The Spiritual Quest - Transcendence in Myth, Religion & Science (Paper)

1. Auflage 1997
ISBN: 978-0-520-21159-9
Verlag: University of California Press

Buch, Englisch, 330 Seiten, Trade Paperback, Format (B × H): 172 mm x 228 mm, Gewicht: 596 g

Robert Torrance's wide-ranging, innovative study argues that the spiritual quest is rooted in our biological, psychological, linguistic, and social nature. The quest is not, as most have believed, a rare mystical experience, but a frequent expression of our most basic human impulses. Shaman and scientist, medium and poet, prophet and philosopher, all venture forth in quest of visionary truths to transform and renew the world.

Yet Torrance is not trying to reduce the quest to an "archetype" or "monomyth." Instead, he presents the full diversity of the quest in the myths and religious practices of tribal peoples throughout the world, from Oceania to India, Africa, Siberia, and especially the Americas. In theorizing about the quest, Torrance draws on thinkers as diverse as Bergson and Piaget, van Gennep and Turner, Pierce and Popper, Freud, Darwin, and Chomsky. This is a book that will expand our knowledge—and awareness—of a fundamental human activity in all its fascinating complexity.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Torrance, Robert M.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Sonstige Religionen Sonstige Religionen: Theologie, Doktrine
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Religionsphilosophie, Philosophische Theologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Volkskunde Minderheiten, Interkulturelle & Multikulturelle Fragen
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religionsphilosophie, Philosophische Theologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Soziologie von Migranten und Minderheiten
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Moderne Philosophische Disziplinen Philosophische Anthropologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

PREFACE

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

PART ONE· ANIMAL QUAERENS: THE QUEST AS A DIMENSION OF HUMAN EXPERIENCE

1. Religion and the Spiritual Quest: From Closure to Openness

2. Biological and Psychological Foundations of the Quest

3. Linguistic Foundations of the Quest

4. The Questing Animal

PART TWO · THE SPIRITUAL QUEST IN RITUAL AND MYTH

5. Ritual as Affirmation and Transformation

6. Myth and the Journey beyond the Self

7. Mobility and Its Limits in Communal Ritual and Myth

PART THREE· SPIRIT POSSESSION AS A FORM OF THE SPIRITUAL QUEST

8. The Varieties of Spirit Possession

9. Possession and Transformation

PART FOUR· FORMS OF THE SHAMANIC QUEST

10. Shamanism, Possession, and Ecstasy: Australia and the Tropics
11. Shamanic Heartland: Central and Northern Eurasia

PART FIVE · FORMS OF THE QUEST IN NATIVE AMERICA

12. The Arctic and Western North America

13. Mesoamerica and South America

14. Eastern North America and the Great Plains

PART SIX · THE THEORY OF THE QUEST:SOME CLOSING CONSIDERATIONS

15. A Ternary Process

16. The Reality of Transcendence

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

Über Autor(innen)

Robert M. Torrance is Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of California, Davis.