The ‘mystical’ and the ‘modern’: Mutual entanglement and multiple interactions

Abstract

‘Mysticism’ and ‘modernity’, two constructs that emerged in the West during the post-medieval era, were created partly in opposition to each other. What were regarded as ‘mystical traditions’ were seen, by several influential thinkers of ‘modern’ discourses, as a phenomenon of the medieval era and the antithesis of rationality, and those traditions were employed by ‘counterculture’ currents in their critique of the modern world. This article problematizes and nuances the relationship between the mystical and the modern and highlights various aspects of their reciprocity, entanglement and harmony. It argues that the reconstruction of mystical traditions as ‘mystic-ism’, which started in the 17th century, resulted in the rejuvenation of those facets of such traditions that were harmonious with modern discourses along with the adoption of modern elements into the concept of mysticism. Therefore, the mystical and the modern enjoy a hybrid relation of ‘integrejection’ rather than a simple connection of exclusion.

The spiritual turn and the disenchantment of the world: Max Weber, Peter Berger and the religion–science conflict

“…In fact, Troeltsch (1912/1992, p. 802) himself categorized Schleiermacher as an example of the mystic type, calling him one of the ‘great idealistic mystical thinkers of recent times’. While mysticism scholar Saeed Zarrabi-Zadeh (2020, p. 533) observes that Schleiermacher’s connection of faith ‘to a subjective, mystical consciousness in the inner depths of the human personality’ demonstrates ‘a considerable influence of mysticism over Protestant liberalism despite their alleged historical contrast’. Thus, we think it is reasonable to argue that Berger’s ‘inductive approach’ to religion ultimately, if inadvertently, endorses mystical religion.…”