Mysticism in World Religions Deb Platt Mysticism is concerned with the
nature of reality, the individual's struggle to
attain a clear vision of reality, and the
transformation of consciousness that accompanies
such vision. This site explores the mystical
traditions of six religions by
comparing and contrasting quotations drawn from
their respective literatures. These quotations
have been organized by topic as seen below. Because I
didn't want to bias the presentation by using
terminology unique to a particular religion, I
have tried to come up with broad, descriptive
names for the topics.
Since this site consists of hundreds
of web pages, I've also developed a single page
called The Short List which
includes an illustrative quotation for each topic
presented here. Looking over this page will give
you a feel for the entire site.
If
comparative mysticism doesn't appeal to you, feel
free to focus on Judaism, Christianity, Islam/Sufism, Hinduism, Buddhism, or Taoism.
If you'd prefer to concentrate on an
individual mystic rather than a particular topic,
check out Mystics,
theologians and scriptures. http://www.digiserve.com/mystic/
Philosophy and Western Mysticism
Resources Bruce B. Janz - janzb@augustana.ab.ca This page is designed to collect
resources for the philosophical study of
mysticism. Of course, it is difficult to
determine what exactly is philosophical in this
area, but I will do my best. The resources on
this page do not pretend to be a comprehensive
list of what is on the Internet. Instead, I have
collected some of the more useful sites for
teaching and research. Many of these pages are
quite comprehensive, and will lead to many other
resources. http://www.augustana.ab.ca/~janzb/mysticism.htm
Who's Who in the History of Mysticism Bruce B. Janz - janzb@augustana.ab.ca The people and movements on this
list are arranged chronologically, rather than
alphabetically. It is by no means complete in
reflecting mystical figures or texts in the West
-- there are literally hundreds of these. I have
simply included writers and texts that seem to me
to reflect the high points of mystical writing.
They do not represent a single tradition of
mysticism.
This list is intended only to mention the major
figures. A good source should be consulted for
more extensive biographies and discussions. Where
to start? Check out the "Biographies"
section at the end.
The biography I give for each of these is
intended only to identify the person. For a
complete life, see the biography sources listed
below. If "influences" are mentioned,
they are only to try to identify major precursors
to a particular person's mystical thought. I have
also included a section in which useful terms,
important trends, and influential movements are
briefly outlined. http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/gthursby/mys/whoswho.htm
