Transpersonal studies
Hartelius, G., Friedman, H., Andreescu, A. (2013). Transpersonal studies. In A. Runehov, L. Oviedo, & N. P. Azari (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Sciences and Religions. Heidelberg: Springer Verlag.
Atheist Spirituality: A Follow-on from New Atheism?
by Teemu Taira
2012. Tore Ahlbäck (ed.) Post-Secular Religious Practices. Turku: Donner institute for Religious and Cultural History, 388-404.
Download (.pdf) Breaking Up with Bad Stories by Sarah Sentilles
Posted on the Feminism and Religion project - - -
Note: This post is part of a Religion Roundtable where the authors of three prominent faith memoirs were asked to write about their views on—and experience of—female spirituality. Check http://www.patheos.com to read the discussion between Jana Riess, Lauren Winner, and Sarah Sentilles on the unique religious questions facing women today.
Writing a memoir meant denying stories about myself that are no longer true.
Dear Jana and Lauren,
Dear Jana and Lauren,
Jana writes that “Mormon women don’t yet have the luxury of taking their own voices for granted,” and while I recognize that Mormon women are in a different political/theological position than other women, especially in denominations that ordain women, I would like to expand her statement: No woman—anywhere, in any tradition, or on the outside of any tradition—has the luxury of taking her own voice for granted.
Jana worries that writing with a political agenda in mind could make our work smack of propaganda, and I think she is right, but I want to propose that all language is propaganda. Especially theological language. Our words about God are shot through with intentions and agendas; they convey people’s purposes and hopes and fears; and they have real effects.
ON NOT GETTING WHAT WE WANT AND LEARNING TO BE GRATEFUL FOR WHAT WE HAVE BY CAROL P. CHRIST
Originally posted on the Feminism and Religion project
Many women’s dreams have not been realized. How do we come to terms with this thealogically?
Although I am... more
Many women’s dreams have not been realized. How do we come to terms with this thealogically?
Although I am as neurotic as the next person, I am also really wonderful—intelligent, emotionally available, beautiful (if I do say so myself), sweet, caring, and bold. I love to dance, swim, and think about the meaning of life. I passionately wanted to find someone with whom to share my life. I did everything I could to make that happen—including years of therapy and even giving up my job and moving half way around the world when I felt I had exhausted the possibilities at home.
On Being in the Moment By Ivy Helman
Originally published on the Feminism and Religion project
Time. We mark years, months, days, hours, minutes and seconds. We mark seasons. We mark life events. ... more Time. We mark years, months, days, hours, minutes and seconds. We mark seasons. We mark life events. We live our lives in time: both circular and linear. Time began before we did and time will continue after we cannot experience it any further. Some say we repeat time with rebirth. Others suggest that we only have one lifetime of which we should make the most. Still others suggest there is existence outside of time with concepts like infinity and eternal life.
The Naming of Our Mother-Lines by Cynthia Garrity-Bond
Originally published on the Feminism and Religion project
I am Cynthia, daughter of Pauline, daughter of Ellen, daughter of Mary. I first spoke this litany of names at a... more
I am Cynthia, daughter of Pauline, daughter of Ellen, daughter of Mary. I first spoke this litany of names at a retreat given by Carol Christ. As we entered the chapel, each woman was given a rose to place in the center of the circle after she recited her own mother line. Simple but incredibly powerful, a beautiful reminder of our matriarchal inheritance.
The reflection of this ritual is all the more rich because today is my birthday. Especially since my mother’s death in 1990, March 9 is a day of reflection on our complicated mother-daughter relationship with all its highs and lows that marked our lives. But what I really miss from her are the stories told around the kitchen table, starting with the uniqueness of each of our births. With each one, the hope and expectation of both parents was for a daughter. Not until the fourth birth did their plea to St. Jude, patron saint of lost causes (and our family’s most depended on saint), bring forth their highly anticipated girl.
The “Curse of Eve”—Is Pain Our Punishment? Part 2 by Stacia Guzzo
Originally published in the Feminism and Religion project
In the first part, I posed the question about whether or not the so-called “Curse of Eve” could be interpreted... more In the first part, I posed the question about whether or not the so-called “Curse of Eve” could be interpreted alternatively from the traditional understanding of Genesis 3:16a (the result of Eve’s disobedience being the punishment of painful childbirth for all generations of women). I considered an alternate interpretation of “sorrow” rather than “pain” for the verse, a lens through which the punishment could then be seen as impacting the God-human relationship rather than as a condemnation of pain.
FORGIVENESS or TRUTH: WHICH IS THE BEST REMEDY? by Carol P. Christ
Originally published in the Feminism and Religion project
What happened to you really was bad. This should not happen to any child. It should not have happened to you.
In our culture there is often a rush to forgiveness that precedes acknowledging the harm that has been done. When I was a child and my father yelled at me or withheld love, I was told by mother, “He really does love you. He just does not know how to show it.” She sometimes added, “Even though he will never say he is sorry, you should forgive your father, because he did not really mean what he said.”
The Sovereignty of the Soul by Elizabeth Mott
Originally published on the Feminism and Religion project
As a teenager, I had very little self-confidence, and I was—and still am—an idealist. My mother, who suffered from... more As a teenager, I had very little self-confidence, and I was—and still am—an idealist. My mother, who suffered from diabetes and heart disease, never worked outside the home. She raised four children—one with disabilities—and found a great deal of happiness doing that when we were young. She died at the age of 49, when I was 21. By that point in my life, I had serious questions about my worth as a female member of society. How much of this was due to my family, how much was due to my religion, and how much was due to my middle-class American background? That is hard to answer. But I would probably say that my 21-year-old angst had more to do with witnessing my mother’s health challenges than anything else.
A FEMINIST TAOIST VOICE PART 2: MY DIALOGUE WITH ELISA FON, ACUPUNCTURIST, TAOIST, FEMINIST AND FRIEND by Sara Frykenberg
Originally published on the Feminism and Religion project
Taoism is a philosophy that, for me, has been around so long because it is meant to move and change with society…
Acupuncturist, healer and friend, Elisa Fon and I began a discussion of Taoism and feminism in Part 1 of this interview. Elisa defined her vision of feminism and Taoism, explained Taoism’s relational and yet, individual emphasis on what is particular in each of our experiences and considered the basic relationship of yang and yin. Part 2 picks up where she and I left off, returning to the discussion of yin, yang and supposed dualisms.
Sara: I was wondering if you could talk a little about the complementarity of yin and yang?
On Cooking and Eating by Ivy Helman
Originally published on the Feminism and Religion project
In patriarchal heterosexist societies women do most if not all of the cooking for their families. Women are also... more In patriarchal heterosexist societies women do most if not all of the cooking for their families. Women are also usually assigned the tasks of cleaning, raising children, tending the family garden, gathering water and anything else that is considered part and parcel of caring for the family. These feminine tasks are often devalued compared to the activities men spend their time doing. I wholeheartedly support the reevaluation of the significance of these tasks and the movement toward shared responsibility for family life among heterosexual couples, however that is not what I want to discuss today.
Football Is a Bad Religion by Barbara Ardinger
Originally published on the Feminism and Religion project
As soon as I read Carol Christ’s comments on football, I said, “Yeah! She’s totally right.” I keep asking people I... more
As soon as I read Carol Christ’s comments on football, I said, “Yeah! She’s totally right.” I keep asking people I know who watch football games what is enjoyable about watching large millionaires giving each other concussions. I understand that some sports demand skills I don’t possess, but football? What skills? It’s a mystery to me.
The characters in my new novel, Secret Lives, agree with Carol and me about the Super Bowl. The following excerpt comes from Chapter 21, “A World at War.” The Norns, in disguise as the Wintergreen Sisters, have come to town with the intention of taking power over the heras of the novel, the grandmothers who live in Long Beach, CA, and do magic. Our crones, however, have no intention of being taken over, or even seduced by promises of power, but when they meet on Super Bowl Sunday, 1990, they don’t yet know that the war on TV will be only a tiny fragment of the larger war that the Norns will soon wage against them using gigantic ravens and thunderstorms as their weapons.
Let’s listen in on “the girls.” (Madame Blavatsky is the circle’s familiar, a talking cat.)
Goddess Meditation: Pattini by Laura Loomis
Originally published on the Feminism and Religion project
I first became interested in Goddess spirituality because of my love of storytelling. Centuries-old stories... more
I first became interested in Goddess spirituality because of my love of storytelling. Centuries-old stories yield multiple layers of meaning, and can be told many different ways to get at different truths. In this respect, the written word is both a blessing and a curse. It preserves stories that might otherwise be lost; who knows what tales were told about the Venus of Willendorf, or the giant heads on Easter Island? But it also gives rise to the idea that there is a single “right” version of sacred stories. Adam and Eve can be a meditation on choice and responsibility, but the insistence on taking the story literally can turn it into a command to disbelieve science.
I’ve been working on some meditations about the connection between Goddess spirituality and political activism. Last weekend, with people across the country rising up against Proposition 8, I was reminded of a story from Sri Lanki, about the Goddess Pattini.
Pattini (also called Kannaki or Kannagi) began life as an ordinary woman, in a less-than-perfect marriage. Her husband Kovolan was a philanderer, lured away from her by a beautiful young dancer. After he’d burned through all their money, the dancer left him broke and alone. A wiser Kovolan returned to Pattini and begged her forgiveness.
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Addendum - More Seminal Ethics Implications
by Mark Singer
Tandem works include: "Seminal Ethics," "Kant Concept Art," "More Seminal Ethics Implications" - also on this site.
This paper includes the "Possibility Implications" of the Kantian, Machiavellian, and Nietzschean Ethical Standards.
Review: Tales of Lights and Shadows: The Mythology of the Afterlife (New York: Continuum Publishing Group, 2010), by Robert S. Ellwood.
Book review. ARC 39 (2011): 22-4.
Exploring the Extraordinary 4th Conference
21st-23rd September, 2012, York UK
FRIDAY, 21st September
1.00-1.15 Introduction
1.15-1.45 ‘The... more
FRIDAY, 21st September
1.00-1.15 Introduction
1.15-1.45 ‘The spectacular supernatural: Victoria Spiritualism and the rise of modern show business’ Simone Natale, University of Cologne
1.45-2.15 ‘Extraordinary claims, uncanny history: Testing historical
interpretations of Spiritualism and the First World War’ Ben McDonald, University of Melbourne
2.15-2.45 ‘Reconstructing Seaford: A historical methodology to trace the rise of the psychokinetic theory of the poltergeist phenomenon’ Christopher Laursen, University of British Columbia
2.45-3.00 Break
3.00-3.30 ‘A qualitative study of anomalous telephonic experiences’ Callum Cooper, University of Northampton
3.30-4.00 ‘The nature and quality of child-parent relationships as predictors of adult paranormal and new age beliefs’ Dr Paul Rogers, University of Central Lancashire
4.00-4.15 Break
4.15-4.45 ‘Listening for vampiric and ‘other’ worldly voices: Navigating dark occultural cyberspace in search of the extraordinary’ Dr Sean O’Callaghan, University of Lancaster
4.45-5.15 ‘Revenant revolutions’ Jonathan Ferguson, Leeds Royal Armouries
6.30-8.00 Dinner
Evening Activity: Films
8.00 The Fortean tales of Lapis Lazu, Christopher Laursen, University of British Columbia
8.30 Science and spirit(s), Prof Charles Emmons, Gettysburg College
SATURDAY, 22nd September
10.00-10.30 ‘Exploring extraordinary geographies: The overlapping spaces of the practical, the social and the otherworldly’, Dr Nadia Bartolini, Dr Sara MacKian & Dr Steve Pile, Open University
10.30-11.00 ‘Crystals, angels and a discourse of healing: Exploring extraordinary therapeutic landscapes,’ Dr Sara MacKian, Open University
11.00-11.15 Break
11.15-11.45 ‘GHosts, guests and hosts, and how to make them’ Sarah Sparkes, University of London
11.45-12.15 ‘English heretic: An application of magical psychogeography and modern necromancy’ Andy Sharp
12.15-12.45 ‘Expressions of spirithood: Performance and the manifestation of spirits,’ Jack Hunter, University of Bristol
12.45-2.00 Lunch
2.00-2.30 ‘In the light and shadow: Turning the dead to keep the world alive,’ Dr Christel Mattheuws, University of Aberdeen
2.30-3.00 ‘The shamanic journey: Ordinary into extraordinary reality’, Dr Zoe Bran
3.00-3.30 ‘Magic, materialism and mushrooms: Psilocybin mushrooms user’s constructions of the reality of psychedelic entity encounters’ James Thompson, University of Bath
3.30-3.45 Break
3.45-4.15 ‘“Knock, knock… who’s there?” Orientating to spirits in the spatial and personal environment’ Rachael Hayward, University of York
4.15-4.45 ‘Ghostly interventions: Revenant landscapes and para-places’ James Thurgill, Royal Holloway University of London
4.45-5.15 ‘The material remains of presence on an excavated hauntscape: A transductive ethnography of a spectral soundscape’ John Sabol
Evening Activity: Dinner and Social Evening
7.00 Dinner venue tbc
SUNDAY, 23rd September
10.00-10.30 ‘Noise and the infinite’ Adam Potts, Newcastle University
10.30-11.00 ‘Paramusicology: The fusion of music and the paranormal’ Dr Melvyn Willin
11.00-11.15 Break
11.15-11.45 ‘Religion and the paranormal in pragmatist philosophy,’ Dr Guy Bennett-Hunter, University of Edinburgh
11.45-12.15 ‘It takes one to know one: Imaginal cognition and the question of spiritual reality’ Dr Angela Voss
12.15-12.30 Break
12.30-1.00 ‘Emotion, extraordinary experience and ethics’ Dr Madeleine Castro, Leeds Metropolitan University & Dr Hannah Gilbert, York St John University
1.00 Lunch