Table of Contents
Professor Biography ....................................................................................i
0] Course Scope 1
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Judaism1]
Lecture One A Way into the Mystic Ways of the West 4
Lecture Two Family Resemblances and Differences 9
Lecture Three The Biblical Roots of Western Mysticism 14
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Judaism2]
Lecture Four Mysticism in Early Judaism 18
Lecture Five Merkabah Mysticism 22
Lecture Six The Hasidim of Medieval Germany 26
Lecture Seven The Beginnings of Kabbalah 30
Lecture Eight Mature Kabbalah—Zohar 34
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Judaism3]
Lecture Nine Isaac Luria and Safed Spirituality 38
Lecture Ten Sabbatai Zevi and Messianic Mysticism 42
Lecture Eleven The Ba’al Shem Tov and the New Hasidism 46
Lecture Twelve Mysticism in Contemporary Judaism 50
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Christian4]
Lecture Thirteen Mystical Elements in the New Testament 54
Lecture Fourteen Gnostic Christianity 58
Lecture Fifteen The Spirituality of the Desert 62
Lecture Sixteen Shaping Christian Mysticism in the East 66
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Christian5]
Lecture Seventeen Eastern Monks and the Hesychastic Tradition 70
Lecture Eighteen The Mysticism of Western Monasticism 74
Lecture Nineteen Medieval Female Mystics 78
Lecture Twenty Mendicants as Mystics 82
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Christian6]
Lecture Twenty-One English Mystics of the 14th Century 86
Lecture Twenty-Two 15th- and 16th- Century Spanish Mystics 89
Lecture Twenty-Three Mysticism among Protestant Reformers 93
Lecture Twenty-Four Mystical Expressions in Protestantism 96
Lecture Twenty-Five 20th-Century Mystics 100
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Islam7]
Lecture Twenty-Six Muhammad the Prophet as Mystic................. 104
Lecture Twenty-Seven The House of Islam........................................ 108
Lecture Twenty-Eight The Mystical Sect—Shi’a.............................. 112
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Islam8]
Lecture Twenty-Nine The Appearance of Sufism............................. 116
Lecture Thirty Early Sufi Masters.......................................... 120
Lecture Thirty-One The Limits of Mysticism—Al-Ghazzali ........ 123
Lecture Thirty-Two Two Masters, Two Streams............................ 127
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Islam9]
Lecture Thirty-Three Sufism in 12th–14th Century North Africa...... 131
Lecture Thirty-Four Sufi Saints of Persia and India....................... 134
Lecture Thirty-Five The Continuing Sufi Tradition....................... 137
Lecture Thirty-Six Mysticism in the West Today ........................ 141
===
Timeline ................................................................................................... 145
Glossary ................................................................................................... 154
Bibliography............................................................................................ 163
====
Lecture One
A Way into the Mystic Ways of the West
Scope: Understanding the mystical path
in Western religions begins with
some preliminary questions
and basic definitions of terms: What do we mean by “religious experience,”
“religion,” “mysticism,” and “prayer”? Defining these terms leads, in turn, to
a consideration of the premises concerning the construction of reality shared
by mystics: What is the relation of the exoteric to the esoteric? What is the
relation of mystical experience and mystical writing? What is the range of
evidence available for the study of mysticism in Judaism, Christianity, and
Islam? This opening presentation then sketches the logic of the entire sequence
of lectures.
Outline
I.
This lecture begins with a
set of opening questions, the answers to which can provide some guidance for
the remaining 35 lectures.
A.
Is “mysticism” another term
for the irrational and, therefore, undeserving of serious scholarly analysis?
1.
To some extent, the
question arises from loose popular usage that links mysticism, mystery, magic,
mystification, and even self-delusion.
2.
But it also arises from the
rationalistic bias of contemporary science and technology, which equates the
verifiable with the true and the “mystical” with the avoidance of real life.
3.
To some extent, the same
charge can be made against all religion and every claim concerning reality
beyond the empirical.
4.
Mystics claim, however, to
be in contact with what is most real, with that which is not irrational but
super-rational, and that a reduction of truth to the pragmatic and provable is
tragic.
B.
Are mystics, then, always
extraordinary adepts constantly in a state of ecstasy or constantly having
visions?
1.
We shall see that mysticism
does, in fact, include such extraordinary religious types as visionaries and
ecstatics.
2.
But the term can also be
used to include all those who seek a personal and passionate devotion to the
divine and need not involve psychic fireworks. Mysticism embraces every social
class, level of intelligence, and degree of emotional health.
3.
We can appreciate the
greatness of music through the genius of a Mozart, but we can see, too, that
piano students struggling with simple tunes also participate in music. In the
same way, the great mystics and visionaries show us the range of what is
possible in the life of devotion to God while including those at a much lower
scale of performance.
C.
Isn’t mysticism really the
distinctive quality in Eastern religions, such as Hinduism and Buddhism?
1.
It is true that Judaism,
Christianity, and Islam are usually associated with external observance of
religious law, ritual, and morality within a community.
2.
But all three traditions
have a long and robust tradition of mysticism, whose practitioners claim to
represent those religions in their essence.
3.
We should also note that
Asian religions have as great a commitment to the same elements of law, ritual,
and morality as do the religions of the West.
II.
We can move even further
into the subject matter by defining some basic terms that will recur in the
course, keeping in mind that all these definitions are the instructor’s and not
necessarily universally held.
A.
We begin by defining
“religious experience” with a basic definition from Joachim Wach: “Religious
experience is a response of the whole person to what is perceived as ultimate,
characterized by a peculiar intensity, and issuing in appropriate action.”
1.
The element of “response”
indicates the conviction that religious experience is not fantasy or
self-generated.
2.
“The whole person”
indicates that religious experience is not merely a matter of ideas, or of
will, or of emotions but involves the whole person, including the body.
3.
“Perceived as ultimate”
points both to the subjective character of religious experience and its claim
to “transcendence.”
4.
“Characterized by peculiar
intensity” points to the aspect of “realness”; religious experience is not
something vague or uncertain but definite and impressive.
5.
The “appropriate action” is
the organization of life in a new manner around the experience.
B.
A “religion” is a way of
life organized around experiences and convictions concerning ultimate power.
1.
The way of life involves a
community of shared practice: Ritual and myth, doctrine, sacred books, and
codes of morality are all ways of mediating the power of religious experience
in indirect and nonthreatening ways.
2.
One way of viewing
mysticism is as the individual search for unmediated contact with ultimate
power.
C.
The term “mysticism”
retains some elements of its Greek etymology.
1.
The mystes is one who has been initiated into a cult and, thereby, has
access to status and lore not available to the uninitiated.
2.
The term “mystic” is
usually used for an individual rather than a group and suggests entry into a
new realm and access to knowledge not available to others and not fully
expressible in ordinary speech.
D.
In general, the term
“prayer” refers to the practice of human communication with respect to the
divine.
1.
Community prayer most often
takes a verbal form in petition, praise, confession, vow, or hymn.
2.
The prayer of mystics may
involve words but often transcends speech, either through ecstatic utterance or
silence.
3.
Contemplation, meditation,
or the Prayer of Silence are almost universally attested as mystical practices.
III. A number of questions will preoccupy us as we study the mystical
tradition in Western religions.
A.
What construction of
reality is presupposed by the practice of mysticism?
1.
A dimension of being that
is greater and truer than that visible to the senses exists.
2.
Some capacity within humans
enables them to gain access to that dimension of reality.
3.
Those who have already
gained such access can instruct others in the methods of gaining it.
B.
What is the relationship
between the exoteric (outer) and esoteric (inner) in mysticism?
1.
How does mysticism relate
to the outward observances shared by a religious community? To what extent does
it affirm or slight the outward?
2.
How does the inner
experience of contemplation or ecstasy find expression exoterically in the
symbolism of gesture or language?
C.
Why do some mystics write
about their experiences, and why do they write what they do?
1.
Certainly, many mystics
never write, and indeed, the logic of mysticism tends away from literary
expression.
2.
Some mystical writing
serves as instruction; some, as speculation; and some, it seems, as a medium of
experience.
D.
What sources are available
for the study of mysticism in the religions of the West?
1.
We have an abundance of
literature from Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in English translation,
including tractates, poetry, instructions, wisdom writings, prayer, and
narratives.
2.
English sources represent
only a small portion of the works in the original languages of Hebrew, Greek,
and Latin, as well as modern European languages, Arabic, and Persian.
3.
The instructor in this
course has a grasp of some of these languages (Hebrew, Greek, Latin, French,
and German) but not others, most notably, the most important languages for the
Islamic tradition (Arabic and Persian).
IV.
We will approach this
course in a fundamentally chronological sequence for each of the traditions in
turn, beginning with Judaism, then Christianity, then Islam.
A.
The opening lectures
provide a necessary framework with a review of the exoteric traditions and the
biblical basis of mystical symbolism.
B.
The treatment of mysticism
within each tradition seeks to make clear both what is distinctive and what is
common.
1.
The main focus is on
mystical literature as produced by great masters within the traditions.
2.
Through the examination of
this literature, we will explore analytic questions concerning mysticism.
C.
Although the focus is on
the classical sources of the past, each unit concludes with some consideration
of the practice of mysticism today.
D.
The course ends with a set
of questions concerning the truth of mystical claims and the viability of
mystical practice in a secular world.
Recommended Reading:
Smith, M. “The Nature and
Meaning of Mysticism,” in Understanding
Mysticism, pp. 1925.
Questions to Consider:
1.
Consider the ways that
mystical experience is necessarily “mediated,” both by the symbols made
available by an exoteric tradition and by the constraints of literary
composition.
2.
Discuss the characteristic
of religious experience as “peculiarly intense”: What forms might this
intensity take?
Lecture Two
Family Resemblances and Differences
Scope: Mysticism is an important facet
of the three great monotheistic religions of the West. This lecture provides a
necessary framework for placing mysticism within each tradition by a broad
introduction to the three traditions in their complex interconnections. In what
sense is it appropriate to think of them together as “Western religions”?
Considered exoterically as religious systems, what elements do the three
religions share, and what features distinguish each of them? Such comparisons
help locate the focus of mystical devotion within the respective traditions.
Finally, this lecture provides an overview of the role played by each tradition
in history, comparing their arcs of growth and influence.
Outline
I.
Judaism, Christianity, and
Islam are commonly grouped together as “Western religions,” a designation that
is both inappropriate and appropriate.
A.
Understood geographically
or demographically, the characterization is inaccurate.
1.
Today, the West tends to be
identified with Europe and the Americas. Although more geographically western
in origin than Hinduism or Buddhism, all three religions arose in the Middle
East.
2.
All three
religions—particularly, Islam and Christianity—have adherents in every part of
the world. Judaism retains a family dimension, but the other two traditions
transcend ethnicity.
B.
Understood in terms of
cultural influence and religious type, the designation “Western religions” has
merit.
1.
These three traditions all
exercised their first and greatest influence on Western culture, whether as
formative or challenging. Medieval European philosophy, for example, is
impossible to understand apart from the challenge of Islamic philosophy.
2.
The three Western religions
share common family features that distinguish them from the Eastern family
(Hinduism, Taoism, and Buddhism), which likewise share common features.
II.
That these three traditions
share certain common elements is clear, even though the precise understanding
or practice of even these shared elements is subject to variation within each.
A.
Most obviously, they share
an understanding of God in relation to the world that is distinct both from the
ancient religions out of which they emerged and the great religions of the
East. 1. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are monotheistic religions:
There is but one ultimate power in the world who is the source and goal of
everything.
2. The
one God has created the world, which is real but also relative, distinct from
God but also dependent on the creator. 3.
This one God who created the
world also has a character (intelligence and will) and seeks communication with
humans through revelation.
B.
All three traditions are
prophetic religions and religions of the book; note, too, that these two
notions are connected.
1.
God reveals through
creation but also through chosen humans who are prophets: Moses, Jesus, and
Muhammad.
2.
Prophets “see” or “hear” in
the sights and sounds of ordinary life what they understand as God’s word and
communicate that word to others.
3.
In each tradition, sacred
texts (TaNaK, the Bible, and the Qur’an) contain prophecies that reveal God’s
word and will for humans.
4.
The prophetic impulse can
arise outside the frame of the written word but not in contradiction to it.
C.
The three traditions all
recognize the need to interpret the sacred books.
1.
Scriptures have intrinsic
complexities, including the use of poetic language, metaphor, allusion,
anthropomorphism, and simile, and are characterized by density.
2.
For this reason, sources
other than the sacred text must be invoked as a means of interpreting
Scripture, including oral Torah, the Holy Spirit, and the Hadith.
3.
The religions’
interpretations of their sacred books are elaborated into systems of community
law: Talmud for Judaism, canon law and theology for Christianity, and Shari’ah
for Islam.
D.
The three religions all
assert that humans are free and agree on the basic form of human response to
God.
1.
The positive response is
obedience, faith, or submission to God’s will.
2.
The negative response is
idolatry, disobedience, apostasy, sin, or shirking.
3.
Humans express their
obedience to God through acts of justice and love toward other humans.
E.
All three traditions share
a sense that individual and communal life, the world itself, has a future, as
well as an end (eschatology).
1.
God, the keeper of the
book, judges humans on the basis of their deeds.
2.
Humans are assigned to a
future of bliss or torment on the basis of God’s judgment.
3.
God also works positively
for those who are faithful at the communal level.
F.
In each religion, the human
response to God is expressed in common forms of piety.
1.
Each has set times and
seasons of prayer, as well as forms of prayer that share certain features.
2.
In each tradition, fasting
is valued as a way of expressing the seriousness of one’s commitment to God.
3.
Each of these traditions
has a firm commitment to sharing possessions with others, above all, the poor
(almsgiving).
4.
Pilgrimage has been a more
sporadic practice in Judaism and Christianity but a constant one in Islam.
III. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam also have major points of
difference, sometimes within their shared framework.
A.
They clearly disagree on
which prophet is ultimate, Moses, Jesus, or Muhammad.
B.
They have different
understandings of revelation through prophetic books.
1.
In Judaism and
Christianity, human authorship is acknowledged, and Scripture remains sacred
even in translation.
2.
In Islam, human authorship
is denied, and the Qur’an is sacred only in Arabic.
C.
The religions assign
different levels of authority to sacred texts.
1.
Judaism regards neither the
New Testament nor the Qur’an as authoritative.
2.
Christianity accepts the
Old Testament as normative but only as read through the lens of the New
Testament; it does not recognize the Qur’an as revelatory.
3.
Islam recognizes the Old
Testament and New Testament as prophetic books but only as understood within
the rewriting of the Qur’an.
D.
Messianism (expectation of
a Messiah) plays a distinct role in each tradition.
1.
In Judaism, Messianism has
been a sporadic and not necessarily dominant feature.
2.
Christianity is defined by
the conviction that Jesus is the
Messiah.
3.
In Islam, Messianism is
significant only within Shiism.
E.
The traditions place a
different emphasis even on shared elements. 1. Law is central to Islam
and Judaism in a way that it is not in Christianity.
2.
Pilgrimage is important to
Islam in a manner not found in Judaism and Christianity.
3.
Christianity has a more
elaborate system of rituals (sacraments) than Islam or Judaism.
IV.
The three religions have
had distinct political visions and roles within history.
A.
Classical Judaism has been
the religion of a diasporic minority since the fall of the Jerusalem Temple in
70 C.E.
1.
Jews have had to find a
place within an often hostile Gentile majority. Throughout history, Muslims
have been far more hospitable to Jews than Christians have been.
2.
The emancipation of the 19th
century and the Holocaust of the 20th century threatened the
continued existence of Judaism.
3.
The existence of Israel as
a Jewish state represents an ambiguous reality for Judaism.
B.
Christianity originally had
no vision for a larger society but has gone through dramatic political changes.
1.
In the 4th
century C.E., Christianity was transformed from the religion of a persecuted
minority to the imperial religion.
2.
The vision of “Christendom”
meant battle against “infidels,” persecution of Jews, and suppression of
heretics.
3.
The disestablishment of
Christianity (leading to the “postConstantinian era”) creates divisions among
Christians concerning the desirability of a “Christian culture.”
C.
Islam had a definite
political vision from the start but has had an inconsistent ability to enact
it.
1.
The Shari’ah is not
“religious law” so much as a way of structuring all of life in accordance with
the will of Allah.
2.
Islam’s first great
expansion involved military means and political negotiations among states.
3.
After a long period of
cultural and political ascendance, Islam went into an age of eclipse.
4.
Reform movements in Islam
today argue for the earlier vision: Both individuals and nations must be islama, that is, submissive to the will
of Allah.
Recommended Reading:
Peters, F. E. Children of Abraham: Judaism, Christianity,
Islam.
Questions to Consider:
1.
Consider the meaning of the
terms “exoteric” and “esoteric” and the ways in which they are related to each
other in religious traditions.
2.
Examine the ways in which
“prophecy” is a useful category for perceiving what is common and what is
distinctive in these three religious traditions.
Lecture Three The
Biblical Roots of Western Mysticism
Scope: The Hebrew Bible (Old Testament)
is the most powerful source both for the premises of Western Mysticism and for
its symbolism.
Mystics within Judaism,
Christianity, and Islam not only read Scripture, but in some sense, they enact
it in their lives. This lecture considers the constitutive elements in
prophetic religion (a hidden God who can be approached and who approaches; the
intersection of the realm of the human and the divine), the powerful examples
of mystical experience displayed by the prophets (in particular, Moses,
Ezekiel, and Isaiah), and the set of symbols for the human-divine communication
presented by such accounts (the pilgrimage, the mount, the cloud, the light,
the heavenly throne). In quite a different fashion, the explicitly erotic language
of the Song of Solomon provides a way of speaking about human and divine
passion.
Outline
I.
In this lecture, we turn to
the biblical roots of Western Mysticism. It is in the Bible, above all, that
the mystic’s experience within Judaism, Christianity, and Islam finds a means
of expression.
A.
The premises guiding the
precritical reading of the Bible (TaNaK, Old Testament) are entirely different
from those found among historical critics.
1.
Until the Enlightenment and
the rise of historical criticism, the biblical account was read as a faithful
report concerning what actually happened in the past.
2.
Study of Scripture was not
an exercise of demystification and verification according to critical
standards; instead, it was undertaken to gain wisdom concerning the world’s
past, present, and future.
B.
The biblical portrayal of
events and characters is not viewed by religious readers as idealized but as
revelatory of real human possibilities.
1.
The construction of the
world is as the Bible describes, and characters did what the Bible reports.
What the prophets said and
did through God’s word sets a pattern that others can follow.
3. The Bible is read, above
all, as providing a set of examples for its readers.
C.
The Hebrew Bible (TaNaK) is a direct source for the patterns and
symbols of Jewish and Christian Mysticism and an indirect source for Islam.
II.
The figure of the prophet
Moses is of fundamental importance because he is the first (and greatest)
prophet in TaNaK.
A.
The figures preceding Moses
also had experiences of God; for example, Adam speaks with God, Abraham hears
God, Jacob sees heaven opened, and Joseph interprets dreams.
B.
But Moses shows the reader
a life that is permeated by the direct experience of God.
1.
He encounters God in a
burning bush and is commissioned to free his people (Exod. 3:414).
2.
With the elders, he ascends
Mount Sinai and “sees the Lord”
(Exod. 24:911).
3.
He is the Lord’s “intimate
friend” (Exod. 33:1215) and learns God’s essential attributes (Exod. 34:19).
4.
He knows the Lord “face to
face” (Deut. 34:1011).
C.
The figure of Moses
establishes the basic pattern and a considerable amount of symbolism for
mystics.
1.
The pattern is one of
“approaching God” by ascent and pilgrimage, involving a movement from slavery
to freedom and demanding purification.
2.
The symbols for human
access to God include crossing the sea and the desert, ascending the mountain,
experiencing a dark cloud and fire, observing a sea of glass or sapphires, and
finally, coming to the land of rest.
III. Other prophets in the biblical account expand the repertoire of
symbols associated with visions, to some degree, by repeating certain elements.
A.
Most significant is the
experience of Isaiah, an 8th-century figure who had a vision of God
in the Temple and was commissioned as a prophet (Isa. 6:113).
1.
The Lord appears as
enthroned; his “glory” fills the “house” (hekal
is a palace or mansion); and he is proclaimed as “holy” by angels.
2.
The prophet experiences
himself as “unclean” but is nevertheless sent to give God’s word to the people.
B.
Among the exiles, Ezekiel
experienced the heavens opening, revealing divine visions (Ezek. 1:428), and
was also commissioned as a prophet (2:14).
1.
In his vision, Ezekiel sees
the merkabah, the heavenly
thronechariot.
2.
The merkabah is movable and is surrounded by angels, clouds, and
flashes of fire. With this vision, Ezekiel knows he is in the presence of God.
C.
Also among the exiles (as
the pseudonymous composition has it),
Daniel is commissioned as
a prophet (Dan. 712).
1.
In the pioneering
apocalyptic writing of the book of Daniel, God’s plans for the future are
disclosed through highly encoded visions.
2.
These visions include
symbolic numbers and animals and various cosmic elements, all used to
communicate a view of history to the prophet. (Dan. 7:914).
IV.
The Bible is also a rich
source of erotic imagery for the mystical understanding of the relationship
between God and humans.
A.
The prophets speak of the
covenant relationship between God and Israel as a marriage.
1.
Hoshea (Hos 13) pictures
the broken and restored covenant in terms of marriage to an unfaithful
prostitute who is healed by a return to the desert.
2.
Jeremiah uses the same
language and introduces the language of “the heart” into the personal
relationship with the Lord (Jer.
8:1823; 20:79).
3.
Ezekiel tells the story of
Israel in terms of a sexual history (Ezek. 16).
B.
Most powerful in this
respect is the Song of Solomon (Song
of Songs), which is erotic poetry centered in the love of a man and woman.
1.
The Song of Solomon has no
explicit religious motif, and the name of God is not mentioned in it.
Yet read against the
backdrop of the marriage analogy, it is one of the most important sources for
erotic imagery concerning the relationship between the mystic and God.
Recommended Reading:
Heschel, A. The Prophets.
Questions to Consider:
1.
How do approaches to the
Bible that stem from historical criticism differ from the assumptions about the
text shared by mystics through the ages?
2.
What in the biblical
account supports the view of Moses as the first and greatest of the prophets?
