Gnosticism, Esotericism, Mysticism (GEM), Graduate Degree program;Rice University (Houston Texas.USA)

Jeffrey J. Kripal - Chair of the Department of Religious Studies

Overview Reference - Rice Univ
Traditional understandings of religion often focus on events, figures, and ideas that are more or less amenable to orthodox framings of what constitutes religious truth and practice. But what if we do not privilege these public “winning” voices, but look also at those heterodox or esoteric currents of the history of religions that have been actively repressed, censored, or simply forgotten by their respective cultures? What if, moreover, we privilege the psychology and phenomenology of religious experience over the authorial framing of these events by the faith traditions, even as we explore and analyze the profound ways the faith traditions shape these same “individual” experiences?

Jeffrey Kripal:  Reference - Rice Univ.
The comparative categories of gnosticism, esotericism, and mysticism are all modern constructs, each different in nuance, but all designed to ask just these sorts of dialectical questions, to relate orthodoxy to heterodoxy, and vice versa. This area of concentration in the Ph.D. program at Rice University provides students the opportunity to study the varieties and commonalities of gnosticism, esotericism, and mysticism as these phenomena are both shaped within and marshaled outside (or even against) discrete religious traditions. The Department’s approach to the study of gnosticism, esotericism, and mysticism is grounded in the rigorous study of single traditions, to the extent that it demands distinct philological and historical training in particular cultural areas. It is also explicitly comparative, to the extent that it draws on multiple traditions—from Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, to Hinduism, Buddhism, and the New Age—for its comprehensive materials and theorizing.

Faculty Contacts:

April DeConick
Claire Fanger
Jeffrey J. Kripal
William B. Parsons

Minimal Requirements for GEM Concentration

1.     RELI 581 Gnostic Gospels Seminar OR RELI 583 Mysticism Before Mysticism
2.     RELI 587 Paradigms and Approaches for Western Mysticism
3.     RELI 558 Mysticism: Theories and Methods
4.     Period Focus: Antiquity (Advisor: April DeConick) OR Middle Ages (Advisor: Claire Fanger) OR                    (Post)Modernity (Advisors: Jeffrey J. Kripal; Bill Parsons)

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