"Philosophical faith” and mystical experience: Convergence and divergence
Izvestiya of Saratov University. Philosophy. Psychology. Pedagogy December 15, 2022 Peer reviewed DOI: 10.18500/1819-7671-2022-22-4-368-372 via Semantic Scholar
Summary
The common view that mystical experience reveals a deep unity among religions is challenged. Similarities among mystical traditions do not represent the essence of religiosity but instead reflect convergence during a specific evolutionary phase, comparable to phenomenology. Mysticism, like philosophical phenomenology, focuses on conscious experience, forming a meeting ground for mystical and philosophical faith.
Study at a glance
| Design | theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Key finding | The similarity among mystical traditions is not the essence of religion but a convergence during a phenomenological phase, after which traditions diverge toward eschatological goals. |
Abstract
Introduction. The common version that mystical experience reveals the deep unity of religious traditions, hiding behind the external facade of their differences, seems controversial. Theoretical analysis. It is justified that the similarity between different traditions of mysticism does not express the quintessence of religiosity, as such, but only convergence in a certain phase of the evolution of religions. Mysticism is compared with the entry of religion into the phenomenological phase of development. Mysticism, like philosophical phenomenology, is turned to the experience of consciousness. Phenomenology forms the common space of meeting for mystical experience and the experience of philosophical faith. Phenomenological experience is similar to the “energy minimum” of mystical states. Like the state of heat death in thermodynamics, this is a kind of common denominator, at which all mystical traditions are aimed in the process of devolution, and then desacralization. After the mystical-phenomenological phase, religious consciousness is reoriented from the phenomenological Presence to the eschatological Coming. Here the trajectories of divergence are again indicated. Conclusion. From the standpoint of Orthodox ascetics, the philosophical faith, as a phenomenological version of mysticism, is insufficient, because it is associated only with a change in consciousness. The true experience of God’s message in Christianity requires the transformation of everything - including the flesh of human nature.