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Spiritual activism is a practice that brings together the otherworldly and inward-focused work of spirituality and the outwardly-focused work of activism (which focuses on the conditions of the material or physical world). Spiritual activism asserts that these two practices are inseparable and calls for a recognition that the binaries of inward/outward, spiritual/material, and personal/political all form part of a larger interconnected whole between and among all living things. In an essay on queer Chicana feminist and theorist Gloria E. Anzaldúa's reflections on spiritual activist practice, AnaLouise Keating states that "spiritual activism is spirituality for social change, spirituality that posits a relational worldview and uses this holistic worldview to transform one's self and one's worlds."[1][2]
Spiritual activism is most often described as being separate from organized religion or dogma, but rather as activism that is generally egalitarian, particularly in service for people who are oppressed or marginalized, as well as for the Earth and all living things. Numerous women of color scholars, especially Black womanists and Chicana feminists, have developed and written about spiritual activism in their work as a way of creating positive social change. The Jewish rabbi Avraham Weiss describes spiritual activism in similar terms, as a fundamental teaching from Torah,[3] and the Christian scholar Robert Macafee Brown says it's necessary to "overcome the great fallacy"[4] to bring about real change.
In an article on yoga practice and spiritual activism, Womanist scholar Jillian Carter Ford states that "spiritual notions of oneness, such as the oneness of mind/body and the oneness of all people, sets in motion a spiritual activism wherein spirituality is engaged to create social and ecological uplift." For beginners, this often means unlearning or deconstructing "a host of harmful messages we have been socialized to believe."[5] Ecowomanist Layli Maparyan describes spiritual activism as "putting spirituality to work for positive social and ecological change."[6]
The concept emerged in late 20th and early 21st century scholarship in the fields of womanism and Chicana feminism, to describe the spiritual practice of creating a more socially just world through developing the capacities of the internal spiritual self in order to create social change that ends oppression and is generally egalitarian (separate from organized religion or any form of dogma).[1][5]
The writers and scholars describing it have noted how spiritual activism is generally dismissed in academia and the Western world because spirituality cannot be controlled or measured within the confines of rational thought, along with the assumption that it is otherwise primitive, backward, based on superstition or delusion.[1][7][5]
^ abcKeating, AnaLouise (2008). ""I'm a Citizen of the Universe": Gloria Anzaldúa's Spiritual Activism as Catalyst for Social Change". Feminist Studies. 34 (1/2): 53–54. JSTOR 20459180.
^Weiss, Avraham (2008). Spiritual activism : a Jewish guide to leadership and repairing the world. Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights Pub. ISBN 978-1-58023-355-2. OCLC 191728012.
^Brown, Robert McAfee (1988). Spirituality and liberation : overcoming the great fallacy (1st ed.). Philadelphia: Westminster Press. ISBN 0-664-25002-5. OCLC 16924174.
^ abcFord, Jillian Carter (2016). ""I'm Feelin' It": Embodied Spiritual Activism as a Vehicle for my Queer Black Liberation". In Berila, Beth; Klein, Melanie; Roberts, Chelsea Jackson (eds.). Yoga, the Body, and Embodied Social Change: An Intersectional Feminist Analysis. Lexington Books. pp. 30–31. ISBN 9781498528030.
^Harris, Melanie L. (2017). "Engaging Transformation: Ecowomanist Spirituality". Ecowomanism: African American Women and Earth-Honoring Faiths. Orbis Books. ISBN 9781608336661.
^Medina, Lara; Gonzales, Martha R. (2019). Voices from the Ancestors: Xicanx and Latinx Spiritual Expressions and Healing Practices. University of Arizona Press. pp. 234–36. ISBN 978-0816539567.
and 27 Related for: Spiritual activism information
one's worlds." Spiritualactivism is most often described as being separate from organized religion or dogma, but rather as activism that is generally...
businesses, and demonstrative forms of activism like rallies, street marches, strikes, sit-ins, or hunger strikes. Activism may be performed on a day-to-day...
"Spiritual but not religious" (SBNR), also known as "spiritual but not affiliated" (SBNA), or less commonly "more spiritual than religious" is a popular...
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...
experience of death in which the old ego must die before one can be spiritually reborn. They define ego loss as "... complete transcendence − beyond...
A religious experience (sometimes known as a spiritual experience, sacred experience, mystical experience) is a subjective experience which is interpreted...
A spiritual practice or spiritual discipline (often including spiritual exercises) is the regular or full-time performance of actions and activities undertaken...
all life as sacred." In her writing on Gloria Anzaldua's idea of spiritualactivism, AnaLouise Keating states that spirituality is distinct from organized...
reduced external awareness and reportedly expanded interior mental and spiritual awareness, frequently accompanied by visions and emotional (and sometimes...
Plato quotes Socrates in The Apology as saying that he had a divine or spiritual sign that began when he was a child. It was a voice that turned him away...
nation. The network emphasizes environmental protection as a form of spiritualactivism. IEN received attention in the news as a major organizer of the fight...
Spiritual crisis (also called "spiritual emergency") is a form of identity crisis where an individual experiences drastic changes to their meaning system...
experience, which ego can obscure.: The divine Ground of all existence is a spiritual Absolute, ineffable in terms of discursive thought, but (in certain circumstances)...
Religious ecstasy Spiritual practice Spiritual development Ego death Individuation Self-actualization SpiritualactivismSpiritual development Influences...
divinity dwells within each person, that all people are spiritual beings; "the highest spiritual principle [is] loving one another unconditionally... and...
on spiritualactivism. Fueled by the belief that "another world" is possible, Ripper explores the stories of people who have turned to spiritual activism...
to verify] Spiritual practices, including meditation, prayer and contemplation, are intended to develop an individual's inner life; spiritual experience...
struggle's activism, maps allow us to see that activity was not spread evenly through the region and that certain organizations and types of activism were limited...
Transcendentalism is a philosophical, spiritual, and literary movement that developed in the late 1820s and 1830s in the New England region of the United...
and political activism. Examples include peace activism, civil rights and human rights activism for minority groups, environmental activism and service...
career as an inventor and scientist. In 1741, at 53, he entered into a spiritual phase in which he began to experience dreams and visions, notably on Easter...
Materialism), which holds that only the physical is real, and that the mental or spiritual can be reduced to the physical: a. Eliminative materialism, according...
together religion and environmental activism. Ecospirituality has been defined as "a manifestation of the spiritual connection between human beings and...
the Chicano Movement in relation to Mexican-American identity politics activism. In the United States, the terms la Raza and Chicano subsequently became...
another life; those who renounce these, go into the forest and pursue spiritual knowledge, were claimed to climb into the higher path of the gods. It...