Practical Spirituality and Human Development: Creative Experiments for Alternative Futures

Description

This book explores varieties of spiritual movements and alternative experiments for the generation of beauty, dignity and dialogue in a world where the rise of the religious in politics and the public sphere is often accompanied by violence. It examines how spirituality can contribute to human development, social transformations and planetary realizations, urging us to treat each other, and our planet, with evolutionary care and respect. Trans-disciplinary and trans-paradigmatic to its very core, this text opens new pathways of practical spirituality and humanistic action for both scholarship and discourse and offers an invaluable companion for scholars across religious studies, cultural studies and development studies. Front Matter ....Pages i-xxxv Practical Spirituality, Human Development and Creative Experiments for Alternative Futures: An Introduction and an Invitation (Ananta Kumar Giri)....Pages 1-9 Front Matter ....Pages 11-11 On the Holy Ground: Practical Spirituality and Practical Moral Courage (Carolyn Swift Jones)....Pages 13-15 Multidimensional Mysticism (Shivjot Gill, John Clammer)....Pages 17-37 Practical Spirituality: The Art and Science of Conscious Living (Karminder Ghuman, Michael A. Wride, Philip Franses)....Pages 39-57 The New Spiritual Paradigm as Facilitator of Social Change (Marta Botta)....Pages 59-72 Expressions of Self in Market, Society and Self: Toward Spiritual Praxis for Human Development (Subhash Sharma)....Pages 73-87 Cultivating Practical Spirituality: Soil, Soul and Sarvodaya (Alexander Scheiffer, Ronald Lessem)....Pages 89-108 Practical Spirituality and Human Development: Circles of Gender Liberation and the Calling of Lokasamgraha (Ananta Kumar Giri)....Pages 109-126 Front Matter ....Pages 127-127 Practical Spirituality and the Contemporary City: Awakening the Transformative Power for Sustainable Living (Christoph Woiwode, Nisha Woiwode)....Pages 129-151 Practical Spirituality: Dabbawala Case (Mala Kapadia)....Pages 153-170 Practical Spirituality and Developmental Challenges Amongst Tibetan Communities in India (Thomas Kauffmann)....Pages 171-193 Practical Spirituality with Meher Baba and Human Development in the Modern Age (Rachel Dymond)....Pages 195-211 Practical Spirituality and Religious Giving: Pluralism and New Forms of American Muslim Giving (Sabith Khan)....Pages 213-235 Community and Practical Spirituality: Perspectives on L’Arche as an Arena for Contemplative Transformation (Anne Escrader)....Pages 237-254 Assertive Sprout from Wounded Psyche: Glimpses into Dalit Spirituality (A. Maria Arul Raja SJ)....Pages 255-276 The Politics of Spirituality: Dissident Spiritual Practice of Poykayil Appachan and the Shared Legacy of Kerala Renaissance (Ajay S. Sekher)....Pages 277-282 Transforming Life-Worlds: In Praise of Kundrakudi Adigalar’s Practical Spirituality (James Ponniah)....Pages 283-301 Subud: A Practical Mystical Path for the Twenty-First Century (Reynold Ruslan Feldman)....Pages 303-321 Islam, Political Culture and Practical Spirituality in Kedah, a State in Northwestern Malaysia (Ahmad Fauzi Abdul Hamid)....Pages 323-352 Ziyaret and Practical Spirituality: Women’s Shrine Visits in Anatolia (Smita Tewari Jassal, Sebnem Koser Akcapar)....Pages 353-375 Front Matter ....Pages 377-377 The Material and the Spiritual: The Provisionality of Matter and the Politics of Miracles in Japanese New Religions (John Clammer)....Pages 379-402 The Spiritual Politics of Bio-Cultural Regeneration (Frédérique Apffel-Marglin)....Pages 403-421 Human Consciousness and Its Discontents: An Ecological Reading of The Awakening of Faith in the Mahāyāna (Feng-chu Cheng)....Pages 423-435 Ecological Holism: Arne Naess’s Gestalt Ontology and Merleau-Ponty’s Bodily-Flesh Phenomenology (Su-chen Wu)....Pages 437-453 Light Development in an Age of Climate Change (Louke van Wensveen)....Pages 455-477 Spirituality as a Bridge: A Holistic Approach to Social Development and Dignity (Sudha Sreenivasa Reddy)....Pages 479-493 Practical Spirituality and Journey with Sacred Mountains (María Constanza Ceruti)....Pages 495-509 Back Matter ....Pages 511-528