The meaning of spirituality has developed and expanded over time, and various meanings can be found alongside each other. Traditionally, spirituality referred to a religious process of re-formation which "aims to recover the original shape of man", oriented at "the image of God" as exemplified by the founders and sacred texts of the religions of the world. The term was used within early Christianity to refer to a life oriented toward the Holy Spirit and broadened during the Late Middle Ages to include mental aspects of life.
Meshullam Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, commonly called "Reb Zalman", was one of the founders of the Jewish Renewal movement and an innovator in ecumenical dialogue.
Proselytism is the policy of attempting to convert people's religious or political beliefs. Carrying out attempts to instill beliefs can be called proselytization.
Jewish Renewal is a Jewish religious movement originating in the 20th century that endeavors to reinvigorate modern Judaism with Kabbalistic, Hasidic, and musical practices. Specifically, it seeks to reintroduce the "ancient Judaic traditions of mysticism and meditation, gender equality and ecstatic prayer" to synagogue services. It is distinct from the baal teshuva movement of return to Orthodox Judaism.
Neo-Hasidism, Neochassidut, or Neo-Chassidus, is an approach to Judaism in which people learn beliefs and practices of Hasidic Judaism, and incorporate it into their own lives or prayer communities, yet without formally joining a Hasidic group. Over the 20th century neo-Hasidism was popularized by the works of writers such as Hillel Zeitlin, Martin Buber, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Lawrence Kushner, Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, and Arthur Green.
Huston Cummings Smith was a scholar of religious studies in the United States, He authored at least thirteen books on world's religions and philosophy, and his book about comparative religion, The World's Religions sold over three million copies as of 2017.
Arthur Ocean Waskow is an American author, political activist, and rabbi associated with the Jewish Renewal movement.
Ronald H. Miller was professor of the Religion Department at Lake Forest College in Illinois. Miller earned a Ph.D. in Comparative Religions from Northwestern University, and a B.S and M.A from St. Louis University. He was a co-founder and co-director of Common Ground, an active adult education group for interfaith study and dialogue founded in 1975. Miller was vice-president of the Interreligious Engagement Project 21 and board member at Hands-of-Peace, an organization that brings American, and Palestinian and Israeli teenagers from the Middle East together for a two-week program in the United States. Miller lectured at countless churches, temples, mosques and centers across the country and wrote books aimed at a popular audience that convey contemporary issues in New Testament studies as well as in spirituality and philosophy.
Jewish meditation includes practices of settling the mind, introspection, visualization, emotional insight, contemplation of divine names, or concentration on philosophical, ethical or mystical ideas. Meditation may accompany unstructured, personal Jewish prayer, may be part of structured Jewish services, or may be separate from prayer practices. Jewish mystics have viewed meditation as leading to devekut. Hebrew terms for meditation include hitbodedut or hitbonenut/hisbonenus ("contemplation").
Zoketsu Norman Fischer is an American poet, writer, and Soto Zen priest, teaching and practicing in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki. He is a Dharma heir of Sojun Mel Weitsman, from whom he received Dharma transmission in 1988. Fischer served as co-abbot of the San Francisco Zen Center from 1995–2000, after which he founded the Everyday Zen Foundation in 2000, a network of Buddhist practice group and related projects in Canada, the United States and Mexico. Fischer has published more than twenty-five books of poetry and non-fiction, as well as numerous poems, essays and articles in Buddhist magazines and poetry journals.
Wayne Robert Teasdale was a Catholic monk, author and teacher from Connecticut, best known as an energetic proponent of mutual understanding between the world's religions, for an interfaith dialogue which he termed "interspirituality". He was also an active campaigner on issues of social justice.
Lawrence Kushner is a Reform rabbi and the scholar-in-residence at Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco, California.
Elijah Interfaith Institute is a nonprofit, international, UNESCO-sponsored interfaith organization founded by Alon Goshen-Gottstein in 1997. The organization is headquartered in Jerusalem, with offices and representatives in different countries,
Dana Evan Kaplan is a Reform rabbi known for his writings on Reform Judaism, in particular, and American Judaism, generally. He has also written on other subjects, including American Jewish history and Jews in various diaspora communities. Kaplan has been the rabbi of Temple Beth Shalom of the West Valley in Sun City, Arizona, since June 2019.
Alon Goshen-Gottstein is a scholar of Jewish studies and a theoretician and activist in the domain of interfaith dialogue. He is founder and director of the Elijah Interfaith Institute since 1997. He specializes in bridging the theological and academic dimension with a variety of practical initiatives, especially involving world religious leadership.
Contemplative Practices in Action: Spirituality, Meditation, and Health is an interdisciplinary scholarly and scientific book. It examines the nature, function, and impact of meditation and other contemplative practices in several different religious traditions, both eastern and western, including methods for incorporating contemplative practice into education, healthcare, and other human services. Edited by Thomas G. Plante and with a foreword by Huston Smith, the book was published in the United States by Prager in 2010. The book reviews evidences for health effects and includes 14 chapters divided among three major parts that focus on well-defined systems of practice, traditions as storehouses of many alternative forms of practice, and applications. It has been reviewed in several professional journals, including PsycCRITIQUES, and the Journal of Psychosocial Research,.
Living Interfaith is an Interfaith movement founded by Reverend Steven Greenebaum, which embraces the teachings of all spiritual paths that lead people to seek a life of compassionate action.
Shefa Gold is an American rabbi, scholar, and Director of the Center for Devotional, Energy and Ecstatic Practice (C-DEEP) in Jemez Springs, New Mexico. Gold is a teacher of chant, Jewish mysticism, Jewish prayer and spirituality who Rabbi Mike Comins described in 2010 as "a pioneer in the ecstatic practice of Jewish chant." Her chants have been used in synagogues, minyanim, and street protests; perhaps her most well known being "Ozi V'zimrat Yah". Combining traditional Jewish liturgical music with Hebrew chant, Gold has worked to cultivate a distinctly Jewish gratitude practice. Her "Flavors of Gratefulness" mobile app has 79 different chants for Modeh Ani, the brief prayer traditionally recited by religious Jews upon awakening, as of December 31, 2020.
Tzvi Freeman is a Canadian rabbi and author associated with the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement. Freeman is known for his work as a writer and editor for Chabad.org, and is notable for his work on the topics of Jewish mysticism and Jewish meditation. Freeman's book Bringing Heaven Down to Earth, as well as his other writings and teachings, are primarily based on the teachings of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the seventh Rebbe of the Chabad movement. His writing style includes a blend of Kabbalah and science fiction.
Marcia Prager is an American rabbi, teacher and spiritual leader. She was Director and Dean of the Aleph Ordination Program, and rabbi of the P'nai Or Jewish Renewal community in West Mount Airy, Philadelphia. Prager was the founding rabbi of a sister congregation, P'nai Or of Princeton, New Jersey, where she served for thirteen years. She is a graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia where she received rabbinic ordination in 1989. In 1990, she also received personal semikhah from Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi with whom she worked to advance the Jewish Renewal movement until his death in 2014.
