A Dictionary of Spirituality

A Dictionary of Spirituality is intended to help the subject of spirituality to become more accessible to the general public. It is also hoped that students of world religions, spiritual people and even professionals, religious peole, monks and believers of all religions, yoga teachers, and practitioners will turn to it for helpful information. It does not have pretensions to completeness, but it does provide a wide range of entries. While the scope of the book has been restricted to the Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam and other major religions and spiritual phenomena, aspect of the subject associated with Sikhism, Jainism, Zen, Shinto, history of religions, theology, philosophy and religions, spiritualist psychology, yoga, sufism, meditation, Paganism, spiritual social movements. Special attention is dedicated to the terms in the field of spiritism, magic (paranormal), rituals, symbols, actions, language, as a category separate from religion. In particular, influences of East religions on Western civilization are mentioned, although no attempt has been made to include the vast terminology of religions of India, China, Japan that would itself fill volumes. Apart from the books devoted to single religions, much information has been extracted from more general sources: other dictionaries and internet. Containing over 5.200 entries in the field of all the aspects of sprituality, religions and human spirit achievements, this is the most comprehensive and up-to-date dictionary of spirituality in paperback. On 672 pages the book covers all aspects of human spiritality in all periods of history of civilizations, from East to West. It is an invaluable work of reference for the general reader and believers in all major religions, from Hinduism to Christianity.