Driven by global economic forces to innovate, today’s society paradoxically looks forward to the future while staring only at the nearest, most local present—the most recent financial quarter, the latest artistic movement, the instant message or blog post at the top of the screen. Postmodernity is lived, it seems, at the end of history. In the essays collected in Local Transcendence, Alan Liu takes the pulse of such postmodern historicism by tracking two leading indicators of its acceleration in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries: postmodern cultural criticism—including the new historicism, the new cultural history, cultural anthropology, the new pragmatism, and postmodern and postindustrial theory—and digital information technology. What is the relation between the new historicist anecdote and the database field, Liu asks, and can either have a critical function in the age of postmodern historicism? Local Transcendence includes two previously unpublished essays and a synthetic introduction in which Liu traverses from his earlier work on the theory of historicism to his recent studies of information culture to propose a theory of contingent method incorporating a special inflection of history: media history.
Notions of self-determination are central to modern politics, yet the relationship between the self-determination of individuals and peoples has not been adequately addressed, nor adequately allied to cosmopolitanism. Transcendence seeks to rectify this by offering an original theory of self and society. It highlights overlooked affinities between existentialism and pragmatism and compares figures central to these traditions. The book's guiding thread is a unique model of the social development of the self that is indebted to the pragmatist George Herbert Mead. Drawing on the work of thinkers from both sides of the Atlantic—Hegel, William James, Dewey, Du Bois, Sartre, Marcuse, Bourdieu, Rorty, Neil Gross, and Jean-Baker Miller—and according supporting roles to Adam Smith, Habermas, Herder, Charles Taylor, and Simone de Beauvoir, Aboulafia combines European and American traditions of self-determination and cosmopolitanism in a new and persuasive way.
In this definitive book on the scientifically proven health and stress-relieving benefits of Transcendental Meditation, a renowned psychiatrist and researcher explores why TM works, what it can do, and how to use it for maximum effect.
This innovative collection examines the transnational movements, effects, and transformations of religion in the contemporary world, offering a fresh perspective on the interrelation between globalization and religion. Transnational Transcendence challenges some widely accepted ideas about this relationship—in particular, that globalization can be understood solely as an economic phenomenon and that its religious manifestations are secondary. The book points out that religion's role remains understudied and undertheorized as an element in debates about globalization, and it raises questions about how and why certain forms of religious practice and intersubjectivity succeed as they cross national and cultural boundaries. Framed by Thomas J. Csordas's introduction, this timely volume both urges further development of a theory of religion and globalization and constitutes an important step toward that theory.
Resounding Transcendence is a pathbreaking volume exploring how sacred music effects religious and social transitions. It covers Christian, Muslim, Jewish, and Buddhist practices in Asia, North America, Africa, and Europe. Rich in ethnographic and historical detail and theoretically ambitious, Resounding Transcendence is essential to the study of music and religion.
Critical Acclaim for The Roots of Transcendence... From the Scholars: "This is a powerful book.... A true picture of the cross-fertilization of human history and culture....A major book, one of the signposts of the time." -Molefi Kete Asante, PhD, Chairman, Department of African-American Studies, Temple University; Author, Afroocentricity, and Rhythms Unity From the Psychiatrists: "A PIONEERING TEXT in Transego Psychology. The author envisions the next step in the development of human psychology. He raises the 'new' question that the self is not localized in the mind but is 'non-local, ' a field of interconnected relations.... A valuable model is presented to define psychopathological diagnostic issues and therapeutic treatment issues. Truly wonderful." -Richard D. King, MD, From the Preface; Author, African Origin of Biological Psychiatry From the Consciousness Researchers: "A daring leap involving new conceptual models.... Discusses the anxieties and stresses of our time while IT PROVIDES READERS THE TOOLS BY WHICH ANXIETIES AND STRESSES CAN BE ADDRESSED." -Stanley Krippner, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Psychology, California Institute of Integral Studies; Author, Dreamtime and Dreamwork, and Your Personal Mythology "A mighty synthesis of knowledge and feeling, science and poetry, clinical observation and spiritual insight... which SPEAKS POWERFULLY TO LAY AND PROFESSIONAL PEOPLE ALIKE.... An important contribution to our understanding of the mind and its operation in the world." -John White, MAT, Author, Future Science, and Kundalini, Evolution and Enlightenment Here is the epic adventure of the rise and unfolding of human consciousness from its earliest days millennia ago, on through the first civilizations and down to contemporary times. The mythic Mitochondrial DNA, "mother of humanity," of 10,000 generations ago is used to personalize this journey for readers, a journey seen to be an integral part of each of us. This includes not only her shared African gene pool but also the neuro-biologically interwoven evolutionary impulse. How different personalities deal with this intelligent and luminous current is the primary thrust of this groundbreaking book that readers will find of extraordinary value in the exploration of human consciousness. Edward Bruce Bynum, PhD, is a clinical psychologist, family therapist, and Director of the Behavioral Medicine and Biofeedback Clinic, University of Massachusetts Health Services. He is the author of The Family Unconscious and Families and the Interpretation of Dreams. He has published widely in both popular and professional journals. Some of his work has been translated into German, Japanese and Russian. He is a student and a practitioner of Kundalini Yoga.
A compilation of abstracts of papers presented at the 8th International Symposium on Society and Resource Management, held June 17-22, 2000. The abstracts explore the social dimensions of managing spatial landscapes for various purposes. The theme of the symposium, "Transcending Boundaries: Natural Resource Management form Summit to Sea," provided participants with the opportunity to explore the challenges of working across conceptual, cultural, and physical boundaries. The symposium focused on how social science research is being brought to bear on the exploration of "boundary issues" in resource management.
In this volume, an interdisciplinary group of scholars uses history, sociology, anthropology, and semiotics to approach Transcendence as a human phenomenon, and shows the unavoidability of thinking with and through the Beyond. Religious experience has often been defined as an encounter with a transcendent God. Yet humans arguably have always tried to get outside or beyond themselves and society. The drive to exceed some limit or condition of finitude is an eduring aspect of culture, even in a "disenchanted" society that may have cut off most paths of access to the Beyond. The contributors to this volume demonstrate the humanity of Transcendence in various ways: as an effort to get beyond our crass physical materiality; as spiritual entrepreneurship; as the ecstasy of rituals of possession; and as a literary, aesthetic, and semiotic event. These efforts build from a shared conviction that Transcendene is thoroughly human, and accordingly avoid purely confessional and parochial approches while taking seriously the various claims and behavioral expressions of traditions in which Transcendence has been understood in theological terms.
This critique of the postmodern turn discusses the distinctive aspects of postmodern scholarship: the pervasiveness of the literary and the flight from grand theory to local knowledge. Defining features of postmodern thought are also discussed here such as storytelling and localism.
The Church is commonly viewed as an earthly institution, and is much less frequently recognized as a spiritual and heavenly reality called by God “ to make disciples of all nations” (Matt 28:19). This structured and integrated work offers a vision of a Christian Orthodox political thought in which the Church is neither sidelined as having no relevance to this present life, nor dominated by temporal questions or popular movements at the expense of its eternal salvific mission.The author grounds the mission of the Church in the present world both on an understanding of God as Trinity and in her mission to baptize diverse cultures. To do this effectively the Church must recognize and adapt to local and contemporary political and social trends and patterns. It must exemplify the Gospel as a way of communal and social life, not allowing itself to be reduced to an impersonal ideology manifested within the sphere of imagination, opinions, or a private individualistic existence.Drawing upon this philosophy, the author proposes a way for believers to understand questions of both domestic politics and international relations with a view to bringing the world into the Kingdom of God. He suggests specific steps that could be taken to heal and strengthen inter-Orthodox relations, addressing in particular the canonical challenges of the Orthodox diaspora and tensions between the Greek and Slavic components of the Church. He addresses specifically the conflict between the majority Orthodox nations of Russia and Ukraine. Whilst his specific proposals will by no means enjoy universal acceptance, they can serve as a springboard for further dialogue as the Orthodox world seeks to apply these principles in all nations, whatever their current political circumstances may be.
