MACMILLAN Practical Spirituality and Human Development: Transformations in Religions and Societies

This book explores varieties of spiritual movements and alternative experiments for generation of beauty, dignity and dialogues, in a world where the rise of the religious in politics and the public sphere is often accompanied by violence. It examines how spirituality can contribute to human development, social transformations and planetary realizations, urging us to treat each other, and our planet, with evolutionary care and respect.  Trans-disciplinary and trans-paradigmatic to its very core, this text opens new pathways of practical spirituality and humanistic action for both scholarship and discourse and offers an invaluable companion for scholars across religious studies, cultural studies and development studies. From the Back Cover In a world where the rise of the religious in politics and the public sphere is often accompanied by violence and religious fundamentalism, this book considers the increasing relevance of movements of practical spirituality from multiple traditions and domains of life which strive to transform violence into positive human relations. It examines how spirituality can contribute to human development, social transformations and planetary realizations, urging us to treat each other, and our planet, with evolutionary care and respect.  Trans-disciplinary and trans-paradigmatic to its very core, this text opens new pathways of exploration and action for both scholarship and discourse and offers an invaluable companion for scholars across religious studies, cultural studies and development studies. About the Author Ananta Kumar Giri is Professor at the Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai, India. He has taught and done research at universities in India and abroad, including Aalborg University (Denmark), Maison des sciences de l’homme, Paris (France), the University of Kentucky (USA), University of Freiburg & Humboldt University (Germany). His research focuses on social movements and cultural change, contemporary dialectics of transformation, and creative streams in education, philosophy and literature.