Phenomenology and Mysticism: The Verticality of Religious Experience

By Anthony J. Steinbock

Book Overview

Exploring the first-person narratives of three figures from the Christian, Jewish, and Islamic mystical traditions--St. Teresa of Avila, Rabbi Dov Baer, and Rūzbihān Baqlī--Anthony J. Steinbock provides a complete phenomenology of mysticism based in the Abrahamic religious traditions. He relates a broad range of religious experiences, or verticality, to philosophical problems of evidence, selfhood, and otherness. From this philosophical description of vertical experience, Steinbock develops a social and cultural critique in terms of idolatry--as pride, secularism, and fundamentalism--and suggests that contemporary understandings of human experience must come from a fuller, more open view of religious experience.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0253221811
• ISBN13: 9780253221810
• Release Date: December 2009
• Publisher: Indiana University Press (Ips)
• Length: 328 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 9.2"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher