CO-SPONSORSHIP: Christian Spirituality Unit and Mysticism Unit
Mysticism, Inter-Spirituality, and Multiple Religious Belonging
“Inter-spirituality” and “multiple religious belonging” are categories that scholars utilize to describe individuals and communities that lie beyond the borders and boundaries of traditional religious affiliation or identification. This panel invites papers that investigate the relationship between mysticism and inter-religious, inter-monastic, and/or “multiple” religious identification(s). Proposals can include recent trends and contemporary inter-spiritual mystics or movements, as well as past examples of persons or communities who embody or exemplify multiple or religious cross-identification based upon their own mystical experience or praxis.
Sample topics might include, but are not limited to:
- Apophatic and cataphatic approaches to inter-spirituality/multiple religious belonging
- “Universal” and “perennial” currents: methodological concerns and lived praxis
- Mystical transgressions across religious borders: Sufi Mystics; Ramakrishna
- Bede Griffiths, Swami Abhishiktananda, and Hindu-Christian dialogue
- “New monasticism” and inter-spirituality
- Synthesis vs. syncretism