Customer Reviews (1)

fiction never made me this sick...must be true
i thought Texe Marrs
was a piece of
storyteller for babies
but after few pages
my mind turned
into appreciation
of a courageous man
that care not
to dip into womit
of 'our' civilization

and as i read
things are coming
in the open
like living
in darkness
or in holiness
all is the same
except in god
is only for man
of righteousness ... Read more

Product Description
This ground-breaking study reveals an unorganized and previously unacknowledged religion at the heart of American culture.Nature, Albanese argues, has provided a compelling religious center throughout American history. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Indispensible for studying U.S. Religious History
Catherine Albanese's treatise on Nature Religion in the U.S. is probably her best known work, although it is by no means her only area of focus. In this volume, she defines and defends what she calls "Nature Religion."

And its an impressive set of drawn-out sketches and themes-- admittedly just one of many possible ways to map this space. Algonkian Amerindian religion is impressively overviewed, and the role of "Nature" here (a European concept) is dissolved into a complex interlocking set of relationships between Powers, Places, and Persons, both Human and Other-Than-Human. For the Puritans, Nature was abstracted into all that was "Other," usually a place of wilderness and evil--a Place to be feared. Although, as Albanese points out, precedents exist in Christian history for the wilderness as a place of testing and purification. The new republicanism from the conservative American "revolution" fostered a "wilderness eucharist" mentality--holding Nature sacred as something to be ingested, thereby becomed (and overcomed).

Yet other turns no less revelant today are covered. Transcendentalism and its associated 'heathen' ambiguous reverance for Nature are documented, both in the paradoxical sense of Nature as the Ultimate and Nature as a illusion (or correspondence for the Ultimate. Both of these senses are inherited in contemporary Goddess worship and the different, but related phenomenon of New Age religion, while each of them individually leads Albanese to wilderness preservation ideology and Christian Science/Mind cure movements.

For Albanese, this protean concept contains its own multivalency, its own pluralism, and therefore tends to recede in influence and importance the more a particular offshoot institutionalizes and fossilizes. It is a voice more suited to a prophetic mindset than a priestly mindset, although that too could be possible, it seems. Excellent and challenging work to uncover and begin to document this counter-covenantal thread throughout American history and religion. Albanese freely admits to inventing the term herself--but she is correct in that using it as a frame of reference, for both elite and popular culture, for both empirical and cultural facts, tells us something very important about religion in the United States.

good
state living in, name of indians, etc. ... Read more

Product Description
In "Religion & Ethics for a New Age," the problems of Christian traditional dogmas of evil, death, the fall, violence, sexuality, patriarchal theological language and symbols are discussed within a global evolutionary context, as well as that of the existential reality of cultural, moral and religious pluralism. Agape as the central commandment of Christ is adopted as the new universal grounding for true global Christian ethics, sound religion, humane, moral and cultural values. God's supernatural activities of creation and redemption are presented as coextensive with evolutionary history and life in the world as God's unfolding kingdom. ... Read more

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This insightful and provocative journey through spiritual landscapes explores the ways in which spiritualities of life have been experienced and understood in Western society, and argues that today’s myriad forms of holistic spirituality are helping us to find balance in face of the stifling demands of twenty-first century living.

• An enlightening book which explores the ways in which spirituality has been experienced and valued in Western society
  
• Traces the development of modern spirituality, from the origins of Romanticism in the eighteenth century, through to the counter-cultural sixties and on to the wellbeing culture of today
  
• Explores the belief that modern spirituality is merely an extension of capitalism in which people consume spirituality without giving anything back
  
• Contends that much of the wide range of popular mind-body-spirit practices are really an ethically charged force for the ‘good life’, helping us to find balance in the demands of twenty-first century living
  
• Written by an acknowledged world-leader working in the field
  
• Completes a trilogy of books including The Spiritual Revolution (2005, with Linda Woodhead) and The New Age Movement (1996), charting the rise and influence of spirituality today.

Product Description

We see the word “religion” everywhere, yet do we understand what it means, and is there a consistent worldwide understanding? Who discovered religion and in what context? In A New Science, Guy Stroumsa offers an innovative and powerful argument that the comparative study of religion finds its origin in early modern Europe. The world in which this new category emerged was marked by three major historical and intellectual phenomena: the rise of European empires, that gave birth to ethnological curiosity; the Reformation, which permanently altered Christianity; and the invention of philology, a discipline that transformed Western intellectual thought. Against this complex historical backdrop, Stroumsa guides us through the lives and writings of the men who came to define the word “religion.” As Stroumsa boldly argues, the modern study of religion, a new science, was made possible through a dialectical process between Catholic and Protestant scholars. Ancient Israelite religion, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Manichaeanism, Zoroastrianism, the sacred beliefs of the New World, and those of Greece, Rome, India, and China, composed the complex ground upon which “religion,” a most modern category, was discovered.

Product Description

New Age thinking is sweeping vigorously through Western culture. This highly original study is rooted in human developmental psychology as it emerges through the work of M. Mahler, D. Stern, and C. Bollas.It discloses the extent to which New Agers rely on magical, regressive beliefs and behaviours to escape the internal torment that comes with the individual separateness and the stern demands of reason.

Customer Reviews (1)

Freudian baffled
I suppose I should have expected it, but this book was a disappointment. Though a decent review of the magical/narcissistic aspects of the New Age, the author--an avowed rationalist--was unable to distinguish the magical from the mystic...and so threw the silly and the sacred into the same waste basket. I was hoping for a more nuanced approach. Kept thinking of Ken Wilbur's pre/post fallacy as I read--both some aspects of the New Age,and this writer--making the same mistake, unable to distinguish contemplative experience/unitive consciousness from regressive and infantile processes. Too bad. ... Read more

Product Description
TheHistorical Dictionary of New Age Movements is a reference manual presenting the key concepts, activities, groups, people, and overlapping domains of the contemporary spirituality known as New Age. The focus includes historical antecedents as well as contemporary strategies for change and survival that link the groups and movements variously identifiable within the New Age rubric as an increasingly emergent twenty-first century religiosity. ... Read more

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The New Age Handbook is a comprehensive survey of alternative spiritualities: their history, their global impact, their cultural influence and how they are understood by scholars. ... Read more

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Humans…tend to think and react in predetermined ways to trigger words, trigger situations and rituals, though the trigger and the reaction may have no apparent or logical interrelationships whatsoever. Seeing through such conditioned responses is the aim and purpose of this work.

Thanks to our long gestation period, human beings are the most conditioned of animals. Though conditioning is very useful in most situations—for example, in learning how to dress—some conditioning, like racism, warps our minds and leads to avoidable conflicts and conflagrations. Author Xavier William believes that this distorted or warped conditioning is evident in many aspects of ordinary life, including:

· Economics and politics
· Ethics, morals and values
· Religions and Superstitions
· Traditions and taboos
· Alternate medicines
· Environmental issues
· Sex and family relationships

World Religions, True Beliefs And New Age Spirituality seeks to decondition and dewarp our minds from harmful doctrines, dogmas, and Parental and ethnic conditioning. In so doing, William argues, that violence and bloodshed can be significantly reduced or even eradicated. By employing clear-think and self-talk techniques, human beings can steer clear off the ruts of habitual or rhythmic thinking.

With the rare insights in World Religions, True Beliefs And New Age Spirituality, people from seemingly incompatible ethnic backgrounds can build win-win relationships and a better world for all.

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Journal of Church and State, published by Thomson Gale on March 22, 2007. The length of the article is 527 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: New Age and Neo-Pagan Religions in America.(Book review)
Author: Ed Cook
Publication: Journal of Church and State (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 22, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 49Issue: 2Page: 374(2)

Article Type: Book review

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more