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

by Jeffrey J. Kripal

William Blake once wrote that "The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom." Inspired by these poetic terms, Jeffrey J. Kripal reveals how the works of scholars of mysticism are often rooted in their own mystical experiences, "roads of excess," which can both lead to important insights into these scholars' works and point us to our own "palaces of wisdom."

In his new book, Kripal addresses the twentieth-century study of mysticism as a kind of mystical tradition in its own right, with its own unique histories, discourses, sociological dynamics, and rhetorics of secrecy. Fluidly combining autobiography and biography with scholarly exploration, Kripal takes us on a tour of comparative mystical thought by examining the lives and works of five major historians of mysticism—Evelyn Underhill, Louis Massignon, R. C. Zaehner, Agehananda Bharati, and Elliot Wolfson—as well as relating his own mystical experiences. The result, Kripal finds, is seven "palaces of wisdom": the religious power of excess, the necessity of distance in the study of mysticism, the relationship between the mystical and art, the dilemmas of male subjectivity and modern heterosexuality, a call for ethical criticism, the paradox of the insider-outsider problem in the study of religion, and the magical power of texts and their interpretation.
An original and penetrating analysis of modern scholarship and scholars of mysticism, Roads of Excess, Palaces of Wisdom is also a persuasive demonstration of the way this scholarly activity is itself a mystical phenomenon.

Genres: Philosophy, Religion, Mysticism, Spirituality, Nonfiction

272 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2001

About the author

Jeffrey J. Kripal, Ph.D. (History of Religions, The University of Chicago, 1993; M.A., U. Chicago; B.A., Religion, Conception Seminary College, 1985), holds the J. Newton Rayzor Chair in Philosophy and Religious Thought at Rice University, where he serves as Associate Dean of Humanities, Faculty and Graduate Studies. He also has served as Associate Director of the Center for Theory and Research of the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California.

Reviews

[Jeremy Garber · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book after reading Kripal’s stunning 2017 survey of his entire career, Secret Body: Erotic and Esoteric Currents in the History of Religions. In some ways, one can read the latter book without having to read Roads of Excess, Palaces of Wisdom. But Roads of Excess shows the depth and precision of Kripal’s scholarly deep reading, as well as providing hints of the radical project of self-invention through the academic study of interreligious hermeneutics. Roads of Excess shows the beginning of Kripal’s understanding of the “hermeneutical-mystical process.” It began when he was studying the prevalence of sublimated homoerotic language in Hindu mystics, and underwent a powerful kundalini experience with visions of the goddess Kali while doing that research. Kripal examines several famous scholars of comparative mysticism, investigating how their own mystical experiences actually resulted or were intertwined with their scholarly assumptions and their academic investigations.

Kripal begins with perhaps the most famous Western scholar of mysticism, Evelyn Underhill. Underhill examines the connection of mysticism with art and creativity, a fascination she shares with both Kripal and myself, concluding that mysticism is a higher and purer form of the same creativity that inspires the artist and the poet. Louis Massignon studied the Sufi mystic text The Passion of al-Hallāj and observed his own queer orientation fashioned into mystical oneness with the ancient poet, meditating on al-Hallāj’s tortured body and feeling a kinship of desire with him across the ages. Catholic scholar R. C. Zaehner observed the danger of transgression of the ethical in the mystical, the source of Kripal’s “gnosis” that mysticism is an erotic excess beyond the bounds of ethics, as evidenced by the frequent sexual exploitation seen in Western gurus. Agehandanda Bharati’s Tantric Trilogy shows the flip side of mysticism and eroticism – a conscious rejection of Western mores in favor of the left-handed path of Tantrism and excess of sex, drugs, and music (but not rock and roll!). Finally, American Kabbalah scholar Elliot Wolfson’s Speculum shows a kindred spirit working through reading historical mystical texts and experiencing a direct mystical encounter as a result.

There’s a lot to like about Kripal’s work (and I certainly do), but there is also a point at which we part ways. I wholeheartedly agree that reading and studying ancient texts can lead to a divine counter. I agree that art and creativity are movements of the Spirit within us, connecting us to each other and to God. Where I differ with Kripal is on the side of R. C. Zaehner – that mysticism ought not be permitted to lead to ethical excess (to be fair, Kripal agrees to some extent, but not all), and that there is in fact an objective God beyond our senses and understanding that comes to meet us in the world. Kripal grew up conservative Catholic and seems to have rejected classical theism in favor of seeing mysticism as the creative connection between all of us and the world (a tendency I would connect to Feuerbach, incidentally). But as a theologian first and a religious scholar second – and a mystic overall – I would contend that to study the mystics and art is to encounter God through the Holy Spirit at God’s own initiative. And many of the mystics would agree.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

nice.