Mi'sen

1/10* I don't know Carse's work well, but I find it odd he can say here "religion is poetry," but then go on to say religions are "absolutely" totally different from each other. One would imagine it possible for different poetic expressions to voice similar and same realizations.https://twitter.com/misen__/status/1093161137678487552 …

I’m not sure if he has said that ‘religion is poetry’ elsewhere — I don’t recall that he has — but he didn’t say that here, it’s just the title of the interview/article.

Be that as it may, something that came to mind when reading your work — thanks for sharing, by the way — is that your poetic way of speaking reflects what Carse sometimes alludes to as mystery, that which is unknowable, alive, open, vivd.

For Carse, if beliefs are a closing off — a boundary — then mystery offers an ever receding horizon, an ungraspable opening through which the person comes to experience peace and wonderment. It isn't quite clear to me what Carse and/or yourself are saying...

...but from what I understand is that Carse resists — academically at least — perennial-philosophy-ish ideas that would flatten the nuance and irredeemable contrasts between complex religious histories and people.

If he can say that 'religion in its purest form is a vast work of poetry', then I suspect that Carse may be sympathetic to your statement about 'poetic voicings'. Perhaps he just wouldn't assert that all these human expressions correspond to the same mystical reality/experience.

1) My sense is there are effectively 2 diff. projects. The modern academic study of religion largely starts w observable cultural traditions and tries to define "religion." Contemplatives, like yours truly, look to them as expressions of, and resources for, experiential practice.