ASR310 - Mysticism and Religious Experience
| Year: | 2021 unit information |
|---|---|
| Enrolment modes: | Trimester 2: Burwood (Melbourne), Waurn Ponds (Geelong), Cloud (online) |
| Credit point(s): | 1 |
| EFTSL value: | 0.125 |
| Prerequisite: | Nil |
| Corequisite: | Nil |
| Incompatible with: | Nil |
| Scheduled learning activities - campus | 1 x 1-hour class per week, 1 x 1-hour seminar per week |
| Scheduled learning activities - cloud (online) | 1 x 1-hour class per week (recordings provided), 1 x 1-hour online seminar per week |
Content
Mysticism and Religious Experience focuses on descriptions of advanced meditative states and spontaneous encounters with transcendent beings by some of the most important figures in world religions. It is a historical and topical survey of some of the world's major mystical traditions, which will be concerned with the principal characteristics of mysticism in Hinduism, Buddhism, Daoism, and Islam and with the thoughts and practices of some major figures in these traditions. Other related concerns will be questions about (1) the nature of religious experience and its relationship to religious authority; (2) the psychology of religion, especially of mystical religion; (3) contrasts between mysticism and other forms of religious experience, such as prophetism; and (4) implications of mystical experience for religious belief and theological expression. We will begin by considering some of the most influential models for analysing and categorising accounts by mystics and the systems in which they trained, and this theoretical background will enable us to compare and contrast these descriptions in a global religious perspective.
Unit Fee Information
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