3 Review(s)

We live in an era defined by a sense of separation, even in the midst of networked connectivity. As cultural climates sour and divisive political structures spread, we are left wondering about our ties to each other. Consequently, there is no better time than now to reconsider ideas of unity.In The Ethics of Oneness, Jeremy David Engels reads the Bhagavad Gita alongside the works of American thinkers Ralph Waldo Emerson and Walt Whitman. Drawing on this rich combination of traditions, Engels advances the notion that individuals are fundamentally interconnected in their shared divinity. In other words, everything is one. If the ethical lessons and challenges of oneness are taken to heart, particularly as they were expressed and celebrated by Whitman, it is possible, Engels argues, to counter the pervasive and problematic American ideals of hierarchy, exclusion, violence, and domination.