Fuller, Robert C.

Stairways to Heaven: Drugs in American Religious History

Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2000. First Printing. Hardcover. “’Stairways to Heaven’ is unique in the study of American religious history in two ways: first, it demonstrates that the ritual use of mind-altering substances has contributed to the innovation and diversity that characterize American religious life; second, it uses interdisciplinary research into the religious uses of drugs to shed light on the controversial legal, ethical, and spiritual controversies that surround drug use in the contemporary United States. The book’s final chapter assesses the usefulness of drugs in the quest for a mature, life-affirming, community-building, creative spirituality” (from Front Flap).Another in the series of intrigue-engendering, drug-related works lately uploaded to the site, Robert C. Fuller’s (b. 1952) ‘Stairways to Heaven: Drugs in American Religious History’ plumbs the depths of said history, unearthing factoids something like arrowheads by the barrelful. Fuller represents another un-explicated “division,” or quadrant of/under our “Prolific and Underappreciated” website category. While mostly used to discuss towering, mid-century pioneers that deserve wider readership (with the late Clayton Eshleman perhaps embodying the category-descriptor best—at least insofar as it relates to poetry), it’s not always literary matters and curmudgeonly poets you’ve never heard of. Among Fuller’s greatest interests is something he calls the “unchurched spirituality” of most modern Americans — his idea supported by the reported, declining attendance to religious services across the board existing beside the virtually unchanging belief of Americans in a higher power, loosely defined. Sometimes, it’s guys like Fuller you'll find hiding in "Prolific & Underappreciated" section —who has, in other works, offered gemlike insights, including the observation that “alternative medicines almost invariably promulgate alternative worldviews." Consider the prescience of Fuller’s observation in relation to vaccine-related hesitancies, homeopathy, allopathy, veganism, etc. Almost universally true, isn’t it? Such offhanded profundities line Fuller’s work: a fact the prospective future owner of this here volume will soon know well. [ISBN: 0-8133-6612-7]. Hardcover in unclipped dust-jacket: “First American Edition,” as indicated on copyright page; First Printing, as indicated by number sequence thereon. In strong near fine condition with minute shelf-wear to fine-edges & corners of front, back covers & pointillistic collation of age-toning & spotting to same. Dust-jacket in very fine condition with only light-to-moderate shelf-wear, rubbing, a few tiny bumps to fine-edges & corners of front, back covers & spine-edge of same, else pristine. Near Fine. [Item #5330]

Price: $25.00