Alan Watts
Published: 2017-04-25
Total Pages: 392
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Explores language and mysticism, Buddhism and Zen, Christianity, comparative religion, psychedelics, and psychology and psychotherapy. To commemorate the 2015 centenary of the birth of Alan Watts (19151973), Peter J. Columbus and Donadrian L. Rice have assembled a much-needed collection of Wattss scholarly essays and lectures. Compiled from professional journals, monographs, scholarly books, conferences, and symposia proceedings, the volume sheds valuable light on the developmental arc of Wattss thinking about language and mysticism, Buddhism and Zen, Christianity, comparative religion, psychedelics, and psychology and psychotherapy. This definitive collection challenges Wattss reputation as a popularizer or philosophical entertainer, revealing his concerns to be much more expansive and transdisciplinary than is suggested by the parochial Zen Buddhist label commonly affixed to his writings. The editors authoritative introduction elucidates contemporary perspectives on Wattss life and work, and supports a bold rethinking of his contributions to psychology, philosophy, and religion. This excellent volume is important in establishing Watts as perhaps the most important Western thinker and writer on Eastern religions and philosophy, as well as comparative religions, of the twentieth century. John W. Traphagan, author of Rethinking Autonomy: A Critique of Principlism in Biomedical Ethics