Roads of Excess, Palaces of Wisdom: Eroticism and Reflexivity in the Study of MysticismWilliam Blake once wrote that "The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom." Inspired by these poetic terms, Jeffrey J. Kripal reveals how the works of scholars of mysticism are often rooted in their own mystical experiences, "roads of excess," which can both lead to important insights into these scholars' works and point us to our own "palaces of wisdom." In his new book, Kripal addresses the twentieth-century study of mysticism as a kind of mystical tradition in its own right, with its own unique histories, discourses, sociological dynamics, and rhetorics of secrecy. Fluidly combining autobiography and biography with scholarly exploration, Kripal takes us on a tour of comparative mystical thought by examining the lives and works of five major historians of mysticism—Evelyn Underhill, Louis Massignon, R. C. Zaehner, Agehananda Bharati, and Elliot Wolfson—as well as relating his own mystical experiences. The result, Kripal finds, is seven "palaces of wisdom": the religious power of excess, the necessity of distance in the study of mysticism, the relationship between the mystical and art, the dilemmas of male subjectivity and modern heterosexuality, a call for ethical criticism, the paradox of the insider-outsider problem in the study of religion, and the magical power of texts and their interpretation. An original and penetrating analysis of modern scholarship and scholars of mysticism, Roads of Excess, Palaces of Wisdom is also a persuasive demonstration of the way this scholarly activity is itself a mystical phenomenon. |
Contents
Roads of Excess | 1 |
Eyeing the Burning Wings Analyzing the Mystical Experience of Love in Evelyn Underhills Mysticism 1911 | 33 |
The Passion of Louis Massignon Sublimating the Homoerotic Gaze in The Passion of alHallaj 1922 | 98 |
The Doors of Deception R C Zaehners Ethical and Erotic Challenges to Monistic Experience in Mysticism Sacred and Profane 1957 and Discordant C... | 156 |
Writing Out of the Light at the Center Reading Agehananda Bharatis Tantric Trilogy 1960 1965 1976 | 207 |
The Mystical Mirror of Hermeneutics Gazing into Elliot Wolfsons Speculum 1994 | 258 |
Other editions - View all
Roads of Excess, Palaces of Wisdom: Eroticism and Reflexivity in the Study ... Jeffrey J. Kripal No preview available - 2001 |
Common terms and phrases
academic Agehananda Bharati antinomian Blake body Catholic Catholicism Chicago Christian mysticism consciousness cultural desire divine doctrinal dream ecstasy Elliot Wolfson erotic eroticism esoteric esotericism essay ethical Evelyn Evelyn Underhill feminine Freud gender Hallāj hence hermeneutical heteroerotic heterosexual Hindu Hinduism historian homoerotic homoeroticism homosexuality human Ibid imagination Indian intellectual interpretation Islamic Jewish Kabbalah kabbalistic kind language literally Louis Massignon male mystics medieval metaphor Mircea Eliade mirror modern monistic mystical experience mystical texts mystical traditions nature ontological Passion phallic phallus practice psychoanalytic psychological quoted R. C. Zaehner Ramakrishna readers reffection religious experience rhetorical ritual saint scholars scholarship secret sense sexual Shekhinah social soul speak Speculum spiritual structure study of mysticism sublimation Sufi Sufism symbolic Tantra Tantric traditions Tantrism textual theology thought tical tion transcendent truth Underhill Underhill's understanding University Press Vajrayāna vision visionary words writing York
References to this book
The Mystic Experience: A Descriptive and Comparative Analysis Jordan Paper No preview available - 2004 |