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American Gurus: From Transcendentalism to New Age Religion
Contributor(s): Versluis, Arthur (Author)
ISBN: 0199368139     ISBN-13: 9780199368136
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
OUR PRICE:   $123.50  
Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats
Published: May 2014
Qty:
Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- Religion | Mysticism
- Religion | Buddhism - General (see Also Philosophy - Buddhist)
Dewey: 206.109
LCCN: 2013033755
Physical Information: 1" H x 6.4" W x 9.3" (1.27 lbs) 320 pages
Themes:
- Religious Orientation - Buddhist
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
Publisher Description:
By the early twenty-first century, a phenomenon that once was inconceivable had become nearly commonplace in American society: the public spiritual teacher who neither belongs to, nor is authorized by a major religious tradition. From the Oprah Winfrey-endorsed Eckhart Tolle to figures like
Gangaji and Adhyashanti, there are now countless spiritual teachers who claim and teach variants of instant or immediate enlightenment.

American Gurus tells the story of how this phenomenon emerged. Through an examination of the broader literary and religious context of the subject, Arthur Versluis shows that a characteristic feature of the Western esoteric tradition is the claim that every person can achieve spontaneous, direct,
unmediated spiritual insight. This claim was articulated with special clarity by the New England Transcendentalists Bronson Alcott and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Versluis explores Transcendentalism, Walt Whitman, the Beat movement, Timothy Leary, and the New Age movement to shed light on the emergence of
the contemporary American guru.

This insightful study is the first to show how Asian religions and Western mysticism converged to produce the phenomenon of spontaneously enlightened American gurus.