Seekers of Unity | The Debate that Almost Broke Mysticism | Perennialism vs Constructivism @SeekersofUnity | Uploaded February 2022 | Updated October 2024, 4 hours ago.
Exploring competing methodologies in the study of Mysticism, (Essentialism, Perennialism and Common-Core vs Contextualism and Constructivism) and questioning the very category of Mysticism itself.
Slipping into the crack between Experience and Interpretation, and asking if it can be healed.
Watch Part 1: The Making of Mysticism: youtu.be/OBHsLOgXZNc
Watch Part 2: William James and the Modern Study of Mysticism: youtu.be/2CZ3zJGT4ZQ
The Series: Exploring the history of an idea, the story of the major developments in our collective understanding of the word “mysticism.” Join us as we attempt to understand what this word meant historically, how it came to mean what it does today, and what, if anything, it might mean for us going forward.
Learning how this category was formed, transformed, discussed and debated throughout the ages. Join us for a journey from the Ancient Greek mystery religions, through the early Christian centuries up into the Middle Ages, through the Renaissance, into the Early Modern period, the Enlightenment, ending with the Modern and Post-Modern decades of its study, debate and development.
00:00 Intro
00:39 Perennialism’s Origins
01:55 Christian Kabbalah
02:44 Traditionalism
04:20 Modern Perennialism
05:53 Huxley and James
08:58 Common-Core Hypothesis
09:52 The Assault – Katz et al.
16:05 The Predecessors
17:46 The Response to Katz
20:09 Mystics: Conservative or Progressive?
22:41 Moving Forward
28:23 Making Mystics
“Neither the mystic nor the philosopher can remain content with an irreducible heterogeneity of mystical experience, the mystic because the ultimate character of the experience implies a universal claim, the philosopher because a diversity of ultimate claims is a challenge not a resting-place. Thus, it is not an uneducated essentialist desire, but religious integrity or philosophical urgency that leads those who no longer find an exclusive claim by any single tradition convincing to seek an underlying unity and to investigate the equivalence of symbols under their diversity.”
Charles Davis, in Review of Mysticism and Philosophical Analysis
Sources and Further Reading:
- Peter Moore, "Recent Studies on Mysticism: A Critical Survey," Religion 3 (1973): 146-56.
- Steven Katz, "Review Article: Recent Work on Mysticism," History of Religions 25 (1985-86): 76-86
- William Wainwright, Mysticism: A Study of its Nature, Cognitive Value and Moral Implications, University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, 1981.
- Randall Studstill, The Unity of Mystical Traditions, The Transformation of Consciousness in Tibetan and German Mysticism, Brill Leiden, Boston, 2005.
- The Making of Modern “Mysticism” Leigh Eric Schmidt, Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Vol. 71, No. 2 (Jun., 2003), Oxford University Press.
- Bernard McGinn, The Foundations of Mysticism, Vol. I of The Presence of God: A History of Western Christian Mysticism, Crossroad Publishing, 1991.
- Jeffrey Kripal, “Mysticism” in The Blackwell Companion to the Study of Religion, by Robert Segal (ed.), 2017.
- Saeed Zarrabi-Zadeh, “The ‘Mystical’ and the ‘Modern’: Mutual Entanglement and Multiple interactions,” in Studies in Religion, 2020.
- Hal Bridges, American Mysticism: From William James to Zen, New York: Harper and Row, 1970
- Richard King, Orientalism and Religion: Postcolonial Theory, India and “The Mystic East,” London: Routledge, 1999.
Join us:
facebook.com/seekersofunity
instagram.com/seekersofunity
twitter.com/seekersofU
seekersofunity.com
Thank you to our beloved Patrons: Astarte, Declan, Gregory, Alex, Charlie, Anonymous, Joshua, Arin, Sage, Marcel, Order of the Artisans, Ahawk, Yehuda, Kevin, Evan, Shahin, Al Alami, Dale, Ethan, Gerr, Effy, Noam, Ron, Shtus, Mendel, Jared, Tim, Mystic Experiment, MM, Lenny, Justin, Joshua, Jorge, Wayne, Jason, Caroline, Yaakov, Daniel, Wodenborn, Steve, Collin, Justin, Mariana, Vic, Shaw, Carlos, Nico, Isaac, Frederick, David, Ben, Rodney, Charley, Jonathan, Chelsea, Curly Joe and Adam.
Join them in supporting us:
patreon: patreon.com/seekers
paypal: paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=RKCYGQSMJFDRU
Exploring competing methodologies in the study of Mysticism, (Essentialism, Perennialism and Common-Core vs Contextualism and Constructivism) and questioning the very category of Mysticism itself.
Slipping into the crack between Experience and Interpretation, and asking if it can be healed.
Watch Part 1: The Making of Mysticism: youtu.be/OBHsLOgXZNc
Watch Part 2: William James and the Modern Study of Mysticism: youtu.be/2CZ3zJGT4ZQ
The Series: Exploring the history of an idea, the story of the major developments in our collective understanding of the word “mysticism.” Join us as we attempt to understand what this word meant historically, how it came to mean what it does today, and what, if anything, it might mean for us going forward.
Learning how this category was formed, transformed, discussed and debated throughout the ages. Join us for a journey from the Ancient Greek mystery religions, through the early Christian centuries up into the Middle Ages, through the Renaissance, into the Early Modern period, the Enlightenment, ending with the Modern and Post-Modern decades of its study, debate and development.
00:00 Intro
00:39 Perennialism’s Origins
01:55 Christian Kabbalah
02:44 Traditionalism
04:20 Modern Perennialism
05:53 Huxley and James
08:58 Common-Core Hypothesis
09:52 The Assault – Katz et al.
16:05 The Predecessors
17:46 The Response to Katz
20:09 Mystics: Conservative or Progressive?
22:41 Moving Forward
28:23 Making Mystics
“Neither the mystic nor the philosopher can remain content with an irreducible heterogeneity of mystical experience, the mystic because the ultimate character of the experience implies a universal claim, the philosopher because a diversity of ultimate claims is a challenge not a resting-place. Thus, it is not an uneducated essentialist desire, but religious integrity or philosophical urgency that leads those who no longer find an exclusive claim by any single tradition convincing to seek an underlying unity and to investigate the equivalence of symbols under their diversity.”
Charles Davis, in Review of Mysticism and Philosophical Analysis
Sources and Further Reading:
- Peter Moore, "Recent Studies on Mysticism: A Critical Survey," Religion 3 (1973): 146-56.
- Steven Katz, "Review Article: Recent Work on Mysticism," History of Religions 25 (1985-86): 76-86
- William Wainwright, Mysticism: A Study of its Nature, Cognitive Value and Moral Implications, University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, 1981.
- Randall Studstill, The Unity of Mystical Traditions, The Transformation of Consciousness in Tibetan and German Mysticism, Brill Leiden, Boston, 2005.
- The Making of Modern “Mysticism” Leigh Eric Schmidt, Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Vol. 71, No. 2 (Jun., 2003), Oxford University Press.
- Bernard McGinn, The Foundations of Mysticism, Vol. I of The Presence of God: A History of Western Christian Mysticism, Crossroad Publishing, 1991.
- Jeffrey Kripal, “Mysticism” in The Blackwell Companion to the Study of Religion, by Robert Segal (ed.), 2017.
- Saeed Zarrabi-Zadeh, “The ‘Mystical’ and the ‘Modern’: Mutual Entanglement and Multiple interactions,” in Studies in Religion, 2020.
- Hal Bridges, American Mysticism: From William James to Zen, New York: Harper and Row, 1970
- Richard King, Orientalism and Religion: Postcolonial Theory, India and “The Mystic East,” London: Routledge, 1999.
Join us:
facebook.com/seekersofunity
instagram.com/seekersofunity
twitter.com/seekersofU
seekersofunity.com
Thank you to our beloved Patrons: Astarte, Declan, Gregory, Alex, Charlie, Anonymous, Joshua, Arin, Sage, Marcel, Order of the Artisans, Ahawk, Yehuda, Kevin, Evan, Shahin, Al Alami, Dale, Ethan, Gerr, Effy, Noam, Ron, Shtus, Mendel, Jared, Tim, Mystic Experiment, MM, Lenny, Justin, Joshua, Jorge, Wayne, Jason, Caroline, Yaakov, Daniel, Wodenborn, Steve, Collin, Justin, Mariana, Vic, Shaw, Carlos, Nico, Isaac, Frederick, David, Ben, Rodney, Charley, Jonathan, Chelsea, Curly Joe and Adam.
Join them in supporting us:
patreon: patreon.com/seekers
paypal: paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=RKCYGQSMJFDRU
