Description
Book SynopsisIn Three Mystics Walk into a Tavern, Jalal ad-Din Rumi, Moses de LeÃn, and Meister Eckhartâ three of the greatest mystics of all timeâmeet for an imaginary conversation that will inspire individuals of the twenty-first century to find their own spirituality and realize that everyone can be a mystic.
Trade ReviewThe reader cannot help but join in the conversation, and not only because it is a conversation and not a treatise, a dialogue, and not a lecture. We join in because the conversation talks to the conditions and issues of today, in part through voices that speak today, in the present tense, and not only those that speak out of some misty distant past. The threads of this volume are woven together in a richly hued, tight, and very readable tapestry. The tapestry is also a doorway—into the warmest of intellectual and spiritual taverns, into which all of us are invited, out of the dark, windy night of the everyday world and its complications. The wise reader will read beginning to end, hardly stopping for breath, inspired. -- Ori Z. Soltes, Georgetown University, author of Mysticism in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam: Searching for Oneness
Table of ContentsForeword Introductory Comments—A Tavern? Chapter 1. What This Book Is—And Is Not—About Everyone Can Be a Mystic Restless Hearts Chapter 2. They Meet at Taverna degli Alighieri in Venice Chapter 3. Mysticism: For Everyone? Trying to Define the Indefinable Mysticism Back on Stage One River, Many Wells Historical Notes Characteristics Dangers of Mysticism Chapter 4. The 13th and Early 14th Centuries as Backdrop Christianity in Europe The Mongols Culture, Education, and Law Political Events 13th-Century Inventions Concluding Comments Chapter 5. Jalal ad-Din Rumi Teachings Major Works Order of Whirling Dervishes Legacy Chapter 6. Meister Eckhart Influence Works and Teachings Modern Spirituality Chapter 7. Moses de León The Zohar The Zohar and Kabbalah Concluding Comments Chapter 8. The Conversation Continues, About the Divine Chapter 9. More Tea, Wine, and Conversation: This Time, About Religion and Whether It Helps or Hinders Chapter 10. Still More Çay and Conversation: The Mystic, Society, and Justice—And How They Fit Together Chapter 11. Women and the Feminine Chapter 12. As Dawn Approaches: Mysticism and the 21st Century Chapter 13. They Conclude—The Underground River and Expanding the Circle Select Bibliography
