Mysticism and Gender - Mistica y genero - Mystik und Geschlecht

2015 marks the five-hundredth anniversary of the Spanish mystic St.

Teresa of Avila. This volume of the Journal of ESWTR is therefore

dedicated to the issue of mysticism and gender. The mystical experience

is a radical confrontation with oneself, where one recognizes one’s

boundaries and is at the same time called to transgress them; it is a

mystical transformation of the self that then will be able to transform

unjust structures. Can mysticism today still unfold these capacities of

transformation of self and societies, given the problems we are faced

with?

Using gender as a category of analysis, and adopting a gender-sensitive

stand, the articles in this volume explore questions such as: How do

issues of gender shape the relationship between mysticism and power? How

have women mystics contributed to the field of mysticism? How can

mysticism unfold a transformative power, both for individuals and

societies? In short, what do we mean by mysticism today?