Self-praise hymns and mystical experiences

Gamliel, O. (2023) Self-praise hymns and mystical experiences. In: Elwert, F., Freudenberg, M., Karis, T., Radermacher, M. and Schlamelcher, J. (eds.) Stepping Back and Looking Ahead: Twelve Years of Studying Religious Contact at the Käte Hamburger Kolleg Bochum. Series: Dynamics in the History of Religions, 13. Brill, pp. 182-214. ISBN 9789004549319 (doi: 10.1163/9789004549319_008)

Abstract

The article argues that self-praise hymns (a.k.a. aretalogies or in Sanskrit ātmastuti) can be analyzed as an inventory of records of mystical experiences across religious traditions and over history, similar to inventories of mystical experiences gathered by way of structured questionnaires. The genre is characterized by linguistic features such as paradoxical predications, gnomic temporalities and deictic indexicalities. The paper compares case studies in Sanskrit, Hebrew, Coptic, and Tibetan whereby a deity or a ‘culturally postulated supernatural agent’ speaks in the first-person of its otherworldly nature. The article thus offers a novel analytic approach to the study of mystical experiences.

• Item Type: Book Sections
• Status: Published
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Gamliel, Dr Ophira
• Authors: Gamliel, O.
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Critical Studies > Theology and Religious Studies
• Publisher: Brill
• ISBN: 9789004549319
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © Ophira Gamliel, 2023
• First Published: First published in Stepping Back and Looking Ahead: Twelve Years of Studying Religious Contact at the Käte Hamburger Kolleg Bochum 2023
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons licence