| Mystic Musings in Art and Poetry : Thematic Essays from the International Conference 'Mysticism without Bounds' |
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| Author : Dr. Kurian Kachappilly, CMI The Book
'Mysticism' is "the pursuit of communion with, identity with, or conscious awareness of an ultimate reality, divinity, spiritual truth, or God, through direct experience, intuition or insight." The International Conference "Mysticism without Bounds" makes an attempt to explore the "mystical consciousness" from different disciplines, like religions (Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Taoism, etc), sciences (biology, new physics, neuroscience, and logic), humanities (philosophy, theology, spirituality, psychology, etc.), and art forms (poetry, music, dance, visual arts and rituals).
Researches reveal that certain common grounds do exist among the various forms of consciousness, scattered among the world's religions, theologies, sciences, philosophies and art forms. The discovery of such points of convergence holds out the possibility of creating a 'new worldview', and this new world view can create an awareness of the essential 'unity' of humanity. Let these scholarly papers, presented from different domains of art and poetry, help the inquisitive readers to discover this essential unity, which is often conceived and interpreted in terms of ‘God-experience’ with its basis within non-phenomenal self, and a unity that promises the unity of all experiences within the phenomenal world. The Author
Dr. Kurian Kachappilly is the Professor of Philosophy and Religion at the DVK, Bangalore, India; and Associate Director, Research Centre, Christ University, Bangalore, India. He holds Master's Degrees in English Literature and Psychology, and a Licentiate and Doctorate in Philosophy from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium. He is a Visiting Fellow at the Bangalore University, Bangalore; Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KUL), Belgium; Fakultät für Informatik & Wirtschaftsinformatik, Würzburg, Germany; the University of Santo Tomas, Manila, the Philippines; and other institutions.
He is the Executive Editor of Tattva, Journal of Philosophy, Christ University, Bangalore; a Member of the International Advisory Board, Process Studies, Claremont, USA; a Member of the Pontifical Organization, Militia Christi, and a Member of the Governing Board, International Process Network (IPN). Dr. Kachappilly is a prolific writer with several books and many scientific articles to his credit. Some of the books include God of Love Revisited(1998), Between Partners (1999), Word of God Retold (2001), God of Love: A Neoclassical Inquiry (2002), God-Talk Reconstructed: An Introduction to Philosophy of God (2006), Process: Implications and Applications (2006), etc. His major areas of research are 'Indian Roots of Process Philosophy', 'Whitehead and Philosophical Doctrines of Buddhism', 'Innovative Experiments in Pedagogy', 'Religion vis a vis Society', 'Inquiry into Religious Experience' and 'Corporate Social Responsibility'. |
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| Author : Dr. Larry D. Harwood
This book is a collection of short stories depicting spiritual struggle within the contours of sobering and sometimes fatal situations. Some stories portray less serious and humorous situations, though with redemptive themes still intertwined. The characters and situations presented do not disappoint the reader's desire for pleasurable reading, though a sense of the fleeting world mixed with spiritual confrontation or confusion may give the reader pause before moving to the next story. For readers who like realistic religious fiction with plausible characters in trying circumstances, the book provides a variety of stories in the contest of wills between living for wrong things and the confrontations inevitable with a calling in Christ. While some stories within this book have this explicit context, each story provides a sampling of some of the infinite battles that confront the religious believer living in a secular or distorted age.
The Author Dr. Larry D. Harwood is Professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Viterbo University in La Crosse, Wisconsin, USA, and specializes in Philosophy of Religion, Asian Philosophy, History of Religion, and Religion and Aesthetics. In addition to fictional writing, he has published articles on Nietzsche, Bertrand Russell, C.S. Lewis, Confucianism, postmodernism, the problem of evil and the meaning of life. His book entitled is scheduled for publication by Wipf and Stock in 2013, and he is currently at work on a book on Bertrand Russell and religion. In the spring term of 2008 he was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Lisbon, Portugal, where he taught in the Program in . In 2004 he made the first of several trips to Asia and has returned on three occasions bringing in tow almost forty students. |
