The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Religion and Social Justice brings together a team of distinguished scholars to provide a comprehensive and comparative account of social justice in the major religious traditions. The first publication to offer a comparative study of social justice for each of the major world religions, exploring viewpoints within Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Confucianism Offers a unique and enlightening volume for those studying religion and social justice - a crucially important subject within the history of religion, and a significant area of academic study in the field Brings together the beliefs of individual traditions in a comprehensive, explanatory, and informative style All essays are newly-commissioned and written by eminent scholars in the field Benefits from a distinctive four-part organization, with sections on major religions; religious movements and themes; indigenous people; and issues of social justice, from colonialism to civil rights, and AIDS through to environmental concerns

Medieval scholars and cultural historians have recently turned their attention to the question of "smells" and what olfactory sensations reveal about society in general and holiness in particular. Sacred Scents in Early Christianity and Islam contributes to that conversation, explaining how early Christians and Muslims linked the "sweet smell of sanctity" with ideals of the body and sexuality; created boundaries and sacred space; and imagined their emerging communal identity. Most importantly, scent-itself transgressive and difficult to control-signaled transition and transformation between categories of meaning. Christian and Islamic authors distinguished their own fragrant ethical and theological ideals against the stench of oppositional heresy and moral depravity. Orthodox Christians ridiculed their 'stinking' Arian neighbors, and Muslims denounced the 'reeking' corruption of Umayyad and Abbasid decadence. Through the mouths of saints and prophets, patriarchal authors labeled perfumed women as existential threats to vulnerable men and consigned them to enclosed, private space for their protection as well as society's. At the same time, theologians praised both men and women who purified and transformed their bodies into aromatic offerings to God. Both Christian and Muslim pilgrims venerated sainted men and women with perfumed offerings at tombstones; indeed, Christians and Muslims often worshipped together, honoring common heroes such as Abraham, Moses, and Jonah. Sacred Scents begins by surveying aroma's quotidian functions in Roman and pre-Islamic cultural milieus within homes, temples, poetry, kitchens, and medicines. Existing scholarship tends to frame 'scent' as something available only to the wealthy or elite; however, perfumes, spices, and incense wafted through the lives of most early Christians and Muslims. It ends by examining both traditions' views of Paradise, identified as the archetypal Garden and source of all perfumes and sweet smells. Both Christian and Islamic texts explain Adam and Eve's profound grief at losing access to these heavenly aromas and celebrate God's mercy in allowing earthly remembrances. Sacred scent thus prompts humanity's grief for what was lost and the yearning for paradisiacal transformation still to come.

Throughout the ages and across religious traditions, people have yearned to personally experience God and deeply connect with the Creator. In Mysticism in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, Ori Z. Soltes traces the sweep of mysticism-this search for oneness with God-throughout the three Abrahamic traditions. This unique comparative overview begins with a definition of mysticism and a discussion of its place within religion as a whole. Soltes then explores the history of mysticism from Biblical times through the present day, highlighting the emergence of mysticism within the three traditions and how beliefs and practices converge and diverge over time. The final chapters discuss the growing interest in mysticism today through practices such as Kabbalah and how people publicly express their private encounters with God through art, literature, and other modern media.

Death, Ritual and Belief, now in its third edition, explores many important issues related to death and dying, from a religious studies perspective, including anthropology and sociology. Using the motif of 'words against death' it depicts human responses to grief by surveying the many ways in which people have not let death have the last word, not simply in terms of funeral rites but also in memorials, graves, and in ideas of ancestors, souls, gods, reincarnation and resurrection, whether in the great religious traditions of the world or in more local customs. He also examines bereavement and grief, experiences of the presence of dead, near-death experiences, pet-death and the symbolic death played out in religious rites. Updated chapters have taken into account new research and include additional topics in this new edition, notably assisted dying, terrorism, green burial, material culture, death online, and the emergence of Death Studies as a distinctive field. Case studies range from Anders Breivik in Norway, to the Princess of Wales, and to the Rapture in the USA. A new perspective is also brought to his account of grief theories. Providing an introduction to key authors and authorities on death beliefs, bereavement, grief and ritual-symbolism, Death, Ritual and Belief is an authoritative guide to the perspectives of major religious and secular worldviews.

In September 2002, twenty-one prominent Catholic and Protestant scholars released the groundbreaking document "A Sacred Obligation," which includes ten statements about Jewish-Christian dialogue focused around a guiding claim: "Revising Christian teaching about Judaism and the Jewish people is a central and indispensable obligation of theology in our time." Following the worldwide reception of their document, the authors have expanded their themes into Seeing Judaism Anew. The essays in this volume offer a conceptual framework by which Christians can rethink their understanding of the church's relationship to Judaism and show how essential it is that Christians represent Judaism accurately, not only as a matter of justice for the Jewish people, but also for the integrity of Christian faith. By linking New Testament scholarship to the Shoah, Christian liturgical life, and developments in the church, this volume addresses the important questions at the heart of Christian identity, such as: Are only Christians saved? Why did Jesus die? Why is Israel so important to Jews, and what should we think about the conflict in the Middle East? How is Christianity complicit in the Holocaust? What is important about Jesus being a Jew?

A compelling and urgent case for Jesus Christ as the one and only way to salvation. Today, professing that Jesus Christ is the only way to approach God and receive his salvation may seem to some like a form of intolerance or arrogance. A growing number of Christian intellectuals, pastors, and leaders are favoring a more inclusive view of a person's path to salvation. But what does this mean in practice? Are there biblical or theological means of defending inclusivism or pluralism, or do these views simply pay tribute to modern ethical standards? The fact is that unity among Christians on this fundamental issue has disappeared. Many people of faith choose among three fundamentally different answers to the question, "Is Jesus the only Savior?" Stated succinctly, these answers are: No! (Pluralism) Yes, but... (Inclusivism) Yes, period! (Exclusivism) In Is Jesus the Only Savior?, Ronald Nash explores the divergent views of pluralism and inclusivism in depth, laying out the reasoning, history, and major supporters behind them; and making a resounding case for exclusivism based on firm theological standards. Christians of all walks of life will find their faith in Christ affirmed and strengthened by this vital treatise, written in accessible terms and a readable style.

Polydox Reflections stages a critical dialogue concerning the ethical and theological viability of "polydoxy." A wide range of thinkers explore this theological trend in light of their own sense of the task of modern theology. * Provides sympathetic and skeptical responses to Polydoxy - a trend in contemporary theology that emphasizes the multiplicity of creation, religious traditions, and divinity itself. * Introduces, expands, and refines the vibrant theological possibilities of polydoxy. * Offers theological visions that are both ontologically rigorous and politically engaged. * Includes essays by Virginia Burrus, Mark Jordan, Catherine Keller, Laurel Schneider and Graham Ward

One of the biggest challenges for relations between religions is the view of the religious Other. The question touches the roots of our theological views. The Religious Other: Hostility, Hospitality, and the Hope of Human Flourishing explores the views of multiple religious traditions on how to regard otherness. How does one move from hostility to hospitality? How can hospitality be understood not simply as social hospitality but as theological hospitality, making room for the religious Other on theological grounds? What is our vision for the flourishing of the Other, while respecting his otherness? This volume is an exercise in constructive interreligious theology. By including perspectives of Abrahamic and non-Abrahamic traditions, it approaches these challenges from multiple perspectives, highlighting commonalities in approach and ways in which one tradition might inspire another.

The New Resurrection is an autobiographical account of an astonishing miracle experienced by author Ryuho Okawa in 2004. This event was adapted into the feature-length film Immortal Hero, released in Japan, the United States and Canada during the Fall of 2019. Chapter 1 recounts the incredible story of Ryuho Okawa's resurrection from physical death. At the age of 47, Okawa suffered a severe episode of chest pain and was rushed to a local hospital. Upon intake, attending physicians remarked "you should be dead ..." as the medical examination revealed that Okawa's heart had stopped. Unbelievably, during the onset of cardiac arrest, he was fully conscious and responsive, witnessing the startling diagnosis unfold by a team of respected physicians at a prestigious Tokyo hospital. Chapter 2 is a transcription of a live Q&A session from the 2019 lecture "The New Resurrection" in Tokyo, Japan, where Okawa candidly recounts how his life has changed post miracle. In chapter 3, Okawa publishes 15 select poems, out of 108, that he composed from his hospital bed amidst a modest recovery. For the first time, Okawa shares sincere thoughts and contemplations as he faced and overcame death. Today, Okawa lives each day with the readiness to die for the Truth and has dedicated his life to selflessly guide faith seekers towards spiritual development and happiness. In testament to Okawa's earnest resolve, the appendix showcases a myriad of accomplishments by Okawa, chronicled after his miraculous resurrection.

A groundbreaking reframing of religious pilgrimage Pious processions. Sites of miraculous healing. Journeys to far-away sacred places. These are what are usually called to mind when we think of religious pilgrimage. Yet while pilgrimage can include journeying to the heart of sacred shrines, it can also occur in apparently mundane places. Indeed, not everyone has the resources or mobility to take part in religiously inspired movement to foreign lands, and some find meaning in religious movement closer to home and outside of officially sanctioned practices. Powers of Pilgrimage argues that we must question the universality of Western assumptions of what religion is and where it should be located, including the notion that "genuine" pilgrimage needs to be associated with discrete, formally recognized forms of religiosity. This necessary volume makes the case for expanding our gaze to reconsider the salience, scope, and scale of contemporary forms of pilgrimage and pilgrimage-related activity. It shows that we need to reflect on how pilgrimage sites, journeys, rituals, stories, and metaphors are entangled with each other and with wider aspects of people's lives, ranging from an action as trivial as a stroll down the street to the magnitude of forced migration to another country or continent. Offering a new theoretical lexicon and framework for exploring human pilgrimage, Powers of Pilgrimage presents a broad overview of how we can understand pilgrimage activity and proposes that it should be understood not solely as going to, staying at, and leaving a sacred place, but also as occurring in ordinary times, places, and practices.

The pure and penetrating message of the Divine Feminine Wisdom can become a companion for your own spiritual journey The first of God's creations and God’s endless delight, Wisdom (also known as Chochma and Sophia) is the Mother of all life, the guide to right living. She is God manifest in the world you encounter moment to moment. Her teachings, embedded in the Holy Scriptures of Jews and Christians, are passionate, powerful calls to live in harmony, love with integrity and act joyously. Through the Hebrew books of Psalms, Proverbs, Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes and Job, and the Wisdom literature books of Sirach and the Wisdom of Solomon, the Divine Feminine speaks to you directly, and Her only desire is to teach you to become wise. Rami Shapiro’s contemporary translations and powerful commentaries clarify who Wisdom is, what She teaches, and how Her words can help you live justly, wisely and with compassion. This is not a book about Wisdom but the voice of Wisdom Herself, liberating, uplifting and compelling. Now you can experience the Divine Feminine and understand Her teachings with no previous knowledge of Wisdom literature. This SkyLight Illuminations edition presents insightful commentary that explains Sophia’s way of wisdom and illustrates the countless opportunities to experience Her creative energy through which God fashions all things.

This book explores the modern relationship between religion and science, highlighting the public backlash over teaching evolution in U.S. public schools as an example of the conflict between religious faith and scientific reason. The author explores the middle ground between the two most extreme arguments, arguing that it is possible for science and religion to exist in harmony. The book also provides an analysis of 10 world religions, including Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, and Buddhism, revealing how each finds compatibility with differing religions and scientific doctrine.

Chinese practices related to ancestors have long been the subject of conflicting interpretations. These practices are rooted in the lived experience of practitioners, and therefore need to be considered as embodied expressions of the quest for existential meaning. For practitioners, the achievement of existential meaning requires the inclusion, implication, and mediation of the ancestors. When gestures in ancestor rites are analyzed from this perspective it is possible to appreciate their essence as constitutive of "ancestor religion." This book uses an inquisitive method that investigates the discrepancies between foreign and local explanations, and proposes another hermeneutic framework for ancestor related praxes.

A unique interreligious dialogue provides needed context for deeper understanding of interfaith relations, from ancient to modern times Freedom is far from straightforward as a topic of comparative theology. While it is often identified with modernity and even postmodernity, freedom has long been an important topic for reflection by both Christians and Muslims, discussed in both the Bible and the Qur'an. Each faith has a different way of engaging with the idea of freedom shaped by the political context of their beginnings. The New Testament emerged in a region under occupation by the Roman Empire, whereas the Qur'an was first received in tribal Arabia, a stateless environment with political freedom. Freedom: Christian and Muslim Perspectives, edited by Lucinda Mosher, considers how Christian and Muslim faith communities have historically addressed many facets of freedom. The book presents essays, historical and scriptural texts, and reflections. Topics include God's freedom, human freedom to obey God, autonomy versus heteronomy, autonomy versus self-governance, freedom from incapacitating addiction and desire, hermeneutic or discursive freedom vis-a-vis scripture and tradition, religious and political freedom, and the relationship between personal conviction and public order. The rich insights expressed in this unique interfaith discussion will benefit readers-from students and scholars, to clerics and community leaders, to politicians and policymakers-who will gain a deeper understanding of how these two communities define freedom, how it is treated in both religious and secular texts, and how to make sense of it in the context of our contemporary lives.

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"This book introduces readers to these faiths, utilizing the best of both worlds: the NRMs get to express themselves in the words of their own hallowed texts, while the religious scholars Daschke and Ashcraft place these new and interesting belief systems in their proper historical and theosophical context."
--"New York Spirit"

""New Religious Movements: A Documentary Reader" is an essential text for courses on new religions. It combines well selected source materials with knowledgeable and accessible introductions. The appendix containing an essay by Douglas Cowan on the history of anticult and countercult movements is a very helpful addition."
--Catherine Wessinger, Co-general Editor of "Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions."

"Overall, this scholarly, succinct work offers a balanced approach to a contentious topic. Public and academic libraries should purchase two copies, one for reference and one for circulating collections."
--"Library Journal"

"New religious movements have been in the public eye for decades, and have been the focus of a great deal of debate. Now, at long last, they get to speak for themselves. Dereck Daschke and W. Michael Ashcraft have given us an outstanding resource for understanding new religions, one useful to scholars and students as well as the inquisitive general public. The selections are excellent, and the introductions are models of clarity and accuracy. this volume of primary materials is overdue and very welcome."
--Timothy Miller, University of Kansas

New Religious Movements is a highly unique volume, bringing together primary documentsconveying the words and ideas of a wide array of new religious movements (NRMs), and offering a first-hand look into their belief systems.

Arranged by the editors according to a new typology, the text allows readers to consider NRMS along five interrelated pathways--from those that offer new perceptions of existence or new personal identities, to those that center on relationships within family-like units, to those movements that highlight the need for recasting the social order or anticipate the dawn of a new age.

The volume includes original documents from groups such as the Unification Church, Theosophy, Branch Davidians, Wicca, Jehovahas Witnesses, Santeria, and Seventh Day Adventists, as well as many others. Each section is prefaced by a contextual introduction and concludes with a list of sources for further reading. New Religious Movements offers a rare inside look into the worldviews of alternative religious traditions.

An expert on world religions provides a compelling look into the shape and movement of Christianity's past, present, and future. Charles Farhadian accounts for the cultural, social, and theological issues that have shaped Christianity worldwide as he describes the distinctives of the world's largest religion. Addressing the global nature of Christianity without focusing exclusively on that topic, this supplementary text could serve in a variety of courses across the curriculum and is written to be useable in either Christian or secular settings.

The field of Hindu-Christian studies revives theology as a particularly useful interreligious discipline. Though a sub-division of the broader Hindu-Christian dialogue, it is also a distinct field of study, proper to a smaller group of religious intellectuals. At its best it envisions a two-sided, mutual conversation, grounded in scholars' knowledge of their own tradition and of the other. Based on the Westcott-Teape Lectures given in India and at the University of Cambridge, this book explores the possibilities and problems attendant upon the field of Hindu-Christian Studies, the reasons for occasional flourishing and decline in such studies, and the fragile conditions under which the field can flourish in the 21st century. The chapters examine key instances of Christian-Hindu learning, highlighting the Jesuit engagement with Hinduism, the modern Hindu reception of Western thought, and certain advances in the study of religion that enhance intellectual cooperation. This book is a significant contribution to a sophisticated understanding of Christianity and Hinduism in relation. It presents a robust defense of comparative theology and of Hindu-Christian Studies as a necessarily theological discipline. It will be of wide interest in the fields of Religious Studies, Theology, Christianity and Hindu Studies.

Postcolonial studies has challenged the Eurocentric frameworks and methodologies in the fields of biblical studies and theology. Postcolonial Practice of Ministry is a groundbreaking anthology that enables a new engagement between postcolonial and practical theologies, focused on three key areas of the practice of ministry: pastoral leadership, liturgical celebration, and interfaith engagement. Postcolonial Practice of Ministry will make an impact in at least two areas of theological reflection: first, among postcolonial scholars, it will stretch postcolonial theology into an area where it has been neglected; second, it will provide a comprehensive resource for rethinking the practice of ministry. Contributors to this volume are well-known scholars from different racial, national, and denominational backgrounds, bringing with them experiences of hybrid identities and multicultural churches. Many of them are pioneers in introducing postcolonial discourse to their fields.

No two figures could seem further removed than Mohandas K. Gandhi and Osama bin Laden. Gandhi advocated an inclusive religious perspective, and believed that the highest ideals in religion led to the path of absolute nonviolence. In contrast, Bin Laden has concocted a militant and exclusive interpretation of Islam, and tried to justify some of the most barbarous acts of terrorism witnessed at the turn of the century. Can both men be equally 'religious' figures? As leaders of movements of political protest, do they have any points of similarity? Moreover, how can the religious philosophy of nonviolence respond to its nemesis, which takes life so easily and casually? These and other important questions are explored in this work that examines the lives and ideas of Mohandas K. Gandhi and Osama bin Laden, as well as that of Abdul Ghaffar Khan, a refreshing, nonviolent representative of Islam.

The first to appear in Curzon's well respected 'Popular Dictionary' series.

The book is a case study in the literary, psychoanalytic, and theological encounters between diasporic Muslim intellectuals and secular western modernity. It centres on the simultaneous search for the possibility of both a reformation of Islamic fundamentalism and a transformation of the exclusionary limitations of western public institutions. With roots in original research in the fields of comparative religion and cultural studies, and drawing on sources in English, French, and Arabic, the author introduces and elaborates the concept of Western-Islamic public sphere. This concept defines what is at stake in the formative play of public representations where traditionalist foundations and modernist adaptations meet, clash, and produce discourse around their common disequilibrium. The Western-Islamic public sphere (which is secular but not secularist and which is Islamic but not Islamist), within which a critical Islamic intellectual universe can unfold, deals hermeneutically with texts and politically with lived practices. It emerges from within the arc of two alternative, conflicting, yet equally dismissive suspicions defined by a view that critical Islam is the new imperial rhetoric of hegemonic orientalism and the opposite view that critical Islam is just fundamentalism camouflaged in liberal rhetoric. This innovative and original scholarly apparatus offers a third view -- one that arises in its practice from ethical commitment to intellectual engagement, creativity, and imagination as a portal to the open horizons of conflictual history.

Beyond Agreement addresses the thorny question of how to make interreligious dialogue productive when the religious differences are so large that finding common ground seems unlikely. The book offers a way to think about interreligious dialogue that allows people to stay committed to their own truth as they have come to know it while being open to learning from other religions. It then outlines a way for Christian theologians to enter into a profitable dialogue with the beliefs and traditions of other religions by presenting practical steps to follow in order to keep the dialogue productive and respectful of similarities and differences among religions.

This book has its origins in a comparative religions course Burns has taught at the University of Arizona for the past thirty years. Those who have enrolled in the class have come from diverse religious and cultural backgrounds. Whatever the mix, a shared curiosity about Christianity, Judaism, and Islam has always been present. Since the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, students-as well as the general public-are especially interested in Islam. Like many Americans, they have little or no knowledge of the Islamic religion. This work touches upon the origins and central teachings of the Islamic religion and discusses the commonalties and differences between Islam and Christianity. Throughout the book, Burns poses and answers the kinds of questions most frequently asked by his students. This approach will be helpful to students in comparative religions courses, as well as other individuals interested in the connections between Christianity and Islam. The purpose of this book is to help alleviate the misinformation surrounding Islam and Christianity and to inspire a dialogue between the two religions. Such communication will, the author hopes, help promote justice and peace throughout the world.

This book explores three schools of fascinating, talented, and gifted scholars whose philosophies assimilated the Jewish and secular cultures of their respective homelands: they include halakhists from Rabbi Ettlinger to Rabbi Eliezer Berkowitz; Jewish philosophers from Isaac Bernays to Yeshayau Leibowitz; and biblical commentators such as Samuel David Luzzatto and Rabbi Umberto Cassuto.Running like a thread through their philosophies is the attempt to reconcile the Jewish belief in revelation with Western culture, Western philosophy, and the conclusions of scientific research. Among these attempts is Luzzatto's "dual truth" approach. The Dual Truth is the sequel to the Ephraim Chamiel's previous book The Middle Way, which focused on the challenges faced by members of the "Middle Trend" in nineteenth-century Jewish thought.