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Mysticism

Mysticism

by Simon Critchley

$18.95
$18.95
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Why mysticism? It has been called “experience in its most intense form,” and in his new book the philosopher Simon Critchley poses a simple question to the reader: Wouldn’t you like to taste this intensity? Wouldn’t you like to be lifted up and out of yourself into a sheer feeling of aliveness, both your life and those of the creatures that surround you? If so, it might be well worthwhile trying to learn what is meant by mysticism and how it can shift, elevate, and deepen the sense of our lives. 

Mysticism is not primarily a theoretical issue. It's not a question of religious belief but of felt experience and daily practice. A rough and ready definition of mysticism is that it is a way of systematically freeing yourself of your standard habits, your usual fancies and imaginings so as to see what is there and stand with what is there ecstatically. Mysticism is the practical possibility of the achievement of a fluid openness between thought and existence. 

This is a book about trying to get outside oneself, to lose oneself, while knowing that the self is not something that can ever be fully lost. It is also a book about Julian of Norwich, Anne Carson, Annie Dillard, T.S. Eliot, and Nick Cave. It shows how listening to music can be secular worship. It is a book full of learning, puzzlement, pleasure, and wonder. It opens the door to mysticism not as something unworldly and unimaginable, but as a way of life. 

Additional Book Information

Series: New York Review Books
ISBN: 9781681378244
Pages: 336
Publication Date:

Praise

Simon Critchley is the most powerful and provocative philosopher now writing about the complex relations of ethical subjectivity and reinvigorated democracy.
—Cornel West

Simon Critchley’s work manages the difficult task of drawing both accessibility and depth from his vast range of references.
—Daniel Fraser, The Quietus

Erudite and impassioned, Critchley’s intimate examination of mysticism speaks to a yearning for personal transformation and nothing less than enchantment. A stirring, lyrical meditation on transfiguration.
—Kirkus Reviews

Critchley is what one might call a "working-class philosopher," by which I mean he sees philosophy as a proletarian concern rather than an elite activity to be practiced in ivory towers. He approaches every subject — be it suicide or soccer — with the same intellectual rigor. The writing is not only deep and philosophical, but approachable and conversational.
—Tyler Malone, Los Angeles Times

Critchley is generous without being platitudinous, rigorous but not overbearing.
—Houman Barekat, Vol. 1 Brooklyn

Simon Critchley is a figure of quite startling brilliance, and I can never guess what he'll do next, only that it is sure to sustain and nourish my appetite for his voice.
— Jonathan Lethem

A study of mysticism—defined as an experience, rather than religious practice—by the great British philosopher Critchley, who mines music, poetry, and literature along the way.
—Sophia M. Stewart The Millions

For readers looking to become one with the divine, philosopher Simon Critchley points to lessons from renowned religious mystics in Mysticism (New York Review Books, Oct.). In this book, God is optional, and one can find the extraordinary in the ordinary aspects of life.
— Cathy Lynn Grossman Publishers Weekly

Mysticism is a lucid, genial guide to a body of writing that describes states of being, and intuitions, that belong and don’t belong to the tradition in which its author finds himself.
— Brian Dillon, 4Columns

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