Phenomenology and Mysticism

by Steinbock, Anthony J.

• ISBN13: 9780253221810
• ISBN10: 0253221811
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-12-01
• Publisher: Indiana Univ Pr

Summary

Exploring the first-person narratives of three figures from the Christian, Jewish, and Islamic mystical traditions -- St. Teresa of Avila, Rabbi Dov Baer, and R zbih n Baql -- Anthony J. Steinbock provides a complete phenomenology of mysticism based in the Abrahamic religious traditions. He relates a broad range of religious experiences, or verticality, to philosophical problems of evidence, selfhood, and otherness. From this philosophical description of vertical experience, Steinbock develops a social and cultural critique in terms of idolatry -- as pride, secularism, and fundamentalism -- and suggests that contemporary understandings of human experience must come from a fuller, more open view of religious experience.

Author Biography

Anthony J. Steinbock is Professor of Philosophy at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. He is author of Home and Beyond: Generative Phenomenology after Husserl and editor-in-chief of Continental Philosophy Review.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction: Vertical Givenness in Human Experience	p. 1
The Religious and Mystical Shape of Experience	p. 21
St. Teresa of Avila and Mysticism of Prayer	p. 45
Rabbi Dov Baer and Mysticism of Ecstasy	p. 67
R&ubar;zbih&abar;n Baql&ibar; and Mysticism of Unveiling	p. 89
Matters of Evidence in Religious Experience	p. 115
Epiphany and Withdrawal	p. 149
On Individuation	p. 167
Idolatry	p. 211
Epilogue: On the De-Limitation of the Religious and the Moral	p. 241
Glossary of Main Hebrew and Arabic Terms	p. 245
Notes	p. 249
Bibliography	p. 285
Index	p. 303
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