Max Weber's mysticism

Abstract

For much of his life Weber favored the rational activity of the ascetic in contrast to the irrational passivity of the mystic. However, Weber developed a growing interest in mysticism both in the East and the West. Johannes Tauler and his teacher Meister Eckhart offered Weber glimpses of the western mystic's beliefs. Perhaps in Weber's last years, religion and mysticism moved from being merely intellectual interests to something more significant and personal.