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.

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.

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.

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.

The Reign of Quantity gives a concise but comprehensive view of the present state of affairs in the world, as it appears from the point of view of the 'ancient wisdom', formerly common both to the East and to the West, but now almost entirely lost sight of. The author indicates with his fabled clarity and directness the precise nature of the modern deviation, and devotes special attention to the development of modern philosophy and science, and to the part played by them, with their accompanying notions of progress and evolution, in the formation of the industrial and democratic society which we now regard as 'normal'. Guenon sees history as a descent from Form (or Quality) toward Matter (or Quantity); but after the Reign of Quantity-modern materialism and the 'rise of the masses'-Guenon predicts a reign of 'inverted quality' just before the end of the age: the triumph of the 'counter-initiation', the kingdom of Antichrist. This text is considered the magnum opus among Guenon's texts of civilizational criticism, as is Symbols of Sacred Science among his studies on symbols and cosmology, and Man and His Becoming according to the Vedanta among his more purely metaphysical works.

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 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.

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.

Is time a creation of God? How can God be considered eternal, if he is responsible for the existence of time? Is God temporal or is he timeless? The relationship between God and time has been an object of inquiry in philosophical and theological traditions around the world for centuries. This volume takes up these and other questions, presenting a range of answers not only as brought forth in European philosophical traditions and in early Christianity, Judaism and Islam, but also positions taken by mediaeval Indian theologians and in the influential traditions of early Buddhism. Traditionally, discussions have focused on questions such as whether time is a necessary concomitant of God's existence, or whether time should be identified with God. But there is a further question: did these traditions develop their own unrelated and independent view of God and time? Or are there similarities in their reflections? This volume, with contributions of scholars from various relevant fields, offers a novel approach to these inquiries. When taken as a whole, it provides new momentum to contemplation on an age-old enigma.

The first two parts of this book present four detailed historical studies, filled with Geertzian "thick description," of the encounters of Christianity and Buddhism (universal religions with a high quotient of "transcendence") with various primal religious traditions ("biocosmic" or "immanentist") of the Asian-Pacific region, namely, Aboriginal Australia and Melanesia (Christianity) and Sri Lanka and Japan (Buddhism). In each case, the encounters represented a failure of the "great" traditions. In the third, constructive and theological part of the book, the author shows how an acknowledgement of these failures may provide a back door to dialogue.

This book is an exploration of what would seem to be a simple question, but is actually the object of a profound quest-"who is a Jew?" This is a deeply complex issue, both within Judaism, and in interactions between Jews and Christians. Jewish-Christian Difference and Modern Jewish Identity: Seven Twentieth-Century Converts contends that in the twentieth century the Jewish-Christian relationship has changed to the extent that definitions of Jewish identity were reshaped. The stories of the seven influential and creative converts that are related in this book indicate that the borders dividing the Jewish and Christian faiths are, for many, more fluid and permeable than ever before.

"Speaking of Gods in Figure and Narrative" analyzes the figurative-narrative creation of gods, their heavenly abodes, and behaviors, reaching back to the beginning of history in Sumer, Babylon, Egypt, Persia, and Greece, and continuing through a biblical tradition that includes the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, and the Qur'an. Each culture leaves its linguistic residue for the next to incorporate into its sacred texts, resulting in the perpetuation and validation of ancient imagining, attitudes, and ideas.

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 I covers: . creeds in general . the Ecumenical creeds . the creeds of the Greek Church . the creeds of the Roman Church . the creeds of the Evangelical Churches . the creeds of the Evangelical Lutheran Churches . the creeds of the Evangelical Reformed Churches. This volume contains the table of contents for all of Volume One. 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.

Throughout the history of Indian religions, the ascetic figure is most closely identified with power. Power is a by-product of the ascetic path, and is displayed in the ability to fly, walk on water or through dense objects, read minds, discern the former lives of others, see into the future, harm others, or simply levitate one's body. Using religio-philosophical discourses and narratives from epic, puranic, and hagiographical literature, Indian Asceticism focuses on the powers exhibited by ascetics of India from ancient to modern time. The discourses and narratives show ascetics performing violent acts and using language to curse and harm opponents. They also give rise to questions about how power and violence are related to the phenomenon of play. Olson discusses the erotic, the demonic, the comic, and the miraculous forms of play and their connections to power and violence. His focus is on Hinduism, from early Indian religious history to more modern times, but evidence is also presented from both Buddhism and Jainism, which provides evidence that the subject matter of this book pervades India's major indigenous religious traditions. The book also includes a look at the extent to which contemporary findings in cognitive science can add to our understanding about these various powers; Olson argues that violence is built into the practice of the ascetic. Indian Asceticism culminates with an attempt to rethink the nature of power in a way that does justice to the literary evidence from Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain sources.

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"

This fascinating history explores the cultural roots of our civilization's obsession with the end of the world. Busting the myth of the ancient Maya prediction that time would end in 2012, Matthew Restall and Amara Solari build on their previous book, 2012 and the End of the World, to use the Maya case to connect such seemingly disparate historical events as medieval European millenarianism, Moctezuma's welcome to Cortes, Franciscan missionizing in Mexico, prophetic traditions in Yucatan, and the growing belief today in conspiracies and apocalypses. In demystifying the 2012 phenomenon, the authors draw on their decades of scholarship to provide an accessible and engaging explanation of what Mayas and Aztecs really believed, how Judeo-Christian apocalypticism became part of the Indigenous Mesoamerican and modern American worlds, and why millions continue to anticipate an imminent Doomsday.

This fascinating history explores the cultural roots of our civilization's obsession with the end of the world. Busting the myth of the ancient Maya prediction that time would end in 2012, Matthew Restall and Amara Solari build on their previous book, 2012 and the End of the World, to use the Maya case to connect such seemingly disparate historical events as medieval European millenarianism, Moctezuma's welcome to Cortes, Franciscan missionizing in Mexico, prophetic traditions in Yucatan, and the growing belief today in conspiracies and apocalypses. In demystifying the 2012 phenomenon, the authors draw on their decades of scholarship to provide an accessible and engaging explanation of what Mayas and Aztecs really believed, how Judeo-Christian apocalypticism became part of the Indigenous Mesoamerican and modern American worlds, and why millions continue to anticipate an imminent Doomsday.

Interreligious relationships are often hindered by epistemic disparity caused by the nexus between religions and state powers. To solve this problem, David Muthukumar Sivasubramanian develops a postfoundationalist epistemological framework to affirm the epistemic parity and plurality of religions while upholding their particularity and universality. Building on this postfoundationalist epistemology, a comparative Christology paradigm that uses insights from the extant comparative theology method is reformulated with a Christological focus. This model seeks to affirm the exclusive faith assertions of Christianity and the corresponding universal claims for Christ. It also sustains the particular religious identity of a comparative theologian over against any compulsion to assume hybrid identity in the interreligious cross-learning. This comparative Christology framework is exhibited through cross-learning with the Tamil Saiva Siddhanta tradition. This method is shown to affirm not only the particularity and universality of Christianity but also of the Tamil Saiva Siddhanta tradition by defining each religion's attempt at their revealed truth as a parallel quest for truth. Thus, it facilitates dialogue across religions by securing one's self-identity and the other's alterity.

Much post-Holocaust Jewish thought published in North America has assumed that the Holocaust shattered traditional religious categories that had been used by Jews to account for historical catastrophes. But most traditional Jewish thinkers during the war saw no such overwhelming of tradition in the death and suffering delivered to Jews by Nazis. Through a comparative reading of postwar North American and wartime Orthodox Jewish texts about the Holocaust, Barbara Krawcowicz shows that these sources differ in the paradigms-modern and historicist for North American thinkers, traditional and covenantal for Orthodox thinkers-in which they employ historical events.

Zimbabwe has invested in women’s emancipation and leadership while articulating a strong Pan-Africanist ideology, providing a valuable entry point into understanding the dynamics relating to women’s leadership in Africa. It is also characterised by radical religious pluralism, thereby facilitating an appreciation of the impact of religion on women’s leadership in Africa more generally.  This volume reflects on the role of Zimbabwean women in religio-cultural leadership, with a specific focus on roles within religious organizations. It begins by examining Zimbabwean church women’s leadership roles in long established faith communities. The chapters then hone in on the emergence of churches or ministries founded by women in Zimbabwe, starting from the pre-colonial era and advancing through the last forty years of independence. Hence, the book offers a comprehensive assessment of the challenges and opportunities women in leadership face in religious institutions in the country, before exploring the impact of the pandemic on the ability of women to lead. It will make a major contribution to the advancement of scholarship of gender and leadership in emerging markets.