Prof.
Marianna Ruah-Midbar Shapiro
Marianna Ruah-Midbar Shapiro is a pioneer in the field of Contemporary Spiritualities Studies in Israel. She is a critical cultural scholar and a religion researcher, who applies these research approaches both to the spiritual-alternative field and the scientific-research field, in the belief that both sides have much to benefit from a fertile dialogue based on a two-way critical examination. She deals in deciphering cosmology, and in pointing out the values and locating the paradoxes and inherent contradictions of both spiritual-alternative discourse and (the related fields of) scientific discourse.
Prof. Ruah-Midbar Shapiro’s PhD has laid down the methodological foundations for an interpretive study of an emergent dynamic culture, with New Age as a test case and introduced the “conceptual network” model for understanding cultural complexities. Her studies aim to expose the current emerging cultural paradoxes and trends in liberal Western culture – in public discourse, academic discourse, and among elites of spiritual thought– by exploring the cracks, vulnerabilities, subversive alternative trends, and myths we forge for ourselves.
Prof. Ruah-Midbar Shapiro is also an academic entrepreneur in the fields of spirituality: she established a BA program in Mysticism and Spirituality Studies at Zefat Academic College, and headed the department; initiated and co-founded the “Israeli/International Conference for the Study of Israeli Spiritualities” (ICSCS); co-founded the Israeli Association for the Study of Religions (IASR) and serves as a member of its administrative board; among other endeavors.
