Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Mysticism'
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Pople, Ian Stewart. "Roy Fisher's Mysticism." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2011. https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/roy-fishers-mysticism(7d8731fd-02e1-4787-b805-686f46154e9b).html.
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This thesis takes its cue from Roy Fisher's comment, in 1971, that his poems are 'to do with getting around in the mind'. This getting around, however, is not quite the simple process of 'propositions or explorations in aesthetic ideas', which Fisher suggests. This thesis discusses the relationship between Fisher's poetry and the empirical reality which his poems actually do describe and engage with. The thesis suggests that this engagement is of a mystical nature, in which Fisher's sense of linguistic play is allied to an acute awareness of instabilities in both the self and the empirical world. Such play in language and content makes Fisher's poetry a unique site, in contemporary poetry, for his further engagement with a mystery which is ineffable. Yet, this ineffability is held and controlled by Fisher so that it does not have a theological teleology. Fisher's poetry does not point towards a mystery which finds its manifestation and exploration in ways which are recognised within a contemporary religious framework. The thesis is organised into four chapters. The first chapter outlines some of the history and context of Roy Fisher's writing. It outlines the early critical reception of Fisher's first substantial publication, City, and his publications in the nineteen sixties. It then discusses some of the interviews that Fisher has given. These interviews are placed in the context of the critical reception of Fisher's work, during this time, that aligned Fisher with the avant-garde and 'Linguistically-Innovative' poetry of the period. In the second chapter, the thesis examines Fisher's relationship with the 'self' in his poetry. In the light of a sense of instability perceived in the self in Fisher's writing, the idea of the 'mystical' is introduced and defined. This is particularly relevant in the light of Fisher's tussles with the empirical world. A further exploration of the 'other' in Fisher's poetry is undertaken in the third chapter, which examines Fisher's relationship with the urban, the abject and the woman. In the final chapter, Fisher's long poem from 1986, A Furnace is discussed in the light of the foregoing, to highlight its own exploration of mysticism. The second half of the thesis consists of a portfolio of original poetry
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Adams, Peter James. "A Rhetoric of mysticism." Thesis, University of Auckland, 1991. http://hdl.handle.net/2292/2021.
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Research into mystical experience has to date relied primarily on retrospective self reports of mystical states. Analysis of such reports assumes a direct correspondence between their content and the content of the experiences. But experiencers themselves often express dissatisfaction with the capacity of language to convey these states, and the language they do choose to use is typically vague and ambiguous. The current dissertation argues that vagueness is not an accidental nor an unfortunate feature of mystical communications. Because of difficulties in direct expression, mystical communicators rely on the active and imaginative participation of the listener/reader to complete the expression. A theory of provocative gaps is developed to explain how this operates. A "gap" is conceived of as an open receptacle in linguistic space. It provides a site within a discourse upon which receptive listeners/readers can insert content from their own experience. Gaps can be created by blatant omissions of content, but in written descriptions are more likely to occur in indirect forms by exploiting subtleties in grammar and meaning. A simple diagrammatic system is developed for explaining the gap-provoking potential of several major rhetorical strategies. Three studies were designed to explore whether and at what frequency written testimonials of mystical experience exploit a selection of 31 of these gap-provoking strategies: the first study exposed their high frequency in extracts by well-known published mystics; the second indicated similarly high frequencies for the average person's description; and the third found significantly higher rates in mystical testimonials than in descriptions by the same participants of dream or travel experiences. A similar use of vagueness can be found in the language of hypnotic trance induction, and as an adjunct to the second study, the hypnotic susceptibility of 81 subjects was assessed and results indicated that subjects with mystical inclinations were more susceptible to hypnosis than those without. The general support of the studies for a theory of provocative gaps suggests that the notion of intentional vagueness could have useful application in the study of other types of communication, including: the media, art criticism, teaching, psychotherapy and academic discourse.Whole document restricted, but available by request, use the feedback form to request access.
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Cunningham, Lawrence. "Mysticism and the intellectual life:." The Church in the 21st Century Center at Boston College, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/2345/bc-ir:104008.
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Dixon, Darrel. "A biblical examination of the classical mystic's path to spiritual maturity." Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN), 1987. http://www.tren.com.
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Kelly, Jason James. "Mysticism Unbound: An Interpretative Reading of Jeffrey J. Kripal's Contribution to the Contemporary Study of Mysticism." Thèse, Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/19926.
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This thesis examines the relationship between human sexuality and “the mystical” in the work of Jeffrey J. Kripal. I claim that Kripal presents a nondualistic understanding of the relationship between human sexuality and “the mystical” that contests the conventional distinction between body and “soul.” In particular, Kripal’s two central concepts – “the erotic” and “the enlightenment of the body” – suggest that embodiment shapes our understanding of “the mystical.” By demonstrating the psychoanalytic, hermeneutical, and comparative significance of the relationship between human sexuality and “the mystical,” Kripal’s model calls attention to the crucial role that body, gender, and sexual orientation play in both the historical and contemporary study of mysticism. The point of my research is to show that Kripal’s approach signals a new way of studying “the mystical” in terms of “mystical humanism,” which draws on both Eastern and Western philosophies to construct a critical, non-reductive appreciation for the transformative and ultimately emancipatory potential of certain mystical states of consciousness.
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Kanagaraj, Jeyaseelan Joseph. "'Mysticism' in the Gospel of John : an inquiry into the background of John in Jewish mysticism." Thesis, Durham University, 1995. http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/1032/.
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Anwar, Etin. "Ibn Sina and mysticism, a reconsideration." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1998. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape11/PQDD_0004/MQ43828.pdf.
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Anwar, Etin. "Ibn Sīn̄ā and mysticism : a reconsideration." Thesis, McGill University, 1998. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=28241.
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Ibn Sina has been the object of many contemporary studies, all of which have attempted to examine various angles of the possible connection between Ibn Sina and mysticism. These studies, however, have not fully explored Ibn Sina's understanding of mysticism; he is generally seen as the most rational philosopher who ever lived and, therefore, unlikely to have been a mystic in any sense. In response to this claim, the present study aims to reconsider Ibn Sina's connection with mysticism and to examine his own perception of this tradition.This thesis first looks at the various factors which may possibly have contributed to Ibn Sina's mystical thought. Two of these were his spiritual consciousness and the Shi'ite milieu of his times. The intellectual tradition in which Ibn Sina lived, and his exposure to different aspects of Islamic intellectual tradition, were another factor that shaped his mystical thought. This thesis also attempts to reread Ibn Sina's mystical works in order to reveal his methodological perspective on mysticism. Ibn Sina incorporates mystical experience in a symbolic narrative into his work. He also theorized about mystical experience, using S&dotbelow;ufi terms like mystical knowledge ('irfan) and love ('ihsq), and tried to explain these experiences in a systematic fashion.
Ibn Sina's main contribution to the field of mysticism is his attempt to reconcile and to connect the different traditions of Neoplatonism, gnosticism, and S&dotbelow;ufism. It is remarkable how these ideas fit into a common framework---that of mysticism. These ideas may possibly stem from his close understanding of and sympathy with S&dotbelow;ufi discourse. Ibn Sina also contributed to a new literary genre in S&dotbelow;ufi literature, most notably in his visionary recitals, which express a sort of mystical experience.
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Furze, Rodney Cresswell. "Mysticism in the experience of architecture." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10036/3141.
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In this thesis I argue that architecture can sometimes evoke a sense of the numinous, or a sense of God. In volume one, beginning with Christopher Alexander I set out his theory of centres, and his argument that ‘the Blazing One’ can be known in and through building. I then turn to my own account of this experience, which draws especially on the Neo-Platonic tradition. In the second chapter I set out the aspects of architecture which seem to me to make possible a sense of the numinous in the building, and I illustrate how this might be achieved in buildings of my own. Chapters three and four are analyses of four great buildings, two sacred and two secular, which in my view evoke the numinous or mystical. The fifth and last chapter proposes a Temple for the ‘Universal Order’, a group interested in Neo Platonism. In the submitted plans and sketches for this, I hope, show how a sense of the numinous could be achieved. Since an architect’s language is through drawing, a large part of this thesis comprises drawings and illustrations. In volume two, these, with commentary, will support my argument that architecture can in itself, speak of God.
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Bradley, Arthur Humphrey. "Reading Shelley negatively : mysticism and deconstruction." Thesis, University of Liverpool, 1996. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.263790.
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Esposito, Elizabeth A. "Embodying mysticism the utilization of embodied experience in the mysticism of italian women, circa 1200-1400 ce /." [Gainesville, Fla.] : University of Florida, 2004. http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/UFE0006840.
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Ellis, Jessica Rae. "The presence of God in Angela of Foligno's mysticism as apparent in her Memorial." Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN) Access this title online, 2004. http://www.tren.com.
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Padgett, Austin D. "Elgar in Cincinnati Mysticism, Britishness, and Modernity /." Cincinnati, Ohio : University of Cincinnati, 2007. http://www.ohiolink.edu/etd/view.cgi?acc%5Fnum=ucin1177932271.
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Thesis (Master of Music)--University of Cincinnati, 2007.Title from electronic thesis title page (viewed Jul.16, 2007). Includes abstract. Keywords: Cincinnati; May Festival; Elgar; Britishness; Dream of Gerontius Includes bibliographical references.
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El-Shaer, Mohamed Sharaf. "Mysticism in the poetry of Kathleen Raine." Thesis, Durham University, 1987. http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/1687/.
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PADGETT, AUSTIN D. "ELGAR IN CINCINNATI: MYSTICISM, BRITISHNESS, AND MODERNITY." University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK, 2007. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1177932271.
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McKenna, Scott. "George Matheson and mysticism : a biographical study." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/15589.
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George Matheson, a Minister of Word and Sacrament in the Church of Scotland in the late Victorian period, was a mystic. Mysticism is not commonly associated with Scottish Presbyterian ministers who stand in the Calvinist branch of the Reformed tradition. In this thesis I discuss the extent to which Mathesonian theology reflects mystical theology, generally understood, and more specifically Hegelian mysticism. Drawing on a significant number of Matheson's writings, I have created a succession of foci which encapsulate Matheson's mystical thought: union with God, the inner life, immortality of the soul, and self-forgetfulness. After a brief biographical chapter, I discuss Matheson's crisis of faith, which he suffered in the first year or two following his ordination, and his spiritual recovery. In chapter three, I discuss Matheson's contribution to the debate between science and religion and specifically his engagement with the doctrine of transcendence proposed by Herbert spencer. In the remaining chapters, I discuss the four central themes of Matheson's work: union with God, the inner life and immortality of the soul, and self-forgetfulness (kenotic theology). In common with other mystics, Matheson's sense of union or oneness with the Divine is a central characteristic of his work. Christ in us, Christ in you, was the lived experience which moulded Matheson's spiritual life, theology and meditations. In chapter 5 I discuss Matheson's focus on the inner life, the importance of silence and solitude, and immortality of the soul. Matheson's imaginative engagement with Scripture was shaped by his physical blindness. The darkness which enveloped his existence was the darkness in which he saw and felt the mystery of God. From inescapable darkness, he saw God in all things. In the final chapter I discuss Matheson's kenotic theology. Matheson understood death and suffering, like eternal life, to be integral to the Divine.
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Glodt, Mike. "Lessons from the three-fold path Christian mysticism as a model for evangelical spiritual formation /." Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN), 1994. http://www.tren.com.
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Fanaei, Nematsara Mohammad. "Walter Stace's philosophy of mysticism : a critical analysis." Thesis, McGill University, 2001. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=36923.
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Mysticism can be examined from various viewpoints: historical, theological, sociological, and psychological. This study primarily examines the philosophical status and implications of mysticism, an issue investigated many times, particularly over the last four decades. Walter T. Stace's work in the early sixties is regarded as a hallmark in the field. The topics covered in this thesis are epistemological, metaphysical and religio-ethical and deal with mystical knowledge, its object, and its method. The characteristics of mystical knowledge, its objectivity or subjectivity, its object/s, its logical status, the way/s it is presented in the language, and its method/s of acquisition are investigated. This study is primarily epistemological, since the central issue is the status of mystical awareness in human knowledge.Since this is a philosophical reflection on mystical experience, the primary sources are mystical writings, mainly from Christian classical mystics, and philosophical writings about mysticism, mainly from twentieth-century Western philosophers. Again since it is a 'philosophical reflection' on 'mystical experience,' this study employs two methods: a historical survey of mystics' ideas, and philosophical reflection on mystics' reports or analysis of contents of mystical text. Since the focus of the study is Stace's account of mysticism, his ideas will be examined in detail. Reference to other mystics and philosophers will be primarily for elaboration, comparison and criticism of Stace's analysis. Instead of merely criticizing Stace's arguments and convictions, this study also offers an alternative account and presents a consistent philosophical analysis of mysticism.
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Bagley, Paul Michael. "Mysticism in 20th and 21st century violin music." Thesis, University of Maryland, College Park, 2014. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3643907.
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“Mysticism,” according to the Oxford dictionary, can be defined as “belief in or devotion to the spiritual apprehension of truths inaccessible to the intellect.” More generally, it applies to the aspects of spirituality and religion that can only be directly experienced, rather than described or learned. This dissertation examines how mysticism fits into the aesthetic, compositional, and musical philosophies of four prominent composers of the 20th and 21st centuries—Ernest Bloch, Olivier Messiaen, Sophia Gubaidulina, and John Zorn, with a cameo by the Jewish composer David Finko—and how their engagement with the concept of mysticism and the mystical experience can be seen in a selection of their works featuring the violin: Bloch's Baal Shem suite and Poème mystique; Finko's Lamentations of Jeremiah, Zorn's Kol Nidre, Goetia, All Hallow's Eve, and Amour fou; Gubaidulina's In tempus praesens; and Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time. These works exemplify the mysticism shared by these composers, despite their different religious and cultural backgrounds, particularly their belief in the transcendental nature of music. This belief is expressed in their works through programmatic, melodic, harmonic, rhythmic, and formal elements, all of which display, to a greater or lesser degree, the influence of mystical philosophy and symbolism.
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Nurbhai, Hugo Saleel. "Kabbalistic myth and mysticism in George Eliot's work." Thesis, University of Abertay Dundee, 1993. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.394319.
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Garner, Daniel Osborn. "Antitheodicy, atheodicy and Jewish mysticism in Holocaust Theology." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2009. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.515141.
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This thesis will contribute to the scholarly understanding of Jewish religious responses to the Holocaust in four ways. First, it will provide a constructive critique of Zachary Braiterman's analysis of Holocaust theology and his concept of antitheodicy in particular. It will expand his analysis by examining some Holocaust theologians he did not engage with in his original study. It will also narrow down his definition of antitheodicy in order to avoid the charge that it is too wide-ranging for effective use. Second, this thesis will introduce and define the concept of 'atheodicy'. A form of response centred upon divine mystery/inscrutability and consolatory ideas of divine co-suffering and recovery, 'atheodicy' will be identified as a significant religious response to suffering prominent within the context of Holocaust theology, especially within the thought of Kalonymous Shapira, Emil Fackenheim, Arthur Cohen and Melissa Raphael where it becomes a major element of their studies. Thirdly, this study will show that the Jewish mystical tradition of the Kabbalah, particularly in its theosophical-theurgic manifestation, has been a significant resource for Holocaust theologians in their efforts to respond meaningfully to the Holocaust - again particularly in the thought of Shapira, Fackenheim, Cohen and Raphael. Fourthly, the thesis will explore the relationship between antitheodicy, atheodicy and Jewish mysticism in the work of these four theologians. It will be argued that the presence of antitheodicy in these four thinkers often results in their adoption of atheodic approaches to the problem of suffering. It will also be argued that the recognition of atheodicy as a response provides one powerful (though certainly not the sole) reason for the presence of Jewish mysticism in Holocaust theology. This, it will be argued, is because the atheodic elements of the responses are often expressed via Kabbalistic concepts which, at least in isolation, provide Jewish symbols which encapsulate and express the atheodic approaches identified in the responses of Shapira, Fackenheim, Cohen and Raphael. Finally, the prospects for 'atheodic theology' will be briefly evaluated by providing a short critical appraisal of this theological mode. The discussion will develop a particular focus on notions of divine mystery and the limits of rational theology.
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Hussey, Andrew John. "The inner scar : the mysticism of George Bataille." Thesis, University of Manchester, 1999. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.706128.
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Jager, Richard Paul. "Mysticism: Its relationship to religious experience and psychopathology." CSUSB ScholarWorks, 1990. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd-project/457.
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Bunyan, David Christopher. "Beyond all words : a psychoanalytic approach to the phenomenon of mysticism in literature." Thesis, Rhodes University, 1991. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002285.
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The principal claim of this thesis is that the mystical experience is a wide-ranging influence upon literature. It is a recurrent thematic concern of poets, novelists and playwrights; but even when mysticism is not an overt element in a text, analysis of its symbols can reveal references to emotions and experiences of a mystical character - as is frequently the case with fantasy. In a more essential way, certain widely-used techniques of poetry effectively reproduce the character of mystical events for the reader. Some theory does indeed imply that the mystical bearing is quite fundamental, at a certain level, to all creative literature. This thesis explores the link between mysticism and literature through widely differing examples, to show how it continues to be found in otherwise divergent texts and contexts. Indeed, no attempt is made to provide an exhaustive overview; rather, certain special areas of interest are represented by selected cases. Mystical elements in Modernism, for example (especially in T.S. Eliot and Virginia Woolf), are contrasted with Romantic attitudes to mysticism, which Wordsworth and Coleridge are taken to represent. A further goal is to analyse the character of literary mysticism, and to account for the connection between mysticism and literary practice. The view is adopted that the circumstances in which the infant first acquires language is of crucial importance in this regard, and that literary language often draws upon submerged recollections of these early circumstances. Literature, it is argued, can employ signs and patterns of symbolisation in ways that actually attempt to 'undo' many of the everyday functions of words. The ultimate ideal of such literary techniques is to 'reverse' the process by which language was acquired and to 'return' the reader to a state resembling pre-linguistic experience, a goal which has much in common with the ambitions of mystics. Jacques Lacan's theoretical writings touch at many points upon the early development of the child and the significance of its acquisition of language. This thesis consequently has recourse to Lacan's work and, where relevant, to related psychoanalytic writings by Sigmund Freud and Julia Kristeva. After an investigation of the main characteristics of mystical experience as such, the Introduction broadly outlines Lacan's theoretical position. Chapter 1 is concerned more specifically with Lacan's discussions of mysticism. Part Two (Chapters 2-4) deals principally with the links between mystical yearnings and the Romantic ideal of the 'sublime'. In Part Three (Chapters 5-7) the relation between mysticism and Modernist developments affecting both theme and artistic technique is examined in works by three writers: T.S. Eliot, Virginia Woolf, and Fernando Pessoa. Part Four discusses particular literary presentations of 'evil' and of 'good' as embodiments of mystical perceptions. Late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century 'supernatural' fiction is selected to represent the first case, and certain New Testament and early Christian texts the second.
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Burgess, Andrew. "Incarnational epistemologies : metaphor and metonymy in the mystical tradition of the Cloud of unknowing." Thesis, McGill University, 1991. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=60614.
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The Cloud of Unknowing is in a very real sense a treatise on epistemology, and on the practical aspect of the communication which we call rhetoric. The Cloud draws upon the Platonic rhetorical tradition, which asserts that grasp of abstract truth gives value to human understanding and communication. Reality is above all transcendent, as mirrored in the kataphatic mystical tradition to which the Cloud belongs. The problem is that, if this "vertical" mode of knowing be set against the "horizontal" mode of knowing which in literary theory is generally labelled "metaphor", the existence of metaphoric approaches to reality in the Christian faith (which the Cloud author professes) seems inconsistent with the mystical tradition and Platonic rhetoric. However, a reconciliation of vertical and horizontal modes of knowing--of metonymy and metaphor--is effected, in theological terms, by an Incarnational dynamic involving creation and grace, and, in critical terms, by paradox and analogy.
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Veshcherevich, Julia Vadimovna. "Open skies a study in mystical theology in the light of Genesis 28:10-17, Daniel 7:13-14, John 1:51 and Acts 7:55-56 /." Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN), 1995. http://www.tren.com.
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Ranson, David Gerard. "Between the 'Politics of mysticism' and the 'Mysticism of politics': Implications of the universal call to holiness within the Roman Catholic tradition." Thesis, Australian Catholic University, 2009. https://acuresearchbank.acu.edu.au/download/2436061300d95de6c0d79c0f3bfc51420e8aad68b3f319a717eb7d1a50b2d8b9/2018725/65058_downloaded_stream_283.pdf.
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This dissertation is a study of Christian spirituality within the Roman Catholic tradition in the modern era. Specifically, it is an exploration of the tensive relationship between "the mystical" and "the political". Though this inter-relationship has become a feature in twentieth century Roman Catholic theology there remains a relative absence of considered treatments on the theme. The thesis is a response to this lacuna. The thesis suggests that, given both the development of laicality in recent times and the enunciation of the 'universal call to holiness' in chapter five of Lumen gentium of the Second Vatican Council, an engagement of the relationship between the "the mystical" and "the political" is now unavoidable in the development of a spiritual life. Evolving aspects of the Roman Catholic tradition have dissolved a previous two-tiered systematization of the pursuit of holiness and presented "the world" itself as the locus for the experience of holiness. The thesis is animated by a certain pastoral concern and with the conviction that the necessity of such an engagement shall only increase in the period ahead.
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Marsden, Steven Jay. ""Hot little prophets": reading, mysticism, and Walt Whitman's disciples." Texas A&M University, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/1213.
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While scholarship on Walt Whitman has often dealt with "mysticism" as an important element of his writings and worldview, few critics have acknowledged the importance of Whitman's disciples in the development of the idea of secular comparative mysticism. While critics have often speculated about the religion Whitman attempted to inculcate, they have too often ignored the secularized spirituality that the poet's early readers developed in response to his poems. While critics have postulated that Whitman intended to revolutionize the consciousness of his readers, they have largely ignored the cases where this kind of response demonstrably occurred.
"Hot Little Prophets" examines three of Walt Whitman's most enthusiastic early readers and disciples, Anne Gilchrist, Richard Maurice Bucke, and Edward Carpenter. This dissertation shows how these disciples responded to the unprecedented reader-engagement techniques employed in Whitman's Leaves of Grass, and how their readings of that book (and of Whitman himself) provided them with new models of identity, politics, and sexuality, new focuses of desire, and new ways in which to interpret their own lives and experiences.
This historicized reader-response approach, informed by a contexualist understanding of mystical experience, provides an opportunity to study how meaning is created through the interaction of Whitman's poems and his readers' expectations, backgrounds, needs, and desires. It also shows how what has come to be called mystical experience occurs in a human context: how it is formed out of a complicated interaction of text and interpretation (sometimes misinterpretation), experience and desire, context and stimulus.
The dissertation considers each disciple's education and upbringing, intellectual influences, habits of reading, and early religious attitudes as a foreground to the study of his or her initial reaction to Leaves of Grass. Separate chapters on the three figures investigate the crises of identity, vocation, faith, and sexuality that informed their reactions. Each chapter traces the development of the disciples' understanding of Whitman's poetry over a span of years, focusing especially on the complex role mystical experience played in their interpretation of Whitman and his works.
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Barnard, Jody Aaron. "Jewish apocalyptic mysticism and the epistle to the Hebrews." Thesis, Bangor University, 2011. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.543217.
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Naydler, Jeremy. "Mysticism in ancient Egypt : the Pyramid Texts re-examined." Thesis, University of Kent, 2003. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.408416.
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Mortazavi, Ravari Seyed Siavash. "Before Eternity: An Adventure Game Inspired by Sufi Mysticism." Digital WPI, 2015. https://digitalcommons.wpi.edu/etd-theses/832.
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Before Eternity is a short 3D adventure game that addresses the purpose of our earthly lives, inspired by the Sufi poet Rumi. To support its mystical theme, the design employs impressionistic elements and symbolic activities which deliberately defy many conventions of traditional adventure games. This report explains the design and implementation of the game, as well as its technical and production aspects.
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Jenkins, Paul D. "Mysticism, reason and the shape of early Enlightenment Scotland." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2010. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/2335/.
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The study investigates the late seventeenth century origins of the Scottish Enlightenment, and it offers a timely reassessment of both the coherence and concept of the 'early Enlightenment'. Traditionally maligned as the most contemptible chapter in the nation's history, seventeenth-century Scotland has, until very recently, been noted only for its religious fanaticism, political corruption, and intellectual sterility. Most recent work on Scotland during this period represents a revisionist effort to do belated justice to the history of Scotland at that time by stressing its pivotal importance to the eighteenth-century Scottish Enlightenment. While these studies are important and have shed much light on this long misunderstood period, they tend to evaluate it in a progressivist fashion, based on the extent to which it successfully anticipated or contributed to the rational achievements and secularized outlook of the eighteenth century. The aims of this project are twofold: to painstakingly re-contextualise the controversies of the period; and to critique and move to the foreground important questions of tone and the progressivist focus, or orientation of studies of early Enlightenment Scotland. It does this by closely examining two of the trends most commonly linked to the rise of European Enlightenment: (1) the declining significance of demonic agency and the crime of witchcraft, as well as its isomorphic cousin, heresy; and (2) the corresponding rise of scepticism, rationalism and toleration. According to these two measures of Enlightenment, it is argued, Scotland's early transition from a traditional 'persecuting society' to a tolerant 'enlightened' one was not as decisive or as progressive as most revisionist historians claim. Drawing upon evidence from Scotland, England and Continental Europe this study opens new, much needed, lines of debate regarding the late seventeenth-century roots of the Scottish Enlightenment, by demonstrating the important, sophisticated roles conservative and mystical religious opinion played in shaping the intellectual character of early Enlightenment Scotland.
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Smith, Ethan D. "The Praise of Glory: Apophatic Theology as Transformational Mysticism." University of Dayton / OhioLINK, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=dayton1502133638523313.
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Alfeyev, Hilarion. "St Symeon the New Theologian and Orthodox tradition." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1995. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.282029.
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Siklos, Bulcsu. "The Vajrabhairava Tantras : Tibetan & Mongolian texts with introduction, translation and notes." Thesis, SOAS, University of London, 1990. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.260795.
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Shadle, Amber. "Moses the dreamer : understanding the vision of Moses within the Exagoge of Ezekiel the Tragedian." Thesis, University of Aberdeen, 2014. http://digitool.abdn.ac.uk:80/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=226791.
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The subject of this thesis is the Exagoge, a second-century BCE Greek tragedy written by Ezekiel the Tragedian. The author retells the biblical story of the Exodus from Egypt, focusing on Moses' calling, leadership, and ultimate elevation. In my analysis of the text, I focus on five main areas: the cultural context; the depiction of Moses in Biblical literature; the Exagoge as Tragedy; the exegesis of the Exagoge; and Moses' dream and early Jewish mysticism. The first chapter surveys Hellenism and Hellenization and the formation of Hellenistic-Jewish identity. The second chapter looks at the development of Moses' character in biblical literature, focusing particularly on the Pentateuch. The third chapter asks how the Exagoge might be considered a tragedy, and how it compares to fifth-century tragedies. I also ask why Ezekiel chose to portray Moses as a tragic figure, and how he might have found precedent for this interpretation in the biblical text itself. The fourth chapter includes a translation of the text from Greek, followed by a line-by-line exegesis of the text. The fifth chapter looks at the dream sequence in the Exagoge and its similarities to 1 Enoch, discussing its relationship to early Jewish mysticism. The goal of the thesis is to discover not only how Moses could be a tragic figure, but also how he could be instrumental to the formation of early Jewish mysticism.
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Morgan, Douglas C. "The role of reason in The cloud Of unknowing." Online full text .pdf document, available to Fuller patrons only, 2000. http://www.tren.com.
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Tavoularis, Stylianos. "Hegel, Plotinus and Jacobi: idealism and two varieties of mysticism." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 2006. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.485070.
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In this thesis I investigate Hegel's idealism and Plotinus' and Jacobi' varieties of mysticism. My intention was to examine Hegel's reception of Plotinus and discover whether it is textually accurate in relation to the texts from Plotinus' Enneads. I discovered that Hegel's interpretation is not consistent with the Plotinian texts and I concluded that Hegel misinterpreted Plotinus despite his commitment in the Introduction to the Lectures on the History ofPhilosophy not to attribute to earlier philosophers what's not historically reported about their philosophies. In part this misinterpretation is explained by the fact that Hegel also committed himself in the Introduction to avoid historicism as well as one-sided critical accounts. I also discovered that Hegel had also a more specific hermeneutical intention as regards his treatment of Plotinus, which was to protect him from the charge ofbeing a mystic. Plotinus was vulnerable to this charge -as Hegel explains- because of the doctrine ofthe 'ecstasy', the alleged ineffability ofhis absolute and finally because of his representational rather than philosophical language. Hegel's defence suggests that Plotinus was not a mystic at all but rather that he should be view as anticipating Hegel's cardinal doctrine ofReason, which is in-and-for itself. My next intention was to explain Hegel's bias behind his misinterpretation ofPlotinus and I discovered that Hegel had been defending Plotinus precisely on the same core issues that he had been criticising his contemporary self-proclaimed mystic, F. H. Jacobi. Thus I provided a general account of Jacobi and then Hegel's critique of Jacobi to demonstrate the dangerous similarities between Plotinus and Jacobi. Finally I have suggested an alternative way to distinguish between Plotinus and Jacobi, which however distinguishes between two varieties of mysticism rather than idealism and mysticism as Hegel intended his distinction between Plotinus and Jacobi to be.
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Davidson, Toby, and tdavidso@deakin edu au. "Born of fire, possessed by darkness : mysticism and Australian poetry." Deakin University. School of Communication and Creative Arts, 2008. http://tux.lib.deakin.edu.au./adt-VDU/public/adt-VDU20090218.124155.
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This dissertation is structured around five Australian mystical poets: Ada Cambridge,
John Shaw Neilson, Francis Webb, Judith Wright and Kevin Hart. It examines the
varieties of Western Christian mysticism upon which these poets draw, or with which
they exhibit affinities. A short prelude section to each chapter considers the thematic
parallels of their contemporaries, while the final chapter critically investigates
constructions of Indigeneity in Australian mystical poetry and the renegotiated
mystical poetics of Indigenous poets and theologians.
The central argument of this dissertation is that an understanding of Western
Christian mysticism is essential to the study of Australian poetry. There are three
sub-arguments: firstly, that Australian literary criticism regarding the mystical
largely avoids the concept of mysticism as a shifting notion both historically and in
the present; secondly, that what passes for mysticism is recurringly subject to poorly
defined constructions of mysticism as well as individual poets use of the mystical
for personal, creative or ideological purposes; thirdly, that in avoiding the concept of
a shifting notion critics have ignored the increasing contribution of Australian poets
to national and international discourses of mysticism.
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Page, Christopher. "A feast of straw, the nature mysticism of Thomas Merton." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 2001. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk3/ftp04/MQ61323.pdf.
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Heino, Hanno Arno. "Paul and the Jewish law : from covenantal nomism to mysticism." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 2004. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.408343.
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Riordan, Michael Benjamin. "Mysticism and prophecy in Scotland in the long eighteenth century." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2015. https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.709304.
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Wasson, Louise. "Untimely meditations : female mysticism in medieval culture and modern scholarship." Thesis, Queen's University Belfast, 2014. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.675438.
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Beginning with a survey of the writings of the medieval mulieres religiosae this comparative thesis attempts to explore the medieval mystical tradition as a space of self-construction and self-expression in both the medieval and modern periods. The thesis is preoccupied with tracing an 'untimely' relation between these two historically distant periods via a series of synchronic case studies stretching from the twelfth to the twentieth century, and focusing specifically on the ways in which the writings of female mystics are mediated in the medieval period and re-mediated in the modern period. The return, recurrence and endurance of the medieval within the modern is thus a key point of interest. The opening chapter provides a survey of medieval mysticism and considers the problems of developing and defining a language set with which to discuss the abstract nature of the mystical. This survey is followed by a set of diverse case studies which consider a selection of medieval mystics from the life of orthodox figures such as the beguine Marie d'Oignies (1177- 1213) to the speculative writings of heretic and beguine Marguerite Porete (d. 1310), and finally the Middle English translation of Saint Catherine of Siena's (1347-1380) Dialogue. Chapter Three builds on this analysis of medieval mysticism by considering the ways in which the mystical tradition is received and subsequently, recovered and perpetuated in the early twentieth-century. Beginning with a consideration of the crucial work of female medievalists such as Evelyn Underhill and Hope Emily Allen in this area, the thesis progresses by analysing twentieth century models of the medieval devotee/confessor relationship (Adrienne von Speyr and Hans Urs von Balthasar), before juxtaposing the writings of Simone Weil and Anne Carson, which resonate with the removal or 'decreation' of self that forms the foundation of the apophatic genre. Concluding with a survey of the so-called 'religious' or 'apophatic turn' within Continental philosophy and the humanities more broadly, the thesis hopes to usefully reflect on the role of the medieval mystical tradition and its contribution to an emerging women's history. This thesis is fundamentally preoccupied with the impact which female religious writings have and how they are re-mediated and reappropriated in both modem scholarship and feminist historiography. Overall, a range of apophatic writings will be analysed as I argue for this genre as a paradoxical space for both the empowerment and silencing of the female voice at different historical moments. Mystical languages of 'unsaying' and the concomitant oscillation between languages of 'selfing' and 'unselfing' engendered by the self-negating nature of apophatic discourse will be shown to play a central role in the politics of women who write and are written into history.
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Wright, Ian Patrick. "Rapturous visions : mysticism, the sublime and the discourse of sacrifice." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2007. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.706126.
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Ladd, Adam J. "Bernini's Cornaro Chapel: Visualizing Mysticism in the Age of Reformation." Kent State University / OhioLINK, 2012. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1342488915.
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Anderson, Sarah Elizabeth. "Writing a material mysticism : H.D., Helene Cixous and divine alterity." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2011. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/3548/.
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The thesis begins with an exploration of the conversational mode of reading, modelled by Cixous, with which I bring Cixous‟s and H.D.‟s texts into dialogue. A crucial point of contact between H.D. and Cixous is their exploration of the sacred in relationship to creativity and materiality. This project is situated in the context of critical studies of H.D. as a visionary poet, while I foreground her religious sensibilities through an exploration of the religious syncretism of her writing from the Second World War. The discussion of critical context leads to an outline of the theoretical tools employed through the project, which include trauma theory‟s engagement with the categories of testimony and witness, performance approaches to ritual theory and Paul Ricoeur‟s work on metaphor, imagination and ways of being in the world. This chapter presents my thesis that Cixous and H.D. write a material mysticism through their engagement with alterity, the sacred and the materiality of writing as a creative practice. Chapter Two examines the ways the voices of the dead function in H.D.‟s autobiographical novels, or „spiritual autobiographies‟, The Gift and The Sword Went Out to Sea. In these texts, H.D. draws upon her personal vision and experiences of spiritualism and Moravian history for the resources for a creative and spiritual response to the traumas of war. The chapter draws upon trauma theory‟s elaboration of testimony and witness as a way of speaking the unspeakable, of giving voice to trauma and providing the support and receptivity to allow testimony to emerge. Chapter Three explores the complexities of H.D.‟s religious syncretism through the lens of ritual. It uses performance approaches to ritual to consider the productive meaning-making dynamic of Greek drama and ceremonial processions in The Sword, Moravian litany in The Gift, and Hermetic alchemical ritual in Trilogy. The literal transformation of words in Trilogy links the activity of ritual to that of language. This leads to a discussion of H.D.‟s and Cixous‟s emphasis on writing itself as a ritual. Chapter Four draws upon Paul Ricoeur‟s understanding of metaphor as mobilised by the internal dynamic of sameness and difference to examine the ways in which Cixous and H.D. deploy the images of the orange and the bee. The proliferation of these images across Cixous‟s and H.D.‟s writing allows creative explorations of how spirituality and creativity inheres in encounters with others, subjectivity and embodiment. Chapter Five considers the spatial context of Cixous‟s and H.D.‟s attention to writing as a mode of creative transformation. I explore two spatial metaphors in Cixous and H.D.; the garden, with the associations of grounded, particular places, and flight, as the movement between places. The conclusion recapitulates the concerns of the thesis and considers ancient wisdom as a locus for understanding H.D.‟s texts and a resource for approaching the role of the imagination in literary Modernism.
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Saida, Ilhem Chauvin Danièle. "Mysticism et désert thèse de doctorat en recherches sur l'imaginaire /." [Tunis?] : Éditions Sahar, 2006. http://catalog.hathitrust.org/api/volumes/oclc/71192440.html.
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Tomas, Catherine. "The actively abjected : a hermeneutics of empowerment in Christian mysticism." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2015. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:465e2a96-6c14-40be-882e-3d716854cc92.
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This thesis is concerned broadly with purported mystics and how the Roman Catholic Church conceives of them theologically, and treats them in practicality. In exploring the dynamics of power at work when an individual claims to have dialogue with God, I identify a very particular process that occurs, namely active abjection, and illustrate this using examples taken from the writings of various purported mystics. I argue that there is a collection of people - the actively abjected - who occupy a very specific role within the Roman Catholic Church, and that this role has not been recognized. I go on to suggest a way in which they can be understood and respected for the role they play. To do this, I draw upon particular philosophical models of understanding from Hannah Arendt and Julia Kristeva. I aspire to encourage a deeper and more complicated understanding of the nature of institutionalized oppression, and to offer a reconstructive model for how those who encounter potentially problematic individuals within communities might work and interact with them in a non-oppressive manner. This thesis is a work of Catholic theology in that it offers a theological and philosophical argument for the recognition of a particular role certain individuals play in maintaining the structure and definition of the Catholic Church. But it is also intended as a work of political philosophy. Both Arendt and Kristeva, whose writing I use as a lens to examine a particular phenomenon found in religious communities are theorists in the tradition of political philosophy and my intention is to expand the application of their models.
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Head, Thomas L. "Normal mysticism : an interdisciplinary study of Max Kudushin's rabbinic hermeneutic." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2013. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/541.
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Max Kadushin (1895-1980) was a rabbi, professor, and preeminent figure in the history of American Conservative Jewish rabbinic thought. His hermeneutic system, which centers on the idea of organic religious value-concepts, has had a significant influence on the emerging Textual Reasoning movement.
In chapter one, I describe the intellectual climate in which Kadushin's system took shape—providing a short history of the 19th-century reform and haskalah movements, discussing the general outline of Alfred North Whitehead's process philosophy tradition, and placing new focus on the tension between Conservative Judaism and Mordecai Kaplan's emerging philosophy of Reconstructionism as a critical factor in the origin of Kadushin's system.
In chapter two, I summarize and explain Kadushin's philosophy itself—the anatomy and physiology of the organismic complex, the content of his six volumes of published work, the rabbinic texts that attracted his most focused attention—and place it within the context of what Peter Ochs describes as the aftermodernist movement.
In chapter three, I address the relationship between Kadushin and secular Western philosophy. Of particular interest, I argue, is the relevance of his work to philosophical hermeneutics. After outlining how Continental hermeneutics emerged from the largely religious hermeneutics of 19th-century thinkers such as Dilthey and Schleiermacher, I contrast Kadushin's approach with that of Hans-Georg Gadamer and detail the ways in which each of them attempted to describe what Augustine described as the verbum interius—an endeavor that, Gadamer argued, ultimately defines the hermeneutic enterprise.
In chapter four, I reassess Kadushin's work from the disciplinary perspective of religious studies. After interpreting the degree to which Kadushin felt his own work relevant to other faith traditions, I examine previous attempts by Christian theologians to adapt the rough outline of his hermeneutic within their system, and contrast his rabbinic hermeneutic with those religious hermeneutic traditions with which his work is most often compared. I also examine the degree to which Kadushin's populist approach to mysticism and value-concepts reflects that of other contemporaneous Western religious thinkers.
In chapter five, I examine the moral and social implications of Kadushin's priorities. Taking into account how Kadushin evaluated contemporaneous ethical controversies, I argue that while his endeavor is itself descriptivist, the system he asserts bears a strong resemblance to contemporary virtue ethics. In doing this, I show that Kadushin's system of religious morality cannot be accurately classified as a traditional form of consequentialism, rule-based ethics, prescriptivism, or divine command theory. I also examine the implications of Kadushin's system as they pertain to authority, power, and tradition. In conclusion, I argue that his moral system is, in keeping with its rabbinic roots, highly flexible—a trait that can be both an asset and a liability.
This interdisciplinary thesis presents Kadushin's organic hermeneutic in a systematic way, assessing its relevance to the disciplines of philosophy and religious studies. In this thesis, I show that his system of thought rewards serious interdisciplinary study and raises far more general questions than those he specifically intended to address.
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Islam, Saiyida zakiya hasna. "Bawa Muhaiyaddeen: A Study of Mystical Interreligiosity." Diss., Temple University Libraries, 2017. http://cdm16002.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p245801coll10/id/461176.
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ReligionPh.D.
The focus of the study is on the teachings of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen, the mystic saint whose tomb is in Coatesville, PA, which is the only Sufi shrine in North America. Much has been written on the community of Bawa’s followers whose main office is in the Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Fellowship in Philadelphia, PA, USA. However, as far as my research revealed, as to this date, no study has focused particularly on his teachings. The objective of this study is to initiate that. This study spotlighted on how this Sufi saint integrated the various religions in his teachings. His teachings are evidently premised on the Islamic concept of Tawhid. This aligns with the mystic perspective and thus is this study premised. Bawa’s vision is of a single truth emanating throughout creation through all space and time. This is a characteristic that mystics of all traditions appear to share. What makes Bawa unique among the known mystics is how he weaves in the various religions to convey his teachings. Thus, his teachings are a veritable pot pourri of ancient wisdom flowing from the Hindu Puranas to the Sufi teachings in Islam. In one way it can be viewed as a one-man inter-religious monologue. It is not so much the perennial message as looking at each tradition in a way that had eluded the believer before. Sufis of yore are known to use this method, but had remained within their own traditions. Bawa’s teachings are significant in his being a figure that is metaphorically described in a title of a Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Fellowship publication as the “Tree That Fell to the West”. Thus, spanning both the East and the West, his teachings became global in its reach and appears to be more relevant and accessible due to the nature of contemporary progression of our psyche. To situate Bawa the study has provided a very brief overview of the mystic perspective and a comparative sketch of mysticism in the West and Islam. Bawa being a Muslim mystic, a chapter on Islam and the Muslim world view and an insight into Sufism was deemed essential to comprehend the depth of Bawa’s teachings. It was also necessary to analyze the significance of the pioneering spirit of North America that is so consonant with the element of freedom that defines the mystic message that is essentially that of liberation. This is viewed as a vital component in the message of Bawa that served to capture the psyche of his followers. What is notable in Bawa’s teachings is how he integrates the popular ideas of different traditions to draw out a hidden significance that overturns the traditional way of how the listener had hitherto viewed them. He views the religions as sections, states, etc., that have to be experienced into the distillation of the truth in a manner of speaking. Each of these plays its part in the progression of every individual to the point of the ultimate realization to the Real. Bawa’s teaching methodology appears to be aligned to the tradition of the “holy men” who have come to light with the recent research of the past two decades. Bawa remains unique in his expansion, per se, in continuation of the model left as the legacy by those holy men that researcher Richard Eaton brought to our attention. An analysis of that legacy is provided as it will be conducive to understanding as to how the Sufi perspective centered on Tawhid brings in the terrain of multiple traditions. Bawa taught through discourses. Such teachings belong to the age old oral tradition. Thus, the teachings flow according to the teacher’s discernment of each individual’s needs in the audience. He would tell his followers that he provides the nourishment as per the need of each individual as he “sees” where each of his “children” are when they come to him. This translates into his perceptiveness of each person’s level of comprehension and his contouring his message to gear into that level for optimal learning. Bawa’s teachings can be described as a veritable ocean in its breadth and depth. The task was to attempt to draw manageable parameters for this research. As such, the usage of Hinduism is the sliver that has been chosen to analyze what and how Bawa conveyed his message. The focal point is that it is through the mystic perspective Bawa integrated diverse traditions to converge on the single point of the Islamic concept of Tawhid. What is shown here is that it is such a perspective that allowed Bawa to bring together the apparently diametrically opposite traditions of Hinduism and Islam through an interreligious journey that brings in a perspectival shift by expanding the psyche of the listener.
Temple University--Theses