Rabbi Lawrence Kushner on mysticism: Religion has to be more than rationalism. Mysticism says, sort of like in the corner, “Psst, hey kid how would you like a direct experience of the divine? Would that help your religious life?” And a lot of people discover that they’re mystics after all when they’re given that offer. He goes on to define mysticism: A mystic is anyone who has the gnawing suspicion that the apparent discord, brokenness, contradictions, and discontinuities that assault us every day might conceal a hidden unity.
Our first focus in the Library Sessions, season 2019-2020, is on mysticism. This will likely be a bit of a different place for us to explore in comparison to past explorations of topics such as the historical Jesus and science-and-religion. We start on Sunday, 22-Sep 9:30 AM, in the Library, facilitated by Bob Anders.
This is the five-week sequence:
Mysticism: what do we think?
Mysticism in Judaism.
Mysticism in Islam.
Mysticism in Christianity.
Mysticism: what do we think now?