The next enlightenment : integrating East and West in a new vision of human evolution / Walter Truett Anderson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Anderson, Walt, 1933-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Religious awakening.

Spirituality--Psychology.

Spirituality.

Human evolution--Religious aspects.

Human evolution.

East and West.

Physical Description:

vii, 263 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : St. Martin's Press, 2003.

Summary:

In The Next Enlightenment, Walter Truett Anderson treats Eastern spiritual traditions and Western philosophy, psychology, and science as steps along the same evolutionary path rather than as completely separate and incompatible schools of thought. In the opening chapters, he looks at five different "Liberation Movements" that emerged in the modern world: the eighteenth-century European Enlightenment; the nineteenth-century upheaval resulting from the publication of Darwin's Origin of Species; and in the twentieth century, existentialism, psychoanalysis, and the human potential movement of the 1960s and 1970s. He then argues that this century's next surge of thought and action will regard the exploration of the physical universe and the study of human consciousness as two sides of the same coin, and equally important, come to understand personal enlightenment as a natural process of growth rather than a supernatural gift bestowed upon a chosen few. Elegantly argued and written with a sense of humor, The Next Enlightenment offers a refreshing vision of how the ancient quest for enlightenment is taking on new life in a rapidly changing, globalizing world.

Contents:

Introduction: Pulling Buddha's Tooth 1

Part 1 Five Modern Liberation Movements 17

1. Enlightenment, European Style 19

2. Meeting Cousin Mushroom 37

3. The Dark Matter of the Mind 47

4. Existence Lost and Found 61

5. East Meets West in the Hot Tubs 75

Part 2 The New Mirror of Science 93

6. Meeting Cousin Sirius 95

7. The Mysterious Material Mind 111

8. Being Constructive 127

9. All the Things You Are 147

Part 3 Daring to Know in the Twenty-first Century 159

10. The Social Ramble of Ego and Identity 161

11. Up and Down with Religion and Spirituality 173

12. Real People, Transcendent Moments 191

13. Personal Evolution: Becoming Who You Are 211

14. The Emerging Englightenment Project 225

Epilogue: You Are Never Alone, You Are Always Home 243.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 245-257) and index.

ISBN:

0312317697

OCLC:

51543699