Two Kinds of Mystical Art in the Age of Scientism
Tingting Chen
Communications in Humanities Research December 31, 2025 DOI: 10.54254/2753-7064/2026.ht30969 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Mysticism |
| Keywords | Scientism Enlightenment Rationalism Kabbalah Emptiness Religious experience Epistemology Aesthetics History of christianity Modernity Jewish mysticism Interpretation philosophy |
| Key points | Argues that mysticism resurges in modern scientistic culture as a reaction to rationalism, and in art it takes two forms—one directly challenging scientism's epistemic limits, the other accommodating scientism by focusing on private experience without ontological claims. |
Abstract
The article explores how mysticism resurges within modern, scientistic culture, especially in art. Mysticism is defined as a tradition of direct, private union with “ultimate reality,” distinct from both secret esoteric teachings and institutional religious ritual. Historically rooted in medieval Christianity and transformed by Romanticism, modern mysticism emerges as a reaction to Enlightenment rationalism and scientism. Scientism, grounded in empirical methods and the exclusion of the supernatural, delegitimizes mystical knowledge yet also provokes new mystical quests by generating a sense of spiritual emptiness and crisis of meaning. In art, the author distinguishes two forms of mysticism. One treats artworks as vehicles of transcendent knowledge about supernatural realities and thus directly collides with scientism’s epistemic limits. The other locates mysticism in the creative process and private experience without asserting ontological claims, making it more acceptable to scientism. However, this acceptance is purchased at the cost of weakening mysticism’s claim to genuine transcendence.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on mysticism, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| The mystical mind: probing the biology of religious experience | 2000 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Religious and Mystical Experiences as Artifacts of Temporal Lobe Function: A General Hypothesis | 1983 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| The Problem of Pure Consciousness: Mysticism and Philosophy | 1993 | Edited collection of essays | |
| Irreducible Mind: Toward a Psychology for the 21st Century | 2020 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mysticism and schizophrenia: A phenomenological exploration of the structure of consciousness in the schizophrenia spectrum disorders. | 2016 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |