Changing a Mountain into a Mustard Seed: Spiritual Practices and Responses to Disaster among New York Brahma Kumaris

摘要

The confusion that follows disaster can threaten identity and rapidly undo people's sense of who they are and where they belong. The destruction of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York on 11 September 2001 was one event that precipitated self-examination once the immediacy of the disaster had passed. We explore how members of the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University (BKWSU), based in centers in New York, apply spiritual knowledge to understand suffering. Drawing on primary BKWSU texts and ethnographic data from field research conducted in 2007, we illustrate how the spiritual knowledge and practices of its members (BKs) uniquely shape their perspective on catastrophic events.View full textDownload full textRelated var addthis_config = { ui_cobrand: "Taylor & Francis Online", services_compact: "citeulike,netvibes,twitter,technorati,delicious,linkedin,facebook,stumbleupon,digg,google,more", pubid: "ra-4dff56cd6bb1830b" }; Add to shortlist Link Permalink http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13537900903416838