In this pathbreaking study, the historical relationship between nineteenth-century spiritualism and twentieth-century surrealism is the basis for a general examination of conflicting movements in literature, art, philosophy, science, and other areas of social life. Because spiritualism delved into the world beyond humanity and surrealism was founded on the world within, the two provide a provocative frame for examining the struggles within modern culture. Cottom argues that we must conceive of interpretation in terms of urgency, desire, fierce contention, and impromptu deviation if we want to understand how things come to bear meaning for us. He demonstrates that even when Victorians holding seances and surrealists composing manifestoes were most foolish, they had much that was valuable to say about the life (and death) of reason.

In Enchanted Ground, Sharon Hatfield brings to life the true story of a nineteenth-century farmer-turned-medium, Jonathan Koons, one of thousands of mediums throughout the antebellum United States. In the hills outside Athens, Ohio, Koons built a house where it was said the dead spoke to the living, and where ancient spirits communicated the wisdom of the ages. Curious believers, in homespun and in city attire, traveled from as far as New Orleans to a remote Appalachian cabin whose marvels would rival any of P. T. Barnum's attractions. Yet Koons's story is much more than showmanship and sleight of hand. His enterprise, not written about in full until now, embodied the excitement and optimism of citizens breaking free from societal norms. Reform-minded dreamers were drawn to Koons's seances as his progressive brand of religion displaced the gloomy Calvinism of previous generations. As heirs to the Second Great Awakening, which stretched from New York State to the far reaches of the Northwest Territory, the curious, the faithful, and Koons himself were part of a larger, uniquely American moment that still marks the cultural landscape today.

Group spirituality is an increasingly popular area of focus, and working in groups raises some very different and valuable consequences which wouldn't necessarily arise in a one-to-one encounter. In Group Spirituality, Roger Grainger, an author already established as an authority on Drama therapy, provides a functional guide to group spirituality and workshops. Derived from the authors' experiences of working with groups of people interested in exploring their own and other people's spirituality, Group Spirituality turns an abstract idea into a practical and recognizable experience. The nature of group work, the embodiment of ideas and feelings, and circumstances aiding personal encounter are discussed. Workshop examples aimed at establishing group identity and the introduction of the idea of the 'safe place' are explained. The symbolism of spiritual awareness is approached, and a firm distinction between spirituality and religion is made.

Group Spirituality's approach to spirituality from a workshop focus, successfully attempts to embody spirituality and provide a framework for consciously examining and integrating spirituality within the rest of our life.

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Originally published as an English translation in 1981, The Middle English Mystics is a crucial contribution to the study of the literature of English mysticism. This book surveys and analyses the language of metaphor in the writings of such mystics as Richard Rolle, Walter Hilton, Julian of Norwich, and in such anonymous works as The Cloud of Unknowing and the Ancrene Wisse. The main emphasis of this comparative and stylistic study is not theological but rather the means by which theological concepts are communicated through language. The book sets the English mystics in perspective by establishing their place in the European mystical movement of the Middle Ages. It shows how intricate the relationship between English, and continental mysticism really is. The book suggests that there is clear links between English and German female mysticism, yet the mysticism is in the main due not so much to specific influences as to the common background of Christian theology and mysticism.

The third and final book in their series contains 132 additional quatrains written and deciphered by Nostradamus himself, plus the exposure of bogus quatrains erroneously attributed to the great psychic Dolores Cannon has pierced the veil of the space/time continuum by her use of regressive hypnosis, to bring us warnings of events to come. This volume continues to work through various subjects and completes the interpretation of all the known prophecies.

Originally published in 1982 The Awakening Earth explores the idea of the Earth as a collective, self-regulatory living organism, and considers in this context, the function of the human race. The book provides an exploration of humanity's potential and explores the possibility of mankind's evolutionary future. Drawing on the work of physicists, psychologists, philosophers and mystics, the book argues that humanity is on the verge of another evolutionary leap and explores evolution in the context of spiritual growth, arguing that widespread inner awakenings could lead to a more analogous society, functioning as a single social super-organism, much in the way cells in a body function as a biological organism.

This title was first published in 2001: Engaging contemporary discussion concerning the validity of mystical experiences of God, Jerome Gellman presents the best evidential case in favor of validity and its implications for belief in God. Gellman vigorously defends the coherence of the concept of a mystical experience of God against philosophical objections, and evaluates attempts to provide alternative explanations from sociology and neuropsychology. He then carefully examines feminist objections to male philosophers' treatments of mystical experience of God and to the traditional hierarchal concept of God. Gellman finds none of the objections decisive, and concludes that while the initial evidential case is not rationally compelling for some, it can be rationally compelling for others. Offering important new perspectives on the evidential value of experiences of God, and the concept of God more broadly, this book will appeal to a wide range of readers including those with an interest in philosophy of religion, religious studies, mysticism and epistemology.

2018 Edgar Award Finalist—Best Fact Crime “A thoroughly readable, thoroughly chilling account of a brilliant con man and his all-too vulnerable prey” (The Boston Globe)—the definitive story of preacher Jim Jones, who was responsible for the Jonestown Massacre, the largest murder-suicide in American history, by the New York Times bestselling author of Manson. In the 1950s, a young Indianapolis minister named Jim Jones preached a curious blend of the gospel and Marxism. His congregation was racially mixed, and he was a leader in the early civil rights movement. Eventually, Jones moved his church, Peoples Temple, to northern California, where he got involved in electoral politics and became a prominent Bay Area leader. But underneath the surface lurked a terrible darkness. In this riveting narrative, Jeff Guinn examines Jones’s life, from his early days as an idealistic minister to a secret life of extramarital affairs, drug use, and fraudulent faith healing, before the fateful decision to move almost a thousand of his followers to a settlement in the jungles of Guyana in South America. Guinn provides stunning new details of the events leading to the fatal day in November, 1978 when more than nine hundred people died—including almost three hundred infants and children—after being ordered to swallow a cyanide-laced drink. Guinn examined thousands of pages of FBI files on the case, including material released during the course of his research. He traveled to Jones’s Indiana hometown, where he spoke to people never previously interviewed, and uncovered fresh information from Jonestown survivors. He even visited the Jonestown site with the same pilot who flew there the day that Congressman Leo Ryan was murdered on Jones’s orders. The Road to Jonestown is “the most complete picture to date of this tragic saga, and of the man who engineered it…The result is a disturbing portrait of evil—and a compassionate memorial to those taken in by Jones’s malign charisma” (San Francisco Chronicle).

In its day, spiritualism brought hundreds of thousands of Americans to seance tables and trance lectures. It has alternately been ridiculed as the apogee of fatuous credulity and hailed as a feminist movement. Its tricks have been exposed, its charlatans unmasked, and its heroes' names lost to posterity. In its day, however, its leaders were household names and politicians worried about capturing the Spiritualist vote. Cathy Gutierrez places Spiritualism in the context of the 19th-century American Renaissance. Although this epithet usually signifies the sudden blossoming of American letters, Gutierrez points to its original meaning: a cultural imagination enraptured with the past and the classics in particular, accompanied by a cultural efflorescence. Spiritualism, she contends, was the religious articulation of the American Renaissance, and the ramifications of looking backward for advice about the present were far-reaching. The Spiritualist movement, says Gutierrez, was a 'renaissance of the Renaissance, ' a culture in love with history as much as it trumpeted progress and futurity, and an expression of what constituted religious hope among burgeoning technology and colonialism. Rejecting Christian ideas about salvation, Spiritualists embraced Platonic and Neoplatonic ideas. Humans were shot through with the divine, rather than seen as helpless and inexorably corrupt sinners in the hands of a transcendent, angry God. Gutierrez's study of this fascinating and important movement is organized thematically. She analyzes Spiritualist conceptions of memory, marriage, medicine, and minds, explores such phenomena as machines for contacting the dead, spirit-photography, the idea of eternal spiritual affinity (which implied the necessity for marriage reform), the connection between health and spirituality, and mesmerism."

This title was first published in 2002: Religion and Social Transformations examines the reciprocal relationship between religion, modernity and social change. The book focuses on the world's three major missionary religions - Buddhism, Christianity and Islam. It explores how these three traditions are responding to some of the most challenging issues associated with globalization, including the role of religion in the fall of Communism; the tension between religion and feminism; the compatibility of religion and human rights; and whether ancient religions can accommodate new challenges such as environmentalism. The five textbooks and Reader that make up the Religion Today Open University/Ashgate series are: From Sacred Text to Internet; Religion and Social Transformations; Perspectives on Civil Religion; Global Religious Movements in Regional Context; Belief Beyond Boundaries; Religion Today: A Reader

This text examines the traditional Navajo relationship to the natural world. Specifically, how the tribe once related to a category of animals they collectively referred to as the "ones who hunt." These animals, like Native Americans, were once viewed as impediments to progress requiring extermination.

Steve Pavlik teaches Native American studies and Native environmental science at Northwest Indian College. He is the author or editor of four books including "Destroying Dogma."

The eight key titles re-published in this set make important texts accessible once again, and provide a comprehensive overview of this influential Victorian phenomenon. Available as an eight-volume set or as individual volumes.

The eight key titles re-published in this set make important texts accessible once again, and provide a comprehensive overview of this influential Victorian phenomenon. Available as an eight-volume set or as individual volumes.

The eight key titles re-published in this set make important texts accessible once again, and provide a comprehensive overview of this influential Victorian phenomenon. Available as an eight-volume set or as individual volumes.

The eight key titles re-published in this set make important texts accessible once again, and provide a comprehensive overview of this influential Victorian phenomenon. Available as an eight-volume set or as individual volumes.

The eight key titles re-published in this set make important texts accessible once again, and provide a comprehensive overview of this influential Victorian phenomenon. Available as an eight-volume set or as individual volumes.

The eight key titles re-published in this set make important texts accessible once again, and provide a comprehensive overview of this influential Victorian phenomenon. Available as an eight-volume set or as individual volumes.

This title was first published in 2002: Perspectives on Civil Religion introduces the concept of civil religion, examines the use of the concept in recent scholarship and investigates examples of civil religion in the contemporary world. The book sets out to explore tensions and complexities in the relationship between the 'sacred' and the 'secular', and draws on two major case studies for in-depth illustration of key issues. It looks first at the development of rituals of remembrance from the American civil war, British and American responses to the two world wars and the controversial Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington. It then considers civil religion in the Italian city of Siena, especially in relation to the Palio of Siena and Sienese devotion to the Virgin. The five textbooks and Reader that make up the Religion Today Open University/Ashgate series are: From Sacred Text to Internet; Religion and Social Transformations; Perspectives on Civil Religion; Global Religious Movements in Regional Context; Belief Beyond Boundaries; Religion Today: A Reader

Looks at Aum's claims about itself and asks, why did a religious movement ostensibly focussed on yoga, meditation, asceticism and enlightenment become involved in violent activities, and discusses Aum's spiritual roots, placing it in the context of contemporary Japanese religious patterns.

The Tokyo subway attack in March 1995 was just one of a series of criminal activities including murder, kidnapping, extortion, and the illegal manufacture of arms and drugs carried out by the Japanese new religious movement Aum Shinrikyo, under the guidance of its leader Asahara Shoko. Reader looks at Aum's claims about itself and asks, why did a religious movement ostensibly focussed on yoga, meditation, asceticism and the pursuit of enlightenment become involved in violent activities?

Reader discusses Aum's spiritual roots, placing it in the context of contemporary Japanese religious patterns. Asahara's teaching are examined from his earliest public pronouncements through to his sermons at the time of the attack, and statements he has made in court. In analysing how Aum not only manufactured nerve gases but constructed its own internal doctrinal justifications for using them Reader focuses on the formation of what made all this possible: Aum's internal thought-world, and on how this was developed.

Reader argues that despite the horrors of this particular case, Aum should not be seen as unique, nor as solely a political or criminal terror group. Rather it can best be analysed within the context of religious violence, as an extreme example of a religious movement that has created friction with the wider world that escalated into violence.

Philip Jenkins looks at how the image of the cult evolved and why panics about such groups occur at certain times. He examines the deep roots of cult scares in American history, offering the first-ever history and analysis of cults and their critics from the 19th century to the present day. Contrary to popular belief, Jenkins shows, cults and anti-cult movements were not an invention of the 1960's, but in fact are traceable to the mid- 19th century, when Catholics, Mormons and Freemasons were equally denounced for violence, fraud and licentiousness. He finds that, although there are genuine instances of aberrant behaviour, a foundation of truth about fringe religious movements is all but obscured by a vast edifice of myth, distortion and hype.

Apocalypse Observed is a book about religious violence. By analysing five of the most notorious cults of recent years, the authors present a fascinating and revealing account of religious sects and conflict.
*the apocalypse at Jonestown
*the Branch Davidians at Waco
*the violent path of Aum Shinrikyo
*the mystical apocalypse of the Solar Temple
*the mass suicide of Heaven's Gate
Through comparative case studies and in-depth analysis, the authors show how religious violence can erupt not simply from the beliefs of the cult followers or the personalities of their leaders, but also from the way in which society responds to the cults in its midst.

Apocalypse Observed is about religious violence. By analysing five of the most notorious cults of recent years, the authors present a fascinating and revealing account of religious sects and conflict.
Cults covered include:
* the apocalypse at Jonestown
* the Branch Davidians at Waco
* the violent path of Aum Shinrikyo
* the mystical apocalypse of the Solar Temple
* the mass suicide of Heaven's Gate.
Through comparative case studies and in-depth analysis, the authors show how religious violence can erupt not simply from the beliefs of the cult followers or the personalities of their leaders, but also from the way in which society responds to the cults in its midst.