Denver, Colorado, USA
November 17-20

Session One:

“Eros, Love and Mysticism”

Kerry Skora, Hiram College:
Abhinavagupta’s Erotic Mysticism:

Experiencing Reality in/as Orgasmic Sexual Union

Yudit K. Greenberg, Rollins College:
Love and Eros in Midrash Song of Songs Rabbah

Elizabeth Pullen, Drew University:
The Virgin Sophia and the Spiritual Bridegroom:

Eros and Androgyny in the Mysticism of Georg Conrad Beissel

Graham M. Schweig, Christopher Newport University
Passionate Love as Selfless Devotion in the Caitanyaite Bhakti Tradition

Session Two:

“Mysticism of Daily Life”

Jonathan Herman, Georgia State University:
The Mystical and the Mundane: The Strange Case of Confucian Mysticism

Donna Freitas: Catholic University of America:
Mystical Experience as Emancipatory for Women

Neil Douglas-Klotz, Edinburgh Institute for Advanced Learning:
Maqam and Hal: The Mysticism of Ordinary Life in Sufism

David L. Smith, Central Michigan University:
Beautiful Necessities: American Beauty and the Idea of Freedom