Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book brings together original essays from leading and emerging international scholars, examining the historical and contemporary developments of continental philosophy's relationship with mysticism alongside theology's own renewed engagement with mystical traditions, particularly as it enters into dialogue with this comparable turn in philosophy. It traces the nature of the relationship between these two fields in the hope of moving towards a new awareness of their complementarity, tension, and integrity. The book aims to present essays which define and delineate key and emerging debates in this growing field of research. 'Receiving mystical tradition in post/modernity', raises historical and hermeneutical questions that inevitably present themselves as the mystical tradition is juxtaposed with the post-modern. It presents the most novel encounters between varied thinkers who are less often treated in relation to mystical theology: Kierkegaard, Žižek, Deleuze, Laruelle, and others.