Apocalyptic Grace

Here is a unique exploration of the five eras or Worlds of cultural (socioeconomic,psychological, spiritual) evolution. Stephen Powell, a seasoned anthropologistand psychotherapist, illuminates the hunter/gatherer, horticultural,agrarian, and industrial/technological epochs in unexpectedly fresh and timelyways. Foremost, the diversity of these Worlds is still within us all. World One, reaching back to 50,000 BCE, was a time of widely acceptedshamanic assumptions. World Two (10,000 to 3500 BCE) developed small-scalehorticulture and tribal cohesion, but also unprecedented social conformity. WorldThree (from about 3500 BCE) experienced the global rise of caste-structuredhierarchies with the World Religions as cultural compensation. Beginning inthe 1600s, World Four developed a mechanistic, secularized worldview, accentuatedby individualism, popular culture and a capitalist agenda. Finally, Powell describes the beginnings of a new, fifth set of worldassumptions a world without borders. Here we may start to integrate humanitarianaspects of the preceding Worlds, embracing multiculturalism withoutlosing cultural integrity. Moreover, the wisdom traditions from each timeappear to hold seed truths of the profound changes that mark the end-timeand the beginning of each World. Apocalyptic Grace leads the reader on astunning survey of this remarkable journey.