The widely respected social philosopher embarks on his most gripping and broadly appealing work, asking the ultimate question of human nature: Why do we repeatedly violate our most deeply held values and beliefs?After nearly forty years of weighing humanity's deepest dilemmas-working in settings ranging from university and high school classrooms to corporate offices and hospitals-bestselling author, philosopher, and religious scholar Jacob Needleman presents the mo...

What is the purpose of life on Earth? Philosopher Jacob Needleman frames man's role on the planet in a completely new and fresh way, moving beyond the usual environmental concerns to reveal how the care and maintenance of a world is something vital and basic to our existence as authentic human beings.In some of his most deeply affecting writing, Needleman draws on his childhood experiences with a terminally ill friend whose impending death forces the young boys to face questions of...

In his most deeply personal work, religious scholar Needleman cuts a clear path through today?s clamorous debates over the existence of God, illuminating an entirely new way of approaching the question of how to understand a higher power.I n this new book, philosopher Jacob Needleman? whose voice and ideas have done so much to open the West to esoteric and Eastern religious ideas in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries?intimately considers humanity?s most vital...

Philosopher Jacob Needleman's groundbreaking study of America's alternative spiritual movements is back in print with a new introduction by the author.Originally published in 1970, The New Religions was the first full-scale study of alternative spirituality in America. It remains unparalleled for the intellectual depth and seriousness with which it regards Eastern, New Age, and alternative faiths on the American landscape.Needleman’s writing and re...

American democracy has existed for more than two hundred years, surviving challenges, betrayals, bashing, bloody wars, and the tragic attacks of September 11, 2001.Here Jacob Needleman explores the sacred meaning of America.

In this “striking” meditation on the relationship between the adult self and the inner child, Jacob Needleman presents excitingly “original positions” on age old spiritual and philosophical questions—Ken WilburSeeking to reconcile the split between our inner child and our adult self, eminent philosopher and religious scholar Jacob Needleman evokes the ancient spiritual tradition of a deep dialogue between a guiding wisdom figure and a seeker. The elder offers an in...

Looking at the lives of America's founders-including Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin-scholar and bestselling author Jacob Needleman explores their core of inner beliefs; their religious and spiritual sensibilities; and their individual conception of the purpose of life.The founders, Needleman argues, conceived of an "inner democracy": a continual pursuit of wisdom and self-improvement that would undergird the outer democracy in which we live today. Any understanding of America ...

"With this one compact statement, Jacob Needleman has forced the discussion of both science and religion in our time into a new, more mature and discriminating phase. . . . It is a way station where those who are seriously exploring the transformation of consciousness will have to stop, take thought, and perhaps re-plot their course."—Theodore Roszak"I want to strongly recommend it to every reader seriously interested in our present cultural situation."—Fritjof Capra"Needle...

In Time and the Soul Jacob Needleman uses stories-of a middle-aged psychiatrist going back in time to encounter his younger self; of a mysterious meeting in the Central Asian desert; of the mystic master Hermes Trimegistus; as well as stories from the Bhagavad-Gita, the Bible, and other wisdom traditions-to illuminate the great mystery of time and to help us resolve our increasingly dysfunctional relationship to it. Nearly everyone feels stress and anxiety over what's become known as time ...

In this novel steeped in esoteric wisdom, a young man joins a club of teenage magicians called The Sorcerer's Apprentices and is swept up into a world of magic.

Embark on a worldwide journey with renowned scholar of comparative religion, Jacob Needleman, as he gathers together ancient texts and writings of the modern practitioners of essential Christianity. Needleman demonstrates that a more effective, contemplative tradition existed in the early church and continues today in the lives of extraordinary people whose stories he retells in the course of his own personal explorations into the realms of the spirit. By demonstrating how first century Ch...

This inaugural-and all new-Tarcher Cornerstone Edition presents a stunningly relevant and reliable translation of the thoughts and aphorisms of the Stoic philosopher and Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, properly placing the philosopher-king's writings within the vein of the world's great religious and ethical traditions.The late antique world possessed no voice like that of Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius (121-180 CE). His private meditations on what constitutes a good...