Bøger af Arthur Versluis

Drawing from the early Christian heretical category of Gnosticism, American Gnosis explores the emergence of new forms of Gnostic religion throughout the Americas. Arthur Versluis explores the concept of Gnosis and examines neo-gnostic elements in contemporary American culture, including in religion, literature, film, and politics.

In this lucid explanation of perennial philosophy, Arthur Versluis reveals this tradition-so often described as esoteric and inaccessible-to be closer to our interests and experience than many of us have realized. Versluis has distilled an immense amount of scholarship into this small volume, but its brevity is deceiving. Like the culmination to any alchemical work, _Perennial Philosophy_ is a powerful tincture that-once imbibed-transports receptive readers to a world in which they are part of a spiritual hierarchy that links heaven to earth. Arthur Versluis has distilled an immense amount of scholarship to produce a disarmingly accessible, lucid, and deeply penetrating study of the great philosophic traditions that underlie Western culture. Versluis concisely explains what perennial philosophy is and what it isn't. The clarity of his prose makes this deep book a pleasure to read. A remarkable achievement! -Gregory Shaw, author of _Theurgy and the Soul: The Neoplatonism of Iamblichus_ *****This brilliant little book, written with stunning clarity, offers an entirely new perspective on what "perennial philosophy" actually means and entails. This is a return to the real philosophical quest, almost entirely forgotten by the academic world: a going beyond the limited self, to experience our kinship with the greater world and the deepest levels of reality, which results in a transformation of the self and a realization of our human nature.For anyone interested in the roots of our philosophical tradition, or what a living philosophy could look like today and in the future-a philosophy that actually inspires and fertilizes culture, art, and human experience-this book is indispensable. -David Fideler, author of _Restoring the Soul of the World_ and other books and essays. ***** This book is about transcendence: self-transcendence. It traces a pathway to such self-transcendence from Plato (Pythagoras and the Orphic mysteries), through Plotinus, Damascius, Meister Eckhart and Emerson. _Perennial Philosophy_ unveils a contemplative way often referred to as " mysticism" that leads to a selfless, compassionate caring for all existence, from the animate to the inanimate, since all that exists expresses divine creation. The book has no footnotes and yet is scholarly. It records a perennial way of being-in-the-world that contrasts sharply with the way most of us live and see, and is about a past that offers glimpses of a better future. To read it is to question the contemporary understanding of who we are, and what we are capable of becoming. It is medicine for difficult times.-Robert E. Carter, Trent University, author of _Encounter with Enlightenment_, _The Kyoto School_, and many other books. ******This book is colloquial and conversational. It presents an overview of Platonism from the master himself to Emerson in the context of contemporary debates. The author is a devoted Platonist, and his presentation of their doctrines is perfectly orthodox, above all in the absolute priority he gives to intellectual vision, the Vision of the Good. This emphasis alone is a huge achievement. The book is remarkable also for its generosity of tone. To the enlightened eye, no doubt, everything is full of Being. But it is difficult to maintain at all times that warm dispassion which takes the whole world under its wing. The author achieves this simply through the quality of his discriminations. So sharp and apt are the distinctions he makes between competing contemporary doctrines the book is continually illuminating and never tendentious. This reader was forever saying "Ah!" -Roger Sworder, LaTrobe University, author of _Mathematical Plato_, and _Science and Religion in Archaic Greece_ as well as _A Contrary History of the West_

In this series of fascinating and profound conversations, clinical psychologist Robert J. Faas and author Arthur Versluis discuss how to deepen your spiritual life in the midst of challenging and even apocalyptic times.

Step into the Elizabethan world of the extraordinary Giordano Bruno: a philosopher, a magician, a professor, a spy, an initiate in a pan-European secret society. In this vivid novel, meet kings and queens, court alchemists, great playwrights, scoundrels, and come to know the greatest minds of the Western European Renaissance. Engage with the esoteric spiritual practices of the art of memory, visualization, and mysticism. Enter into the secret societies that sought to bring about a new culture and a new society. Award-winning, The Ash Wednesday Supper brings this remarkable era to life and illuminates how to live in integrity in our own.Winner of the Hopwood Award for Fiction"Enchanting and original."-John Michell, author of The View Over Atlantis and many other books."This is a deeply serious and complicated novel at the level of ideas and demands a similar commitment from the reader. But the reader who persists finds himself immersed in a period and world of rapidly increasing fascinations, both human and private, and political and theological. The end came with all the force of fate, and for the writer to make history appear inevitable once again in fiction suggests the kind of obsession and constancy to the subject out of which comes the kind of writing we all care about most-or should."-Alan Cheuse, National Public Radio"Ash Wednesday Supper offers us a glimpse into a way of understanding that eludes us today-in this novel, Versluis reveals the intellect universalized as a mode of being for our time. Thoroughly recommended."-James Cowan, author of Fleeing Herod and The Deposition, winner of the Australian Gold Medal for Literature

SEXUALITY / SPIRITUALITYBeginning with the ancient Greek Mystery traditions, Gnosticism, and the practices in early Christianity, Arthur Versluis uncovers the secret line of Western sexual mysticism that, like the Tantra of the East, seeks transcendence or union with God through sexually charged practices. Throughout antiquity, and right into the present day, sexuality has played an important, if largely hidden, role in religious traditions and practices. This includes not only Christian but also kabbalistic, hermetic, and alchemical currents of sexual mysticism, many discussed together here for the first time.In the Mystery tradition of hieros gamos (sacred marriage) and the Gnostic tradition of spiritual marriage, we see the possibility of divine union in which sexual union is the principal sign or symbol. Key to these practices is the inner or archetypal union of above and below, the intermingling of the revelatory divine world with the mundane earthly one. Versluis shows that these secret currents of sexual mysticism helped fuel the rise of the troubadours and their erotic doctrine, the esoteric tradition of Jacob Bohme in the early 17th century, the 19th-century utopian communities of John Humphrey Noyes and Thomas Lake Harris, the free love movement of the 20th century, and the modern writings of Denis de Rougemont and Alan Watts.ARTHUR VERSLUIS is the editor-in-chief of Esoterica and the founding president of the Association for the Study of Esotericism. He is the author of numerous books, including Sacred Earth, Magic and Mysticism, Restoring Paradise, and The New Inquisitions. He lives in Michigan where he is a professor of interdisciplinary humanities at Michigan State University.

Magic and Mysticism: An Introduction to Western Esoteric Traditions is a concise overview, from antiquity to the present, of all the major Western religious esoteric movements. Topics covered include alchemy, Gnosticism, Hermeticism, Rosicrucianism, Theosophy and many more.