S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 8 - 1 S p r i n g 2 0 2 2 1 7 Gurpyari Bhatnagar Derrida ([1976] 1994, 7) calls for not only deconstructing the classical binaries but also dismantling the fundamental logocentrism and phonocentrism, which denotes the privilege accorded to the spoken word as against the written word. The basis of logocentrism is the traditional concept of logos, which is illustrated as the word of God and God Himself in the Gospel of John (1:1): “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” This description of logos, which is the equivalent of the metaphysical and infinite status of God, has been critiqued by self-confessed atheist writers of our age, especially Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, Christopher Hitches, and Richard Dawkins. Their works subvert transcendent narratives, parody God, and revel in blasphemous utterances and narratives. The significations that were prominent in the religious literature of the past, woven around religious structures of revelation, God, morality, virtue, sin, and penance, are now deconstructed. The transcendent symbols of priesthood and places of worship that held an undisputed position in the narratives of the earlier ages have been replaced with literary characters questioning the authoritative and fixed Logos of theological perspective. Thus, New Age literature on religion and spirituality repudiates the fixed logos of theological perspective and traditional understanding of God as logos. However, not all contemporary writers have discredited the notion of a “transcendent signified” in God. Paulo Coelho, for instance, distances himself from the postmodern view of questioning and undermining the concept of God. The postmodern influence in his works is only limited to dissolving the fixity of meaning of religion and spirituality, thereby offering a pluralistic view of both. Coelho presents new and alternative forms of spirituality and religion not by deconstructing the notion and position of God but, I contend, through positing a different notion of subjective spiritual experience and unorthodox forms of realization. This may prove advantageous for an expansive exploration of religion and religiosity. Moreover, he confines his theoretical and ideological imagination around his own spiritual experiences, which help us understand religion and religiosity anew on the basis of his phenomenological experiences with God, religion, and spirituality. In order to have an insight on Coelho’s ideological and theoretical imagination around the subject of religion and spirituality [2], the subsequent parts of this article will explore his life and the continuum of spiritual narratives within his select works. 2 Life of Paulo Coelho Paulo Coelho is one of the most widely read writers whose candid writings resonate with spiritual experiences of the reader, making his oeuvre an extremely significant contribution on contemporary spirituality. His corpus of works comprises twenty-five books, the most popular being The Alchemist (originally published in Portuguese in 1988). Coelho was born on 24 August 1947 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. During his childhood, having to attend Jesuit schools, he found religion to be authoritarian, controlling, and repressive and felt that it talked only of constraints, sufferings, and the “constant threats of hell” (Coelho 2016). He felt scared of the confessions at Church and derived no joy from the sermons. He could not express his feelings to his parents as they were devout Catholics. So, he started opening up in his diary entries. His religious doubts articulated in the diary grew from “[t]he fact that I couldn’t keep my word is Your fault!” (Morais 2008, 64) to “it’s at times like this that I doubt the existence of God” (Morais 2008, 91). During his youth, he rejected mainstream religion and began exploring new and unconventional paths, which find expression in most of his works. Sects like Hare Krishnas and hippie groups became an obsession with Coelho. Morais explains that his interest in hippie culture was not so much about “drugs, rock, hallucinations” as the ideology behind the “hippie insurrection” (Morais 2008, 146). Coelho also got initiated into Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO), a mysterious oriental organization. The reason for joining the organization was the “regular anxiety crisis” that he suffered during his youth (Morais 2008, 186): [H]e was nearly twenty-five and still just a nobody, without the remotest chance of becoming a famous writer. The situation seemed hopeless and the pain this time was such that, instead of asking for help from the Virgin Mary or St Joseph as he usually did, he decided to make a pact with the Prince of Darkness. If the Devil gave him the power to realize all his dreams, Paulo would give him his soul in exchange. Coelho decided to make a “pact with the Devil”, which did not signify a tryst with “evil” for him but “just one of the poles” in the “equilibrium of humanity” (Morais 2008, 186). The following excerpt from his biography recounts an extremely uncanny, eerie incident around his writing a pact in the diary in red ink, performing the related ritual of crushing a flower from the vase and the final encounter with the Devil (Morais 2008, 205):
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