Interest In Mysticism Research Articles

Martin Romberg’s Choral Music: Stylistic Features

Contemporary choral music from Scandinavia increasingly attracts the attention of performing groups both abroad and in Russia due to its deep originality and distinctiveness. The article examines the choral work of the contemporary Norwegian composer Martin Romberg, whose work is characterised by Neo-Romantic poetics and style. Three of his choral cycles are subjected to detailed analysis: Aradia (2012), Rúnatal (2012), and Requiem of Runes (2022). The themes of the works reflect the Norwegian composer’s interest in mysticism and mythology, as well as in archetypal motifs and plots. The relationship between words and music in his choral compositions is structured according to traditional concepts. The features of the modal-intonation sphere and the structural organisation of the works are determined both by the general artistic concept and by the phonetic properties of the language of the poetic sources, including the specifics of their verse organisation (for example, alliterative versification). Along with a general reliance on a Romantic tonal idiom, Romberg’s musical language reveals elements of medieval modal archaism, jazz, and Russian song, which are intertwined in an organic unity. The compositions of the 2010s use elements of phonemic composition techniques and Klangfarbenmelodie [“sound-colour melody”], along with various phonic approaches. In the later work (Requiem), the choral writing is simplified, but the interest in timbral experiments remains, as manifested in the unusually low tessitura of the sound of all the voices, which is conditioned by ideas of “depth” and “ascension” of register.

Mysticism – Conservatism – Emancipation. Lucjan Siemieński Reads St. Teresa of Ávila

The paper is devoted to the question of how Lucjan Siemieński perceived St. Teresa of Ávila, a Spanish mystic, and her works. Siemieński’s interest in mysticism developed in the 1870s, i.e., in the last stage of his life, which the poet spent in Cracow. It reflects both his fascination with the European tradition, which, as a translator, he assimilated into the Polish culture since adolescence, and the conviction (shared with conservatives from Cracow) about the important role of the Catholic Church in history. Familiarizing the Polish reader with the life and work of the Spanish saint, Siemieński emphasizes the practical and intellectual aspects of her apostolic mission. In his essay, the gender of the protagonist in no way determines her social or religious position. The critic does not address the emancipatory dimension of her activities. By presenting her image to the readers and translating her poetry into Polish, he supports the tradition of Catholic literature and Catholicism, hoping that they will contribute to the revival of the nation.

A Mysticism Approach to Yeats Byzantium

William Butler Yeats is the most famous poet in the history of modern Irish literature. He is called the greatest poet of our time by T.S Eliot. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1925. He has a strong interest in mysticism and has made unremitting exploration of it throughout his life. Mysticism is an important source of Yeatss life creation. From the early collection of Irish folklore and mythology to the formation of the later mysterious system, Yeats constructed his own set of mythological systems. Yeats mysticism is particularly evident in his poem Byzantium. His poems are full of mystery due to the combination of Irish folk mythology, Swedish mysticism philosophy, Judaism and Christian doctrine, Indian Buddhist thought, ancient Greek and ancient Egyptian mythology and other factors. Among them, his poems are famous for the symbol of Oriental mysticism. This paper makes a detailed interpretation of Byzantine and then implements the analysis of this masterpiece in each section. Based on this analysis, this paper focuses on the interpretation of mysticism in poetry and its impact in order to achieve a better understanding of the mysticism embodied in poetry and provide a valuable reference for future research on related issues.

Perspicacious Researcher Of Mysticism, Dr.Tahir Taunsvi

Dr. Hafeez Ur Rehman Tahir Taunsvi is an eminent and high profile figure of Urdu language and literature. He made great contributions towards Urdu research and criticism. He wrote more than seventy books (compilations and compositions) and above two hundred research articles in this regard. He had keen interest in mysticism and published thirteen remarkable research books and many research essays on Sufism. He has put forth life history, teachings, virtues and uprightness of great saints of Sub-continent. In this article the author has presented an analytical and interpretive study of Dr. Tahir Taunsvi’s research work on mysticism. He has also highlighted the brief introduction and importance of his all publications on mysticism.

What we must pass over in silence

Ludwig Wittgenstein’s and Bertrand Russell’s views on mysticism show their intense interest in this subject and how they explored its nature and possibilities. Wittgenstein, who had abandoned his Catholic faith as a teenager, became a religious searcher, which began from his fears of the terrors of war. He had enlisted as a soldier to fight for Austro-Hungary during which his terror of war led him to pray to God for refuge. The fortuitous discovery of Leo Tolstoy’s book, The Gospel in Brief, opened Wittgenstein’s mind to the importance of Jesus and led him to value Christianity once more. Russell’s interest in mysticism appears in a published article written in 1914 and seems to have been one of curiosity, rather than religious. From a young age, Russell became extremely interested in mathematics and he came to perceive that this subject might be called mathematical mysticism. In both cases, Wittgenstein and Russell shared a keen interest in mysticism, with Wittgenstein concluding in his Tractatus that the mystical was transcendent while Russell chose to examine how mysticism and empiricism might complement each other.

Madame Guyon’s Influences on a Protestant Spirituality : The Case of Thomas C. Upham

The research on mysticism in Protestant spiritualities is still in the beginning stage. In this paper, I have examined the process of Thomas Uphams' appropriation of Madame Guyon's mysticism and some concerns in the interpretation on mystical experiences. Phoebe Palmer guided Upham to have spiritual experiences starting from conversion and assessed them as a model case of experiencing entire sanctification in the Wesleyan term. However, Upham had conflicts with Palmer regarding his interpretation on the death of the will or self-annihilation, which are elements of divine union. He found the appropriate explanation of his inner experience in the writings of Madame Guyon and used Madame Guyon's thoughts on self-annihilation and divine union. Upham contributed to Protestant spirituality by appropriating Madame Guyon's mystical experiences to the Holiness movement. Upham's case shows the serious influence of Madame Guyon's spiritual experiences on Protestant spirituality and mysticism. By Upham, mystical experiences were tried to be interpreted as a Protestant theological term such as entire sanctification. Upham's position was somewhat dubious but seems to have a role of bridge between Guyon and Palmer. In this paper, first, I describe Upham's experience of sanctification and his interest in mysticism. Then, I explore Upham's appropriation of Madame Guyon's mystical experiences shown in her writings and his conflicts with Phoebe Palmer regarding his deviant position on entire sanctification.

"Nobody has ever seen God": the denial of the possibility of mystical experiences in eighth- and eleventh-century Byzantium

In scholarly treatments of Byzantine mysticism the eighth, ninth and tenth centuries are given short shrift. Authors deal at length with the seventh-century authors John Climacus, Maximus the Confessor and Thalassius the Libyan and then immediately proceed to a discussion of the oeuvre of Symeon the New Theologian who flourished in the late tenth and early eleventh century. There is, of course, a simple reason for this approach. In the intervening years no mystical literature was produced in Byzantium. This raises the question: how can we account for this yawning gap? Two explanations are possible: either there was no interest in mysticism, or mysticism was actively rejected. This article argues that the latter explanation is correct. It analyses texts that rule out the possibility of mystical experiences and implicitly accuse mystics of heresy.

Ethics and Mysticism: The Work of Kenneth E. Kirk and Some Other Modern Anglicans

AbstractKenneth E. Kirk is regarded as the person who revived moral theology in the Anglican tradition in the early to mid-twentieth century. This article argues that a renewal of interest in mysticism, led especially by W.R. Inge and Evelyn Underhill in the first two decades of the twentieth century, was influential upon Kirk’s outlook, especially his association of moral theology with ascetic theology (or mystical theology), and linking of personal holiness with ethics. Kirk made prayer – especially contemplative prayer – and worship primary in the education of the soul, the forging of Christian character and therefore the creation of a moral agent.

Everyday transcendence? Robert Musil, William James, and mysticism

ABSTRACTIn the early twentieth century, as a reaction against scientific positivism, a widespread interest in mysticism developed, especially among German writers. Mystical experience in the form of ‘epiphanies' was described by the psychologist William James and explored by the novelist Robert Musil. In his novel The Man without Qualities, Musil proposes an approach to mysticism which captures the phenomenology of the experience and makes it available for scientific study without subjecting it to a religious, or any other, interpretation.

Varieties of mystical experience in William James and other moderns

ABSTRACTIn 1902, William James gave his Gifford Lectures in Edinburgh, entitled The Varieties of Religious Experience, in which he claimed that such experience was a part of human nature, and was necessarily the foundation of all institutional religion. His work has often been singled out as leading to an increasingly private and individualistic understanding of religion, but this paper places his work in a broader movement of the early twentieth century that heralded a revival of interest in religious experience and, especially, mysticism. It explores the work of two English writers, W.R. Inge and Evelyn Underhill, in relation to James, and argues that the revival of interest in mysticism was a significant response to the intellectual challenges to faith in modernity.

Crossing the Threshold: Mysticism, Liminality, and Remedios Varo’s Bordando el manto terrestre (1961-62)

In this article we propose to take up the question of the painter’s work in connection with liminality more explicitly. We will argue that the limen Varo’s heroines cross is a psychological one that takes them through a process culminating in a rebirth of the self, and that to the extent they are in-between identities and involved in a process of initiation, they can be considered liminars (Turner). We will also argue that in order to develop this theme, which culminates in her most autobiographical work, the triptych Bordando el manto terrestre (1961-62), the artist needed to find a way conceptually to bridge surrealism and her interest in mysticism. She would have found a sympathetic approach in Jung, one of the founders of psychoanalysis who turned explicitly to the question of religion in the troubled thirties, though, as we shall see, she revised his androcentric approach. We will suggest that Jung’s writing helped the artist make a transition from surrealism to esoteric spirituality.This article was published open access under a CC BY license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Crossing the Threshold: Mysticism, Liminality, and Remedios Varo’s Bordando el manto terrestre (1961-62)

In this article we propose to take up the question of the painter’s work in connection with liminality more explicitly. We will argue that the limen Varo’s heroines cross is a psychological one that takes them through a process culminating in a rebirth of the self, and that to the extent they are in-between identities and involved in a process of initiation, they can be considered liminars (Turner). We will also argue that in order to develop this theme, which culminates in her most autobiographical work, the triptych Bordando el manto terrestre (1961-62), the artist needed to find a way conceptually to bridge surrealism and her interest in mysticism. She would have found a sympathetic approach in Jung, one of the founders of psychoanalysis who turned explicitly to the question of religion in the troubled thirties, though, as we shall see, she revised his androcentric approach. We will suggest that Jung’s writing helped the artist make a transition from surrealism to esoteric spirituality. This article was published open access under a CC BY license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Aesthetics, mysticism and the art of living

This article analyses aesthetics and mysticism in the writings of Albert Geyser, the prominent South African theologian who is mostly known for his brave, uncompromising struggle against the apartheid system. In the first part of the article, brief introductory comments are made about Geyser’s theological and political role in South Africa in the light of his Protestan tcontext and his opposition to apartheid. It is then investigated how his reputation as a Biblical scholar and his protracted, much publicised stance against apartheid obfuscate his remarkable interest in aesthetics and mysticism and explains why his other theological interests and especially his interest in mysticism have not yet been researched. In the second part of the paper Geyser’s mystical interests are investigated by analysing his comments on church architecture, worship, music, liturgy and his pioneering translation of Thomas á Kempis’ Imitatio Christi.

Mysticism: A Way of Unknowing

The phenomenon of mysticism has been a cause of intense debate for philosophers, religionists, and theologians for centuries. Interest in mysticism is particularly vibrant in the 21 st century, not only among the afore-mentioned, but also from other diverse sectors of society. This is evidenced in the plethora of material dealing with various aspects of mysticism. Negative or apophatic mysticism is eliciting greater attention, both in the academy and in society in general and many of the misconceptions surrounding this concept are currently under scrutiny. It is clear that apophatic mysticism — the “way of unknowing” or “nothingness” — belongs to the essence of the spiritual path. A short survey of this concept in some of the major religious traditions, together with an analysis of the place of apophasis in Christianity, brings this pertinent area of study into greater focus.

Э.К. Метнер и А.Н. Шмидт

This article examines the relationship between two remarkable inhabitants of Nizhnii Novgorod: E.K. Medtner, who was an official censor, and Anna Nikolaevna Schmidt, a reporter for the newspaper Nizhegorodskii Listok. The latter was known as the creator of a mystical conception of the entire world and its history. Although Medtner shared an interest in mysticism, he was not especially close with Schmidt. But his archive contains some important documents about Schmidt that add to our knowledge of her. This article includes an unpublished text by S.D. Protopopov, who was on familiar terms with Schmidt, as well as two appendices with letters from Schmidt to Aleksandr Blok and Andrei Belyi.

Nelly Sachs: The Poetics of Silence and the Limits of Representation by Elaine Martin

Reviewed by: Nelly Sachs: The Poetics of Silence and the Limits of Representation by Elaine Martin Erk F. Grimm Nelly Sachs: The Poetics of Silence and the Limits of Representation. By Elaine Martin. Berlin and New York: de Gruyter, 2011. 199 pages. €69,95. This study makes a timely contribution to the discussion of this Nobel-prize winning poet whose oeuvre and outlook were indelibly marked by Nazi rule and her flight to Sweden as a Jewish refugee. Several comparative studies have been devoted to examining her works, from Claudia Beil (1991), Timothy H. Bahti / Marilyn Sibley Fries (1996), Annette Jael Lehmann (1999) to Kathrin M. Bower (2000) and Katja Garloff (2005). Few scholars have focused so exclusively on Nelly Sachs's poetry as Ruth Kranz-Löber (2001), Christine Rospert (2004), or now Elaine Martin; the former explore mythical and biographical references, the latter studies internal "representational devices" (3). Martin favors an immanent reading to illustrate Sachs's response to an "aporia facing the post-Shoah writer" (183), that is, the necessity of "bearing witness and the impossibility of doing so adequately" (122). Part 1 gives a rich account of Sachs's historical reception, in an attempt to reveal common patterns of appropriation. Part 2 shows how Adorno's historical quandary about the precarious state of autonomous art and insensitive aestheticization may still serve as a starting point for "probing the limits of representation" (S. Friedländer) with regard to the genre. Part 3 explores a corpus of ca. 35 full-length poems in consideration of the ethical constraints that invariably limit poetic refraction. Paired with reflections on predominant motifs and stylistic preferences, the exegesis reveals a "fundamental distortion" of imagery (73). Though there are occasional reminders of Adorno's "aporetics," the real conflict is staged between Jewish theologians and Shoah survivors (E. Wiesel) or trauma theorists (C. Caruth). The Poetics of Silence evolved from the author's doctoral thesis and is geared toward researchers and instructors. It is primarily concerned with rejecting theological projections of forgiveness or sacrificial purpose in Sachs. With this objective in mind, the author identifies convincingly all forms of institutional appropriation, from a false "reclamation of her person" (37) to naïve appeals regarding a German-Jewish symbiosis (42), thus confirming the widely held view of "suppressive tendencies" (29) in the Adenauer era. Throughout her study, Martin envisions the émigré poet as a solitary figure distressed by "survivor trauma" (149) and living in "almost total obscurity" (37), yet able to advocate an accusatory and "anti-redemptive aesthetic" (184). One should hasten to add that Sachs was in intense exchange with Swedish and German poets, as Aris Fioretos's Flight and Metamorphosis (2012) has brilliantly shown. As translator, poet, and spiritual "sister" she had already won the recognition of a younger generation when her birthdays were honored in two Suhrkamp volumes (1961 and 1966). Overall, Elaine Martin's interpretations are lucid, rich, and informed. They are remarkable in integrating rival readings and rebuking any attribution of redemptive meaning or martyrdom, whether these are fringe positions in Jewish theology (169-170) or literary criticism (172). The portrayal of Nelly Sachs as a pugnacious skeptic, however, is not based on extraneous sources. Although we know of the poet's interest in mysticism and the Zohar, Martin readily ascribes an "unabated radical position" (166) to Sachs's transformation of archetypal images because in her view the poet "challenges the value of religion" (163). Such a reading [End Page 351] ignores incidents such as the famous dispute between Celan and Sachs during their Zurich meeting; there is also evidence in support of a less accusatory role (e.g., Eli, the 1945/62 "mystery play," or her letter to David Ben Gurion in 1962). Certainly, her adaptations do modify biblical and Romantic imagery; but this does not signal its "futility" (89) or even "the irrelevance of traditional poetic modes" (185) and the old "royal words" (73). Crediting her with subversive intent (173) in all instances, however, seems to downplay the images' life-sustaining function and visionary strength in the 1940s. Her unparalleled pathos and striking "Opulenz der Bilder" (Lehmann, qtd. 111) get short shrift. Curiously, Fioretos emphasizes Sachs's exalted...

Paraísos ‘barrosos’: el éxtasis como foco central de la poética de Néstor Perlongher

The last period of Perlongher’s poetry has been considered with some ‘concern’ by criticswho have read the poet's interest in mysticism (especially the cult of the Santo Daime) as a consequence of the abrupt change in his life due to the discovery of seropositivity and, therefore, the impossibility of continuing with sexuality as an instrument of liberation and transcendence. Consequently his latter production (Aguas Aereas, El chorreo de las iluminaciones, El Auto Sacramental) has been considered in the line of ‘discontinuity’. In this essay, on the contrary, I propose a reading of Perlongher’s mystical production based on the idea of continuity with his previous works to show how this perspective can help the critics to focus more clearly the core of his poetical experience.

BEHIND THE VEIL

This memorial essay on the French historian of philosophy Pierre Hadot (1922–2010) explores his life and work. Starting out from an ecclesiastical background and education, Hadot's interest in mysticism led him to study the late Greek Neoplatonists Plotinus and Porphyry, as well as the Latin Church Fathers. Elected first to the École pratique des hautes études and then to the Collège de France, Hadot developed his most influential idea, that ancient philosophy was not the construction of an abstract system of ideas, but a concrete, lived practice intended to transform the perception and being of the practitioner, and thereby to ensure his or her happiness. Later in his career, Hadot, influenced by German Romanticism and above all by Goethe, turned to study the history of the concept of nature from classical to modern times. The breadth of his interests and the novelty of his approach account for the wide interest in his works, extending to circles that extend far beyond the disciplines of classical studies and the history of philosophy.

From The Book of Margery Kempe: The Trials and Triumphs of a Homeward Journey

Margery Kempe (c. 1373-1438), the author—not the writer—of The Book of Margery Kempe, lived—when she was not traveling to the Holy Land or Assisi, the Shrine of St. James at Compostela, the Chapel of St. Bridget in Rome, or to Norway, Danzig, or Aachen—in the prosperous East Anglian town of Lynn. She was the daughter of John Burnham, who, she did not hesitate to say when required to identify herself, was five times mayor of Lynn; the wife of John Kempe, a respected burgess; and the mother of fourteen children. Her adversaries saw Margery Kempe as a heretic, a Lollard, and hence a danger to the social order. She saw herself, if not as a potential saint, at least as a servant of God who lived a life comparable to that of St. Bridget of Sweden. Richard D. Altick tells the story of how The Book of Margery Kempe came to be made accessible to readers of our time (1960:298-300). As he presents it, the twentieth-century discovery of Margery Kempe’s story of her own life seems to have been almost inevitable. Altick begins by tracing the first part of the Book to be set in print to an eight-page leaflet called A Shorte Treatyse of Contemplacyon . . . Taken Out of the Boke of Margerie Kempe of Lynn. This small part of Margery’s life history was published by Wynkyn de Worde in about 1501 and reprinted in a collection of religious treatises in 1521. Then in 1910, almost four centuries later, Professor Edmund Carter published The Cell of Self-Knowledge, a collection that contained some of Margery’s reflections. This publication came at a time of growing interest in mysticism and the contributions of women to the literature of religious experience. And then, in 1934 Colonel William Erdeswick Ignatius Butler-

Max Weber's mysticism

For much of his life Weber favored the rational activity of the ascetic in contrast to the irrational passivity of the mystic. However, Weber developed a growing interest in mysticism both in the East and the West. Johannes Tauler and his teacher Meister Eckhart offered Weber glimpses of the western mystic's beliefs. Perhaps in Weber's last years, religion and mysticism moved from being merely intellectual interests to something more significant and personal.