American Gurus: From Transcendentalism to New Age Religion 1st Edition, Kindle Edition
by Arthur Versluis (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
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By the early twenty-first century, a phenomenon that once was inconceivable had become nearly commonplace in American society: the public spiritual teacher who neither belongs to, nor is authorized by a major religious tradition. From the Oprah Winfrey-endorsed Eckhart Tolle to figures like Gangaji and Adhyashanti, there are now countless spiritual teachers who claim and teach variants of instant or immediate enlightenment.
American Gurus tells the story of how this phenomenon emerged. Through an examination of the broader literary and religious context of the subject, Arthur Versluis shows that a characteristic feature of the Western esoteric tradition is the claim that every person can achieve "spontaneous, direct, unmediated spiritual insight." This claim was articulated with special clarity by the New England Transcendentalists Bronson Alcott and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Versluis explores Transcendentalism, Walt Whitman, the Beat movement, Timothy Leary, and the New Age movement to shed light on the emergence of the contemporary American guru.
This insightful study is the first to show how Asian religions and Western mysticism converged to produce the phenomenon of "spontaneously enlightened" American gurus.
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Publication date
1 April 2014
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Product description
About the Author
Arthur Versluis, Chair of the Department of Religious Studies and Professor in the College of Arts & Letters at Michigan State University, holds a doctorate from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and has published numerous books and articles. Versluis was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to Germany, and is the founding editor of Esoterica, and co-editor of JSR: Journal for the Study of Radicalism. He is the founding president of the Association for the Study of Esotericism. --This text refers to the hardcover edition.
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Review
"The first truly thoughtful history of an important aspect of religion in North America...American Gurus acts as a handy source of short intellectual biographies of some of the movement's lesser known figures of whom there has previously been very little publicly available information. As such, it is a valuable source for religious studies researchers."--Books at a Glance
"[The book] covers many figures who are little known - and some who are completely off the beaten track (perhaps its chief virtue) - and it puts them together in an interesting way to tell an original story about the history of religion in America."--Hugh B. Urban, Ohio State University
"Versluis is one of the leading scholars of esoteric traditions in the United States, and this volume nicely complements his earlier work on esoteric themes in Transcendentalism and the American Renaissance, tracing the influence of the same esoteric currents up to the present."--Daniel P. McKanan, Harvard University --This text refers to the hardcover edition.
From the Publisher
Arthur Versluis, Chair of the Department of Religious Studies and Professor in the College of Arts & Letters at Michigan State University, holds a doctorate from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and has published numerous books and articles. Versluis was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to Germany, and is the founding editor of Esoterica, and co-editor of JSR: Journal for the Study of Radicalism. He is the founding president of the Association for the Study of Esotericism. --This text refers to the hardcover edition.
Product details
ASIN : B00MN95UIS
Publisher : Oxford University Press; 1st edition (1 April 2014)
Word Wise : Not Enabled
Print length : 320 pages
Customer Reviews: 4.6 out of 5 stars 3 ratings
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Arthur Versluis
Arthur Versluis, Chair of the Department of Religious Studies and Professor in the College of Arts & Letters at Michigan State University, holds a doctorate from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and has published numerous books and articles. Among his books are _Magic and Mysticism: An Introduction to Western Esotericism_ (Rowman Littlefield, 2007), _The New Inquisitions: Heretic-hunting and the Intellectual Origins of Modern Totalitarianism_ (Oxford UP, 2006), _Restoring Paradise: Esoteric Transmission through Literature and Art_ (SUNY: 2004); _The Esoteric Origins of the American Renaissance_ (Oxford UP: 2001); _Wisdom’s Book: The Sophia Anthology_, (Paragon House, 2000); _Wisdom’s Children: A Christian Esoteric Tradition_ (SUNY: 1999); and _American Transcendentalism and Asian Religions_ (Oxford UP, 1993). His family has owned a commercial farm in West Michigan for several generations, and so he also published _Island Farm_, a book about the family farm and about family farming in the modern era.
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Customer reviews
4.6 out of 5 stars
Galway Bay Yoga | Linking People through Books
5.0 out of 5 stars Just a wonderful read.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 25 April 2018
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Highly refreshing wander into the ideas, and personages of "Immediatism". Written with a lively combination of detailed-clarity, and bird's-eye perspective. Just a wonderful read.
Mountain Woman
5.0 out of 5 stars Good book!
Reviewed in the United States on 10 October 2018
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Fascinating overview of the history of homegrown spiritual teachers, now available at a reasonable cost; when first encountered, the cost of the book on Amazon was $70.00+! Finally the price was lowered, making purchase do-able; excellent addition to my library, and to my knowledge of non-mainstream spiritual traditions in the US; does not include large body of info on foreign born teachers who brought their wisdom to our great land. Recommended reading for those with interest in comparative religion.
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