Philosophy of Religion Research

Nonexistence from Mowlana’s and Meister Eckhart’s Viewpoints

Editorial

Author

Associate Professor of Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran

Abstract

This paper is concerned with one of the most important differences between philosophers and mystics. The former seek knowledge of “existence” while the latter want to reach and to gain the state of “nonexistence”. But is “seeking nonexistence” a meaningful concept? In this paper we will discuss the meaning of “nonexistence” from the viewpoints of two great mystics of the East and the West –Mowlana and Eckhart- who leaved in the same century (13th) and who belonged to two great Abrahamic traditions –Islam and Christianity. We will also examine the relation between this idea and the doctrine of “oneness of Being” (wahdat al-wujud). The influence of this idea on the emergence of a kind of “negative theology” will also be discussed from the viewpoints of these two mystics.

Keywords

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Philosophy of Religion Research
Volume 5, Issue 2 - Serial Number 2
November 2008
Pages 39-62