Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review"It’s relentlessly fascinating, profoundly important and beautifully written. It should be required reading for everyone who reads books other than computer manuals." * Fortean Times *
"
The Superhumanities marks a turn in Jeffrey Kripal’s oeuvre from the exploratory and theoretical to envisioning the future possibilities and implications of his work for the academy . . . [This book] is written for an academic audience and is probably best suited for faculty and/or graduate students hoping to become faculty in the humanities." * Choice *
“
The Superhumanities marks a turn in Kripal’s oeuvre from the exploratory and theoretical to envisioning the future possibilities and implications of his work for the academy. This text serves as both a summation of this prolific scholar’s past contributions and a transition to his upcoming historical trilogy on the paranormal and science in America, suggestively and collectively named the Super Story Trilogy.” * Nova Religio *
"Kripal has written a brave, exciting book that rewards thoughtful discussion, reflection, and engagement.
The Superhumanities is a book that changes minds, a book that changes lives." * Reading Religion *
"[Kripal proposes] de-colonising reality itself and enlarging our understanding of human identity, and hence of meaning and purpose. This is a major and indeed essential cultural enterprise, and this book is an extraordinary
tour de force to this end." * Paradigm Explorer *
“An electrifying, glorious, loving, and almost deranged romp through humanity’s greatest recurrent ideas and experiences,
The Superhumanities is for anyone who senses that the transformative power of books, ideas, and spiritual experiences are intertwined and too often estranged.” -- Jonathan Haidt, author of 'The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion'
“One of the foremost historians of religion and a consummate storyteller, Kripal makes a compelling case for restoring the anomalous and inexplicable to the heart of inquiry in the humanities. A must-read for anyone interested in the future of education, society, and indeed reality and for all who have experienced or would like to experience amazement.” -- Priscilla Wald, author of 'Contagious: Cultures, Carriers, and the Outbreak Narrative'
“In this magical mystery tour of the superhumanities, Kripal takes us inside and out of the pantheistic, the paranormal, the metaphysical, the extrasensory, the anomalous, the weird, the wonderful, the awe inspiring. Reading the book is an experience—a mind-opening guide to the superhuman and soulful, as you
feel where it leads you.” -- Richard A. Shweder, author of 'Why Do Men Barbecue? Recipes for Cultural Psychology'
“Kripal’s recent foray into the troubled waters of the nature of reality and the human may be his greatest work yet. Kripal does not make categorical claims; the end is uncertain, but he does hold space for the hopeful possibility that the superhumanities might help us envision and create a new and more egalitarian world.” -- Stephen C. Finley, author of 'In and Out of This World: Material and Extraterrestrial Bodies in the Nation of Islam'
"A fascinating read." * Reader's Labryinth, on Youtube *
Table of ContentsPrologue. Teaching the Superman
Introduction. How the Book Came to Be
1. Legitimate Science Fiction: From the History of Religions to the Superhumanities
2. “The Truth Must Be Depressing”: Immunological Responses of the Intellectual Body
3. The Human as Two: Toward an Apophatic Anthropology
4. Theory as Two: Rewriting the Real
Conclusion. The Solid Rock Was Once Flowing
Epilogue. Phoenix Reborn
Acknowledgments and the Sigil
Notes
Index
