This unit explores the ways God is imagined literature of mysticism in a variety of religious and mystical traditions, Jewish (as in the Kabbalah), Islamic (Sufism) and in Christian teaching, the Kabbalah. It will consider how mystical literature and teaching relates to any religious practice, its social function within any religion, and the extent to which it may challenge religious authority, while also drawing its discourse from a religious tradition. There will be opportunity to consider mysticism outside as well as within monotheist tradition. It thus raises questions about the nature of mysticism in its various forms, and its relationship to both rational and poetic thought. -- Course Website
Instructor: Professor Constant Mews
