Wolfgang Aurose

The Soul of Nations: Healing and Evolution Wolfgang Aurose

In many societies politics is shaped by a deep conflict between the progressive and the nationalistic factions. The former defines a national community mainly as an arbitrary and pliable social structure while the latter holds that a nation has a kind of unique and unchangeable core identity. Since both views have a legitimate point and some value, what is urgently needed is a unifying and updated understanding of what a nation is today, and what it has to become in order to contribute to what might be a shared and peaceful future world. This depends on addressing what the author, drawing on the principles of integral philosophy, refers to as healing aspects of the national shadow while at the same time awakening the unique national soul qualities in both individual citizens and nation-states. "The Soul of Nations" features examples of these healing and transforming developments in countries as disparate as the USA, China, India, Russia, Iran, Germany, Colombia and Israel. Sustaining this transformation requires the individual members of a national community, which means each one of us, to initiate and foster these processes. In this follow-up to his award-winning study of the German soul, German-American author and workshop leader Wolfgang Aurose carves out an evolutionarily new understanding of the nation-state and our national identities.