Golden States

How California Religion Went from Cautionary Tale to Global Brand

Eileen Luhr (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

314 Seiten

2024
University of California Press (Verlag)
978-0-520-39972-3 (ISBN)

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Whether they were utopian communitarians, sun-seeking gurus, or Protestant health reformers, Southern California's spiritual seekers drew on the United States' deepening global encounters and consumer cultures to pair religious and personal reinvention with cultural and spiritual revitalization. Through a rereading of the region's cultural landscape, Golden States provides an alternative history of California religion and spirituality, showing that seekers developed a number of paths to fulfillment that enhanced the region's lifestyle brand. Drawing on case studies as varied as surfing and yoga practices, Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps, and the only designated "Blue Zone" in the United States, this work explores the long-term impact of alternative beliefs on the region. In doing so, it highlights the ongoing tensions between privileging personal choice and pursuing social good as communities navigated whether the commitment to the emotional and therapeutic needs and desires of individual believers should be pursued at the expense of broader efforts to achieve collective well-being.

Eileen Luhr is Professor of History at California State University, Long Beach, where she teaches US cultural history and history pedagogy and coordinates the History/Social Science credential program for teachers. Her previous book was Witnessing Suburbia: Conservatives and Christian Youth Culture.

Contents

List of Figures
Acknowledgments

Introduction

PART ONE. SPIRITUAL VISIONARIES, HISTORICAL IMAGINARIES, AND SELF-IMPROVEMENT AS
THERAPEUTIC LEISURE

1. “A Paradise for the Healthseeker and Retired Capitalist”: Katherine Tingley and
San Diego’s Early Therapeutic Religious Economy

2. “Efficient America,” “Spiritual India,” and America’s Transnational Religious Imagination

3. Message on a Bottle: Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps and the Evolution of a Spiritual Vision

PART TWO. RELIGIOUS AND SPIRITUAL BEFLIEF IN CIVIC AND SOCIAL IMAGINARIES

4. Wellness in the “Blue Zone”: The Cultural Politics of Vegetarianism in Loma Linda

5. Seeker, Surfer, Yogi: The Progressive Religious Imagination and the Politics of Place

Epilogue

Notes
Bibliography
Index

Erscheinungsdatum	08.08.2024
Zusatzinfo	18 b-w illustrations
Verlagsort	Berkerley
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 229 mm
Gewicht	635 g
Themenwelt	Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Geschichte / Politik ► Regional- / Landesgeschichte
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie
ISBN-10	0-520-39972-2 / 0520399722
ISBN-13	978-0-520-39972-3 / 9780520399723
Zustand	Neuware