Author: Jess Hollenback Publisher: Penn State Press ISBN: 0271072687 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 657
Book Description
This sweeping study of mysticism by Jess Hollenback considers the writings and experiences of a broad range of traditional religious mystics, including Teresa of Avila, Black Elk, and Gopi Krishna. It also makes use of a new category of sources that more traditional scholars have almost entirely ignored, namely, the autobiographies and writings of contemporary clairvoyants, mediums, and out-of-body travelers. This study contributes to the current debate about the contextuality of mysticism by presenting evidence that not only are the mystic's interpretations of and responses to experiences culturally and historically conditioned, but historical context and cultural environment decisively shape both the perceptual and affective content of the mystic's experience as well. Hollenback also explores the linkage between the mystic's practice of recollection and the onset of other unusual or supernormal manifestations such as photisms, the ability to see auras, telepathic sensitivity, clairvoyance, and out-of-body experiences. He demonstrates that these extraordinary phenomena can actually deepen our understanding of mysticism in unexpected ways. A unique feature of this book is its in-depth analysis of "empowerment," an important phenomenon ignored by most scholars of mysticism. Empowerment is a peculiar enhancement of the imagination, thoughts, and desires that frequently accompanies mystical states of consciousness. Hollenback shows its cross-cultural persistence, its role in constructing the perceptual and existential environments within which the mystic dwells, and its linkage to the fundamental contextuality of mystical experience.
Author: Hugh (of Saint-Victor) Publisher: ISBN: Category : Christian literature Languages : en Pages : 206
Book Description
Among the classical authorities on the comtemplative life in the West, no one has been treated with more consistent honour than the great early twelfth-century Paris master, Hugh of Saint-Victor. His commentary on the "Celestial Hierarchies" of Denys the Areopagite, characteristic of him only in the fidelity with which it reflects his discipleship of his Western masters, Augustine and Gregory the Great, is so frequently referred to as significant for later writers, that Hugh's own highly personal conception of the relation of the contemplative life to Scripture and theology is seldom properly appreciated or understood. The texts slected for this volume of translations should enable the reader to form a more adequate impression of Hugh as a writer and thinker than the few shorter works which have hitherto appeared in English. The charming late group of works on charity is represented by the first English version of a short piece "On the nature of love", but the bulk of the volume is devoted to substantial sections from Hugh's great works on the symbolism of Noah's Ark, where the intimate connections between his aims as an exegete and as a theologian are constantly implicit.
Author: Jess Hollenback
Author: Meister Eckhart
Author: Saint Peter Damian
Author: Hugh (of Saint-Victor)
Author: Library of Congress
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Author: Library of Congress
Author: Library of Congress
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