Civilization and the Transformation of Power [Paperback]

James A. Jr. Garrison (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2000

""Civilization And The Transformation Of Power" is an absorbing, provocative, scintillating account of the interiors of western history. Jim Garrison is one of the great visionaries of our time, and his account not only traces the rise of western culture, it points beyond it to a more integral, gracious, compassionate world, drawing on the best of East and West, feminine and masculine, to paint a picture of a more caring tomorrow".--Ken Wilbur, author of "A Brief History Of Everything".

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"Civilization and the Transformation of Power is an absorbing, provocative, scintillating account of the ‘interiors' of western history—that is, the psychological and spiritual forces that historians often ignore in favor of reporting merely the exterior historical 'facts.' Jim Garrison is one of the great visionaries of our time, and his account not only traces the rise of western culture, it points beyond it to a more integral, gracious, compassionate world, drawing on the best of both East and West, feminine and masculine, to paint a picture of a more caring tomorrow.

– Ken Wilbur, author of A Brief History of Everything Here is paradox played out on the high stage of history. Here are the mythic underpinnings of civilization in its contents and discontents. Here is the tragic and transformative dialectic between Mother Mind and Father Force. And here too is the sacred psychology of God rising to be known in the unfolding of psyche in time. Within the compass of this remarkable book Garrison has garnered an understanding of emergent consciousness, the drama of the World Soul and the redemption of the higher dream.

– Jean Houston author of Jump Time

About the Author

Jim Garrison was born of Baptist missionary parents in Szechuan Province, China, in 1951. From 1953-1965, he lived with his family in Taiwan. His early experiences set the stage for a life of engagement in international issues and social activism. As a Ph.D. student at Cambridge University (1975-1982), Garrison became engaged in the citizen diplomacy movement to reduce the nuclear tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union.

In 1991, he founded the International Foreign Policy Association in collaboration with Georgian President Edward Shevardnadze and former Secretary of State George Schultz, focusing on providing humanitarian relief for children in the former Soviet republics. In 1992, at the behest of Mikhail Gorbachev, Dr. Garrison founded and became the President of the Gorbachev Foundation/USA. These two organizations set the stage for the establishment, in 1995, of the State of the World Forum, a San Francisco based non-profit institution created to establish a global network of leaders, citizens and institutions dedicated to discerning and implementing those principles, values and actions necessary to guide humanity toward a more sustainable global civilization. The Forum has convened roughly 4,000 people from over 100 countries to its annual sessions, which have launched and directed a number of action oriented strategic initiatives across a spectrum of areas.

Garrison’s degrees include: B.A. World History, University of Santa Clara; M.T.S., History of Religion, Harvard University; and Ph.D., Philosophical Theology, Cambridge University. He has written six books concerning the historical and theological implications of the advent of the nuclear age.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 359 pages
• Publisher: Paraview Press (September 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931044007
• ISBN-13: 978-1931044004
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,371,074 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Articles by Jim Garrison in the Huffington Post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-garrison

Jim Garrison received his BA, magna cum laude, in World History from the University of Santa Clara in 1973; his MTS from Harvard Divinity School in Christology and the History of World Religions in 1975; and his Ph.D. from Cambridge University in Philosophical Theology in 1982. His doctoral dissertation was on the theme "Hiroshima, Apocalyptic and the Antinomial Nature of God."

Garrison has developed this theme in all his published writings beginning with his first book in 1980, called The Plutonium Culture (SCM). This was followed by The Darkness of God: Theology After Hiroshima (SCM/1982); The Russian Threat: Myths and Realities (Gateway Books/ 1983); The New Diplomats (Resurgence Press/1984); Civilization and the Transformation of Power (Paraview Press/2000); and America As Empire (Barrett Koehler/2004).

Garrison became president of Wisdom University in 2005. Before coming to the university, Garrison served as president of the State of the World Forum, which he founded in 1995 in partnership with President Mikhail Gorbachev and Senator Alan Cranston. He founded the Radiation and Health Information Service in 1978; co-founded the Christic Institute in 1980; was Executive Director of the Esalen Institute Soviet-American Exchange Program from 1985-1990; and founded the International Foreign Policy Institute in partnership with Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze and Secretary George Shultz in 1991. Garrison founded the Gorbachev Foundation/USA in 1992 with Mr. Gorbachev as founding chairman.