Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Mystical Perspectives on the Love of God

This comparative study examines how mystical traditions within Judaism, Christianity, and Islam conceptualize divine love, offering insights into how experiential approaches to God transcend doctrinal boundaries while maintaining distinctive theological frameworks. Hidden analyzes primary mystical texts and secondary scholarship to demonstrate that despite significant theological differences, all three Abrahamic traditions develop sophisticated accounts of divine love that share structural similarities in their phenomenology and transformative claims.

The work engages centrally with prophecy arguments by examining how mystical experiences of divine love function as forms of direct divine communication that authenticate religious knowledge. Hidden shows how Jewish Kabbalists, Christian contemplatives, and Islamic Sufis each develop epistemologies that privilege experiential encounter with divine love over purely rational or scriptural approaches to knowing God. This positions mystical experience as a kind of ongoing prophecy that validates and deepens revealed religion.

Hidden employs a phenomenological-comparative methodology that identifies common patterns across traditions while respecting their theological distinctiveness. She demonstrates how each tradition develops a "ladder of love" metaphor describing progressive stages of spiritual ascent, from human love to divine union. The Jewish tradition, through figures like Moses Cordovero, emphasizes love as cosmic force binding creation to Creator. Christian mystics like John of the Cross frame divine love through bridal mysticism and transformative union. Islamic Sufism, particularly through Ibn Arabi, presents divine love as the motivating force of creation itself.

The monograph makes significant contributions to understanding how experiential dimensions of religion inform the God debate. By showing how mystical traditions develop sophisticated philosophical frameworks from experiential encounters, Hidden challenges purely rationalist approaches to religious epistemology. Her analysis reveals how claims about divine love function not merely as emotional expressions but as knowledge claims about ultimate reality's nature.

The work's dialogical approach demonstrates how comparative mysticism can illuminate shared human experiences of transcendence while maintaining fidelity to particular theological commitments. Hidden argues that attending to mystical perspectives enriches philosophical debates about God by introducing experiential data that complements rational argumentation. Her careful analysis shows how love serves as both method and content in mystical approaches to divine knowledge, suggesting that affective dimensions of religious experience deserve serious philosophical consideration alongside traditional metaphysical arguments.