Twilight of the Clockwork God


Book Description

Brian Swimme, RalphAbraham, Stanislav Grof,Deepak Chopra, Rupert Sheldrake, LynnMargulis, Terence McKenna, and WilliamIrwin Thompson present their ideasconcerning the evolution of consciousness.




Darwin, Divinity, and the Dance of the Cosmos


Book Description

In March 2005, the United Nations released its Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. Among the findings: 2/3 of the world's ecosystems are seriously degraded; 90 percent of the world's fish stocks are depleted; and climate change is not just something that might happen, it is already upon us. Many people, including many Christians, will hear this and delude themselves into thinking that technology can and will save the day. A wiser and more helpful response, especially for Christians, is to find a way to step back into the flow of nature from which we have extricated ourselves. In "Darwin, Divinity, and the Dance of the Cosmos", Bruce Sanguin shows us the way. Sanguin draws on the latest scientific understandings of the nature of the universe and weaves them together with biblical meta-narratives and frequently overlooked strands of the Judeo-Christian tradition to create an ecological and truly evolutionary Christian theology -- a feat few theologians have even attempted. This book -- and more importantly the work of integration it suggests -- represents a fundamental challenge to our theological and liturgical models. But for those who are ready and willing to embark on an exciting theological journey of discovery, it also represents a rich opportunity to become reacquainted with the Spirit of God moving in and through the very dynamics of an unfolding universe. In "Darwin, Divinity, and the Dance of the Cosmos", Sanguin draws on the latest scientific understandings of the nature of the universe and weaves them together with biblical meta-narratives and frequently overlooked strands of the Judeo-Christian tradition to create an ecological and truly evolutionary Christian theology.




Holistic Education Resource Book


Book Description

The book comes out of the ecumenical movement and is one outcome of the Holistic Education Study Process of the World Council of Churches. It contributes to a dialogue between education philosophy and religious education, spiritual education and the search for peace and justice, reconciliation and healing as a yearning of all human beings.




Decolonising Gender


Book Description

Through examination of the functions of language and cross-cultural readings of literature - from African queer reading to postcolonial Shakespeare - Rooney explores current ideas of performativity in literature and language, and negotiates a path between feminist theory’s common pitfalls of essentialism and constructivism.




True Magick


Book Description

This revised and expanded anniversary edition features the same delightful introduction to the history and lore of magic as the first edition of the "little green book" published 15 years ago.




Gaian Systems


Book Description

A groundbreaking look at Gaia theory’s intersections with neocybernetic systems theory Often seen as an outlier in science, Gaia has run a long and varied course since its formulation in the 1970s by atmospheric chemist James Lovelock and microbiologist Lynn Margulis. Gaian Systems is a pioneering exploration of the dynamic and complex evolution of Gaia’s many variants, with special attention to Margulis’s foundational role in these developments. Bruce Clarke assesses the different dialects of systems theory brought to bear on Gaia discourse. Focusing in particular on Margulis’s work—including multiple pieces of her unpublished Gaia correspondence—he shows how her research and that of Lovelock was concurrent and conceptually parallel with the new discourse of self-referential systems that emerged within neocybernetic systems theory. The recent Gaia writings of Donna Haraway, Isabelle Stengers, and Bruno Latour contest its cybernetic status. Clarke engages Latour on the issue of Gaia’s systems description and extends his own systems-theoretical synthesis under what he terms “metabiotic Gaia.” This study illuminates current issues in neighboring theoretical conversations—from biopolitics and the immunitary paradigm to NASA astrobiology and the Anthropocene. Along the way, he points to science fiction as a vehicle of Gaian thought. Delving into many issues not previously treated in accounts of Gaia, Gaian Systems describes the history of a theory that has the potential to help us survive an environmental crisis of our own making.




The Age of Catastrophe


Book Description

Disasters, both natural and man-made, are on the rise. Indeed, a catastrophe of one sort or another seems always to be unfolding somewhere on the planet. We have entered into a veritable Age of Catastrophes which have grown both larger and more complex and now routinely very widespread in scope. The old days of the geographically isolated industrial accidents, of the sinking of a Titanic or the explosion of a Hindenburg, together with their isolated causes and limited effects, are over. Now, disasters on the scale of Hurricane Katrina, the BP oil spill or the Japan tsunami and nuclear reactor accident, threaten to engulf large swaths of civilization. This book analyzes the efforts of Westerners to keep the catastrophes outside, while maintaining order on the inside of society. These efforts are breaking down. Nature and Civilization have become so intertwined they can no longer be separated. Natural disasters, moreover, are becoming increasingly more difficult to differentiate from "man-made." Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.




Spiritual Information


Book Description

Spiritual Information is a collection of one hundred essays that explore a portion of the vast interdisciplinary approaches to the study of science and religion. Individually and together, the essays show how the study of ourselves, our planet, and the universe helps us understand our place as spiritual beings within God’s universe. The book is a tribute to Sir John Templeton and his pioneering commitment toward new research that results in “one hundredfold more spiritual information than humankind has ever possessed before.” It begins with essays that reflect on Sir John’s principal domains of interest and expertise: free-enterprise based finance and accelerating spiritual progress. Themes of the sections are: •Science-Religion Dialogue •Cosmology, Physics, and Astronomy •Mathematics, Musicology, and Speculation •Biological Evolution—the Human Being •Social Evolution—the Human Mind and Heart •Religion and Health •The Nature of the Divine •Theology and Philosophy •Faith Traditions “Sir John’s leadership has enabled us to edge ever closer to the frontier where knowledge meets wisdom at the threshold of ‘ultimate reality,’” notes the editor in the preface to this volume. As Spiritual Information presents an overview of how far we have come in the science and religion dialogue, it also opens windows to the vast possibilities for additional research and further advances in spiritual information.




Signs of the Times


Book Description

“A unique and extremely interesting examination of both history and the unfolding present as seen through the prism of astrological significance.” —John Anthony West, author of Serpent in the Sky We may live in astonishing times, but they are not incomprehensible when you know how to read the signs. Everybody says we’re entering the Age of Aquarius, but when does it start, and how will we know what it looks and feels like? Ray Grasse deciphers the signs and correspondences of our nearing Aquarian future, using the tools of astrology, synchronicity, and mythology. He draws richly from contemporary religion, art, politics, science, even current movies, to show how the cultural signs of Aquarius and our likely future are already apparent and changing our world. The Aquarian Age will be marked by its intensely mental quality, when information will be the driving force of society and the biggest challenges we face will be those of the mind. Decentralization will be the order of business, either the empowered individual will reign supreme, or the collective interests of globalized society will predominate. It could be both. We are all participants in the global drama and all aspects of our inner and outer lives are bound up with the new Aquarian themes. Signs of the Times is the authoritative travel guide for the trip into our future—don’t leave the present without it. “An attempt, firmly anchored in the age-old tradition of spiritual symbology, to make sense of what often strikes us as utterly chaotic, arbitrary, and senseless.” —Georg Feuerstein, PhD, author of The Yoga Tradition




Cybernetic Revelation


Book Description

Cybernetic Revelation explores the dual philosophical histories of deconstruction and artificial intelligence, tracing the development of concepts like the "logos" and the notion of modeling the mind technologically from pre-history to contemporary thinkers like Slavoj Žižek, Steven Pinker, Bernard Stiegler and Daniel C. Dennett. The writing is clear and accessible throughout, yet the text probes deeply into major philosophers seen by JD Casten as "conceptual engineers." Philosophers covered include: Anaximander, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Plato, Aristotle, Philo, Augustine, Shakespeare, Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Freud, Jung, Joyce, Dewey, Wittgenstein, Heidegger, Adorno, Benjamin, Derrida, Chomsky, Žižek, Pinker, Dennett, Hofstadter, Stiegler + more; with special chapters on: AI's history, Complexity, Deconstructing AI, Aesthetics, Consciousness + more...