Judaism Is the New Orient

The spiritual journeys that Israeli-Jews make to the Far East do not merely provide them with experiences and revelations, but also help them reclaim meaning, answer life’s questions, and shape their identity and lifestyle. Surprisingly, some journeys end in embracing Jewish tradition. Why—and how—do secular Israelis, who have never shown any interest in the spiritual matters and aspects of their native tradition, find, following their journey, that Jewish spirituality is relevant to their quest for meaning? This chapter conducts a critical discussion on the Easternization thesis (which claims the West is undergoing a profound paradigmatic transformation), culminating in the conclusion that the East is not Westerners’ and Israelis’ true object of desire, but rather an object on which they project their Western/Israeli discomfort, passions, and images. Judaism, which has been going through an exoticization process within the framework of local New Age ideas—much like the Far East in global spirituality—has been adapting itself to this coveted imagined model.

Cries from the Cross: Jesus and the Wrongfully Convicted

This paper endeavors to affirm the humanity, make known the pain, and lift up the prophetic witness of wrongfully convicted individuals. I bring forward their spiritual journeys and place them in dialectical relationship with Jesus Christ. When we understand Jesus’ death as utterly wrongful and position him in radical solidarity with the wrongly condemned, we see that when the State wrongfully incarcerates, cages, and executes, Jesus too is crucified.

Microbial Muses: Threads of Our Inner Wisdom

Spiritual journeys unveil our inner wisdom to help us navigate traumatic life events. Scientific evidence implicates a gut–immune–brain axis in our sense of self, raising the possibility that our microbial partners and hormone oxytocin offer a sense of connectedness and liberate our ancestral archives to sustain us during challenging times.

What's Faith Got to Do With It?

Faith plays a key role in the lives of many college students. Religious experiences are often heightened at a time when learners seek to navigate academic and social demands. This chapter highlights a single narrative involving an act of forgiveness that changed a young man's life. The narrative also provides a backdrop for experiences of the five interviewees at the faith-based institution they attended. The stories they brought with them to college developed into radical shifts of faith and ultimately altered narratives that strengthened their spiritual journeys.

“Pre-Buddhist” Conceptions of Vision and Visuality in China and Their Traces in Early Reflections on Painting

This paper attempts to delineate the relation of early Chinese views on vision and visuality to nascent reflections on painting arising in the Early Medieval period. Ever since that time, pictorial creativity has been associated with Buddhist ideas of spiritual perfection. Likewise, the Early Medieval concern for the visualization of spiritual journeys to exceptional humans (and superhumans) through imaginary landscapes seems to be of Buddhist origin. The first part of this paper gives a short sketch of the intellectual landscape in which theorizing on painting since the 5th century CE first arose. The main body of the study, consisting of parts two through five, close readings of pre-Buddhist texts on vision and imagination. From these exploratory investigations it emerges that the very terms that are key in early reflections on painting such as ‘spirit’ (shen 神), ‘perspicacity’ (ming 明), but also ‘imagination’ (xiang 想) and ‘symbol’ (xiang 象) are closely related to a specific conception of seeing and visuality which is manifest in these texts. A final part sketches the possible relevance of these observations in early and pre-imperial sources for the interpretation of Chinese theories on painting. It emerges that while the rising interest in imagination since the Eastern Jin period is indeed an innovation inspired by Buddhism, the extraordinary role of the notion of ‘spirit’ in reflections about painting is closely related to earlier autochthonous traditions. The appeal to specifically Buddhist notions such as the samādhi of free play in texts on pictorial production and contemplation appears to be of a secondary character. It seems to be mediated by the inclusion of the very word ‘spirit’ (shen) into Chinese renderings of technical Buddhist terms related to meditation, which resulted in the implicit association of this specialist vocabulary with inherited conceptions of spirit as a luminous force animating, inspiring and enlightening things, in both quite a literal and in a rather metaphorical sense.

Spiritual Travel to Baitullah: Individual Piety in Global Capitalism

The purpose of this paper explains critically related to one's journey to perform Hajj and Umrah (pilgrimage) concerning individual piety in the crowd (globalization and capitalization) of religious rituals. Hajj and Umrah are not only spiritual journeys that have personal ethical values. Hajj and Umrah can educate someone to be patient, calm, and more submissive to God. Hajj and Umrah also teach the perpetrators to be generous, have social sensitivity, and care with fellow human beings. The writing method in this paper is ethnographic-sociological. This paper's data is based on literature, observations, and interviews with pilgrims and Umrah from Indonesia in 2014 and 2018. This paper finds that the Hajj and Umrah are also closely related to the political economy problems administered by the state and the private sector, in addition to educating the perpetrators to be pious. Hajj and Umrah can thus be said to have two sides at once, namely individual piety and social class.

Self-Transcendence and Life Stories of Humanistic Growth Among Late-Midlife Adults

Objective: Self-transcendence is the experience of feeling connected to something greater than oneself. Previous studies have shown high scores on self-transcendence are associated with well-being and other psychological benefits, but have rarely examined the lived experiences of highly self-transcendent people. Method: Black and White men and women in late-midlife completed Life Story Interviews and self-report measures of self-transcendence. In Study 1 (N = 144, Mage = 56.4), we used grounded theory methodology to differentiate stories told by participants scoring either extremely high or extremely low on self-transcendence. In Study 2 (N = 125; Mage = 60.4), we created a quantitative coding scheme, and scored 1,375 new life story scenes. Results: In Study 1, six narrative themes were identified (closure, interconnectedness, lifelong learning, secure attachment, self-actualization, spiritual pluralism) as part of a “humanistic growth story.” In Study 2, four of the narrative themes were found to predict self-transcendence scores with significant effect sizes of β = .26 to .47. Conclusions: In our sample, highly self-transcendent individuals tended to narrate their lived experiences as spiritual journeys of humanistic growth. This study adds to our understanding of one path of personality growth in late midlife, that toward self-transcendence.

“I have grown with it”: Experiences of Spiritual Identity Development in a Group of South African Adolescents

This qualitative phenomenological study aimed to capture experiences of spiritual identity development in a purposive sample of South African adolescents, using semi-structured interviews and reflective writing exercises. Participants confirmed the prominence of religiosity and spirituality, as intertwined concepts central to their sense of purpose and identity. Consistent with the ideas expressed in psychosocial theories and lifespan development approaches, these adolescents valued the importance of choice when confronted with contradiction. They prioritized personal commitment and authenticity in their spiritual journeys toward finding a sense of self. It is clear that spiritual identity development unfolds as a lifelong process, driven by an interplay between cognitive development, psychosocial experiences, and the religiocultural context. The findings of this study reiterates that, as adolescents mature into emerging adulthood and their lives and meaning-making abilities become more complex, spirituality is critical in answering intricate questions about the self, others, and purpose of life.