This book discusses mysticism and its possible contributions to a positive common human future. It is organized into three parts - “Studies of Mystical Traditions,” “Comparative Studies of Mystical Traditions,” and “Social and Ethical Implications." The approach is philosophical and critical. The contributors differ on whether or not mystical traditions would restore peaceful living and peaceful coexistence. However, the problem before this manuscript is the growing pain and suffering caused by greed in the world, greed causing economic disequilibrium, racism and divisiveness causing social unrest resulting in mass migration and refugees’ crisis. Through the lens of “mystical traditions," the manuscript proposes a balance approach between material and spiritual needs of people. To strengthen human spiritualty, the manuscript emphasizes practicing meditation, music, prayers, zikr, yoga, mindfulness, fasting and other methods of spiritual revival for peace within self and with others.

This book argues that mystical doctrines and practices initiate parallel transformative processes in the consciousness of mystics. This thesis is supported through a comparative analysis of Tibetan Buddhist Dzogchen (rdzogs-chen) and the medieval German mysticism of Eckhart, Suso, and Tauler. These traditions are interpreted using a system/cybernetic model of consciousness. This model provides a theoretical framework for assessing the cognitive effects of mystical doctrines and practices and showing how different doctrines and practices may nevertheless initiate common transformative processes. This systems approach contributes to current philosophical discourse on mysticism by (1) making possible a precise analysis of the cognitive effects of mystical doctrines and practices, and (2) reconciling mystical heterogeneity with the essential unity of mystical traditions.

Esoteric communities of masters and disciples ("Holy Traditions") have, in both prehistoric and historical eras, developed doctrines and rituals to experience mystical union with the divine. The author describes these traditions, their ideas, and their practices—noting their similarities to and their interactions with other mystical traditions.

Scholars of the patristic era have paid more attention to the dogmatic tradition in their period than to the development of Christian mystical theology. Andrew Louth aims to redress the balance. Recognizing that the intellectual form of this tradition was decisively influenced by Platonic ideas of the soul's relationship to God, Louth begins with an examination of Plato and Platonism. The discussion of the Fathers which follows shows how the mystical tradition is at the heart of their thought and how the dogmatic tradition both moulds and is the reflection of mystical insights and concerns. This new edition of a classic study of the diverse influences upon Christian spirituality includes a new Epilogue which brings the text completely up to date.

These papers are the proceedings of the fourth international Exeter Symposium. They promote enquiry into, and understanding of, the medieval mystics and the cultural context to which they belong. Here, historians, literary critics, theologians, philosophers and bibliographical scholars explore ways in which the contemplative tradition was mediated and perceived in the very early and very late medieval period, and ask fundamental questions about the nature of contemporary understanding of this subject. CONTRIBUTORS: GEORGE R. KEISER, SUE ELLEN HOLBROOK, WILLIAM F. POLLARD, JAMES HOGG, SANDRA MCENTIRE, ANNE SAVAGE, PETER DINZELBACHER, NICHOLAS WATSON, PETER MOORE, ROBERT K. FORMAN

This volume examines mystical experiences as portrayed in various ways by “authors” such as philosophers, mystics, psychoanalysts, writers, and peasant women. These “mystical authors” have, throughout the ages, attempted to convey the unsayable through writings, paintings, or oral stories. The immediate experience of God is the primary source and ultimate goal of these mystical expressions. This experience is essentially ineffable, yet all mystical authors, either consciously or unconsciously, feel an urge to convey what they have undergone in the moments of rapture. At the same time they are in the role of intermediaries: the goal of their self-expression – either written, painted or oral – is to make others somehow understand or feel what they have experienced, and to lead others toward the spiritual goal of human life. This volume studies the mystical experiences and the way they have been described or portrayed in West-European culture, from Antiquity to the present, from an interdisciplinary perspective, and approaches the concept of “immediate experience” in various ways.

Informed reassessment of Pentecostalism as a mystical tradition of the church universal Pentecostalism, says Daniel Castelo, is commonly framed as "evangelicalism with tongues" or dismissed as simply a revivalist movement. In this book Castelo argues that Pentecostalism is actually best understood as a Christian mystical tradition. Taking a theological approach to Pentecostalism, Castelo looks particularly at the movement's methodology and epistemology as he carefully distinguishes it from American evangelicalism. Castelo displays the continuity between Pentecostalism and ancient church tradition, creating a unified narrative of Pentecostalism and the mystical tradition of Christianity throughout history and today. Finally, he uses a test case to press the question of what the interactions between mystical theology and dogmatics could look like.

The regular meetings resumed, here with particular focus on Julian of Norwich, and Syon Abbey and the Bridgettines.

Called in a special way to listen to God's whispers, the mystics amplify not only what it means to be baptized into the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ 'and to having the Trinity living in them 'but also what is deepest in the human spirit. Mystics experience themselves as an infinite question to which only God is the answer; as an immense longing that only Love can quench; as a nothing in the face of the No-Thing. They are God's fools, troubadours 'the great artists and poets of the interior life whose learned ignorance" articulates the art of loving God, neighbor, self, the Church, and the world. In Soundings in the Christian Mystical Tradition Harvey Egan draws on fifty years of reading and teaching the mystics to sketch the varieties and passion of the mystical life across more than two millennia. Through their stories and words Egan reveals that all were conscious of the paradox of human identity 'supremely and unsurpassably manifested in the God-Man 'that the genuinely human is disclosed only through surrender to God and that the search for God cannot bypass the genuinely human.

Subud is one of hundreds of mystical movements (aliran kebatinan) which have grown significantly in postwar Indonesia. Along with other movements like Sumarah and Pangestu, Subud has attracted people from the West and has now spread to about eighty countries. Despite the fact that Subud leaders deny any relation to the Javanese mystical tradition, it is one of the tasks of this study to show that the greater part of Subud's conceptual apparatus is firmly rooted in the cultural history of Java. Under the banner of change and renewal, Subud presents a message which, fundamentally, is one of continuity in a society in transition. This text presents an overall picture of the history of Javanese mysticism, particularly the concept of God, the view of man, and the techniques recommended in order to bridge the gap between God and man. The text discusses the rise of mystical movements in post-war Java, along with a presentation of three movements which attracted the West. In addition the book provides a biography of the founder of Subud, the basic concepts of Subud and the meaning of the Subud spiritual exercise (latihan kejiwaan), along with an analysis of Subud theory and practice and its relation to the Javanese mystical tradition, and a psychological interpretation of the spiritual exercise.