Download or read book Mysticism and Social Change written by Alton Brooks Pollard and published by Peter Lang Incorporated, International Academic Publishers. This book was released on 1992 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Academics and activists alike have long dismissed mysticism as an «otherworldly» and escapist form of religion. Alton B. Pollard III, in a ground breaking study of the noted African-American mystic, Howard Thurman, presents an analysis of religious experience that challenges prevailing interpretations of mysticism and social change. Drawing on perspectives from sociology, phenomenology, and history, the author examines the meaning of mystical religion for the «underside» of contemporary American society. What he uncovers is significant: an activist form of mysticism, compelled by the dictates of spiritual experience, that defies social conventions and engenders social change.