Mysticism—the intense awareness and the conscious unmediated experience of an ultimate reality, divinity, or God—captures the very essence of religious experience. What role does it play in world religions? Is there a core mystical experience shared among religious traditions or is each mystic’s experience uniquely shaped by cultural, linguistic, and religious context?

Using a selection of sacred texts, music, art, and other forms of expression, comparative religion scholar Graham Schweig examines the meaning, role, and practice of mysticism by briefly reviewing Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, Christian, and Islamic forms. In the process, he discusses what the mystical traditions reveal about the nature of relationships between humans and the divine. He also considers the meaning of mysticism in the contemporary world.

Schweig is a professor of philosophy and religion at Christopher Newport University and distinguished teaching and research faculty at Graduate Theological Union.

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