Religions
February 7, 2025
Dongkyu Kim
This article explores how the unique cosmology of Korean shamanism, which continues to function as a living religion in contemporary Korea, has been shaped. A key characteristic of the cosmology in Korean shamanism is its combination of two cosmological beliefs. First, it adheres to the general shamanistic cosmology of protection, where suffering caused by supernatural beings can be overcome...
Religions
February 6, 2025
Timothy Stanley
The following essay evaluates the concept of the trace within extended mind (EM) theory. It begins by differentiating Andy Clark’s complementarity from several competing models. Second, it demonstrates how an undeveloped concept of the trace arises in Clark’s debate with internalist critics. In response, I introduce Paul Ricoeur’s metaphor of the imprint in Memory, History, Forgetting. Fourth,...
Religions
January 28, 2025
Jenny Anne Miller
Adopting a transdisciplinary approach, with specific emphasis on the post-Jungian transpersonal psychological theories on the ‘Spectrum of Human Consciousness’, this paper introduces a transpersonal psychological thread of understanding of ‘Mystical Consciousness’ through an interreligious field of comparative religious approaches to action, contemplation and non-action. This paper draws on...
Religions
January 24, 2025
Nirmal Selvamony
I explain the early Tamil idea of meyppāṭu as a kind of action, which consists of embodying the spirit, and show how it manifests itself in ordinary emotional experience, in love at first sight, in emoting in theatre, and in spirit possession. The analytical tool I employ is the concept of mūviṭam, or the personaic triad, the central concept in the theory called puttiṇai. Using this tool, I...
Religions
January 24, 2025
Yang Li
When exploring interactions between Christianity and other religions in East Asia, the place given to the shamanic tradition remains ambiguous and marginal. This article analyzes the religious encounters between shamanism and Christianity in East Asia through specific and representative case studies. This article is divided into three main parts. Section 1 introduces the core terms “shamanism”...
Religions
January 22, 2025
John C. Thibdeau
In this article, I will touch on the ethical and moral possibilities of mysticism. On the one hand, I discuss the kinds of ethical work required to open and cultivate experiences of the divine. On the other hand, I look at how those experiences of the divine create new opportunities for kinds of ethical relationships to oneself, to others, and to the divine. In doing so, I connect the practices...
Religions
January 19, 2025
Arjun Nair
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”...
Religions
December 27, 2024
Na Liu
This paper delves into the connection between Zhuangzi’s mystical philosophy and its potential application to nonviolent resistance movements. It argues that the cultivation of inner peace, as advocated by Zhuangzi, can serve as a powerful foundation for individuals to engage in peaceful social change. Zhuangzi, a prominent figure in ancient Chinese thought, emphasized the importance of...
Religions
December 25, 2024
Ali Qadir, Tatiana Tiaynen-Qadir
2 citations
The study of mysticism has been at an impasse for many years, wavering between naïve realism around a common core hypothesis and critical questioning of the category of mysticism and its imposition. In this article, we review key 20th century developments in the study of mysticism to understand why the term was largely abandoned and unpack the contours of this impasse. Specifically, we probe...
Religions
December 20, 2024
E. Hisamatsu
The comparison between Hesychasm and Sufism focuses on their respective mystical practices: the Jesus Prayer in Hesychasm and Dhikr in Sufism. Both traditions emphasize withdrawing from worldly distractions to achieve spiritual purity and communion with the divine. In Hesychasm, practitioners use the Jesus Prayer to attain inner stillness and experience divine light, aiming for a state of...
Religions
December 16, 2024
Song Bin
Yang Shi initiated the Neo-Confucian methodology of self-cultivation centered on quiet-sitting, and focusing on Yang Shi may shift the study of Confucian quiet-sitting to a more chronologically appropriate “beginning-forward” approach. Incorporating techniques such as breathing and calming the mind, Yang’s approach to self-cultivation follows a model of returning to the state of centrality...
Religions
November 18, 2024
Masayuki Ito
This study focuses on yoga as part of contemporary spiritual culture (CSC) and examines the relationship between modern yoga and meditation. First, I investigate the purpose of practice and the position of meditation in classical yoga and hatha yoga; I clarify that classical yoga aims to stop the fluctuations of the mind by subduing physical activity, while hatha yoga aims to activate energy by...
Religions
November 1, 2024
Dominic Nnaemeka Ekweariri
1 citation
Whereas Marion’s earlier articulation of givenness has received a wide-spread hermeneutical critic justifiable within the framework of his two major initial texts on the issue (“Reduction and Givenness” and “Being Given”), in recent works he has reacted in diverse writings in view of repositioning hermeneutics within his phenomenology of givenness. Following Gadamer and Heidegger, this reaction...
Religions
October 25, 2024
Brianna K. Morseth
Contemplative technologies in the form of Buddhist practices that challenge the sense of self and thereby enhance the experience of interrelationality are viable strategies for addressing existential concerns such as the environmental crisis. Much of the existing research on Buddhism and ecology neglects to measure environmentally sustainable behavior or engage with empirical research....
Religions
October 25, 2024
Gregory S. Sparrow, Ryan Hurd
The experience of inner light and ecstasy is widely accepted as a universal mystical experience, regardless of cultural or religious context. While one can read first-hand accounts in the historical record, the direct experience of light remains elusive for most people. This study analyzes a series of dream-based experiences of light provided by a single subject. In our analysis of 19 dreams,...
Religions
October 15, 2024
Yuanping Shi
This paper critically examines Scheler’s mid-period religious theory, focusing on his pursuit of a harmonious cosmic order and religious experience by integrating Catholic theology and phenomenology. The argument has four key stages. First, I argue that the realization of this cosmic order, which enables communion with both the cosmos and God, relies on three elements: spiritual intuition,...
Religions
September 27, 2024
Michael Andrew Ceragioli
In The Sources of Religious Insight, Josiah Royce assesses William James’ pragmatic evaluation of exalted, private religious experience, advanced in The Varieties of Religious Experience as inadequate to encompass the full range of religious experience. Among other contributions, Royce adds social and communal experience to James’ individualistic appraisal. Rather than tacking on to the...
Religions
September 27, 2024
Alexander E. Massad
Gamification is a specific type of experiential learning theory (ELT) that emphasizes student choice and activities to transform mundane tasks into a desirable opportunity to learn. This pedagogical approach is particularly useful in information-heavy courses, such as courses that engage in the study of religious mysticism or “hagiology”. In hagiology classes, students are exposed to new...
Religions
September 27, 2024
Davide Tramarin
Much scholarly attention has been paid to The Visitation group housed at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The sculpture, dated between 1310 and 1320 and attributed to Master Heinrich of Constance, comes from the Dominican convent of St. Katherinental, in present-day Switzerland, and is notable for its two rock crystal cabochons embedded in the wombs of the Virgin Mary and Elizabeth. In this...
Religions
September 24, 2024
Konstantinos Zorbas
1 citation
Alleged practices of magical assault and vampirism are a recurrent feature of popular explanations of misfortune in Tuva, South Siberia. Based on a field study of healing practices in an “Association of Shamans”, this article analyses rituals of redressing curse afflictions in the context of Russian political domination. A central purpose of this discussion is to foreground the centrality of...
Religions
September 15, 2024
Magdalene Thomassen
1 citation
Debating the nature of social cognition, there has been an upsurge in studies on empathy since the turn of the century. The contribution of Edith Stein’s doctoral dissertation On Empathy has also been brought to the forefront. In her philosophy, there is a continuous concern for the questions of social relations and human community, the explorations of the human person and its unfolding in the...
Religions
September 10, 2024
Giovanni Nikolai Katzaroff
In popular discourse, it is not uncommon to highlight the distinctiveness of systems of “Eastern thought” (e.g., Daoism) in contrast to so-called “Western” systems. However, there is an interesting congruence between Daoism and Meister Eckhart’s mystical theology, particularly in regard to the concepts of the Dao and the Godhead. Like the Dao, the Godhead is the “ground” of all being,...
Religions
September 2, 2024
L. Liu
Wang Yangming’s emphasis on the concept of oneness establishes a significant connection between his philosophy and mysticism. This comparative study draws upon his mystical encounters and conceptual framework. Although “all things form one body” appears to be a typical formula of extrovertive mysticism, his doctrine is more inclined to be classified as a type of introvertive mysticism because...
Religions
August 28, 2024
David H. Nikkel
Especially in The Varieties of Religious Experience, William James developed the polar categories of healthy-minded individuals content with their once-born religion versus sick souls who need to become twice-born in order to find religious peace. Biographers of James have concluded that he does not fit well under either of his polar categories. Drawing on both data about James’ life and on his...
Religions
August 23, 2024
Patricia Enedudu Idoko
1 citation
The mystical experiences in various forms are fundamental to major religious traditions. The idea of “mysticism” brings up the concept of the ineffable mysterium, which is seen as the central theme around which religions are based. The comparative studies of Rabia al-Adawiyya and Catherine of Genoa do not intend, as with phenomenological and essentialist approaches to the study of religion, to...