Process Theology and Mysticism
Process Theology and Mysticism

Author: Bruce G. Epperly

Publisher: Energion Publications

Published: 2023-12-05

Total Pages: 39

ISBN-13: 1631998862

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Can mysticism and process theology work together in a way that is a valuable and practical part of one’s spiritual life? In this booklet, the first of three that integrate process theology with contemporary spiritual life and activity, Bruce Epperly brings process thought into our spiritual lives and physical well-being in a call to Shalom in cooperation with the Divine. Epperly is a specialist in bringing difficult concepts to life for everyone. He combines that skill with the short format of the Topical Line Drives series to reach spiritual seekers embedded in a busy and challenging world. Mysticism is not something just for people in ancient times or who live in monasteries. It can be a vital part of your life. These may be the words you’re looking for to understand and express what you feel.

Philosophical Mysticism in Plato, Hegel, and the Present
Philosophical Mysticism in Plato, Hegel, and the Present

Author: Robert M. Wallace

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2019-12-26

Total Pages: 283

ISBN-13: 1350082880

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Few twenty-first century academics take seriously mysticism's claim that we have direct knowledge of a higher or more “inner” reality or God. But Philosophical Mysticism argues that such leading philosophers of earlier epochs as Plato, G. W. F. Hegel, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and Alfred North Whitehead were, in fact, all philosophical mystics. This book discusses major versions of philosophical mysticism beginning with Plato. It shows how the framework of mysticism's higher or more inner reality allows nature, freedom, science, ethics, the arts, and a rational religion-in-the-making to work together rather than conflicting with one another. This is how philosophical mysticism understands the relationships of fact to value, rationality to ethics, and the rest. And this is why Plato's notion of ascent or turning inward to a higher or more inner reality has strongly attracted such major figures in philosophy, religion, and literature as Aristotle, Plotinus, St Augustine, Dante Alighieri, Immanuel Kant, Hegel, William Wordsworth, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Emily Dickinson, Whitehead, and Wittgenstein. Wallace's Philosophical Mysticism brings this central strand of western philosophy and culture into focus in a way unique in recent scholarship.

Process Theology: A Guide for the Perplexed
Process Theology: A Guide for the Perplexed

Author: Bruce G. Epperly

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 2011-03-24

Total Pages: 194

ISBN-13: 0567119998

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This is an introductory guide to Process Theology for undergraduates. As part of Contiuum's 'Guide for the Perplexed' series, this text provides an accessible introduction to process theology, aimed at nurturing the theological imagination of undergraduates, pastors and interested laypersons. It describes the major themes of process theology and relates them to the everyday lives and spiritual commitments of people today. In addition to addressing traditional theological issues, Epperly addresses cutting edge issues in theology and ethics such as pluralism and postmodernism, matters of life and death, science (technology and genetics), and emerging forms of Christianity. This text is designed for seminary and university classes as well as congregational study. It will help readers to overcome the obstacles created by the technical language often employed by process theologians. Continuum's Guides for the Perplexed are clear, concise and accessible introductions to thinkers, writers and subjects that students and readers can find especially challenging - or indeed downright bewildering. Concentrating specifically on what it is that makes the subject difficult to grasp, these books explain and explore key themes and ideas, guiding the reader towards a thorough understanding of demanding material.

God of Becoming and Relationship
God of Becoming and Relationship

Author: Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson, DHL

Publisher: Turner Publishing Company

Published: 2013-10-10

Total Pages: 215

ISBN-13: 1580237886

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You no longer have to choose between what you know and what you believe—an accessible introduction to a theological game-changer. "I wrote this book for you if you want to be able to locate your life in a single, encompassing story, one that includes everything from the first moment the universe began until yesterday, a narrative that embraces deepest personal meaning, a yearning to love and be loved, a quest for social justice and compassion." —from the Introduction Much of what you were told you should believe when you were younger forces you to choose between your spirit and your intellect, between science and religion, between morality and dogma: unchanging laws of nature vs. miracles that sound magical; a good God vs. the tragedies that strike all living creatures; a God who knows the future absolutely vs. an open future that you help to shape through your choices. This fascinating introduction to Process Theology from a Jewish perspective shows that these are false choices. Inspiring speaker, spiritual leader and philosopher Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson presents an overview of what Process Theology is and what it can mean for your spiritual life. He explains how Process Theology can break you free from the strictures of ancient Greek and medieval European philosophy, allowing you to see all creation not as this or that, us or them, but as related patterns of energy through which we connect to everything. Armed with Process insights and tools, you can break free from outdated religious dichotomies and affirm that your religiosity, your spirit, your mind and your ethics all strengthen and refine each other.

Art and Mysticism
Art and Mysticism

Author: Louise Nelstrop

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-06-12

Total Pages: 316

ISBN-13: 1351765140

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From the visual and textual art of Anglo-Saxon England onwards, images held a surprising power in the Western Christian tradition. Not only did these artistic representations provide images through which to find God, they also held mystical potential, and likewise mystical writing, from the early medieval period onwards, is also filled with images of God that likewise refracts and reflects His glory. This collection of essays introduces the currents of thought and practice that underpin this artistic engagement with Western Christian mysticism, and explores the continued link between art and theology. The book features contributions from an international panel of leading academics, and is divided into four sections. The first section offers theoretical and philosophical considerations of mystical aesthetics and the interplay between mysticism and art. The final three sections investigate this interplay between the arts and mysticism from three key vantage points. The purpose of the volume is to explore this rarely considered yet crucial interface between art and mysticism. It is therefore an important and illuminating collection of scholarship that will appeal to scholars of theology and Christian mysticism as much as those who study literature, the arts and art history.

A Course in Christian Mysticism
A Course in Christian Mysticism

Author: Thomas Merton

Publisher: Liturgical Press

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 0814645089

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Thomas Merton's lectures to the young monastics at the Abbey of Gethsemani provide a good look at Merton the scholar. A Course in Christian Mysticism gathers together, for the first time, the best of these talks into a spiritual, historical, and theological survey of Christian mysticism--from St. John's gospel to St. John of the Cross. Sixteen centuries are covered over thirteen lectures. A general introduction sets the scene for when and how the talks were prepared and for the perennial themes one finds in them, making them relevant for spiritual seekers today. This compact volume allows anyone to learn from one of the twentieth century's greatest Catholic spiritual teachers. The study materials at the back of the book, including additional primary source readings and thoughtful questions for reflection and discussion, make this an essential text for any student of Christian mysticism.

The Becoming of God
The Becoming of God

Author: Roland Faber

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2017-04-06

Total Pages: 257

ISBN-13: 1606088858

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How should we believe in God today? If we look beyond our little lives to the vast cosmos, we may even ask: Why all that? And even if we spiritually feel the universe: Why believe any religion? After all, there are many; and haven't they contributed to the predicament of humanity? Process theology gives provocative answers to these questions: how we are bound by the organic cycles of this world, but how in this web of life God shines even in the last, least, and forgotten event as the Eros of its becoming and as its mirror of greatness; why anything exists: because it is from beauty, for harmony and intensity, and through a consciousness of peace rising from our deepest intuitions of existence. We can change: not only in our thoughts and lives, but even in the way we experience this world. This book introduces such a new way of experiencing, thinking, and living. Based on the fascinating work on cosmology, religion, and civilization of Alfred North Whitehead, this book develops the main theses of process theology and elucidates it as a theopoetics of mutual care for the unexpected, the excluded, the forgotten, and a future society of peace.

The Oxford Handbook of Mystical Theology
The Oxford Handbook of Mystical Theology

Author: Edward Howells

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2020-02-25

Total Pages: 725

ISBN-13: 019103407X

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The Oxford Handbook of Mystical Theology provides a guide to the mystical element of Christianity as a theological phenomenon. It differs not only from psychological and anthropological studies of mysticism, but from other theological studies, such as more practical or pastorally-oriented works that examine the patterns of spiritual progress and offer counsel for deeper understanding and spiritual development. It also differs from more explicitly historical studies tracing the theological and philosophical contexts and ideas of various key figures and schools, as well as from literary studies of the linguistic tropes and expressive forms in mystical texts. None of these perspectives is absent, but the method here is more deliberately theological, working from within the fundamental interests of Christian mystical writers to the articulation of those interests in distinctively theological forms, in order, finally, to permit a critical theological engagement with them for today. Divided into four parts, the first section introduces the approach to mystical theology and offers a historical overview. Part two attends to the concrete context of sources and practices of mystical theology. Part three moves to the fundamental conceptualities of mystical thought. The final section ends with the central contributions of mystical teaching to theology and metaphysics. Students and scholars with a variety of interests will find different pathways through the Handbook.

Disciplines of the Spirit
Disciplines of the Spirit

Author: Howard Thurman

Publisher:

Published: 1963-03

Total Pages: 136

ISBN-13:

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The quiet radiance and certainty that illuminated Howard Thurman's faith shine like a beacon through every page of 'Disciplines of the Spirit'. Dr. Thurman explores five major dimensions of the spiritual life: commitment, growing in wisdom and stature, suffering, prayer, and reconciliation. (Back cover).

Process Theology
Process Theology

Author: Robert C Mesle

Publisher: Chalice Press

Published: 1993-01-01

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780827229457

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Where is God when a child runs in front of a car? This primer introduces the reader to a new way of understanding God that offers us a more meaningful and clearer vision of God and the world we live in.