Die mittelalterliche armenische Geschichtsschreibung ist von Bedeutung nicht nur fur die Kenntnis der Ereignisse im Gebiet des Transkaukasus, sondern auch Kleinasiens, des Nahen Ostens und Zentralasiens. Ebenso grundlegend ist sie aber auch fur das Verstandnis der modernen Entwicklungen und politischen Verhaltnisse in diesem geographischen Grossraum. Wie sehr die armenische mit der Geschichte der gesamten Region verknupft ist, wird im Werk des Kirakos Ganjekec'i (d.h. aus Ganjak, dem heutigen Ganca/Gandscha) anschaulich. Die Darstellung fasst Ereignisse vom 4. bis zum 13. Jahrhundert zusammen und beschreibt Armenien neben kurzen Perioden der politischen Machtentfaltung als Schlusselposition konkurrierender Grossmachte, Schauplatz von Invasionen, Kampfplatz religioes-politischer Konzepte und Durchgangsroute von Handelswegen. Diese Quelle in ihrem Kontext zu analysieren, ist Zielsetzung dieses Buches.

Ezra Taft Benson is perhaps the most controversial apostle-president in the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. For nearly fifty years he delivered impassioned sermons in Utah and elsewhere, mixing religion with ultraconservative right-wing political views and conspiracy theories. His teachings inspired Mormon extremists to stockpile weapons, predict the end of the world, and commit acts of violence against their government. The First Presidency rebuked him, his fellow apostles wanted him disciplined, and grassroots Mormons called for his removal from the Quorum of the Twelve. Yet Benson was beloved by millions of Latter-day Saints, who praised him for his stances against communism, socialism, and the welfare state, and admired his service as secretary of agriculture under President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Using previously restricted documents from archives across the United States, Matthew L. Harris breaks new ground as the first to evaluate why Benson embraced a radical form of conservatism, and how under his leadership Mormons became the most reliable supporters of the Republican Party of any religious group in America.

Johannes von Sterngassen, champion of a rigorously scientifically-oriented Thomism and member of the circles of mystics that formed around Meister Eckhardt, is central to the controversy over mysticism and scholasticism. His environment, biography and works have been reconstructed on the basis of a precise analysis of source material, a wide selection of texts, Latin quaestiones and German sermons. The text reveals Sterngassen's philosophical position and verbal power.

This historically and empirically based study presents the rise and significance of the divine monkey chief Hanuman, who still enjoys popularity in India today. The first accounts of the Hanuman figure are to be found in the national epic the Ramayana (approx. 300 BC 200 AD), but the veneration of it has only grown considerably over the last few centuries. The account opens with a description of a three-day consecration ritual for a Hanuman cultic figure in Benares and then proceeds to unfold the historical development of the divine figure and its veneration from its beginnings up to the present day. A concluding empirical study illuminates the image of the divine figure and the motivations of present-day Hanuman worshippers. The volume contains illustrations and an appendix which includes a list of some 200 Hanuman temples and shrines together with selected interviews."

Johannes von Sterngassen, champion of a rigorously scientifically-oriented Thomism and member of the circles of mystics that formed around Meister Eckhardt, is central to the controversy over mysticism and scholasticism. His environment, biography and works have been reconstructed on the basis of a precise analysis of source material, a wide selection of texts, Latin quaestiones and German sermons. The text reveals Sterngassen's philosophical position and verbal power.

In dieser Arbeit wird untersucht, wie sich das von den Achameniden aufgebaute Weltreich bis zu seinem Untergang entwickelt beziehungsweise welche Vorgaben es bei der Errichtung eines Staates durch die ersten Seleukiden hinterlassen hat. Des Weiteren wird dargestellt, wie im seleukidischen Reich griechische, makedonische, achamenidische und sonstige altorientalische Traditionen zu einem lebensfahigen Ganzen verbunden wurden. Deshalb wird keiner der beteiligten Fachdisziplinen Altorientalistik, Iranistik und Alte Geschichte ein Vorrang eingeraumt, vielmehr sollen alle Forschungsbereiche nach den dort jeweils geltenden Kriterien fur Vollstandigkeit durchdrungen werden. Auf diese Weise soll die Frage beantwortet werden, inwiefern Sachzwange beziehungsweise historische Vorgaben die Entstehung dieser Staaten determiniert haben, beziehungsweise welche Bedeutung dem gestalterischen Freiraum von Grundern und massgeblichen Herrscherpersoenlichkeiten beizumessen ist.

" Don't mistake mere words to be the meaning of the teachings. Mingle the practice with your own being and attain liberation from samsara right now."
Padmasambhava
Padmasambhava is the primary master of Vajrayana, the teachings for our time. Out of his great compassion and wisdom, he instructed his main disciple Yeshe Tsogyal to conceal terma treasures to be revealed at the destined time for future practitioners. The profundity of this advice is meant to be personally applied by all individuals in all circumstances. It is a classic work, which contains valid truth for anyone who sincerely wants to follow a spiritual path.
"The chief compiler of Padmasambhava's teachings was Yeshe Tsogyal, an emanation of a female Buddha. There may be some people who believe that only men can attain enlightenment, but her life is proof to the opposite. The awakened state of mind is neither male or female."
Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, from Introductory Teachings

This study was defended as a dissertation in Groningen (1998). The first monograph in the series, it studies the Acts of John in its second-century context and sheds new light on the text, which was probably written in Asia Minor before the year 150 AD. Lalleman shows that both the Gnostic and the non-Gnostic sections of the Acts of John owe much more to the canonical books of the New Testament than has been assumed. The enigma of the Gnostic section is solved by the discovery that it forms the second stage of initiation into a Gnostic form of Christianity. Read in this way, both sections of the Acts of John turn out to be important steps on the trajectory from the Fourth Gospel to Gnosticism. Penetrating investigations of the Christology and the attitude towards asceticism in the Acts of John complete the book (Peeters 1998)

Here is the twentieth anniversary edition of the classic study of the culture, religion, history, ideology, and influence of the Rastafarians of Jamaica. "Barrett offers the most comprehensive study to date of the Rastafarians".--BULLETIN of the Center for the Study of World Religions. Bibliography. Index. Photos.

This book presents the fundamental principles of the Jain karma doctrine through a fictional account of the relationship between a guru and his American student. As the story unfolds, the guru instructs the student on how 'karmic debt' is incurred as the result of personal action and how this 'debt' can be reduced through behavioral choices. With an emphasis on nonviolent action, Jainism elucidates the path whereby karmic attachment is decreased, leading to inner peace. The Path to Inner Peace serves as an in-depth analysis of which actions lead to karmic attachment, how to avoid karmic attachment and what the consequences of karmic attachment are. The issues of free will versus determinism and good versus evil are also dealt with in detail.

This major work offers a historical description and systematic analysis of the root causes of this global economic crisis, which the authors understand as a crisis of western civilization. Secondly, they assume (and prove) that the religions of the Axial Age were shaped by the suffering of people, deepened by the emergence of a new economy - based on money, private property and interest. They assume that the proven convergence of the Axial Age religions in responding to the social, psychological (and already ecological) consequences of the new economy can inform, motivate and empower faith communities and their members to join hands with social movements towards a new personal and collective culture of life. In part I they show the linkage between the contexts of antiquity and modernity concerning the role of money, private property and the related structures and mentalities of greed, producing suffering, and psychological, social and ecological destruction. They show how the religions of the Axial Age responded to this context in similar ways but with interesting specific emphases. In relation to today's situation we also raise the question of psychological hindrances to change in the different social classes, affected by neoliberalism, and how to overcome them. Before drawing the conclusions for present-day alliance-building between faith communities and social movements for alternatives to neoliberal globalization in Part III they offer a fundamental critique of the ambivalence of modernity in Part II.

Santeria is an African-inspired, Cuban diaspora religion long stigmatized as witchcraft and often dismissed as superstition, yet its spirit- and possession-based practices are rapidly winning adherents across the world. Aisha M. Beliso-De Jesus introduces the term "copresence" to capture the current transnational experience of Santeria, in which racialized and gendered spirits, deities, priests, and religious travelers remake local, national, and political boundaries and reconfigure notions of technology and transnationalism. Drawing on eight years of ethnographic research in Havana and Matanzas, Cuba, and in New York City, Miami, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay area, Beliso-De Jesus traces the phenomenon of copresence in the lives of Santeria practitioners, mapping its emergence in transnational places and historical moments and its ritual negotiation of race, imperialism, gender, sexuality, and religious travel. Santeria's spirits, deities, and practitioners allow digital technologies to be used in new ways, inciting unique encounters through video and other media. Doing away with traditional perceptions of Santeria as a static, localized practice or as part of a mythologized "past," this book emphasizes the religion's dynamic circulations and calls for nontranscendental understandings of religious transnationalisms.

Tourists to Ouidah, a city on the coast of the Republic of Benin, in West Africa, typically visit a few well-known sites of significance to the Vodun religion-the Python Temple, where Dangbe, the python spirit, is worshipped, and King Kpasse's sacred forest, which is the seat of the Vodun deity known as Loko. However, other, less familiar places, such as the palace of the so-called supreme chief of Vodun in Benin, are also rising in popularity as tourists become increasingly adventurous and as more Vodun priests and temples make themselves available to foreigners in the hopes of earning extra money. Timothy R. Landry examines the connections between local Vodun priests and spiritual seekers who travel to Benin-some for the snapshot, others for full-fledged initiation into the religion. He argues that the ways in which the Vodun priests and tourists negotiate the transfer of confidential, sacred knowledge create its value. The more secrecy that surrounds Vodun ritual practice and material culture, the more authentic, coveted, and, consequently, expensive that knowledge becomes. Landry writes as anthropologist and initiate, having participated in hundreds of Vodun ceremonies, rituals, and festivals. Examining the role of money, the incarnation of deities, the limits of adaptation for the transnational community, and the belief in spirits, sorcery, and witchcraft, Vodun ponders the ethical implications of producing and consuming culture by local and international agents. Highlighting the ways in which racialization, power, and the legacy of colonialism affect the procurement and transmission of secret knowledge in West Africa and beyond, Landry demonstrates how, paradoxically, secrecy is critically important to Vodun's global expansion.

Like many Native Americans, Ojibwe people esteem the wisdom, authority, and religious significance of old age, but this respect does not come easily or naturally. It is the fruit of hard work, rooted in narrative traditions, moral vision, and ritualized practices of decorum that are comparable in sophistication to those of Confucianism. Even as the dispossession and policies of assimilation have threatened Ojibwe peoplehood and have targeted the traditions and the elders who embody it, Ojibwe and other Anishinaabe communities have been resolute and resourceful in their disciplined respect for elders. Indeed, the challenges of colonization have served to accentuate eldership in new ways.

Using archival and ethnographic research, Michael D. McNally follows the making of Ojibwe eldership, showing that deference to older women and men is part of a fuller moral, aesthetic, and cosmological vision connected to the ongoing circle of life--a tradition of authority that has been crucial to surviving colonization. McNally argues that the tradition of authority and the authority of tradition frame a decidedly indigenous dialectic, eluding analytic frameworks of invented tradition and na?ve continuity. Demonstrating the rich possibilities of treating age as a category of analysis, McNally provocatively asserts that the elder belongs alongside the priest, prophet, sage, and other key figures in the study of religion.

An unabridged edition (with photographs) to include: Wherein I Bow to the Reader - A Prelude to the Quest - A Magician Out of Egypt - I Meet A Messiah - The Anchorite of the Adyar River - The Yoga Which Conquers Death - The Sage Who Never Speaks - With The Spiritual Head of South India - The Hill of the Holy Beacon - Among The Magicians And Holy Men - The Wonder-Worker of Benares - Written in the Stars - The Garden of the Lord - At the Parsee Messiah's Headquarters - A Strange Encounter - In a Jungle Hermitage - Tablets of Forgotten Truth

The experience of the divine in India has three components, sight, performance, and sound. One in a trilogy of books that include Diana Eck's "Darsan: Seeing the Divine in India, " and Susan L. Schwartz's "Rasa: Performing the Divine in India, Mantra" presents an introduction to the use of sound -- mantra -- in the practice of Indian religion.

Mantra -- in the form of prayers, rituals, and chants -- permeate the practice of Indian religion in both temple and home settings. This book investigates the power of mantra to transform consciousness. It examines the use and theory of mantra under various religious schools, such as the Patanjali sutras and tantra, and includes references to Hindu, Sikh, Sufi, Islam, and Buddhist traditions. This edition adds new sections on the use of sacred sound in Hindu and Sikh North American diaspora communities and on the North American non-Indian practice of yoga and mantra.

Jayadeva's dramatic lyrical poem "Gitagovinda" is one of the most important works in Indian literature and a source of religious inspiration in both medieval and contemporary Vaishnavism. Revealing an intense earthly passion to express the complexities of divine and human love, its songs are an important part of Indian devotional music and literature.

The twentith anniversary edition of the renowned translation by noted scholar Barbara Stoler MIller brings this classic to a new generation of readers and offers fresh insights for those familiar with the text.

The relevance of this book is enhanced rather than diminished by the years since its original publication. The human situation has become even more critical. We are moving from a period of industrial plundering of the planet into a more intimate way of relating to the planet. We can no longer violate the integrity of Earth without becoming a destructive force for both the surrounding world and for ourselves.

Anthropologist David Jordan and Daniel Overmyer, a historian of religions, present a joint analysis of the most important group of sectarian religious societies in contemporary Taiwan: those that engage in automatic writing seances, or worship by means of the phoenix" writing implement.

Originally published in 1986.

The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

"The Best Guide to Eastern Philosophy & Religion "provides a thorough discussion of the most widely practices belief systems of the East. Author Diane Morgan understands how to direct the materialistic, linear way of Western thinking toward a comprehension of the cyclical, metaphysical essence of Eastern philosophy. With an emphasis on the tenets and customs that Wester seekers find most compelling, this text is accessible to the novice yet sophisticated enough for the experienced reader.
Inside, you'll find complete coverage of Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism, as well as the less-widely practiced faiths of Shintoism, Jainism, Sikhism, and Zoroastrainism. Learn the fundamentals of the tantric path to liberation and the relationship between sex and seeking. Discover the true meaning of Feng Shui, the philosophical underpinnings of Hatha Yoga and Taoist connection to the martial art of Tai chi chuan. And if you've ever wondered: what "is" the sound of one hand clapping?. this book will get you started on finding that answer.
The Eastern traditions, with their emphasis on harmony and oneness, have much to offer us in our hectic, demanding lives. For a comprehensive, entertaining exploration of the beliefs of Asia, "The Best Guide to Eastern Philosophy & Religion" is the essential manual for the seeker in all of us.