Studies in Mysticism and Mystical Experience in the Soviet and Post-Soviet Russia

The paper highlights the key perspectives on mysticism typical for Soviet and Post-Soviet religious studies. Recognizing the vagueness of the ”mystical’, Soviet scholars interpreted it as a belief in ”communication’ with ”supernatural powers’. Furthermore, ”mysticism’ was thought of as a multicomponent entity composed of mystical experiences, mystical beliefs, and ”mysticism’ as a ”false ideology’. Such an understanding resulted from their epistemological settings, i.e. the reflection theory of dialectical materialism. In this light, mystical experiences and beliefs were distorted ”reflections’ of objective reality in the human mind caused by factors both of an individual and a social nature. This understanding still defines the academic interpretations of the ”mystical’ in Russia today

Self-Knowledge, Abnegation, and Ful llment in Medieval Mysticism

Self-knowledge is a persistent—and paradoxical—theme in medieval mysticism, which portrays our ultimate goal as union with the divine. Union with God is often taken to involve a cognitive and/or volitional merging that requires the loss of a sense of self as distinct from the divine. Yet affective mysticism—which emphasizes the passion of the incarnate Christ and portrays physical and emotional mystical experiences as inherently valuable—was in fact the dominant tradition in the later Middle Ages. An examination of both the affective and apophatic traditions demonstrates that, in addition to constituting a necessary stage on the path toward union with the divine, self-knowledge in medieval mysticism was seen not just as something to be transcended, but (particularly in the works of female mystics) as a means of overcoming alienation from embodied existence

Book Review: Hindu Thought & Carmelite Mysticism

A review of Hindu Thought & Carmelite Mysticism by Swami Siddheswarananda

Book Review: Mysticism in Shaivism and Christianity

A review of Mysticism in Shaivism and Christianity edited by Bettina Bäumer

Book Review: Yoga and Psychology: Language, Memory, and Mysticism

A review of Yoga and Psychology: Language, Memory, and Mysticism by Harold Coward

Book Review: Theo-Monistic Mysticism: A Hindu-Christian Comparison

A review of Michael Stoeber\u27s Theo-Monistic Mysticism: A Hindu-Christian Comparison

Menorah Review (No. 3, Spring, 1985)

Apathy, Anti-Semitism, and Authority -- Shakespeare\u27s Shylock, and Ours -- Varieties of Mysticism -- R.S.V.P. -- The Ethiopian Jewish Community -- Out of the Classroo

Mysticism beyond time: A comparative study of traditional vs. modern mysticism

Mysticism in modernity is often described as ‘muddled’ and ‘superficial’ in contemporary research. These negative connotations are especially outstanding when modern mysticism is compared to a ‘classical’ or ‘traditional’ version of mysticism. On this basis, it would seem that modern phenomena do not meet the high standards that scholars attribute to the traditional versions of mysticism and on which most definitions of mysticism are based. Therefore, in this dissertation, I argue that (1) we can characterize mysticism as traditional and modern mysticism based on contemporary theoretical works. (2) The differences that these categories are based on apply only to the contextual elements of mysticism, not to mystical experiences. (3) As this differentiation does not apply to mystical experiences, modern mysticism is essentially the same as traditional mysticism. (4) Modern mysticism lacks sufficient theoretical explanations. (5) Due to contextual changes related to modern mysticism, mysticism requires an updated theoretical account in terms of its definition and categories

3. Bonaventura and Medieval Mysticism

Throughout the whole history of religious experience there have been two supplementary emphases, the rational and the non-rational, which have vied with each other for men\u27s allegiance. The Thomistic synthesis, with its stress on reason and how reason could prove the existence of God, was thought by many, including St. Bonaventura (1221-1274), to press too far the rational side of religion and thus to detract from the other side, which emphasizes the free g~it of faith, intuitive insight, and mystical experience. This rational emphasis, thought Bonaventura, could lead to intellectual pride and arrogance. It could also lead to a minimizing of that aspect of God which his Augustinian and Neoplatonic leanings led him to stress: the absolute sovereignty of God. [excerpt