MYSTICISM IN SHAIVISM AND CHRISTIANITY EDITED BY BETTINA BAUMER

Posted by : Utpal Publications Wednesday, August 28, 2013

If mysticism is hard to define, what is it then? Or, why have mystics often spoken about what they have realized – notwithstanding the ‘unspeakability’ of a spiritual experience? And, yet more significantly, how can a meeting point of different religious traditions be discovered at the mystical level? Focusing on these and other related questions, eminent scholars from varying religious traditions here explore the nature of mystical experience in two of the world’s major traditions: Hinduism and Christianity.

Neither a comparative study of religious traditions, nor an attempt to develop overall mystical theology, the book sets out spiritual dialogue Saiva and Christian mysticism: a dialogue wherein the participants articulate world-views of the mystical traditions of Saiva Siddhanta, Kashmir Saivism, Meister Eckhart, Hadewijch, Julian of Norwich, St. Ignatius Loyola and of the Eastern Christianity. And, without taking any a priori intellectual position, each author here evolves his/her own tradition- specific perspective on mysticism – letting the comparison, if any, to surface in the dialogue itself.

A spiritual dialogue, like the ones this work embodies, holds a key to an insightful understanding between different people, cultures and faiths – more specially in today’s world rive, as it is, by fundamentalist forces and endless religious conflicts.

The book will be valuable acquisition for scholars and spiritual interested readers alike.

Bettina Baumer, Austrian by birth, is a widely known Indologist, author and scholar, with a versatility of research concerns: ranging from Kashmir Saivism to Oriya religious traditions, from Siplasastras to Indian temple architecture. Settled at Varanasi, India, since 1967, she was Research Director of the Alice Boner Foundation (Varanasi) and Visiting Professor of Religious Studies at Vienna University. And as President since 1988, of the Abhishiktananda Society, she has been engaged in interreligious dialogue with focused interest in comparative mysticism.

Besides her German translations of Yoga- sutra, Upanisads and Abhinavagupta, Dr Baumer has also edited and authored a number of books which notably include Volumes 1-3 of Kalatattvakosa, Rupa Pratirupa, Vastusutra Upanisad, Void and Fullness in the Buddhist, Hindu and Christian Traditions and Silparatnakosa.