MYSTICISM
A WAY OF UNKNOWING
Keywords:
MYSTICISMAbstract
What is Mysticism? What does it signify? Are mystics psychological misfits or are they fully integrated human beings? Are mystics ‘selfenclosed monads’ or are they deeply involved with the world and all its problems? Is mysticism irrational? Is mysticism reserved only for a spiritual élite, monks, nuns, sadhus or sannyasins? Is it a reflection of psychological regression? What is the epistemic validity of mysticism?
References
Kourie “Mysticism: A Survey of Recent Issues,” Journal for the Study of Religion 5 (2) 1992, 83-103: 88-89.
Norman “Rediscovery of Mysticism,” in Jones, G., ed., The Blackwell Companion to Modern Theology, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2004, 449.
Johnson, Faith Misguided: Exposing the Dangers of Mysticism. Chicago: Chicago Moody Press, 1988, 11, 13.
Greely, A. Ecstasy, a Way of Knowing, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1974.
Moody, The Light Beyond, London: Rider, 2005, x-xi.
D’Aquili and Newberg, The Mystical Mind: Probing the Biology of Religious Experience. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1999;
Newberg and D’Aquili, Why God Won’t Go Away, New York: Ballantine books, 2001.
Zohar and Marshall, SQ - Spiritual Intelligence: The Ultimate Intelligence, London: Bloomsbury, 2000.
Hamer, The God Gene: How Faith is Hardwired into our Genes, New York: Doubleday, 2004;
Bowker, The Sacred Neuron, London: I B Taurus, 2005.
Lanzetta, The Other Side of Nothingness: Towards a Theology of Radical Openness, New York: State University of New York Press, 2001, 30.
Tracy, Blessed Rage for Order: The New Pluralism in Theology, New York: Seabury Press, 1975, 91.
William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience, London: Penguin Books, 1902, 25.
Paul Tillich, “The Lost Dimension in Religion,” in Thomas, ed., The Spiritual Situation in our Technical Society, Georgia: Mercer, 1988, 44.
Griffin, Spirituality and Society: Postmodern Visions, New York: State University of New York Press,1988:1.
Schneiders, “Theology and Spirituality: Strangers, Rivals or Partners?” Horizons 13 (2), 1986, 253-274;
Waaijman, Spirituality: Forms, Foundations, Methods, Leuven: Peeters, 2002;
Kourie, “The ‘Turn’ to Spirituality,” in de Villiers, PGR, Kourie, CET & Lombaard, C. eds., The Spirit that Moves: Orientation and Issues in Spirituality, Acta Theologia Supplement 8, Bloemfontein: University of the Free State, 2006, 22.
Borchert, Mysticism: Its History and Challenge, Maine: Samuel Weiser, Inc., 1994, 3.
McGinn, “Mysticism,” in Sheldrake, ed., The New SCM Dictionary of Christian Spirituality, London: SCM Press 2005:19;
McGinn, The Foundations of Mysticism, London: SCM Press, 1991, xviii. 15Kourie, “Mysticism: A Survey of Recent Issues,” Journal for the Study of Religion 5 (2) 1992, 83-103: 86.
Ruffing, “Kataphatic Spirituality,” in Sheldrake, ed., The New SCM Dictionary of Christian Spirituality, London: SCM Press, 2005, 394;
Marshall, Mystical Encounters with the Natural World, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Karecki, Kourie & Kretzschmar, “African Spirituality,” in Sheldrake, ed., The New SCM Dictionary of Christian Spirituality, London: SCM Press, 2005, 92.
Mbiti, Introduction to African Religion, Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1975, 65-70. See also Kalilombe, “Spirituality in the African Perspective,” in Gibellini, ed., Paths of African Theology, Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books 1994, 125-127.
Abhayananda, History of Mysticism: The Unchanging Testament, London: Watkins Publishing, 2002, 27; Rig Veda X: 90, 1-5.
Keenan, “Buddhism and Christianity,” in Sheldrake, ed., The New SCM Dictionary of Christian Spirituality, London: SCM Press, 2005, 159.
Matt, “‘Ayin’: The Concept of Nothingness in Jewish Mysticism,” Tikkun 3, 1988, 36-46:46.
Enn.vi.9.4, quoted in O’Brien, The Essential Plotinus. New York: New American Library, 1964, 78.
Enn.iii.8.10, quoted in Roy, Mystical Consciousness: Western Perspectives and Dialogue with Japanese Thinkers, New York: State University of New York Press, 2003, 64.
Mitchell, Spirituality and Emptiness: The Dynamics of Spiritual Life in Buddhism and Christianity, New York: Paulist Press, 1991, 11.
Nishitani, Religion and Nothingness, trans. Van Bragt, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982, 173.
Suzuki, “Existentialism, Pragmatism and Zen,” in Barrett, ed., Zen Buddhism: Selected Writings of D.T. Suzuki, New York: Doubleday, 1956, 261-262.
Howells, “Apophatic Spirituality,” in Sheldrake, ed., The New SCM Dictionary of Christian Spirituality, London: SCM Press, 2005,118.
Egan, What are They Saying about Mysticism? New York: Paulist Press, 1992, 2.
De div. nom VII, 3; quoted in Werner, The Yogi and the Mystic: Studies in Indian and Comparative Mysticism, London: Curzon Press, 1989, 12.
Rolt, Dionysius the Areopagite: The Divine Names and Mystical Theology, London: SPCK, 1983, 191.
Turner, “Apophaticism, Idolatry and the Claims of Reason,” in Davies, and Turner, eds., Silence and The Word: Negative Theology and Incarnation, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002, 19.
McGinn, The Mystical Thought of Meister Eckhart, The Man from whom God Hid Nothing, New York: The Crossroad Publishing Company, 2001, 46.
Fox, Breakthrough: Meister Eckhart’s Creation Spirituality, New York: Doubleday, 222.
Heidegger, Discourse on Thinking, New York: Harper & Row, 1966:205.
Wiseman, ed., John Ruusbroec: The Spiritual Espousals and Other Works, New York: Paulist Press, 1985,133.
Teasdale, “Ruysbroek’s Mystical Theology,” American Benedictine Review 35, 1984, 88.
Quoted in Mommaers and Van Bragt, Mysticism: Buddhist and Christian, New York: Crossroad 1995, 59-60.
Burrows, “Words that Reach into the Silence: Mystical Languages of Unsaying” in Dreyer, and Burrows, eds., Finding the Spirit: The Study of Christian Spirituality, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005, 208.
Pflueger “Discriminating the Innate Capacity: Salvation Mysticism of Classical Samkya-Yoga,” in Forman, ed., The Innate Capacity: Mysticism, Psychology, and Philosophy, New York: Oxford University Press, 1998, 69.
Davies, “Soundings: Towards a Theological Poetics of Silence,” in Davis, and Turner, eds., Silence and the Word: Negative Theology and Incarnation, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002, 201.
