The Dialectic of the Divine
Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks 1994 DOI: 10.1057/9780230377066_5 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that a "theo-monistic" perspective bridges monistic and theistic mystical experiences, with monistic experience finding its culmination and meaning in theistic elements. Contends that monistic frameworks cannot grant theistic experiences authenticity, and that from the theo-monistic view the monist shifts from passivity to dynamism and rediscovers a transmuted Self expressing personal, creative energies from its Source. |
Abstract
The theo-monistic experience explains the relationship between monistic and theistic mystical experiences. Considered in terms of personal and spiritual transformative processes, the two different experiences are effectively bridged together. The monistic experience finds its culmination and meaning in elements associated with theistic conceptions; so the monistic experience is legitimately and coherently drawn into the theistic mystical perspective. In Chapter 3, 1 showed that monistic hierarchies cannot grant theistic experiences an authenticity in terms of the monistic framework; hence the difficulties in attempts to synthesize various mystical experiences through a monistic ideal. But considered from the theo-monistic perspective, the monist moves from a passivity to a dynamism, from a non-dualistic realization of an amoral nature to a rediscovery of transmuted Self which uniquely expresses through the individual mystic-channel the active, creative, and personal energies which issue from this Source. Although we find the process expressed in various ways and degrees in the different mystical traditions, it can be explained in non-theological, neutral phenomenological terms. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.