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Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > Non-Christian religions > General
Dated 1909, A dialogue took place between a man and his Lord, stretching beyond the imaginations of all and superseding the works of man Allama Iqbal raises a series of complaints titled; Shikwa. The East was swept back in total astonishment as the controversy had begun. But little did they know that where there is a complaint surely a response will follow and it sure did. 1913 was the year the Allama Iqbal reclaimed his lost glory with the much awaited responce publication of Jawaab-e-Shikwa. It was claimed a `masterpiece'. It would be unjust not to translate it and relay such a unique, classical piece of work of Iqbal's.
A Foreign Correspondent's Search for Her Cultural and Spiritual Identity What began as an assignment from her editor at the "Wall Street Journal" to investigate "America's hottest new fad," the secrets of sexual ecstasy in Tantra, became a story that would lead reporter Asra Nomani halfway around the world and change forever her life, faith, and self-identity. From a New Age Tantric seminar in Santa Cruz to sitting at the feet of the Dalai Lama in India, from meditation caves in Thailand to crossing the Khyber Pass with Muslim militants and staring down the barrel of an Afghan soldier's AK-47, Nomani's trek unexpectedly climaxes in Pakistan, where she risks great danger in joining the hunt for kidnapped fellow reporter Danny Pearl. She travels the globe in search of this elusive "divine love," but ultimately hers is a journey of self-discovery in which the divine within herself and within all women -- all "tantrikas" -- is revealed.
"Portrait of a Dalai Lama" is the story of one of Tibet's greatest religious and political leaders. It also stands as an important historical portrait of a pivotal era in Asian and world affairs.
Since its publication in 2000, The Early Christian World has come to be regarded by scholars, students and the general reader as one of the most informative and accessible works in English on the origins, development, character and major figures of early Christianity. In this new edition, the strengths of the first edition are retained. These include the book's attractive architecture that initially takes a reader through the context and historical development of early Christianity; the essays in critical areas such as community formation, everyday experience, the intellectual and artistic heritage, and external and internal challenges; and the profiles on the most influential early Christian figures. The book also preserves its strong stress on the social reality of early Christianity and continues its distinctive use of hundreds of illustrations and maps to bring that world to life. Yet the years that have passed since the first edition was published have seen great advances made in our understanding of early Christianity in its world. This new edition fully reflects these developments and provides the reader with authoritative, lively and up-to-date access to the early Christian world. A quarter of the text is entirely new and the remaining essays have all been carefully revised and updated by their authors. Some of the new material relates to Christian culture (including book culture, canonical and non-canonical scriptures, saints and hagiography, and translation across cultures). But there are also new essays on: Jewish and Christian interaction in the early centuries; ritual; the New Testament in Roman Britain; Manichaeism; Pachomius the Great and Gregory of Nyssa. This new edition will serve its readers for many years to come.
Living Folk Religions presents cutting-edge contributions from a range of disciplines to examine folk religions across cultures. This collection embraces the non-elite and non-sanctioned, the oral, fluid, accessible, evolving religion of people (volk) on-the-ground. Split into five sections, this book covers: What is Folk Religion? Spirit Beings and Deities Performance and Ritual Praxis Possession and Exorcism Health, Healing, and Lifestyle Topics include demons and ambivalent gods, tree and nature spirits, revolutionary renunciates, oral lore, possession and exorcism, divination, midwestern American spiritualism, festivals, queer sexuality among ritual specialists, the dead returned, vernacular religions, diaspora adaptations, esoteric influences underlying public cultures, UFOs, music and sound experiences, death rituals, and body and wellness cultures. Living Folk Religions is a must-read for those studying Comparative Religions, World Religions, and Religious Studies, and it will interest specialists and general readers, particularly enthusiastic readers of Anthropology, Folklore and Folk Studies, Global Studies, and Sociology.
Share Jesus with Your LDS Friends and Family One of our greatest challenges as Christians is sharing the truth with those who believe they've already found it. When witnessing to current or former members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, it's essential that you can compassionately delineate biblical teachings from Mormon doctrine while tactfully advocating for Christ. For every believer who prays for loved ones in the LDS Church-or loved ones who gave up on religion after leaving Mormonism-Introducing Christianity to Mormons is the guidebook you need to witness to them. Inside, you'll find real-life conversations that give you helpful ideas for what to say in your discussions contrast points between Mormonism and Christianity that illuminate God's truth biblical apologetics that allow you to minister to former LDS members wounded by their experience with the Church Get ready to present the case for Christianity with confidence and grace. This book will empower you to share your faith and give you the language to do so effectively with people in the Mormon community.
Originally published in 1961, Christianity Among the Religions examines whether it is possible to learn from other religions without compromising on personal religious loyalties. The book traces from the thirteenth century the gradual awakening of the West to the spiritual qualities of other religions and the various efforts made to place them in relation to Christianity. It explores the reports sent home by Jesuit missionaries in China, the advance in knowledge in nineteenth-century Europe, and the gradual decline in Western "provincialism". In doing so, the book puts forwards suggestions for the relation between Christianity and other religions and calls for open conversations between representatives of different faiths with the aim of increased unity of spirit. Christianity Among the Religions will appeal to all those with an interest in the history of Christianity and religious studies more generally.
- the first edition consistently sells 50-100 copies each year - presents complex arguments clearly and accessibly
* Translation of a prestigious and successful German publication;
Objects of worship are an aspect of the material dimension of lived religion in South Asia. The omnipresence of these objects and their use is a theme which cuts across the religious traditions in the pluralistic religious culture of the region. Divine power becomes manifest in the objects and for the devotees they may represent power regardless of religious identity. This book looks at how objects of worship dominate the religious landscape of South Asia, and in what ways they are of significance not just from religious perspectives but also for the social life of the region. The contributions to the book show how these objects are shaped by traditions of religious aesthetics and have become conceptual devices woven into webs of religious and social meaning. They demonstrate how the objects have a social relationship with those who use them, sometimes even treated as being alive. The book discusses how devotees relate to such objects in a number of ways, and even if the objects belong to various traditions they may attract people from different communities and can also be contested in various ways. By analysing the specific qualities that make objects eligible for a status and identity as living objects of worship, the book contributes to an understanding of the central significance of these objects in the religious and social life of South Asia. It will be of interest to students and scholars of Religious Studies and South Asian Religion, Culture and Society.
An inside look, from mission experience to a rapid rise in the hierarchy of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Diverse and pluralistic in scope, this book provides an overview of the complex debate between religion and science. This volume is unique in that it incorporates discussions and interviews with leading academics in the field. The informal and accessible tone will be appealing to those approaching the topic for the first time.
Based in Iraq, Syria and Turkey, the Yezidi people claim their religion - a unique combination of Christian, Islamic, and historical faiths - to be the oldest in the world. Yezidi identity centres on their religion, Sharfadin, which has evolved into a highly complex pantheon of one God with many incarnations, the chief of whom is Melek Taus, the Peacock Angel. The Yezidi faith can be traced to a range of pre-Islamic belief systems, such as Sufism, some extreme Shi'ite sects, Gnosticism and other traditions surviving from the ancient world. This particular formulation has served to unify Yezidi religious identity and ethnicity. Based on extensive fieldwork, The Religion of the Peacock Angel presents the first detailed examination of the Yezidi pantheon. The idea of one God and his chief incarnations is first analysed, then the various 'deity figures,' saints, holy patrons and divinized personalities in the Yezidi belief system are considered in the context of related religious traditions. The study determines the place of all these characters in the system of the Yezidi faith, defining their main functions, features, and genealogies.
This book presents a critical reading of Kristapurana, the first South Asian retelling of the Bible. In 1579, Thomas Stephens (1549-1619), a young Jesuit priest, arrived in Goa with the aim of preaching Christianity to the local subjects of the Portuguese colony. Kristapurana (1616), a sweeping narrative with 10,962 verses, is his epic poetic retelling of the Christian Bible in the Marathi language. This fascinating text, which first appeared in Roman script, is also one of the earliest printed works in the subcontinent. Kristapurana translated the entire biblical narrative into Marathi a century before Bible translation into South Asian languages began in earnest in Protestant missions. This book contributes to an understanding of translation as it was practiced in South Asia through its study of genre, landscapes, and cultural translation in Kristapurana, while also retelling a history of sacred texts and biblical narratives in the region. It examines this understudied masterpiece of Christian writing from Goa in the early era of Catholic missions and examines themes such as the complexities of the colonial machinery, religious encounters, textual traditions, and multilingualism, providing insight into Portuguese Goa of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The first of its kind, the book makes significant interventions into the current discourse on cultural translation and brings to the fore a hitherto understudied text. It will be an indispensable resource for students and researchers of translation studies, comparative literature, religious studies, biblical studies, English literature, cultural studies, literary history, postcolonial studies, and South Asian studies.
Philosophy of religion is focused chiefly on theism. Yet there are a growing number of new and alternative religious movements that would also benefit from philosophical scrutiny. This book is the first collection of philosophical essays, by a team of international authors, focusing on new and alternative religious movements. The book begins with an examination of the definition of new religious movements, before offering an introduction to, and an analysis of, core beliefs held by particular movements, including: Scientology, Raelianism, Siddha Yoga, the Arica School, the Church of the Latter Day Saints (Mormonism), Pantheism, Digital Theology, New Atheism, and the Word of Faith movement. Contributors offer an analysis of one or more of the core tenets of the religious movement, providing readers with both an insight into the group, and the methodology of philosophy of religion.
Varieties of Secularism is an ethnographically rich, theoretically well-informed, and intellectually coherent volume which builds off the work of Talal Asad, Charles Taylor, and others who have engaged the issue of secularism(s) and in socio-political life. The volume seeks to examine theories of secularism/secularity and examine concrete ethnographic cases in order to further the theoretical discussion. Whereas Taylor 's magisterial work draws up the conditions and problems of a belief in God in Western modernity, it leaves unexplored the challenges posed by the spiritual in modernity outside of the North Atlantic rim. This anthology seeks to begin that task. It does so by suggesting that the kind of secularity described by Taylor is only one amongst others. By attending to the shifting relationship between proper religion and bad faiths; between politically valorised and embarrassing spiritual phenomena; between the new visibilities and silences of magic, ancestors, and religion in democratic politics, this book seeks to outline the particular formations of secularism that have become possible in Asia from China to Indonesia and from Bahrain to Timor-Leste. This book will appeal to students and scholars of Asian religion, politics and anthropology.
"Spots of a leopard - on being a man" is a quest to discover the meaning of life in this day and age. When internationally acclaimed journalist Aernout Zevenbergen moved to Kenya in 1997, he had no idea how deeply his encounters with joy and sorrow in Africa would effect him. Writing about the most inspiring as well as the most disconcerting facets of life, Zevenbergen goes onto a subtle journey of self-discovery. What is love? If it takes a village to raise a child, does it also take a village to bury one? How does romance play a role in our lives? When is a man considered to be a good father? Can friendship conquer loneliness? What gives strength and inspiration when the going gets tough? Zevenbergen discusses these questions with a wide variety of men; from truckers to bikers, from paupers to presidents, from warriors to widowers. 'We are leopards wiping away their spots.' The author asks questions few have dared to ask men. Faced with their honesty, the author finds the courage to finally grow up as well. === Matthew Fox (author of 'The Hidden Spirituality of Men'): 'Your story telling is very powerful and moving and altogether creates a tapestry that gets one thinking strong thoughts and asking important questions.' The Weekender: 'Zevenbergen has a true talent for getting people to open up and speak their hearts' Cape Argus: 'Wordsmith: Aernout Zevenbergen has written beautifully crafted essays' Jury report Dick Scherpenzeel Foundation: 'He portrays in an extremely skillful way the face of traditions-in-flux.' Olivia Umurerwa Rutazibwa - politics.be: 'By voicing his own doubts and questions and by openly reflecting upon his own life, the journalistic stories get a beautiful human face.' Biblion: 'An extremely well written work on a topic for which there has been little attention.'
This book addresses the growing academic concerns of the market-religion convergences in Asia. Bringing together a group of leading scholars from Asia, Europe,
Australia and North America, it discusses multiple issues regarding
religious commodifications and their consequences across Asia's
diverse religious traditions. Covering key issues in the
anthropology and sociology of contemporary Asian religion, it draws
theoretical implications for the study of religions in the light of
the shift of religious institutions from traditional religious
beliefs to material prosperity. The fact that religions compete
with each other in a 'market of faiths' is also at the core of the
analysis. The contributions show how ordinary people and religious
institutions in Asia adjusted to, and negotiated with, the
penetrative forces of a global market economy into the region's
changing religio-cultural landscapes. An excellent contribution to the growing demands of ethnographically and theoretically updated interpretations of Asian religions, Religious Commodifications in Asia will be of interest to scholars of Asian religion and new religious movements.
Utilizing contemporary scholarship on secularization, individualism, and consumer capitalism, this book explores religious movements founded in the West which are intentionally fictional: Discordianism, the Church of All Worlds, the Church of the SubGenius, and Jediism. Their continued appeal and success, principally in America but gaining wider audience through the 1980s and 1990s, is chiefly as a result of underground publishing and the internet. This book deals with immensely popular subject matter: Jediism developed from George Lucas' Star Wars films; the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, founded by 26-year-old student Bobby Henderson in 2005 as a protest against the teaching of Intelligent Design in schools; Discordianism and the Church of the SubGenius which retain strong followings and participation rates among college students. The Church of All Worlds' focus on Gaia theology and environmental issues makes it a popular focus of attention. The continued success of these groups of Invented Religions provide a unique opportunity to explore the nature of late/post-modern religious forms, including the use of fiction as part of a bricolage for spirituality, identity-formation, and personal orientation.
As China strengthens its links with its neighbours through its Belt and Road initiative, there is growing interest in the indigenous peoples of China's western and southwestern borderlands. This book, based on extensive original research, considers the indigenous peoples of Yunnan province, which is a major gateway between China and the countries of south and south-east Asia. Unlike many books on China's indigenous peoples which are written by foreigners who have lived for a while in China, this book is comprised of the work of Chinese scholars, many of them members of ethnic minorities themselves, and considers the issues from a Chinese perspective.
Ever since its emergence in colonial-era Cuba, Afro-Cuban Santeria (or Lucumi) has displayed a complex dynamic of continuity and change in its institutions, rituals, and iconography. Originally published in 2003 Santeria Enthroned combines art, history, cultural anthropology, and ethnohistory to show how Africans and their descendants have developed novel forms of religious practice in the face of relentless oppression. Focusing on the royal throne as a potent metaphor in Santeria belief and practice it shows how negotiations among ideologically competing interests have shaped the religion's symbols, rituals, and institutions from the nineteenth century to the present. Rich case studies of change in Cuba and the United States, including a New Jersey temple and South Carolina's Oyotunji Village, reveal patterns of innovation similar to those found among rival Yoruba kingdoms in Nigeria. Throughout, the book argues for a theoretical perspective on culture as a field of potential strategies and "usuable pasts" that actors draw upon to craft new forms and identities - a perspective that will be invaluable to all students of the African Diaspora.
Selected as "One of the 100 Best Spiritual Books of the Twentieth Century," Autobiography of a Yogi has been translated into more than 30 languages, and is regarded worldwide as a classic of religious literature. Several million copies have been sold, and it continues to appear on best-seller lists after more than sixty consecutive years in print. Self-Realization Fellowship's editions, and none others, include extensive material added by the author after the first edition was published, including a final chapter on the closing years of his life. With engaging candor, eloquence, and wit, Paramahansa Yogananda tells the inspiring chronicle of his life. Autobiography of a Yogi is profoundly inspiring and at the same time vastly entertaining, warmly humorous and filled with extraordinary personages.
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