links in my About section and Profile). And all of them share a common ground. It is Balagangadhara's framework very well argued in his book: Heathen in His Blindness. Note, there are scholars who sharply disagree with him. The whole scientific discussion is very interesting and inspiring and leads to new directions in the study of mysticism and religion. Some of them you can find through Web of Science.

There is an abstract in the article.

Publications by Anna P. Sokolina

by Anna Sokolina

Piercing the Veil of Language: How to Achieve Intuitive Knowledge in Meditative Reading

by Bill Trusiewicz

Part I of a two-part article published in "Starlight," the Sophia Foundation of North America newsletter, vol. 8, No 2, Fall 2008

Piercing the Veil of Language: How to Achieve Intuitive Knowledge in Meditative Reading, Part I, is the first of two... more Piercing the Veil of Language: How to Achieve Intuitive Knowledge in Meditative Reading, Part I, is the first of two articles, in which a groundwork is laid upon which intuitive knowledge may be achieved.

Two prerequisites are discussed: a courage to face ambiguity, paradoxes and the like; and the ability to make a distinction between merely abstract ideas, what often masquerades as higher perception, and the "real thing."

Following this, eight suggestions are offered towards understanding what meditative reading involves.

Archangel Michael: How Can We Know Him? Part I

by Bill Trusiewicz

An article featured on the front page of anthroposophy.org, the website of the Anthroposophical Society in America, published on October 6, 2011 and which remains in the section entitled Articles.

On the one hand we might think it presumptuous to recommend a conscious relationship with such an exalted being as an... more On the one hand we might think it presumptuous to recommend a conscious relationship with such an exalted being as an Archangel as the title suggests. But on the other hand our own thoughts are something with which we are intimately familiar, and the fact that the being who has been called The Fiery Thought King of the Universe weaves in and out of our thought-world might make a relationship with him not quite so difficult to imagine. As is often the case, once we begin to explore something new and start to gather concepts or inner pictures connected to it, we discover facts with which we already have a certain familiarity, and are thus able to find a certain “foothold” on our new path of exploration. So the natural thing would be to investigate some of the facts that spiritual science presents us with concerning the being we usually call Archangel Michael in an effort to begin, or to further, our conscious connection with him. My intention in writing this article is not to be comprehensive, dealing in depth with the multitude of aspects that might be noted in connection with the being of Michael (that would take many books), but to explore just a few salient points, each in a series of articles on the subject, in a lively manner that may stimulate us to a fresh awareness and further exploration. I expect much of this to be familiar to those who are students of spiritual science, and I offer it simply as a reflection aimed to stimulate and enliven our thinking.

The Paradox of Evil: Elevation Through Oppression in Julian of Norwich and Marguerite Porete

by April Anson

For medieval mystical women, the ability to maintain two opposite concepts simultaneously is seemingly requisite for... more For medieval mystical women, the ability to maintain two opposite concepts simultaneously is seemingly requisite for spiritual development. Women understood their nature as both inferior and worthy, wholly evil while righteous; thus, spiritual quest for God necessitated an internalization and embodiment of paradox. In a close study of Julian of Norwich and Marguerite Porete, the female manifestation of contradiction can be seen to allow for an exceptional identification and unification with the ultimate paradox of divine-in-human Christ. In short, by virtue of gender, she can approach union with divinity. In a reading that integrates critics such as David Aers, Carolyn Bynum Walker and Nicholas Watson with Cleanth Brooks, the mystics’ internalization and use of paradox to achieve inclusion is found to place the medieval mystic in a poetic role. Not through rejection but through embrace of her “evil” nature, the female mystic is seen to unify both herself to Christ and all to God. In this, one can trace use of the paradox as a figure of speech in the writing of Julian of Norwich and Marguerite Porete, linking their writing with their perception of their complicated role in the Church and in mystic discourse.

Mysticism Meets Life Styles: Elizabeth Gilbert

by Dilge Kodak

The G-Word by Carol P. Christ

by Feminism and Religion

originally published at Feminism and Religion.com
authored by Carol P. Christ

Recently, I saw the following line in a promotion for a book to which I contributed: “This volume includes voices from... more Recently, I saw the following line in a promotion for a book to which I contributed: “This volume includes voices from Christianity, Judaism, goddess religion, the Black church, and indigenous religions.” The editors of this book are to be strongly commended for expanding the dialogue in feminism and religion beyond the confines of the Christian hegemony in which it is still all too often framed.  Nonetheless, I felt hurt and offended.  I immediately wrote to the editors asking how they would feel if a book were promoted using the words:  “This volume includes voices from Goddess religion and god traditions such as judaism and christianity.”

The ‘Profitable Counsels’ of Šemʿōn d-Ṭaibūtēh: the Syriac original and its Sogdian version

by Grigory Kessel

with Nicholas Sims-Williams.
Le Muséon 124 (2011) 279-302

This article presents a previously unknown work by Šemʿōn d-Ṭaibūtēh, an East Syriac monastic author of the 7th... more This article presents a previously unknown work by Šemʿōn d-Ṭaibūtēh, an East Syriac monastic author of the 7th century. In addition to discussing the manuscript evidence for this short treatise and its authenticity, the authors offer an edition of the Syriac text based on the one available witness, an early 20th century manuscript from Šarfeh (Lebanon), and an edition of a Sogdian translation of the text which they have discovered in the Berlin Turfan collection

The Activity of Grace in the “Book of Grace”. Some Preliminary Observations

by Grigory Kessel

M. Tamcke (ed.), Christliche Gotteslehre im Orient seit dem Aufkommen des Islams bis zur Gegenwart (Beiruter Texte und Studien 126). Beirut – Würzburg: Ergon Verlag, 2008, pp. 57-68

6. Il "Paradiso" dei sensi. Per una metaforologia sinestetica in Dante

by Valentina Atturo

published in "Critica del testo", XIV/2, 2011, "Dante, oggi"/2, pp. 425-264.
An expanded version in a new monographic book (forthcoming).

The study deals with the synaesthetic webs of sensorial metaphors, which, placed in a more articulated intratextual... more The study deals with the synaesthetic webs of sensorial metaphors, which, placed in a more articulated intratextual context, are most apt for transforming in experience Dante’s journey in «Paradiso». In the cognitive-perceptive system of the «Comedy», Dante depicts the most intense moments of paradisiacal ascent through a tactile, gustatory and olfactive perception leading to the point of mystical “conjunction” /SIGHT + TOUCH/ (Pd. 33, 80-81).
In conformity with the philosophical and theological reflection typical of Cisterciensian and Victorin authors, Dante prefers an approach grounded on the “affections” (affectiones) rather than one more focused on rationality, within the parameters of the Spiritual Senses doctrine. From this more affective standpoint, Dante pushes the viator’s will towards ever more profound mental dimensions.

Leo Tolstoy the spiritual educator

by Dan Moulin

published in the International Journal of Children's Spirituality Vol. 13, No.4, November 2008, 345-353

This paper considers the often overlooked religious and educational works of the Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy... more This paper considers the often overlooked religious and educational works of the Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910). After outlining Tolstoy's life, religious and educational views, it is argued that Tolstoy has much to offer spiritual educators today. In particular, it suggests Tolstoy's insistence on the absolute and eternal nature of spiritual and moral truths, coupled with a free and heuristic pedagogy, are key ingredients of an authentic spiritual education.
Keywords: Tolstoy; spirituality; education; spiritual development; pedagogy; religious education

review of Hagman P., The Asceticism of Isaac of Nineveh (Oxford Easrly Christian Studies). Oxford, 2010

by Grigory Kessel

The Journal of Ecclesiastical History January 63 (2012) 124-126