Creative Systems Theory: A Comprehensive Theory of Purpose, Change, and Interrelationship in Human Systems

by Charles Johnston

This book is the place to go for a deep dive into the forward-thinking, multi-faceted ideas of Creative Systems Theory. From the book’s back “Creative Systems Theory brings big-picture, long-term perspective to understanding who we are and why we think and act in the ways that we do. It is pertinent equally to appreciating the past, teasing apart current cultural challenges, and making sense of what a vital human future will require of us. This is the definitive work on Creative Systems Theory and its implications.“At a practical level, Creative Systems Theory provides powerful tools for making effective choices in both our personal and our collective lives. More conceptually, it makes a major contribution to the history of ideas. It clarifies how, while modern age institutions, values, and ways of thinking have served us well, they cannot be sufficient for the tasks ahead. And it offers a comprehensive approach to understanding that reflects the more mature and encompassing kind of thinking that will become more and more essential in times ahead.“This volume brings together fifty years of committed inquiry and practical application. It is part guidebook, part memoir, part compilation, and part an effort to extend Creative Systems Theory’s thinking just as far into the future as is possible.”

686 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 15, 2021

About the author

Charles Johnston (1867-1931) was steeped in the wisdom of eastern traditions, having translated also the ten Principle Upanishads of the Vedanta, the Bhagavad Gita, the Tao Teh King of Lao Tse, and the Crest-Jewel of Wisdom of Sankaracharya. Johnston brings his in-depth understanding of the Vedanta to reveal the core meaning of Patanjali's sutras: the birth of the Spiritual Man.

From Wikipedia: He was born on 17 February 1867 in the small village of Ballykilbeg (in Downpatrick), County Down, Northern Ireland. His father, William Johnston (1829–1902), was an Irish politician, a Member of Parliament from South Belfast, and a member of the Orange Order.

Charles Johnston studied Oriental Studies, and learned Sanskrit, Russian and German. Among his classmates were William Butler Yeats and George William Russell, with whom he shared an interest in the occult.

Later, he worked as a journalist. In 1884, he read Alfred Percy Sinnett's work Occult World and founded, together with Yeats and Russell on 16 June 1885, the Hermetic Society in Dublin. He was responsible for introducing W. B. Yeats to Madame Blavatsky in spring 1887.

After 1885 he also joined the Theosophical Society, and co-founded in April/June 1886 the Theosophical Lodge in Dublin. (Later when the Theosophical Society split in 1895, he followed the direction of William Quan Judge and was a member of the Theosophical Society in America (TGinA).)

On 14 October 1888 he married Vera Vladimirovna de Zhelihovsky (1864-1923) the niece of Helena Blavatsky.

He also entered the Indian Civil Service the same year, and later served in the British Bengal Service.

He translated several works from Sanskrit and Russian. As an author, he devoted himself primarily to philosophical and theosophical topics.

He was president of the Irish Literary Society.