Learning Love from a Tiger explores the vibrancy and variety of humans' sacred encounters with the natural world, gathering a range of stories culled from Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Mayan, Himalayan, Buddhist, and Chinese shamanic traditions. Readers will delight in tales of house cats who teach monks how to meditate, shamans who shape-shift into jaguars, crickets who perform Catholic mass, rivers that grant salvation, and many others. In addition to being a collection of wonderful stories, this book introduces important concepts and approaches that underlie much recent work in environmental ethics, religion, and ecology. Daniel Capper's light touch prompts readers to engage their own views of humanity's place in the natural world and question longstanding assumptions of human superiority.

This volume examines an often taken for granted concept-that of the concept itself. How do we picture what concepts are, what they do, how they arise in the course of everyday life? Challenging conventional approaches that treat concepts as mere tools at our disposal for analysis, or as straightforwardly equivalent to signs to be deciphered, the anthropologists and philosophers in this volume turn instead to the ways concepts are already intrinsically embedded in our forms of life and how they constitute the very substrate of our existence as humans who lead lives in language. Attending to our ordinary lives with concepts requires not an ascent from the rough ground of reality into the skies of theory, but rather acceptance of the fact that thinking is congenital to living with and through concepts. The volume offers a critical and timely intervention into both contemporary philosophy and anthropological theory by unsettling the distinction between thought and reality that continues to be too often assumed and showing how the supposed need to grasp reality may be replaced by an acknowledgement that we are in its grip. Contributors: Jocelyn Benoist, Andrew Brandel, Michael Cordey, Veena Das, Rasmus Dyring and Thomas Schwarz Wentzer, Michael D. Jackson, Michael Lambek, Sandra Laugier, Marco Motta, Michael J. Puett, and Lotte Buch Segal

Carl Clemen (1865-1940) nimmt in der Forschungsgeschichte der Religionswissenschaft einen besonderen Platz ein. Er war der Erste, der das Fach in Deutschland nicht an einer Theologischen, sondern an einer Philosophischen Fakultat vertreten hat. Dieses Buch zeichnet seinen Weg von der Theologie und der Beschaftigung mit den Religionen in der Umwelt des fruhen Christentums zu einer historisch-philologisch arbeitenden Religionswissenschaft nach. Vor dem Hintergrund der internationalen Fachgeschichte stellt der Autor seine Beitrage sowohl zur Erforschung einzelner Religionen als auch zur Klarung systematischer Fragestellungen vor. Abschliessend verfolgt er seine Tatigkeit nach der altersbedingten Emeritierung im Jahr 1933, die ihn als einen konsequenten Gegner des Nationalsozialismus ausweist.

This volume examines an often taken for granted concept-that of the concept itself. How do we picture what concepts are, what they do, how they arise in the course of everyday life? Challenging conventional approaches that treat concepts as mere tools at our disposal for analysis, or as straightforwardly equivalent to signs to be deciphered, the anthropologists and philosophers in this volume turn instead to the ways concepts are already intrinsically embedded in our forms of life and how they constitute the very substrate of our existence as humans who lead lives in language. Attending to our ordinary lives with concepts requires not an ascent from the rough ground of reality into the skies of theory, but rather acceptance of the fact that thinking is congenital to living with and through concepts. The volume offers a critical and timely intervention into both contemporary philosophy and anthropological theory by unsettling the distinction between thought and reality that continues to be too often assumed and showing how the supposed need to grasp reality may be replaced by an acknowledgement that we are in its grip. Contributors: Jocelyn Benoist, Andrew Brandel, Michael Cordey, Veena Das, Rasmus Dyring and Thomas Schwarz Wentzer, Michael D. Jackson, Michael Lambek, Sandra Laugier, Marco Motta, Michael J. Puett, and Lotte Buch Segal

Drawing on qualitative research conducted in Brussels, Wallonia and Flanders, Islam and Turks in Belgium examines the interdependence between Muslim community and association. With a focus on social groups, religious structures and circles within Turkish populations, this book demonstrates how communal and associative movements operate through a combination of relationships of proximity and distance. Proximity is a way in which Muslim organisations establish religious, social, and cultural ties with communities. Distance, on the other hand, takes into account social, historical, and political elements from abroad, and refers to the relationship with the Muslim world more broadly. As this reciprocal web of relations gives rise to Islamic mobilisations, it leads to the emergence or persistence of different figures of authority within associations and communities who articulate traditional, charismatic, and bureaucratic legitimacies. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of the sociology of religion, migration, race, ethnicity and Islamic studies.

Keshab Chandra Sen (1838-84) was one of the most powerful and controversial figures in nineteenth-century Bengal. A religious leader and social reformer, his universalist interpretation of Hinduism found mass appeal in India, and generated considerable interest in Britain. His ideas on British imperial rule, religion and spirituality, global history, universalism and modernity were all influential, and his visit to England made him a celebrity. Many Britons regarded him as a prophet of world-historical significance. Keshab was the subject of extreme adulation and vehement criticism. Accounts tell of large crowds prostrating themselves before him, believing him to be an avatar. Yet he died with relatively few followers, his reputation in both India and Britain largely ruined. As a representative of India, Keshab became emblematic of broad concerns regarding Hinduism and Christianity, science and faith, India and the British Empire. This innovative study explores the transnational historical forces that shaped Keshab's life and work. It offers an alternative religious history of empire, characterised by intercultural dialogue and religious syncretism. A fascinating and often tragic portrait of Keshab's experience of the imperial world, and the ways in which he carried meaning for his contemporaries.

A leading textbook for world religion, this new edition is designed to help students in their study and research of the world's religious traditions. Known and valued for its balanced approach and its respected board of consulting editors, this text addresses ways to study religion, provides broad coverage of diverse religions, and offers an arresting layout with rich illustrations. The second edition has new and extended primary source readings, a stronger section on the religions of South Asia, additional maps, a new full-colour, student-friendly format, and more.

It's time to move past talk. It's no longer news to most of us that our society has a deep-seated racism problem. Christians of all ethnic and economic backgrounds are tired of seeing the ugly legacy of racism play out before their eyes and feeling ill-equipped to respond. They watch as friends and family members leave the visible church over this issue, or fall prey to a gospel of White nationalism that is an affront to the cross of Christ. Racism presents itself as an undefeatable foe-a sustained scourge on the reputation of the church. In Faithful Antiracism, Christina Barland Edmondson and Chad Brennan take confidence from the truth that Christ has overcome the world, including racism, and offer clear analysis and interventions to challenge and resist its pernicious power. Drawing on brand-new research from the landmark Race, Religion, and Justice Project led by Michael Emerson and others, this book represents the most comprehensive study on Christians and race since Emerson's own book Divided by Faith (2001). It invites readers to put this data to immediate practical use, applying it to their own specific context. Compelled by our grievous social moment and by the timeless truth of Scripture, Faithful Antiracism will equip readers to move past talk and enter the fight against racism in both practical and hopeful ways.

Seitdem John Hick durch seine pluralistische Position den Weg fur eine Annaherung der Religionen geschaffen hat, haben seine Werke viel Aufmerksamkeit von Anhangern und Kritikern erfahren. Dieses Werk setzt sich kritisch mit dem Lebenswerk Hicks auseinander, und vergleicht die Argumente fur seine Ansicht mit denen von Perry Schmidt-Leukel, Alvin Plantinga und Karl Rahner. Der Autor legt die Pramissen der vier Positionen offen, und macht deutlich, warum trotz aller berechtigten Kritik die pluralistische Position die plausibelste Antwort auf die Frage liefert, wieso es mehrere Religionen gibt, wenn laut dem NT (nur) Jesus Christus der Weg, die Wahrheit und das Leben ist.

This edited volume deploys digital ethnography in varied contexts to explore the cultural roles of mobile apps that focus on religious practice and communities, as well as those used for religious purposes (whether or not they were originally developed for that purpose). Combining analyses of local contexts with insights and methods from the global subfield of digital anthropology, the contributors here recognize the complex ways that in-app and on-ground worlds interact in a wide range of communities and traditions. While some of the case studies emphasize the cultural significance of use in local contexts and relationships to pre-existing knowledge networks and/or non-digital relationships of power, others explore the globalizing and democratizing influences of mobile apps as communication technologies. From Catholic confession apps to Jewish Kaddish assistance apps and Muslim halal food apps, readers will see how religious-themed mobile apps create complex sites for potential new forms of religious expression, worship, discussion, and practices.

In Germany at the turn of the century, Buddhism transformed from an obscure topic, of interest to only a few misfit scholars, into a cultural phenomenon. Many of the foremost authors of the period were profoundly influenced by this rapid rise of Buddhism-among them, some of the best-known names in the German-Jewish canon. Sebastian Musch excavates this neglected dimension of German-Jewish identity, drawing on philosophical treatises, novels, essays, diaries, and letters to trace the history of Jewish-Buddhist encounters up to the start of the Second World War. Franz Rosenzweig, Martin Buber, Leo Baeck, Theodor Lessing, Jakob Wassermann, Walter Hasenclever, and Lion Feuchtwanger are featured alongside other, lesser known figures like Paul Cohen-Portheim and Walter Tausk. As Musch shows, when these thinkers wrote about Buddhism, they were also negotiating their own Jewishness.

From the "Psalms" in the Bible to the sacred rivers in Hinduism, the natural world has been integral to the world's religions. John Grim and Mary Tucker argue that today's growing environmental challenges make the relationship ever more vital. In this concise primer, they illustrate religion's role in sustaining people and the planet. The authors explore the history of religious traditions and the environment, illustrating how religious teachings and practices both promoted and at times subverted sustainability. Subsequent chapters examine the emergence of religious ecology, as views of nature changed in religious traditions and the ecological sciences. Yet the authors argue that religion and ecology are not the province of institutions or disciplines alone. They describe four fundamental aspects of religious life: orienting, grounding, nurturing, and transforming. Readers then see how these phenomena are experienced in a Native American religion, Orthodox Christianity, Confucianism, and Hinduism. Ultimately, Grim and Tucker argue that the engagement of religious communities is necessary if humanity is to sustain itself and the planet. They recount exemplary stories of groups and individuals who are inspired by their religion to work towards a healthy community of life.

The medicalization of death is a challenge for all the world's religious and cultural traditions. Death's meaning has been reduced to a diagnosis, a problem, rather than a mystery for humans to ponder. How have religious traditions responded? What resources do they bring to a discussion of death's contemporary dilemmas? This book offers a range of creative and contextual responses from a variety of religious and cultural traditions. It features 14 essays from scholars of different religious and philosophical traditions, who spoke as part of a recent lecture and dialogue series of Drake University's The Comparison Project. The scholars represent ethnologists, medical ethicists, historians, philosophers, and theologians--all facing up to questions of truth and value in the light of the urgent need to move past a strictly medicalized vision. This volume serves as the second publication of The Comparison Project, an innovative new approach to the philosophy of religion housed at Drake University. The Comparison Project organizes a biennial series of scholar lectures, practitioner dialogues, and comparative panels about core, cross-cultural topics in the philosophy of religion. The Comparison Project stands apart from traditional, theistic approaches to the philosophy of religion in its commitment to religious inclusivity. It is the future of the philosophy of religion in a diverse, global world.

Current tendencies in religious studies and theology show a growing interest for the interchange between religions and the cultures of rationalization surrounding them. The studies published in this volume, based on the international conferences of both the Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften and the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, aim to contribute to this field of interest by dealing with concepts and influences of rationalization in Judaism, Christianity, Islam and religion in general. In addition to taking a closer look at the immediate links in the history of tradition between those rationalizing movements and evolutions in religion, emphasis is put on intellectual-historical convergences: Therefore, the articles are led by central comparative questions, such as what factors foster/hinder rationalization?; where are criteria for rationalization drawn from?; in which institutions is rationalization taking place?; who propagates, supports and utilizes rationalization?

This volume draws on an interdisciplinary team of authors to advance the study of the religious dimensions of communication and the linguistic aspects of religion. Contributions cover: poetry, iconicity, and iconoclasm in religious language; semiotic ideologies in traditional religions and in secularism; and the role of materiality and writing in religious communication. This volume will provoke new approaches to language and religion.

The eighth volume of the series "Key Concepts of Interreligious Discourses" investigates the roots of the concept of "peace" in Judaism, Christianity and Islam and its relevance for the present time. Facing present violent conflicts waged and justified by religious ideas or reasons, peace building prevails in current debates about religion and peace. Here the central question is: How may traditional sources in religions help to put down the weapons and create a society in which everyone can live safely without hostilities and the threat of violence? When we take the Sacred Scriptures of Judaism, Christianity and Islam into consideration it becomes obvious that the term "peace" and its equivalents in Hebrew, Greek and Arabic describe, at first, an ideal state based on the "love" / "mercy" of God to his creation. It is a divine gift that brings inward peace to the individuum and outer peace resting upon justice and equality. One main task of Jews, Christian and Muslims in the history is to find out how to bring down this transcendent ideal upon earth. The volume presents the concept of "peace" in its different aspects as anchored in the traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. It unfolds commonalities and differences between the three monotheistic religions as well as the manifold discourses about peace within these three traditions. The book offers fundamental knowledge about the specific understanding of peace in each one of these traditions, their interdependencies and their relationship to secular world views.

Discussions of Islam in Turkey are still heavily dominated by political considerations and the dualistic paradigms of modern v. traditional, secular v. religious. Yet there exists a body of Muslim institutions in the country - Turkish theology faculties - whose work overcomes ideological divisions. By engaging with Turkish theology in its theological rather than political concerns, this book sheds light on complex Muslim voices in the context of a largely Western and Christian modernity. Featuring the work of Recep Alpyagil and Saban Ali Duzgun, this innovative study provides a concise survey of Turkish Muslim positions on religious pluralism and atheism as well as detailed treatments of both critical and appreciative Turkish Muslim perspectives on Western Christianity. The result is a critical reframing of the category of modernity through the responses of Turkish theologians to the Western intellectual tradition.

How is it that Islam is so feared and misunderstood among Christians? Is there any possibility of an open dialogue between Muslims and Christians that will lead to a greater understanding of both? Wustenberg explores these and other questions in an in-depth investigation of Islam, using as his guide the teachings of the revered Muslim scholar, Al-Ghazali, and placing them in dialogue with those of the protestant theologian and Reformer, John Calvin. The journey of discovery offered in this book is of long-lasting value to both Christians and Muslims as they seek to find common ground in understanding the most important and basic tenets of each other's faith.

In the human quest for orientation vis-a-vis personal life and comprehensive reality the worldviews of religionists and humanists offer different answers, and science also plays a crucial role. Yet it is the ordinary, embodied experience of meaningful engagement with reality in which all these cultural activities are rooted. Human beings have to relate themselves to the entirety of their lives to achieve orientation. This relation involves a non-methodical, meaningful experience that exhibits the crucial features for understanding worldviews: it comprises cognition, volition, and emotion, is embodied, action-oriented, and expressive. From this starting-point, religious and secular worldviews articulate what is experienced as ultimately meaningful. Yet the plurality and one-sidedness of these life stances necessitates critical engagement for which philosophy provides indispensable means. In the end, some worldviews can be ruled out, but we are still left with a plurality of genuine options for orientation.

Der islamische Prophet Muhammad ist einst mit einem theologischen Programm in theokratischer Gestalt angetreten. Da der Koran Christen und Juden vielfach anspricht und zu Stellungnahmen auffordert, ist eine theologische Antwort legitim und notwendig. Der vorliegende Band behandelt unter Einbeziehung aktueller islamwissenschaftlicher Erkenntnisse die Quellen des Korans, die Grundzuge seines Verhaltnisses zum Judentum und sein Jesusbild. Daraus ergeben sich sowohl eine realistische Bewertung des Islam als auch Impulse fur ein christliches Selbstverstandnis. Das 4. Kapitel stellt die weithin unbekannten Sichtweisen des judischen Philosophen Franz Rosenzweig und des Theologen Joseph Ratzinger/Benedikt XVI. auf den Islam hin vor - als entscheidende Orientierungshilfe jenseits von Unterwerfung.

The question of the relationship between religion and rationality is highly relevant in today s world, as demonstrated by the debates that rage to this day concerning religious conflicts and their underpinnings in rationality. The conference proceedings in this volume examine this complex relationship by looking at a number of different sacred texts. This medium shows how religion can be classified in terms of rational coherencies. However, the very fact that religion is manifested in texts creates a paradox that places religion in an ongoing dialogue with rationality and this in turn is a precondition for religion s continued existence through time."

A major contribution to debates about the value of death and its place in Western and Eastern religions is presented by this work's belief that religious and secular attitudes can support and reinforce one another through their attitudes towards death.

Contemplating religion has long ceased to be the sole privilege of theology and religious studies. In cultural studies, a broad spectrum of theories and methods has developed, exploring the role of religion as an important socio-cultural factor in the modern world. This volume is a collection of contributions from history and political studies, sociology and Islamic studies, ethnology, religious studies and theology, demonstrating and interpreting these changes in research on religion.