Episode 13: Opening unto mystery | A conversation with Elyse Ambrose
Mysticism is an orientation to life.
Elyse Ambrose, Ph.D. (they/them) is a blackqueer ethicist, creative, and educator, whose research, art and community praxis lie at the intersections of race, sexuality, gender, and spirituality. Ambrose’s forthcoming book, A Living Archive: Embodying a Black Queer Ethics (T&T Clark, Enquiries in Embodiment, Sexuality, and Social Ethics series) centers blackqueerness in constructing communal-based sexual ethics. Ambrose currently serves as Visiting Assistant Professor of Ethical Leadership and Society at Meadville Lombard Theological School as a Louisville Institute Postdoctoral Fellow.
For this episode I sat down with Ambrose to discuss mysticism’s role in everyday life. They name mysticism as “an openness to mystery… an orientation to life.” Ambrose explores the transformative power of truth-telling and the ways in which we mirror one another. They point out that we often avoid the difficulty of transformation "in the interest of preserving our comfort.”
Ambrose describes contemplation as a "listening with one’s whole self. That’s attunement through the body, attunement through previous experiences, and being able to integrate all of that.”
Find out more about Ambrose and their work at elyseambrose.com.
