Zen and the Unspeakable God
eBook - PDF

Zen and the Unspeakable God

Comparative Interpretations of Mystical Experience

  1. English
  2. PDF
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

Zen and the Unspeakable God

Comparative Interpretations of Mystical Experience

About this book

Zen and the Unspeakable God reevaluates how we study mystical experience. Forsaking the prescriptive epistemological box that has constrained the conversation for decades, ensuring that methodology has overshadowed subject matter, Jason Blum proposes a new interpretive approach—one that begins with a mystic's own beliefs about the nature of mystical experience. Blum brings this approach to bear on the experiential accounts of three mystical exemplars: Meister Eckhart, Ibn al-?Arabi, and Hui-neng. Through close readings of their texts, he uncovers the mystics' own fundamental assumptions about transcendence and harnesses these as interpretive guides to their experiences.

The predominant theory-first path to interpretation has led to the misunderstanding and misrepresentation of individual mystical experiences and fostered specious conclusions about cross-cultural comparability among them. Blum's hermeneutic invites the scholarly community to begin thinking about mystical experience in a new way—through the mystics' eyes. Zen and the Unspeakable God offers a sampling of the provocative results of this technique and an explanation of its implications for theories of consciousness and our contemporary understanding of the nature of mystical experience.

Frequently asked questions

Yes, you can cancel anytime from the Subscription tab in your account settings on the Perlego website. Your subscription will stay active until the end of your current billing period. Learn how to cancel your subscription.
No, books cannot be downloaded as external files, such as PDFs, for use outside of Perlego. However, you can download books within the Perlego app for offline reading on mobile or tablet. Learn more here.
Perlego offers two plans: Essential and Complete
  • Essential is ideal for learners and professionals who enjoy exploring a wide range of subjects. Access the Essential Library with 800,000+ trusted titles and best-sellers across business, personal growth, and the humanities. Includes unlimited reading time and Standard Read Aloud voice.
  • Complete: Perfect for advanced learners and researchers needing full, unrestricted access. Unlock 1.4M+ books across hundreds of subjects, including academic and specialized titles. The Complete Plan also includes advanced features like Premium Read Aloud and Research Assistant.
Both plans are available with monthly, semester, or annual billing cycles.
We are an online textbook subscription service, where you can get access to an entire online library for less than the price of a single book per month. With over 1 million books across 1000+ topics, we’ve got you covered! Learn more here.
Look out for the read-aloud symbol on your next book to see if you can listen to it. The read-aloud tool reads text aloud for you, highlighting the text as it is being read. You can pause it, speed it up and slow it down. Learn more here.
Yes! You can use the Perlego app on both iOS or Android devices to read anytime, anywhere — even offline. Perfect for commutes or when you’re on the go.
Please note we cannot support devices running on iOS 13 and Android 7 or earlier. Learn more about using the app.
Yes, you can access Zen and the Unspeakable God by Jason N. Blum in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Théologie et religion & Religion comparée. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. COVER Front
  2. Copyright Page
  3. Table of Contents
  4. Acknowledgments
  5. Introduction: Theory versus Interpretation
  6. Notes to Introduction
  7. Chapter 1: The Problem of Context
  8. Chapter 2: An Interpretive Approach
  9. Notes to Chapter 2
  10. Chapter 3: Ibn al- ʿArabi and the Names of God
  11. Chapter 4: Meister Eckhart and the Breaking-Through into the Quiet Desert
  12. Chapter 5: Hui-neng and the Stink of Zen
  13. Notes to Chapter 5
  14. Conclusion: Theory and Interpretation
  15. Notes to Conclusion
  16. Notes
  17. Works Consulted
  18. Index
  19. COVER Back