History of Contemporary Spirituality

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This course delves into the socio-historical contexts of non- institutionalized ideologies at the inter-cultural and inter- disciplinary crossroads of "eastern" and "western" religious, philosophical, psychological and scientific discourses in modern western cultures. It focuses on alternative beliefs and practices of eastern and western charismatic leaders and new religious movements—popularly referred to as "spiritual teachers" or "gurus" and "cults"—in Europe and North America, after 1800. This includes Ralph Waldo Emerson’s American Transcendentalism, Helena Blavatsky’s Theosophy, Phineas Quimby’s New Thought, Vivekananda’s Neo-Hinduism, D.T. Suzuki’s Neo-Buddhism, Inayat Khan’s Neo-Sufism, Count Keyserling’s Darmstadt School, C.G. Jung’s Eranos Circle and various New Age movements. Students will critically reflect on such alternative quests for meaning outside conventional sciences and religions. In doing so, they will learn more about post-Enlightenment responses to the "age of reason," post-colonial encounters between "eastern" and "western" traditions in a globalizing world, and post-modern blends of methods and theo-ries from different academic and societal domains, which have culminated in a growing "cultic milieu" of "seekers" across modern western cultures. "Seekers" are individuals who collectively identify as "spiritual, but not religious." During this course, students will reflect on questions such as: Why have so many seekers in modern western cultures turned away from conventional western religions and sciences? Why are they turning to eastern and alternative western traditions instead? How are they selectively combining eastern and western methods and theories into new sources of meaning? What combinations have we seen in the recent past and which ones do we see around today? By the end of this course, students will have a better understanding of the history behind contemporary spirituality.