Our contemporary moment witnesses fundamental transformations in the fields of self, society, culture, religion, politics, and spirituality. While in each of the world religions there is a growing fundamentalism, terror, and violence, in the same space there is also the vision and practice of practical, creative, and transformative spirituality which strives to cultivate and create relations and landscapes of beauty, dignity, and dialogues in self, cultures, societies, religions, and the world. As Charles Taylor helps us understand this: “[…] A powerful constitutive strand of modern Western spirituality is involved in an affirmation of life. It is perhaps evident in the contemporary concern to preserve life, to bring prosperity, to reduce suffering worldwide, which I believe without precedent in history” (Taylor 2011: 18).¹ And as Jim Wallis who has done much in the field of practical spiritual service writes: “Two of the most powerful forces in the world right now are service and spirituality . The growing influence of both is evident almost everywhere, and together they provide the most potent combination for changing our communities. Service and spirituality are growing streams of energy, which, as they begin to flow together could create a mighty river of action” (Wallis 2000: xxxiv). Practical Spirituality and Human Development deals with the vision and work of service, spirituality, and movements for self-development and social transformations. It deals with movements of affirmative, creative , and critical spirituality in self, culture, histories, and societies.

The first part of the book, “Practical Spirituality: New Modes of Thinking and Transformative Practice,” deals with practical spirituality as a broad genre of envisioning and practice. Chapter 2 by Giri outlines the vision and pathways of practical spirituality where practical spirituality involves the transformation of science and religion, new initiatives in arts and rethinking outmoded authoritarian conceptions of God and spiritual transformation of democracy and democratic transformation of spirituality. Giri’s chapter is followed by Chap. 3 by Ashgar Ali Engineer, “What It Means to Be Religious?,” where Engineer , a great seeker and fighter for freedom and dignity in Islam, urges us to realize that to be religious is to practice humility, compassion, truthfulness, and a spirit of fighting for amelioration of suffering. To be religious also means to fight against the forces of establishment in religion and politics which create conditions of self and social suffering. Chapter 4 by Janine Joyce , “Practical Spirituality: Human Beings Evolving into a Higher Level of Communion and Ethical Relation with One Another,” presents us wide-ranging perspectives about practical spirituality. For Joyce , practical spirituality involves a consideration of the other taking us out of our egoistic preoccupation. Marcus Bussey in Chap. 5, “Critical Spirituality: Towards a Revitalised Humanity,” tells us how spirituality is a thrival engagement with dance and transformation of life and not only a logic of survival or reproduction. Bussey’s chapter is followed by Peter Heehs’ chapter (Chap. 6) on non-theistic spirituality in which Heehs argues how spirituality has been different from religious spirituality or belief in God. Chapter 7 of Jyoti Sahi, “The Ashram as a Secular Place: An Understanding of the Human as a Spiritual Place,” tells us how Ashrams like those set up by Gandhi are places of secular spirituality and provide spaces for spiritual fellowship to address the challenges of our world.

The subsequent three chapters in Part I help us realize the link between creative narratives and practical spirituality. In Chap. 8, “There Is No Path and You Are on It,” Hazen Robert Walker presents us glimpses from his novel Starting from Zero which explores in fiction a subject more commonly treated in non-fiction—the individual quest for self-knowledge and self-understanding—what Gurdjieff called “being consciousness.” It is the story of one man’s search for a path and for the shaman/wisdom teacher who might help him find it. While at heart a psychological study, the novel also examines the social conditions that influence or impinge upon our collective psyche—for inevitably, the search for greater individual consciousness is a search for the consciousness of the whole. In the subsequent chapter (Chap. 9), “Life Is Story: Tales and Journeys in Practical Spirituality in the Aesthetic Plasma of Story in the Lila,” Barbara A. Amodio tells us about the importance of story in life and how practical spirituality is connected to creative storytelling. In Chap. 10 on creative non-fiction, “Postmodernism, Groundlessness, and the Dual Portrait,” Elizabeth S. Gunn tells us how creative non-fiction presents the de-centered “dual portrait” of characters and social processes which, like meditative practices, “illuminate[s] the darkness of ignorance … we’re also able to see how we could be open and relax.” Gunn finds resonance between de-centering in the creation and functioning of dual portraits and de-centering in postmodernism which de-centers master narratives of modernity and practical spirituality which de-centers master narratives of religion and religious practices.

The last two chapters in Part I present us a glimpse of the architecture of the universe in which human spirituality is located. In Chap. 11, “Concrete and Abstract Realities,” Henk de Weijer invites us to realize the significance of the dynamic play of consciousness and energy for the realization of practical spirituality in our vision and practice. Nina Goncharova in Chap. 12, “Divine Path of Humanity: Co-creating ‘In the Image of God,’” tells us her own passionate journey of walking with the call of the path of humanity as a family. She invites us to join in the co-creation of this divine path in the image of God.

With this, we come to Part II of our book, “Practical Spirituality and Transformation of Religion and Societies,” which presents us different perspectives on the work of practical spirituality in the transformation of religions and societies from different traditions. This begins with Chap. 13 by Binod Kumar Agarwala, “Brahman and Karman: The Theory of Institutional Action in the Bhagavadgītā,” in which Agarwala tells us how the Bhagavadgītā presents us vision and practices of practical spirituality as spiritual action which is confined not only at the individual realm but also permeates institutions. This is followed by Chap. 14 by Pamela Frydman, “Practical Spirituality: Judaic and Multi-faith Practices of Transformations,” in which Frydman tells us about the vision and practice of practical spirituality from Judaism and other contemporary initiatives such as that of Swami Chidananda Saraswati from Rishikesh, India, who is using spiritual resources to create a clean environment. Frydman also tells us about United Religions Initiative founded in San Francisco which is working toward inter-religious dialogues and multi-faith harmony in communities and countries around the world. Practical spirituality here becomes manifold action and imagination of taking care of the self, other, and the world, and Frydman tells us about its root in Judaism: “In Judaism, caring for our planet and its inhabitants is considered part of helping to make the world a better place, which is called in Hebrew tikkun olam. Tikkun means repair. Olam means world or universe. Every act, word, consideration and accommodation that helps make the world a better place is a form of tikkun olam.”

Frydman’s chapter is followed by Shlomit C. Schuster’s chapter (Chap. 15), “Practical Spirituality and the Desert Fathers,” in which Schuster pr...