This blog is ultimately an exercise in spiritual belief and ethics. For the foundational posts, one guiding primary source is Max Weber, although the use here of Weber falls into two categories: first, beliefs lead actions, and second, that asceticism “in the world” has the potential to transform into mysticism “in the world.” Weber was almost entirely focused on asceticism (as Protestantism) with its effect on economics, and he had little interest in mysticism. However, he did compare the two as paradigms, both “in the world” and “out of the world”, in a few limited comments and one essay.
Lutheran theologian Paul Tillich is another primary foundational source as his work on the Christ as “New Being” lays out the modern argument for the neo-platonic cycle of realization as available in Christianity. Particularly of interest is Tillich’s work on “the courage to be as a part” and “the courage to be as oneself” which add to, and exist under, Weber’s classification of asceticism and mysticism. Also, Tillich proposed that under the theology of New Being all scripture required a wholly metaphoric interpretation, something very important for seekers.
This blog page will serve as a running bibliography for all Foundational Posts.
- Works Cited or Referenced
In Print
Boring, M. Eugene, and Fred B. Craddock. The People’s New Testament Commentary. New York: Westminster John Knox, 2004. Print.
Ehrman, Bart D. Jesus, Interrupted. New York: HarperOne, 2010. Print.
Funk, Robert W. The Five Gospels: What Did Jesus Really Say? The Search for the Authentic Words of Jesus. New York: HarperOne, 1997. Print. (The Jesus Seminar, a large group of scholars of religion, have put together a very good analysis of NT text concerning the ministry of Jesus. The translation of original sources is very clean and without much discernible doctrinal bias. It is still, however, produced under the religious paradigm of the transcendent, external God.)
Gerth, H. H., and C. W. Mills. From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology. New York: Oxford UP, 1958. Print. (In particular, Chapter XIII, “Religious Rejections of the World, and Their Directions”, 323-359).
Landry, David, and Ben May. “Honor Restored: New Light on the Parable of the Unjust Steward (Luke 16:1-8a).” Journal of Biblical Literature. 119 (2000): 287-309. Print. Also; http://personal1.stthomas.edu/dtlandry/steward.html. Web. 02 Feb. 2010.
Mueller, Gert H. “Asceticism and Mysticism; a contribution towards the Sociology of Faith.” Internationales Jahrbuch fur Religionssoziologie. Zur Theorie der Religion: Religion und Sprache (International Yearbook for the Sociology of Religion. Sociological Theories of Religion; Religion and Language). Westdeutscher Verlag. VIII (1973): 68-132. Print. (In English. An excellent, and possibly only, secondary source on Weber’s sociological meta-dialogue on faith, currently is only in the print journal. I will see if I can get the publisher to put this article up in Jstor. The concordance (Appendix 1) shows the overarching nature of the sociology of faith).
Sells, Michael Anthony. Early Islamic Mysticism; Sufi, Qur’an, Mi’raj, Poetic and Theological Writings (Classics of Western Spirituality). New York: Paulist, 1995. Print. (Sells’ clear and accessible work on early Sufis helps illustrate a period of distinct emergence of a mysticism-in-the-world out of existing Muslim pietism. Chapters on Qushayri and Muhasibi are particularly helpful.)
The Interlinear Greek-English New Testament. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Pubishing House, 1975. Print. (This uses the 21st edition of Eberhard Nestle’s Novum Testamentum Graece for the Greek/English interlinear translation by Rev. Alfred Marshall. See also Web Sources for more interlinear works).
Tillich, Paul. The Courage to Be. New Haven: Yale UP, 1980. Print. (Tillich is a very dense read but rewarding. See chapters 4 & 5 for contrasts between the religious and the seeker.)
On the Web
Blue Letter Bible – Home Page. Web. 02 Feb. 2010. <http://www.blueletterbible.org/>. (This is a very good research site, this is my source for the Thayer Lexicon as it contains scans of the entire, original lexicon entries. Cited in text as BLB).
Bible Study Tools. Salem Web Network. Web. 18 Jan. 2010. <http://www.biblestudytools.com/>. (Extensive Library of sources, lexicons, commentaries and interlinears. )
Brown, Paterson. “Thomas.html.” Metalogos: The Gospels of Thomas, Philip and Truth. The Gospel of Thomas: Coptic-English Hypertext Interlinear Translation. Web. 23 Feb. 2010. <http://www.metalog.org/files/thomas.html>.
Peshitta Aramaic/English Interlinear New Testament. Paul Younan, 01 June 2000. Web. 27 Jan. 2010. <http://www.peshitta.org/>. (I use Aramaic interlinear on occassion for cross-check purposes — and ok, because it’s cool to go read right to left in English. But also, the East/West schism in the church does give some alternative translations that can be interesting.)
Scripture4All. Scripture4All Foundation, Netherlands. Web. 20 Jan. 2010. <http://www.scripture4all.org/OnlineInterlinear/Greek_Index.htm>. (This is a really excellent site for interlinear Greek and Hebrew. A more general, neutral, non-religious approach to the work.)
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On The Path of the Adept 