CHAPTER TITLE
“Practical Spirituality and the Transformation of Political Power: The Great Law of Peace and the Influence of Iroquois Women and Policies on US Women Suffragists”
ABSTRACT
The Great Law of Peace, or Kaianeraserakowa, served as the living structure uniting the Haudenosaunee Nation, or what is sometimes called the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy. In this chapter, I consider how the Iroquois people, culture and governing structures that embody the social and spiritual meanings of the Great Law inspired vision in Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Matilda Joslyn Gage.
While Iroquois native culture proved to the suffragists that equality and rights for women were possible, it was not so much the minute particularities of Iroquois life that directed their attention. Instead, Gage especially observed that a concrete transcendental dimension could be found within genuinely democratic culture. This flexible and broad set of internal practices, beliefs and principles helped to bring about the political conditions and theological understandings through which a world free from oppression and tyranny could eventually be realized. When this shelter of shared understanding or symbolic “longhouse” for human development and relations was properly erected and respected, then people could abide together creatively as members of one common human family, and the particular beauties within any authentic cultural life world could shine forth without impediment.
The last section of this chapter looks in particular at how the greater political, theological and philosophical messages brought forward through nineteenth century woman’s suffrage were carried forward in twentieth century movements in the United States, pertaining to the promulgation of peace, the moral and spiritual expansion of human identity, the extension of citizenship beyond nation-state boundaries, and the affirmation of civil rights and racial equality.
Geredien, Julie Mazzarella. “Practical Spirituality and the Transformation of Political Power: The Great Law of Peace and the Influence of Iroquois Women and Policies on US Women Suffragists.” Practical Spirituality and Human Development: Transformations in Religions and Societies (2018): 327-359.
PDF Practical Spirituality and the Transformation of Political Power
CHAPTER TITLE
“Pragmatism and the “Changing of the Earth”: Unifying Moral Impulse, Creative Instinct, and Democratic Culture”
ABSTRACT
In this essay, I examine why pragmatism is appropriate for addressing deep conflict and environmental crisis. Spiritual pragmatism offers a path of thought and action through which moral impulse, creative instinct, and democratic culture become increasingly united, thereby healing deep rifts and addressing serious systemic errors at the root of global problems today. The essay analyzes the relationship between biological impulse and the democratic ideal. It investigates how this relationship calls upon the higher criterion of authenticity maintained by pragmatism, and how it promotes citizens’ participation in the making of a democratic culture that improves spiritual functioning in the society.
Ecological metaphors of growth and transformation are also presented to illustrate poetically how the spiritual pragmatist unites theory and practice through experience and interaction in community. The aesthetic ecology promoted by pragmatism supports truth-seeking and transparency in society. I conclude that the pragmatist’s respect for this ecology encourages the kind of transformational human development needed to unify moral impulse, creative instinct, and democratic culture and to facilitate social healing.
Geredien, Julie Mazzarella. “Pragmatism and the “Changing of the Earth”: Unifying Moral Impulse, Creative Instinct, and Democratic Culture.” Pragmatism, Spirituality and Society: Border Crossings, Transformations and Planetary Realizations (2021): 95-122.
PDF Pragmatism and the Changing of the Earth
CHAPTER TITLE
“Pragmatism and Socio-Political Movement Toward Solidarity”
ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews how two organizations within civic society—LiKEN in Appalachia and FUNDAEC in rural Colombia—are building solidarity and countering the space-time frames of global capitalism by engaging in spiritual pragmatism. Both organizations cultivate fluency in their work addressing human needs and the real-world consequences of human actions. Following this is an analysis of the creative tension that exists between structure and agency, and a beginning theoretical account of how social entities, like LiKEN and FUNDAEC, generate the coherence and the capacity for transformation that is needed to address problematic power complexes and global contradictions. Improvement in social and systemic integration achieved by these organizations emerges relationally, out of the interaction between the causal powers of agency and social structure.
Geredien, Julie M. “Pragmatism and Socio-Political Movement Toward Solidarity.” Pragmatism, Spirituality and Society: New Pathways of Consciousness, Freedom and Solidarity (2021): 147-176.
PDF Pragmatism and Socio-Political Movement
CHAPTER TITLE
“Transformative Harmony and the Community Making Process”
ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the four dimensions of the Chinese concept of harmony in relation to an analysis of the four stages of the community building process outlined by Scott Peck, founder of Foundation for Community Encouragement. It emphasizes the role of emptiness in this process and the ability of those in ‘genuine’ community to participate in the dynamism and creativity of ‘relative’ strife, a unique fruit of transformative harmony.
Geredien, Julie. “Transformative Harmony and the Community-Making Process.” In Transformative Harmony, ed. Ananta Giri. New Delhi: Studera Press (2018): 265-303.
PDF Transformative Harmony and the Community
CHAPTER TITLE
“International Charter of Responsibility:
The Work of Charles Leopold Mayer Foundation and Beyond”
ABSTRACT
The Charles Leopold Mayer Foundation for Human Progress was founded in 1982 under Swiss law. Its goals are to support the emergence of global community by focusing on governance, ethics, and sustainable models for living and development. Since 2003, Edith Sizoo, a socio-linguist working within the framework of Development Cooperation, has coordinated an international process that was initiated through The Charles Leopold Mayer Foundation for Human Progress, to promote a Universal Charter of Human Responsibilities. The need for a third pillar was first seriously publicly discussed at the 1972 Stockholm World Conference, when the idea was presented to establish an “Earth Charter,” which would focus mainly on responsible relations between humankind and the biosphere. Sizoo and fellow reflective activists understand that responsible action requires that different categories of human activity be integrated.
Geredien, Julie M. “International Charter of Responsibility: The Work of Charles Leopold Mayer Foundation and Beyond.” In The Calling of Global Responsibility, pp. 203-212. Routledge, 2023.
CHAPTER TITLE
““Baptizing Women into the Spirit of Freedom and Equality: A Closer Look at Gender and Transformation of Power in Stanton’s Popular Talk ‘Our Girls’”
ABSTRACT
Geredien, Julie M. ““Baptizing Women into the Spirit of Freedom and Equality: A Closer Look at Gender and Transformation of Power in Stanton’s Popular Talk ‘Our Girls’”, Gender Issues Studium Press (2017):
JulieGeredien 