Based largely on research in popular journals, self-help manuals, newspaper accounts, and archival collections, American Feminism and the Birth of New Age Spirituality demonstrates that the New Age movement first flourished more than a century ago during the Gilded Age under the mantle of 'New Thought'. Tumber pays close attention to the ways in which feminism became grafted, with varying degrees of success, to emergent forms of liberal culture in the late nineteenth century, and questions the value of the new age movement--then and now--to the pursuit of women's rights and democratic renewal. Visit our website for sample chapters!

Nineteenth-century American authors, critics, and readers believed that biography had the power to shape individuals' characters and to help define the nation's identity. In an age predating radio and television, biography was not simply a genre of writin

This text offers a cultural history of Universalism & the Universalist idea - the idea that an all-good & all-powerful God saves all souls. Bressler puts forth the unique argument that early Universalists were proponents of an 'improved' Calvinism.

The story of secularization and religious disestablishment in American higher education is told from the standpoint of a lively community of professors, students, and administrators at the University of Michigan in the late nineteenth century. This campus culture--one of the most closely watched of its day--sheds new light on the personal and cultural meanings of these momentous changes in American intellectual and public life. Here we see how religion was not so much displaced or marginalized in the heyday of university reform as translated into new arenas of public service and scholarly pursuit. The main characters in this story--professors Calvin Thomas and Henry Carter Adams--underwent profound religious crises of faith accompanied by major adjustments in their interpersonal relationships. Together, with students and administrators, their lives constituted a communal biography of religious deconversion. A close examination of these private and public worlds provides a more complete understanding of the dynamics behind new academic policies and intellectual innovations in a leading public university. The non-cognitive, intersubjective, gendered, quasi-religious shadings of academic modernism and early pragmatist philosophy, in particular, come to light in vivid ways. As John Dewey later observed, Michigan became an experimental laboratory for new meanings to unfold, new acts to propose.

These two volumes present the main contributions from the 29th International Congress of Psychology, held in Berlin in 2008, and are written by international leaders in psychology from around the world. The authors present a variety of approaches and perspectives that reflect cutting-edge advances in psychological science. Personality, Developmental, Social and Cultural Issues provides an overview of advances in several areas of psychology such as clinical, health, social, developmental, and cross-cultural psychology. One section of the volume is dedicated solely to emotions and health, and addresses state-of-the-art work on the regulation of self, health, social relations, and emotions such as passion. Other sections deal with development and personality issues as well as conceptual, cultural, and ethnic approaches to modern psychology. The global perspective of this collection illustrates research being undertaken on all five continents and emphasizes the cultural diversity of the contributors. This book will be an invaluable resource for researchers, professionals, teachers and students in the field of psychology.

Marion Goldman and Steven Pfaff define a spiritual virtuoso as someone who works toward personal purification and a sense of holiness with the same perseverance and intensity that virtuosi strive to excel in the arts or athletics. Since the Protestant Reformation, activist virtuosi have come together in large and small social movements to redefine the meanings of spiritual practice, support religious equality, and transform a wide range of social institutions. Tracing the impact of spiritual virtuosi from the sixteenth century Reformation through the nineteenth-century Anti-Slavery Movement to the twentieth-century Human Potential Movement and beyond, Marion Goldman and Steven Pfaff explore how personal virtuosity can become a social force. Martin Luther began to expand spiritual possibilities in the West when he charted paths that did not require the Church's intercession between the individual and God. He believed that everyone could and should reach toward sacred truths and transcendent moments. Over the centuries, millions of people have built on his innovations and embarked on spiritual quests that offer new possibilities for sacred relationships and social change.

In this book--part biography, part critical analysis--John Hubers introduces us to a man whose pioneering ministry in the Ottoman Empire has gone largely unnoticed since his memoir was penned in 1828, three years after his death in Beirut, by a seminary colleague. His name was Pliny Fisk, and he belonged to a cadre of New England seminary students whose evangelical Calvinism led them to believe that God was opening up a new chapter in the life of the Church that included an aggressive evangelism outside the borders of Christendom. Fisk and his friend Levi Parsons joined that effort in 1819 when they became the first American missionaries sent to the Ottoman Empire by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Hubers's intent is to show the complexity of Fisk's character while examining the impact his move to the Middle East made on his perceptions of the religious other. As such, this volume joins a growing body of literature aimed at providing critical, historical, and religious context to the often checkered history of relations between American Christians and Western Asian peoples.

Parents looking for a poetry book... the whole family can enjoy? Teachers looking for poems to make learning fun... for every pupil, girl or boy? Students six, sixteen, twenty or seventy-six... seeking "cool" things to learn, or to do? Poetry For Growing... is what you''re looking for. This book was written especially for you. Poetry For Growing has seven sections...Each informative and unique, you''ll find Poems by the current author... And by other poets, skillfully combined. You''ll find stories, skits musical plays in rhyme...philosophical verse, tributes, even a rap To which children, preteens, adolescents... and adults, young or old can adapt. A Seven Section Overview "Poetry for Growing in Self Knowledge," Can help to increase self esteem. "Poetry For Growing in Spiritual Awareness," Can help to explore what faith really means. "Poetry For Growing Toward a Philosophy of Life," Provides opportunities to exercise the mind. "Poetry for Growing in Literature, Language & the Creative Arts," Reveals some of the beauty, which in life, one can find. "Poetry For Growing in Scientific Knowledge," presents A "Panorama of Science," a delightful musical play. "Poetry for Growing in Social and Civic Awareness."

Separating spirituality from religion--something few books on this topic do--Spirituality and Aging offers a plan for incorporating spirituality into gerontological scholarship, research, education, and practice.