REL 349 - Mysticism in the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Traditions

Far from being a timeless, universal or near-universal feature of religion, “mysticism,” a word that has its first known English usage in the early eighteenth century, has a history. One can at this point in time easily trace the rise and dramatic fall of mysticism as a central category for organizing scholarly knowledge and understandings of religion. “Mysticism” and its cognates and closely related terms, however, have also been and presently are used by some Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christians to classify certain texts that treat ritual, theology, and structures of human interior organization and movement. The course explores this Christian tradition and related scholarship and historically situates representative examples of mystical works drawn from late antiquity, medieval Europe, the Byzantine Commonwealth, and the twentieth century.

Unit(s): 1
Group Distribution Requirement(s): Distribution Group II
Prerequisite(s): Sophomore standing
Instructional Method: Conference
Grading Mode: Letter grading (A-F)
Group Distribution Learning Outcome(s):

Evaluate data and/or sources.
Analyze institutions, formations, languages, structures, or processes, whether social, political, religious, economic, cultural, intellectual or other.
Think in sophisticated ways about causation, social and/or historical change, human cognition, or the relationship between individuals and society, or engage with social, political, religious or economic theory in other areas.