This book brings together scholars of a variety of the world's major civilizations to focus on the universal theme of inner transformation. The idea of the "self" is a cultural formation like any other, and models and conceptions of the inner world of the person vary widely from one civilization to another. Nonetheless, all the world's great religions insist on the need to transform this inner world. Such transformations, often ritually enacted, reveal the primary intuitions, drives, and conflicts active within the culture. The individual essays study dramatic examples of these processes in a wide range of cultures, including China, India, Tibet, Greece and Rome, Late Antiquity, Islam, Judaism, and medieval and early-modern Christian Europe.

This book brings together scholars of a variety of the world's major civilizations to focus on the universal theme of inner transformation. The idea of the "self" is a cultural formation like any other, and models and conceptions of the inner world of the person vary widely from one civilization to another. Nonetheless, all the world's great religions insist on the need to transform this inner world, however it is understood, in highly expressive and specific ways. Such transformations, often ritually enacted, reveal the primary intuitions, drives, and conflicts active within the culture. The individual essays--by such distinguished scholars as Wai-yee Li, Janet Gyatso, Wendy Doniger, Christiano Grottanelli, Charles Malamoud, Margalit Finkelberg, and Moshe Idel--study dramatic examples of these processes in a wide range of cultures, including China, India, Tibet, Greece and Rome, Late Antiquity, Islam, Judaism, and medieval and early-modern Christian Europe.

The early modern period witnessed sometimes startling, sometimes subtle transformations in the religious and intellectual life of peoples across the globe. For reasons that varied widely, leaders and thinkers from Mexico to the Ottoman Empire and from China to the Indian subcontinent sought to reform existing religions, develop new spiritual practices, promote innovative texts, and, on occasion, even create new religions. Presenting documents from different regions and different religious and philosophical traditions, including Islam, Judaism, Sikhism, Christianity, and Confucianism, this volume allows students to explore and analyze these varied transformations. A general introduction introduces the framework for examining the chapter case studies, while the chapters provide context, a group of primary sources, and a set of questions to consider. Useful pedagogic supports include headnotes to the documents, a chronology, a set of broader questions to consider that help students compare transformations, a selected bibliography, and an index.

The early modern period witnessed sometimes startling, sometimes subtle transformations in the religious and intellectual life of peoples across the globe. For reasons that varied widely, leaders and thinkers from Mexico to the Ottoman Empire and from China to the Indian subcontinent sought to reform existing religions, develop new spiritual practices, promote innovative texts, and, on occasion, even create new religions. Presenting documents from different regions and different religious and philosophical traditions, including Islam, Judaism, Sikhism, Christianity, and Confucianism, this volume allows students to explore and analyse these varied transformations. A general introduction introduces the framework for examining the chapter case studies, while the chapters provide context, a group of primary sources, and a set of questions to consider.