Weird Mysticism by Brad Baumgartner
summary of Weird Mysticism: Philosophical Horror and the Mystical Text by Brad Baumgartner:
Brad Baumgartner’s Weird Mysticism is an innovative study that explores the intersections of horror, philosophy, and mystical literature, examining how certain texts blur the boundary between religious transcendence and existential terror. Baumgartner argues that both mystical writing and weird or horror fiction operate in spaces where language strains to articulate the inexpressible—whether that is union with the divine, as in traditional mystical traditions, or confrontation with the incomprehensible and terrifying, as in weird literature. Drawing on writers such as H. P. Lovecraft, Thomas Ligotti, Georges Bataille, and others, alongside classical mystical figures like Meister Eckhart and Teresa of Ávila, the book reveals surprising affinities between mystical rapture and cosmic horror. Both modes disrupt ordinary rationality, destabilize the ego, and gesture toward realities beyond human comprehension, whether experienced as blissful or dreadful. Baumgartner situates this “weird mysticism” within broader philosophical contexts, engaging with thinkers such as Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Derrida, to show how the ineffable often produces a mingling of fascination and dread. By weaving together literary criticism, philosophy of religion, and cultural theory, Weird Mysticism demonstrates that horror and mysticism share a deep preoccupation with the limits of thought, language, and human existence itself. Ultimately, the book positions “weird mysticism” as a way of reading and thinking that acknowledges the terrifying as intrinsic to the sacred, and the sacred as inseparable from the uncanny, offering a radical re-visioning of both mystical traditions and the literature of horror.
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