New Metaphysicals - Spirituality and the American Religious Imagination

Informationen zum Autor Courtney Bender is associate professor of religion at Columbia University and author of Heaven's Kitchen: Living with Religion at God's Love We Deliver , also published by the University of Chicago Press. Klappentext American spirituality--with its focus on individual meaning, experience, and exploration--is usually thought to be a product of the postmodern era. But, as The New Metaphysicals makes clear, contemporary American spirituality has historic roots in the nineteenth century and a great deal in common with traditional religious movements. To explore this world, Courtney Bender combines research into the history of the movement with fieldwork in Cambridge, Massachusetts--a key site of alternative religious inquiry from Emerson and William James to today. Through her ethnographic analysis, Bender discovers that a focus on the new, on progress, and on the way spiritual beliefs intersect with science obscures the historical roots of spirituality from its practitioners and those who study it alike--and shape an enduring set of modern religious possibilities in the process. Zusammenfassung American spirituality - meaning astrology! yoga! and the huge number of other alternative strains of religion pursued by individuals outside of traditional organizations - is usually thought to be a product of the postmodern era. This title reveals that contemporary American spirituality has deep historic roots in the nineteenth century.

Product details

• Authors: Courtney Bender, Courtney (Columbia University) Bender, Bender Courtney
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 15.07.2010
• EAN: 9780226042800
• ISBN: 978-0-226-04280-0
• No. of pages: 272
• Subjects: Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Miscellaneous; Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > Sociological theories; USA, RELIGION / Spirituality, Spirituality & religious experience, United States of America, USA, Spirituality and religious experience