Gnosticism, Esotericism, Mysticism (GEM)
Ph.D. Concentration
Traditional understandings of religion often focus on events, figures,
and ideas that are more or less amenable to orthodox framings of what
constitutes religious truth and practice. But what if we do not
privilege these public “winning” voices, but look also at those
heterodox or esoteric currents of the history of religions that have
been actively repressed, censored, or simply forgotten by their
respective cultures? What if, moreover, we privilege the psychology and
phenomenology of religious experience over the authorial framing of
these events by the faith traditions, even as we explore and analyze
the profound ways the faith traditions shape these same “individual”
experiences?
The
comparative categories of mysticism, gnosticism, and esotericism are
all modern constructs, each different in nuance but all designed to ask
just these sorts of dialectical questions, to relate orthodoxy to
heterodoxy, and vice-versa.
This area of concentration in the
Ph.D. program at Rice provides students the opportunity to study the
varieties and commonalities of mysticism, gnosticism, and esotericism
as these phenomena are both shaped within and marshaled outside (or
even against) discrete religious traditions. The Department’s approach
to the study of mysticism, gnosticism, and esotericism is grounded in
the rigorous study of single traditions, to the extent that it demands
distinct philological and historical training in particular cultural
areas. It is also explicitly comparative, to the extent that it draws
on multiple traditions—from Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, to
Hinduism, Buddhism, and the New Age—for its comprehensive materials and
theorizing.
The goal of the program is to train students to
work independently on traditions of their choice and, eventually, to
become professors and scholars in the study of religion. To do so,
students will (1) become familiar with the histories and nuances of the
comparative categories of mysticism, gnosticism, and esotericism in the
discipline; (2) gain linguistic proficiency in relevant languages; (3)
study primary materials, including texts and practices; and (4) become
conversant in the history and material culture of their chosen
traditions. The result is a unique community of scholars and graduate
colleagues actively engaged in the historical-critical, psychological,
philosophical, aesthetic, ritual, somatic, contemplative, and
phenomenological exploration of some of the most intense, unusual, and
interesting religious phenomena known to scholars of religion.
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| Dionysiac Mysteries, Bronze Crater, Museum of Thessalonika, Greece, Photo by DeConick |
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