Religious Studies at the University of KentMA in the study of mysticism and religious experience
The advantages of this approach are that a grounding is gained in reading the materials first-hand which are studied from many different perspectives by scholars of mysticism. This close familiarity with the primary texts helps us to understand and evaluate the various scholastic methodologies employed in the study of mysticism. But also, since each religious tradition and often each particular text presents us with special problems, we gain experience in dealing with specific difficulties of interpretation. These range from the use of exact terminologies within particular traditions, the use of images and symbols, special types of communication, the ways in which different texts address their readers, the theological and philosophical presuppositions underlying texts, the types of understanding that mystical texts demand of their readers, different orders or modes of knowledge, and the "effect" that a text is intended to produce on the reader. All these different facets of texts lead us to explore very fundamental questions about the nature of language itself, about communication and discourse, about the nature of meaning and the appropriation of meaning, and the relationship between theoretical understanding and experience. Later in the course we shall make some excursions into some of the most important thought in philosophical hermeneutics. In so far as we have a method, it is to explore as fully as possible the questions that any particular text raises for us - so long as it is the text itself that provokes such questions. Although it may come up incidentally, we are not concerned to make comparisons with other texts, or compare traditions, or to read texts according to any secondary interpretation. This work with primary texts will be complimented with discussion of religious traditions of contemplation and exegesis. The texts studied may be adapted to students particular interests, but will include Meister Eckhart, Shankara, Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, the Bible, Bonaventure, Teilhard de Chardin, Plato, Plotinus, Ramana Maharshi, John Scottus Eriugena, St. John of the Cross. Essays Part 1: the contextual background of the text. This will include the secondary literature on the text, especially its historical place within the religious tradition to which it belongs. Part 2: detailed commentary. This will consist of a careful exegesis
of the text, drawing out its full meaning and implications. Precise
detail is called for here, which may include the etymologies of key
words or elaboration of their special contextual or symbolic meaning.
This section is entirely exegetical and should not critique the text
in any way or draw comparisons with any other text or tradition. Preparatory reading For students interested in the general question of hermeneutics the following works are recommended: Paul Ricoeur, A Ricoeur Reader, edited by Mario J. Valdés,
Harvester Wheatsheaf, London, 1991. |