States of Grace: The Recovery of Meaning in the Postmodern Age [Paperback]

Charlene Spretnak (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1993

This is an invitation to a spiritual awakening. The author demonstrates the relevance of spiritual issues to pragmatic concerns - of modern life, weaving the diverse insights of spiritual traditions into a tapestry of creativity and renewal. By the author of "Lost Goddesses of Early Greece".

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Spretnak discusses the relevance of ancient wisdom traditions to modern concerns. She then examines four specific wisdom traditions: Buddhist, Native American, Goddess, and Semitic. She finds teachings about the nature of mind and the origin of fear, delusion, greed, and violence; about our intimate relationship with nature and the cosmos; about honoring our bodies, sexuality, and the Earthbody; and about social justice and community. Her final chapter concerns the recovery of meaning and the cosmological basis for creative possibility. This is recommended for most libraries.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"States of Grace is one of the most eloquent expressions to date of that increasingly influential view of spirituality in which `connectedness' is centralconnectedness with nature, with each other, with ourselves. . . . Poetically written. . . . A powerful vision." -- Christianity and Crisis

"A brilliant, witty, timely book. In place of modernism (the socialist form of which is dead, the capitalist form of which is ever more deadly) and of the so-called postmodernism of deconstruction (which is really hypermodernism), Charlene Spretnak offers a genuine postmodernism." -- David Ray Griffin, author of God and Religion in the Postmodern World

"Profound. . . . Spretnak uses her rare gift for making a bridge from scholarship to the `real world'. . . . Spretnak's visionof a culture with its ties to the world renewedcomes across powerfully. " -- Boston Globe

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Harper San Francisco (January 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0062506978
• ISBN-13: 978-0062506979
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #362,050 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Charlene Spretnak is the author of several books on ecological and relational thought, cultural history, spirituality and religion, feminism, the problems of modernity, and contemporary events. These include GREEN POLITICS: The Global Promise (principle coauthor); THE SPIRITUAL DIMENSION OF GREEN POLITICS; STATES OF GRACE: The Recovery of Meaning in the Postmodern Age; THE RESURGENCE OF THE REAL: Body, Nature, and Place in a Hypermodern World; and RELATIONAL REALITY. She is also author of MISSING MARY and LOST GODDESSES OF EARLY GREECE, as well as editor of an anthology, THE POLITICS OF WOMEN'S SPIRITUALITY. She is currently working on a book on the spiritual dimensions of modern and contemporary art. She was one of the initial theorists of the women's spirituality movement in the 1970s and was a co-founder of the Green Party movement in the United States in the 1980s. In 2006 she was named by the Environment Department of the British government one of the "100 Eco-Heroes of All Time." She was raised in Ohio and now resides in Ojai, California, with her husband, where she enjoys gardening and walks through the nature preserves. For further information about her books, see www.CharleneSpretnak.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Beautiful Book, December 28, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: States of Grace: The Recovery of Meaning in the Postmodern Age (Paperback)

Spretnak does perhaps the best job I have seen in explaining where the intellectual currents of the West have brought us in this small book. What a shame it is out of print! Maybe my only complaint is the way that she lumps all of deconstructionist philosophy together, drawing conclusions from the project that not even Derrida would recognize. Nevertheless, the beauty of the book lies in the way that she argues for a CONstructive theology and philosophy, using the category of creativity and and feminine aspects of God(dess) to explain how to heal our hurts. Do yourself a favor and read this book.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Religious Experience Defined, June 15, 2000

By 

Renee Thorpe (Karangasem, Bali) - See all my reviews

This review is from: States of Grace: The Recovery of Meaning in the Postmodern Age (Paperback)

Although I can't totally get behind the author's Goddess philosophy, her point is well-argued. This is a very valuable book for anyone who wants a fresh look at modern ills.

Her recognition of our society's destructive "savvy detachment" is pure genius.

This book will be hated by deconstructionists, half my college professors, capitalists, communists, people who fear religion, and other sundry materialists who feed on apathy and who promote the destruction of the spiritual and the true. That should be enough reason to read this book!

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Recovery of Sanity in an Age of Surfeit, January 27, 2004

By 

Robert L. Rose (Blooming Glen, PA, 18911-0064, Bucks County,United States)) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: States of Grace: The Recovery of Meaning in the Postmodern Age (Hardcover)

I've been periodically re-reading this book since I first read it in 1993, and I learn more each time. Brilliant insight, wisdom, and writing.