Fault Lines

The Sixties, the Culture War, and the Return of the Divine Feminine

$18.95

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Imprint: Quest Books
Availability: In stock
"There is no question that Fault Lines is enlightening; indeed, it is as interesting a political treatment as any, and it's far better researched than many of its cousins. Readable to the point of friendliness, this political examination features extensive research, notes, and appendices. Citing sources ranging from Pat Robertson to Ayn Rand and Starhawk, it is both light and heartfelt." --ForeWord Reviews
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Book Details

Pages

312 Pages

Size

6 x 9

Format

Trade Paperback

Pub. Date

11/05/2013

ISBN

978-0-8356-0918-0

Publisher

Quest Books

Authors

Gus diZerega holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Berkeley (1984) and has been deeply involved at many levels of spiritual practice for over 25 years. He has published extensively in the academic press on environmental and political theory and policy and has taught at universities in the U.S. and abroad. He has also published two books and many articles on spirituality, the environment and politics. Gus has taught workshops on healing, connecting with nature and Wicca internationally as well. He writes regularly for Patheos.com as well as for Witches and Pagans.

The United States is suffering its greatest upheaval since the Civil War–politically, economically, socially, religiously. With elegant, sweeping vision, Gus diZerega explores the complex causes leading us to this point, comparing them to giant fault lines that, when they erupt, create enormous disturbance and in time new landscapes. He traces the disruption, first, to America’s first countercultural movement originating in the antebellum South and coming into later conflict with the “counterculture” of the 60s that continues now in phenomena like Burning Man; and second, to the crumbling of the moral foundation birthed by the Enlightenment, leading to today’s nihilism. But within the loss resides hope: diZerega sees promise of a new society based more in equality, sacred feminine values, and spiritual immanence. Whether the prevailing oligarchy will abort this transformation is the question of our time. This book enables those of us now living through it to understand the powerful forces shaping our lives and calling on us for a response.
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"There is no question that Fault Lines is enlightening; indeed, it is as interesting a political treatment as any, and it's far better researched than many of its cousins. Readable to the point of friendliness, this political examination features extensive research, notes, and appendices. Citing sources ranging from Pat Robertson to Ayn Rand and Starhawk, it is both light and heartfelt." --ForeWord Reviews "Solving our current crises requires looking into the deepest environmental, social, mythical, and political causes that led us here. Central to our problems is the collapse of the modern world's ethical foundations, a victim of its own success. Healing requires reviving environmental and feminine values spiritually and in our culture generally. Gus diZerega's insightful analysis sheds important light on these cultural and spiritual currents begging for recognition." --Anodea Judith, author of Eastern Body, Western Mind and Wheels of Life "If, in the long-awaited Millennial Moment, the very ground we stand on begins to shift and tremble, this book leaves no doubt as to where the fault lies. It is in us and beneath us, but it is "our fault!" Gus diZerega, with admirable historical research and considerable erudition, shows just how the cultural schizophrenia of the modern world arose, continues to be perpetuated and imperils our lives and the very world itself. The dualities now called Materialism versus Creationism, Logos versus Mythos, are built on a more ancient dichotomy, not just male/female, but masculine and feminine as approaches to life. The once flourishing religion of the Great Mother has yielded to Patriarchal models, but at our own peril--both environmental and spiritual. diZerega's unflinching analysis is nonetheless interwoven with a basically humanistic emphasis that leaves the reader feeling optimistic and somehow wiser at the end. A must-read for people both alarmed and hopeful about the current condition of the world." --Stephen Larsen, Ph.D., Psychology Professor Emeritus, SUNY, and author of The Shaman's Doorway, A Fire in the Mind, The Life of Joseph Campbell and The Fundamentalist Mind "Cultural historian and political scientist Gus diZerega has provided thoughtful perspectives on the underlying currents of collective consciousness roiling beneath the surface of our political life. Nourishing food-for-thought for anyone seeking to understand our present dilemmas." --Ralph Metzner, Ph.D., author of Green Psychology and The Unfolding Self "Gus diZerega takes us on a ride through world history from the foundations of the Axial Age to the persistent and growing global malaise of modernity. It is a voyage of discovery that argues we are entering a new era made equally possible and equally dangerous by the technological transformations of modern science and the return of the long suppressed spirituality of the Divine Feminine. As a Pagan philosopher and theologian, diZerega persuades us that the return of the Goddess in all of her exuberant forms marks the beginning of a new and possibly renewed post-Axial age, now coming alive again through the creative and compassionate sensibilities of the Divine Feminine." --Dr. John Berthrong, Associate Professor of Comparative Theology, Boston University School of Theology