{"id":3934,"date":"2010-03-08T11:12:13","date_gmt":"2010-03-08T19:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/secularright.org\/wordpress\/?p=3934"},"modified":"2010-03-08T11:14:39","modified_gmt":"2010-03-08T19:14:39","slug":"mystic-pieces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/mystic-pieces\/","title":{"rendered":"Mystic Pieces"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Today&#8217;s <em>New York Times<\/em>\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2010\/03\/08\/opinion\/08douthat.html?partner=rss&amp;emc=rss\" target=\"_blank\">op-ed<\/a> by Ross Douthat begins on a note (sort of) of hope:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;Mysticism is dying&#8230;Monasteries have dwindled. Contemplative orders have declined. Our religious leaders no longer preach the renunciation of the world; our culture scoffs at the idea&#8230;&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>But it was too good to last. A little later Ross continues with these glum tidings:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;Yet by some measures, mysticism\u2019s place in contemporary religious life looks more secure than ever.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Oh well. As always with Ross the piece is intriguing and well worth reading, not least in this case for the rather vivid description of what mysticism is said to involve:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;[T]he quest for the numinous, the pursuit of the unnamable, the tremor of bliss and the dark night of the soul. &#8220;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Blimey.<\/p>\n<p>And then, of course, there is the part that mysticism is meant to play in &#8220;what\u2019s supposed to be the deep promise of religious practice:&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;[T]hat at any time, in any place, it\u2019s possible to encounter the divine, the revolutionary and the impossible \u2014 and have your life completely shattered and remade.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><em>Promise<\/em>? Sounds more like a threat to me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today&#8217;s New York Times\u00a0op-ed by Ross Douthat begins on a note (sort of) of hope: &#8220;Mysticism is dying&#8230;Monasteries have dwindled. Contemplative orders have declined. Our religious leaders no longer preach the renunciation of the world; our culture scoffs at the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/mystic-pieces\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[487],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3934"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3934"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3934\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3939,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3934\/revisions\/3939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}