Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Stages Of Contemplative Mysticism: A Description And Taxonomy, Kenneth Burton Kaisch

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to describe and classify the stages of contemplative mystical development in the major world religions. To accomplish this task, a sample of five major world religions was chosen from the total population. From each religion, a contemplative author who was regarded as an authority by the members of that religion was chosen. The major work of each author was described in order to make explicit his/her conceptualization of the stages of contemplative development. These conceptualizations were then compared together, resulting in two models of contemplative development. The first model was composed of those stages …