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Paper short abstract:

We review key developments in the scientific study of mysticism as a technology for union with the Divine since the turn of the 20th century in multiple traditions and disciplines. Identifying five themes and three ambivalences in the literature, we propose a working definition of mysticism.

Paper long abstract:

Considerable scholarship has shown that mystical experiences and traditions have been a persistent, if over-shadowed, core of all religions. The nature of mystical experiences – by definition, not fully describable – and the esoteric structure of mystical traditions have made it challenging to study the topic or even define its object of analysis rigorously. Yet, scholars have, particularly since the late 19th century, approached mysticism from multiple perspectives as a technology for union with the divine. In this paper we review key developments in the scientific study of mysticism since the turn of the 20th century in history, philosophy, social sciences (sociology, anthropology, psychology), natural sciences, and critical theory. While recognizing the importance of different disciplinary approaches to mysticism in different religious traditions, and the challenges to assuming a common core across all traditions, we emphasize a critical realist perspective that appreciates family resemblances in the phenomenon and in the multiple approaches to the technology of mystical knowledge. We go on to identify five, cross-cutting, thematic areas that studies of mysticism may be categorized in, namely methods of studying mysticism, understanding the technologies of ecstasy, discursive relationship between mysticism and religion, interfaith aspects to mystical traditions, and cultural embeddedness of mystics. We also underline three ambivalences in this collected literature, viz., analysis of mysticism as an interdisciplinary common core, access by specialized practitioners of mystical technologies, and critique of the very category of mysticism. To move past relatively isolated and barriered approaches to the topic, we draw on recent studies of religion in critical realism to propose a definition of mysticism that can enable future research in the five thematic areas while respecting the three ambivalences.