Full of vision, hope, and inspiration, this profound and passionate manifesto provides a fascinating overview of the incredibly rich and diverse spiritual landscapes of our world—feeding a deep longing for a life of wholeness and meaning and a society of greater peace and justice. Drawing from a wide variety of faiths and secular traditions, this book looks at cultural diversity and religious pluralism; clarifies the meaning of spirituality in different languages, faiths, and societies; and shows how numerous new approaches to spirituality have emerged. Also explored are the spiritual dimensions of nature, science, and technology; the transcending experiences of art and spirit; and the powerful expressions of ecological spirituality found around the world. New insights are provided that highlight the major differences that exist between spiritualities while also pointing out the various parallels and points of convergence.
| |||||||||||||||
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
Review
"Spirituality is notoriously hard to define, but King makes a bold attempt. . . .This introduction to spiritualities not based in religious practice is thoughtful and accessible." —Publishers Weekly (Religion BookLine)
"King has written a remarkably wide-ranging book that touches briefly on many aspects of the spiritual life across the world . . . both our need for spirituality and how we have sought to address that need through nature, science, and the arts." —Library Journal
"Ursula King's scholarly command of the wide range of classic and contemporary forms of spirituality is equaled only by her enormous clarity in communicating their content in this very important and interesting new book . . . a wise and illuminating guide." —John F. Haught, research professor, Georgetown University, and author, God After Darwin
"Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. We have desperately needed Ursula King's kind of dispassionate overview of spirituality as a construct for years. Thank God we have it now." —Phyllis Tickle, author, The Divine Hours
"What distinguishes Ursula King's search for a spirituality that will respond to global needs is the way she combines both depth and breadth in her search. She recognizes and taps the mystical depths that nourish all spiritualities, but she also shows how these shared depths produce a broad diversity of expressions in enabling people to both understand and transform their world." —Paul F. Knitter, Union Theological Seminary, NYC
"Beautifully written, this is an enlightening book that informs while it gently persuades. Opening many windows onto spiritual experience in our increasingly global culture, it invites the reader to partake and contribute." —Elizabeth Johnson, professor of theology, Fordham University, and author, She Who Is
"Ursula King's book is not only a search for spirituality, it is a guide for arriving at some of the deepest answers life presents us. This is a unique, valuable, and irreplaceable addition to the literature on spirituality. . . . This work will be a classic!" —Mary Evelyn Tucker, visiting professor for social and policy studies, Yale University
About the Author
Ursula King is an internationally renowned scholar on spirituality, interfaith dialogue, women and religion, and the French thinker Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. She is professor emerita of theology and religious studies at the University of Bristol in England and author of Christian Mystics and Spirit of Fire.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good Introduction to a Very Broad Topic,
By Patrice Fagnant-macarthur (Springfield, MA) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE) (TOP 1000 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: The Search for Spirituality: Our Global Quest for a Spiritual Life (Hardcover)
Ursula King, professor emerita of theology and religious studies at the University of Bristol, is to be commended for tackling such a far-reaching topic as spirituality from a global perspective. In the introduction to "The Search for Spirituality: Our Global Quest" for a Spiritual Life King acknowledges that this book is intended as a "modest introduction to very large, complex realities and experiences."
King attempts to define spirituality by what it does as opposed to what it is. Spirituality is a "lived experience . . .which seeks the fullness of life - a life of justice and peace, of integrating body, mind, and soul, a life that touches the hem of the spirit in the midst of all our struggles of living in a world that has become even more globally interdependent, yet is so painfully torn apart." King explores spirituality in light of several factors that influence one's experience of the world. Among these are religious traditions, life stages, education and health, gender, and ecological concerns. For each of these, she offers a brief overview of the historical contributions to understanding spirituality from these various perspectives, and then proceeds to describe and investigate the state of understanding today. There is also a discussion of the challenges that remain. King succeeds in her mission to offer an introduction to global spirituality. The "Search for Spirituality" offers more questions than answers and should be used as a jumping-off point for further discovery and discussion. To assist in that end, King has provided a lengthy resource list which is very helpful.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Seeking Spirit,
This review is from: The Search for Spirituality: Our Global Quest for a Spiritual Life (Hardcover)
Serious spiritual seekers will find much to engage them in The Search for Spirituality. Ursula King, Professor Emerita of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Bristol, offers a wide-ranging discussion of the spiritual life, which she defines broadly as a "life that cultivates wisdom, compassion, and love for the sake of other people's lives and one's own." Her book is important for its emphasis on global spirituality (the life of spirit as it is manifested in widely disparate cultures around the world); on the social dimensions of true spirituality; and on nature as the "divine milieu" within which human beings "may become divinized."
With Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, King shares an understanding of the noosphere--the sphere of human interthought and interaction, of spirit and spiritualization--that may transform the universe from matter to spirit. Her connection with Chardin gives her book a depth and vitality that sets it apart from other theological studies. I especially appreciated her thoughtful distinction between the practices of ascetic/monastic and "householder spirituality" (p. 29), in which spirit is manifested in a day-to-day attention to family, work, and community. The book includes notes and a very helpful resource section. Recommended for Comparative Religion collections. by Susan Wittig Albert for Story Circle Book Reviews reviewing books by, for, and about women
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Well-written, but the message didn't strike any strong chords with me...,
By
This review is from: The Search for Spirituality: Our Global Quest for a Spiritual Life (Paperback)
I'm sorry to say that this book was really hard to review, simply do to the fact that it' seems written more towards a female audience. Being a guy, the semi-flowery language she constantly uses gets a bit annoying after a few chapters. But that's not all that I found questionable about this work.
The other reason I found this book hard to review was because of the fact that I'm a born-again Christian who goes to a Presbyterian church, and the idea of spirituality sparks a flame of wariness in me. I'm not afraid of things like Yoga and such, as long as they don't encroach on a newcomer's ability to discern that such practices in themselves are not a complete religion. However, when people present this book as if it's a stand-alone answer to their search for answers. Besides these other reasons, I simply found this a hard book to read because I'm not really used to this sort of subject. I don't necessarily want to venture deeper into spirituality, not unless Jesus is right there beside me. Because of that, (which may be an uninformed argument), I saw/see no constant mention of Christ or the Father needing to be one of your constant companions during this journey towards `enlightenment'. And without him there to guide and protect you, I'm afraid for what you'll encounter, because there are a lot of false lessons being prescribed like placebos out there. All in all (ever fateful verdict), just be careful, please. This could be a good book for someone seeking a deeper spiritual life, I'm sure, but it just wasn't meant for me. I can just tell. ~Joshua Smith~
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Inside This Book
(learn more)
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
