Postmodern mysticism

Author: Don Cupitt
Publisher:
Publication Date: 2005-07-01
Features: During a certain period, many condemned the death of certainty in our postmodern condition. Cupitt shows us how mystics teach us the freedom and light of accepting this condition. The book avoids the of our skeptical era, offering a refreshing perspective. It is an outstanding contribution. — Robert K. Finneman, Hunter College
The book Modern Mysticism provides a truly postmodern interpretation of great mystics and their works, appealing to readers across disciplines. In postmodern thought, experience does not give meaning to language. Instead, language gives meaning to experience. When mystics are viewed as primary writers, our understanding of them undergoes a complete transformation. Cupitt argues in the book that much of the modern and contemporary literature on mysticism is based on a mistaken belief that meaningful experience can exist prior to language. Mystics are understood to first have profound experiences and then express them in words. Mysticism is secondary, a tool for deconstructing the authority of traditional religion, highly political, and a religion that creates its own joy through the text itself. Mysticism historically has been a way of expressing the self, with its meaning always relative to orthodoxy. We must recognize that mysticism, through its reception and writing, opposes orthodox realist theology, deconstructing orthodox authority through its secondary nature. The mystical text itself is everything; no pursuit or meaning beyond the text exists.