Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Contributors
- Introduction
- Part I India
- Part II Japan
- Part III Australia
- Part IV Hawaii
- Part V England
- Part VI South Africa
- Part VII Botswana
- Part VIII Zimbabwe
- Part IX Ghana
- Part X Cuba
- Part XI Jamaica
- Part XII Brazil
- Part XIII USA
- Endnotes
- Select Bibliography
- Index of Subjects
- Index of Names
Introduction
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Contributors
- Introduction
- Part I India
- Part II Japan
- Part III Australia
- Part IV Hawaii
- Part V England
- Part VI South Africa
- Part VII Botswana
- Part VIII Zimbabwe
- Part IX Ghana
- Part X Cuba
- Part XI Jamaica
- Part XII Brazil
- Part XIII USA
- Endnotes
- Select Bibliography
- Index of Subjects
- Index of Names
Summary
Another World is Possible: Spiritualities and Religions of Global Darker Peoples represents voices of darker skin peoples throughout the world. What they have in common is the mobilization of their own created religions and spiritualities to forge self-identities. Some claim direct links to centuries of indigenous spiritual practices which have survived relatively in tact despite the invasion of foreign religions. Others have appropriated externally introduced religions and greatly modified these belief systems by combining or syncretizing them with indigenous perspectives and practices. All authors indicate the celebration and positive utility of their communities' spiritualities and religions. Without them, not only would individuals have died, but entire cultures and contexts would have perished. Thus, religion and spirituality suggest survival and pragmatic purposes. From creation narratives to Trickster heroes and heroines, spirituality and religion incarnate meaning, as well as fashion meaning so that humans can make surviving and thriving sense of the ecology and all breathing realities. The gods, God, and ancestors give life to peoples and their cultures, ecologies, and economies, all in the service of aiding the human community to be more fully human as servants to what spiritualities and religions have facilitated on earth.
For us spirituality is an ultimate vision, state of mind, social interaction, and balance and harmony within and among creation and the visible and the invisible. It is akin to a primordial sense that something or someone is greater than the individual self and that self has obligations to her or his family ancestors, those who created them, and all that the human person can see, feel, smell, taste, hear, and access through dreams and intuition.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Another World is PossibleSpiritualities and Religions of Global Darker Peoples, pp. 1 - 6Publisher: Acumen PublishingPrint publication year: 2009