“This is a book about what it would mean to be a bit moody in the midst of being theological and political. Its framing assumption is that neoliberal economics relies on narratives in which not being in the right mood means a cursed existence.� So begins Grave Attending: A Political Theology for the Unredeemed, which mounts a challenge to neoliberal narratives of redemption. Mapping the contemporary state of political theology, Karen Bray brings it to bear upon secularism, Marxist thought, affect theory, queer temporality, and other critical modes as a way to refuse separating one’s personal mood from the political or philosophical. Introducing the concept of bipolar time, she offers a critique of neoliberal temporality by countering capitalist priorities of efficiency through the experiences of mania and depression. And it is here Bray makes her crucial critical turn, one that values the power of those who are unredeemed in the eyes of liberal democracy—those too slow, too mad, too depressed to be of productive worth—suggesting forms of utopia in the poetics of crip theory and ordinary habit. Through performances of what she calls grave attending—being brought down by the gravity of what is and listening to the ghosts of what might have been—Bray asks readers to choose collective care over individual overcoming. Grave Attending brings critical questions of embodiment, history, and power to the fields of political theology, radical theology, secular theology, and the continental philosophy of religion. Scholars interested in addressing the lack of intersectional engagement within these fields will find this work invaluable. As the forces of neoliberalism demand we be productive, efficient, happy, and flexible in order to be deemed worthy subjects, Grave Attending offers another model for living politically, emotionally, and theologically. Instead of submitting to such a market-driven concept of salvation, this book insists that we remain mad, moody, and unredeemed. Drawing on theories of affect, temporality, disability, queerness, work, and race, Bray persuades us that embodying more just forms of sociality comes not in spite of irredeemable moods, but through them.

We are living through a period of cultural climate change. We have outsourced morality to the markets on the one hand, and the state on the other. The markets have brought wealth to many, and the state has done much to contain the worst excesses of inequality, but neither is capable of bearing the moral weight of showing us how to live. This has had a profound impact on society and the way in which we interact with each other. Traditional values no longer hold, yet recent political swings show that modern ideals of tolerance have left many feeling rudderless and adrift. In this environment we see things fall apart in unexpected ways - toxic public discourse makes true societal progress almost unattainable, a more divisive society is fuelled by identity politics and extremism, and the rise of a victimhood mentality calls for 'safe spaces' but stifles debate. The influence of social media seems all-pervading and the breakdown of the family is only one result of the loss of social capital. Many fear what the future may hold. Delivering a devastatingly insightful critique of our modern condition, and assessing its roots and causes from the ancient Greeks through the Reformation and Enlightenment to the present day, Sacks argues that there is no liberty without morality, and no freedom without responsibility. If we care about the future of western civilisation, all of us must play our part in rebuilding our common moral foundation. Then we will discover afresh the life-transforming and counterintuitive truths that a nation is strong when it cares for the weak, and rich when it cares for the poor. Here is an inspiring vision of a world in which we can all find our place, and face the future without fear.

The Bonhoeffer Legacy: Australasian Journal of Bonhoeffer Studies is a fully refereed academic journal aimed principally at providing an outlet for an ever expanding Bonhoeffer scholarship in Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific region, as well as being open to article submissions from Bonhoeffer scholars throughout the world. It also aims to elicit and encourage future and ongoing scholarship in the field. The focus of the journal, captured in the notion of 'Legacy', is on any aspect of Bonhoeffer's life, theology and political action that is relevant to his immense contribution to twentieth century events and scholarship. 'Legacy' can be understood as including those events and ideas that contributed to Bonhoeffer's own development, those that constituted his own context or those that have developed since his time as a result of his work. The editors encourage and welcome any scholarship that contributes to the journal's aims. The journal also has book reviews.

This is an exploration of the origins and development of Zionism, illustrating the theory and history of the Zionist movement and the creation of the state of Israel. In recent years, there has been an explosion of interest in Middle Eastern affairs. The conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is a constant theme on television and in newspapers. Yet there is considerable misunderstanding about the origins and ideology of the Zionist movement. This volume seeks to address these issues by providing a concise but comprehensive guide to the origins and development of Zionism from its inception in the nineteenth century until the creation of the Jewish state of Israel in 1948. Dan Cohn-Sherbok explores how, in the early stages of Zionism, a number of Jewish thinkers including religious Zionists, spiritual Zionists and secular Zionists formulated various theories about the need for a Jewish homeland. Illustrating the history of the Zionist movement up to the creation of Israel in 1948, the author also provides an extensive explanation of the various forms of anti-Zionism which emerged in the early history of the Zionist movement.

Edmund Schlink (1903-1984), Professor of Dogmatic Theology and Ecumenism at Heidelberg University, was delegated to Rome as an official observer of Vatican II (1962-1965) by the Evangelical Church in Germany (Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland - EKD). At the intersection between contemporary church history and ecumenism Hopf investigates the motives and circumstances of Schlink’s delegation. She studies so far unpublished archival material to show how Edmund Schlink tried to influence the Council proceedings and to distil the observer’s judgement on central Council documents and their authors.

When it comes to God, it is not belief that matters but experience. Where, in human life, does Judaism promise the possibility of experiencing God? The Thirteen Attributes (Adonai, Adonai, el rachum v'chanun), a small but critical prayer with which Yom Kippur begins and ends, highlights the Jewish insistence that the God of Jewish tradition is experienced through love. Of all prayers, this one especially tackles head-on the way we encounter God and how that encounter informs the purpose behind human life itself. Through a series of lively introductions and commentaries, almost forty contributors—men and women, scholars and rabbis, artists and thinkers from all Jewish denominations and from around the world—explain how finite human beings can know an infinite God. They explore the history and significance of the attributes that the Hebrew Bible ascribes to God—and how Jewish tradition refines and recasts them as the best way also to understand human nature and our search for meaning. Prayers of Awe: A multi-volume series designed to explore the High Holy Day liturgy and enrich the praying experience for everyone—whether experienced worshipers or guests who encounter Jewish prayer for the very first time Contributors: Rabbi Jonathan Blake Dr. Annette M. Boeckler Dr. Marc Zvi Brettler Rabbi Angela Warnick Buchdahl Rabbi Joshua M. Davidson Rabbi Lawrence A. Englander, CM, DHL, DD Rabbi David Ellenson, PhD Rabbi Shoshana Boyd Gelfand Rabbi Edwin Goldberg, DHL Rabbi Andrew Goldstein, PhD Rabbi Aaron Goldstein Dr. Joel M. Hoffman Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman, PhD Rabbi Walter Homolka, PhD, DHL Rabbi Delphine Horvilleur Rabbi Elie Kaunfer, DHL Dr. Sharon Koren Rabbi Asher Lopatin Catherine Madsen Rabbi Jonathan Magonet, PhD Rabbi Dalia Marx, PhD Ruth W. Messinger Rabbi Charles H. Middleburgh, PhD Rabbi Jay Henry Moses Rabbi Julia Neuberger Rabbi Sonja Keren Pilz, PhD Rabbi Nicole Roberts Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin, DMin Rabbi Dennis C. Sasso, DMin Rabbi Sandy Eisenberg Sasso, DMin Rabbi David A. Teutsch, PhD Rabbi Andrea L. Weiss, PhD Rabbi Margaret Moers Wenig, DD Rabbi Daniel G. Zemel Dr. Wendy Zierler

How can people belong simultaneously to two cultures, originating in two different places and expressed in two different languages, without alienating themselves from either? Muslims have lived in the Chinese culture area for 1400 years, and the intellectuals among them have long wrestled with this problem. Unlike Persian, Turkish, Urdu, or Malay, the Chinese language never adopted vocabulary from Arabic to enable a precise understanding of Islam's religious and philosophical foundations. Islam thus had to be translated into Chinese, which lacks words and arguments to justify monotheism, exclusivity, and other features of this Middle Eastern religion. Even in the 21st century, Muslims who are culturally Chinese must still justify their devotion to a single God, avoidance of pork, and their communities' distinctiveness, among other things, to sceptical non-Muslim neighbours and an increasingly intrusive state. The essays in this collection narrate the continuing translations and adaptations of Islam and Muslims in Chinese culture and society through the writings of Sino-Muslim intellectuals. Progressing chronologically and interlocking thematically, they help the reader develop a coherent understanding of the intellectual issues at stake.

In the Arcades Project, Walter Benjamin writes that his work is "related to theology as blotting pad is related to ink. It is saturated with it." For a thinker so decisive to critical literary, cultural, political, and aesthetic writings over the past half-century, Benjamin's relationship to theological matters has been less observed than it should, even despite a variety of attempts over the last four decades to illuminate the theological elements latent within his eclectic and occasional writings. Such attempts, though undeniably crucial to comprehending his thought, remain in need of deepened systematic analysis. In bringing together some of the most renowned experts from both sides of the Atlantic, Walter Benjamin and Theology seeks to establish a new site from which to address both the issue of Benjamin's relationship with theology and all the crucial aspects that Benjamin himself grappled with when addressing the field and operations of theological inquiry.

Religious and ethnic diversity have become crucial and pressing concerns in Europe: in particular, the presence of Muslims, their integration, citizenship, and how to deal with the influx of refugees. Can we draw on the resources of religions and their leaders for models of peaceful coexistence or do religious identities constitute obstacles to cooperation and unity? This volume treats "Islam, Religions, and Pluralism in Europe" based on a 2014 conference in Montenegro. Experts analyze Islam and Muslim issues as well as Christian perspectives and state social policies. Case studies drawn from Western and Eastern Europe including the Balkans, constructively review and interrogate diverse theological, philosophical, pedagogical, legal, and political models and strategies that deal with pluralism.

Dr. Erica Brown is one of the foremost Jewish educators of our time. In In the Narrow Places, she brings her extraordinary teaching skills to the subject of the Three Weeks, the period of mourning commemorating the destruction of the First and Second Temples. For each day of the Three Weeks, she presents a short, inspirational essay based on biblical texts followed by a kavana a spiritual focus that involves reflection, imagination or action to transform these somber days of remembrance into a period of introspection and spiritual growth. Alongside the traditional prophecies of doom and consolation traditionally read during the Three Weeks, In the Narrow Places offers a new process for rebuilding and a re-affirmation of hope.

Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra's commentary is one of the great biblical exegeses produced by medieval Jewry. His commentary accompanies almost every version of the Rabbinic Bible, and his influence on biblical studies continues to this very day. Ibn Ezra sought to provide the literal meaning of the biblical text. However, he did more than that. His commentary is saturated with insights into Hebrew grammar, medieval philosophy, and astrology. Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra's Commentary on Books 3-5 of Psalms: Chapters 73-150 completes the publication of the translation and annotation of Ibn Ezra's commentary to Psalms, making it available to both scholars and general readers.

To what kind of existence does Christ call us? Christian theology has from its inception posited a powerful vision of humanity's ultimate and eternal fulfilment through the person and work of Jesus Christ. How precisely to understand and approach the human perfection to which the Christian is summoned is a question that has vexed the minds of many and diverse theologians. Orthodox Christian theology is notable for its consistent interest in this question, and over the last century has offered to the West a wealth of theological insight on the matter, drawn both from the resources of its Byzantine theological heritage as well as its living interaction with Western theological and philosophical currents. In this regard, the important themes of personhood, deification, epektasis, apophaticism, and divine energies have been elaborated with much success by Orthodox theologians; but not without controversy. Human Perfection in Byzantine Theology addresses the question of human perfection in Orthodox theology via a retrieval of the sources, examining in turn the thought of leading representatives of the Byzantine theological tradition: St Maximus the Confessor, St Theodore the Studite, St Symeon the New Theologian, and St Gregory Palamas. The overarching argument of this study is that in order to present an Orthodox Christian understanding of human perfection which remains true to its Byzantine inheritance, supreme emphasis must be placed on the doctrine of Christ, especially on the significance and import of Christ's humanity. The intention of this work is thus to keep the creative approach to human destiny in Orthodox theology firmly moored to its theological past.

We Are Better Than This is a collection of essays and poetry addressing the Australian government's asylum seeker policy. The aims of the book are several: to provide some of the information about the situation in detention camps that is being withheld by the government; to correct some of the government's misrepresentations of the current situation; to clarify some of the complex legal issues surrounding the right to seek asylum, and to give some insight into the plight of those who are seeking asylum. It is hoped that this book will better inform people about the government's policies: to support those who are unsatisfied and seeking to change the situation, as well as those who are uncertain and need more easily accessible and reliable information. Contributors are drawn from several areas of expertise and engagement with asylum seekers.

Surveying theological literature produced in the Christian East from the first through the 20th century, Eastern Christianity in its Texts explores different theological themes (analytical and mystical), genres (epistles, treatises, and poetry), and milieux (Greek, Armenian, Western and Eastern Syriac, Russian and Romanian). The book illustrates the evolution of the Orthodox thought, how it influenced and was influenced by intellectual, social, and political environments. It demonstrates a theology in context, and yet displays consistency in the traditions spread through different epochs and countries. The book is divided in five parts, each standing for an epoch with distinct features: formation of the Christian identity in the era before Constantine, golden age of theology in the period of Late Antiquity, the pinnacle of erudism and mysticism in the eastern Middle Ages, wrestling with the Modernity imported from the West in the 18th-19th centuries, and finally theological polyphony in the 20th century.

Australian author and spiritual teacher Barry Long calls on the depth of his self-knowledge to explore the deep space of the universe, making a connection between self-discovery and scientific enquiry that provokes extraordinary insights into the nature of man and the structure of reality.

Here is a spiritual cosmology set within our contemporary scientific world-view, a creation myth for anyone intrigued by the primal questions: How did it all begin? How and why has evolution brought us to this point? Where, ultimately, do we come from?

This book tells the incredible story of how a spiritual principle became intelligent flesh and blood. We go on a journey into the psyche of man to get behind our individual sense-perception and look into the levels of mind that structure and organize man's place in creation. We see how existence itself is formed and we span the universe to discover the cosmic scheme behind the forces of evolution. We actually look into the ultimate mystery of how nothing becomes something and are drawn step-by-step towards the original point of consciousness -- before time began. Finally, at the end of the book, Barry Long describes the fundamental structures that determine our reality, the original ideas that manifested as our life on earth.

This is one of those books that marks a shift in our collective consciousness, a book capable of changing its readers' world-view forever, and one which will probably stand for decades to come as an influence on the way we all look at life.