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Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > Aspects of religions (non-Christian)
Hindu Mysticism provides an engaging introduction to the various
mystical traditions that evolved over the centuries in India,
including the sacrificial (Vedic), Upanishadic, Yogic, Buddhist,
Classical Bhakti (Devotional) and Popular Bhakti. Given its
sweeping scope, the text also serves as a useful overview to Indian
thought for newcomers to this ancient philosophical and spiritual
tradition.
Fear has taken on an outsized role in our current cultural and
political context. Manufactured threats are advanced with little to
no evidence of danger, while real threats are exaggerated for
self-interested gain. This steady diet of fear produces unhealthy
moral lives, leading many Christians to focus more on the dangers
we wish to avoid than the goods we wish to pursue. As a fearful
people, we are tempted to make safety our highest good and to make
virtues of suspicion, preemption, and accumulation. But this leaves
the church ill-equipped to welcome the stranger, love the enemy, or
give to those in need. This timely resource brings together
cultural analysis and theological insight to explore a Christian
response to the culture of fear. Laying out a path from fear to
faithfulness, theologian Scott Bader-Saye explores practices that
embody Jesus's call to place our trust in him, inviting Christian
communities to take the risks of hospitality, peacemaking, and
generosity. This book has been revised throughout, updated to
connect with today's readers, and includes new discussion
questions.
Why is there a need to rethink madrasah education? What is the
positioning of Muslims in contemporary society, and how are they
prepared? What is the role of the ulama in the reform process? This
book explores these questions from the perspective of madrasah
education and analyses curricular and pedagogic innovations in
Islamic faith-based education in response to the changing place of
Islam in a globalised world. It argues for the need for madrasahs
to reconceptualise education for Muslim children. Specifically, it
explores the problems and challenges that come with new knowledge,
biotechnological advancement and societal transformation facing
Muslims, and to identify the processes towards reformation that
impinge on the philosophies (both Western and Islamic), religious
traditions and spirituality, learning principles, curriculum, and
pedagogy. This book offers glimpses into the reform process at work
through contemporary examples in selected countries.
Presenting a critical, yet innovative, perspective on the cultural
interactions between the "East" and the "West", this book questions
the role of travel in the production of knowledge and in the
construction of the idea of the "Islamic city". This volume brings
together authors from various disciplines, questioning the role of
Western travel writing in the production of knowledge about the
East, particularly focusing on the cities of the Muslim world.
Instead of concentrating on a specific era, chapters span the
Medieval and Modern eras in order to present the transformation of
both the idea of the "Islamic city" and also the act of traveling
and travel writing. Missions to the East, whether initiated by
military, religious, economic, scientific, diplomatic or touristic
purposes, resulted in a continuous construction, de-construction
and re-construction of the "self" and the "other". Including travel
accounts, which depicted cities, extending from Europe to Asia and
from Africa to Arabia, chapters epitomize the construction of the
"Orient" via textual or visual representations. By examining
various tools of representation such as drawings, paintings,
cartography, and photography in depicting the urban landscape in
constant flux, the book emphasizes the role of the mobile
individual in defining city space and producing urban culture.
Scrutinising the role of travellers in producing the image of the
world we know today, this book is recommended for researchers,
scholars and students of Middle Eastern Studies, Cultural Studies,
Architecture and Urbanism.
The Purpose of this history of Cardinal Richelieu is to show the
living personality of the man - to show it evolving, reacting to
and acted on by other personalities - and to portray the conditions
in France as he found them and transformed them. Within such a
narrow compass it is not possible to give full particulars of the
sources on which this biography is based. It is a remarkable fact
that in French literature apart from works by the cardina;'s
contemporaries, there is no biography of Richelieu, and the great
work projected by Gabriel Hanotaux has been left uncompleted.
Gandhara is a name central to Buddhist heritage and iconography. It
is the ancient name of a region in present-day Pakistan, bounded on
the west by the Hindu Kush mountain range and to the north by the
foothills of the Himalayas. 'Gandhara' is also the term given to
this region's sculptural and architectural features between the
first and sixth centuries CE. This book re-examines the
archaeological material excavated in the region in the nineteenth
and early twentieth centuries and traces the link between
archaeological work, histories of museum collections and related
interpretations by art historians. The essays in the volume
underscore the diverse cultural traditions of Gandhara - from a
variety of sources and perspectives on language, ethnicity and
material culture (including classical accounts, Chinese writings,
coins and Sanskrit epics) - as well as interrogate the grand
narrative of Hellenism of which Gandhara has been a part. The book
explores the making of collections of what came to be described as
Gandhara art and reviews the Buddhist artistic tradition through
notions of mobility and dynamic networks of transmission. Wide
ranging and rigorous, this volume will appeal to scholars and
researchers of early South Asian history, archaeology, religion
(especially Buddhist studies), art history and museums.
This book introduces Thomas Aquinas's moral, economic, and
political thought, differentiating between philosophy (justice) and
theology (charity) within each of the three branches of Aquinas's
theory of human living. It shows how Aquinas's thought offers an
integrated vision for Christian participation in the world,
equipping readers to apply their faith to the complex moral,
economic, and political problems of contemporary society. Written
in an accessible style by an experienced educator, the book is
well-suited for use in a variety of undergraduate courses and
provides a foundation for understanding Catholic social teaching.
This book investigates the nature of identity formation among
economically backward adolescent Muslim girls in northern India by
focusing on the interstitial spaces of the 'home' and 'school'. It
examines issues of religion, patriarchy and education, to
interrogate the relationship between pedagogy and religion in South
Asia. Using a multi-disciplinary approach and multiple research
methods, the volume makes significant contribution to the study of
socialisation and modern education among minorities and other
marginalised groups in India. It will be of interest to scholars of
education, culture and gender studies, sociology, psychology,
Islamic studies, and to policy-makers and non-government
organisations involved in education.
The book is about a spiritual awakening, what that means and looks
like from the human perspective. It explores the highs, the lows,
the commonalities, the phases and the stages and ways in which the
reader can support themselves. It is real, raw, authentic, at times
funny, certainly inspiring and full of hope. Ann-Marie takes the
reader's hand and walks them step-by-step through the stages of
their own healing journey and offers ways that can inspire them,
with practical suggestions and practices such as prayer,
meditation, self-enquiry, self-care, self-expression, forgiveness
and inner-child healing. At the heart of the book is a flushing out
of the reader's relationship, or lack of relationship, with God.
Ann-Marie reveals how she went from a complete non-believer and
came to eventually work for the big guy upstairs, being guided to
become a multi-faith minister. She endeavours to de-funk the ego's
construct of God and inspire the reader to wake up to the love,
peace, guidance and joy that is waiting for them through their
connection with the God of their own understanding.
Improve your mental health by discovering God's promise of comfort
for the most common sources of daily anxiety, including loneliness,
anger, fear, relationships, and finances. God never meant for us to
feel so alone in facing our emotions. Though they often steal our
peace and cause us restless nights, too often we just try to press
through. In forty days of readings from the world's most popular
Christian meditation app, Abide, you can journey through their most
popular content on attaining the timeless peace found throughout
Scripture, and renew your heart with God's abiding love. Through
simply practicing slowing down to reflect on God's Word and release
one care each day, you'll find rest for your soul and a deeper
appreciation of Jesus's parting gift to his followers: peace of
mind and heart (John 14:27) in even the most trying circumstances
of life. Begin a new daily habit of self-care and experience a
renewed outlook through: Reflections on biblical passages Engaging
journal prompts Explorations of common sources of anxiety And
suggested prayers You don't have to shoulder the burden of life's
worries alone. Cast your cares on God one day at a time and
discover the reassurance available to all believers at any time.
Does Islam make people violent? Does Islam make people peaceful? In
this book, A. Kevin Reinhart demonstrates that such questions are
misleading, because they assume that Islam is a monolithic essence
and that Muslims are made the way they are by this monolith. He
argues that Islam, like all religions, is complex and thus best
understood through analogy with language: Islam has dialects, a set
of features shared with other versions of Islam. It also has
cosmopolitan elites who prescribe how Islam ought to be, even
though these experts, depending on where they practice the
religion, unconsciously reflect their own local dialects. Reinhart
defines the distinctive features of Islam and investigates how
modernity has created new conditions for the religion. Analyzing
the similarities and differences between modern and pre-modern
Islam, he clarifies the new and old in the religion as it is lived
in the contemporary world.
Contextualising the seemingly esoteric and exotic aspects of
Tibetan Buddhist culture within the everyday, embodied and sensual
sphere of religious praxis, this book centres on the social and
religious lives of deceased Tibetan Buddhist lamas. It explores how
posterior forms - corpses, relics, reincarnations and
hagiographical representations - extend a lama's trajectory of
lives and manipulate biological imperatives of birth and death. The
book looks closely at previously unexamined figures whose history
is relevant to a better understanding of how Tibetan culture
navigates its own understanding of reincarnation, the veneration of
relics and different social roles of different types of
practitioners. It analyses both the minutiae of everyday
interrelations between lamas and their devotees, specifically noted
in ritual performances and the enactment of lived tradition, and
the sacred hagiographical conventions that underpin local
knowledge. A phenomenology of Tibetan Buddhist life, the book
provides an ethnography of the everyday embodiment of Tibetan
Buddhism. This unusual approach offers a valuable and a genuine new
perspective on Tibetan Buddhist culture and is of interest to
researchers in the fields of social/cultural anthropology and
religious, Buddhist and Tibetan studies.
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God Virus
(Paperback)
Darrel W Ray
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R426
R352
Discovery Miles 3 520
Save R74 (17%)
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Dr Darrel Ray, psychologist and lifelong student of religion,
discusses religious infection from the inside out. How does guilt
play into religious infection? Why is sexual control so important
to so many religions? What causes the anxiety and neuroticism
around death and dying? How does religion inject itself into so
many areas of life, culture, and politics? The author explores this
and much more in his book The God Virus: How Religion Infects Our
Lives and Culture. This second-generation book takes the reader
several steps beyond previous offerings and into the realm of the
personal and emotional mechanisms that affect anyone who lives in a
culture steeped in religion. Examples are used that anyone can
relate to and the author gives real-world guidance in how to deal
with and respond to people who are religious in our families, and
among our friends and co-workers.
The sword has played an important role in the Japanese
consciousness since ancient times. The earliest swords, made of
bronze or stone, were clearly, by their design and form, used for
ritualistic purposes rather than as weapons. Later, swords were
associated only with the warrior class, and lack of physical
strength and battle experience was compensated for by handling the
sword in a way that was technically expert. Besides this sacred and
artistic status, swordsmanship also acquired a philosophical
reinforcement, which ultimately made it one of the Zen 'ways'. Zen
Buddhism related the correct practice of swordsmanship to exercises
for attaining enlightenment and selfishness, while Confucianism,
emphasizing the ethical meaning, equated it to service to the
state. This classic text, first published in English in 1978,
includes a history of the development and an interpretation of
Japanese swordsmanship, now esteemed as an art and honoured as a
national heritage. It describes in detail the long, intensive and
specialized training and etiquette involved, emphasizing and
explaining the importance of both Zen and Confucian ideas and
beliefs.
This book, first published in 1964, concerns the practice of Zen
Buddhism. The practice is a particular form of meditation. In
Japan, the only country in which it is any longer seriously
pursued, the practice is called zazen. The author directs attention
to zazen because it is being overlooked in the current interest in
Zen.
This book, first published as two volumes in 1977 and 1978, was
published purely for the purpose of showing how Buddhist training
was done by the Reverend Jiyu-Kennett in the Far East. The material
for the book was taken from diaries covering eight years spent by
the author in Far Eastern temples, and describe her religious
training and her growth of a Zen priest into a teacher, running her
own temple.
This book examines culture, religion and polity in the context of
Buddhism. Gananath Obeyesekere, one of the foremost analytical
voices from South Asia develops Freud's notion of 'dream work', the
'work of culture' and ideas of no-self (anatta) to understand
Buddhism in contemporary Sri Lanka. This work offers a restorative
interpretation of Buddhist myths in contrast to the perspective
involving deconstruction. The book deals with a range of themes
connected with Buddhism, including oral traditions and stories, the
religious pantheon, philosophy, emotions, reform movements,
questions of identity and culture, and issues of modernity. This
fascinating volume will greatly interest students, teachers and
researchers of religion and philosophy, especially Buddhism,
ethics, cultural studies, social and cultural anthropology, Sri
Lanka and modern South Asian history.
This book analyses the heterogeneous modes of meditation, prayer,
initiation, beliefs and practices, codes of conduct, ethics and
life-style of the contemporary Sikh Sants, Babas, Gurus and
Satgurus in Punjab.
Within contemporary orthodoxy, debates over sex and gender have
become increasingly polemical over the past generation. Beginning
with questions around women’s ordination, arguments have expanded
to include feminism, sexual orientation, the sacrament of marriage,
definitions of family, adoption of children, and care of
transgender individuals. Preliminary responses to each of these
topics are shaped by gender essentialism, the idea that male and
female are ontologically fixed and incommensurate categories with
different sets of characteristics and gifts for each sex. These
categories, in turn, delineate gender roles in the family, the
church, and society. Gender Essentialism and Orthodoxy offers an
immanent critique of gender essentialism in the stream of the
contemporary Orthodox Church influenced by the “Paris School”
of Russian émigré theologians and their heirs. It uses an
interdisciplinary approach to bring into conversation patristic
reflections on sex and gender, personalist theological
anthropology, insights from gender and queer theory, and modern
biological understandings of human sexual differentiation. Though
these are seemingly unrelated discourses, Gender Essentialism and
Orthodoxy reveals unexpected points of convergence, as each line of
thought eschews a strict gender binary in favor of more open-ended
possibilities. The study concludes by drawing out some theological
implications of the preceding findings as they relate to the
ordination of women to the priesthood, same-sex unions and
sacramental understandings of marriage, definitions of family, and
pastoral care for intersex, transgender, and nonbinary
parishioners.
Death lies at the beginning of the Arab uprisings, and death
continues to haunt them. Most narratives about the 'Arab Spring'
begin with Mohammed Bouazizi, a Tunisian fruit vendor who set
himself on fire. Egyptian protesters in turn referred to Khaled
Said, a young man from Alexandria whom the police had beaten to
death. This book places death at the centre of its engagement with
the Arab uprisings, counterrevolutions, and their aftermaths. It
examines martyrdom and commemoration as performative acts through
which death and life are infused with meaning. Conversely, it shows
how, in the making, remembering, and erasing of martyrs,
hierarchies are (re)produced and possible futures are foreclosed.
The contributors argue that critical anthropological engagement
with death, martyrdom, and afterlife is indispensable if we want to
understand the making of pasts and futures in a revolutionary
present. This book was originally published as a special issue of
Ethnos: Journal of Anthropology.
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