America – the physical, actual America that we see and live in – this America needs to be understood not as in itself sacred but as a privileged, temporary corner of “the world” where men and women are granted the liberty to search for truth and the life within. Behind all the political and economic machinations of the Founders of this country, there existed in their minds and hearts the passion to create “an American place” in the midst of the world, where the Good can be sought and lived. They believed there existed the Good – some called it God, others called it Reason – and that the Good – could enter human life. Of course, political freedom exists now in many countries of the world, often due to the influence of American ideas, but we will never “know what we have here” if we do not understand that the founding basis of this country was not land or tribe, but the call for people to assemble together and work together for the Good. Perhaps America’s people no longer come together for this purpose; perhaps political liberty and the great rule of law serve now only to protect the cravings for meaningless comfort and meaningless power; perhaps the nation’s physical strength seduces us into imagining that physical strength is true strength, that physical safety is true safety, that external freedom is true freedom, external democracy the true equality of people. If so, if we believe that the outer America is the real America, we are deceived by ourselves, and as the prophets of Israel warned, we are certain to perish – first inwardly and then outwardly.
- Excerpt from The American Soul
Cover of The American Soul
March 16 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments »
A Sense of the Cosmos - Introduction to the New Edition A Sense of the Cosmos: The Encounter of Modern Science and Ancient Truth
Buy this book from Amazon.
Read the new introduction for recent paperback release (PDF, 95KB).
Western science has operated for centuries on the assumption that we can understand the universe without understanding ourselves. We are just now seeking to make the necessary connection between the general laws of nature the those of our own (inner) nature. But the job won’t be done with “massive injections of the new consciousness”; we cannot democratize the sacred by cheapening its demands.
“With this one compact statement, Jacob Needleman has forced the discussion of both science and religion in our time into a new, more mature and discriminating phase. In every way, this is a tough book—tough in the subtlety of its ideas, in its critical precision, in the standard of enlightenment it raises…. It is a way station where those who are seriously exploring the transformation of consciousness will have to stop, take thought, and perhaps replot their course.”
—Theodore Roszak
“It is so human, compassionate, demanding of the best in us while comprehending the pain and traps and the problems. And so full of common sense.”
—Lawrence LeShan
“I want to strongly recommend it to every reader seriously interested in our present cultural situation.”
—Fritjof Capra
“I receive a lot of books for comment. Too many. But occasionally one comes that makes the process worthwhile. This is one such book. Needleman is unique; he is really on to something….A fine book”
—Harvey Cox
Buy this book from Amazon.
March 01 2009 | Books | Comments Off
Buy this book from Amazon.
Buy this audiotape from Amazon.
A Journey to Rediscovery to the Centre of Christian Experience
Read the new introduction for the paperback release (PDF, 28KB).
Has the true heart and essence of Christianity become obscured during its progress across the centuries and through diverse cultures?
In his personal account of his quest for ‘the lost religion of love’, Needleman explores the concepts of soul, prayer, meditation, and spirituality. He reconsiders ancient Christian writings, and demonstrates that a contemplative tradition existed in the early church, a tradition which continues today in the lives of certain extraordinary individuals.
This inspirational book will speak directly to all who seek genuine religious experience.
Audio Book
“Renowned scholar of comparative religion Jacob Needleman gathers together ancient texts and writings of the modern practitioners of essential Christianity. Needleman demonstrates that a more effective contemplative tradition existed in the early church and continues today in the lives of extraordinary people whose stories he retells in the course of his own personal explorations into the realms of the spirit.”
—Ingram (This review refers to the audiotape version)
Buy this book from Amazon.
Buy this audiotape from Amazon.
March 01 2009 | Books | Comments Off
The New Religions
This book describes the teachings and practices of the new, predominantly Eastern religions that are rapidly gaining influence in America. In remarkably lucid and informative terms, Jacob Needleman examines the specific areas in which traditional Western religions have failed modern man, and the ways in which the Eastern religions offer their followers the practical means for improving the quality of their lives.
He offers a comprehensive picture of the activities, doctrines, and organizational structure of the most significant movements, a portrait of some of their leaders, and a glimpse into the experiences of their adherents. His research has included personal participation in many of the groups’ activities as well as readings in their most influential philosophers, both American and foreign.
The result is a vital and absorbing study of a phenomenon that has not only dramatically altered the lives of those it has touched directly, but also, Needleman believes, “bids well to change the religious life of the Western world itself.”
Although this book is very rare and difficult to find, you may be able to buy it used from Amazon.
March 01 2009 | Books | Comments Off
Modern Esoteric Spirituality
Edited by Jacob Needleman and Antoine Faivre in Collaboration with Karen Voss
Buy this book from Amazon.
This book explores one of the most illusive, mysterious, and misunderstood spiritual traditions in the modern world. It is the tradition, or more accurately, family of traditions subsumed under the term “esoteric.” The number of phenomena covered by the term is enormous, for it encompasses not only explicitly esoteric works and movements but also components to be found widely in art, music, literature, politics, and science. On their own account, esotericists have often seen themselves as part of a tradition whose representatives include Moses, Zoroaster, Hermes Trismegistus, Plato, Orpheus, and the Sibylls; and whatever else this part mythic, part historic chain of tradition may mean, it suggests a long and variegated historical corpus.
While attentive to the various ways in which esotericists have defined esotericism, this book approaches the subject phenomenologically, as an attitude of mind and as an ensemble of forms of spirituality with identifiable characteristics. After a rigorous attempt to define esotericism and sketch its broad contours in two separate Introductions, the first chapter offers a magisterial, 70-page study of the ancient and medieval roots of esotericism in Hellenistic, Jewish, Christian, and Arab sources. Then the body of the book focuses on the great esoteric currents in the modern West, that is, since the end of the fifteenth century. These currents include alchemy and astrology, Renaissance Kabbalah, Romantic natural science and philosophy, Rosicrucianism, Freemasonry, occultism, and theosophy as well as the ideas and schools associated with Paracelsus, Jacob Boehme, Rudolf Steiner, René Guénon, G. I. Gurdjieff, and C. G. Jung. As many of these terms and names suggest, esotericism is as vibrant and variegated today as it ever was, and may be seen not only in the explicitly esoteric traditions that form the subject of this work but in the reemergence of esoteric traditions within the various world religions as such—a consideration that is well outside the purview of this book but many be seen in other volumes in this series.
Buy this book from Amazon.
March 01 2009 | Books | Comments Off