Thesis--Catholic University of America. / Bibliography: p. 169-178.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / The life and writings of the Blessed John of Ruysbroeck lie at the heart of the Golden Age of Mysticism. The purpose of this study has been to present his life and an interpretation of his writings in the form of a narrative poem, thouroughly documented according to accepted dissertation practice, and to show that his life and writings exerted influence upon Gerhardt Groote and John Tauler. The result of the study indicates that Ruysbroeck had a clear conception and structure for his mystical thought presenting a doctrine of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, a doctrine of man, and a conception of the Church, which, while illuminated in many instances with mystic insight, are still conformale to the spirit and intellect of the fourteenth century. [TRUNCATED]

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Recent research has indicated a causal link between oxytocin and spirituality. The present experiment sought to examine the effects of intranasal oxytocin (IN-OT) and absorption on mysticism and spirituality in a sensory deprivation setting. The results failed to find any main effects of IN-OT on mysticism, or on spirituality. Interaction effects were discovered however, where IN-OT interacted with absorption both on mysticism and spirituality. More specifically IN-OT undermined the association between absorption and outcomes that were observed in the placebo control condition. The results contradict the findings from the only previous experiment conducted on IN-OT and spirituality. The interaction effects align with previous research on IN-OT, suggesting an increase in suggestibility among low absorption scorers. These results motivate further research on the relation between oxytocin, absorption and spirituality, keeping the idea of suggestibility in mind.

John Cassian is an Eastern-educated monk writing in the early fifth century for the monks of Gaul and is crucial to the development of Western monasticism through the transmission of Greek ascetic ideas to the Latin West. He is heavily influenced by the teachings of Evagrius Ponticus, a prolific late fourth-century Egyptian monk crucial to the development of Christian mysticism; however, there has been no clear line drawn between the influence of Evagrius and Cassian's own originality. While Cassian uses Evagrian asceticism to the fullest, he nevertheless places it onto a divergent theological foundation which fundamentally alters that inherited asceticism. Evagrius' asceticism is shaped by his anthropology, cosmology, soteriology, and eschatology - all of which are based on his understanding of Creation and Christology. The monk working through Evagrius' asceticism sees the world and all the divisions in it - e.g. body/soul, human/angel/demon, vice/virtue - as a temporary construct which facilitates the eventual obliteration of all divisions through salvation - including divisions between good and evil. Cassian, however, writes twenty years after Evagrius' death and in a changed theological atmosphere, in which Evagrius' basic premises have become more controversial. Cassian is able to work an ascetic program previously defined by Evagrian theology into a legitimate and coherent asceticism based on a different understanding of Creation. This resembles Evagrius' asceticism to such an extent, that he has been called "merely a Latin translator". However, through fleshing out and comparing Cassian's understanding of the practical, the eight principal vices, the spiritual battle, and the contemplative life, it becomes clear that Cassian has a fundamentally different understanding of Creation and Christology, and this changes the relationship between body and soul, created and Creator, and corruption and salvation - all fundamental areas in an effective and coherent asceticism. Therefore, although the frame of his asceticism is Evagrian, the theological underpinnings of that asceticism create a vastly different experience for the monk through a different definition of humanity and the relationship between created and Creator.

In this qualitative phenomenological study, the researcher interviewed 18 hospitalised patients and community members in rural Appalachia to learn about their mystical experiences in the context of health care. A loosely structured interview format addressed factors that initiate mystical experience and essential qualities of mystical experience. In addition, the researcher examined the nursing process, focusing on assessments and actions which supported the participants in sharing their experiences. The researcher also considered her response to being the recipient of these shared experiences. Data were analysed using the crystallisation/immersion method and concept mapping. Mystical experience was conceptualised as a process incorporating initiation, occurrence, maturation, and integration of mystical experience. Essential aspects of the mystical experience itself were found to include sensory-motor perception, interaction with the supernatural, interaction with dead and living members of the family, conviction of reality, cognition, dynamic tension and emotional intensity. Nursing actions which supported the participant included listening and support. The researcher's response to the participants' sharing their experiences included tension, intimacy and empathy, sense of awe and autonomic responses. In addition, the researcher developed an appreciation of the mystical in everyday experience. / Health Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (Health Studies)

The period of tumultuous religious reformation during which George Herbert lived demanded of people a strict adherence to the paradigmatic structures that prescribed the ways in which public displays of religious conviction were to be manifested. The freedom, indeed the necessity, to doubt is taken for granted by the modern reader, but for Herbert it was a matter of spiritual life and death. As country parson, he diligently labored to guide his parishioners, administer the sacraments, and exemplify the “right path.” This persona—reinforced by necessarily performative, faith-demonstrating actions—is continually destabilized by the experience of doubt, which leads Herbert to address his own persistent despair at the absence of God through poetry. His masterful use of the structural and thematic patterns of the Psalms in many of the poems of The Temple draws on the rich tradition of lament in contrast to the prescriptive, ideological agendas of the Book of Common Prayer and the Common Lectionary which privilege faith. The poems demonstrate an extensive knowledge of the epistemological foundations and history of both official Church doctrine and of medieval mystical thought and become a tool for exploring the paradoxes of human existence. His philosophical and rhetorical engagement with the Christological and ecclesiastical theology specific to Dionysian mysticism demonstrates the intensity of Herbert’s preoccupation with Divine absence and his near obsessive search for the ideal apophatic presence, that silent, knowing-unknowing that defines oneness with God. Nowhere are Herbert’s existential dilemmas more evident than in Memoriae Matris Sacrum, a sequence of poems written immediately following the death of his beloved mother, which reveals an inner life of the poet that his more controlled poetic voice of The Temple often conceals. These elegiac poems, written in Latin and Greek, show the poet as a “mourning child” and lay bare his most intimate fears about the constancy of his own faith and the uncertain terms of Christian death and resurrection embodied in the sacred ritual of the Eucharist. The poetic closure often ascribed to Herbert’s poems in fact disguises the nature of spiritual and psychological dilemmas which remain for Herbert persistent and unresolved.

This study focuses on orthodoxy and mysticism in the religious thought of Shaikh Mul,tammad ibn Tahir al-Fattani (914/1508-986/1578), a sixteenth century Sunui Rohra scholar. Islam had persistently presented two faces: one that was shari ah­ minded and concerned with the outward, socially cognizable behaviour and anothE'r mystkal-minded, concerned with the inward, personal life of the individual. The former was the domain of the "ulama", whereas the Sufi pirs accepted the care of the latter. While there were always those who accepted the one face of Islam as genuine and mistrusted the other or even regarded it as spurious, Shaikh al-Fattani succeecded in marrying the two. He was at once both a mystic pir and an orthodox religious scholar. A biography of Mul}ammad ibn Tahir al-Fattani based on the previous works is attempted with the aim being to collect the factual information pertaining directly to the details of his life. The last years of Shaikh al-F'attani's life were devoted to his reform involvement in his community and particularly to the removal of the Mahdawiyyah thoughts of Sayyid Muhammad Jawnpuri)who had declared himself the promised Mahdi. Against this backdrop of the life account of al-Fattani elements of orthodoxy and mysticism are identified in his scholarly works. Best known for his work Majma bihar al-anwar fi gharaib al-tanzil wa lataif al-akhbir, all the extant works of the Shaikh are discussed. To understand tbe subject within the context of his ethnic identity, aspects of the Bohra community are studied . lt is shown that their occupation as merchants and a history that emphasised their ancient link to the faith of Islam were some of the factors that shaped their group identity. Religious affiliation of the Bohras is explored in detail and after examining the various religious groupings it is evident that the principal communities amongst them differ substantially in their belief systems. Muslims of Sunni Bohra descent are to be found in South Africa. The Sunni Bohra community in general and their ulama in particular are today constantly challenged to not only be devoted to orthodoxy but to sufi doctrine and discipline as well. / Religious studies / D.Litt. et Phil. (Religious Studies)

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro / Considerando a extensa e intensa abordagem da temática erótica na poesia de Manuel Bandeira, a pesquisa visou à ampliação e ao aprofundamento do estudo desse aspecto de sua obra, com o intuito de complementar os estudos críticos que versam sobre o assunto. Nosso objetivo concentra-se na relevância do conceito de alumbramento, termo empregado em diferentes ocasiões pelo poeta. Essa palavra, que o autor emprega na sua autobiografia e em duas de suas composições, alude, simultaneamente, a uma espécie de revelação divina, capaz de proporcionar a inspiração para a criação do poema, e a uma iluminação resultante do estado de deslumbramento diante da visão da nudez feminina. Dessa forma, com base, sobretudo, nas ideias de Octavio Paz e Georges Bataille, bem como nos apontamentos específicos de Davi Arrigucci Jr. sobre o lirismo bandeiriano, buscamos comprovar, por meio da leitura analítica de poemas exemplares, a associação entre os êxtases erótico, poético e místico, como questão fundamental na obra do poeta pernambucano / Taking into account the extensive and intense presence of the erotic topic in Manuel Bandeiras poetry, this research aims to expand and deepen the study about this aspect of his literary work in order to complement the critical studies that approach this theme. Our objective focuses on the relevance of the concept of enlightenment, a term used by the poet in different contexts. This word, present in the autobiography of the author and in two of his poems, alludes, simultaneously, to a kind of divine revelation capable of providing the inspiration for writing and to an illumination, resultant of a state of dazzle at the vision of a womans nudity. Thus, based mainly on the ideas of Octavio Paz and Georges Bataille, as well as on David Arrigucci Jr.s specific comments about Bandeiras lyricism, we intend to show, by means of an analytical reading of representative poems, the link between the erotical, poetical and mystical ecstasies as a key topic of this authors literary production

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:26:37Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2009-03-05Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:34:22Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 laurisjunior_rl_me_assis.pdf: 538163 bytes, checksum: e768e06902a851abd1b412f383805f7a (MD5) / Ao pesquisarmos a extensa historiografia sobre o movimento operário brasileiro da Primeira República encontra-se a forte e marcante presença dos militantes anarquistas junto aos trabalhadores, entre eles José Oiticica. Destacado ativista que em sua produção, seja ela militante ou acadêmica marcou sua presença nos espaços tanto acadêmicos como operários. Trabalhando com a historiografia mencionada e os poucos trabalhos dedicados a José Oiticica, mas, sobretudo, usando como fontes os artigos escritos pelo mesmo tentamos reconstruir a trajetória de Oiticica. Destacamos sua descoberta do anarquismo, a discussão sobre as suas relações sobre a ciência em sua época, as suas relações com o misticismo e finalmente sua atuação e reflexão pedagógicas. / Researching the historiography on workers movements during the Brazilian First Republic (1889 – 1930) one finds the strong and remarkable presence of anarchist militants among the working classes and amongst them José Oiticica. Highlighted activist that in his intellectual efforts may it be anarchist or academic marked his presence both in the academic and labour environments. Using the above mentioned historiography and the few researches about José Oiticica and above all his articles as sources in the effort to reconstruct his itinerary. Highlighting his discovery of anarchism, the debate about science at his time, his relations with mysticism and finally his pedagogical activities and thoughts.