The Guerrand Hermes Forum for Interreligious Study of the Mystical and Spiritual Life

Why we need an Interreligious Study of the Mystical and Spiritual Life.

In what way do people who come out of religious traditions have a message, a focus, an orientation that provides a system of checks and balances to some of the other things that are going on in today’s world, and can sound a note of warning or at least offer a recommendation? How does the spiritual life offer solutions to the challenges of modernity?

The Guerrand Hermes Forum for the Interreligious Study of the Mystical and Spiritual Life tackles these issues. Read more here.

There is much popular talk of spirituality, often crossing the lines between religions in ways that classical religions would consider irresponsible. Over the past 20 years the field of spirituality has emerged in the academic world as a discipline in its own right. Practitioners of this discipline see an important role for themselves in addressing the marketplace of ideas and in introducing responsible, scholarly and critical ways of approaching spirituality. This academic discipline holds great promise for interfaith relations. It provides a meeting place for religions in the heart of their religious life, rather than on the common battlefield of life. It holds the promise of growth and transformation through experience, sharing and emulation. It suggests new ways for religions to understand themselves, thereby enriching our view of the possibilities for interfaith relations. Several of the programs Elijah has ran over the past decade belong to the realm of spirituality. We hope to be able to address this area in a more systematic way over the coming decade.

Meet the members of the Hermes Forum.

For courses based on the deliberations of the Hermes Forum, see Courses.

For some of the resources produced by scholars in the Forum, see under Spirituality and Mysticism in the Sharing Wisdom section of this site.