Sufism as Mysticism – Scientia Experimentalis and as Discursive Tradition – Sacra Doctrina
Sufism in Europe July 31, 2024 DOI: 10.3366/edinburgh/9781399536097.003.0002 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Mysticism |
| Key points | Argues that mysticism, despite essentialist uses in the 20th and 21st centuries, remains a relevant analytical category and should be understood as an inherent dimension of religious phenomena rather than as separate from religion, private, or marginal. Proposes a dialectic between mysticism as "scientia experimentalis" and discursive tradition as "sacra doctrina," applied to Sufism and Sufi orders. |
Abstract
This chapter proposes an archeology of the category mysticism, showing its different meanings in the Christian religious context, and then in human and social sciences. It argues that despite its essentialist uses in the 20th and 21st centuries, this category can still be relevant and effective. Instead of considering mysticism as a phenomenon separated from religion, limited to the private sphere, or composed by marginal religious movements, it suggests thinking of mysticism as an inherent dimension of religious phenomena. Furthermore, by re-elaborating the analysis of Maurice Halbwachs, Michel de Certeau, Victor Turner, and Moshe Sluhovsky, it describes the dialectic between mysticism - scientia experimentalis, and discursive tradition - sacra doctrina. This theoretical abstraction allows us to grasp certain aspects of religious life – such as ecstatic experience, symbolic exegeses, orthopraxy, linguistic and epistemological multiplicity and instability – as integral parts of religious life and not as the expression of exogenous causes, such as Neoplatonism, the New Age, modernity, etc. This theoretical abstraction proves useful in the description of Sufism, understood not as a “purely mystical” phenomenon, but one which participates in this dialectic between mysticism and tradition – scientia experimentalis and sacra doctrina. Indeed, we could ideally place the Sufi orders in this continuum.
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 |