Mystical Concepts Research Articles

“Those unheard are sweeter”

The historiography of musical hallucinations has hitherto focused on the origins of modern medical investigations of the subject. This has led to a view of the nineteenth century as a break in continuity in which ambivalent mystical conceptions were replaced by scientific perspectives of them as a symptom. This paper looks at the complex attitudes towards the phenomenon in the period, showing how religious, semi-scientific, romantic and medical debates allowed scope for continuing ambiguous and positive views.

The influence of Sufism on Eric–Emmanuel Schmitt’s work

This paper attempts to investigate Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt(1960- ), as a Western dramatist and mystical writer of Eastern traditions through a detailed, qualitative and critical analysis of one of his most important work, Monsieur Ibrahim and the Flowers of Quran . In the play , Sufi framework and Archetypal Theory is used to present plainly and briefly the main concepts of mysticism and, at the same time, to situate mysticism within the play. Here, the author finds that the title character takes on the role of a Sufi master, initiating the protagonist, Moses, into the way of the Sufi and to eventually become his successor. The author concludes that Schmitt is indeed influenced by the master and disciple relationship in the initiation and journey of Sufism.

TASAVVUF KAVRAMLARININ İSTİNBÂTI BAĞLAMINDA İŞÂRET İLMİ

In discussions around the origins of Sufism, the general opinion of the Sufis is that the main source of Sufism is the Qur’an. In order to prove these judgments, the Sufis have dealt with the concepts of mysticism by bringing the proofs from the verses of Qur’an. In this context, in order to reveal the understanding of Sufism in accordance with the Qur’an, it is seen that the Sufis such as Serrâc, Kelâbâzi, Abu Talib al-Makki, Hucviri, Kuseyri, Herevi and Gazzâli considered a significant part of the concepts of Sufism relatedto Qur’an. Thus, they aimed not onlyto the acceptance of basic ideas and claims in front of the opponents but also to make Sufis satisfied among themselves. While the Sufis prove the concepts of mysticism, they have also tended to some ishari meanings as well as apparent (zâhir) meanings of the verses and they called it ilm alisharah. According to Sufis, Allah Teâlâ teaches the person things he/she doesn't know if he/she practices what he/she knows. Therefore, ilm al-isharah has taken place in the Sufi epistemology as a consequence of the good worship. In this study, we will deal with the Sufism concepts were deduced from the ishari meaning/mystical interpretations of the verses. Thus, the effect and consequences of ilm al-isharah on the understanding and interpretation of the Qur'an will be determined.

Relasi antara Tuhan dan Manusia Menurut Pandangan Ibrāhīm al-Kurānī

This article describes the concepts of relationship of God and man from theological point of view along with Sufism. It focuses on Ibrāhīm al-Kurānī’s view on the issue. This article confirms that al-Kurānī attempts to reconcile theological views of Ash‘arīyah and the divine worldviews of the Sufis, especially that of Ibn ‘Arabī’s philosophical Sufism. Al-Kurānī argues that there has been interconnectedness between common concepts expressed by the Sufis such as waḥdat al-wujūd and tajallī and the concept of al-kasb promulgated by Ash‘arīyah. The author finds that the concepts of ittiḥād and ḥulūl are not two mystical concepts that explain the relationship of God and man, rather these two concepts are a mere psychological condition sensed and experienced by the Sufis who try to enter the realm of ma‘rifat. Al-Kūrānī also argues that the relation of God and man can be explained through the concept of tajallī. He sees that this concept is compatible with Ash‘arīyah’s concept of al-kasb. Al-Kūrānī adds that causality is not an undoubtedly exact matter. It means that the causality does not discord against the notion of waḥdat al-wujūd.

The World as Manifestation of Spirit: Mysticism and Metaphysics in West African Religions

Abstract This paper focuses on the concept of the world as interpreted by Amadou Hampaté Bâ, an initiated scholar, from his experience with Fulani and Bamana religions. It examines the meaning of the world as a manifestation of spirit through Bâ’s mystical concept of the ‘living tradition’. Bâ looks at the complex interaction of the material and spiritual dimensions of the universe as it manifests itself in the physical world through symbols, and as it is informed through invisible forces communicated by the Supreme Being. Based on his understanding of Fulani and Bamana traditions, Bâ uses notions of history and art to better highlight the specific relationship between the spiritual and material realms that illustrate this sacred connection. I argue that Bâ’s mystical approach to understanding this metaphysics offers another method of thinking about some of the diverse African indigenous religions through their underlying esoteric connections.

The underappreciated role of creativity in journalism

The role of creativity in journalism is relatively understudied, though that is changing, with a growing literature about what is variously termed literary journalism, creative nonfiction, longform journalism and literary nonfiction. Creativity can and should be unshackled from highminded, even mystical conceptions of it from the Romantic period. By doing this, and by examining a range of journalistic practices, in the conception, researching and writing of journalism, this article argues for a broader understanding of the important role that creativity plays in the craft of journalism.

Inclusion and exclusion: two modes of Daoist mysticism

ABSTRACTOn the basis of etymological exploration, the essay analyzes Daoism through the lens of mysticism, studying both what we might term its religious and philosophical dimensions. The essay identifies mystical elements in both philosophical Daoist traditions and religious Daoism and notes some of their distinct features. It endeavors to show that the concept of mysticism affords a unique and instructive perspective from which to understand these traditions and explicates two modes of mystical expression and thinking – the inclusivist and exclusivist – that it asserts are represented by philosophical and religious Daoism respectively.

The study of theology and religion at the University of Pretoria: Two epochs of endeavor

This article explores the possibility of an alignment of (a) theology (understood as study concentrating on one faith from the faith suppositions of that faith) and (b) a study of world religions, open to all regardless of faith in the context of an encompassing theory. This article argues that far from undermining the dignity and value of any religion, (b) could add value to the theological study of any one religion. This article proceeds to develop a model for (b). Utilising a methodology revolving around the strategies of careful historical criticism, faithful intentional understanding and imaginative yet trustworthy tendentional interpretation, this article explores a model harmonising the key concepts of metaphysical mysticism (understood as the peak of religious aspiration), conditionality (emphasising the unique singularity of individual religions), totality (emphasising the religious landscape as one coherent whole) and horizon (emphasising the non-absoluteness of all religions, petering out on, and arising from, silence).

"Kommt, um die Liebe zu lieben. "Maria Magdalena von Pazzi eds. by Michael Plattig and Edeltraud Klueting

Reviewed by: "Kommt, um die Liebe zu lieben. "Maria Magdalena von Pazzi eds. by Michael Plattig and Edeltraud Klueting Elisabeth Fischer "Kommt, um die Liebe zu lieben. "Maria Magdalena von Pazzi. Edited by Michael Plattig and Edeltraud Klueting. [Karmel Paperbacks, 1. Vol. Münster: Aschendorff Verlag. 2016. Pp. 128, €14,80. paperback ISBN 978-3-402-12100-9. This first collected edition of the Karmel Paperbacks was published by the Research Institute of the Carmelite Province of Germany, founded in 2016 in Mainz. In addition to the well-known and well-researched mystical experiences of the saint and mystic Maria Magdalena de' Pazzi (1566–1607), this short study explores the mysticism of the saint through the biographical dimension of this mysticism and de' Pazzi's spiritual development (p. 78). Although addressing an academic audience, due to its brevity the study is merely an introduction to the life and mystical experience of the saint. Offering references to present-day concerns, the well-written volume manages to inspire its reader intellectually as well as spiritually. In his first article (pp. 10–47) Plattig examines the life of saints in the social situation of Maria's Florentine home during the Renaissance and also considers changed concepts of piety and mysticism between the medieval period and sixteenth-century ideas of spirituality (p. 13). In his second contribution, Plattig analyzes de'Pazzi's mysticism (pp. 48–78) (see "Mystagogue," p. 74), underlining love as a key element of her spiritual development and characterizing her mysticism as daily practice. In his article Bruno Secondin investigates1 (pp. 79–105) the question of the current relevance of de' Pazzi. In comparison, he highlights the unifying moment of the believer's desire for reforms in the Catholic Church of the twenty-first and sixteenth century. Moreover, he stresses the neglected role of the Holy Spirit for de' Pazzi's mysticism. The edition concludes with a reprint of Pope Benedict XVI's letter on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of de' Pazzi's death in 2007 (pp. 106–11), and excerpts of de Pazzi's writings Quaranta Giorni and the Revelatione e Intelligentie (pp. 112–25). The study is a recommendable introduction to the life, spirituality, and mysticism of de Pazzi. [End Page 809] Elisabeth Fischer University of Hamburg Footnotes 1. Bruno Secondin, "Rinnovarela Chiesa. Con cuore amante e parole audaci. L'attualità di Maria Maddalena de'Pazzi," Carmelus, 63 (2016). Copyright © 2017 The Catholic University of America Press

The mystical Unity of Existence: A look at the philosophical interpretations of the mystics' view regarding The Unity vs. The plurality of existence

The Unity of Existence is a concept that was first proposed by mystics. However, this concept has been interpreted in different ways by different groups of scholars. This is due to the fact that these mystics did not always speak in an explicit manner. One of the groups that attempted to interpret this concept was the philosophers. An examination of the works of philosophers leads to the conclusion that there are at least 15 different philosophical interpretations of the Unity of Existence. Some of these interpret this concept epistemologically, while others interpret it metaphysically. Some of them are legitimate interpretations of the sayings of the mystics, while others contradict some of the other sayings of the mystics and, therefore, cannot serve as adequate explanations of this mystical concept. Nonetheless, they can still serve as independent interpretations of the unity vs. multiplicity of the Universe. In this article, the 15 different philosophical interpretations of the mystical unity of existence will be presented and the legitimacy of some of them will be assessed. Another discussion that is of primary importance is the truth or falsehood of these interpretations. This is something that cannot be addressed in this article and, yet, deserves to be examined independently.

The Paradox of Ineffability: Matilal and Early Wittgenstein

Bimal Krishna Matilal was interested in the paradoxes of the ineffability of mystical experiences throughout his career. He was all eager to prove that the concept of mysticism in Indian tradition had its own strong logic, which had helped its proponents overcome the charges of being ‘self-refuting’. In various articles, Matilal had analysed various formulations of the logic of ineffability in various systems of Indian philosophy and examined various ways to get out of the logical paradoxes. While discussing the paradox of ineffability, he often refers to the ineffability of the mystical in the Tractatus and maintains that the Tractatus paragraphs T4.003 and 6.522 and Wittgenstein’s letter to Russell, quoted in Anscombe, ‘strike a very familiar note in the heart of the mystics’. His own view in this regard was that ‘ineffability in the sense that something is beyond the reach of all words, is impossible. For in the last analysis it is possible to speak of that which is (supposedly) ineffable, by the word “ineffable” itself’ (Matilal 2002, 12). He discusses also the ways how one can finally avoid the paradoxes of ultimate ineffability. His position is that ‘the so-called ineffable is not really or ultimately ineffable.’ In this paper, there will be an attempt to apply Matilal’s viewpoint on the paradox of ineffability in the Tractatus. This exploration unfolds in three main sections. Matilal’s perspective on the concept of ineffability along with the paradoxes and its solutions in various systems of Indian tradition will be highlighted in the first section and the paradox of ineffability in the Tractatus along with the controversy regarding its interpretation in the second, and finally, in the concluding section, attempts will be made to find a way out of this impasse by applying Matilal’s stance on this matter and see how it allows us to give ‘fresh answers to the questions raised in Western Philosophy’ (Mohanty 1992,401).

On Mystical Metamorphosis in Christianity and Islam: Dante’s Divine Comedy and Rumi’s Masnavi in Comparative Perspective

Abstract Journey emerges in multiple faces in literature. But when this substantial subset of quests adopts the mystical aspect, it creates a mystery that triggers the discovery sense in human beings. The present article develops a comparative analysis on the complex nature of mystical metamorphosis as expressed in two of the most influential writings of the East and West: Rumi’s Masnavi and Dante’s Divine Comedy. The first part discusses the concept of mysticism and poetry, and reveals the nature of their connection. The second part of this work investigates the historical setting of Dante’s and Rumi’s lives in relation to the social environment of the time. The last part emphasizes the idea of mystical metamorphosis as expressed in the Divine Comedy and Masnavi through two fundamental vehicles: love and faith. This work demonstrates how, in a world rife with wars and misery, mysticism provides a vital key to building a strong bridge between Islam and Christianity, and on a larger scale, to metamorphosizing the “clash of civilizations” into a “confluence of civilizations”.

“I Desire Sanctity”: Sanctity and Separateness among Jewish Religious Zionists in Israel/Palestine

AbstractThis article expands on anthropological understandings of affect and emotion to include certain theological and religious concepts that structure and give meaning to the daily lives of religious nationalists in areas of ethnic and political conflict. In doing so, it will ethnographically explore the relationship between theological notions of sanctity and the way those notions manifest themselves in the context of contemporary Jewish religious Zionism in both Israel and the Occupied West Bank. I will argue that analyzing mystical conceptions of sanctity as a distinct affect opens new areas of human experience, which anthropologists may use to better grapple with the dilemmas posed by nationalism and religious extremism in an increasingly politically fraught world.

Evolutions of the Mystical Conception of Religion in the Russian Academic Theology of the Nineteenth Century and Today's Challenges

The Russian academic theological tradition, scarcely known to the West, was the only milieu wherein the development of philosophy of religion in the pre-revolutionary Russia was under way. Philosophical investigation of the phenomenon of religion was being elaborated in the apologetic context, i.e. in critical analysis of non-theistic conceptions of the origin and essence of religion, and the figure of Friedrich Schleiermacher, with his reduction of religion firstly to cosmic feelings and later to the feeling of the ontological dependence, occupied an invariable place in this analysis. The paper deals with critical comments on Schleiermacher’s Speeches on Religion and Christian Faith made by Victor Kudryavtsev-Platonov and his followers, which are being parsed in turn, as well as with historical links of the later Schleiermacher with phenomenology of religion and typological affinities of the earlier Schleiermacher with the theology of religious pluralism.

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.

In the Search of a Lost Photography: Appearances, Repressions and Censures of Henriette Barthes’ Picture in La Chambre claire

This paper aims at considering the most relevant photography removed from the Camera Lucida (1980) by Roland Barthes as the object of a form of self-censorship that reveals itself to be particularly significant in order to shape the book. The thesis is that the fact that Barthes does not show the mother’s photography carries out a main textual consequence such as the narrative hybridization within an essay.First, the approach of the genesis of the book shows that the Photography of the Winter Garder was the real source of the Barthes’ essay. Then, some textual analysis retrace the appearances of the missing image of the mother. Finally, the explanation of a complex photographic apparatus governing the photo's disappearance relocates the photo as part of the unconscious reading, even though the relative image can appear shattered both discursively and visually.Thus, grounding on Freud’s theories about psychic censorship and the opposite Sartre’s critical conclusions three different modes of self-censorships will be found within Barthes’ discourse and disposed by a hierarchical succession. The media self-censorship focuses on the perservation of this image from the commercialization of the image as a product at the age of media. The romantic self-censorship bases on a metaphysical and mystical concept of the photographical portait. The Counter-censorship, as Barthes claims, creates a paradoxical discours that avoids his own self-censorship through the active contribution of the imagination of the reader.

A Veil that Reveals: Charles Williams and the Fellowship of the Rosy Cross

Relatively little critical attention has been paid to Charles Williams’s ten year involvement in the Fellowship of the Rosy Cross (F.R.C.), despite the possibilities for interpretation of the often obscure imagery derived from this experience and applied to his novels and poetry. This paper reviews the F.R.C.’s rituals and meeting minutes in order to gauge the level of Williams’s involvement with the FR.C. and the mystical concepts communicated by its founder, Arthur Edward Waite. It also explores the order’s organizational, symbolic and philosophical roots, particularly the links shared with its parent order, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Having identified the historical and experiential contexts of Williams’s F.R.C. participation, the paper offers examples of the possibilities for interpretation created by greater awareness of the order’s ideas and practices. A number of Williams’s novels are explored in light of several occult concepts important to the F.R.C.—the ‘middle pillar’, the ‘higher self’, and the ‘end of desire’. This analysis indicates that comprehensive interpretation of Williams’s fiction and poetry is impossible without a thorough understanding of the ideas and symbols that he encountered in his ritual experiences. This analysis also demonstrates the importance of the modern occult context to Williams’s life and work.

The Romantic Absolute: Being and Knowing in Early German Romantic Philosophy, 1795–1804 by Dalia Nassar (review)

Reviewed by: The Romantic Absolute: Being and Knowing in Early German Romantic Philosophy, 1795–1804 by Dalia Nassar Nathan Ross Dalia Nassar. The Romantic Absolute: Being and Knowing in Early German Romantic Philosophy, 1795–1804. Chicago-London: University of Chicago Press, 2014. Pp. xii + 341. Cloth, $50.00. Dalia Nassar presents the absolute as the guiding concept in the philosophies of Novalis, Friedrich Schlegel, and Schelling. The inclusion of Schelling in this study plays a key role in guiding the focus: rather than seeking to prove that Schelling was actually a Romantic philosopher, even if he did not fully identify with this movement, the text seems to argue that the Romantics were groping toward something like Schelling’s philosophy of nature in a less coherent way. As such, the study reveals fascinating parallels and makes an important contribution to understanding the unifying elements of the concept of nature in early German Romanticism, but underplays some important divergences and tensions in how to think of the absolute as an idea. One of the most enlightening contributions of the book is to demonstrate the crucial influence of Goethe on these thinkers. Nassar persuasively argues that transformative moments in the development of Novalis and Schelling emerged from their encounter with Goethe’s work as a natural scientist. In particular, there are two themes in Romantic philosophy that she traces back to Goethe’s influence: the need to investigate nature in a less speculative and more experimental fashion, and the conception of nature as a self-generating, organic process of metamorphosis. In a sense, both being and knowing in Nassar’s account can be distilled into these two points of contact with Goethe: she sees the notion of natural metamorphosis in Goethe as the model for Romantic ontology, and she considers Romantic epistemology from a more empirical and less transcendental point of view. However, the weight that she attributes to Goethe points to a problem: while Goethe clearly had a great influence on Romantic philosophy, he also failed to enter into dialogue with it, as witnessed by his disdainful statements about the “sickliness” of everything Romantic. This leads to the question of whether there are not valuable and innovative themes in Romantic philosophy that cannot be distilled down into Goethe’s conception of nature; this question would perhaps lead to a more nuanced, tension-filled conception of the absolute. A distinctive feature of Nassar’s reading is the emphasis on empirical themes: she argues that the Romantic philosophy of nature is not purely speculative, but also has a place for natural experimentation, which she argues through letters and biographical texts. However, the Romantic emphasis on natural observation is not so straightforward and involves a deep paradox that would need further explanation. Nassar comes closest to this paradox when she writes on Schelling’s notion of the experiment: that the experiment is merely a way of proving a priori truths (206). In addition, it would be helpful to consider texts by Novalis that seem to develop a deeply paradoxical and even mystical conception of what it means to perform an experiment on nature: the experiment is teaching nature to observe itself. The work avoids or underplays those well-known texts in Schlegel that consider the absolute as fundamentally problematic, that is, as something that eludes our grasp and exceeds our powers of tangible knowledge. Nassar generally favors interpreting the absolute as a constitutive idea, in the manner of Schelling, rather than as regulative idea: she understands the absolute as a given, non-objective, holistic unity of which we are part, an organic force that underlies alteration and generates antagonisms and opposition out of its need to display itself. However much the Romantics (Novalis and Schlegel) shared such an organic idea of natural development with Schelling, and even used it as a way of thinking about historical development (as Nassar persuasively demonstrates), they also thought of the absolute in a somewhat skeptical way—that is, as a whole that could never be given in experience in a definite way. There are many passages in which they speak of their idea of nature as not yet existing, and relate this not yet existing, ideal nature to the...

“With mine own tears I wash away my balm”: The King’s two bodies in Shakespeare’s Richard II and King Lear.

The aim of this paper is to delineate the representation of kingship in Tudor and Stuart England and its articulation in Shakespeare’s political drama, through the examples of Richard II (1599) and King Lear (1606), two illustrative plays of the respective eras. Conceived of as two-bodied, the sovereign is, from early medieval times, positioned in an uneasy liminal state whereby his natural body is also the incarnation of the mystical concept of the everlasting Body politic. Anxieties over this seemingly unbreakable continuity of mystical kingship become nonetheless palpable as Queen Elizabeth I lies dying, leaving no heir to the throne of England. The first Stuart monarch hence reinforces the doctrine of The Divine Right of Kings by confidently advancing the unique precedence of godhead over manhood in the monarch. Set in this context, Shakespeare’s two political figures question the validity of the king’s impregnable nature as they grapple with their human condition exposed to all mortal ills. When Richard II’s “tears wash away (his) balm” and his meta-physiological body withal, Shakespeare exposes the frailties underneath the fiction of the monarch’s two-bodied nature parodied in King Lear as “every inch a king”.

Dissonant Harmony and “Seed-Tones”

French-American composer Dane Rudhyar’s (1895–1985) vision of dissonance as a spiritual discipline was profoundly influential upon American ultra-modernist composers in the 1920s and ’30s. Rudhyar’s own compositions manifest his theoretical ideas, which revolve around a mystical conception of Tone as the totality of all possible musical sounds. His prose reveals several interrelated methods of creating Tone: using the piano’s sounding board as a gong, employing dissonant harmony (relating pitches by geometric relationships, which manifest as interval cycles), applying “the new sense of space” (beginning from wholeness, which requires equal divisions of the octave), and creating organic forms by basing each composition on a “seed-tone” (a dissonant tonic sonority). Rudhyar’s theoretical writings suggest two compatible methods of constructing seed-tones: building quintal sonorities (which exemplify dissonant harmony in Rudhyar’s theory) and employing “interpenetrating harmonic series.” These two methods facilitate the identification of seed-tones and their elaborations in Rudhyar’s piano music. Schenkerian-style graphs accompany detailed analyses of two of Rudhyar’s piano pieces: “Stars” and the first movement ofGranites. Rudhyar’s seed-tones may suggest new analytic perspectives for other post-tonal repertoire. In addition, Rudhyar’s connection of dissonance with spirituality serves as a reminder that many early-twentieth-century pioneers in atonality and dodecaphony perceived a numinousness in this new music.