JASR 27.3 (2014): 395-397
doi: 10.1558/arsr.v27i3.26548
JASR (print) ISSN 1031-2943
JASR (online) ISSN 1744-9014
Book Review
Michael S. Pittman, Classical Spirituality in Contemporary America: The Confluence and Contribution of G.I. Gurdjieff and Sufism. Continuum, London and New
York, 2012, pp. x + 268. ISBN: 978-1-84465-742-1 (pbk).
Michael Pittman’s Classical Spirituality in Contemporary America is an important
landmark in the development of an academic approach to G.I. Gurdjieff and the esoteric spiritual tradition (the ‘Work’ or the ‘Fourth Way’) that he established. To date,
the vast majority of books concerning Gurdjieff are insider accounts of pupils, and
these manifest a range of problems for the scholar, not least of which is the way that a
sui generis field of ‘Gurdjieff studies’ is set up and cordoned off from other contemporaneous teachers and teachings. A second concern is the in-fighting about who is a
legitimate teacher in the Work, as the Foundation groups are hostile to ‘heterodox’
manifestations of Gurdjieff’s ideas, and themselves are riven with factions and splits.
Pittman deftly avoids these problems by focusing on the discourse concerning
Gurdjieff and Sufism (which turns on identification of the source/s of the Work), which
is complex and principally involves John G. Bennett, a heterodox Gurdjieff pupil who
broke with Jeanne de Salzmann (who established the ‘official’ Foundation lineage) in
1955. The ‘Introduction’ sets up Pittman’s project, which touches on the broader
history of Western perceptions and receptions of Sufism, mines the writings of Gurdjieff
and key pupils for Sufi references, and considers in detail Bennett, his relationship with
controversial ‘Sufi’ Idries Shah, and ways that ‘Sufism’ has been used as a lens
through which to interpret Gurdjieff in recent studies, such as Anna T. Challenger’s
Philosophy and Art in Gurdjieff’s Beelzebub: A Modern Sufi Odyssey (2002).
Chapter 1, ‘Gurdjieff and Sufism: The Creation of a Discourse’, examines known
historical connections that Gurdjieff had with Sufis, such as visiting the Mevlevi tekke
(monastery) in Constantinople in 1920, and (more importantly) perceived connections
that Gurdjieff was trained in the Sufi tradition (the enneagram, his ‘Eastern’ mystique,
the Central Asian qualities of the music he composed with de Hartmann, and the
resemblances between the sacred dances or Movements, and dervish dancing). The
quest to identify the sources of the Work was heightened by the posthumous publication of Beelzebub’s Tales to his Grandson (1950) and Gurdjieff’s ‘fictionalised’
autobiography Meetings with Remarkable Men (1963). The figure of Mullah Nassr
Eddin in Beelzebub, and the references to ‘dervishes’, the character Ekim Bey, and
Gurdjieff’s meeting with Prince Lubovedsky at the Sarmoung monastery in Meetings,
were sufficient to convince many that Sufism was the source of the Work. This was
complicated by Idries Shah (1924–1996), a Scottish-Afghani soi-disant Sufi master
who presented Sufism as universal, pre-dating Islam, and able to be practised as a
spiritual discipline by non-Muslims. This tale of the detaching of Sufism from Islam
during the period of its adoption by the West (via Shah, Meher Baba, Hazrat Inayat
Khan, and others) gets tangled up with the Gurdjieff legacy chiefly through the
relationship between Bennett and Shah.
© Equinox Publishing Ltd 2014, Unit S3, Kelham House, 3, Lancaster Street, Sheffield S3 8AF.
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JASR 27.2 (2014)
In Chapter 2, ‘Gurdjieff’s Discourse on the Soul: Beelzebub’s Tales and the Soul’,
Pittman argues that ‘the discourse on the soul initiated in Beelzebub’s Tales operates
as a generative model and framework for Gurdjieff’s conception of spiritual transformation’ (p. 69). He uses Mikhail Bakhtin’s concept of dialogism to assist in deciphering Gurdjieff’s huge text, which is written as a science fiction novel. The value of
‘conscious labor and intentional suffering’ (p. 74) is noted, and Gurdjieff’s attitude to
the various religions is illustrated from Tales, the point being made that the human ego
distorts and deforms even the best of teachings that underlie the institutional forms of
religion. Sufism is then explored through the trope of dervishes (chiefly the figure of
folk Islam, Mullah Nassr Eddin) that runs through Tales. Beelzebub speaks of Islam as
a ‘great religion’ and Chapter 41 of Tales is dedicated to the hero and ‘model figure’,
the Bokharian dervish Hadji-Asvatz-Troov (p. 101). In Chapter 3, Gurdjieff’s pupil
J.G. Bennett moves to centre stage. Bennett spent years with P.D. Ouspensky and
briefer, though intense, periods with Gurdjieff. He came to interpret Gurdjieff mainly
through the lens of Sufism, and had lived in Istanbul from 1918 to 1921, where he
met Mevlevi and Rifai Sufis and was strongly affected by their teachings and praxis.
Between 1921 and 1949 he had no contact with Sufism, but in South Africa in 1949
his interest was rekindled and he then travelled extensively in the Islamic world, and in
1955 in Damascus he met the Shaykh of the Naqshbandi Order, Abdullah Daghestani
(p. 125).
Pittman’s examination of Bennett is more detailed than any previous academic
treatment, and includes discussion of his engagement with the Indonesian new religious movement Subud (founded by Muhammad Subuh Sumohadiwidjojo in the
1920s) and Roman Catholicism. The convoluted tale of Bennett’s relationship with
Idries Shah (to whom he made over the Coombe Springs property, which Shah
promptly sold) is especially appreciated, and the tensions between the ‘universalist’
discourse of Sufism that includes Gurdjieff and Bennett as teachers and the Islamspecific version that rejects the notion that the Fourth Way has roots in Sufism are
carefully explained. Chapter 4, ‘Gurdjieff, American Style: Sherborne House and
Claymont Court’, moves the tale into the 1970s. Bennett inaugurated the International
Academy for Continuing Education at Sherborne House in Gloucester in 1971, and in
1974 Claymont Court in West Virginia was purchased. Bennett died later that year,
but the Claymont Society for Continuous Education was founded in 1975 under the
direction of Pierre Eliot (1914–2005). Pittman’s interviews with students from
Claymont are direct and vital testimony to the links between the Work and Sufism that
were promoted by the Bennett lineage of Gurdjieffian teachers.
Chapter 5, ‘Gurdjieff and the Continuing Influence of Sufism in America’, covers
figures such as Reshad (Richard Timothy) Feild, who had a positive relationship with
Bennett, and Ibrahim Gamard and Yannis Toussulis, who reject the notion that the
Work has linkages to Sufism. Others, such as Murat Yagan and Kabir Helminski, take
a positive view that links the Work to Sufism as ways of spiritual transformation.
Claymont Court continues as an active teaching institute into the twenty-first century,
and the discourse on Gurdjieff and Sufism (whether in the United States or elsewhere)
is far from exhausted. Classical Spirituality in Contemporary America is superbly written and is of great importance for the small but growing field of genuinely academic,
non-confessional studies of the Gurdjieff tradition. However, it has limitations that are
applicable to all forms of discourse analysis; ultimately, Pittman has very effectively
analysed what many people have said about Gurdjieff and Sufism, but has judiciously
© Equinox Publishing Ltd 2014.
Book Reviews
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refrained from speculations as to whether these discursive formations are more or less
likely to be accurate, to reflect real historical connections or causal factors in the way
that Gurdjieff, a superlative bricoleur in anyone’s estimation, put together the Fourth
Way teachings. Nonetheless, this book is highly recommended as an entertaining and
insightful study, and deserves a wide readership.
Carole M. Cusack
University of Sydney
© Equinox Publishing Ltd 2014.