Ecology, Ecstasy, Mysticism

How should Spring bring forth a garden on hard stone? Become earth, that you may grow flowers of many colors. —Rumi

The soul is all things. She has being with the stones and growing with the trees and feeling with the beasts and understanding with the angels…For the soul goes on growing without end. —Meister Eckhart

Earth…you no longer need your springtimes to win me over—One of them, oh even one, is already too much for my blood. Namelessly I have belonged to you from the first. —Rainer Maria Rilke

The relationship between nature and spirituality is equally ancient, new, and not yet fully realized. (In this sense it has a close kinship with literature, philosophy, political ideas, and most other preoccupations of the Humanities.) Although since the 1970s eco-criticism and environmental activism have been moving away from metaphysical (read: anthropocentric and -genic) orientations, recent work in the areas of eco-theory and environmental humanities more broadly has begun returning to questions of how caring for the natural world bears upon issues of religion (e.g., Wendell Berry, Elizabeth Johnson, Norman Wirzba, Bruno Latour’s posthumous writings, Timothy Morton’s latest book).

Much of this work is in implicit or explicit dialogue with two ancient, interwoven concepts: ecstasy and mysticism. The first involves a basic pattern of “stepping outside” [ek-stasis] one framework of being, while the second concerns various forms of union with another (traditionally divine, immaterial, or infinite) essence. Although ecstasy and mysticism are probably most often associated with disciplines like theology, philosophy, and poetry, they also have ecological valences that have been attracting increased attention within scholarship about the crossing of thresholds between the human and the non-human.

The proposed seminar hopes to pursue these and related topics by exploring whether contemporary issues surrounding nature—including climate change, environmental justice, and the relationship between political engagement and aesthetic theory—can find points of contact with the ancient, multivalent, and multicultural conceptions of ecstasy, mystical union, and other associated experiences. Does one set of concerns presuppose or supersede the others? Can new gains be made in environmental discourse and activism by invoking religious and spiritual paradigms? Or do these paradigms require, à la Carl Schmitt, recalibration with secular categories? Above all, how do links between nature, ecstasy, and mysticism appear within literature, philosophy, and art? Paper proposals that address these or related questions from all literary, philosophical, theological, cultural, historical, and artistic angles are welcome. Please submit an abstract (300 words) accompanied by a brief vita for consideration.