The 38th chapter of the Revival of the Religious Sciences, this treatise follows on from "Al-Ghazali on Intention, Sincerity & Truthfulness." Here, Ghazali focuses on the different stations of steadfastness in religion (murabaha), vigilance and self-examination being its cornerstones. As in all his writings, Ghazali bases his arguments on the Qur an, the example of the Prophet, and the sayings of numerous scholars and Sufis. As relevant today as it was in the 11th century, this discourse will be of interest to anyone concerned with ethics and moral philosophy."

This book analyzes and describes the development and aspects of imagery techniques, a primary mode of mystical experience, in twentieth century Jewish mysticism. These techniques, in contrast to linguistic techniques in medieval Kabbalah and in contrast to early Hasidism, have all the characteristics of a full screenplay, a long and complicated plot woven together from many scenes, a kind of a feature film. Research on this development and nature of the imagery experience is carried out through comparison to similar developments in philosophy and psychology and is fruitfully contextualized within broader trends of western and eastern mysticism.

From the words of David K. Miller: "Throughout Western history, channeling has come to us in various forms, including mediumship, shamanism, fortunetelling, visionaries, and oracles. There is also a long history of channeling in Kaballah, the major branch of Jewish mysticism. I am intrigued by this, especially because I believe that there is now an urgent necessity for entering higher realms with our consciousness because of the impending changes on the planet; through these higher realms, new healing energies and insights can be brought down to assist us in these coming Earth changes. I have found through more than twenty-five years of studying the Kaballah that it allows for a unique understanding of the concept of higher consciousness, or higher self, as a conduit to accessing

This compilation of the mystical writings of Hadewijch of Antwerp is best described, in Andrew Harvey's words, as a "heroic song" of love. The book presents an honest picture of love from every angle, stripped of sentimentality, not disguising the high price love demands if it is to be taken or given seriously.

In a world torn by division, indifference and chaos, to read Love is Everything is to be awakened to the full potential and dignity of being human, and to be changed. Hadewijch of Antwerp was one of Christianity's greatest Christian mystics, a Beguine who lived in the 13th century.

Andrew Harvey is a world-renowned poet, novelist, translator, mystical scholar, spiritual teacher, and the founder of the Institute for Sacred Activism. He saw in Hadewijch's writings a promise and hope for a broken world and felt called to make it accessible to more people by presenting it in daily-reading format.

Liu Zhi (c.1662-c.1730), a well-known Muslim scholar writing in Chinese, published outstanding theological works, short treatises, and short poems on Islam. While traditional Arabic and Persian Islamic texts used unfamiliar concepts to explain Islam, Liu Zhi translated both text and concepts into Chinese culture. In this erudite volume, David Lee examines how Liu Zhi integrated the basic religious living of the monotheistic Hui Muslims into their pluralistic Chinese culture. Liu Zhi discussed the Prophet Muhammad in Confucian terms, and his work served as a bridge between peoples. This book is an in-depth study of Liu Zhi's contextualization of Islam within Chinese scholarship that argues his merging of the two never deviated from the basic principles of Islamic belief.

In Egocentricity and Mysticism, Ernst Tugendhat casts mysticism as an innate facet of what it means to be human-a response to an existential need for peace of mind. This need is created by our discursive practices, which serve to differentiate us from one another and privilege our respective first-person standpoints. Emphasizing the first person fuels a desire for mysticism, which builds knowledge of what binds us together and connects us to the world. Any intellectual pursuit that prompts us to "step back" from our egocentric concerns harbors a mystic kernel that manifests as a sense of awe, wonder, and gratitude. Philosophy, the natural sciences, and mathematics all engender forms of mystical experience as profound as any produced by meditation and asceticism. One of the most widely discussed books by a German philosopher in decades, Egocentricity and Mysticism is a philosophical milestone that clarifies in groundbreaking ways our relationship to language, social interaction, and mortality.

This book presents a new paradigm for distinguishing psychotic and mystical religious experiences. In order to explore how Presbyterian pastors differentiate such events, Susan L. DeHoff draws from Reformed theology, psychological theory, and robust qualitative research. Following a conversation among multidisciplinary voices, she presents a new paradigm considering the similarities, differences, and possible overlap of psychotic and mystical religious experiences.

What did ancient Jews believe about demons and angels? This question has long been puzzling, not least because the Hebrew Bible says relatively little about such transmundane powers. In the centuries after the conquests of Alexander the Great, however, we find an explosion of explicit and systematic interest in, and detailed discussions of, demons and angels. In this book, Annette Yoshiko Reed considers the third century BCE as a critical moment for the beginnings of Jewish angelology and demonology. Drawing on early 'pseudepigrapha' and Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls, she reconstructs the scribal settings in which transmundane powers became a topic of concerted Jewish interest. Reed also situates this development in relation to shifting ideas about scribes and writing across the Hellenistic Near East. Her book opens a window onto a forgotten era of Jewish literary creativity that nevertheless deeply shaped the discussion of angels and demons in Judaism and Christianity.

This book seeks to examine how Sufi thought might provide critical understanding of contemporary life and a pathway towards the recovery of a more meaningful existence. Rumi's mystical teachings are of great value at a time of rampant materialism and indiscriminate consumerism, and have the potential to illuminate the precarious state of the world, as well as revitalise contemporary social critique, ecophilosophy and biosemiotics in what is increasingly being regarded as a post-secular age.

This account of evil takes the Book of Job as its guide. The Book of Job considers physical pain, social bereavement, the origin of evil, theodicy, justice, divine violence, and reward. Such problems are explored by consulting ancient and modern accounts from the fields of theology and philosophy, broadly conceived. Some of the literature on evil - especially the philosophical literature - is inclined toward the abstract treatment of such problems. Bringing along the suffering Job will serve as a reminder of the concrete, lived experience in which the problem of evil has its roots.

Das Buch analysiert acht menschenrechtliche Vertrage und Landerberichte der Vereinten Nationen (UN) aus 16 muslimischen Landern. Die Berichte belegen, dass muslimische Fluchtlinge den Scharia-Vorbehalt mitbringen, weil sie in islamischen Gesellschaften sozialisiert wurden. UN-Gremien versehen Landerberichte mit Empfehlungen. Teilweise erfolgen Antworten nur noch auf Arabisch. Scharia-Vorbehalte mit Hilfe der Vienna Convention auszuraumen, ist nicht gelungen, weil sich die Verantwortlichen nicht bemuhen, Arabisch oder die Scharia zu verstehen. Ein gemeinsamer Anknupfungspunkt ware die Sunnah des Propheten. Danach soll islamisches Recht jedes Jahrhundert an seine Gesellschaft angepasst werden, ohne die islamische Legitimitat zu verletzen. Einander zuhoeren, voneinander lernen ist fundamental. Die Idee von Arbeit und Ausbildung in europaischen Kloestern auch fur muslimische Fluchtlinge ist visionar fur eine religionsoffene Gesellschaft im 21. Jahrhundert.