Process Philosophy and Mystical Atheism
Dao does nothing and yet all things are done. The sage does nothing and thus leaves nothing undone. Dao has no intention, does not play the lord or master, knows nothing and is never known, and thereby does its bounty flow to all creatures.
- Brook Ziporyn
- Brook Ziporyn
The purpose of this page is to introduce readers to the idea of mystical atheism as developed by Brook Ziporyn and bring it into conversation with process philosophy. The quotation above, on the Dao, gives you a sense of the flavor of one kind of mystical atheism. It sees a bounty that flows to all creatures, not unified by a single purpose.
Brook Ziporyn is Mircea Eliade Professor of Chinese Religion, Philosophy, and Comparative Thought known for his work on Chinese traditions, especially Daoism and Tiantai Buddhism, and for developing the idea of “mystical atheism.” He argues that one can affirm the depth, wonder, and transformative power of religious experience without positing a personal creator God, drawing on cross-cultural resources to articulate a non-theistic sense of ultimacy.
Mystical atheism as articulated by Ziporyn is a deeper and more religious form of atheism than one finds in secular rejections of belief in God that are rooted, for example, in scientism or reductive materialism. Rather than dismissing the sacred, mystical atheism seeks to recover dimensions of wonder, depth, and transformation often associated with religious life—without affirming a personal creator deity who provides an overarching purpose to the whole of creation.
Ziporyn’s argument is that the seeds of such atheism—and sometimes its full expression—are found in cultural religions all over the world, but that Western traditions have occluded more non-theistic forms of ultimacy.
The process tradition, in its openness and plurality, is hospitable to many forms of mysticism. It does not insist on a single, unified religious outlook, but instead allows for a range of experiential orientations toward the sacred. Among these are:
Many atheists may find one or some combination of the first twelve helpful in affirming the religious side of their atheism, but have doubts about the last three, all of which concern what process philosophy typically means by God. These latter forms—mysticism of divine love, providential care, and cosmic awe in relation to the primordial nature—can seem, at least initially, to reintroduce precisely what atheism seeks to question or set aside: a name, a center, or a unifying source that might be called “God.”
Ziporyn would no doubt reject the last three as too "purposive," and perhaps rightly so. There is no need for mysticism to be of one type. From a process perspective, however, the three forms need not be interpreted in a traditional theistic sense. They do not point to an omnipotent ruler standing outside the universe, but rather to dimensions of experience that may or may not be named as divine. One might experience a lure toward wholeness without calling it God, or sense a pattern of care in the unfolding of life without attributing it to a supernatural agent. Even the primordial dimension of reality—the ordering of possibilities—can be understood either as a feature of the cosmos itself or, alternatively, as an aspect of what process thinkers call God. The experiences transcend the interpretations.
Thus, the difference may lie less in the experience itself than in its interpretation. The same felt realities—guidance, depth, possibility, care—can be received within a theistic or atheistic framework. Mystical atheism, in this sense, leaves open the question of naming, while affirming the depth of what is experienced. And a mystical theism, at least in a process way, does the same.
- Jay McDaniel
Brook Ziporyn is Mircea Eliade Professor of Chinese Religion, Philosophy, and Comparative Thought known for his work on Chinese traditions, especially Daoism and Tiantai Buddhism, and for developing the idea of “mystical atheism.” He argues that one can affirm the depth, wonder, and transformative power of religious experience without positing a personal creator God, drawing on cross-cultural resources to articulate a non-theistic sense of ultimacy.
Mystical atheism as articulated by Ziporyn is a deeper and more religious form of atheism than one finds in secular rejections of belief in God that are rooted, for example, in scientism or reductive materialism. Rather than dismissing the sacred, mystical atheism seeks to recover dimensions of wonder, depth, and transformation often associated with religious life—without affirming a personal creator deity who provides an overarching purpose to the whole of creation.
Ziporyn’s argument is that the seeds of such atheism—and sometimes its full expression—are found in cultural religions all over the world, but that Western traditions have occluded more non-theistic forms of ultimacy.
The process tradition, in its openness and plurality, is hospitable to many forms of mysticism. It does not insist on a single, unified religious outlook, but instead allows for a range of experiential orientations toward the sacred. Among these are:
- A mysticism of absolute interconnectedness, in which all things are felt as internally related within a vast web of becoming
- A mysticism of the creative abyss, in which the depths of reality are experienced as a creative abyss, without preferences, of which all things are self-creative expressions.
- A mysticism of the present moment, in which the immediacy of experience is felt as complete and sufficient in itself—a fullness not dependent on past or future. A concrescence of the universe.
- A mysticism of multiplicity, in which diversity, contrast, and disjunction are embraced as ultimate rather than reduced to unity
- A mysticism of mathematical or conceptual beauty, in which abstract forms are apprehended with a sense of wonder and reverence
- A mysticism of compassion or care, in which ethical responsiveness arises without reference to a divine lawgiver, but is instead responsive to suffering and sensitive to interconnectedness.
- A mysticism of tragic beauty, in which beauty, tragedy, and contrast are felt as intrinsically meaningful
- A mysticism of panexperientialism, in which experience is understood as a fundamental feature of reality itself—present, in varying degrees, in all actualities, from the simplest events in nature to the richness of human consciousness
- A mysticism of the suchness of things, in which reality is encountered just as it is—this, here, now—without the need for explanation, justification, or transcendence, and in which the ordinary is felt as quietly sufficient
- A mysticism of the intrinsic value of each and every sentient being, in which one feels, directly and affectively, that every creature matters in and of itself—worthy of care, respect, and concern, whether or not this value is grounded in God
- A mysticism of the collective unconscious, in which one senses participation in deeper layers of shared psyche, archetype, and memory that underlie individual experience and connect one to the broader human (and perhaps more-than-human) story
- A mysticism of creative transformation, in which one experiences life itself as an ongoing invitation to become otherwise—to respond to each moment with improvisation, courage, and openness to new possibilities
- A mysticism of divine love, as when one feels inwardly companioned, guided, or gently lured toward wholeness by a presence that can be named as love—even if not conceived as an omnipotent ruler
- A mysticism of providential care, in which one senses that life—despite its contingencies and tragedies—is nevertheless accompanied by a subtle guidance, a weaving of possibilities toward meaning, healing, or intensity of experience
- A mysticism of cosmic awe in the presence of the primordial nature of things, in which one senses the sheer depth of possibility, the ordering of potentials, or the eternal dimension of reality that precedes and informs all becoming
Many atheists may find one or some combination of the first twelve helpful in affirming the religious side of their atheism, but have doubts about the last three, all of which concern what process philosophy typically means by God. These latter forms—mysticism of divine love, providential care, and cosmic awe in relation to the primordial nature—can seem, at least initially, to reintroduce precisely what atheism seeks to question or set aside: a name, a center, or a unifying source that might be called “God.”
Ziporyn would no doubt reject the last three as too "purposive," and perhaps rightly so. There is no need for mysticism to be of one type. From a process perspective, however, the three forms need not be interpreted in a traditional theistic sense. They do not point to an omnipotent ruler standing outside the universe, but rather to dimensions of experience that may or may not be named as divine. One might experience a lure toward wholeness without calling it God, or sense a pattern of care in the unfolding of life without attributing it to a supernatural agent. Even the primordial dimension of reality—the ordering of possibilities—can be understood either as a feature of the cosmos itself or, alternatively, as an aspect of what process thinkers call God. The experiences transcend the interpretations.
Thus, the difference may lie less in the experience itself than in its interpretation. The same felt realities—guidance, depth, possibility, care—can be received within a theistic or atheistic framework. Mystical atheism, in this sense, leaves open the question of naming, while affirming the depth of what is experienced. And a mystical theism, at least in a process way, does the same.
- Jay McDaniel
A new approach to the theism-scientism divide rooted in a deeper form of atheism.
Western philosophy is stuck in an irresolvable conflict between two approaches to the spiritual malaise of our times: either we need more God (the “turn to religion”) or less religion (the New Atheism). In this book, Brook Ziporyn proposes an alternative that avoids both totalizing theomania and atomizing reductionism. What we need, he argues, is a deeper, more thoroughgoing, even religious rejection of God: an affirmative atheism without either a creator to provide meaning or finite creatures in need of it—a mystical atheism.
In the legacies of Daoism and Buddhism as well as Spinoza, Nietzsche, and Bataille, Ziporyn discovers a critique of theism that develops into a new, positive sensibility—at once deeply atheist and richly religious.
Experiments in Mystical Atheism argues that these “godless epiphanies” hold the key to renewing philosophy today.
Contents
1. Confucianism and the Interpersonal Universe: Humanity beyond Personhood
2. Buddhism as Ultra-Atheism
3. Karma versus God as Animistic Atavisms
4. Mahāyāna Bodhisattvas as Promethean Countergods, Whether Real or Unreal
5. Being Born on Purpose in an Atheist Universe
6. Tiantai on Bodhisattvas: Fully Real, Fully Unreal
7. Just This Is Divinity: There Are Gods but There Is No God
8. Intersubsumption of Purpose and Purposelessness, Theist and Atheist Versions: Hegel and Tiantai
9. Universal Mind in Early "Southern" Zen: Another Opposite of God
10. The Lotus Sutra: Monotheism Buddhified; That Is, Destroyed
11. An Alternate Atheist Faith: Amida Buddha and the Pure Land
12. Back to Ground Zero with the Nihilist Virtuoso: Chumming with and Dissolving the Creator in Zhuangzi's Perspectival Mirror
Supplemental Materials: https://press.uchicago.edu/sites/ziporyn/index.html
Western philosophy is stuck in an irresolvable conflict between two approaches to the spiritual malaise of our times: either we need more God (the “turn to religion”) or less religion (the New Atheism). In this book, Brook Ziporyn proposes an alternative that avoids both totalizing theomania and atomizing reductionism. What we need, he argues, is a deeper, more thoroughgoing, even religious rejection of God: an affirmative atheism without either a creator to provide meaning or finite creatures in need of it—a mystical atheism.
In the legacies of Daoism and Buddhism as well as Spinoza, Nietzsche, and Bataille, Ziporyn discovers a critique of theism that develops into a new, positive sensibility—at once deeply atheist and richly religious.
Experiments in Mystical Atheism argues that these “godless epiphanies” hold the key to renewing philosophy today.
Contents
1. Confucianism and the Interpersonal Universe: Humanity beyond Personhood
2. Buddhism as Ultra-Atheism
3. Karma versus God as Animistic Atavisms
4. Mahāyāna Bodhisattvas as Promethean Countergods, Whether Real or Unreal
5. Being Born on Purpose in an Atheist Universe
6. Tiantai on Bodhisattvas: Fully Real, Fully Unreal
7. Just This Is Divinity: There Are Gods but There Is No God
8. Intersubsumption of Purpose and Purposelessness, Theist and Atheist Versions: Hegel and Tiantai
9. Universal Mind in Early "Southern" Zen: Another Opposite of God
10. The Lotus Sutra: Monotheism Buddhified; That Is, Destroyed
11. An Alternate Atheist Faith: Amida Buddha and the Pure Land
12. Back to Ground Zero with the Nihilist Virtuoso: Chumming with and Dissolving the Creator in Zhuangzi's Perspectival Mirror
Supplemental Materials: https://press.uchicago.edu/sites/ziporyn/index.html
Interview with Ziporyn
in New Books Network
Additional Interviews and Speaking Engagements
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