Roger S. Gottlieb | |
---|---|
Born | White Plains, New York, U.S. | October 20, 1946
Title | Professor of Philosophy |
Spouse | Miriam Greenspan |
Children | 3 |
Relatives | Rabbi Dovid Gottlieb (brother) |
Academic background | |
Education | White Plains High School |
Alma mater | Brandeis University |
Thesis | Kierkegaard's and Nietzsche's Theories of the Transition from One Value System to Another |
Influences | Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and Thomas Berry (spiritual ecology); [1] Søren Kierkegaard, Karl Marx, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Elie Wiesel, Joanna Macy, Gautama Buddha, Jewish tradition (the prophets of the bible), feminism (feminist theorists), the New Left, and environmental ethicists [2] [3] |
Academic work | |
Discipline | Philosopher |
Main interests | Environmental philosophy,Religious environmentalism,Social and Political Philosophy,Ethics,Spirituality. [4] |
Website | https://users.wpi.edu/~gottlieb/ |
Roger S. Gottlieb (born October 20,1946) is professor of philosophy and Paris Fletcher Distinguished Professor in the Humanities at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. [5] [6] [7] He has written and edited 21 books,including two Nautilus Book Awards winners,and over 150 papers on philosophy,political theory,environmental ethics,religious studies,religious environmentalism,religious life,contemporary spirituality,the Holocaust,and disability. [8] [9] [10] He is internationally known for his work as a leading analyst and exponent of religious environmentalism,for his passionate and moving account of spirituality in an age of environmental crisis,and for his innovative and humane description of the role of religion in a democratic society. [11] [12] [10]
Gottlieb has edited six academic book series (which have collectively published more than 50 titles),serves on the editorial boards of several academic journals. He is contributing editor to Tikkun magazine,and has appeared online on Patheos , Huffington , Grist , Wall Street Journal , Washington Post , Real Clear Religion ,and many others. His writings have appeared in top academic journals (such as The Journal of Philosophy , Journal of the American Academy of Religion , Conservation Biology ,and Ethics );in popular publications (such as E Magazine online , The Boston Globe ,and Orion Afield );and in anthologies of Jewish writing,environmental ethics,religious life,spirituality,the Holocaust,and disability;and in the Encyclopedia of Philosophy . [11]
Roger S. Gottlieb was born on October 20,1946,in White Plains,New York, [2] [3] [13] where he grew up in a middle-class suburban family. [14] He graduated from White Plains High School in 1964. [15] [16] From there he went on to Brandeis University intending to become a psychologist,but after one course found it "unbelievably dull" and soon became hooked on philosophy. [14] He earned a BA (Summa Cum Laude,Phi Beta Kappa,Special Honors) in philosophy in 1968 and a Ph.D. 1975. [4]
He was a visiting assistant professor from 1974 to 1977 at University of Connecticut and 1978 to 1980 at Tufts University. In 1980–1981,he was awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship,and in 1981 was hired as a professor of philosophy at Worcester Polytechnic Institute where he was granted tenure in 1985,and appointed Paris Fletcher Distinguished Professor from 1995 to 1997. Since 2006,he has also been a visiting professor of Jewish studies at Wake Forest University divinity school. [7]
Gottlieb lives in Boston with his wife,noted psychotherapist and author Miriam Greenspan, [17] [18] and shares in the care of his daughters,Anna and Esther. [19] Their first child (a son) was born with brain damage,living only five days without coming home from the hospital. Three years later they had a third child,Esther,who was born with multiple handicaps. Gottlieb recounts how these events had a profound impact on him and forced him to grow spiritually. [14] [20] The spiritual and political dimensions of his relation to Esther,who has multiple disabilities,forms part of Chapter 8 of Joining Hands. [21]
Gottlieb is affiliated with the Jewish Renewal movement. [21] His brother is Dovid Gottlieb (a Haredi Rabbi). [22] [23] [24]
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.
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was an Indian politician, philosopher and statesman who served as the second president of India from 1962 to 1967. He previously served as the first vice president of India from 1952 to 1962. He was the second ambassador of India to the Soviet Union from 1949 to 1952. He was also the fourth vice-chancellor of Banaras Hindu University from 1939 to 1948 and the second vice-chancellor of Andhra University from 1931 to 1936. Radhakrishnan is considered one of the most influential and distinguished 20th century scholars of comparative religion and philosophy, he held the King George V Chair of Mental and Moral Science at the University of Calcutta from 1921 to 1932 and Spalding Chair of Eastern Religion and Ethics at University of Oxford from 1936 to 1952.
Spiritual ecology is an emerging field in religion, conservation, and academia that proposes that there is a spiritual facet to all issues related to conservation, environmentalism, and earth stewardship. Proponents of spiritual ecology assert a need for contemporary nature conservation work to include spiritual elements and for contemporary religion and spirituality to include awareness of and engagement in ecological issues.
Nature worship also called naturism or physiolatry is any of a variety of religious, spiritual and devotional practices that focus on the worship of the nature spirits considered to be behind the natural phenomena visible throughout nature. A nature deity can be in charge of nature, a place, a biotope, the biosphere, the cosmos, or the universe. Nature worship is often considered the primitive source of modern religious beliefs and can be found in pantheism, panentheism, deism, polytheism, animism, Taoism, totemism, Hinduism, shamanism, some theism and paganism including Wicca. Common to most forms of nature worship is a spiritual focus on the individual's connection and influence on some aspects of the natural world and reverence towards it. Due to their admiration of nature, the works of Edmund Spenser, Anthony Ashley-Cooper and Carl Linnaeus were viewed as nature worship.
Ecospirituality connects the science of ecology with spirituality. It brings together religion and environmental activism. Ecospirituality has been defined as "a manifestation of the spiritual connection between human beings and the environment." The new millennium and the modern ecological crisis has created a need for environmentally based religion and spirituality. Ecospirituality is understood by some practitioners and scholars as one result of people wanting to free themselves from a consumeristic and materialistic society. Ecospirituality has been critiqued for being an umbrella term for concepts such as deep ecology, ecofeminism, and nature religion.
The beliefs and practices of African people are highly diverse, and include various ethnic religions. Generally, these traditions are oral rather than scriptural and are passed down from one generation to another through folk tales, songs, and festivals, and include beliefs in spirits and higher and lower gods, sometimes including a supreme being, as well as the veneration of the dead, and use of magic and traditional African medicine. Most religions can be described as animistic with various polytheistic and pantheistic aspects. The role of humanity is generally seen as one of harmonizing nature with the supernatural. Unlike Abrahamic religions, African traditional religions are not idealisations, and they seek to come to terms with reality as it is. They generally seek to explain the reality of personal experience by spiritual forces which underpin orderly group life, contrasted by those that threaten it.
Ecotheology is a form of constructive theology that focuses on the interrelationships of religion and nature, particularly in the light of environmental concerns. Ecotheology generally starts from the premise that a relationship exists between human religious/spiritual worldviews and the degradation or restoration and preservation of nature. It explores the interaction between ecological values, such as sustainability, and the human domination of nature. The movement has produced numerous religious-environmental projects around the world.
Secular spirituality is the adherence to a spiritual philosophy without adherence to a religion. Secular spirituality emphasizes the inner peace of the individual, rather than a relationship with the divine. Secular spirituality is made up of the search for meaning outside of a religious institution; it considers one's relationship with the self, others, nature, and whatever else one considers to be the ultimate. Often, the goal of secular spirituality is living happily and/or helping others.
Higher consciousness is a term that has been used in various ways to label particular states of consciousness or personal development. It may be used to describe a state of liberation from the limitations of self-concept or ego, as well as a state of mystical experience in which the perceived separation between the isolated self and the world or God is transcended. It may also refer to a state of increased alertness or awakening to a new perspective. While the concept has ancient roots, practices, and techniques, it has been significantly developed as a central notion in contemporary popular spirituality, including the New Age movement.
David Wood was Centennial Professor of Philosophy, and Joe B. Wyatt Distinguished University Professor, at Vanderbilt University.
Dovid Gottlieb is a senior faculty member at Ohr Somayach in Jerusalem. An author and lecturer, Rabbi Gottlieb received his Ph.D. in mathematical logic at Brandeis University and later become (visiting) Associate Professor of Philosophy at Johns Hopkins University. A student of Jean Van Heijenoort, he received a doctorate in 1970 for his thesis The Use of Formal Systems in Logic and Mathematics. The Informed Soul was published by Artscroll in 1990, and has recently been reprinted.
A nature religion is a religious movement that believes nature and the natural world is an embodiment of divinity, sacredness or spiritual power. Nature religions include indigenous religions practiced in various parts of the world by cultures who consider the environment to be imbued with spirits and other sacred entities. It also includes modern Pagan faiths, which are primarily concentrated in Europe and North America.
Eliot Sandler Deutsch was a philosopher, teacher, and writer. He made important contributions to the understanding and appreciation of Eastern philosophies in the West through his many works on comparative philosophy and aesthetics. He was a Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.
Linda Jane Pauline Woodhead is a British sociologist of religion and scholar of religious studies at King's College London Faculty of Arts and Humanities. She is best known for her work on religious change since the 1980s, and for initiating public debates about faith. She has been described by Matthew Taylor, head of the Royal Society of Arts, as "one of the world's leading experts on religion".
"Spiritual but not religious" (SBNR), also known as "spiritual but not affiliated" (SBNA), or less commonly "more spiritual than religious" is a popular phrase and initialism used to self-identify a life stance of spirituality that does not regard organized religion as the sole or most valuable means of furthering spiritual growth. Historically, the words religious and spiritual have been used synonymously to describe all the various aspects of the concept of religion, but in contemporary usage spirituality has often become associated with the interior life of the individual, placing an emphasis upon the well-being of the "mind-body-spirit", while religion refers to organizational or communal dimensions. Spirituality sometimes denotes noninstitutionalized or individualized religiosity. The interactions are complex since even conservative Christians designate themselves as "spiritual but not religious" to indicate a form of non-ritualistic personal faith.
Bron Raymond Taylor is an American scholar and conservationist. He is professor of religion and nature at the University of Florida and has also been an affiliated scholar with the Center for Environment and Development at the University of Oslo. Taylor works principally in the areas of religion and ecology, environmental ethics and environmental philosophy. He is also a prominent historian and ethnographer of environmentalism and especially radical environmentalist movements, surfing culture and nature-based spiritualities. Taylor is also editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature and subsequently founded the International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, serving as its president from 2006 to 2009. He also founded the society's affiliated Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, serving as its editor since 2007.
Ecofeminism is a branch of feminism and political ecology. Ecofeminist thinkers draw on the concept of gender to analyse the relationships between humans and the natural world. The term was coined by the French writer Françoise d'Eaubonne in her book Le Féminisme ou la Mort (1974). Ecofeminist theory asserts a feminist perspective of Green politics that calls for an egalitarian, collaborative society in which there is no one dominant group. Today, there are several branches of ecofeminism, with varying approaches and analyses, including liberal ecofeminism, spiritual/cultural ecofeminism, and social/socialist ecofeminism. Interpretations of ecofeminism and how it might be applied to social thought include ecofeminist art, social justice and political philosophy, religion, contemporary feminism, and poetry.
New religious movements in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States have a history going back to the 19th century.
The World Religions and Spirituality Project publishes academic profiles of new and established religious movements, archive material related to some groups, and articles that provide context for the profiles. It is referenced by scholars, journalists, and human rights groups to provide a scholarly representation of threatened communities.
Resacralization of nature is a term used in environmental philosophy to describe the process of restoring the sacred quality of nature. The primary assumption is that nature has a sanctified aspect that has become lost in modern times as a result of the secularization of contemporary worldviews. These secular worldviews are said to be directly responsible for the spiritual crisis in "modern man", which has ultimately resulted in the current environmental degradation. This perspective emphasizes the significance of changing human perceptions of nature through the incorporation of various religious principles and values that connect nature with the divine. The Iranian philosopher Seyyed Hossein Nasr first conceptualized the theme of resacralization of nature in contemporary language, which was later expounded upon by a number of theologians and philosophers including Alister McGrath, Sallie McFague and Rosemary Radford Ruether.
These contain details about his main works & ideas (that should be added to article at some point):