Human Interaction with the Divine, the Sacred, and the Deceased

Human Interaction with the Divine, the Sacred, and the Deceased PDF Author: Thomas G. Plante
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000418006
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 303

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Book Description
Human Interaction with the Divine, the Sacred, and the Deceased brings together cutting-edge empirical and theoretical contributions from scholars in fields including psychology, theology, ethics, neuroscience, medicine, and philosophy, to examine how and why humans engage in, or even seek spiritual experiences and connection with the immaterial world. In this richly interdisciplinary volume, Plante and Schwartz recognize human interaction with the divine and departed as a cross-cultural and historical universal that continues to concern diverse disciplines. Accounting for variances in belief and human perception and use, the book is divided into four major sections: personal experience; theological consideration; medical, technological, and scientific considerations; and psychological considerations with chapters addressing phenomena including prayer, reincarnation, sensed presence, and divine revelations. Featuring scholars specializing in theology, psychology, medicine, neuroscience, and ethics, this book provides a thoughtful, compelling, evidence-based, and contemporary approach to gain a grounded perspective on current understandings of human interaction with the divine, the sacred, and the deceased. Of interest to believers, questioners, and unbelievers alike, this volume will be key reading for researchers, scholars, and academics engaged in the fields of religion and psychology, social psychology, behavioral neuroscience, and health psychology. Readers with a broader interest in spiritualism, religious and non-religious movements will also find the text of interest.

Human Interaction with the Divine, the Sacred, and the Deceased

Human Interaction with the Divine, the Sacred, and the Deceased PDF Author: Thomas G. Plante
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000418006
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 303

Get Book Here

Book Description
Human Interaction with the Divine, the Sacred, and the Deceased brings together cutting-edge empirical and theoretical contributions from scholars in fields including psychology, theology, ethics, neuroscience, medicine, and philosophy, to examine how and why humans engage in, or even seek spiritual experiences and connection with the immaterial world. In this richly interdisciplinary volume, Plante and Schwartz recognize human interaction with the divine and departed as a cross-cultural and historical universal that continues to concern diverse disciplines. Accounting for variances in belief and human perception and use, the book is divided into four major sections: personal experience; theological consideration; medical, technological, and scientific considerations; and psychological considerations with chapters addressing phenomena including prayer, reincarnation, sensed presence, and divine revelations. Featuring scholars specializing in theology, psychology, medicine, neuroscience, and ethics, this book provides a thoughtful, compelling, evidence-based, and contemporary approach to gain a grounded perspective on current understandings of human interaction with the divine, the sacred, and the deceased. Of interest to believers, questioners, and unbelievers alike, this volume will be key reading for researchers, scholars, and academics engaged in the fields of religion and psychology, social psychology, behavioral neuroscience, and health psychology. Readers with a broader interest in spiritualism, religious and non-religious movements will also find the text of interest.

The Sacred and the Profane

The Sacred and the Profane PDF Author: Mircea Eliade
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 9780156792011
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description
Famed historian of religion Mircea Eliade observes that even moderns who proclaim themselves residents of a completely profane world are still unconsciously nourished by the memory of the sacred. Eliade traces manifestations of the sacred from primitive to modern times in terms of space, time, nature, and the cosmos. In doing so he shows how the total human experience of the religious man compares with that of the nonreligious. This book serves as an excellent introduction to the history of religion, but its perspective also emcompasses philosophical anthropology, phenomenology, and psychology. It will appeal to anyone seeking to discover the potential dimensions of human existence. -- P. [4] of cover.

The Oxford Handbook of Psychology and Spirituality

The Oxford Handbook of Psychology and Spirituality PDF Author:
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190905557
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 849

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Book Description
Postmaterial spiritual psychology posits that consciousness can contribute to the unfolding of material events and that the human brain can detect broad, non-material communications. In this regard, this emerging field of postmaterial psychology marks a stark departure from psychology's traditional assumptions about materialism, making this text particularly attractive to the current generation of students in psychology and related health and wellness disciplines. For the most part, Gen Z is implicitly postmaterialist. This updated edition of The Oxford Handbook of Psychology and Spirituality codifies the leading empirical evidence in the support and application of postmaterial psychological science. Lisa J. Miller has gathered together a group of ground-breaking scholars to showcase their work of many decades that has come further to fruition in the past ten years with the collective momentum of a spiritual renaissance in psychological science. Relevant to both current university students and established scientists and practitioners ready for new models and direction, the chapters trace with epistemological clarity the core questions of psychological science: How does the brain really work? How might experimental design reveal that all people truly are connected at the level of consciousness, both during our lives and after our deaths? Are there multiple pathways to awakening a spiritual reality? How can we pursue growth and spiritual transformation? With new and updated chapters from leading scholars in psychology, medicine, physics, and biology, the Handbook is an interdisciplinary reference for a rapidly emerging approach to contemporary science. Highlighting fresh ideas and supporting science, this overarching work provides both a foundation and a roadmap for what is truly a new ideological age.

Time of Death

Time of Death PDF Author: Glenys Caswell
Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing
ISBN: 1804550078
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 217

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Book Description
Addressing a gap in social science research to explore the meanings, understandings, and experiences of time at life’s most critical point, this book takes a thoughtful sociological approach to questions about how humans use and experience time in relation to when someone dies.

A Social Cognition Perspective of the Psychology of Religion

A Social Cognition Perspective of the Psychology of Religion PDF Author: Luke Galen
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 135029392X
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 313

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Book Description
An exploration of how psychological mechanisms produce intuitions, beliefs, behaviors, and experiences that are misattributed as being unique outcomes of religious or spiritual influences. Written from a social psychology perspective, this book proposes that religious and spiritual content represent one possible interpretation of the output of processes that also produce and govern nonreligious content. In looking at why people believe in God, and why belief in God is often linked with a range of positive outcomes such as prosociality, morality, health, and happiness, the author uses a critical lens that challenges past theories of religion's functions and adds new perspectives into a discipline that is often limited by an exclusive focus on evolutionary theory. This book features several cross-cutting themes-including “dual process” theory and an exploration of how various social cognition mechanisms and biases can channel or shape religious content-and provides a continuous through-line linking the underlying building blocks of thought, as studied in the cognitive sciences of religion (CSR) to specific religious and spiritual concepts using a social cognition lens.

Divine Play, Sacred Laughter, and Spiritual Understanding

Divine Play, Sacred Laughter, and Spiritual Understanding PDF Author: P. Laude
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1403980586
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
This study in the relationship between religion and the comic focuses on the ways in which the latter fulfils a central function in the sacred understanding of reality of pre-modern cultures and the spiritual life of religious traditions. The central thesis is that figures such as tricksters, sacred clowns, and holy fools play an essential role in bridging the gap between the divine and the human by integrating the element of disequilibrium that results from the contact between incommensurable realities. This interdisciplinary and cross-cultural series of essays is devoted to spiritual, anthropological, and literary characters and phenomena that point to a deeper understanding of the various mythological, ceremonial, and mystical ways in which the fundamental ambiguity of existence is symbolized and acted out. Given its interdisciplinary and cross-cultural perspective, this volume will appeal to scholars from a variety of fields.

The Divine Human

The Divine Human PDF Author: John C. Robinson
Publisher: John Hunt Publishing
ISBN: 1780993358
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 156

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Book Description
With our unprecedented longevity, aging has become a new developmental stage in the human life cycle. Conscious sacred aging now offers humanity profound opportunities for psychological, spiritual and mystical transformation, expanding not only our lifespan but our awareness of God as well. What if we discover in this awakening that we are already divine? What if this realization transforms our very nature and purpose in the world? The Divine Human answers these questions and more, revealing the ultimate meaning of the New Aging.

Integrating Spirituality into Counseling

Integrating Spirituality into Counseling PDF Author: Andrzej K. Jastrzębski
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000686329
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 251

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Book Description
Integrating Spirituality into Counseling uses the Christian tradition as a starting point for developing a universal frame of reference and is predominantly based on an existential approach to counseling, one that is applicable to several faith traditions as well as spiritual but nonreligious audiences. The chapters of this book proceed from the theoretical toward the more practical, in a logical fashion, allowing a clear distinction between different topics, starting from meta-reflection and finishing with practical applications. The design of the book allows students to focus on whatever is of importance to them; each chapter is self-contained and can be read independently of the others. Integrating Spirituality into Counseling is designed for students of counseling, pastoral care, spirituality, theology, and chaplaincy. It will provide readers with the tools they need to work with spiritual issues across traditions. Students will also find advice for when to refer clients to religious leaders or ministers, and they’ll also deepen their understanding of the ways in which spirituality influences one’s life.

Creation of the Sacred

Creation of the Sacred PDF Author: Walter Burkert
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674175709
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
Sacrifice is essential to all religions. Could there be a natural, even biological, reason? Why are sacrifice and numerous other religious rituals and concepts shared by so many different cultures? In this extraordinary book, one of the world’s leading authorities on ancient religions explores the possibility of natural religion.

Sacred Fire

Sacred Fire PDF Author: Ronald Rolheiser
Publisher: Image
ISBN: 080413944X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 370

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Book Description
When one reaches the highest degree of human maturity, one has only one question left: How can I be helpful?—TERESA OF ÁVILA Beloved author Ronald Rolheiser continues his search for an accessible and penetrating Christian spirituality in this highly anticipated follow-up to the contemporary classic, The Holy Longing. With his trademark acuity, wit, and thoughtfulness, Rolheiser shows how identifying and embracing discipleship will lead to new heights of spiritual awareness and maturity. In this new book, Rolheiser takes us on a journey through the dark night of the senses and of the spirit. Here, we experience the full gamut of human life, pleasure and fervor, disillusionment and boredom. But, as Rolheiser explains, when we embrace the struggle and yearning to know God we can experience too a profound re-understanding to our daily lives. “What lies beyond the essentials, the basics?” Rolheiser writes. “Where do we go once some of the basic questions in our lives have been answered, or at least brought to enough peace that our focus can shift away from ourselves to others? Where do we go once the basic questions in our lives are no longer the restless questions of youthful insecurity and loneliness? Who am I? Who loves me? How will my life turn out? Where do we go once the basic question in life becomes: How can I give my life away more purely, and more meaningfully? How do I live beyond my own heartaches, headaches, and obsessions so as to help make other peoples’ lives more meaningful? The intent of this book is to try to address exactly those questions: How can we live less self- centered, more mature lives? What constitutes deep maturity and how do we reach that place? And, not unimportantly, what constitutes a more adult, Christian discipleship? What constitutes a truly mature following of Jesus?” As the poet Rainer Maria Rilke suggests, “Live the questions now.” In Sacred Fire, Rolheiser’s deeply affecting prose urges us on in pursuit of the most holy of all passions—a deep and lasting intimacy with God.