Senses of Mystery

the long version

The Senses of Mystery is based on the need to distinguish between the "purely natural" sense of mystery and one that is specifically religious leading to a conclusion that it is precisely in their shared experience of the mystery of reality that science and religion have their best chance of reconciliation. Senses of Mystery shows that in contrast to the "purely natural" senses of mystery, the sense of mystery entertained by religious people always involves the experience of reality in terms of "something more." What this "something more" is, however, varies from one religion to another, and depending upon whether it has been experienced as something "totally other," something "within," or something "beyond," has given rise to at least three basically different - "sacral," "immanentist," and "transcendent"--Senses of mystery.