Everything Is Connected

It is a mainstay that spiritual seekers—from New Age thinkers, neopagans, esoteric cults, or people referring to themselves as “spiritual, not religious”—imagine nature as a mysterious, spiritual, and meaningful force to counter alienating and disenchanting modernity. In this chapter, I argue that this spiritual imagination about “mysterious incalculable forces” is not necessarily projected on nature, but, perhaps increasingly, on complex modern institutions. In critical dialogue with the ideas of the classics—that is, Weber, Marx, Mannheim—on modernity and religion, I will argue that such undertheorized forms of modern re-enchantment should be understood as cultural responses to powerful, yet highly opaque systems that are beyond the control of contemporary citizens. Although various examples are used throughout this chapter to illustrate this relocation of spiritual power from nature to society, the main case used is the phenomenon of conspiracy culture or, rather, the phenomenon of “conspirituality.”

Appropriating Archetypes

Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Southern California, this paper explores how non-Indians use and appropriate statues of Hindu deities. In particular, I focus on a particular group of spiritual seekers who see these statues, or murtis, not as manifestations of the divine—that is, not as Hindu gods themselves—but instead as symbols that correspond to Jungian “archetypes.” This spiritual practice of “working with” an archetype is quite different from what one might encounter in a Hindu temple in India, and indeed, the underlying theologies of the practice map better onto American metaphysical religion than they do Hinduism. The article ends with a reflection on appropriation, focusing on the ways in which this spiritual practice promotes a form of universalism in which the very idea of appropriation becomes impossible.

Back-Pocket God

What do the religious and spiritual lives of American young people look like as they reach their mid to late 20s, enter the full-time job market, and start families? In Back Pocket God, the authors provide a look beyond conflicting stories that argue that emerging adults either are overwhelmingly leaving religion or are earnest spiritual seekers maintaining a significant place in their lives for religion. Denton and Flory show that while the dominant trend among young people is a move away from religious beliefs and institutions, there is also a parallel trend in which a small, religiously committed group of emerging adults claim faith as an important fixture in their lives. Yet, whether religiously committed or not, emerging adults are increasingly personalizing, customizing, and compartmentalizing religion in ways that suit their idiosyncratic desires. For emerging adults, God has become increasingly remote yet is highly personalized to meet their particular needs. In the process, they have transformed their conception of God from a powerful being or force that exists “out there” to their own personal “Pocket God”—a God that they can carry around with them but that exerts little power or influence in their daily lives. God functions, in a sense, like a smartphone app—readily accessible, easy to control, and useful but only for limited purposes. Back Pocket God shows the changing relationship between emerging adults and religion, providing a window into the future of religion and, more broadly, American culture.

Hinduism in America

Read the story of two worlds that converge: one of Hindu immigrants to America who want to preserve their traditions and pass them on to their children in a new and foreign land, and one of American spiritual seekers who find that the traditions of India fulfil their most deeply held aspirations. Learn about the theoretical approaches to Hinduism in America, the question of orientalism and ‘the invention of Hinduism’. Read about: how concepts like karma, rebirth, meditation and yoga have infiltrated and influenced the American consciousness Hindu temples in the United States and Canada how Hinduism has influenced vegetarianism the emergence of an increasingly assertive socially and politically active American Hinduism. The book contains 30 images, chapter summaries, a glossary, study questions and suggestions for further reading.

The Death of an Immortal Guru

This chapter explores discipleship and conversion in SRF, Yogananda’s dramatic death, and the transfer of authority that transpired afterward. The chapter explores profiles of more than fifteen Yogananda disciples, employing a model of conversion to offer insight into common patterns of the spiritual seekers who chose to join a new religious movement, following a guru who claimed powers like clairvoyance and hinted at his own deity. The circumstances surrounding Yogananda’s death and his followers’ efforts to cope with the tragedy are considered next. Yogananda’s death produced a crisis in leadership. Max Weber’s model of the routinization of charisma, modified by subsequent scholars, offers insight into the common challenge faced by organizations led by charismatic individuals, particularly after their death. Yogananda spiritualized his own leadership by indicating that his writings were to become the “guru” after his departure, but this did not fully solve the problem of human leadership. After the short tenure of one leader, long-term female disciple Faye Wright was appointed. Her half-century tenure at SRF stabilized the organization and routinized its publications by and about Yogananda.

Delectatio et decor ordinis. O teologii Jacka Salija

Which word can summarise the huge oeuvre of father Jacek Salij? What is the key? How can you define the theology which is both Theocentric, and Christocentric; consequently ministerial towards the Church, man, “spiritual seekers”; constructive in theses and polemical; intransigent towards foolishness, naivety, barbarity; creative and deeply set in the most outstanding philosophical and theological tradition; creating identity and cooperating with culture, literature and arts; engaging all intellectual powers into matters of faith and ethos; professional, research, erudite and ministerial, close to life, existential; Polish and universal, substantively systematized and formally diverse...? Here is Thomas-like decor ordinis in Salij’s life and …

The Zoharic Frame-tale in Context

Situates zoharic narrative literature in its historical and comparative contexts, examining works of Jewish and non-Jewish frametale narratives from this time and place. Through consideration of works by Avraham Ibn Ezra, Yosef Ibn Zabara, Yehudah Al Ḥarizi, Yiẓḥaq Ibn Sahula, Juan Ruiz, and Alfonso X, among others, this chapter demonstrates the vivid ways in which zoharic storytelling ought to be understood as part of a broader cultural phenomenon. Structures, themes, and commonalities studied include: the dynamic of anagnorisis and the wandering quest for wisdom; the extensive use of esoteric speech (the language of secrets, hiddenness, and revelation) in the context of frame-tale narration; the construction of the passionate master-disciple relationship; and the dramatic yearning for Holy Mary and Shekhinah (among kabbalists and Christian writers, respectively) when spiritual seekers are lost on the road and fear for their safety.

Group Spiritual Direction: Offering Spiritual Depth and Community Building in Diverse Settings

Diverse possibilities for using Group Spiritual Direction, as taught by Rose Mary Dougherty at Shalem Institute, illustrate ways in which advanced spiritual practices can be introduced to spiritual seekers at many different levels. Group Spiritual Direction can be a core growth process for spiritual directors, clergy, and seekers of deep spiritual community. However, in somewhat modified format, this gem of a spiritual process can offer depth community to church groups, enhance retreats, connect leadership groups in community, provide a depth-formation process for mentor groups, and even be used in family settings with young and old.