Spirituality in the Modern World (Meki povez)

It would not be an exaggeration to say that during the last century, most especially during and since the a sixtiesa (TM), the language of spirituality has become one of the most significant ways in which the sacred has come to be understood and judged in the west, and, increasingly, elsewhere. Whether it is true that a spiritualitya (TM) has eclipsed a religiona (TM) in western settings remains debatable. What is incontestable is that the language of spirituality, together with practices (most noticeably spiritual CAM, complementary and alternative medicine), has become a major feature of the sacred dimensions of contemporary modernity. Equally incontestably, spirituality is a growing force in all those developing countries where its presence is increasingly felt among the cosmopolitan elite, and where spiritual forms of TCAM (traditional complementary and alternative medicine) are thriving.

This new four-volume Major Work from Routledge provides a coherent compilation of landmark texts which cannot be ignored by those intent on making sense of what is happening to the sacred as spirituality a " more exactly what is taken to be spirituality a " develops as an increasingly important lingua franca, series of practices, and as a humanistic ethicality.

Volume I focuses on spiritualities which to varying degrees are embedded within the Christian tradition, including those on the border of what can reasonably be called Christian; coverage is global. Volume II examines tradition and transformations within Hinduism and Islam, as well as within other Traditions (for example Buddhism and Sufism). Volume III looks at spiritualities which are less clearly embedded within traditions a " largely detraditionalized, or more or less entirely post-traditional a " spiritualities which thereby provide alternatives to traditions; alternatives which are more inclusivistic, cosmopolitan than exclusivistic traditions. Volume IV examines the issues prompted by the preceding three volumes, to do with interpretation, explanation, and judgement.

The set is designed to contribute to reflection on ways of studying, characterizing and explaining spiritualities. Of particular note, attention has been paid to efforts to develop academically-viable terminologies which do justice to what is distinctive about various forms of spirituality: for example, to do justice to forms which are a beyond beliefsa (TM); where the language of belief is not in evidence. With a full index, and a newly-written introduction by the editor, Spirituality is destined to be valued by scholars, students, and researchers as an essential one-stop refererence resource.