Seeking Transcendence

The Quest for Spirituality in an Age of Detachment

Joseph C. Manzella (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

228 Seiten

2025
Routledge (Verlag)
978-1-032-89456-0 (ISBN)

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Seeking Transcendence examines the various paths taken by those who have detached themselves from their traditional, institutional religious roots but are seeking non-traditional paths to spiritual experiences. Called the “nones” or "non-affiliated" in popular mass media, these include a significant number of Western folks who maintain a belief in God or at least consider themselves “spiritual but not religious”.

Each chapter of the book explores these trends with a specific theme, as well as a case study based on the author’s ethnographic observation of alternative spiritual communities and practices in North America and Western Europe.

Ultimately, this book shows how contemporary alternatives to traditional institutional religion appeal to nones, presenting the relevance of new religious movements and more secular spiritual paths to transcendence.

Joseph C. Manzella, PhD, is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at Southern Connecticut State University, USA. He is co-founder of the Anthropology department and served as its first chair, and has published several articles and two books on media and community in Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, South Africa, Western Europe, Venezuela and the United States. The subject of his 2010 book Common Purse, Uncommon Future was intentional communities.

Acknowledgements

Prologue: A Spiritual Journey

1. Introduction: Transcendence

I’m Spiritual, Not Religious, But. . .

An Italian Fantasy

An Age of Detachment

Mainstream and Tradition

Europe vs. North America

What the Data Reveal

2. Are There Cults?

What is a Cult?

Higher Ed Moonies

Cultification

Summary

3. Evangelicals: Politics and Media

Evangelism in a Barn

Summary

4. From East To West

An Age of Gurus

Look Toward Easternization

Two Domes Amid the Corn

The Science of TM

Yogananda’s Legacy

Becoming a Guru

At a Convocation

SRF Monastics

Of Temples and Shrines

Variations on a Theme

Summary

5. Indigenous Spirituality

Sun Dance and Modern Movements

Of Boarding Schools

Summary

6. New Age Neopagan

Earth and Spirituality

Floating in a Sea of the Mind

The New Age Envelope

New Thought

A Wiccan Story: There and Back Again

Summary

7. Meditation In Motion

Art of Softness

Tai Chi Spirituality

Labyrinths, Another Meditation in Motion

Summary

8. Thin Places of Peace: Alternative Christianity

Liminal Spaces

Ashore on Iona

Summary

9. Pilgrimages and Other Spiritual Journeys

The Secular and the Spiritual

Summary

Epilogue: The Threads

North of Taos

Erscheinungsdatum	21.05.2025
Zusatzinfo	1 Halftones, black and white; 1 Illustrations, black and white
Verlagsort	London
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 229 mm
Gewicht	610 g
Themenwelt	Sozialwissenschaften ► Ethnologie
Themenwelt	Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie
ISBN-10	1-032-89456-3 / 1032894563
ISBN-13	978-1-032-89456-0 / 9781032894560
Zustand	Neuware