March 1999 redesign of site

Topics:

I've always tried to avoid using terms that are specific to a particular religion; however, I have to admit that the original topics were somewhat off the cuff. As time went by, I didn't think that these names were as effective as they could have been in conveying the topic content. So I've tried to come up with better topic names, and I've also re-grouped the topics into new categories. The categories are there to provide additional context for making sense of the topics.

Navigating the site:

Previously the reader had to click on links at the bottom of each page of quotations in order to read additional quotations for a given topic. The reader did not know beforehand how many quotations were available within each religious category, or who would be quoted next. In contrast the religious indices for each religion allowed the user to see beforehand the names of the individuals or works that were quoted, but I was forced to abbreviate these names so I could get them to fit into the table in a reasonable manner. And because I was using abbreviations I had to include a key on each page, so the reader would know that "John" referred to "John of the Cross" rather than "John Climacus", etc. This was causing the religious indices, particulary the Christian index, to become overly large and unwieldly.

To remedy this I've redone the site using frames. The right-hand frame displays the site's content, including a list of topics among other things. When the reader clicks on a topic, the left-hand frame displays the full names of all the individuals whose works I've quoted for that topic. When the reader clicks on the individual's full name, a page of quotations drawn from that individual's works appears in the content-frame to the right. To bring up the list of topics again, click on the first link in the menu on the left which says, Select a new topic.

Alternatively, the reader can examine all the quotations available at the site which were drawn from the works of a single individual. To do this, select the name of the individual who interests you from Mystics, theologians and scriptures. A list of quotations from this individual will appear in the menu to the left. To read quotations drawn from another indivdiual, click on the first link in the menu on the left which says, Select a new mystic.

All of the links which appear at the bottom of each page of quotations are nested in self-explanatory sentences.

A non-frames based version of the site automatically becomes available for those individuals who are using web browsers which don't display frames. I've browsed the site using Lynx without difficulty.

Directory structure:

Formerly the site was organized around the books from which the quotations were drawn. When only one book was quoted per author, this wasn't a problem. However in those cases where I quoted from more than one book, certain difficulties arose. I've remedied this in the redesigned site by organizing the site around the authors who wrote those books instead of the books themselves. In practice this means that the directory structure of the site has changed.

Three directories were previously devoted to the writings of Rumi; these have since been collapsed to a single directory. Similarly two directories previously devoted to Symeon the New Theologian have also been collapsed to a single directory. And the two directories dedicated to the Philokalia are now a single directory.

I removed Buber and Kaplan from the Jewish category, since I only had a single quotation per author.

Images:

No images are used at the site for navigational purposes. If you want to browse the site without loading any images, you shouldn't encounter any difficulties.

Bibliography:

Mystics, theologians and scriptures doubles as the site's bibliography.

Copyright notices:

At one point I was surfing the web and ran into a site that had re-published a number of the pages from this site without asking my permission. This didn't seem quite right to me. I regard Mysticism in World Religions as a work in progress, and I would like to maintain some control over the site's dissemination as I continue working on it. Hence copyright notices have sprung up on the newest version of all the pages.