Contemplative Studies in Context

Summary

Contemplative Studies is emerging in higher education and American culture, integrating religious practices into typically secular settings like labs and classrooms. This thesis categorizes Contemplative Studies into Contemplative Science and Contemplative Pedagogy, exploring their relevance within modernity, spirituality, and secularity. It highlights various nuances and paradoxes within the contemplative movement that have not been previously discussed.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Contemplative Studies is an emerging field within higher education and American culture that is blurring the boundaries of modernity by bringing seemingly religious practices in spaces such as scientific laboratories, classrooms and corporate workplaces, which are often understood as secular environments. This thesis studies the field of Contemplative Studies in higher education by organizing it into the two categories, Contemplative Science and Contemplative Pedagogy in order to situate them in their proper contexts. The paper, then, situates the discourses of Contemplative Science and Contemplative Pedagogy in the larger context of modernity, spirituality in America, science and secularity. In doing so, it brings to light a number of nuances and paradoxes within the contemplative movement that have heretofore been uncommented upon.

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