Slogans such as "Let's put Christ back into Christmas" or "Jesus is the Reason for the Season" hold an appeal to Christians who oppose the commercializing of events they hold sacred. However, through a close look at the rise of holidays in the United States, Leigh Schmidt show us that commercial appropriations of these occasions were as religious in form as they were secular. The rituals of America's holiday bazaar that emerged in the nineteenth century offered a luxuriant merger of the holy and the profane--a heady blend of fashion and faith, merchandising and gift-giving, profits and sentiments, all celebrations of a devout consumption. In this richly illustrated book, which captures both the blessings and ballyhoo of American holiday observances for the mid-eighteenth century through the twentieth, the author offers a reassessment of the "consumer rites" that various social critics have long decried for their spiritual emptiness and banal sentimentality.

Schmidt tells the story of how holiday celebrations were almost banished by Puritans and other religious reformers in the colonies but went on to be romanticized and reinvented in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Merchants and advertisers were crucial for the reimagining of the holidays, promoting them in a grand, carnivalesque manner, which could include gargantuan fruit cakes, masked Santa Clauses, and exploding valentines.

Along the way Schmidt uses everything from diaries to manuals on church decoration and window display to show in bright detail the ways in which people have prepared for and celebrated specific holidays--such as going Christmas shopping, making love tokens, choosing Easter bonnets, sending flowers to Mom, buying ties for Dad. He demonstrates in particular how women took the lead as holiday consumers, shaping warm-hearted celebrations of home and family through their intricate engagement with the marketplace. Bringing together the history of business, religion, and gender, this book offers a fascinating cultural history of an endlessly debated marvel--the commercialization of the American holidays.

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From the Chariot brings you sacred knowledge which has guided the behaviours and lives of countless generations before us. The author has selected a verse from each of the eighteen Chapters to provide a good overview of this Divine Song of the Lord. Using modern events, stories, examples and personal experiences, he explores the significance of the Divine conversation and provides practical advice. As you read each Chapter of this book, you will find nuggets of wisdom to apply in your own everyday life. The role of the senses become apparent and your inner potential is revealed.

"Epistle on Worship: Risalat al-ubudiyya" aims to shed new light on the thought of Ibn Taymiyya who remains one of the most controversial Islamic thinkers today because of his supposed influence on many fundamentalist movements. In this work, Professor James Pavlin argues that the common understanding of Ibn Taymiyya's ideas has been filtered through fragments of his statements-which have been misappropriated by alleged supporters and avowed critics alike-and that most people still have limited access to Ibn Taymiyya's beliefs and opinions as expressed in his own writings. "Epistle on Worship: Risalat al-ubudiyya" aims to begin filling this gap by presenting an annotated translation of one of Ibn Taymiyya's most important epistles on the theology of worship.---The introduction to "Epistle on Worship: Risalat al-ubudiyya" gives the reader an overview of Ibn Taymiyya's biography, situating him in the broader world of Islamic intellectual history by explaining his methodological arguments and theological opinions, while the annotated translation captures the immediacy of his ideas as they impacted his world as well as the relevancy they have for our times.

Eight Lights, Eight Meditations for Chanukah is the perfect Chanukah gift for anyone on your list, including yourself. Rabbi Pinson with his trademark spiritual sensitivity and deep understanding of tradition, illuminates the holiday of Chanukah in an entirely new way. In the format of a meditation for each night of Chanukah - this book is both a guide to the lighting of the menorah and celebrating of Chanukah, and a manual for a deeper understanding of the holiday. Beautifully designed and packaged, this makes for an ideal Chanukah gift.

In recent times opportunistic teachers have presented Kundalini Yoga shorn of its deepest spirituality and focused only on hatha yoga and uninformed pranayam. In fact, the purpose of Kundalini Yoga is Self-realization. As a result of dumbing down the Kundalini Yoga philosophy, people have come to imagine, for instance, that the seven chakras are actually in the physical spine, when they are really found inwardly, in the subtle and causal bodies of humanity - and beyond. Kundalini Shakti is the dynamic spiritual energy conceived of as the Divine Mother of the Universe Who rises up (inwards) through the seven chakras, often termed "Lotuses." Mother Kundalini is coiled up at the "base of the spine," and ignobly limited to the lower three centers of eating, drinking, and sex life. Kundalini Yoga is about attracting Mother Power to uncoil Herself via well-informed spiritual practices. Reclaiming Kundalini Yoga, by Babaji Bob Kindler, is a concise and revealing book bringing an authentic and enlightened perspective to this esoteric subject. Fourteen teaching charts are included, along with a new translation of the Devi Gita from the Srimad Devi Bhagavatam. The author concludes with an important appendix detailing the role of pure and sanctified food and how to utilize its sublimated energy in realization of Kundalini Yoga.

Who wrote the Torah? What is haftarah? What is inside the mezuzah? Why do we celebrate Lag B'Omer?Who was Theodor Herzl?How many guests should we invite to our Bar/Bat Mitzvah ceremony? What does the word "Jerusalem" mean?Who was the first Jewish senator?Can a year have 13 months?It is often said that Jewish people love to answer a question with another question. This is a wise idea Every new piece of information you uncover can spur you to learn even more. Whether your deepest interest in Judaism is religious, historical, cultural, literary, musical, or all of the above, you will find that Judaism weaves these different strands together with a deftness that can be surprising. Every name, every event, and every custom that has become a part of Judaism has great meaning attached to it, and the answers are here."So, What do you know about being Jewish" present 165 questions and answers. All of these questions have many advantages, including evaluating your knowledge and learning important material in a more fun and memorable way. So, What do you know about being Jewish also includes suggestions for Jewish teachers and educators, of fun learning activities using the educational material in this book. Roni Rosenthal, M.A. in Education and counseling from the University of Haifa, Israel, is an experienced Judaic teacher, education director, lecturer and a published author of several books. Over the past five years, Roni has collected questions, debates, and matters for clarification. She consulted with rabbis (Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform), colleagues, and researched Jewish history books, making sure that all the answers in this book were both accurate and complete. "It would fill a library to write down everything there is to know about Judaism, but I hope that the questions and answers in this book will enrich your world in the same way that this knowledge enriches mine."

Within the field of Islamic Studies, scientific research of Muslim theology is a comparatively young discipline. Much progress has been achieved over the past decades with respect both to discoveries of new materials and to scholarly approaches to the field. The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Theology provides a comprehensive and authoritative survey of the current state of the field. It provides a variegated picture of the state of the art and at the same time suggests new directions for future research. Part One covers the various strands of Islamic theology during the formative and early middle periods, rational as well as scripturalist. To demonstrate the continuous interaction among the various theological strands and its repercussions (during the formative and early middle period and beyond), Part Two offers a number of case studies. These focus on specific theological issues that have developed through the dilemmatic and often polemical interactions between the different theological schools and thinkers. Part Three covers Islamic theology during the later middle and early modern periods. One of the characteristics of this period is the growing amalgamation of theology with philosophy (Peripatetic and Illuminationist) and mysticism. Part Four addresses the impact of political and social developments on theology through a number of case studies: the famous mi?na instituted by al-Ma'mun (r. 189/813-218/833) as well as the mihna to which Ibn 'Aqil (d. 769/1367) was subjected; the religious policy of the Almohads; as well as the shifting interpretations throughout history (particularly during Mamluk and Ottoman times) of the relation between Ash'arism and Maturidism that were often motivated by political motives. Part Five considers Islamic theological thought from the end of the early modern and during the modern period.

Kosher USA follows the fascinating journey of kosher food through the modern industrial food system. It recounts how iconic products such as Coca-Cola and Jell-O tried to become kosher; the contentious debates among rabbis over the incorporation of modern science into Jewish law; how Manischewitz wine became the first kosher product to win over non-Jewish consumers (principally African Americans); the techniques used by Orthodox rabbinical organizations to embed kosher requirements into food manufacturing; and the difficulties encountered by kosher meat and other kosher foods that fell outside the American culinary consensus. Kosher USA is filled with big personalities, rare archival finds, and surprising influences: the Atlanta rabbi Tobias Geffen, who made Coke kosher; the lay chemist and kosher-certification pioneer Abraham Goldstein; the kosher-meat magnate Harry Kassel; and the animal-rights advocate Temple Grandin, a strong supporter of shechita, or Jewish slaughtering practice. By exploring the complex encounter between ancient religious principles and modern industrial methods, Kosher USA adds a significant chapter to the story of Judaism's interaction with non-Jewish cultures and the history of modern Jewish American life as well as American foodways.

If Rabbi Akiva visited Bnai Brak or Boro Park today he would have great difficulty in identifying many of the local religious practices. They would seem basically correct to him, but he would quickly realize that people were adding stringency upon stringency to their practices of Jewish law - thus creating a world full of chumrot. Rabbi Akiva would sense that laws had taken on an unfamiliar direction - almost like a life of their own. Instead of seeing a world where mitzvot were a uniting force he would see a world where religious practices had become competitive and divisive. "For God's Sake ? calls for a reexamination into the nature of halachic decision making, arguing that the present tendency to stringency (chumrot) may possibly be legitimate as an elective individual decision, but certainly should not be halachic policy for the broad public. A tour de force that should be mandatory reading for every Rabbi and would well benefit congregants too."

"The Essentials of Buddhist Meditation" is a classic Buddhist meditation instruction manual deeply rooted in the Indian Buddhist "calming-and-insight" meditation tradition. Within its tradition, it is the universally-acknowledged standard beginning-to-intermediate meditation manual, one which offers perhaps the most reliable, comprehensive, and practically-useful Buddhist meditation instruction currently available in English. The author of "The Essentials" is the sixth-century monk and meditation master, Shramana Zhiyi (Chih-i), one of the most illustrious figures in the history of Chinese Buddhism. Master Zhiyi is famous for his role in the founding of the Tiantai teachings lineage and for his authorship of a quartet of meditation manuals of which this is one. The translator of this volume is the American monk, Bhikshu Dharmamitra, a translator of numerous classic works from the Indian and Chinese Buddhist traditions.

The Philosophy of Tea is not mere aestheticism in the ordinary acceptance of the term, for it expresses conjointly with ethics and religion our whole point of view about man and nature. It is hygiene, for it enforces cleanliness; it is economics, for it shows comfort in simplicity rather than in the complex and costly; it is moral geometry, inasmuch as it defines our sense of proportion to the universe. It represents the true spirit of Eastern democracy by making all its votaries aristocrats in taste. (from "The Book of Tea")

A special collection of articles republished from the "El Kolel" magazine of Santiago, Chile. Durante trece aos, la revista "El Kolel" fue considerada para muchas personas en Santiago de Chile como una muestra de literatura juda de gran calidad. En ella, se publicaron artculos y ensayos sobre una gran variedad de temas de inters de cualquier persona vinculado al judasmo. Siempre bien acogida al pblico, muchos lamentaron cuando su publicacin termin. Es nuestro gran honor y placer republicar una seleccin - pequea en cantidad, pero grande en calidad - de algunos de sus artculos. Esperamos que el lector de hoy disfrute de estos artculos en la misma manera que los lectores originales.

This warm, inspiring look at the Jewish holidays--by one of the most dynamic and accessible teachers of Jewish thought today--shows us how each holy day empowers us to recognize God's loving presence in our life every day.
There are many books that discuss how to celebrate the holidays; Inviting God In explains why we should celebrate. Using biblical references, anecdotes, and teaching tales, Rabbi David Aaron takes us through the Jewish calendar year and explains how each holiday--from the most joyous to the most somber--reveals God's ever-present love for us. Passover, for example, celebrates unconditional love; Shavuot reminds us of freedom and our power to take responsiblity; Rosh Hashanah is about the joy of accountability and Yom Kippur sanctifies compassion and forgiveness. Rabbi Aaron helps us to awaken our soulful connection to the dramatic events that occured on those days, and to experience the holidays as opportunities to revitalize our personal relationship with God.
Rabbi Aaron is an enthusiastic guide, and his fresh view of the holidays will enliven and enrich traditional celebration. Inviting God In will inspire both practicing Jews who want to reinvigorate their observance of the holidays and secular Jews searching for a meaningful way to reconnect with their Jewish roots.

Good News of Great Joy by John Piper invites Christians to make Jesus the center of the Advent season through 25 devotional readings.

The discipline of religious studies has, historically, tended to focus on discrete ritual mistakes that occur in the context of individual performances outlined in ethnographic or sociological studies, and scholars have largely dismissed the fact that there are extensive discussions of ritual mistakes in many indigenous traditions' religious literature. And yet ritual mistakes (ranging from the simple to the complex) happen all the time, and they continue to carry ritual "weight," even when no one seriously doubts their impact on the efficacy of a ritual. In Ritual Gone Wrong, Kathryn McClymond approaches ritual mistakes as an integral part of ritual life and argues that religious traditions can accommodate mistakes and are often prepared for them. McClymond shows that many traditions even incorporate the regular occurrence of errors into their ritual systems, developing a substantial literature on how rituals can be disrupted, how these disruptions can be addressed, and when disruptions have gone too far. Using a series of case studies ranging from ancient India to modern day Iraq, and from medieval allegations of child sacrifice to contemporary Olympic ceremonies, McClymond explores the numerous ways in which ritual can go wrong, and demonstrates that the ritual is by nature fluid, supple, and dynamic-simultaneously adapting to socio-cultural conditions and, in some cases, shaping them.

The practice of making votive offerings into fire dates from the earliest periods of human history, and is found in many different religious cultures. Throughout the tantric world, this kind of ritual offering practice is known as the homa. With roots in Vedic and Zoroastrian rituals, the tantric homa developed in early medieval India. Since that time it has been transmitted to Central and East Asia by tantric Buddhist practitioners. Today, Hindu forms are also being practiced outside of India as well. Despite this historical and cultural range, the homa retains an identifiable unity of symbolism and ritual form. The essays collected in Homa Variations provide detailed studies of a variety of homa forms, providing an understanding of the history of the homa from its inception up to its use in the present. At the same time, the authors cover a wide range of religious cultures, from India and Nepal to Tibet, China, and Japan. The theoretical focus of the collection is the study of ritual change over long periods of time, and across the boundaries of religious cultures. The identifiable unity of the homa allows for an almost unique opportunity to examine ritual change from such a broad perspective.

Mock Ritual in the Modern Era explores the complex interrelations between ritual and mockery, the latter of which is not infrequently the unofficial face of claims to rationality. McGinnis and Smyth consider how the mocking and parodying of ritual often associated with modern rationalism may itself become ritualized, and other ways in which supposedly sham ritual may survive its "outing." This volume traces the evolution of "mock ritual" in various forms throughout the modern era, as found in literary, historical, and anthropological texts as well as encyclopedias, newspapers, and films. Mock Ritual in the Modern Era places famous eighteenth- and nineteenth-century authors in dialogue with contemporary popular culture, from Diderot, Sterne, and Flaubert to the TV shows Survivor and Judge Judy, and from Voltaire to the Charlie Hebdo tragedy of 2015. Ritualistic and mock ritualistic aspects of comedy and ridicule are considered along with those, notably, of sexuality, medicine, art, education, and justice.

Ritual has emerged as a major focus of academic interest. As a concept, the idea of ritual integrates the study of behavior both within and beyond the domain of religion. Ritual can be both secular and religious in character. There is renewed interest in questions such as: Why do rituals exist at all? What has been, and continues to be, their place in society? How do they change over time? Such questions exist against a backdrop of assumptions about development, modernization, and disenchantment of the world.Written with the specific needs of students of religious studies in mind, "Ritual: Key Concepts in Religion" surveys the field of ritual studies, looking at it both historically within anthropology and in terms of its contemporary relevance to world events.

A 'Sadhana' is an instrument that leads to a particular goal. In Tantra, it is a technical term denoting worship or spiritual practice. Tantra Sadhana is a collection of related instructional papers designed to aid the aspirant through a foundation Sadhana. Some say effective Sadhana requires an initiation (dekshe) from a qualified guru. This book is designed to act as a taster and to provide a short body of work suitable for the period of about one lunar month. In addition, the author had added several useful appendices - including the previously unpublished Tantrik Knuckle Bone Oracle.