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Tables of Contents for The American Soul
Chapter/Section Title
Page #
Page Count
Preamble
xix
I. The Idea of America
1
28
Our America
3
26
A New Beginning
5
1
America and the Teachings of Wisdom
6
1
The World of Ideas and the Disease of Materialism
6
2
Between Two Worlds
8
1
The Inner Meaning of Democracy
9
1
Why We Need Heroes
10
1
The Idea of Man's Two Natures
11
1
Myth and the Meaning of America
12
1
The Web of Truth and the Two Histories of America
13
2
The Second History
15
1
No Idea Exists Alone
16
1
The Metaphysical Function of Civilization
17
1
The Promise and the Crime of America
17
2
The Hope of America
19
1
The American Virtues and Their Shadows
20
1
Liberty: Freedom of Conscience or Self-Gratification?
20
1
Independence: Individuality or Individualism?
21
1
Practicality: Honest Pragmatism or Blind Materialism?
21
1
The Rule of Law: Guardian or Usurper of Conscience?
22
1
The Nobility or the Slavery of Work?
23
1
Freedom of Speech or Empty Talk?
24
5
The American Soul
25
4
II. In the Beginning
29
160
Remembering America
31
44
The Flag
32
2
The Hypnosis of History
34
1
The Hope of America
35
1
The Pledge of Allegiance
35
2
The Loss of the Holy
37
1
You Are Very American
38
2
America and Reality
40
1
What Do We Love When We Love America?
41
1
America and the Mystical Community
42
1
A Mystical Nation?
42
1
Mystical Equality
43
1
Mind on the Side of God
44
2
American Nature
46
2
The Idea of the Good
48
1
When Truth Becomes Love
49
1
The God of Franklin
50
1
Who or What Is Benjamin Franklin?
51
1
The Red Button
52
1
The Secret of Franklin
53
1
A Dangerous Mind
54
1
Another Room
55
1
Technology and the Sacred
56
1
Inside the Machine
57
2
The Greatness of Franklin
59
1
The Art Form of America Is Government
60
7
A Wondrous Engine
67
1
The Metaphysics of Democracy
68
3
An Ordinary Man
71
4
The Myth and the Character of George Washington
75
64
A New Kind of Symbol
75
4
A Fallible Human Being; A Great and Good Man
79
2
A Man of Astonishing Strength
81
4
Washington's Presence
85
2
The Paradox of Greatness
87
4
The American Ideal of Self-Improvement
91
1
The Morality of Self-Improvement
91
1
True Religion and the General Good
92
3
Toward Moral Perfection
95
3
Will
98
1
Or Are We Only Victims?
98
2
Inner Freedom
100
3
The Most Influential Man in Our History
103
1
The Downflowing Stream
103
1
The Great Renunciation
104
1
Seeds of Darkness
105
1
The Results of Stepping Back
106
2
The Meaning of George Washington
108
1
The King of America
109
1
The Last Renunciation
110
1
The American President
111
1
Echoes from the East
112
1
The Farewell
113
1
``You Are Americans''
114
3
The Unity of America
117
1
Foreign Entanglements
118
2
The Forge of Experience
120
1
Reason, Liberty, and Love
121
3
The State and the Self
124
1
The Spirit of Party and the Enemy Within
125
4
Blessed Are the Peacemakers
129
1
The Role of Religion
130
2
Attachments, Entanglements and Inner Slavery
132
3
Real Independence
135
2
A New Meaning of Virtue
137
2
Thomas Jefferson: Democracy as the Communal Self
139
34
Politics and the Inner World
140
2
In Search of the Democratic Self
142
3
The Declaration of Independence
144
1
Rights, Duties and Powers
145
2
The Bill of Rights
147
2
The Pursuit of Happiness
149
1
The State and the Cosmos
150
1
The Dark Side of Human Nature
151
3
The Fallen Self
154
2
Property and the Two Natures of Man
156
3
Human Rights and the Two Natures
159
3
The Communal Self as a Reconciling Force
162
4
What Is Democracy For?
166
2
Vertical Democracy
168
2
Two Americas; Two Democracies
170
1
The Democracy of Desire and the Democracy of Conscience
171
2
Individuality: A Meditation on the Face of Lincoln
173
16
Individuality as Presence
174
1
Photographs
174
3
Masks
177
1
The True and the False Individualism
178
4
Beyond ``Ethics''
182
3
Character
185
1
Love and Detachment
186
3
III. The Crimes of America
189
80
The Angels of Eden
191
2
The American Indian
193
44
The Culture of the American Indian
193
1
The Meaning of Peace
194
2
The Meaning of Justice
196
1
The Interdependence of Good and Evil
197
1
The Peace that Passes Understanding
198
1
The Meaning of Monotheism
198
1
The Problem of Evil
199
1
What Was Killed? What Cannot Be Killed?
200
1
Ideas Live in People
201
1
Dream and Vision
201
1
A Culture Based on a Different State of Consciousness
202
1
What Really Was Destroyed?
202
1
The Legends
203
2
The Two Brothers
204
1
The Creation and Meaning of Human Life
205
2
Flint Tries to Create Humans
207
1
``That Is Not a Human Being''
208
4
The Aim of America
212
2
The Great Peace and the Iroquois Confederacy
214
1
The New Mind
214
2
The Stone Canoe
216
2
A Certain Woman along the Warrior's Path
218
2
The New Society
220
1
The Man Who Eats Humans
221
1
Hiawatha
222
1
The New Face
223
1
Atotarho
224
1
A New Name
225
1
A Scream That Freezes the Blood
226
2
The Great Work: The Inner Work
228
1
Hiawatha's Journey
229
1
Facing Atotarho
230
2
The One Thing Needful
232
2
He Who Combs
234
1
What We Must Do
235
2
Slavery and the Story of America
237
32
The Illusion of America
237
4
Frederick Douglass Speaks
241
1
``Do You Mean, Citizens, to Mock Me?''
241
5
The New Story of America
246
2
A Nation That Has Lost Its Soul
248
1
America Must Remember Itself
249
1
Freedom from America
250
1
The Awakening
251
1
Edward Covey: Breaker of Slaves
252
1
An American Revolution
253
4
The Sin for Which There Is No Forgiveness
257
5
The Sleep of America
262
1
The Sin of Despair; The Rebirth of Hope
263
6
IV. The Two Democracies
269
60
The Wound and the Turning
271
19
From Washington to Ephrata
271
1
The Look and the Wound
272
4
Vietnam
276
3
The Illusion and the Vision
279
1
A Whole Nation
280
3
On the Way to Ephrata: Monticello
283
2
Enter Hamilton
285
3
At the Heart of Democracy
288
2
Ephrata: In Search of the Second Democracy
290
25
A Small Thing
291
1
A Certain Michael Widman
291
4
The General and the Monk
295
2
The Pardon
297
1
Outer and Inner Democracy
297
2
The Ephrata Story
298
1
Conrad Beissel
299
2
The Second Democracy
301
2
The Crossroads
303
4
The Meaning of Materialism
307
8
Walt Whitman and the Meaning of America
315
14
Democratic Vistas
316
2
The Mythmaker's Call to Contemporary America
318
2
The Idea of America
320
1
Independence
320
1
Equality
321
1
The People
322
1
The Individual
323
1
The American Religion
324
5
Conclusion: The America of Our Hopes
329
26
The Guardian at the Door
331
14
What America Is and What America Means
332
1
An American Place
332
2
The Guardian at the Door
334
1
The American Illusion
334
2
What Is Character?
336
1
Beyond Personal Freedom
337
2
The Secret of America: Time and the Future
339
1
Toward Objective Hope
340
1
Why Have We Become So Strong?
341
2
Is America Necessary?
343
2
Toward a Community of Conscience
345
10
Our Heroes and Ourselves
346
5
Toward a Community of Conscience
351
1
Our Crimes and Ourselves
352
3
Coda
355
2
For Further Reading
357
6
Notes
363
9
Index
372