Zsolnai Beyond Materialism and Reductionism (original) (raw)

Putting the spiritual into practice

Approaching Religion, 2018

The aim of this article is to examine how Rudolf Steiner’s anthroposophical ideas were reflected and put into practice in the lives of the Finnish couple Olly (Olga) Donner (1881–1956, neé Sinebrychoff) and Uno Donner (1872–1958). They encountered anthroposophy in 1913 and subsequently embraced it as the guiding principle of their lives. Through a close examination of these two people we aim to shed light on how a new worldview like anthroposophy, which was gaining followers in early twentieth-century Finland, was also a manifestation of wider changes in religious culture in Europe. Our perspective could be described as biographical in the sense that it has been characterised by Simone Lässig (2008: 11) who writes that ‘the reconstruction of individual life courses helps to discover more about the context – for example, about daily rituals, pious practices, or kinship relationship’. Thus, the biographical perspective serves as a tool for grasping how something as deeply personal as an anthroposophical worldview was understood and practiced, not only by Olly and Uno Donner, but also by a larger group of people who in the early twentieth century were looking for new ways to make sense of the surrounding world.

The Routledge International Handbook of Spirituality in Society and the Professions edited by

Routledge, 2019

Increasingly, it is being recognized that spirituality, defined here as "a multiform search for a transcendent meaning of life that connects them to all living beings and brings them in touch with God or ‘Ultimate Reality,’" is an aspect of almost every sphere and aspect of social life. It appears in humanity’s dealings with nature, home and community, healing, economics and business, knowledge, and education. The Routledge International Handbook of Spirituality in Society and the Professions is a stimulating collection that summarizes the most important issues, frameworks, discussions, and problems relating to spiritually inspired activities in different fields of social life.

Spirituality and the University

Verbum et Ecclesia, 2009

It is not often that we witness the birth of a new discipline; the academy is slow to open its doors to �newcomers�. Yet, within the last few decades, we have seen the introduction of the �new� discipline of Spirituality into the revered corridors of higher education, not without some raised eye-brows from those within the established disciplines, in particular that of theology and religion. Spirituality is difficult to define and its inter-disciplinary nature does not allow for easy classification. There are diverse spiritualities, each one culture-specific, expressing its own historical, sociological, theological, linguistic and philosophical orientation. Post-patriarchal and telluric, contemporary spirituality affects all areas of society, and is a force for personal and societal transformation. The important role of the academy in this endeavour is increasingly coming to the fore. Spirituality can no longer be considered a �Cinderella� discipline; on the contrary, it has returne...

On Spirituality Part 1 : Deconstructing , grappling , and moving in the field of others

2008

ions are part of a living system and one of our tasks as scientists is to understand the structure, process, and function of this living system at the individual and group level of analysis. Obviously, this is no easy task: consider the intraand interindividual variability in the action state that needs to be mapped [2], and consider also the great variety of conscious states and associated abstractions linked to the concept "spirituality" throughout the agesions linked to the concept "spirituality" throughout the ages [12]. Nevertheless, in opening this dialogue, it will not help our cause to delete all the nouns, verbs, and adverbs that pertain to unobservable mental phenomena. We might develop a new language that allows us to replace the old word "spirituality" with other words, operational definitions, and theoretical formulations, but we will