Among French structuralists, Louis Dumont is sometimes regarded as an inferior to the far more celebrated Claude Levi-Strauss. But, in truth, Dumont has far more to contribute to the study of religion than his more fashionable contemporary. Notably, his work has informed the specialized field of study in the religions of India, but also more recently the comparative study of modern ideology of the West with the worldviews of traditional societies. Unlike the recent volumes published on Dumont's work aimed at social anthropologists, this volume identifies kernel ideas of particular interest for the study of religion. Thus, while acknowledging Dumont's technical contribution to kinship studies or his part in the debates over the intricacies of structural theory or his apparent attempts to link idealism and empiricism, this volume focuses on subjects of particular interest to students and scholars of religion: concepts such as sacred and profane, pure and impure, transcendence, values, ideology, hierarchy, and cross cultural comparison. Attention will also be paid to the ethical implications of Dumont's ideas, especially about his preference for hierarchy in social arrangements.

In Chapter 38:21-25, the Qur'an relates a very short narrative about the biblical King David's seeking and receiving God's forgiveness. The earliest Muslim exegetes interpreted the qur'anic verses as referring to the Hebrew Bible's story of David's adultery with Bathsheba, as related in 2 Samuel 12:1-13. Later Muslims, however, having developed the concept of prophetic impeccability, radically reinterpreted those verses to show David as innocent of any wrongdoing since, in the Muslim tradition, he is not only a king, but a prophet as well. David in the Muslim Tradition: The Bathsheba Affair outlines the approach of the Qur'an to shared scriptures, and provides a detailed look at the development of the exegetical tradition and the factors that influenced such exegesis. By establishing four distinct periods of exegesis, Khaleel Mohammed examines the most famous explanations in each stratum to show the metamorphosis from blame to exculpation. He shows that the Muslim development is not unique, but is very much in following the Jewish and Christian traditions, wherein a similar sanitization of David's image has occurred.

A groundbreaking spiritual conversation that invites you to step beyond the limits of any one faith into a global spirituality. Long description:The World Wisdom Bible is a global spiritual conversation about the nature of life and how best to live it. Drawing on ancient and timeless texts from Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism, and Taoism, this compendium of sacred texts juxtaposes seemingly divergent teachings to create a spiritual collage of wisdom that crosses religious boundaries, and invites the reader to step beyond the limits of any one faith into a global spirituality. Organized by themes—The Absolute, Justice, Wisdom, Compassion, Spiritual Practice, Ethical Living, and more—The World Wisdom Bible is more than an anthology of diverse teachings; it is a new scripture for those who describe themselves as spiritual independents, spiritual but not religious, and nones. Where conventional Bibles and scriptures speak to believers of one religion or another, The World Wisdom Bible speaks to seekers of every faith and none.

A comprehensive and accessible textbook which explores the traditions and beliefs of the world's living religions - the fully updated and revised new edition The World Religions Reader is an inclusive, student-friendly examination of the history, teaching, practices, and appeal of the world's major religions. Covering both the fundamentals and complexities of each religious tradition, this popular textbook brings together significant texts from scriptures and scholars, as well as writings from philosophers and other significant thinkers throughout history. Students are provided with an introduction and overview of the tradition, taken through its primary texts, and presented with a text which seeks to persuade the student of the tradition's merits. This new edition has been thoroughly updated to be even more accessible for students new to interreligious engagement and to reflect current trends and developments in religions worldwide. Every chapter opens with a substantial overview which orients the new student and then flows into a carefully chosen set of texts - a regular textbook is now combined with a Reader. New content examines areas such as the Rastafarian tradition, while revised chapters cover secular humanism and indigenous and emerging religious traditions. The methodology of the book focuses on an empathetic approach - representing each tradition from the perspective of a conventional adherent - enabling students to develop understanding of each tradition and appreciate similarities and differences in their most typical forms. Invites students to study each tradition from the perspective of a follower, aiming to understand why the tradition is popular and powerful Explores representative passages, world-views, rituals and institutions, ethical expressions and modern outlooks for each religion Features discussions of interfaith perspectives on the role of women in religious traditions and the impact of world events and politics on interfaith communication Encourages students to consider questions of truth, the relation of religion and society, and the changing nature of a tradition in the modern world Includes a complete set of pedagogical tools and instructor resources, including end-of-chapter fact sheets, topic summaries, key term sections, and essay and discussion questions The World Religions Reader, Fourth Edition is an ideal textbook for undergraduate and graduate courses in religion, especially for liberal arts and non-affiliated colleges, as well as general readers wishing to increase their knowledge of the world's religious traditions.

The dawn of the modern age posed challenges to all of the world's religions - and since then, religions have countered with challenges to modernity. In Religious Responses to Modernity, seven leading scholars from Germany and Israel explore specific instances of the face-off between religious thought and modernity, in Christianity, Judaism and Islam. As co-editor Christoph Markschies remarks in his Foreword, it may seem almost trivial to say that different religions, and the various currents within them, have reacted in very different ways to the "multiple modernities" described by S.N. Eisenstadt. However, things become more interesting when the comparative perspective leads us to discover surprising similarities. Disparate encounters are connected by their transnational or national perspectives, with the one side criticizing in the interest of rationality as a model of authorization, and the other presenting revelation as a critique of a depraved form of rationality. The thoughtful essays presented herein, by Simon Gerber, Johannes Zachhuber, Jonathan Garb, Rivka Feldhay, Paul Mendes-Flohr, Israel Gershoni and Christoph Schmidt, provide a counterweight to the popularity of some all-too-simplified models of modernization.

'Are they really Muslims?' Islam in China reveals the struggle for identity of the small yet vital Muslim community of China, a little studied minority on the fringes of the Islamic world now thrust into the spotlight by the opening of China to the world and the rise of independent Muslim republics on China's western borders. Both timely and important, the multifaceted essays-_ collection of over twenty years of Raphael Israeli's scholarship on Chinese Muslims_offer detailed insight into the relationship between China's non-Muslim majority and an increasingly self-confident guest culture. The work uncovers a history of uneasy ethnic, philosophical, and ideological coexistence, the gradual sinification of the Chinese Muslim creed, and the increasing accommodation of Islam by a modern, westernizing China. In addition, it highlights a religious group riddled with sectarianism; factional rifts that reveal the doctrinal, social, and political diversity at the core of Chinese Islam.

This book offers ecumenical essays that focus on Reformation Christianity and on current Lutheran-Catholic understandings and relationships. It addresses important issues, including the meaning of the Reformation, the reception of Luther in Germany and beyond, contemporary ecumenical dialogues, and pathways to the future. There is also some inclusion of Jewish and Orthodox traditions as well as attention to global issues. Taken as a whole, the primary method of this book is theology informed by history, hermeneutics, ethics, and social theory. Within the structure of the book can be found the classic hermeneutical circle: What was the meaning of the Reformation for Luther in his own time? What are various ways in which Luther and the Reformation have been interpreted in history? How does knowledge of these things help us today to understand the Reformation and to move forward?

Is dialogue between the major religions of the world possible? If it is possible, under what conditions? In this book, Michael H. Mitias argues that it is possible provided various conditions are met. These conditions include mutual respect, mutual understanding, and God-centeredness. First, how can a religion that is unusually complex -composed of a doctrine founded in a unique divine revelation, a leadership class of theologians, teachers, clergy, and administrators, and a community across global cultures-show uniform respect to another religion? How can a complex institution like a religion truly understand another religion? Third, can the different religions worship the same God if their conceptions of God are based on their unique doctrines? Mitias addresses these questions and argues that it is possible for religions to respect and understand one another. Further, he argues that the different conceptions of God are necessarily founded in a belief in the existence of a transcendent, infinite, and wise being.

Pentecostalism is a growing movement in world Christianity. However, the growth of Pentecostalism in South Africa has faced some challenges, including the abuse of religion by some prophets. This book first names these prophets and the churches they lead in South Africa, and then makes use of literary and media analysis to analyse the religious practices by the prophets in relation to cultism. Additionally, the book analyses the "celebrity cult" and how it helps promote the prophets in South Africa. The purpose of this book is threefold: First, to draw parallels between the abuse of religion and cultism. Second, to illustrate that it is cultic tendencies, including the celebrity cult, that has given rise to many prophets in South Africa. Last, to showcase that the challenge for many of these prophets is that the Pentecostal tradition is actually anti-cultism, and thus there is a need for them to rethink their cultic tendencies in order for them to be truly relevant in a South African context.

This book represents an ambitious effort to bring leading Yijing scholars together to examine the globalisation and localisation of the 'Book of Changes' from cross-cultural and comparative perspectives. It focuses on how the Yijing has been used to support ideologies, converted into knowledge, and assimilated into global cultures in the modern period, transported from the Sinosphere to British, American and French cultural traditions, travelling from East Asia to Europe and the United States. The book provides conceptualised narratives and cross-cultural analyses of the global popularisation and local assimilation of the Yijing, highlighting the transformation and application of the Yijing in different cultural traditions, and demonstrating how it acquired different meanings and took on different roles in the context of a global setting. In presenting a novel contribution to understandings of the multifaceted nature of the Yijing, this book is essential reading for scholars and students interested in the 'Classic of Changes'. It is also a useful reference for those studying Chinese culture, Asian philosophy, East Asian studies, and translation studies.

Meditative practices have flourished in widely different parts of Eurasia, yet historical research on such practices is limited. Research to date has focused on contexts rather than actual practices, and within individual traditions. For the first time in one volume, the meditative practices of the three traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam are examined. They are viewed in a global perspective, considering both generic and historical connections to practices in other traditions, particularly in India and East Asia. Their cultural and historical peculiarities are examined, comparing them both to each other and to Asian forms of meditation. The book builds on a notion of meditation as self-administered techniques for inner transformation, a definition which focuses on transformative practice rather than notions of meditative states and mystical experiences. It proposes ways of studying meditative practice historically, and concludes with an essay on the modern scientific interest in meditation.

This volume explores the multiple meanings and implications of lobola in Southern Africa. The payment of lobola (often controversially translated as 'bridewealth') is an entrenched practice in most societies in Southern Africa. Although having a long tradition, of late there have been voices questioning its relevance in contemporary times while others vehemently defend the practice. This book brings together a range of scholars from different academic disciplines, national contexts, institutions, genders, and ethnic backgrounds to debate the relevance of lobola in contemporary southern African communities for gender equality.

Is there such a thing as natural knowledge of God? C. Stephen Evans presents the case for understanding theistic arguments as expressions of natural signs in order to gain a new perspective both on their strengths and weaknesses. Three classical, much-discussed theistic arguments - cosmological, teleological, and moral - are examined for the natural signs they embody.
At the heart of this book lie several relatively simple ideas. One is that if there is a God of the kind accepted by Christians, Jews, and Muslims, then it is likely that a 'natural' knowledge of God is possible. Another is that this knowledge will have two characteristics: it will be both widely available to humans and yet easy to resist. If these principles are right, a new perspective on many of the classical arguments for God's existence becomes possible. We understand why these arguments have for many people a continued appeal but also why they do not constitute conclusive 'proofs' that settle the debate once and for all.
Touching on the interplay between these ideas and contemporary scientific theories about the origins of religious belief, particularly the role of natural selection in predisposing humans to form beliefs in God or gods, Evans concludes that these scientific accounts of religious belief are fully consistent, even supportive, of the truth of religious convictions.

This book offers global perspectives from Mediterranean, Asian, Australian, and American cultures on sacred sites and their related stories in regional history. Contemporary society witnesses many travelers visiting sacred sites (temples, mountains, castles, churches, houses) throughout the world. These visits often involve discovery of new historical facts through the origin stories of the associated tribe, region, or nation. The transmission of oral tradition and myth carries on the significant meaning of those religious sites. This volume unveils multi-angle perspectives of symbolic and mystical places. The contributors describe the religio-political experiences of each regional case, and analyze the religiosity of local people as a lens through which readers can re-examine the concept of iconography, syncretism, and materialism. In addition, contributors interpret the growth of new religions as the alternative perspectives of anti-traditional religions. This new approach offers significant insight into comprehending the practical agony and sorrow of regional people in the context of contemporary history.

Throughout their shared history, Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches have lived through a very complex and sometimes tense relationship --not only theologically, but also politically. In most cases such relationships remain to this day; indeed, in some cases the tension has increased. In July 2019, scholars of both traditions gathered in Stuttgart, Germany, for an unprecedented conference devoted to exploring and overcoming the division between these churches. This book, the second in a two-volume set of the essays presented at the conference, explores the ecumenical and practical implications of the relationship between Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches. Like the conference, the volume brings together representatives of these Churches, as well as theologians from different geographical contexts where tensions are the greatest. The published essays represent the great achievements of the conference: willingness to engage in dialogue, general openness to new ideas, and opportunities to address difficult questions and heal inherited wounds.

Similarities between esoteric and mystical currents in different religious traditions have long interested scholars. This book takes a new look at the relationship between such currents. It advances a discussion that started with the search for religious essences, archetypes, and universals, from William James to Eranos. The universal categories that resulted from that search were later criticized as essentialist constructions, and questioned by deconstructionists. An alternative explanation was advanced by diffusionists: that there were transfers between different traditions. This book presents empirical case studies of such constructions, and of transfers between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in the premodern period, and Judaism, Christianity, and Western esotericism in the modern period. It shows that there were indeed transfers that can be clearly documented, and that there were also indeed constructions, often very imaginative. It also shows that there were many cases that were neither transfers nor constructions, but a mixture of the two.

In Knowing the Unknowable God, David Burrell traces the intellectual intermingling of Muslim, Jewish, and Christian traditions that made possible the medieval synthesis that served as the basis for Western theology. He shows how Aquinas's study of the Muslim philosopher Ibn-Sina and the Jewish thinker Moses Maimonides affected the disciplined use of language when speaking of divinity and influenced his doctrine of God.

The nineteenth century witnessed a proliferation of alternative religious currents and practices, appropriating earlier traditions, entangling geographically distinct spiritual discourses, and crafting a repository of mindscapes eminently suitable to be accommodated by later generations of thinkers and practitioners. Penned by specialists in the field, this volume examines important themes and figures pertaining to this occult amalgam and its resonance into the twentieth century and beyond. Global guises of the occult, ranging from the Americas and Europe to India, are variously addressed, with special attention to the crucial role of mesmerism and the origins of modern yoga.

Packed with ideas for the primary school teacher, this book includes stories, songs and dramatic activities from six major world religions: Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and Sikhism. The book is helpfully split into topic areas which include:

* New beginnings
* Places of worship
* Friends
* Festivals
* Rites of passage
* Water themes
* Animals and birds
* Inspirational leaders

There is also a useful section of background information for teachers on the different world religions featured as well as pronunciation guides for some of the songs featured.

Multi-faith Activity Assemblies brings together Elizabeth Peirce's previous books, Activity Assemblies for Christian Collective Worship 5-11 and Activity Assemblies for Multi-racial Schools 5-11. Taking the best ideas from both and adding plenty of new material, it will be invaluable to any primary school teacher or trainee teacher who is looking for a collection of assembly ideas that promote tolerance and understanding of the multi-faith society in which we live.

This volume brings together diverse Asian religious perspectives to address critical issues in the encounter between tradition and modern western evolutionary thought. Such thought encompasses the biological theories of Charles Darwin, Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, Earnest Haeckel, Thomas Huxley, and later "neo-Darwinians," as well as the more sociological evolutionary theories of thinkers such as Herbert Spencer, Pyotr Kropotkin, and Henri Bergson. The essays in this volume cover responses from Hindu, Jain, Buddhist (Chinese, Japanese, and Indo-Tibetan), Confucian, Daoist, and Muslim traditions. These responses come from the decades immediately after publication of The Origin of Species up to the present, with attention being paid to earlier perspectives and teachings within a tradition that have affected responses to Darwinism and western evolutionary thought in general. The book focuses on three critical issues: the struggle for survival and the moral implications read into it; genetic variation and its seeming randomness as related to the problems of meaning and purpose; and the nature of humankind and human exceptionalism. Each essay deals with one or more of the three issues within the context of a specific tradition.

These five essays deal with the influence of Judaic haggadah or lore, especially in the form of "creative historiography" or "imaginative dramatization," on four enigmatic passages in the Gospels, and one in Acts. They point to their deeper theological truths and negate the alternatives of true or false, historical or non-historical, usually applied to the narratives.

A ground-breaking four-volume study of the inter-relation between the theological teaching of Islam and the theological content in the teaching of the Christian Fathers and of medieval theologians. The first two volumes contain a preparatory historical survey down to the close of Christian ascendancy in the Near East, presenting the student with a complete view of the whole theological position as it was at the end of the period. The second two volumes then comprise a study of the subsequent medieval developments.

How can we, as people and communities with different religions and cultures, live together with integrity? Does tolerance require us to deny our deep differences or give up all claims to truth, to trade our received traditions for skepticism or relativism? Cultural philosopher Lenn E. Goodman argues that we can respect one another and learn from one another's ways without either sharing them or relinquishing our own. He argues that our commitments to our own ideals and norms need not mean dogmatism or intolerance. In this study, Goodman offers a trenchant critique of John Rawls's pervasive claim that religious and metaphysical voices must be silenced in the core political deliberations of a democracy. Inquiry, dialogue, and open debate remain the safeguards of public and personal sanity, and any of us, Goodman illustrates, can learn from one another's traditions and explorations without abandoning our own.

The Buddha and Aristotle offer competing visions of the best possible life to which human beings can aspire. In this volume, Seth Zuiho Segall compares Theravada and Mahayana accounts of enlightenment with Aristotelian and neo-Aristotelian accounts of eudaimonia, and proposes a syncretic model of eudaimonic enlightenment that, given prevalent Western beliefs about well-being and human flourishing, provides a credible new end-goal for modern Western Buddhist practice. He then demonstrates how this proposed synthesis is already deeply reflected in contemporary Western Buddhist rhetoric. Segall re-evaluates traditional Buddhist teachings on desire, attachment, aversion, nirvana, and selfhood from the eudaimonic enlightenment perspective, and explores the perspective's ethical and metaphysical implications.

God, Life, and the Cosmos: Christian and Islamic Perspectives is the first book in which Christian and Muslim scholars explore the frontiers of science-religion discourse. Leading international scholars present new work on key issues in science and religion from Christian and Islamic perspectives. Following an introduction by the editors, the book is divided into three sections: the first explores the philosophical issues in science-religion discourse; the second examines cosmology; the third analyses the issues surrounding bioethics. One of the first books to explore aspects of science-religion discourse from the perspective of two religious traditions, God, Life, and the Cosmos opens up new vistas to all interested in science and religion, and those exploring contemporary issues in Christianity and Islam.