Phenomenology and Mysticism: The Verticality of Religious Experience

Anthony J. Steinbock's book offers a phenomenological analysis of mystical experience within Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Rather than merely commenting on prior thinkers, it develops an original account of what Steinbock calls the 'verticality' of religious experience—a dimension of human life that involves openness to transcendence. The work argues that phenomena such as awe, wonder, and the holy reveal a distinctive structure of experience irreducible to ordinary perception or subjective feeling. It is positioned as essential reading for scholars of religious experience, theology, and continental philosophy, providing a rigorous philosophical framework for understanding mystical traditions.

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Book Reviews / Pneuma 31 (2009) 105-160 133 Anthony J. Steinbock, Phenomenology and Mysticism: The Verticality of Religious Experience (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2007). 328 pp. $44.95 cloth. Th e phenomenological philosopher Anthony Steinbock has written an incredibly rich book about the phenomenology of mystical experience in the Abrahamic traditions, a book that will certainly be required reading for anyone working in the areas of religious experience and the intersection between theology and philosophy, especially in the continental tradi- tion. Phenomenology and Mysticism stands out as an original work in the sense that it is not primarily a commentary on