Spiritual And Visionary Communities

Exploring religious and spiritual intentional communities active in the world today, Spiritual and Visionary Communities provides a balanced introduction to a diverse range of communities worldwide. Breaking new ground with its focus on communities which have had little previous academic or public attention, the authors explore a part of contemporary society which is rarely understood. Communities studied include: Israeli kibbutzim, Mandarom, the Twelve Tribes, ’The Farm’ and the Camphill movement. Written from a range of perspectives, this collection includes contributions from members of the groups themselves, former members, and academic observers, and as such will offer a unique and invaluable discussion of religious and spiritual communities in the U.S., Europe, and beyond.

Exploring religious and spiritual intentional communities active in the world today, Spiritual and Visionary Communities provides a balanced introduction to a diverse range of communities worldwide. Breaking new ground with its focus on communities which have had little previous academic or public attention, the authors explore a part of contemporary society which is rarely understood. Communities studied include: Israeli kibbutzim, Mandarom, the Twelve Tribes, ’The Farm’ and the Camphill movement. Written from a range of perspectives, this collection includes contributions from members of the groups themselves, former members, and academic observers, and as such will offer a unique and invaluable discussion of religious and spiritual communities in the U.S., Europe, and beyond.

Exploring religious and spiritual intentional communities active in the world today, Spiritual and Visionary Communities provides a balanced introduction to a diverse range of communities worldwide. Breaking new ground with its focus on communities which have had little previous academic or public attention, the authors explore a part of contemporary society which is rarely understood. Communities studied include: Israeli kibbutzim, Mandarom, the Twelve Tribes, ‘The Farm’ and the Camphill movement. Written from a range of perspectives, this collection includes contributions from members of the groups themselves, former members, and academic observers, and as such will offer a unique and invaluable discussion of religious and spiritual communities in the U.S., Europe, and beyond.

Creating The Beloved Community is about the qualities, attitudes, and practices that are needed to manifest the kind of world envisioned by Howard Thurman and Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr., a world of peace and harmony. The focus is on how to support the larger concept of the Universal Beloved Community by creating The Beloved Community locally - as authentic local spiritual communities. This book is for those in spiritual leadership in any faith tradition who have a desire to create the kind of world that the great spiritual visionaries have described for us. Those interested in transcending the limited reality of focusing only on organizational survival so that a greater vision can unfold will find this book to be of great value. Creating The Beloved Community speaks of the leadership qualities needed to create such a community, including cultural evolutionary awareness, presencing, and psychological awareness of our own and others' development. The role of the mystical realms and the evolutionary nature of spiritual community are presented as necessary to fully engage taking The Beloved Community into the world. It is time for us to walk our talk and to bring the promise of harmony and peace to a world that cries out for them. Jim Lockard has been in ministry for over 20 years. He brings a wealth of experience and the viewpoint of a visionary to his work.

This comprehensive guide to American intentional communities is a major reference source for over 3,000 communities, covering the time of the first European settlements in America to the present. It includes obscure and well-known communities; small and large; short-lived and long-lived. It includes a short sketch of each community, giving basic information about its founding and operational policies. It provides up to three references for additional research and the community's web site.

In the Greater Community of Worlds the idea of God is presented differently than it is in this world. In the Greater Community, the idea of God must be translatable from one society to another where the customs and the rituals, the ideas and the areas of specific application will be unique to each world’s spiritual awareness and devotional practices. All that can be translated is the pure experience of Knowledge—the experience of Universal Mind, profound awareness and total relationship. This is the experience which will be presented in this book—an experience of translatable spirituality that is shared between intelligent life everywhere. Its application is universal. Its experience is universal. Its communication is universal. The direction that it establishes for sentient beings everywhere is universal. Greater Community Spirituality encompasses a larger panorama of life and includes all that has been created here and beyond, in all dimensions, in all frameworks. So complete is it that you cannot fathom its Mystery, exhaust its Wisdom or penetrate its Knowledge. But you can be the recipient of these things, and you can translate them into your own experience and apply them here at great benefit to yourself and to others. The world is now emerging into a Greater Community of Worlds. Therefore, it is necessary for Greater Community Spirituality to be presented here to enable humanity to prepare mentally, emotionally and spiritually for the great change that is coming and the great opportunities that this change represents. To learn about the Greater Community, you must learn of its reality. This, then, is a blessing: that you may receive a Greater reality, a Greater religion and a Greater God.

Segments of society are drawing upon their faith and spirituality to develop strategies to mend social relationships and fragmented communities. The Contemporary Perspectives on Spirituality in Education book series will feature volumes geared towards understanding and exploring the role of spirituality in addressing challenge, conflict, and marginalization within education in the U.S. and internationally.

Young spiritual leaders are beginning to remove the reasons why so many of us have kept religion at arm's length. "Spiritual sagacity does not belong only to seniors like Mother Teresa and Dorothy Day, Martin Buber and Abraham Joshua Heschel, the veteran Desmond Tutu and the aging Dalai Lama. Let's hear from a generation that is marked by new experiences." —from the Preface by Martin E. Marty By transforming our faith traditions in light of today's increasing diversity, the search for community, the Internet and our changing lifestyles, these young, visionary spiritual leaders are helping to create the new spirituality. Ten contributors, most in their mid-thirties, span the spectrum of religious traditions—Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Unitarian, Buddhist—and offer their "visions," bold spiritual manifestos, for transforming our faith communities and our lives. Hear how one Catholic priest proclaims "all religion and spirituality ought to be zesty, passionate, rich and deep"; how one rabbi serves a "congregation" on the web for Microsoft and rides in squad cars on drug busts in New York City; how a self-described "Zen priest" is serving an Episcopal church in Alaska; and how a talented young woman lives her "wild and precious life" changing the world as a nun. These stories, and others, will challenge your assumptions about what religion is—and isn't.