Mystical Union

Research into the unio mystica has revealed what seems to be an area of "real discussion" between scholars of different traditions of mysticism, particularly those of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Although this research serves as a promising start to the dialogue among scholars, it has also raised many questions about a "shared moment" that is nevertheless expressed in "irreducibly diverse" and distinct ways in each tradition. What purpose, for instance, can generic cross-cultural categories serve when they mean little or nothing to scholars in each tradition? By contrast, tradition-specific vocabularies are profuse and often difficult to represent in interlinguistic contexts without significant explanation. The challenge of translating mystical texts, imagery, and ideas across cultures and linguistic traditions raises obvious concerns about the misrepresentation and distortion of traditions in an environment of post-colonial critique. Nevertheless, the continued promise of dialogue calls for specialists of these traditions-particularly non-western and non-Christian traditions-to approach, assess, re-formulate, and even challenge the categories of mysticism from within the conceptual and theoretical horizons of the traditions that they research. The present study models such an approach to scholarship in mysticism. It offers a (re)formulation of the unio mystica from within the theoretical frame of the 12th/13thcentury Muslim/Sufi mystic, Ibn Arabī (d. 638/1240) and early members of his school of thought. By unpacking the primary terms involved in such an account-"God", the "human being/self", and "union"-from within the conceptual and theoretical horizons of that tradition, it problematizes the prevailing understanding of the unio mystica constructed from the writings of specialists in Christian mysticism. More importantly, it illustrates the payoff in terms of dialogue (incorporating the critique of existing theories) when each tradition operates confidently from its own milieu, developing its own theoretical resources for mysticism rather than prematurely embracing existing ideas or categories.

Social Representations Theory (SRT) refers to an approach within social psychology focusing on systems of beliefs, concepts, and values that establish social order and allow for individuals and groups to identify and understand themselves vis-a-vis others. It involves the ascription of meaning to phenomena so that the unfamiliar is made familiar, and new concepts are integrated into existing worldviews in an ongoing process of constructing and interpreting social realities. This approach has not yet been applied to any biblical texts, and this article will explore how such an application would prove fruitful for understanding the processes of identification and community formation in early Christian groups, with a specific focus on Ephesians. This study will focus on how the concepts of reconciled differences (Eph 2.11-22) and of the 'new self' (Eph 4.17-32) are communicated to the readers. Analyzing these concepts through SRT will elucidate how the author advocates for certain beliefs, concepts, and values as part of the community members' process of aligning themselves with their newly created self. Reading Ephesians through SRT can better elucidate how the text reflects its enigmatic community, which was being formed and reformed through identification, division, and re-identification in the tumultuous second half of the first century.

The Christian soul has customarily been understood as ultimately separate from the body, and this dualism was probably the original biblical position (Weir R.S. 2022). In modernity its credibility faces three challenges. Firstly within doctrine itself, and in relation to the specification of the true self. A major strand of Christianity would demote the obvious soul candidate in favour of the self being the human being as a Thomist soul-body hybrid. Secondly and more pressing, science and affiliated analytic philosophy with its strong materialist reductionist leanings, usually maintain no metaphysical reality for the soul. Thirdly yet differently, this is further supported by a number of eastern religions regarding the self as illusory. Recently the ontology of consciousness in contrast with the last century, as a would-be essential property of the soul, has received some greater affirmation through nouveau panpsychism. Subsequently this is only for it to be firmly materially grounded, commonly through Russellian monism and accompanied by a currently favoured functionalist theory of mind that is integrated information theory. This paper pushes back particularly against the second and third challenges in favour of the reality of the traditional soul, towards which we are then invited to give our full ontological commitment.

Khwâja ʿAbd Allah al-Ansâri est né à l'aube du deuxième millénaire de notre ère en l'an 1006 dans la région du Khorasan dans l'actuel Afghanistan. Hanbalite fervent, soufi à la vie mouvementée, il ne cessera de combattre sa vie durant ses adversaires achʿarites et muʿtazilites depuis sa ville natale de Hérat. Figure singulière et controversée qui défend un littéralisme des plus stricts, tout en faisant appel à suivre un cheminement spirituel prenant ses fondements dans la sunna, ce Pîr-i Hérat, comme on le surnomme souvent, ne manquera pas de laisser son empreinte sur la postérité à travers des écrits qui, pour l'essentiel, ont été dictés à ses disciples à une période avancée de sa vie. Dans cette monographie, l'islamologue dominicain Serge de Laugier de Beaurecueil (1917-2005), rassemble et traduit trois traités du Maître spirituel qui ont été écrits dans des contextes et à des époques variés : Les Cent Terrains, Les Étapes des Itinérants vers Dieu, et Les Déficiences de Demeures.

In two separate and remote mystical traditions, in the kabbalistic 'Book of the Fountain of Wisdom' and in Abhinavagupta and his two followers, the same formula is used to describe the initial inner division within the One or the Absolute, at the first stage of emanation. The formulas, presenting the twofold nature of the primal phoneme a as a double that includes within itself two distinct phonemes, a+a, yet without causing a change within the Absolute, are a sophisticated linguistic mechanism to describe the initial appearance of the second emanation while keeping the source in its unique unchanged supremacy. But a wider consideration of the similarities and differences between the two traditions shows that their common linguistic world-view is wider than a unique formula. The two traditions consider language as an inherent part of the divine and of all creation; they consider the phoneme a as an initial resonance, before sound itself, yet found within each phoneme, similar to the supremacy and hidden presence of the One within the emanations and creation; and both traditions present, in accordance, a unique mystical experience of the union with the transcendent, yet keeping a clear inspective awareness of reality, within an extrovertive mystical unity.

Michael Anthony Sells (1949) is a professor at the University of Chicago's School of Theology and one of the eminent scholars in the field of mysticism. He believes that Muslim mystics have been influenced by intellectual-philosophical, cultural-poetic, ḥadīth-Quranic, and theological traditions in explaining their mystical experiences. In “bewildered tongue” (1989), Sells tries to highlight five examples of the language worlds related to these traditions and shows the similarity of the Sufis’ language with their traditional-religious backgrounds, especially in terms of mystical union and passing away (Fanāʾ). These language worlds are as follows: poetry of pre- Islamic Arabia; theological (Kalam) terminology; ḥadīth and Qur'anic language regarding ascent through the heavenly spheres to the divine throne (Miʿrāj); ḥadīth of superogatory devotions (al-nawāfil) and the Sufi "bewildered dialogues" of union in which distinctions between subject and object, speaker and hearer, begin to melt, and finally, the later philosophical language of Ibn Arabi (mystical dialectic) to explain the mystical unity. This paper, using a descriptive-analytical method, first explains the ideas of Sells in his aforementioned work and then evaluates them. Regarding the research material, his work has failed to cover some important ḥadīths and Quranic verses, and from a formal perspective, besides referring to some weak manuscripts, some of his translations are not precise. Nevertheless, the author’s comparative approach to Abrahamic religions and his profound knowledge of Arabic literature and poetry of pre-Islamic Arabia are among the positive features of the work, which have greatly helped Sells in explaining the language of mystical experience in Islam.

En estos tiempos contemporáneos, las preguntas en torno al por qué y al cómo del sufrimiento se han convertido en una cuestión esencial. Así las cosas, pensar 'lo humano' ha sido un camino acertado para descubrir, más detalladamente, aquella historia del sufrimiento (Leidensgeschichte) que aún sigue en curso. Mediante un acercamiento a los Escritos de Etty Hillesum, se presentan algunas perspectivas filosófico-teológicas que posibilitan no sólo que se clarifique el papel del sufrimiento en la vida del ser humano, sino que éste se presente como una escuela de sabiduría (Weisheitsschule).

In contemporary times, questions about the essence of suffering have become an essential issue. Thus, thinking about the 'human' has been a successful way to discover, in more detail, the History of suffering (Leidensgeschichte) that is still present. Through an approach to the Writings of Etty Hillesum, some philosophical-theological perspectives will be presented that will make it possible not only to clarify the role of suffering in the human being, but to present this suffering as a School of wisdom (Weisheitsschule).

This bachelor thesis written for French Language and Culture studies at the University of Amsterdam compares the  role of Love in the union with God or the One in the works of late medieval mystic Marguerite Porete's and 'founder of neoplatonism' Plotinus. Without daring to make any broad conclusions, by putting parts of the works next to eachother many similarities do arise, as well as differences, that might be of interest to the larger understanding of (the extend of) the neoplatonic traits in Marguerite Porete's innovative take on medieval love mysticism.

The Bible represents a pertinent area of translation activity globally. The bestselling book ever remains the greatest challenge to translators. The book so packed with female characters, both ordinary and prophetesses, visionaries, even protagonists, still lacks female contribution to biblical translation. There is a huge gap that calls for female translators and interpreters to contribute, so that female biblical characters can speak with their own voice bringing the sense of a woman and her unique human and Divine perception. From times immemorial dissatisfaction with a certain reality has always launched the pursuit of an improved and more satisfactory solution. The author of the paper has been appointed and anointed to a very prestigious function in the Catholic Church, namely to be a female lector to read the Lectionary and the Prayer of the Faithful during liturgical celebrations of the Holy Mass. In this service she has been frequently dissatisfied with the mistranslations, or entire lack of translation of the original concepts. The strongest disagreement occurred vividly in the case of “Rabbuni” as spontaneously expressed by Mary Magdalene, the very first witness to the key event in Christianity in the New Testament, i.e. the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. In her personal quest for more quality in modern biblical translation, the author first spotted and presented in her former publication some potential credible parallel texts, i.e. the documents of West Christian female mystics, called Brides of Christ (Łukiewicz-Kostro, 2022: 296). Now, an inspiration has come to use the Lectionary and the Prayer of the Faithful as intralingual parallel texts. Such a selection guarantees the desired credibility of the research because liturgical texts are never selected ad hoc, nor are they coincidental, but always carefully chosen by the appointed Catholic Church Authorities. This way, the improved new translation cannot be accused of being heretical or risky. For the methodology, the author applied the already well established mixed-method case-study analysis with their credible and responsible research tools, in order to reach evo lution, rather than revolution, as this text needs to bring innovation with respect to the tradition and centuries of previous scholarly efforts worldwide. An experimental linguistic case-study combined with a creative transposition method using intralingual parallel texts is conducted. Finally, a further development is suggested for global biblical translation projects on the Name of God with the use of other liturgical, religious and non-religious intralingual and interlingual parallel texts, bi-texts and para-texts combined.

In 1947 Harry Austryn Wolfson published his massive and revisionary Philo: Foundations of Religious Philosophy in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. With the book, Wolfson aimed at proving that Philo was an innovative and highly influential philosopher-by no means an isolated Jew of no consequence to the history of philosophy. As becomes clear from numerous letters written to Wolfson on the occasion of the publication of the book and stored at the Harvard University Archives, for Jewish readers Wolfson's proposed rehabilitation of Philo could provide a point of orientation. It served as a source of comfort and of pride in the postwar years. While the main thesis of Wolfson's book, Philo as the precursor of medieval philosophy, was rejected by most scholars of Philo and ancient philosophy, the letters and notes discussed in this article show that much more was at stake than a purely academic discussion. * I would like to thank the staff at Harvard University Archives for their help during my research for this article. Letters from the Wolfson archive are cited with the permission of the Harvard University Archives. I initiated this work during my tenure as a Harry Starr Fellow at the Center for Jewish Studies at Harvard University in the spring semester of 2017. I wish to thank the anonymous reviewers of this article whose useful comments and editorial suggestions helped improve my manuscript. I would also like to thank

C laude Bruaire avait développé en maître ce thème d'une logique de l'existence sous le signe du don de la liberté, et de la dette infinie de grâces et de remerciements envers notre immémoriale Origine. La forte « ontodologie » du philosophe français, où s'engrènent réciproquement l'être et l'amour à partir de la vie divine ellemême, semblait cependant bien isolée dans le paysage philosophique contemporain. Seul J.L. Marion peut-être laisse deviner, dans le progrès constant de sa pensée, et le souffle qui l'inspire, la lente et profusive maturation d'une intuition qui reprend, sur un plan original, le rythme pneumatique d'inspiration et d'expiration qui marquait la grande conception de Bruaire.

Long before Carlos Castaneda investigated Don Juan's teachings for attaining the extraordinary, anthropologists have delved into what their own culture might consider the strange and inexplicable. Marvin Harris gleefully demonstrated just how much so-called strange customs were at core rational and retained evolutionary advantage. Andrew Newberg, et.al. described the neural pathways of mystical experience, and John Baker and Michael Winkelman have promoted a biocultural approach to the study of religion. In this paper, we consider an experiment by Esalen Institute founder Michael Murphy and his late colleague, George Leonard in the cultivation of the extraordinary-what they chose to call the 'metanormal'-to achieve the inexplicable. We examine Murphy and Leonard's use of the 'Strangeness Curve' in developing a program that brings 'strange' into the daily lives and practices of participants. For Murphy and Leonard, experiencing the extraordinary begins with recognizing and acknowledging the strange. The experiment they began in the late 1990s sought to routinize a rational, measurable process by which practitioners could access the 'metanormal' without the indoctrination of religious belief, without spiritual practice, and without the ingestion of entheogenic substances.

While much has been written on the moral and metaphysical statuses of fetuses in Christian bioethics, little thought has been given to how we might characterize the afterlives of the unborn, especially of those human biological individuals who die before even developing a body that could theoretically be resurrected. In this paper, I therefore undertake an examination of questions surrounding the afterlife, specifically as it relates to early pregnancy loss. I first lay out what I call the "problem of weird heavens" that arises when we consider that significantly more unborn human beings have died than have been born in the history of humankind. I then go on to consider questions surrounding both the soteriological status of the embryo and the status of any resurrected "body" it might have. I conclude with the germs of of an alternative approach mirrored on the idea of embryonic resorption and mystical union.

Le frère prêcheur, Jean Tauler, né dans les premières années du XIV ème siècle à Strasbourg et mort le 16 juin 1361 en cette même ville, livre, dans ses sermons 1 , un enseignement centré sur la présence et l'agir de Dieu en nous, comme avant-goût de la vie éternelle. Aussi, dans le Sermon 12, interprète-t-il la fête des Tentes, à laquelle Jésus invite ses frères à prendre part, dans le sens de cet avant-goût 2 : « Mon temps n'est pas encore venu, tandis que le vôtre est toujours prêt » (Jn 7,6). Par l'oeuvre de la grâce de Dieu, en effet, nous participons dès maintenant et à tout instant à la félicité éternelle, où nous verrons Dieu face à face, en tant qu'il nous est donné de jouir de sa présence dans la pureté du fond (grunt) de l'âme. Une telle expérience est inséparablement le fait d'une recherche constante de Dieu, dans l'humilité et le détachement de ce qui n'est pas Dieu, si bien que, pour nous, le temps est toujours prêt, en rentrant en nous-mêmes et en nous élevant au

Calligraphy is a beautiful and expressive form of language for conveying tangible and intangible messages in various scripts. Other than its perceptible form and communicational message, it has the potential to be unveiled in various contexts such as the glorification of sacred language for valuing its status as an esthetic form or a mystic experience attaining spirituality through repetition of verbal invocation, and meditative marks. Applying a descriptive research method, this study will be explaining a brief history of the emergence of calligraphy in South Asia and its functional usage. Furthermore, the practice lead essay shall unveil the journey of learning traditional calligraphy into thematic commercial, lastly its transformation into an intellectual and spiritual experience and its concealed meanings and impacts on researcher. The descriptive visual essay presents an interesting practice-led experiential disclosure and reflection of its transformations for the lover of calligraphy and textual art through sensory and kinesthetic experience.

Over the past two decades, exceedingly more attention has been paid in theological circles to the role of the church as reading community in the interpretation of the Bible. This has been especially the case within the movement known as theological interpretation of Scripture headed by key figures such as Kevin Vanhoozer, Stephen Fowl, Francis Watson, and others. One of the major objections to applying interpretive community theory to the church is that it tends to turn more to philosophy, sociology and linguistics for its understanding of ecclesiology than to theology and Christian dogmatics. In this dissertation, I provide an examination of this criticism as well as a blueprint for a constructive hermeneutic proposal that attempts to overcome this failure. I have called this proposal a “new-creational” hermeneutic in dialogue with James K. A. Smith’s “creational” hermeneutic and John Zizioulas’s ecclesial ontology. I have used Zizioulas’s theological ontology both as a corrective for Smith’s phenomenological notion of creation and as a foundation for my own constructive proposal. The results suggested (a) that Smith’s theoretical starting point for creation impedes him from attaining the kind of robust ecclesiology needed to sustain the special hermeneutic of Scripture he calls for, and (b) that such a special hermeneutic must be grounded an ecclesial notion of mystical union. My findings continue the discussion in the theological interpretation of Scripture movement, bringing to bear on it, however, the important though overlooked role that the mystical aspect of new creation has on the ontological constitution of church-as-interpretive-community.

George H. van Kooten, “Balaam as the Sophist Par Excellence in Philo of Alexandria: Philo’s Projection of an Urgent Contemporary Debate onto Moses’ Pentateuchal Narratives,” in The Prestige of the Pagan Prophet Balaam in Judaism, Early Christianity and Islam (ed. George H. van Kooten and Jacques van Ruiten; Themes in Biblical Narrative 11; Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2008), 131-161.

This article explores Abraham Kuyper’s spirituality by comparing it to that of John Calvin. Calvin’s Institutes exhibits three dimensions of his spirituality in the context of the mystical union with Christ, namely, the affective character of this union, its effects and its significance for a correct estimation of the world. By comparison, Kuyper put a greater emphasis on the importance of the affections in mystical union because he gives more weight to the regenerated life. This focus also coheres with Kuyper’s more optimistic approach to the Christian life, which contrasts with Calvin’s emphasis on the need for daily justification. In Kuyper’s approach the indwelling of the Spirit represents the union between heaven and earth, while Calvin stresses that God’s future kingdom is beyond the here and now.

This essay seeks to compare the sacramental views of 5th-6th century theologian Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite with those of the puritan theologian and pastor Jonathan Edwards. While these two men appear to have little in common, they both share a neoplatonic framework and express similar emphases in their theology of the sacraments. While they may both emphasize union with God and the church, ontological transformation in the sacrament, unveiling of Christ, and real presence they depart with regard to the presence of apophaticism in the sacraments. While Dionysius maintains a robust overarching apophaticism that constitutes the elements and pedagogical nature of the Supper, Edwards' approach lacks apophatic nuances in his understanding of the liturgy, maintaining heavier emphasis on the reality of Christ's true presence and the re-presentation of the original event.

The purpose of this celebratory essay (BR at 65) is to trace ways Biblical Research has helped foster early Jewish studies (especially on texts of Second Temple Judaism outside of the Hebrew Bible), both as an independent field and as an integral part of "biblical research," with a special focus on Philo of Alexandria.

Abū Ismāʿīl ʿAbdallāh al-Harawī al-Anṣārī (d. 481/1089) places the refinement of human character traits, what we would call “the virtues,” toward the middle of one’s journey, following in this placement models of the Sufi states and stations that preceded him. By considering the structure and logic of Anṣārī’s waystations, readers of Sufi texts can appreciate the place of the refinement of character traits as transitional. The wayfarer proceeds from a perfection of the bodily heart to a more receptive and sublime perfection of the spirit, from action to reception. That receptive state ultimately becomes union (al-jamʿ), which Anṣārī calls “the terminus of the stations of the wayfarers and the outermost, coastal portion of the ocean of tawḥīd,” that is, it is the periphery of knowing God’s oneness (tawḥīd), that side or edge of God’s oneness accessible to humans.  In this, Anṣārī frames the Sufi stations as a pathway to union and direct knowledge. While this structure, one leading to union, proved inspiriting to many commentators, it also aroused the condemnation of two Ḥanbalī thinkers who opposed what some have called “monist” (or, from their perspective, al-Ittiḥādiyya, the “People of Unification”) resonances in Islamic ethics, namely, Taqī al-Dīn Aḥmad ibn Taymiyya (d. 728/1328) and Shams al-Dīn ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (d. 751/1350).  There are weighty epistemological differences that come out in the commentaries despite the brevity of Anṣārī’s ethical treatise. The key concern here will be to consider commentators’ responses to the structure of Anṣārī’s treatise vis-à-vis its most disputed proclamation—namely, that the waystations end with union with God.

“Transcending Character as a Quest for Union: The Place of al-Jamʿ in Sufi Ethical Commentaries on Khwāja ʿAbdallāh Anṣārī’s Waystations,” Mysticism and Ethics in Islam, edited by Bilal Orfali, Atif Khalil, and Mohammed Rustom. Beirut: American University of Beirut Press, 2022. Pp. 163-186.

It is often, but groundlessly, stated and repeated in the secondary literature that Plotinus attained divine union with the One "four times" or only "four times", based on a misinterpretation of a statement by Porphyry in his Life of Plotinus, taken alone and out of context.  Here is presented a Q. and A. on this matter that indicates that according to the sources this is not the case, but rather that Plotinus regularly attained the divine/mystical union, not just "four times".

The aim of this contribution is to highlight al-Ġazālī’s account of ittiḥād or “union” with God; to this purpose, we have traced and examined, within his works, the various passages dedicated to the subject. This analysis shows that al-Ġazālī, although critical of the doctrine of ittiḥād understood in the literal sense, accepts it in a metaphorical way, interpreting it as the state of obliteration of the self ( fanā’) in the divine uniqueness (tawḥīd). Even though he defines tawḥīd, in its highest sense, as “not seeing in existence but One”, the terminological and content analysis of the ġazalian passages clearly shows, in our opinion, that he does not adhere to the monism inherent in the so-called waḥdat al-wujūd; on the contrary he strongly supports the monotheistic paradigm. The assertion that God is the only real existent – to be understood in Avicennan terms as the only necessarily existent –, does not imply in fact that creatures are deprived of their own substantial reality and is therefore consistent with the statement that everything has God as its sole creator. In this sense, the ġazalian need to point out that the “absorption” of the Sufi into God is not ittiḥād but tawḥīd is not a mere terminological issue or an instrumental attempt to make “orthodox” an “heterodox” doctrine, but it is the proper expression of the true meaning of that “absorption”, and it’s no coincidence that it corresponds to the foundation of Islam: monotheism.

This publication is an historical-philosophical inquiry about  the riddle of Mosaic prophecy in Maimonides' writings. It examines the affinity of Mosaic prophecy, according to Maimonides (1138-1204), toward metaphysical contemplation and its epistemological limitations, which prevented even Moses, the man of ultimate perfection (a singular phenomenon in human history), from achieving an Intellectual unity with the Active Intellect. Moses was only permanently intellectualized by the emanated light (Intelligibles), flowing from the Active Intellect.

The essay also suggests a comparative study about concepts of human perfection,  divine illumination, and prophecy  in  the philosophical writings of Al-Fārābī (880-950), Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna, 980-1037), and Ibn Bajjah (Avenpace, 1090-1138) ,and  their contemporaries Sūfī  scholars: Abū Ḥāmid Al- Ghazālī  (1058-1111), and  Shihāb al-Dīn al-Suhrawardī  (1154-1191).

Mysticism, religion and mankind’s relationship with an all-absolute deity has been a prominent part
of the human experience throughout history. Poets such as Emerson and Rumi were similarly concerned with
this question in creating their works. Although Rumi’s thought stems from the Quran and Emerson’s
manifestation of Nature takes roots in the ancient eastern philosophies such as Buddhism, their works seem to
share some explicit characteristics. Rumi (1207-1273) lived most of his life in Konya and Khorasan and
Emerson (1803-1882) lived in America, but their immense geographic and temporal distances did not surpass
their analogous attitudes as mystics. The biggest and the most obvious affinity between these mystic thoughts
is believing in Monism as a spiritual practice. Although Emerson read and was influenced by classical Persian
poetry of Hafiz and Sa’di, there is no evidence suggesting that he was familiar with Rumi’s poetry. Moreover,
thematic analogies between Rumi’s Masnavi and Emerson’s essay on Nature result in a shared ideology which
includes themes varying from monism, kashf or unveiling, attitudes towards language and the uninitiated.
These concepts, observed in both works, point us toward the realization of universal features of mysticism.

The theologian true is Known of Thee
And Loved of Thee to give him Thy Sheer Grace
Who Knows Thee as Thee Know Thyself, Thy Sea,
Who Lives Thy Life, gazing upon Thy Face.
In this wise, pure knowledge of Thee attained
And no one theologian without;
For no one Knows the Father, His Truth gained,
But him to whom Thee reveal Love Devout,
Creating such in him by Grace to tell
The same Truth to the Church, and to the world
That none think that they know God’s Mind so well
Who live not Thine experience unfurled.

From The Divine Odyssey
Canticle XVI, Canto 29, Lines 13-24

*

Theology, Theos Logos, is not an intellectual discipline or endeavor, nor is it the province of academe. Theology properly so-called is an existential undertaking and spiritual process of the highest order. It is Soul becoming God.
Thus the Theologian is One who Knows God and, therefore, is God; for to Know God is to be God.

The beatific vision is widely perceived as a Roman Catholic doctrine. Many continue to view deification as a distinctively Eastern Orthodox doctrine incompatible with the Western theological tradition, especially its Protestant expressions. This essay will demonstrate that several Reformers of the first and second generation promoted a vision of redemption that culminates with deification and beatific vision. They affirmed these concepts without apology in confessional statements, dogmatic works, biblical commentaries, and polemical treatises. Attention will focus on figures in the Reformed tradition though one could produce similar surveys for the Lutheran and Anglican branches of the Reformation as well. John Calvin will receive extended treatment because some scholars dispute whether he affirmed deification. This essay presents important evidence thus far overlooked which should settle the question.

Utkin Oleg. The Category "The One" and a mystical experience. Hermeneutic strategy of an interpretation of a mystical text.

The article contains the result of the comparative analysis of henological and mystical texts. This paper considers «The One» category in its relationship with a mystical experience. The author raises the question of finding a strategy for more complete understanding of the meaning of «The One» category when working with mystical text. This work considers mystical text as a text that simultaneously contains both the revealed «truth» and the personal experience of the mystic. As a result of the research, the author comes to the conclusion that if mystics had personal experience of The One, then The One cannot but be that thing that they themselves were. To some extent, «The One» category in a mystical text is an attempt of rational organisation of subjective experiences. Accordingly, the mystical text contains elements of the autobiographical text, which in turn authorises the use of the biographical approach when working with mystical text.

For much of my personal and professional life I have had an enduring interest in the distinction between mind and awareness. As my education unfolded over these many years, I have been happy to recognize that this distinction between mind and awareness is of serious consideration in continental phenomenology, in forms of psychoanalytic understanding such as the object relations work of Donald Winnicott, as well as in many forms of the experiential psychotherapies such as Gestalt, experiential focusing, in Ericksonian hypnosis, structural family therapy, archetypal psychotherapy, existential psychotherapy, existential psychoanalysis to name a few. When I began to extend my interest based on continental phenomenology into the eastern wisdom traditions, I found the same distinction within the Hindu Tantric tradition of Kashmir Shavism. Later in my life I found the same distinction within the Tibetan non-dual Nyingma tradition of Dzogchen. In my study of the Qi Gong tradition, I had the good fortune of being able to study for a number of years with Dr. Yan Xin who is a most remarkable healer and who has this same distinction of mind and awareness in his form of Daoist Qi Gong. From an historical view point, this distinction of mind and awareness was central in gnostic philosophy and gnostic theology. In contemporary Jungian archetypal psychology there is a similar distinction between the knowing of mind of ordinary life world of lived experience and the knowing of the archetypal dimension of lived experience, as well as the knowing of the primordial awareness dimension of pure potentiality. I have also had this interest in and through the phenomena of my own knowingness, the knowing of self, the knowing of others and of knowing of the encompassing nature of Existential Being. I have had for as long as I can remember, the sense of the explicit experience of my mind as explicit thoughts, and explicit feelings and explicit sensations and explicit imaginative imagery, and at the same time a subtle sense of tacit or implicate or implicit sense of intuitive knowing. In this way I have always felt I had two ways of knowing.

The phenomenology of the unfolding elaboration of our capacity to know Being directly and as well as our experience to know Being through beings is the focus of this paper. I will focus on the phenomenological elaboration of our knowing of mind; the phenomenological knowing of direct awareness and the consequent simultaneous intertwining of knowing through mind and through awareness. This union of our mind and our awareness allows the knowing of Being through beings and knowing the indivisibleness of beings and Being. As the Dakini said to Dudjom Lingpa " You and I are indivisible. " Our paper begins with a phenomenological elaboration of the Two Ways of Knowing. This is a necessary and a most useful distinction for our knowing of both beings and Being simultaneously. The Two Ways of Knowing: Mind Knowing Form and Awareness Knowing Being Mind Knows Form! Our mind knows forms, and things, both subtle and gross. Our mind knows beings and things. Our mind knows subject and our mind knows otherness. Our mind knows dualities .Our mind knows me and you, us and them and this and that. Mind knows time. Our mind knows the sense of the past, the sense of present and a sense of the future. The mind knows entities. Our mind knows difference. Our mind thinks conceptually, feels affectively, imagines through images, the mind senses sensation and the mind has memory. The mind always knows dualistically. Our mind thinks and knows through thoughts, our mind feels and knows through feelings, our mind has sensations, knows through sensation and our mind has fantasy and knows through imagination. The knowledge of our mind is mediated through conceptualization and representational thinking. Our mind can even know the mind of others. However, our mind cannot know Being and our mind cannot know the Being-ness of beings. Our mind cannot experience Being. Our mind cannot know Being directly. Awareness Knows Being! Our awareness directly knows Being and our awareness can directly know the Being-ness of beings. Being itself is not a being and Being manifests beings, infinite numbers of beings. Being manifests Being within beings as their own being. Being itself is not an entity and Being is not a being. Being is not a thing. Being is non-duality. Being knows the non-duality of everything and anything. Being is oneness and pervasiveness. Being is openness, and Being self-manifests as radiant light. Being is compassionate creative resonance. Being manifests presence. Our awareness can know the indivisible presence of the Being-ness of beings within beings and between beings. Being manifests duality, although Being is completely non-dual. By becoming aware of awareness, we experience primordial awareness which is the ground of being, which is Being itself. Awareness is Being. Awareness is Being knowing Being. Being knows Being and is the Being-ness of all the beings. Awareness can be timeless as well as awareness can be in time. Awareness can be timelessness and in time simultaneously.

This article considers the fourteenth-century treatise The Cloud of Unknowing as a description of instant, non-sensory cognition. The text has an ostensibly particular function as an instruction manual in Christian contemplation, but bears on a universal experience, that of quickly knowing without knowing how we know. To demonstrate the universality of quick knowing, the literary motif of instant knowing is briefly considered, and a survey of intuition and non-sensory cognition in cognitive science is sustained throughout. A case is made that the author-mystic’s experience of unknowing is not unrelated to some aspects of everyday cognition. A corollary argument is made that early religious and literary texts provide new meaning when viewed as ethnographically and empirically valuable (as opposed to recursive and indeterminate).

We live in a world where most people believe in God. Despite propaganda to the contrary, the number of atheists in the world remains rather small (only 3% in the U.S.A, and only 9% in Canada). Why is that? Is it because people are stupid, superstitious, and irrational. Or is it because there is something there that keeps them engaged. Putting aside derisive dismissals of human spiritual experience, this paper renames mystical experience as "connection experience" and points out that connection experiences are a ubiquitous and healthy aspect of human spirituality and human experience.

By focusing on Eliade’s early life and writings (1921–1936), and specifically on his work on Yoga, I address in this paper a question that is frequently asked about the problematic relation between personal belief and scholarship in fields such as the history of religions. Eliade’s interest in Yoga showcases his own personal spiritual quest, of course. But it is also informed by his earlier readings of, and reflections on, two polar aspects of the religious experience: the magical and the mystical. For Eliade, these two categories provide not only a key to unlocking the conceptual and pragmatic dimensions of Yoga, but also the impetus for charting a systematic theory of religion. The last major expression of these early ideas can be seen in Yoga: Essai sur les origines de la mystique indienne (1936). Eliade’s thoughts on Yoga and religion then took different paths, reaching their full expression in works published in Paris after 1945. In his later books on Yoga – Techniques du Yoga (1948), Le Yoga: Immortalité et liberté (1954) – the twofold schema of the magical and the mystical no longer plays a key hermeneutical role. Nonetheless, understanding this early phase of his work is crucial if we are to provide a comprehensive account of the development of his thought on Yoga. This early phase in his scholarly career and experiential transformation, marked by his trip to India, is also very important in terms of understanding the further developments of his ideas on history of religions, as well as to evince the ground on which Eliade built his own – never confessed – private religious belief.

A person's own inner most awareness and the movements within their awareness field bring forth their direct personal experience of their cosmological archetypal field of awareness. This spontaneous event is given to us within the archetypal realm of awareness. The archetypal dimension manifests itself as us, and reveals itself to us through our experience of its self-manifestation.

short, kabbalah is the name given to the 13 century texts which were able to synthesize ancient Jewish theosophy images and visions with medieval philosophic language and conceptual framework.. The visions of God in the Aggadah with its angels, divine names, and images of the Divine chariot are retold in the fixed organized system based on medieval cosmology and philosophy, especially mystical union. The work of Professor Adam Afterman, chair of the Department of Jewish Philosophy and Talmud at Tel Aviv University is dedicated to this synthetic process of ancient Jewish visions and philosophic mystical language. His Ph.D was from Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2008) , and he serves as a senior research fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. His most recent excellent book:And They Shall Be One Flesh: On the Language of Mystical Union in Judaism(Leiden: Brill, 2016) is on this subject providing a wonderful overview of the issues of this synthesis along with a lucid exposition of the texts on mystical union in Judaism. (Unfortunately, it is not available at a reasonably priced edition). Now, that the senior scholars of Kabbalah, Moshe Idel and Yehuda Leibes has both retired, there is a new generation of scholars of Kabbalah chairing the departments and who have recently put out works (and were kind enough to send me copies). I expect this interview with Prof Afterman to be the first of a series. For those who still need a little more background about his project, let us look at the well­known Talmudic passage. It was taught: Rabbi Yishmael b. Elisha said: I once entered into the innermost part [of the Sanctuary] to offer incense and saw Akatriel Yah, the Lord of Hosts, seated upon a high and exalted throne. He said to me: Yishmael, My son, bless Me! I replied: " May it be Thy will that Thy mercy may th

Mystical experiences are often described as "ineffable," or beyond language. However, people readily speak about their mystical experiences if asked about them. How do people describe what is supposedly indescribable? In this study, we used quantitative linguistic analyses to interpret the writings of 777 participants (45.5% female, 51.0% male) who recounted their most significant spiritual or religious experience as part of an online survey. High and low scorers on a measure of mystical experiences differed in the language they used to describe their experiences. Participants who have had mystical experiences used language that was more socially and spatially inclusive (e.g., "close," "we," "with") and used fewer overtly religious words (e.g., "prayed," "Christ," "church") than participants without such experiences. Results indicated that people can meaningfully communicate their mystical experiences, and that quantitative language analyses provide a means for understanding aspects of such experiences.

Being within awareness as awareness and being with another who is within awareness is a most powerful skillful means to bring forth awareness within one's self and within each other. Two awarenesses are better than one, just as self regulation can be enhanced by co self regulation on the bodily dimension. Self-illumination is a co-emergent process between and within companions, compassionate companions. The lucidity within one's own awareness, as one's own awareness can experience the lucidity within the other's awareness as lucidity. It is true, awareness awakens awareness both in one's self and in the other. This is the secret of the tantra. The luminous energy within one's own body can resonate to the luminous energy in the other's body, deepening the mutual embodiment of light. Light is awareness and awareness is light. The attunement to awareness within one's own body can bring forth the attunement of awareness within the body of the other. The self arising of the awareness field in one's self resonates to the self arising of awareness within the other's body. The self arising of the energy or the chi or the shakti can bring forth the self arising within each other and can bring forth the sustaining of the energy field within each other. In essence, humanness is the manifestation of light, and the manifestation of primordial luminous energy, and the openness of the great space of compassion.

This essay refers to 'attributes' of the Absolute and shows how they are reflected in specific facets of contemplative asceticism and renunciation and that this is the way to embody the Absolute in this world.  It attempts to establish contemplative asceticism and renunciation 'a priori', in a way, directly on the basis of metaphysical and spiritual facts and the nature of the One, without recourse to external authorities or traditions.

When looking into the development of Christian Philosophy, especially that of the mystical Tradition, in the Imperial world it is vitally important to understand the context of the writing and cultural impact of the Hellenic thinkers who lived and taught before the advent of Christianity. A key aspect is looking at how the thought of the Pagan Philosophers of the Greek world such as Plato and the Stoics entered into the Christian understanding of and patristic exegetical thought on Scripture. Things brings forward the intellectual contribution made by the Jewish Philosopher; Philo of Alexandria.