This open access book addresses the question of how God can providentially govern apparently ungovernable randomness. Medieval theologians confidently held that God is provident, that is, God is the ultimate cause of or is responsible for everything that happens. However, scientific advances since the 19th century pose serious challenges to traditional views of providence. From Darwinian evolution to quantum mechanics, randomness has become an essential part of the scientific worldview. An interdisciplinary team of Muslim, Christian and Jewish scholars-biologists, physicists, philosophers and theologians-addresses questions of randomness and providence.

"This fascinating little book deals in detail with what at first might seem a small cult, colourful and dynamic certainly, but of significance merely local to its place of origin in the Indian state of Kerala. As the story unfolds, however, it becomes clear that this is far from the case, and that the phenomenon is full of interest for students of the history of religions. From Dr Gabriel's many other writings we have learned to expect patient investigation and humane and sympathetic interpretation. In this book we find those qualities once more abundantly on display." - From the Foreword by Professor Andrew Walls, Liverpool Hope University "This very short study of a possession cult in India raises important questions about the relation of religion to social organization -- and of the relation of religions to each other." - David Eller, Community College of Denver, Anthropology Review Database June 26, 2011 Playing God discusses the genre of rituals known as Teyyam extant in the North Malabar region of Kerala State, India. In this elaborately costumed ritual practitioners invoke the spirit of a deity into themselves that constitutes a splendid theophany in which, when the ritual process is over, the devotees are able to talk to the god and invoke his/her blessings and predictions of their future. This book concentrates on the cult of the Muttappan duo of gods, the most popular among the Teyyams of North Malabar. Playing God analyses the mythology and ritual praxis of the Muttappan cult and examines attempts to integrate the cult into a wider Hinduism by enunciating a new hermeneutic of the legend and rituals based on the Hindu Advaitic tradition. The book also discusses how the Teyyam ritual contrasts significantly with rituals and worship in Brahminical Hinduism. The popularity of the cult is a reflection of the changing relationships between castes in Kerala, involving a closer symbiosis and reflecting the urge by the untouchable groups of Kerala to gain a higher standing and acceptance in Keralan Hindu society. The rituals are rich in theological significance and symbolism, and have links to the performing arts of Kerala such as Kathakali and Ottam Tullal.

Joseph Campbell (1904-1988) was one of the most well-known and popular scholars of myth and comparative religion of the twentieth century. His work, however, has never fully received the same amount of scholarly interest and critical reflection that some of his contemporaries have received.
In this book, based on extensive research in the Joseph Campbell Archive in Santa Barbara, Ritske Rensma shows that reflecting on C.G. Jung's influence on Campbell greatly furthers our understanding of these ideas, and that once this goal is achieved it becomes obvious that Campbell was a scholar whose ideas are still of significance today. Following Jung's lead, Campbell put great emphasis on the innate structures of the mind, an approach which pre-echoes the current 'evolutionary turn' in fields such as cognitive theory, psychology, psychiatry and neurobiology.
This study will therefore not just be of interest to students and scholars interested in psychological approaches to the study of religion as well as Jung and Campbell, but also to those with an interest in recent developments in the above-mentioned fields

Philip Schaff's The Creeds of Christendom is a massive set, originally published in three volumes and here reproduced across five volumes, cataloging and explaining the many different creeds from the myriad Christian denominations. The differences in belief between Calvinists, Lutherans, and Presbyterians, for example, can often be subtle, so a thorough examination of the particulars as well as an explanation for how those different beliefs result in a different worldview is necessary. Volume Two covers: . Scripture Confessions . the Anti-Nicene and Nicene Rules of Faith and Baptismal Creeds . Symbola ecumenica . Romans Creeds . Greek and Russian Creeds . Orthodox Confessions of the Eastern Church . the Confession of Dositheus, or the Eighteen Decrees of the Synod of Jerusalem . the Longer Catechism of the Orthodox, Catholic, Eastern Church . and the Old Catholic Union Creeds. Swiss theologian PHILIP SCHAFF (1819-1893) was educated in Germany and eventually came to the United States to teach at the German Reformed Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania. He wrote a number of books and hymnals for children, including History of the Christian Church and The Creeds of the Evangelical Protestant Churches.

Interreligious Friendships after Nostra Aetate explores the ways in which personal relationships are essential for theology. Catholic theologians tell the personal stories of their interreligious friendships and explore the significance of their friendships for their own life and work.

This book investigates Turkey's departure from a 'flawed democracy' under Kemalist secularism, and its transitioning into Islamist authoritarian Erdoganism, through the lenses of informal law, legal pluralism, and legal hybridity. In doing so, it examines the attempts of Turkey's ruling party (AKP) at social engineering and gradual Islamisation of the Turkish state and society, by using informal Islamist laws. To that end, the book argues that the AKP has paved the way for Islamist legal hybridity where society, state, and law, are being gradually Islamised on an ad hoc basis. Informal law and legal pluralism in Turkey have had a non-state characteristic which have permitted Muslims to solve disputes by seeking the opinions of religio-legal scholars. Yet under the AKP rule, this informal legal system has become increasingly dominated by conservatives, sometimes radical Islamists, which the governing party has taken advantage of by either formalizing some parts of the informal Islamist law, or using it informally to mobilize its supporters against the opposition.

This book explores the protests of Job from the perspectives of Jewish, Christian, and Islamic religious and philosophical traditions. Shira Weiss examines how challenges to divine justice are understood from a Jewish theological perspective, including the pro-protest and anti-protest traditions within rabbinic literature, in an effort to explicate the ambiguous biblical text and Judaism's attitude towards the suffering of the righteous. Scott Davison surveys Christian interpretations of the book of Job and the nature of suffering in general before turning to a comparison of the lamentations of Jesus and Job, with special attention to the question of whether complaints against God can be expressions of faith. Sajjad Rizvi presents the systematic ambiguity of being present in monistic approaches to reality as one response to evil and suffering in Islam, along with approaches that attempt a resolution through the essential erotic nature of the cosmos, and explores the suggestion that Job is the hero of a metaphysical revolt that is the true sign of a friend of God. Each author also provides a response essay to the essays of the other two authors, creating an interfaith dialogue around the problem of evil and the idea of protest against the divine.

In our religiously pluralistic society, clergy, medical, and nursing staffs in modern hospitals are confronted with caring for people with varied beliefs and customs. Since the overall care of a patient, and not just the surgeries performed or medicines given, affect an individual's recovery, it is vitally important to be familiar with cultural and religious understandings and expectations around hygiene, pastoral care, autopsies, transfusions, and even the practices associated with death itself. AHospital Handbook for Multiculturalism and Religion is a succinct guide to the care of patients from a variety of faiths. The original version included Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, and Baha'i. In the revised edition Neville Kirkwood has added chapters on Taoism, Confucianism, Neo-Confucianism, Chinese Buddhism, and Jainism. Each chapter examines not only the customs of adherents to various faith perspectives but also the significance of certain rites and attitudes, supplying health-care workers and chaplains with the information they need to provide the best care possible."

In the early twenty-first century it had become a cliche that there was a 'God Gap' between a more religious United States and a more secular Europe. The apparent religious differences between the United States and western Europe continue to be a focus of intense and sometimes bitter debate between three of the main schools in the sociology of religion. According to the influential 'Secularization Thesis', secularization has been an integral part of the processes of modernisation in the Western world since around 1800. For proponents of this thesis, the United States appears as an anomaly and they accordingly give considerable attention to explaining why it is different. For other sociologists, however, the apparently high level of religiosity in the USA provides a major argument in their attempts to refute the Thesis. Secularization and Religious Innovation in the Atlantic World provides a systematic comparison between the religious histories of the United States and western European countries from the eighteenth to the late twentieth century, noting parallels as well as divergences, examining their causes and especially highlighting change over time. This is achieved by a series of themes which seem especially relevant to this agenda, and in each case the theme is considered by two scholars. The volume examines whether American Christians have been more innovative, and if so how far this explains the apparent 'God Gap'. It goes beyond the simple American/European binary to ask what is 'American' or 'European' in the Christianity of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and in what ways national or regional differences outweigh these commonalities.

This title considers the role of the world's major religions in global issues such as peace, justice, war, and cooperation. It covers seven major faiths; shows the common ground among the faiths, as well as the differences; and, illustrates how better understanding between the faiths could lead to a more peaceful world. It is an important work at a time when religion plays a role in many major conflicts. Many authors have written on the effect that technology, economics, and politics have on globalisation, but few have addressed the potential impact of religion on the future direction of globalisation. This work is intended to fill this vacuum. It addresses the role the world's major religions will play in bringing either greater peace and justice or hatred and hostility into the global village. Will seven of the world's major religions, which exert the greatest amount of influence, be a force for good or ill in the emerging global village of the twenty-first century? this book offers insight into the commonalities, differences, and potential for coming together to create peace to be found among the major faiths. Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are covered and topics such as sexuality, ethics, violence, and the tension between secular and sacred arenas are discussed for each. The author argues that if the leaders and laity of these religions are able to find common ground for cooperation, then efforts toward peace and justice in the global village can be more effective and lasting. If they accentuate their differences, he suggests, then they will produce more hatred and hostility.

A priest’s inspiring story of bringing people together and bringing them closer to God—with some help from Dolly Parton, Martin Short, and others.   This book is my Midrash. With these words, Father Jim Sichko draws us into a life story full of laughter, tears, and service, filled with insightful lessons gained during his many travels as a clergyman and motivational speaker. Whether recounting his sobering flying experiences, the time he met the pope, or his encounter with the “Weed Man,� Father Jim instructs through powerful storytelling.   As he takes us along on his journey, from getting kicked out of seminary to hosting celebrities—including Dolly Parton, Harry Connick Jr., Martin Short, and former first lady Laura Bush—at his small Kentucky parish, Father Jim shines a light into the corners of the human heart to expose our need for God and the love He alone can give. With humor and striking honesty, Father Jim reveals what it means to worship God, have compassion for others, and live life among friends.

Comparative Religion is deeply rooted in historical-philological studies, but since the inception of the discipline in the late nineteenth century, a continual development has taken place. Since that time, the discipline has moved into many different areas of the social, humanistic, psychological and biological sciences, and debates on theory and method are as intense as ever. As scholars of religion get to grips with some aspects of the phenomenon in question, new problems arise, and new challenges must be met. At the same time, however, the virtues of the past should not be forgotten, and a double orientation, back and forth, becomes necessary. Rather than pursuing a systematic discussion of how to go about such problems, this volume celebrates the diversity and multi-methodological approaches in comparative religion by including empirical, as well as theoretical, approaches.The authors, among whom are many of the world's leading scholars, have been asked to contribute essays on the current state of comparative religion, and thanks to their efforts the reader is offered a pathway to exciting, but quite diverse, examples of the discipline, from the well-known to the most recent academic frontiers.

Written with humor and personality, this debut memoir recounts a woman's spiritual quest of experiencing thirty religions before her thirtieth birthday. Post-Traumatic Church Syndrome is for questioners, doubters, misfits, and seekers of all faiths, and tackles the universal struggle to heal what life has broken.On her twenty-ninth birthday, while guests were arriving downstairs, Reba Riley was supposedly upstairs getting dressed. In actuality, she was slumped on the floor sobbing about everything from the meaning of life to the pile of dirty laundry on the floor. Life without God was crashing in on her. And she was sick and tired of feeling sick and tired. She uttered a desperate prayer, and then the idea came to her--thirty by thirty. And thus she embarked on a year-long quest to experience thirty religions by her thirtieth birthday. During her spiritual sojourn, Riley: -Was interrogated about her sex life by Amish grandmothers -Disco danced in a Buddhist temple -Fasted for thirty days without food--or wine -Washed her lady parts in a mosque bathroom -Was audited by Scientologists -Learned to meditate with an urban monk -Snuck into a Yom Kippur service with a fake grandpa in tow -And finally discovered she didn't have to choose a religion to choose God In a debut memoir that is funny and earnest, Riley invites questioners, doubters, misfits, and curious believers to participate in the universal search to heal what life has broken. Post-Traumatic Church Syndrome takes you by the hand and reminds you that sometimes you first have to be lost in order to be found.

This book critically examines three distinct interpretations of Ludwig Wittgenstein, those of George Lindbeck, David Tracy, and David Burrell, while paying special attention to the topic of interreligious disagreement. In theological and philosophical work on interreligious communication, Ludwig Wittgenstein has been interpreted in very different, sometimes contradicting ways. This is partly due to the nature of Wittgenstein's philosophical investigation, which does not consist of a theory nor does it posit theses about religion, but includes several, varying conceptions of religion. In this volume, Gorazd Andrejc illustrates how assorted uptakes of Wittgenstein's conceptions of religion, and the differing theological perspectives of the authors who formulated them, shape interpretations of interreligious disagreement and dialogue. Inspired by selected perspectives from Tillichian philosophical theology, the book suggests a new way of engaging both descriptive and normative aspects of Wittgenstein's conceptions of religion in the interpretation of interreligious disagreement.

This volume is a collection of essays by former students of Judith Berling based on her revolutionary interreligious pedagogy. Her pedagogy can be summarized as a student centered, collaborative, and engaging teaching and learning process sparked by various ways of boundary-crossing. In this enterprise, each chapter explores the importance of understanding and negotiating "differences" through dialogue. The authors provide theoretical frameworks for engagements across conventional borders, and explore how the collaborative teaching model can be utilized in various teaching settings. As an example of her dialogical approach, Judith Berling herself provides a response to the chapters.

Discover the Power of Dialogue to Heal Religious Division

How can members of different faith traditions approach each other with openness and respect? How can they confront the painful conflicts in their history and overcome theological misconceptions? For more than twenty years, Professors Mary C. Boys and Sara S. Lee have explored ways that Catholics and Jews might overcome mistrust and misunderstandings in order to promote commitment to religious pluralism.

At its best, interreligious dialogue entails not simply learning about the other from the safety of one s own faith community, but rather engaging in specific learning activities with members of the other faith learning in the presence of the other. Drawing upon examples from their own experience, Boys and Lee lay out a framework for engaging the religious other in depth. With vision and insight, they discuss ways of fostering relationships among participants and with key texts, beliefs and practices of the other s tradition.

In this groundbreaking resource, they offer a guide for members of any faith tradition who want to move beyond the rhetoric of interfaith dialogue and into the demanding yet richly rewarding work of developing new understandings of the religious other and of one s own tradition.

The groundbreaking professional resource for providing spiritual guidance to people from faith traditions other than your own.

This comprehensive resource offers valuable information for providing spiritual guidance to people from a wide variety of faith traditions. Covering the world's faith traditions as well as interfaith, blended and independent approaches to spirituality, each chapter is written by a spiritual guidance professional from that tradition or who works extensively with people from that tradition. Each chapter provides: An overview of the tradition, including basic beliefsMethods for spiritual guidance honored in that traditionCommon spiritual problems encountered by people of that traditionTips, techniques and practicesHelpful resources for further learning

CONTRIBUTORS: Dan Mendelson Aviv, PhD Mans Broo, PhD Rev. Cathleen Cox, MAT, MDiv Ervad Soli P. Dastur Karen L. Erlichman, MSS, LCSW Jonathan Figdor, MDiv Rev. John A. Jillions, PhD Siri Kirpal Kaur Khalsa Rev. Daijaku Judith Kinst, PhD Ozgur Koca Bruce Lescher, PhD Rev. Ann Llewellyn Evans Rev. Dr. Jim Lockard Rev. John R. Mabry, PhD Fr. Scott McCarthy, DMin Moojan Momen, MB, BChir Wendi Momen, PhD Richard K. Payne, PhD Susan S. Phillips, PhD James Michael Reeder, LCPC, CPRP Robert A. Rees, PhD Bharat S. Shah, MD He Feng Dao Shi Joshua Snyder Rev. N. Graham Standish, PhD, MSW Chief Luisah Teish Christopher Titmuss

Religions CoveredBy Estimated U.S. Population

Evangelical Christianity Roman Catholicism Mormonism Judaism Reformed Christianity Eastern Orthodox Christianity Islam Buddhism Hinduism Spiritual Eclecticism Unitarian Universalism Neo-Paganism Baha'i Faith Sikhism Shinto Humanism New Thought Zoroastrianism Native American Religion African Diaspora Spirituality Daoism Jainism Confucianism"

Philip Schaff's The Creeds of Christendom is a massive set, originally published in three volumes and here reproduced across five volumes, cataloging and explaining the many different creeds from the myriad Christian denominations. The differences in belief between Calvinists, Lutherans, and Presbyterians, for example, can often be subtle, so a thorough examination of the particulars as well as an explanation for how those different beliefs result in a different worldview is necessary. Volume One: Part II covers: . the Catechism of Geneva AD 1546 and 1541 . the Reformed Confessions of France and Netherlands . the Reformed Confessions of Germany . the Reformed Confessions of Bohemia, Poland, and Hungary . the Anglican Articles of Religion . the Presbyterian Confessions of Scotland . the Westminster Standards . the Creeds of Modern Evangelical Denominations. (See Volume One: Part I for the Table of Contents for this volume.) Swiss theologian PHILIP SCHAFF (1819-1893) was educated in Germany and eventually came to the United States to teach at the German Reformed Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania. He wrote a number of books and hymnals for children, including History of the Christian Church and The Creeds of the Evangelical Protestant Churches.

This study in the relationship between religion and the comic focuses on the ways in which the latter fulfils a central function in the sacred understanding of reality of pre-modern cultures and the spiritual life of religious traditions. The central thesis is that figures such as tricksters, sacred clowns, and holy fools play an essential role in bridging the gap between the divine and the human by integrating the element of disequilibrium that results from the contact between incommensurable realities. This interdisciplinary and cross-cultural series of essays is devoted to spiritual, anthropological, and literary characters and phenomena that point to a deeper understanding of the various mythological, ceremonial, and mystical ways in which the fundamental ambiguity of existence is symbolized and acted out. Given its interdisciplinary and cross-cultural perspective, this volume will appeal to scholars from a variety of fields.