American Spiritualities: A Reader [Paperback]

Catherine L. Albanese (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 22, 2001 | ISBN-10: 0253214327 | ISBN-13: 978-0253214324

American Spiritualities
A Reader

Edited by Catherine L. Albanese

Readings that explore approaches to American spirituality, past and present.

This reader explores current interest in spirituality in the United States. It traces the concept and presence of spirituality in the nation's past and explains the strong attraction to spiritual themes in the present, with attention to questions of definition, historical usage, and connection to religion. Twenty-seven selections pursue the difference and diversity among Americans in terms of their spiritual styles, here understood as modes of experiential knowledge. Catherine L. Albanese has organized these selections to reflect four approaches to spirituality: knowing through the body, or ritual-based spiritualities; knowing through the heart, or evangelical and emotionally toned spiritualities; knowing through the will, or prophetic and social-action spiritualities; and knowing through the mind, or metaphysically oriented spiritualities. Taken together, these essays make the argument that the spiritual is human-made, essentially religious, and surely not the same at all American times and places.

The anthology includes selections by Catherine L. Albanese, Janet and Robert Aldridge, Daniel Berrigan, Joseph Epes Brown, Charles W. Colson, Annie Dillard, Virgilio Elizondo, Tamar Frankiel, Emma Goldman, Charles E. Hambrick-Stowe, B. K. S. Iyengar, Curtis D. Johnson, Martin Luther King, Jr., Chen Kung, Jerena Lee, Shirley MacLaine, Aimee Semple McPherson, Thomas Merton, Carry A. Nation, E. Burke Rochford, Jr., Jerry Rubin, Molly Rush, Starhawk, Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Trine, Joachim Wach, B. Alan Wallace, Steven Wilhelm, and Dhyani Ywahoo.

Catherine L. Albanese is Professor of Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is the author of the widely used textbook America: Religions and Religion, now in its third edition, and of numerous other articles and books, including Nature Religion in America: From the Algonkian Indians to the New Age. Albanese is a former president of the American Academy of Religion.

April 2001
552 pages, 6 1/8 x 9 1/4, bibl., index
cloth 0-253-33839-5 $65.00 L / £50.00
paper 0-253-21432-7 $27.50 s / £21.00

Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part One: Knowing through the Body: The Path of Ritual
1. "Ritual Sites in the Narrative of American Religion"/Tamar Frankiel
2. "The Ordinances of Public Worship"/Charles E. Hambrick-Stowe
3. "Popular Religion as the Core of Cultural Identity Based on the Mexican American Experience
in the United States"/Virgilio Elizondo
4. "Thought, Speech, Action: Rhythms of Jewish Life"/Tamar Frankiel
5. "Wiwanyag Wachipi: The Sun Dance"/Joseph Epes Brown, ed.
6. "The Coven"/Starhawk
Part Two: Knowing through the Heart: The Path of Feeling and Emotion
7. "The Second Birth"/Curtis D. Johnson
8. "The Life and Religious Experience of Jarena Lee"/Jarena Lee
9. "Girlhood and Salvation and the Baptism of the Holy Spirit"/Aimee Semple McPherson,
10. "An Unforgettable Night"/Charles W. Colson
11. "est"/Jerry Rubin,
12. "Surrendering to Krishna: Devi's Story"/E. Burke Rochford, Jr.
Part Three: Knowing through the Will: The Path of Prophecy and Social Action
13. "The Reformer" and "The Prophet"/Joachim Wach
14. "Resistance to Civil Government"/Henry David Thoreau
15. "The Divine Call"/Carry A. Nation
16. Living My Life (excerpt)/Emma Goldman
17. "Letter from Birmingham Jail"/Martin Luther King, Jr.
18. Testimonies/Janet and Robert Aldridge, Molly Rush, and Daniel Berrigan
Part Four: Knowing through the Mind: The Path of Metaphysics
19. "The Subtle Energies of Spirit: Explorations in Metaphysical and New Age
Spirituality"/Catherine L. Albanese
20. "Fullness of Life Bodily Health and Vigor"/Ralph Waldo Trine
21. "The Gift of Understanding" and "The Night the Senses"/Thomas Merton
22. "Seeing"/Annie Dillard
23. "Four Applications of Mindfulness"/B. Alan Wallace with Steven Wilhelm
24. "Renewing the Sacred Hoop"/Dhyani Ywahoo
25. "The New Age and Rational Thought" and "A Rainbow of Expression"/Shirley
MacLaine
26. "The Tree and Its Parts"/B.K.S. Iyengar
27. "Discourse on Mind-Intent and Ch'i"/Chen Kung
Suggestions for Further Reading
Index

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

When people today aver that they are "spiritual" but not "religious," they are invoking a distinction that is at once venerable and very modern. People of faith have long valued spirituality, which Albanese defines as "the personal, experiential element in religion... that, for those involved, signal[s] transcendence, sacrality, ultimacy, and/or a higher purposive wisdom that empowers by explaining and attesting life's meaning." The idea that such endeavors might be possible only outside of institutional contexts, however, is a relatively recent development. Albanese, a prolific scholar and past president of the American Academy of Religion, here presents representative selections from a wide range of texts and traditions, from the Puritans and Charles Colson to the Hare Krishnas and Shirley MacLaine. She imposes order on this dizzying pluralism by identifying four broad avenues along which individuals of different persuasions pursue their spiritual quests: the path of public and private ritual; the path of feeling and emotion; the path of prophecy and social action; and the path of metaphysics. Although essays introduce each of these sections, they do not engage either the analytical framework or the primary texts in sufficient depth and leave unanswered some fundamental questions. What, for example, makes American spirituality particularly American? The reader comes away with an increased appreciation for the variety of religious experience, but a still muddled understanding of what it all means.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to the Library Binding edition.

Review

"The origin of this superlative anthology was an undergraduate course on American spirituality first taught by the editor in 1998 at the University of California, Santa Barbara. With its economical but comprehensive general introduction, lapidary sectional introductions, and concise essay summaries, Albanese (former president of the American Academy of Religion and author of the widely used America, Religions and Religion, 1981, 3rd ed., 1999) has developed a text accessible to all readership levels. The essays extend chronologically from Thoreau's 1849 Civil Disobedience to the editor's 1999 The Subtle Energies of Spirit: Explorations in Metaphysical and New Age Spirituality, and represent the major contemporary Western, Eastern and New Age traditions. They are organized in four sections, focused successively on spiritual knowledge through the body, heart, will, and mind. Careful reading will result in a clear sense of the history and range of contemporary American spirituality. The suggestions for further reading are carefully chosen and up—to—date. The only lacuna is biographies of the contributors. Highly recommended; all readership groups." —E. S. Steele, University of Scranton, Choice, January 2002

(E. S. Steele, University of Scranton Choice 2002)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 552 pages
• Publisher: Indiana University Press (April 22, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0253214327
• ISBN-13: 978-0253214324
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #219,271 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)