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Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > Non-Christian religions > General
Railroads, tourism, and government bureaucracy combined to create
modern religion in the American West, argues David Walker in this
innovative study of Mormonism's ascendency in the railroad era. The
center of his story is Corinne, Utah-an end-of-the-track,
hell-on-wheels railroad town founded by anti-Mormon businessmen. In
the disputes over this town's frontier survival, Walker discovers
intense efforts by a variety of theological, political, and
economic interest groups to challenge or secure Mormonism's
standing in the West. Though Corinne's founders hoped to leverage
industrial capital to overthrow Mormon theocracy, the town became
the site of a very different dream. Economic and political victory
in the West required the production of knowledge about different
religious groups settling in its lands. As ordinary Americans
advanced their own theories about Mormondom, they contributed to
the rise of religion itself as a category of popular and scholarly
imagination. At the same time, new and advantageous
railroad-related alliances catalyzed LDS Church officials to build
increasingly dynamic religious institutions. Through scrupulous
research and wide-ranging theoretical engagement, Walker shows that
western railroads did not eradicate or diminish Mormon power. To
the contrary, railroad promoters helped establish Mormonism as a
normative American religion.
From its obscure beginnings in Jamaica in the early 1930s,
Rastafari has grown into an international socio-religious movement.
It is estimated that 700,000 to 1 million people worldwide have
embraced Rastafari, and adherents of the movement can be found in
most of the major population centres and many outposts of the
world. Rastafari: A Very Short Introduction provides an account of
this widespread but often poorly understood movement. Ennis B.
Edmonds looks at the essential history of Rastafari, including its
principles and practices and its internal character and
configuration. He examines its global spread, and its far-reaching
influence on cultural and artistic production in the Caribbean and
beyond. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from
Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every
subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get
ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts,
analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make
interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
The first comprehensive collection of Vodou sacred literature in
bilingual form
The impetus for this book was a request from a group of Christian
retreat directors who wanted to know what they could learn from
Eastern spiritual traditions. Bruteau's response was a series of
five easily accessible, non-technical reflections on various
aspects of Hinduism and Buddhism offered generally as
interpretations of Christian practices or texts. Here, she has
added two additional essays, "Gospel Zen" and "The Immaculate
Conception, Our Original Face". Both continue the interpretive
application of Eastern traditions to Christian texts. The book's
popular style is a strength as it is accessible to a broad
audience. Bruteau's interpretations of Christian texts are often
insightful and may spark further exploration and dialogue with the
East.
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