William James and the Modern Study of Mysticism

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.

Sources and Further Reading:  

- 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. 

- Robert H. Sharf, The Rhetoric of Experience and the Study of Religion, Journal of Consciousness Studies 7 (11-12):11-12 (2000)  

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