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Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > Non-Christian religions > Judaism > General
Exploring the literature of environmental moral dilemmas from the
Hebrew Bible to modern times, this book argues the necessity of
cross-disciplinary approaches to environmental studies, as a
subject affecting everyone, in every aspect of life. Moral dilemmas
are central in the literary genre of protest against the effects of
industry, particularly in Romantic literature and 'Condition of
England' novels. Writers from the time of the Industrial Revolution
to the present-including William Blake, Elizabeth Gaskell, Charles
Dickens, Emile Zola, Henrik Ibsen, Anton Chekhov, T.S. Eliot, John
Steinbeck, George Orwell, and J.M. Coetzee-follow the Bible in
seeing environmental problems in moral terms, as a consequence of
human agency. The issues raised by these and other
writers-including damage to the environment and its effects on
health and quality of life, particularly on the poor; economic
conflicts of interest; water and air pollution, deforestation, and
the environmental effects of war-are fundamentally the same today,
making their works a continual source of interest and insight.
Sketching a brief literary history on the impact of human behavior
on the environment, this volume will be of interest to readers
researching environmental studies, literary studies, religious
studies and international development, as well as a useful resource
to scientists and readers of the Arts.
Weaving together Jewish lore, the voices of Jewish foremothers, Yiddish fable, midrash and stories of her own imagining, Ellen Frankel has created in this book a breathtakingly vivid exploration into what the Torah means to women. Here are Miriam, Esther, Dinah, Lilith and many other women of the Torah in dialogue with Jewish daughters, mothers and grandmothers, past and present. Together these voices examine and debate every aspect of a Jewish woman's life -- work, sex, marriage, her connection to God and her place in the Jewish community and in the world. The Five Books of Miriam makes an invaluable contribution to Torah study and adds rich dimension to the ongoing conversation between Jewish women and Jewish tradition.
Between 2007 and 2011, Michael Eigen gave three seminars in Seoul,
each running over three days and covering different aspects of
psychoanalysis, spirituality and the human psyche. This book is
based on a transcription of the third seminar, which took place in
2011, on the subject of Pain and Beauty. The first two were
published as Madness and Murder (2010) and Faith and Transformation
(2011). A conjunction of the pain that shatters and beauty that
heals is made by many authors, including Bion, Winnicott, Milner,
Meltzer, Perls, Ehrenzweig, Matte-Blanco, Schneur Zalman,
Chuang-Tzu, Buber, Castaneda, and Levinas. These and others are
used as windows of the psyche, adding to possibilities of
experience and opening dimensions that bring us life. Eigen
explores challenges of the human psyche, what we are up against and
the resources difficulties can stimulate. This work spans many
dimensions of human experience with interplay, fusions and
oppositions of pain, beauty, terror, and wonder, and makes use of
poetic and philosophical expressions of experience. It will be
vital reading for psychoanalysts, psychotherapists, and all those
with an interest in psychoanalytic and spiritual psychology.
In this volume, Niels Peter Lemche and Emanuel Pfoh present an
anthology of seminal studies by Mario Liverani, a foremost scholar
of the Ancient Near East. This collection contains 18 essays, 11 of
which have originally been published in Italian and are now
published in English for the first time. It represents an important
contribution to Ancient Near Eastern and Biblical Studies, exposing
the innovative interpretations of Liverani on many historical and
ideological aspects of ancient society. Topics range from the
Amarna letters and the Ugaritic epic, to the 'origins' of Israel.
Historiography, Ideology and Politics in the Ancient Near East and
Israel will be an invaluable resource for Ancient Near Eastern and
Biblical scholars, as well as graduate and post-graduate students.
Discusses the significance and the customs of various Jewish holidays including Sukkot, Purim, and Yom Hashoah. Provides activities and crafts for each holiday.
Winner of the Internationl Association for Jungian Studies (IAJS)
Book Award for Best Applied Book 2021 Carl Jung angrily rejected
the charge that he was an anti-Semite, yet controversies concerning
his attitudes towards Jews, Zionism and the Nazi movement continue
to this day. This book explores Jung's ambivalent relationship to
Judaism in light of his career-changing relationship and rupture
with Sigmund Freud and takes an unflinching look at Jung's
publications, public pronouncements and private correspondence with
Freud, James Kirsch and Erich Neumann from 1908 to 1960. Analyzing
the religious and racial, Christian and Muslim, high-brow and
low-brow varieties of anti-Semitism that were characteristic of
Jung's time and place, this book examines how Muslim anti-Semitism
and anti-Zionism intensified following the Balfour Declaration
(1917), fostering the resurgence of anti-Semitism on the Left since
the fall of the Soviet Empire. It urges readers to be mindful of
the new and growing threats to the safety and security of Jewish
people posed by the resurgence of anti-Semitism around the world
today. This book explores the history of the controversy concerning
Jung's anti-Semitism both before and after the publication of
Lingering Shadows: Jungians, Freudians and Anti-Semitism (1991),
and invites readers to reflect on the relationships between
Judaism, Christianity and Zionism, and between psychoanalysis and
analytical psychology, in new and challenging ways. It will be of
considerable interest to psychoanalysts, historians and all those
interested in the history of analytical psychology, anti-Semitism
and interfaith dialogue.
Thinking about ultimate reality is becoming increasingly
transreligious. This transreligious turn follows inevitably from
the discovery of divine truths in multiple traditions. Global
communications bring the full range of religious ideas and
practices to anyone with access to the internet. Moreover, the
growth of the "nones" and those who describe themselves as
"spiritual but not religious" creates a pressing need for
theological thinking not bound by prescribed doctrines and fixed
rituals. This book responds to this vital need. The chapters in
this volume each examine the claim that if the aim of theology is
to know and articulate all we can about the divine reality, and if
revelations, enlightenments, and insights into that reality are not
limited to a single tradition, then what is called for is a
theology without confessional restrictions. In other words, a
Theology Without Walls. To ground the project in examples, the
volume provides emerging models of transreligious inquiry. It also
includes sympathetic critics who raise valid concerns that such a
theology must face. This is a book that will be of urgent interest
to theologians, religious studies scholars, and philosophers of
religion. It will be especially suitable for those interested in
comparative theology, inter-religious and interfaith understanding,
new trends in constructive theology, normative religious studies,
and global philosophy of religion.
Male alliances, partnerships, and friendships are fundamental to
the Hebrew Bible. This book offers a detailed and explicit
exploration of the ways in which shared sexual use of women and
women's bodies engenders, sustains, and nourishes such
relationships in the Hebrew Bible. Hebrew Bible narratives
demonstrate that women and women's bodies are not merely used to
foster and cultivate male homosociality, male friendship, and toxic
hegemonic masculinity, but rather to engender them and make them
possible in the first place. Thiede argues that homosocial bonds
between divine and mortal males are part of a continual competition
for power, rank, and honor, and that this competition depends on
women's bodies for its expression. In a final chapter, she also
explores whether female characters in the Hebrew Bible use male
bodies to form friendships and alliances to advance female power,
status, and rank. The book concludes by arguing that women are
essential to the toxic biblical hegemonic masculinity we find in
the Hebrew Bible, but only because their bodies are used to make it
possible in the first place. This book is intended for scholars of
the Hebrew Bible, as well as advanced undergraduate and graduate
students in religious studies, women and gender studies,
masculinity studies, queer studies, and like fields. The book can
also be read profitably by lay students of biblical literature,
seminary students, and clergy.
Modern medicine has produced many wonderful technological
breakthroughs that have extended the limits of the frail human
body. However, much of the focus of this medical research has been
on the physical, often reducing the human being to a biological
machine to be examined, understood, and controlled. This book
begins by asking whether the modern medical milieu has overly
objectified the body, unwittingly or not, and whether current
studies in bioethics are up to the task of restoring a fuller
understanding of the human person. In response, various authors
here suggest that a more theological/religious approach would be
helpful, or perhaps even necessary. Presenting specific
perspectives from Judaism, Christianity and Islam, the book is
divided into three parts: "Understanding the Body," "Respecting the
Body," and "The Body at the End of Life." A panel of expert
contributors-including philosophers, physicians, and theologians
and scholars of religion- answer key questions such as: What is the
relationship between body and soul? What are our obligations toward
human bodies? How should medicine respond to suffering and death?
The resulting text is an interdisciplinary treatise on how medicine
can best function in our societies. Offering a new way to approach
the medical humanities, this book will be of keen interest to any
scholars with an interest in contemporary religious perspectives on
medicine and the body.
A unique compilation of contemporary women's midrashim. Dirshuni:
Contemporary Women's Midrash, is the first-ever English edition of
a historic collection of midrashim composed by Israeli women, which
has been long-anticipated by multiple American audiences, including
synagogues, rabbinical seminaries, adult learning programs, Jewish
educators, and scholars of gender and religion. Using the classical
forms developed by the ancient rabbis, the contributors express
their religious and moral thought and experience through innovative
interpretations of scripture. The women writers, from all
denominations and beyond, of all political stripes and ethnic
backgrounds, contribute their Torah to fill the missing half of the
sacred Jewish bookshelf. This book reflects dramatic changes in the
agency of women in the world of religious writings. The volume
features a comprehensive introduction to Midrash for the
uninitiated reader by the distinguished scholar Tamar Kadari and
extensive annotation and commentary by Tamar Biala.
Between 2007 and 2011, Michael Eigen gave three seminars in Seoul,
each running over three days and covering different aspects of
psychoanalysis, spirituality and the human psyche. This book is
based on a transcription of the third seminar, which took place in
2011, on the subject of Pain and Beauty. The first two were
published as Madness and Murder (2010) and Faith and Transformation
(2011). A conjunction of the pain that shatters and beauty that
heals is made by many authors, including Bion, Winnicott, Milner,
Meltzer, Perls, Ehrenzweig, Matte-Blanco, Schneur Zalman,
Chuang-Tzu, Buber, Castaneda, and Levinas. These and others are
used as windows of the psyche, adding to possibilities of
experience and opening dimensions that bring us life. Eigen
explores challenges of the human psyche, what we are up against and
the resources difficulties can stimulate. This work spans many
dimensions of human experience with interplay, fusions and
oppositions of pain, beauty, terror, and wonder, and makes use of
poetic and philosophical expressions of experience. It will be
vital reading for psychoanalysts, psychotherapists, and all those
with an interest in psychoanalytic and spiritual psychology.
The Bible and Jews in Medieval Spain examines the grammatical,
exegetical, philosophical and mystical interpretations of the Bible
that took place in Spain during the medieval period. The Bible was
the foundation of Jewish culture in medieval Spain. Following the
scientific analysis of Hebrew grammar which emerged in al-Andalus
in the ninth and tenth centuries, biblical exegesis broke free of
homiletic interpretation and explored the text on grammatical and
contextual terms. While some of the earliest commentary was in
Arabic, scholars began using Hebrew more regularly during this
period. The first complete biblical commentaries in Hebrew were
written by Abraham Ibn 'Ezra, and this set the standard for the
generations that followed. This book analyses the approach and
unique contributions of these commentaries, moving on to those of
later Christian Spain, including the Qimhi family, Nahmanides and
his followers and the esoteric-mystical tradition. Major topics in
the commentaries are compared and contrasted. Thus, a unified
picture of the whole fabric of Hebrew commentary in medieval Spain
emerges. In addition, the book describes the many Spanish Jewish
biblical manuscripts that have remained and details the history of
printed editions and Spanish translations (for Jews and Christians)
by medieval Spanish Jews. This book will appeal to scholars and
students of medieval Spain, as well as those interested in the
history of religion and cultural history.
Ritual in Deuteronomy explores the symbolic world of Deuteronomy's
ritual covenant and curses through a lens of religious studies and
anthropology, drawing on previously unexamined Mesopotamian
material. This book focuses on the ritual material in Deuteronomy
including commands regarding sacrifice, prayer objects, and
especially the dramatic ritual enactment of the covenant including
curses. The book's most unique feature is an entirely new
comparative study of Deut 27-30 with two ritual texts from
Mesopotamia. No studies to date have undertaken a comparison of
Deut 27-30 with ancient Near Eastern ritual texts outside of the
treaty oath tradition. This fresh comparison illuminates how the
ritual life of ancient Israel shaped the literary form of
Deuteronomy and concludes that the performance of oaths was a
social strategy, addressing contemporary anxieties and reinforcing
systems of cultural power. This book offers a fascinating
comparative study which will be of interest to undergraduate and
graduate students in biblical studies, classical Hebrew, theology,
and ancient Near Eastern studies. The book's more technical aspects
will also appeal to scholars of the Pentateuch, Deuteronomy,
Biblical Law, Ancient Near Eastern History, Mesopotamian Studies,
and Classics.
First published in 1942, Palestine is a brief history of Zionism,
interspersed with a wealth of observation stimulation for the
seeker of objective truth. The author develops his own theories of
Jewish racialism, nationalism and colonization, and elaborates on
the role of Britain with respect to Zionism in Palestine. He also
expands on the binary of a spiritual Zionism and a territorial
neo-Zionism stating that former believed in peaceful coexistence
with the Arab population in Palestine, while the latter is only
invested in aggressive nationalism. The language used is a
reflection of its era and no offence is meant by the Publishers to
any reader by this republication. This book will be of interest to
students of history, political science, international relations and
geography.
The great majority of Holocaust scholarship concentrates heavily,
if not almost completely, on the Final Solution from the German
side. The distinctive feature of this book, both individually and
as a collection, is its concentration on the Holocaust from a
Judeo-centric point of view. The present essays make a unique
contribution by exploring issues such as: the effect of events
specifically on Jewish women and children; the character of the
Nazi policy of slave labor in as much as this essential program
resulted in different treatment with regard to Jews as compared to
other workers; how the destruction of European Jewry has been
responded to by Jewish thinkers; and how Jewish values, such as the
well-known principle that "all Jews are responsible for each
other," were exemplified and lived out during the war. The
collection also includes an essay on Elie Wiesel, and another that
explores the much discussed, very controversial issue of Jewish
resistance, as well as several essays on philosophical and
comparative issues raised by the Shoah.
This book provides a comprehensive study on the proclamation of
Holy Scriptures as an enacted celebration, as well as its function
as a performance within sacralized theatrical spaces. Scripture is
integral to religious life within Judaism, Christianity, and Islam,
and these traditions have venerated the reading of texts from an
appointed place as a sacred act. Thus, the study of how these
readings are conducted illuminates some vitally important aspects
of this widespread act of worship. Contributing to an underexplored
area of scholarship, the book offers an overview of scripture
reading in the three Abrahamic faiths and then focuses on where and
how the "Word of God" is presented within the Christian tradition.
It gathers and summarizes research on the origins of a defined
place for the proclamation of holy writings, giving a thorough
architectural analysis and interpretation of the various uses and
symbols related to these spaces over time. Finally, the listener is
considered with a phenomenological description of the place for
reading and its hermeneutical interpretation. The material in this
book uncovers the contemporary impact of a rich history of publicly
reading out scriptures. It will, therefore, be of great interest to
scholars of liturgical theology, religious studies, and ritual
studies.
Michele Guinness was brought up to observe all the traditions and
ritual of her Jewish culture. But in her teens she found something
lacking. When she encountered a Christian it raised questions in
her own mind, and she turned to the Bible for answers. In this
lively account she tells how she came face to face with the Messiah
and had to make sense of being both Jewish and Christian. In due
course she would marry Peter Guinness, of the brewing family - who
would become a minister in the Church of England. This highly
diverting autobiography, studded with vivid anecdotes, describes
her spiritual journey from one faith to another and the social and
cultural pitfalls involved.
Like an ecosystem, cities develop, change, thrive, adapt, expand,
and contract through the interaction of myriad components. Religion
is one of those living parts, shaping and being shaped by urban
contexts. The Routledge Handbook of Religion and Cities is an
outstanding interdisciplinary reference source to the key topics,
problems, and methodologies of this cutting-edge subject.
Representing a diverse array of cities and religions, the common
analytical approach is ecological and spatial. It is the first
collection of its kind and reflects state-of-the-art research
focusing on the interaction of religions and their urban contexts.
Comprising 29 chapters, by a team of international contributors,
the Handbook is divided into three parts: Research methodologies
Religious frameworks and ideologies in urban contexts Contemporary
issues in religion and cities Within these sections, emerging
research and analysis of current dynamics of urban religions are
examined, including: housing, economics, and gentrification; sacred
ritual and public space; immigration and the refugee crisis;
political conflicts and social change; ethnic and religious
diversity; urban policy and religion; racial justice; architecture
and the built environment; religious art and symbology; religion
and urban violence; technology and smart cities; the challenge of
climate change for global cities; and religious meaning-making of
the city. The Routledge Handbook of Religion and Cities is
essential reading for students and researchers in religious studies
and urban studies. The Handbook will also be very useful for those
in related fields, such as sociology, history, architecture, urban
planning, theology, social work, and cultural studies.
Freedom of religion is an issue of universal interest and scope.
However, in the last two centuries at least, the philosophical,
religious and legal terms of the question have been largely defined
in the West. In an increasingly global world, widening our
knowledge of this right's roots in different cultural and legal
systems becomes a priority. This Handbook seeks to attain this goal
through a better understanding of the historical roots and
expressions of the right to freedom of religion on the one hand
and, on the other, of its theological background in different
religious traditions. History and theology provide the setting for
the analysis of the politics of freedom of religion, that is, how
this right is used in the context of the dialogue/confrontation
between countries placed in different cultural regions of the
world, and of the legal strategies and tools that have been
developed and are employed to protect and foster the right to
freedom of religion. Behind these legal and political strategies,
there is an ongoing debate about the nature of this right, whose
main features are explored in the final section. Global, historical
and interdisciplinary in approach, this book studies the new
relevance of freedom of religion worldwide and develops suitable
categories to analyze and understand the role that freedom of
religion can play in managing religious and cultural diversity in
our societies. Authored by experts, through the contributions
collected in these chapters, scholars and students will be able to
broaden and deepen their knowledge of the right to freedom of
religion and to develop the ability to go beyond the borders of the
different cultural environments in which this right took shape and
developed.
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