Meditation in Judaism, Christianity and Islam: Cultural Histories

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Series
Title
Copyright
Contents
Acknowledgements
Preface
Contributors
Part I Introduction
	1 Meditation in Judaism, Christianity and Islam: Technical Aspects of Devotional Practices
		Technical controversies
		Varieties of devotional practice
		Technical aspects of devotional practices
		Conclusion
Part II Judaism
	2 Ancient Hebrew Meditative Recitation
		No classical Hebrew meditation?
		Earlier interpretation
		The present study
		Philological indications
		Textual artefacts in classical Hebrew tradition
		Literary traces of classical Hebrew meditative practices
		The Qumran ‘Book of Meditation’
		Concluding remarks
		Abbreviations
	3 Mystics without Minds? Body and Soul in Merkavah Mysticism
		Persons without minds
		Merkavah mysticism
		Looking within
		The deposition of Rabbi Ne.uniah
		The seal of the Merkavah
		Understand with wisdom
		Meditation without mind?
	4 Meditative Prayer in Moshe Cordovero’s Kabbalah
		Kabbalah
		Cordovero and Kabbalah
		Cordovero’s meditation
		The parts of Jewish worship
		Nominalism
		Cleaving to God: Cordovero’s description of the event
		Silence and clouds
		Unity of shema
		Adonai ascent
		First blessing
		UbaLezion and demons
		Conclusions
	5 Spiritual Friendship as Contemplative Practice in Kabbalah and Hasidism
		The sixteenth-century kabbalistic brotherhood of Isaac Luria
		The Jerusalem fellowship of Bet El
		The Hasidic ‘school’ of Yehiel Mikhel of Zlotshov
		Contemplative visualization in other religious traditions: Islam and Buddhism
		Contemplative love of others in Buddhist tradition
		Conclusions
Part III Christianity
	6 Meléte in Early Christian Ascetic Texts
		Meléte in lists of ascetic practices and virtues
		How Meléte was performed
		The content of ‘meditation’
		Analogies
		Summary of the use of Meléte in early Christian monastic texts
		Comparison of Meléte in monastic texts and in Greek philosophical texts
		Conclusions
		Abbreviations
	7 The Early Jesus Prayer and Meditation in Greco-Roman Philosophy1
		Introduction
		Meditation and Jesus prayer in early monasticism
		Meditation in Greco-Roman philosophy
		Conclusion
		Abbreviations
	8 Meditation in the East Syrian Tradition
		Introduction
		Meditative practices
		The character of meditation
		Meditation and the mystical experience
	9 The Pathless Path of Prayer: Is There a Meditation Method in Meister Eckhart?
	10 Teresa of Avila’s Evolving Practices of ‘Representing’ Christ in Prayer
		Background to Teresa’s teaching on prayer
		Teresa’s teaching on prayer in the Castillo Interior
		Discussion: The evolving sense of ‘representation’
	11 Jesuit Ekphrastic Meditation: Louis Richeome’s Painting in the Mind
		Introduction
		La Peinture Spirituelle
		Mental pictures (tableaux) as devotional exercises
		Ekphrasis: A rhetorical technique exploited for devotional purposes
		A course in the form of a mnemonic promenade
		Christian meditation and antique rhetoric
		Meditation moulded by, or exploiting, rhetoric?
		Catholic theology, ekphrastic images and theories of ‘seeing’
	12 Imageless Prayer and Imagistic Meditation in Orthodox Christianity
		Some tensions in contemporary Byzantine spirituality
		Approaching the immaterial
		Life and formation
		From Combattimento spirituale to Aoratos Polemos
		Hesychastic prayer as meditation
		Conclusions
Part IV Islam
	13 Sufi Dhikr Between Meditation and Prayer
		Varieties of Dhikr
		The rules of Dhikr
		Simnani’s hierarchy of visions and colours
		Dhikr as practice
		Dhikr between meditation, prayer and performance
	14 Movement and Stillness: The Practice of Sufi Dhikr in Fourteenth-Century Central Asia
		The practices
		Dhikr and the authority of masters
		Dhikr and meditation
	15 Music and Remembrance as Meditation: Sama‘ in the Indus Valley
		The progressive prevalence of Sama.
		The growing role of breath in the process of remembrance
		From Sama. to Dhamal: Constructing an alternative
		Conclusion
Part V Science
	16 The Natural Science of Meditation: A ‘Black Box’ Perspective?
		The black box
		Increasing scientific and popular interest
		No common definition
		No scientific definition
		Suggested scientific definitions
		Lack of scientific explication
		Challenges of scientific explication
		Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index