Religious Practice and Self-Transformation

From a secular perspective, certain religious techniques of self-transformation, such as the complete subordination of an individual to a spiritual leader, appear to violate fundamental human rights and are hence unacceptable. Conversely, religious traditions offer a different view of the subject and their welfare and the means by which this welfare can be achieved. Nowadays, however, the secular environment in which they operate affects religious groups. As a result, some techniques of self-transformation reflect a mixture of secular and religious worldviews. This article examines techniques of self-transformation in contemporary Russian Orthodox convents. It explores how the notion of spiritual growth is influenced by a paradox in the Russian Orthodox concept of sainthood involving a proportional relationship between the profound perception of one’s sinfulness and the increase of one’s virtues. The secular understanding of time that prevails in contemporary monasteries highlights this contradiction and calls into question the possibility for spiritual growth. By focusing on the diachronic dimension of self-transformation techniques, this article challenges current understandings of secular and non-secular agency.

Much has been written about the psychologization of different spheres of contemporary American culture (education, industrial–military complex, health care, etc.) from different disciplinary perspectives. In this article, I will discuss the concept of therapeutic culture in relation to religion in America. The essay will trace contemporary therapeutic culture back to the mind cure movement and “New Thought” and its concept of the instrumental power of thoughts. A variety of 20th century developments that can be framed both as secular and as religious or spiritual, such as positive thinking, self-help, 12-step programs, New Age, and the so-called Prosperity Gospel, have predecessors in New Thought. Furthermore, the essay will survey early influential works on therapeutic culture in America. Philip Rieff's Triumph of the Therapeutic (1966), Christopher Lasch's The Culture of Narcissism (1979), and Eva S. Moskowitz's more recent study In Therapy We Trust (2001) are based on the idea that traditional Protestant religion has been eroded and replaced by the therapeutic ethos. These authors are concerned that America has traded its soul for its psyche and has swapped religion for therapy. In contrast, Eva Illouz' Saving the Modern Soul (2008) introduces a more comprehensive understanding of the therapeutic discourse as a new cultural matrix that permeates society as a whole. Moreover, a discussion of different historical studies on the interrelation of Protestant religious cultures and therapeutic ethos in the United States will demonstrate that it is not simply a relationship of replacement but one of intricate interconnection and entanglement. The works under discussion show that clinical pastoral education programs, Alcoholics Anonymous, and the Salvation Army adapted psychology and therapy to facilitate religious counseling, to foster outreach to homeless men, and to create spiritual engagement and fellowship among inebriates. As I explore the relationship between therapeutic culture and religion in America, I will point out central themes, possible shortcomings of approaches to the therapeutic so far, and desirable avenues for future research into the interplay of the therapeutic and religion.

In this article I present Chapter 23 of my doctoral thesis Learning in Depth: A Case Study in Twin 5x5 Matrices of Consciousness. Here Sri Ramakrishna opens up the mystery of maya, a Sanskrit term that has been variously explained as magic, confusion, ignorance, partial vision, etc. Basically it relates to the difficulties in facing irresolvable contradictions, "squaring the circle", resolving complementarity, reconciling the world of matter and the world of spirit, and similar projects normally considered impossible. The subject comes up in the history of the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda interaction after Vivekananda's second samadhi, which opened up the whole process of yoga, thereby permitting him to go more deeply into the depths of his own mind, where he was to encounter precisely all of the baffling aspects of maya, or his habitual mode of thinking. The key that Sri Ramakrishna gave him to solve the conundrums was, quite simply, to modify the way he looked at things. This may seem like a rather ordinary, humanistic way to approach the subject, a doable route around the endless myths, philosophies and ratiocinations that have been brought to bear on the subject. However, just how drastic this solution was to be is revealed in this chapter: a total "makeover" of Vivekananda's psyche and an apparent complete turnaround of philosophical outlook. As well as a saltation from the level of yoga to the very door of the Atman itself. As before, this whole process occurs over five different states or stages, running alongside the developments in both spiritual humanism and yoga as a science and throwing them into a different light than what we have seen thus far. The same format is followed of aligning the statements and actions of Sri Ramakrishna with the later interpretations of Vivekananda himself at comparable stages of his own teaching, as well as Vivekananda's habit of applying the more practical statements to the needs of India and the more transcendental to the West.

The intensity of events and changes in European life, especially in Poland, in the last three decades has been very great. The challenge of offering a concise evaluation of them is no less great – but we will try to do so, first by presenting a few important facts about Poland and her history and than whole process of transformations.