Evelyn Underhill Christian Mystic Summary

In these classes, we will be going over many of the different guidelines put out that explain the rules, laws, and principles for pagans of all kinds.

Rituals marked important sites for the creation of gender identity. Ritual activities provided the stage settings for women and men to carry out socially appropriate behaviors marking key points along the moving edge of their life course. In the process, rituals posited a set of gender expectations that were complicated by the realities of everyday life, for ritual practices embodying definitions of masculinity and femininity were alive to other variables such as age, class, personal circumstances, or changing political relationships. Men and women constructed both each other’s honor and gender identity by means of a complicated ‘network of oppositions and dependencies’. Shows a view of gender constructs alongside the practical relationships and tasks that bound men and women together.

Another, aspect, spirituality is not as much a prearranged system, it is a quest and a prolongation of one’s development.

Spirituality gives meaning and purposes to their belief (51). In Reconnecting science and spirituality, Walach defines spirituality as “a way to understand the natural makeup of the world by means of rational methods of inquiry”. This quotes allows the world to have faith in their own beliefs (425). The happenings in Hydesville involving the Fox sisters started to increase the rate of mediums around the world (Walliss 129). Spiritualism started to have a greater influence of people’s lives. People started to go to mediums to communicate with lost love ones. Spiritualism was given closures to people in the world (Walliss

In all areas of life and society the treatment and well being of women have always been challenged. In many religions the role and status of its women are usually overwhelmed by the actions and roles of its men this inequality of religions between male and female allows these feelings and ideology of which sex is superior or inferior to bleed into a society’s culture thus shaping their treatment of their men and women.

Elizabeth Johnson is perhaps one of the most preeminent Catholic theologians of the new millennium. The fact that she is a woman religious who writes from a feminist perspective adds to her unique and distinguished career. This paper will examine the revisionist method espoused by Elizabeth Johnson, in an effort to understand her approach to Christian feminism. An overview of revisionist methodology will be presented so as to understand the framework in which Johnson works. References to some of Johnson!s writings will then be presented in an effort to illustrate her revisionist method. Finally a survey of various critics will then be presented in an effort to determine what has made her method, approach and style groundbreaking in the

Kate Bagley and Kathleen McIntosh wrote a thought-provoking book that compiles the experiences and struggles of dozens of women within differing religious traditions. Each women’s account is unique in how they choose to deal with their personal realities and how their religions are able or failed to help them cope with those realities. Each woman had to make the choice to either accept their religion exactly the way it is, to reform their religious tradition, or to reject institutionalized religions completely and find their own path to experience the divine. The women I am highlighting demonstrate each response and show that there are multiple ways to encounter the sacred. The women’s story that I am looking at first is Inéz Hernández-Ávila and her struggle to reclaim her Native American and Aztec heritage.

Topics of importance and emphasis that I will go over in this paper will include transcendence, the ability to show thanks for what one has, the ability to transform individually, cultural beliefs, as well as the

Throughout this chapter there were eight major woman-centered religions discussed. Afro-Brazilian Religions; which seems to incorporate elements of Amerindian religions, African tribal religions, Catholicism, and Kardecism. Public rituals in which a female medium would be possessed by spirits was a main feature of this religion. Black Carib Religion; This religion had some of the same main features as Afro-Brazilian religions such as communicating with spirits and instead of female mediums contacting the spirits in this case the older women would be the spiritual leaders. A majority of Black Caribs are Roman Catholics as well. The next religion discussed was the Burmese Nat Religion; they have a lot of the same beliefs as the previous two religions. Most rituals were preformed by women and almost all of the shamans are women. Burmese Nat Religions coexists with Buddhist Practices. Christian Science was created by Mary Baker Eddy in the 1800s. They basically believe that self healing happens after a balance of prayer and study. This religion in the most different so far. It doesn’t seem to have the same spiritual beliefs and rituals. Korean Household Religion is where Korean women give up offerings for the well being of their homes to the gods. They also call upon female shamans for advice. I’ve noticed that so far, Women are expected to grow spiritually through themselves and they rely on other women for guidance. I wonder why men and women can grow in spirituality together?

How does one find their spirituality? The overlaying theme between Michael Yaconelli’s, Messy Spirituality, the book the Wounded Healer and the guest speaker Roy Petitfils are all closely intertwined. How do we accept and grow to find accept and find our inner beauty and divine chosen path? Introspection and acceptance are critical to personal growth and enablement of happiness.

Prior to understanding and describing religious experiences, it’s important to define the terms and typology of religious experiences. A point of contention for theologians is whether or not mystical or out-of-body experiences are religious in nature. To understand what the role religion plays in these experiences, for this context, you must define and understand what religion is and the major components that make it up. James states that religion “cannot stand for any single principle or essence, but is rather a collective name” (35). If you were to ask someone about the essence of an object or a concept, different people would provide various components or parts of it. You would end up of with a list ranging from objective and subjective responses, but it would provide a better understanding of it because, like religion, no one thing or person can be summed up in a sentence or a word.

Whether it is in a polytheistic or a monotheistic religion, the gender of divinity is always a topic given great attention. Although Buddhism doesn’t put much focus on gods in the teaching, it does include certain religious aspects such as praying to the higher beings. The feminine divine traits in Buddhism can be found with a closer examination on the feminine metaphors in the Buddhist scriptures. While Buddhas are predominantly in male form, divine beings like Bodhisattvas often appears to be female figures including Kwan Yin and Tara. The concept of Buddha nature is described as “tathagata garbha” at times, which means Buddha womb. The imagery of this spiritual womb nurturing the nature for all beings implies the significance of this feminine feature. Another example is how the Buddha’s wisdom is referred to as a ‘she’ in some Buddhist texts. The involvement of both feminine and masculine traits seems to underline the irrelevance of gender in Buddhahood. On the other hand, in Christianity a prevailing image of God being the ‘Father’ is developed. The teachings of Jesus powerfully delineate God as a kind and merciful father accepting and guiding his children with no discrimination. In fact, there is only one explicit example in the scriptures comparing God seeking a sinner to a housewife in search of a lost coin. In addition to the masculine image of God, it is argued that between two human sexes, Jesus as a male is

Gender can be described as “the social attributes associated with being a woman or a man in a particular society” (Woodward, 2000, pp.47) A person’s gender is then determined by their sex which is “a biological classification”. (Woodward, 2000, pp.47) As gender is a social attribute the identities of people of different genders vary from society to society. For example, in many religions, women do not have place in the rituals of the religion as it is simply only for men to do. (Chryssides and Geaves, 2013, pp.331) As religions were formed in certain cultures this shows a clear divide caused by gender roles based on the cultural origin of the religion but also shows that this has an impact on the identities of the male and female members of the religion. This being that the males feel they have more authority over the females of the religion.

The incessant search for reality within (through drugs, meditation and intense feeling) was a quest for authenticity that reason, it was felt, deadened. It called for the reconnaissance at the extremes of human experience, as far beyond the limits of reason as possible, thus placing uncommon stress upon subjunctive moods. (Merrill, 2)

Eastern enlightenment religions have been gaining popularity throughout the western world for the past few decades, with many people attracted to a "different" way of experiencing religion. As with many other enlightenment religions, Buddhism requires disciples to understand concepts that are not readily explainable: one such concept is that of no-self. In this essay I shall discuss the no-self from a number of modern perspectives; however, as no-self is difficult to describe I shall focus on both the self and no-self. Beginning with psychological aspects, and neurophysiological research on transcendental meditation, I shall discuss the impact of modern brain science on our understanding of the self and transcendence. Next I will outline