Description
Van Ness (philosophy of religion, Union Theological Seminary, New York City) offers new ways to describe the meaning and nature of such practices as praying, meditation, fasting, and yoga. He argues for the contemporary importance of spiritual discipline as a hedge against Pascalian diversion pursuing just enough mental activity to keep from thinking anything important and Nietzschean decadence destroying instinctive drives rather than either satisfying or sublimating them. For readers adept at philosophical terminology. Paper edition (unseen), $19.95. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.
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This book presents a philosophical rethinking of the meaning and nature of spiritual discipline. It offers a new way of describing and justifying practices like praying, meditating, fasting, and yoga, and it provides an innovative case for their contemporary importance.Spiritual discipline is especially effective at combatting Pascalian diversion, the pursuit of activities that occupy the mind just enough to avoid thinking about important things; and Nietzschean decadence, the proclivity for extirpating instinctive drives instead of satisfying or sublimating them. In addition to overcoming diversion and decadence in contemporary consumerist culture, VanNess recommends spiritual discipline as a means of political resistance to powerful institutions which seek to exercise social control in democratic societies by promulgating addictive patterns of consumption.Finally, he argues that regimens of spiritual discipline can serve healthful and liberating purposes, and generally promote fullness of life, only insofar as they are shaped by an ethos of intellectual criticism and aesthetic experimentation.
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