Document Type : Original Article

Authors

• alireza seyedtaghavi ¹
• Mahdi Hasanzadeh ²
• Ali Ashraf Emami ²
• Hossein Kareshki ³

¹ comparative religions and mysticism, faculty of theology, Ferdowsi university of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran

² Department of comparative religions and mysticism, faculty of theology, Ferdowsi university of Mashhad

³ Counseling and educational psychology, Faculty of education sciences and psychology, Ferdowsi university of Mashhad

Abstract

Essentialism and constructivism have been two major approaches in study of mysticism. Essentialism emphasizes the existence of common elements among religious and spiritual traditions and constructivism draws our attention to the contextual nature of spiritual knowledge. From Ferrer’s point of view, both essentialism and constructivism are parasitic of the experiential vision of spiritual phenomena, and heavily depend on the dualism of Framework and Reality. As a remedy for this situation, Ferrer integrates the partial truths of essentialism and constructivism with a participatory vision, which is a turn from intrasubjective experiences to participatory events in our understanding of religious and spiritual phenomena. Taking a typical essentialist metaphor, Ferrer suggests that most religious and spiritual traditions lead to the same ocean, which he calls the ocean of emancipation. However, this ocean is not a single ultimate reality, but a overcoming of self-centeredness which can be accompanied by a variety of trans-conceptual disclosures of reality. This ocean- and this where constructivist analyses are helpful- has different shores that correspond to independent spiritual ultimates, athough being understood as different levels, dimensions, or interpretations, can be seen as enactions of a dynamic and spiritual power.

Keywords

• Essentialism
• Constructivism
• Jorge N. Ferrer
• Participatory vision
• The ocean of emancipation