The thirst for community and spiritual authenticity: Sufism, Kabbalistic Judaism, and modern American culture

Since the early 1970s, scholars have observed rapid changes in American religious life as Eastern spiritual traditions and new religious movements became increasingly popular. The spiritual center of gravity shifted as attendance at "mainline" congregations fell and growing numbers of people began to experiment with meditation and a wide range of therapeutic modalities. While these observations are no longer controversial, scholars are just beginning to examine the lives and motivations of this group of spiritual innovators. Sufism and Kabbalistic Judaism, two of the most recent arrivals on the American spiritual scene, have received particularly scant attention.;In this dissertation, I examine the broad life currents that led twenty individuals in California and Washington to place their commitment to spirituality at the center of their lives. Drawing on oral histories, correspondence, and spiritual publications, I focus on the internal landscape of the people involved in two spiritual groups: a Sufi order and a mystical Jewish group from the 1970s to the 1990s. I discuss how and why self-described "seekers" became drawn to the esoteric inner-directed spirituality of Sufism and Kabbalistic Judaism during this period. I explore their backgrounds in spiritual experimentation and the wide range of pivotal life events that moved them in this direction. I examine the processes by which women especially began to rediscover the "spiritual narrative" as a way of recasting the emotional and existential suffering that they endured in their lives. Women with a spiritual orientation reframed divorces, frequent relocations, and career changes as crucial steps in their personal and spiritual development. I also examine the widespread longing for authentic community that pervaded American culture during this period. The seekers in this study explored many different approaches to community life as they struggled to reconcile the demands of individual spiritual growth with communal commitments.