Process Mysticism by Daniel A. Dombrowski (review)

Reviewed by: Process Mysticismby Daniel A. Dombrowski Benjamin D. Crace Process Mysticism. By Daniel A. Dombrowski. State University of New York Press, 2023. 221pages. 99. 00 hardcover; 34. 95 paper; ebook available. Daniel Dombrowski clearly knows his way around process philosophy, that branch of metaphysics that descends primarily from the work of mathematician–philosopher Alfred North Whitehead. The long-term editor for Process Studiesand professor emeritus of philosophy at Seattle University does not limit himself to Whitehead, however. He reins in the thought of Charles Hartshorne and Henri Bergson to philosophically extend William James' exploration of religious experiences. By contrasting what he calls classical theism with neoclassical theism—his term for process theology—the author demonstrates how a natural philosophy within a panentheistic framework better explains the widespread testimonies of mystics across time and cultures, but with a focus primarily on those within the Abrahamic faiths. Yet despite its general theistic orientation, Dombrowski's contribution disrupts the default ontologies and epistemologies typically assumed in the philosophy of religion. Such a fundamental shift away from classical theism and its heirs underscores the rich fecundity and explanatory power of process thought vis-à-vis religious phenomena. Readers of this journal who may be interested in restructuring the metaphysical underpinnings for the theoretical side of their research methodologies will find Dombrowski's work exemplary. The first chapter examines the ways in which the so-called "God of the philosophers" cannot accurately account for mystical experience. End Page 119However, Dombrowski argues, it is classical theism's concept of God that is inadequate rather than philosophical concepts. From there, in the second chapter, he outlines an argument for the concept of divine embodiment and interactionism, in short, a form of panentheism. Chapter 3 critiques omnipotence to demonstrate how it obfuscates attempts of classical theism to understand mystical experience. The next chapter, perhaps the most dense and difficult to follow, articulates the relationship between the abstractions of philosophical thinking and the concrete experience of God. In the tradition of analytical philosophy, Dombrowski spends a lot of time here making a careful distinction between indirect and direct experience and mediated and unmediated experience. This distinction, based on the work of philosopher John Smith, is illuminating. Dombrowski maintains that the difference between direct and indirect consists in "experience that relies on rational inference and that which does not" (72). Eschewing the conflation of direct/indirect with unmediated/mediated experience, he continues: The distinction between mediate experience and immediate experience is that between experience that requires some medium in order for the encounter between the experiencer and that which is experienced to occur. . . and experience that is (if this is were possible) medium-free (72). Direct, unmediated experience, for the author, implies the classical view of God and is logically incoherent: "If we had such an experience, we would not be able to distinguish it from any other immediate experience" (74). Instead, he maintains all direct experience is mediated, a helpful step away from the ineffability card that often gets played too early in the analysis of mystical experience. Chapter 5 is a synthesis of Hartshorne's thought with Whitehead's concerning mystical experience. Chapter 6 reconfigures the ascetic tendency in mysticism away from world-denying dualism. The next chapter deflates the importance of visions with some comments about neurotheology, while chapter 8 brings in Henri Bergson's thought concerning how "the concept of God is rooted in social life" (7). In chapter 9, again following Whitehead's emphasis on aesthetics, Dombrowski explores the "beauty of abstract ideas and the beauty of concrete experiences" (8). The final chapter looks more closely at some practical implications for the neoclassical account of mystical experience constructed in the book and is perhaps the most accessible for those not intimately involved in the study of process thought. More specifically, in line with the typical progression of the philosophical method from ontology to epistemology to ethics, Dombroski looks at the virtue of love and vice of anger within his neoclassic frame. He argues, "The only mysticism worth defending is one that works hand in glove with a profound ethical End Page 120tradition. . . the ethical lives of the great. . .