Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Study of Mysticism
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Quakers and Mysticism
Comparative and Syncretic Approaches to Spirituality
Editors: Kershner, Jon R. (Ed.)
Proposes new ways for understanding Quaker interactions with mysticism
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This book examines the nearly 400-year tradition of Quaker engagements with mystical ideas and sources. It provides a fresh assessment of the way tradition and social context can shape a religious community while interplaying with historical and theological antecedents within the tradition. Quaker concepts such as “Meeting,” the “Light,” and embodied spirituality, have led Friends to develop an interior spirituality that intersects with extra-Quaker sources, such as those found in Jakob Boehme, Abū Bakr ibn Tufayl, the Continental Quietists, Kabbalah, Buddhist thought, and Luyia indigenous religion. Through time and across cultures, these and other conversations have shaped Quaker self-understanding and, so, expanded previous models of how religious ideas take root within a tradition. The thinkers engaged in this globally-focused, interdisciplinary volume include George Fox, James Nayler, Robert Barclay, Elizabeth Ashbridge, John Woolman, Hannah Whitall Smith, Rufus Jones, Inazo Nitobe, Howard Thurman, and Gideon W. H. Mweresa, among others.
Table of contents (13 chapters)
Introduction: Quaker Engagements with Mysticism Pages 1-22
Kershner, Jon R.
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“Meeting”: The Mystical Legacy of George Fox Pages 23-42
Birkel, Michael (et al.)
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James Nayler and Jacob Boehme’s Pages 43-61
Spencer, Carole Dale
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How Ecology and Economics Brought Winstanley and Nitobe to Quakerism Pages 63-83
Komashin, Stephanie Midori
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Robert Barclay and Kabbalah Pages 85-99
Birkel, Michael
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Elizabeth Ashbridge and Spiritual Autobiography: The Old Awakened in the New Pages 101-119
Tarter, Michele Lise
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John Woolman’s Christological Model of Discernment Pages 121-140
Kershner, Jon R.
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Hannah Whitall Smith’s Highway of Holiness Pages 141-159
Spencer, Carole Dale
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The Unifying Light of Allah: Ibn Tufayl and Rufus Jones in Dialogue Pages 161-180
Randazzo, Christy (et al.)
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Howard Thurman (1899–1981): Universalist Approaches to Buddhism and Quakerism Pages 181-199
Angell, Stephen W.
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The Singing Mysticism: Kenyan Quakerism, the Case of Gideon W. H. Mweresa Pages 201-219
Mombo, Esther
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Liberal Quakers and Buddhism Pages 221-239
King, Sallie B.
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Conclusion Pages 241-248
Cattoi, Thomas
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