- Spirituality & Mysticism, Second Temple Judaism, Aesthetics, Eroticism, Esoteric Systems, Feminist Philosophy, and 108 moreHeidegger, Immanuel Kant, Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Religion, Phillosophy of Art, Philosophy of Gender, Continental Philosophy of Religion (Philosophy), Feminist Philosophy Of Religion, The Divine Feminine, Religious Language, Deleuze, Feminist Phenomenology, Luce Irigaray, Gender and religion (Women s Studies), Goddess Spirituality, Indian Feminism, Poststructuralism, Mysticism, Painting, Religious art, Cosmology (Physics) (Physics), Electromagnetism, Asian Religions, Comparative Esotericism, Feminist Biblical Criticism, Gender Studies (Religion), Jewish Thought, Metaphor Theory, Religion and cognition, Religion and Sexuality, Sacred (Religion), Spirituality, Symbolism (Religion), Hermeneutic Phenomenology, Feminist Theory, Philosophy, History, Classics, Hekhalot Literature, Tantric Studies, Zohar, Conceptual Metaphor Theory, Comparative Mysticism, Method and Theory in the Study of Religion, Kabbalah, Christian Mysticism, Tantra, Body and Soul, Ineffability, Hadewijch of Antwerp, Mechthild of Magdeburg, Shekhinah, Bridal mysticism, Tantrism, Gender and God, Lalita, Shakti, Beguine, Abraham abulafia, Spirituality and Mysticism, Kabbalah and Tantra, Erotic Imaginary, Psychology, Cultural Studies, Phenomenology, Hermeneutics, Ancient Philosophy, Philosophy of the Subject, Contemporary Continental Philosophy, Gender Studies, Theology, Philosophy Of Religion, Continental Philosophy, History of Religion, Jewish Studies, Gnosticism, Hinduism, Western Esotericism (History), Jewish Mysticism, Metaphor, Religious Studies, Comparative Religion, Postmodernism, Enlightenment, Levinas, Philosophy of Mind, Philosophical Theology, Art History, Philosophy of Science, Epistemology, Semiotics, Metaphysics, Ontology, History of Science, Quantum Physics, Feminism, Writing about/with art, Relationship Between Art Theory and Practice, Presence/absence, Western Esotericism, Divinity, Michel Foucault, History of Philosophy, Astronomy, Astrophysics, Kashmir Saivism, Sexist Language, and Conceptual metonymyedit
- I am especially interested in the way in which ideas about God and divinity are 'engendered' in the imaginary of human consciousness.edit
This paper explores the way in which God as the infinite ground of existence is discerned by the imagination and understanding. The representation of the apophatic divine is facilitated by the working of the human mind, which means that... more
This paper explores the way in which God as the infinite ground of existence is discerned by the imagination and understanding. The representation of the apophatic divine is facilitated by the working of the human mind, which means that the manifold nature of thinking establishes the presence of God. In the metaphysical speculations of kabbalah and tantra the singular light of Ein Sof and Paramashiva intersects with the human imagination, and is refracted into a multiple display of understanding. So the mind acts as a prism through which God is conceptualized and delineated. It constitutes a mediated envisaging of the Absolute, and the corollary of this perception is the engendering of the divine presence, notably as the feminine Shekhinah and Shakti. In short, in these two apparently different traditions—of kabbalistic and tantric thought—there is a detectably common theme of the notions of activity and force in creation as betokening a feminine representation of God’s being.
Research Interests:
In this paper I consider the way in which divinity is realized through an imaginary locus in the mystical thought of Jewish kabbalah and Hindu tantra. It demonstrates a reflective consciousness by the adept or master in understanding the... more
In this paper I consider the way in which divinity is realized through an imaginary locus in the mystical thought of Jewish kabbalah and Hindu tantra. It demonstrates a reflective consciousness by the adept or master in understanding the place of God’s being, as a supernal and mundane reality. For the comparative assessment of these two distinctive approaches I shall use as a point of departure the interpretative strategies employed by Elliot R. Wolfson in his detailed work on Jewish mysticism. He argues that there is an androcentric bias embedded in the speculative outlook of medieval kabbalah, as he reads the texts through a psychoanalytic lens. In a similar way, I will argue that there is an androcentric bias to the speculations presented in medieval Shaiva tantra, in particular that division known as the Trika. Overall, my aim is to suggest some functional and perhaps structural similarities to the characterization of divinity in these two traditions, through brief analyses of the erotic understanding of the nature of the Godhead.
Research Interests:
What does it mean to talk of the power of God in relation to the human self? The discourses generated by the Jewish and Christian tradition about the capacity for divinity have been mainly promulgated by men, and have more often than not... more
What does it mean to talk of the power of God in relation to the human self? The discourses generated by the Jewish and Christian tradition about the capacity for divinity have been mainly promulgated by men, and have more often than not served to exclude women cognitively, practically, and spiritually. As a result they have been made powerless in the face of God's presence. It is possible to look to ideas developed in Hindu Tantra for comparative notions of power (shakti) which can redeem the place of God for women. The path of divine consciousness is effectively illustrated by an imaginary and somatic awareness, by a devout attention to the play of light in the soul. In this paper I propose to read the assignment of energy and force within conceptions of divinity through the lens of a poststructuralist realization, using the work of Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, and Luce Irigaray.
Research Interests:
In this paper I consider the apparently distinctive outlooks indicated by the mystical thought of Jewish kabbalah and Hindu tantra as they aim at realizing the scope of divine awareness. It is a profound horizon of light that beckons to... more
In this paper I consider the apparently distinctive outlooks indicated by the mystical thought of Jewish kabbalah and Hindu tantra as they aim at realizing the scope of divine awareness. It is a profound horizon of light that beckons to the master kabbalist and adept tantric, which shows them to be on the verge of touching God. For both traditions there is a demonstrative reflective consciousness incurred in realizing and recognizing the place of God’s being, as a supernal and mundane reality. It is an attempt to grasp that which is otherwise unreachable and unknowable, by pointing to a sublimely felt reality. I argue that there are some phenomenological similarities to the way in which approaching the divine is understood in these two systems, especially in regard to the role of specularity in apprehending and discriminating the place of God.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
In this paper I am to show how a meaningful correlation can be made between the two mystical traditions of Kabbalah and Tantra by drawing upon ideas from the philosophy of art and aesthetics, especially as it relates to the intersection... more
In this paper I am to show how a meaningful correlation can be made between the two mystical traditions of Kabbalah and Tantra by drawing upon ideas from the philosophy of art and aesthetics, especially as it relates to the intersection of words and images.
Research Interests:
In this paper I shall argue that useful correspondences can be drawn between the role of depiction in showing a view of the world and the realisation that would view God as a picture of experience in the world, since both can be seen to... more
In this paper I shall argue that useful correspondences can be drawn between the role of depiction in showing a view of the world and the realisation that would view God as a picture of experience in the world, since both can be seen to illustrate an art of interpretation.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Since its emergence as an academic discipline in the early 1970s, feminist commentary and scholarship has prosecuted a critique of androcentric or sexist (gender exclusive) language, which has to some extent been successful. The struggle... more
Since its emergence as an academic discipline in the early 1970s, feminist commentary and scholarship has prosecuted a critique of androcentric or sexist (gender exclusive) language, which has to some extent been successful. The struggle by women to occupy a positive linguistic space is continually being challenged by the endemic nature of masculine bias, which is realized through “indirect” or “subtle” sexism in the community. Seemingly innocuous words, like guy/guys, are frequently used to represent both men and women, reminiscent of the previous use of man/men as gender-inclusive common nouns. This raises the question of how to account for the persistence of such language use in spite of the fact that attention is regularly drawn to its problematic character. In this paper we approach the matter in a novel way, by appealing to work in the field of cognitive semantics, in particular the conceptual theory of metonymy. We propose that the relationship between the concepts of masculine and feminine as these are typically structured through language is indicative of a metonymy THE MASCULINE FOR THE FEMININE, in which the masculine “stands for” the feminine and in which lexical items are given as inclusive yet in effect refer to one (normative) gender. A corollary is that the feminine is subsumed (really or virtually) by the presence of the masculine and is made to disappear, and only reappears when she needs to be specified within the contextual frame.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
There has been a longstanding interest in discovering or uncovering resemblances among what are ostensibly diverse religious schemas by employing a range of methodological approaches and tools. However, it is generally considered a... more
There has been a longstanding interest in discovering or uncovering resemblances among what are ostensibly diverse religious schemas by employing a range of methodological approaches and tools. However, it is generally considered a problematic undertaking. Jonathan Z. Smith has produced a large body of work aimed at explicating this and has tacitly based his model of comparison on metaphor, which is traditionally understood to connote similarity between two or more things, as based on a linguistic or pragmatic assessment. However, another possible approach is cognitive. George Lakoff and Mark Johnson have championed the view of “conceptual metaphor,” which regards metaphor as being pervasive not only in language, but also in thought and action. Indeed, according to them, it basically structures our conceptual operations and hence views of the world through partially mapping knowledge across ontological domains, generally from the concrete to the abstract. I shall argue that a similar mechanism can fruitfully be applied to comparing religious schemas, as based on the postulated relationship between the domains of human and divine, physical and abstract, and as realized through expressions of journeying and reflection.
Research Interests:
This paper examines the relation of body, soul, and God in the context of spiritual desire. It connotes a gendered relationship with the nature of divinity. A prime exponent of this mode of realization is Mechthild of Magdeburg, who... more
This paper examines the relation of body, soul, and God in the context of spiritual desire. It connotes a gendered relationship with the nature of divinity. A prime exponent of this mode of realization is Mechthild of Magdeburg, who longingly reaches for God, and employs vivid imagery in describing her quest.
Research Interests:
In this essay I consider the mystical experiences of two Beguines, Mechthild of Magdeburg and Hadewijch of Antwerp, who variously used erotic and gendered imagery to convey their yearning for union with God. The kind of feminine-masculine... more
In this essay I consider the mystical experiences of two Beguines, Mechthild of Magdeburg and Hadewijch of Antwerp, who variously used erotic and gendered imagery to convey their yearning for union with God. The kind of feminine-masculine symbolism exhibited by them can also be found at work in the spirituality of the Hindu Tantras, where the divine force is realized as the female Shakti by male practitioners. Although there are substantial theological differences between these two traditions, there appear to be correlations at the level of image-making.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
In this paper I consider the way in which divinity is realized through an imaginary locus in the mystical thought of Jewish kabbalah and Hindu tantra. It demonstrates a reflective consciousness by the adept or master in understanding the... more
In this paper I consider the way in which divinity is realized through an imaginary locus in the mystical thought of Jewish kabbalah and Hindu tantra. It demonstrates a reflective consciousness by the adept or master in understanding the place of God's being, as a ...
Research Interests:
This paper explores the way in which God as the infinite ground of existence is discerned by the imagination and understanding. The representation of the apophatic divine is facilitated by the working of the human mind, which means that... more
This paper explores the way in which God as the infinite ground of existence is discerned by the imagination and understanding. The representation of the apophatic divine is facilitated by the working of the human mind, which means that the manifold nature of thinking ...
Research Interests: Philosophy, Metaphysics, Epistemology, Kant, Jewish Studies, and 15 morePhenomenology, Mysticism, Comparative Mysticism, Kabbalah, Tantra, Shekhinah, Shakti, Tantrism, Gender and God, Kant and mysticism, Comparative Religious Studies, Perspectivism, Hindu Tantra, Kabblah, and Representation Politics
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Hinduism, Philosophy, Jewish Studies, Feminist Theology, Poststructuralism, and 15 moreJewish Mysticism, Luce Irigaray, Mysticism, Gilles Deleuze, Felix Guattari, Metaphor, Michel Foucault, Kabbalah, Holy Spirit, Power, Gender and God, Comparative Religious Studies, Goddess, Divinity, and Hindu Tantra
Research Interests: Art, Beauty, Shakti, Tantrism, Mechthild of Magdeburg, and 3 moreHadewijch of Antwerp, Beguine, and Lalita
ABSTRACT Since its emergence as an academic discipline in the early 1970s, feminist commentary and scholarship has prosecuted a critique of androcentric or sexist (gender exclusive) language, which has to some extent been successful. The... more
ABSTRACT Since its emergence as an academic discipline in the early 1970s, feminist commentary and scholarship has prosecuted a critique of androcentric or sexist (gender exclusive) language, which has to some extent been successful. The struggle by women to occupy a positive linguistic space is continually being challenged by the endemic nature of masculine bias, which is realized through “indirect” or “subtle” sexism in the community. Seemingly innocuous words, like guy/guys, are frequently used to represent both men and women, reminiscent of the previous use of man/men as gender-inclusive common nouns. This raises the question of how to account for the persistence of such language use in spite of the fact that attention is regularly drawn to its problematic character. In this paper we approach the matter in a novel way, by appealing to work in the field of cognitive semantics, in particular the conceptual theory of metonymy. We propose that the relationship between the concepts of masculine and feminine as these are typically structured through language is indicative of a metonymy THE MASCULINE FOR THE FEMININE, in which the masculine “stands for” the feminine and in which lexical items are given as inclusive yet in effect refer to one (normative) gender. A corollary is that the feminine is subsumed (really or virtually) by the presence of the masculine and is made to disappear, and only reappears when she needs to be specified within the contextual frame.
Research Interests:
The chapter aims to compare the place of God in Kabbalah and Tantra, by arguing that the practitioners are similarly demonstrating an aesthetic consciousness.