Roads of Excess, Palaces of Wisdom: Eroticism and Reflexivity in the Study of Mysticism

Preface: Sex, Secrecy, and the Sacred Introduction: Roads of Excess 1. Eyeing the Burning Wings: Analyzing the Mystical Experience of Love in Evelyn Underhill's Mysticism (1911)Secret Talk: The Vajr~Vva Vision 2. The Passion of Louis Massignon: Sublimating the Homoerotic Gaze in The Passion of al-Hall~j (1922) Secret Talk: Heroic Heretical Heterosexuality 3. The Doors of Deception: R. C. Zaehner's Ethical and Erotic Challenges to Monistic Experience in Mysticism Sacred and Profane (1957) and Discordant Concord (1970) Secret Talk: Writing Out (of) That Night 4. Writing Out of the Light at the Center: Reading Agehananda Bharati's Tantric Trilogy (1960, 1965, 1976)Secret Talk: The Descent 5. The Mystical Mirror of Hermeneutics: Gazing into Elliot Wolfson's Speculum (1994) Secret Talk: Svapna-Siddha Conclusion: Palaces of Wisdom Notes Bibliography Index