Mysticism—the awareness and the conscious unmediated experience of an ultimate reality, divinity, or God—captures the very essence of religious experience. Comparative religion scholar Graham Schweig surveys the role mysticism plays in world religions and considers if there is a core mystical experience among these traditions or if each is shaped by unique cultural, linguistic, and religious contexts.
Using a selection of sacred texts, music, art, and other forms of expression, Schweig covers the meaning, role, and practice of mysticism in Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, Christian, and Islamic forms. In the process, he discusses what mystical traditions reveal about the nature of relationships between humans and the divine and considers the meaning of mysticism for the contemporary world.
Schweig is a professor of religion and director of religion studies at Christopher Newport University and a distinguished teaching and research faculty member at the Graduate Theological Union.
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