Drawing on research funded by the European Commission, this book explores how religious diversity has been, and continues to be, represented in cultural contexts in Western Europe, particularly to teenagers: in textbooks, museums and exhibitions, popular youth culture including TV and online, as well as in political speech. Topics include the findings from focus group interviews with teenagers in schools across Europe, the representation of minority religions in museums, migration and youth subculture.

Disputed Messiahs: Jewish and Christian Messianism in the Ashkenazic World during the Reformation is the first comprehensive study that situates Jewish messianism in its broader cultural, social, and religious contexts within the surrounding Christian society. By doing so, Rebekka Vo?f shows how the expressions of Jewish and Christian end-time expectation informed one another. Although the two groups disputed the different messiahs they awaited, they shared principal hopes and fears relating to the end of days. Drawing on a great variety of both Jewish and Christian sources in Hebrew, Yiddish, German, and Latin, the book examines how Jewish and Christian messianic ideology and politics were deeply linked. It explores how Jews and Christians each reacted to the other's messianic claims, apocalyptic beliefs, and eschatological interpretations, and how they adapted their own views of the last days accordingly. This comparative study of the messianic expectations of Jews and Christians in the Ashkenazic world during the Reformation and their entanglements contributes a new facet to our understanding of cultural transfer between Jews and Christians in the early modern period. Disputed Messiahs includes four main parts. The first part characterizes the specific context of Jewish messianism in Germany and defines the Christian perception of Jewish messianic hope. The next two parts deal with case studies of Jewish messianic expectation in Germany, Italy and Poland. While the second part focuses on the messianic phenomenon of the prophet Asher Lemlein, part 3 is divided into five chapters, each devoted to a case of interconnected Jewish-Christian apocalyptic belief and activity. Each case study is a representative example used to demonstrate the interplay of Jewish and Christian eschatological expectations. The final part presents Vo?f's general conclusions, carving out the remarkable paradox of a relationship between Jewish and Christian messianism that is controversial, albeit fertile. Scholars and students of history, culture, and religion are the intended audience for this book.

The culmination of William James' interest in the psychology of religion, "The Varieties of Religious Experience" approached the study of religious phenomena in a new way -- through pragmatism and experimental psychology. The most important effect of the publication of the Varieties was to shift the emphasis in this field of study from the dogmas and external forms of religion to the unique mental states associated with it. Explaining the book's intentions in a letter to a friend, James stated:

"The problem I have set myself is a hard one: first, to defend...'experience' against 'philosophy' as being the real backbone of the world's religious life...and second, to make the hearer or reader believe what I myself invincibly do believe, that, although all the special manifestations of religion may have been absurd (I mean its creeds and theories), yet the life of it as a whole is mankind's most important function."

Drawing evidence from his own experience and from such diverse thinkers as Voltaire, Whitman, Emerson, Luther, Tolstoy, John Bunyan, and Jonathan Edwards, "The Varieties of Religious Experience" remains one of the most influential books ever written on the psychology of religion.

Why use this book? This rich, broad-reaching anthology explores everyday religious practices across several of the world's religious traditions. Organized thematicallypolitics, ethics, and aestheticsthe volume examines topics of war, civil religion, science, women and children, capitalism, nature, education, death and dying, visual art, music, sport, humor, film, and more, with engaging and provocative photographs throughout. A useful resource for diverse courses in religious studies and the social sciences.

The World Religions Anthology: Faith, Worldview, Spirituality provides students with a thoughtful and insightful overview of some of the religions of the world and helps them identify both the differences between them and the underlying themes and values that connect them. The anthology is organized into nine chapters, the first of which gives students a foundational understanding of what constitutes religion and how to approach the study of sacred texts. Additional chapters explore what are often referred to as Eastern religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, and Jainism. Students also learn about the Abrahamic religions, studying in turn Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Each chapter includes an introduction and post-reading questions to provide context and facilitate learning, reflection, and discussion. The World Religions Anthology is an exemplary anthology for foundational courses in world religions and the study of religious texts.