Rediscovery of Awe Splendor, Mystery and the Fluid Center of Life

by Schneider, Kirk

• ISBN13: 9781557788344
• ISBN10: 1557788340
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-05-17
• Publisher: Atlas Books

Summary

Rediscovery of Awe is a practical, psychological translation of an emerging spiritual transformation -- a humanistic spirituality. It is a provocative and revolutionary vision which aims to revive a sense of awe -- the humility and wonder, thrill and anxiety, splendor and mystery of living -- in self, society, and spirit. Rediscovery of Awe promotes a new relationship to life, and illustrates this over a broad range. Set against our awe-deprived times, in which we tend to favor either a high tech, consumerist mentality or, contrastingly, a dogmatic, fundamentalist orientation, Rediscovery of Awe presents a dynamic and rejuvenating alternative. Book jacket.

Author Biography

Kirk J. Schneider is an adjunct faculty member at Saybrook Graduate School, president of the Existential-Humanistic Institute, and a Fellow of the American Psychological Association.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Foreword	xi
Background	xiii
Introduction	xv
Part I: What Has Been Lost and How It Can Be Recovered
1 THE QUEST FOR A COMPREHENSIVE PSYCHOLOGY	3	(10)
Toward an Awe-Based Psychology	7	(3)
The Fluid Center: A Definition	10	(3)
2 THE FLUID CENTER IN PERSONALITY AND DEVELOPMENT	13	(46)
Roots, Routes, and Patterns	15	(6)
Spirals of Development	21	(4)
Storm at the Center: Life-Transformation in a Typical American Child	25	(4)
Break in the Spiral/Tear in the Fabric	29	(3)
The Kinship with Classic Horror	32	(7)
Witnesses to Wounding	39	(7)
Grapplers with Groundlessness	46	(2)
Does Vivacity Require Trauma?	48	(6)
Summary of the Fluid Center Developmental Position	54	(5)
Part II: Visions of Recovery: Social, Vocational, and Educational
3 TOWARD A SOCIAL FLUID CENTER	59	(16)
Templates	62	(1)
The Spirit of Carnival	62	(2)
The Structure of Carnival	64	(2)
Conditions for a Social Fluid Center	66	(9)
4 TOWARD AN AWE-BASED WORK POLICY	75	(12)
Possible Scenarios	77	(4)
Practical Aspects	81	(2)
Social Gains	83	(4)
5 A RETURN TO BASICS: AWE-BASED EDUCATION	87	(24)
6 TRAGEDY AND ITS AMBIGUITIES: AWE AND ITS PARADOXES	111	(22)
Hidden Treasures of "Horror": Classic Horror as Awe-Based Illumination	115	(13)
Tragic Optimism and the Poignancy of Real Life	128	(5)
7 STRUGGLE: THE FORGOTTEN TEACHER	133	(10)
Depth Therapy as Social Vision	133	(2)
Depth Therapy and Why it is so Needed Today	135	(3)
Transhumanism and the Transhumanist Threat	138	(5)
Part III: The Fluid Center of Faith
8 BETWEEN ANARCHY AND DOGMA: TOWARD A FAITH IN THE INSCRUTABLE	143	(20)
Sub Specie Aeternae and the Capacity to be Moved	147	(8)
The Temptation to Partialize (A Human Predicament)	155	(4)
The Present Challenges of Faith: Magnificence, Mystery, and Responsibility	159	(4)
9 FROM SPIRIT TO SOCIETY	163	(12)
Faith in the Inscrutable as a Present Task	167	(2)
The Ethical Task	169	(6)
10 GLIMMERINGS: ENCHANTED AGNOSTICISM AND THE FUTURE	175	(6)
Coda	179	(2)
Notes	181	(20)
Index	201