Gurdjieff as a Bricoleur: Understanding the “Work” as a Bricolage
Issue: Vol 6 No. 2 (2015)
Journal: International Journal for the Study of New Religions
Subject Areas: Religious Studies
Abstract:
Several descriptions have been given to the teachings of G. I. Gurdjieff (1866?-1949), including ‘esoteric Christianity’, a herald of the ‘New Age Movement’ and a standalone system called ‘The Work’ or the ‘Fourth Way’. Scholars qualify their assessments by noting Gurdjieff’s exposure to Theosophy, Spiritualism and Hypnotism, or his background in indigenous oral culture. Nevertheless, a complex unity of ideas, constituting a whole, is usually taken to underpin Gurdjieff’s instructions, with the allure and mystique of this ‘System’ lying in the quest to uncover its source(s). As a result, the Gurdjieff movement is typically presented as sui generis, issuing from a self-contained dynamic. In contrast, taking my lead from the model of the bricoleur in Levi-Strauss, and drawing on an illustrative range of primary sources and secondary literature, I argue that Gurdjieff is better understood not as launching a new ‘system’ – complete, integrated and self-sufficient - but as drawing together a heterogenous repertoire of sources and resources through which to make a bricolage. As a result, the ‘fourth way’ has always been a ‘work in progress’.
Author: Steven J. Sutcliffe
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