UMass Boston

Integrated Sciences Complex at night view from the water.
Mysticism

Course Overview

Date / Time Location Credits Minimium Tuition*
9/3/24 - 12/13/24
TuTh 9:30a.m. – 10:45a.m.
University Hall Y04-4120 3 $1984 (guest students)
Date
9/3/24 - 12/13/24
Time
TuTh 9:30a.m. – 10:45a.m.
Location
University Hall Y04-4120
Credits
3
Min. Tuition*
$1984 (guest students)

Description

Mystics claim to encounter the divine in ways that push the limits of ordinary human experience. This course introduces students to the major themes, practices, and ideas of mysticism. Mysticism highlights a tension between the need for concrete rules, institutions, practices, and doctrine, and a conviction that there is something beyond what can be quantified and contained. Mystics need limits in order to cross them. How to make those limits and cross them is, therefore, central to our study. This course asks: What practices allow people to touch what is beyond words? How do intense, personal experiences relate to and depend on communal and institutional religion? Why is it important to talk about what cannot be said? How does mysticism challenge or strengthen authority, especially around questions of gender and sexuality? How have traditional religious practices been transformed in modern attempts at transcendence:

Prerequisites

Sophomore standing

This course is closed for registration.

Course Details