American Spiritualities

A Reader

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Edited by Catherine L. Albanese

Indiana University Press

Due/Published April 2001, 552 pages, paper

ISBN 0253214327

American Spiritualities is a reader designed to explore 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.

Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction

Part One: Knowing through the Body: The Path of Ritual
1. Tamar Frankiel--Ritual Sites in the Narrative of American Religion
2. Charles E. Hambrick-Stowe,-The Ordinances of Public Worship
3. Virgilio Elizondo--Popular Religion as the Core of Cultural Identity Based on the Mexican American Experience in the United States
4. Tamar Frankiel--Thought, Speech, Action: Rhythms of Jewish Life
5. Joseph Epes Brown, ed.--Wiwanyag Wachipi: The Sun Dance
6. Starhawk--The Coven

Part Two: Knowing through the Heart: The Path of Feeling and Emotion
7. Curtis D. Johnson--The Second Birth
8. Jarena Lee--The Life and Religious Experience of Jarena Lee
9. Aimee Semple McPherson--Girlhood" and "Salvation and the Baptism of the Holy Spirit
10. Charles W. Colson--An Unforgettable Night
11. Jerry Rubin--est
12. E. Burke Rochford, Jr.--Surrendering to Krishna: Devi's Story

Part Three: Knowing through the Will: The Path of Prophecy and Social Action
13. Joachim Wach--The Reformer" and "The Prophet"
14. Henry David Thoreau--Resistance to Civil Government
15. Carry A. Nation--The Divine Call
16. Emma Goldman--(from) Living My Life
17. Martin Luther King, Jr.,--Letter from Birmingham Jail
18. Janet and Robert Aldridge, Molly Rush, and Daniel Berrigan--Testimonies

Part Four: Knowing through the Mind: The Path of Metaphysics
19. Catherine L. Albanese--The Subtle Energies of Spirit: Explorations in Metaphysical and New Age Spirituality
20. Ralph Waldo Trine--Fullness of Life--Bodily Health and Vigor
21. Thomas Merton--The Gift of Understanding" and "The Night of the Senses
22. Annie Dillard--Seeing
23. B. Alan Wallace with Steven Wilhelm--Four Applications of Mindfulness
24. Dhyani Ywahoo--Renewing the Sacred Hoop
25. Shirley MacLaine--The New Age and Rational Thought" and "A Rainbow of Expression
26. B.K.S. Iyengar--The Tree and Its Parts
27. Chen Kung--Discourse on Mind-Intent and Ch'i