Alternative Conceptions of the Spiritual


Book Description

Analytic philosophy of religion and philosophical theology are known for being focused on issues pertaining specifically to Judeo-Christian theism. This volume answers the call for novel work on a broader range of ideas about the spiritual, engaging with key concepts and neglected recent literature from other traditions. Alternative Conceptions of the Spiritual engages with polytheism, animism, panspiritism and theophanism as propounded by recent philosophers and members of lesser-known spiritual traditions and new religious movements. Summarizing and assessing their core ideas and arguments with both clarity and sympathy, Dumsday combines respectful dialogue with logical rigour. Providing an accessible introduction to a rich and nuanced set of traditions largely overlooked in contemporary philosophical scholarship, the work will be welcomed by philosophers, theologians and students of new religious movements.




White Utopias


Book Description

Transformational festivals, from Burning Man to Lightning in a Bottle, Bhakti Fest, and Wanderlust, are massive events that attract thousands of participants to sites around the world. In this groundbreaking book, Amanda J. Lucia shows how these festivals operate as religious institutions for “spiritual, but not religious” (SBNR) communities. Whereas previous research into SBNR practices and New Age religion has not addressed the predominantly white makeup of these communities, White Utopias examines the complicated, often contradictory relationships with race at these events, presenting an engrossing ethnography of SBNR practices. Lucia contends that participants create temporary utopias through their shared commitments to spiritual growth and human connection. But they also participate in religious exoticism by adopting Indigenous and Indic spiritualities, a practice that ultimately renders them exclusive, white utopias. Focusing on yoga’s role in disseminating SBNR values, Lucia offers new ways of comprehending transformational festivals as significant cultural phenomena.




The Varieties of Scientific Experience


Book Description

“Ann Druyan has unearthed a treasure. It is a treasure of reason, compassion, and scientific awe. It should be the next book you read.” —Sam Harris, author of The End of Faith “A stunningly valuable legacy left to all of us by a great human being. I miss him so.” —Kurt Vonnegut Carl Sagan's prophetic vision of the tragic resurgence of fundamentalism and the hope-filled potential of the next great development in human spirituality The late great astronomer and astrophysicist describes his personal search to understand the nature of the sacred in the vastness of the cosmos. Exhibiting a breadth of intellect nothing short of astounding, Sagan presents his views on a wide range of topics, including the likelihood of intelligent life on other planets, creationism and so-called intelligent design, and a new concept of science as "informed worship." Originally presented at the centennial celebration of the famous Gifford Lectures in Scotland in 1985 but never published, this book offers a unique encounter with one of the most remarkable minds of the twentieth century.




Eucharist: Symbol of Transformation


Book Description

Doctor Crockett traces the evolution of Eucharistic traditions - traditions which reflect the cultural diversity characteristic of the regions in which they were produced - and compares them to our Eucharistic celebrations today, exploring as well the relationship between Eucharist and justice.




Learning, Design, and Technology


Book Description

The multiple, related fields encompassed by this Major Reference Work represent a convergence of issues and topics germane to the rapidly changing segments of knowledge and practice in educational communications and technology at all levels and around the globe. There is no other comparable work that is designed not only to gather vital, current, and evolving information and understandings in these knowledge segments but also to be updated on a continuing basis in order to keep pace with the rapid changes taking place in the relevant fields. The Handbook is composed of substantive (5,000 to 15,000 words), peer-reviewed entries that examine and explicate seminal facets of learning theory, research, and practice. It provides a broad range of relevant topics, including significant developments as well as innovative uses of technology that promote learning, performance, and instruction. This work is aimed at researchers, designers, developers, instructors, and other professional practitioners.




Qualitative Inquiry Outside the Academy


Book Description

This volume of plenary addresses and other key presentations from the 2013 International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry shows how scholars convert inquiry into spaces of advocacy in the outside world. The original chapters engage in debate on how qualitative research can be best used to advance the causes of social justice while addressing racial, ethnic, gender, and environmental disparities in education, welfare, and health care. Twenty contributors from six countries and multiple academic disciplines present models, cases, and experiences to show how qualitative research can be used as an effective instrument for social change. Sponsored by the International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry.




Secular Societies, Spiritual Selves?


Book Description

Secular Societies, Spiritual Selves? is the first volume to address the gendered intersections of religion, spirituality and the secular through an ethnographic approach. The book examines how ‘spirituality’ has emerged as a relatively ‘silent’ category with which people often signal that they are looking for a way to navigate between the categories of the religious and the secular, and considers how this is related to gendered ways of being and relating. Using a lived religion approach the contributors analyse the intersections between spirituality, religion and secularism in different geographical areas, ranging from the Netherlands, Portugal and Italy to Canada, the United States and Mexico. The chapters explore the spiritual experiences of women and their struggle for a more gender equal way of approaching the divine, as well as the experience of men and of those who challenge binary sexual identities advocating for a queer spirituality. This volume will be of interest to anthropologists and sociologists as well as scholars in other disciplines who seek to understand the role of spirituality in creating the complex gendered dynamics of modern societies.




Power in the Blood


Book Description

This book is based on a series of episodes from village or small town life in the duchy of WÜrttemberg in southwest Germany between 1580 and 1800, in which state authorities conducted a special investigation into local events. The cases and characters involved include peasants' refusal to celebrate church rituals; a self-proclaimed prophet who encountered an angel in his vineyard; a thirteen-year-old-witch; a paranoid pastor; a murder; and live burial of a village bull.




Psychosynthesis Leadership Coaching


Book Description

Psychosynthesis Leadership Coaching responds to the call of coaches who want to be able to work with the whole person, with the inner as well as the outer worlds, and not just at rational and behavioural levels but at emotional and spiritual levels as well. Psychosynthesis is unique amongst psychologies in the emphasis it places on self and will at the centre of human psychological functioning. This holistic and integrative psychology provides the foundations for working with leaders in ways that respond to today’s emergent crises. Psychosynthesis coaching is an increasingly popular approach that is finding its way into the mainstream as a response to the needs of coaching to engage at depth with emotional content and in the transpersonal realm of meaning, purpose and values. This book introduces psychosynthesis coaching to a wider audience and provides a comprehensive guide to this approach for both coaches and leaders. This book provides the context, models, methods, skills and techniques for coaches to engage with their clients within the larger context of Self and Will, alongside working on inner and outer agendas and goals of any description. For coaches, leaders and organisational practitioners alike, this approach is also about coaching our inner leader – knowing that this work always starts with ourselves.




Larson's Book of World Religions and Alternative Spirituality


Book Description

In this indispensable reference tool for parents, students, and pastors alike, Larson analyzes dozens of world religions and spiritual movements from Islam to UFOs, New Age movements to witchcraft. This volume helps address tough questions from a biblical perspective.