From its very beginnings in the eighteenth century, the Hasidic movement was suffused with a joyous enthusiasm and optimism derived from the notion of God being in all things. This led to an insistence on joy as an essential element in divine worship, and in consequence a distinctive attitude to prayer. This classic work, presented here with a new introduction, is a study of the attitudes of the hasidic rebbes to prayer. Louis Jacobs bases himself principally on the works compiled by rebbes themselves and records preserved by their disciples. Copious quotations from these writings form a sound basis for his masterly analysis-unsurpassed since it was first published in 1972-and enable the reader to gain a familiarity with Hasidic thought on the subject of divine worship at first hand.

The triple themes of this book - migration, pilgrimage and travel in Islam - are as old as the religion itself. The Prophet Muhammad made his famous archetypal "Hijra" (migration) from Mecca to Medina in 622 AD, a year which became the Year 1 of the Muslim lunar calendar; the "Hajj" (pilgrimage) of Farewell enacted by the Prophet in 632 AD provided the paradigm for all future pilgrimages to the sacred Ka'ba in Mecca; while a much quoted hadith portrays the Founder of Islam counselling his followers that they should seek knowledge even as far as China. The concept of "Rihla" (travel) in search of knowledge thus became a primary motif in the lives of many medieval - and modern - Muslim scholars, jurists, collectors of tradition and, indeed, ordinary people.;The editor is also author of "A Popular Dictionary of Islam".

This book treats the history, development, current practices, composition and critical views of the liturgical music of both the Jewish and Christian traditions.

This book examines both specific issues and more general problems stemming from the interaction of religion, travel and tourism with hospitality and culture, as well as the implications for site management and interpretation. It explores the oldest form of religious tourism - pilgrimage - from its original form to the multiple spiritual and secular variations practised today, along with issues and conflicts arising from the collision of religion, politics and tourism. The volume considers the impact of tourism and tourist numbers on religious features, communities and phenomena, including the deliberate involvement of some religious agencies in tourism. It also addresses the ways in which religious beliefs and philosophies affect the behaviour and perceptions of tourists as well as hosts. The book illustrates how different faiths interact with tourism and the issues of catering for religious tourists of the major faiths, as well as managing the interaction between increasing numbers of secular tourists and pilgrims at religious sites.

This book examines both specific issues and more general problems stemming from the interaction of religion, travel and tourism with hospitality and culture, as well as the implications for site management and interpretation. It explores the oldest form of religious tourism - pilgrimage - from its original form to the multiple spiritual and secular variations practised today, along with issues and conflicts arising from the collision of religion, politics and tourism. The volume considers the impact of tourism and tourist numbers on religious features, communities and phenomena, including the deliberate involvement of some religious agencies in tourism. It also addresses the ways in which religious beliefs and philosophies affect the behaviour and perceptions of tourists as well as hosts. The book illustrates how different faiths interact with tourism and the issues of catering for religious tourists of the major faiths, as well as managing the interaction between increasing numbers of secular tourists and pilgrims at religious sites.

First published in 1991. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Whilst Contemporary Worship Music arose out of a desire to relate the music of the church to the music of everyday life, this function can quickly be called into question by the diversity of musical lives present in contemporary society. Mark Porter examines the relationship between individuals' musical lives away from a Contemporary Worship Music environment and their diverse experiences of music within it, presenting important insights into the complex and sometimes contradictory relationships between congregants' musical lives within and outside of religious worship. Through detailed ethnographic investigation Porter challenges common evangelical ideals of musical neutrality, suggesting the importance of considering musical tastes and preferences through an ethical lens. He employs cosmopolitanism as an interpretative framework for understanding the dynamics of diverse musical communities, positioning it as a stronger alternative to common assimilationist and multiculturalist models.

This volume uncovers the meaning and significance of the Jewish Temple and its service during the first centuries of its existence. The sources indicate that the Temple and its rites were seen as holding the universe together, providing order and meaning in a world which could otherwise easily lapse into chaos. The author offers an analysis of surviving accounts of the Temple and its service. All the central texts are provided in translation, with a detailed commentary. While descriptions of the Temple and its service are available, discussions of the meaning of these things are less easily found. This study illustrates how the Temple was seen as a meeting point between heaven and earth, its service being an earthly representation of heavenly reality. Jews regarded the Temple service therfore as having significance for the whole created world. This collection of materials is aimed at both those looking for an introduction to the topic and for the scholar interested in grasping the meanings beyond those texts.

Taking a comparative approach which considers characters that are shared across the narrative traditions of early Indian religions (Brahmanical Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism) Shared Characters in Jain, Buddhist and Hindu Narrative explores key religious and social ideals, as well as points of contact, dialogue and contention between different worldviews. The book focuses on three types of character - gods, heroes and kings - that are of particular importance to early South Asian narrative traditions because of their relevance to the concerns of the day, such as the role of deities, the qualities of a true hero or good ruler and the tension between worldly responsibilities and the pursuit of liberation. Characters (incuding character roles and lineages of characters) that are shared between traditions reveal both a common narrative heritage and important differences in worldview and ideology that are developed in interaction with other worldviews and ideologies of the day. As such, this study sheds light on an important period of Indian religious history, and will be essential reading for scholars and postgraduate students working on early South Asian religious or narrative traditions (Jain, Buddhist and Hindu) as well as being of interest more widely in the fields of Religious Studies, Classical Indology, Asian Studies and Literary Studies.

"Why me?" Why do we suffer? How can we heal?

"Spiritual suffering must be differentiated from physical pain, although the two are intertwined in such a way that it is nearly impossible to distinguish one from the other. We suffer spiritually when we do not grow from our illness, when we do not learn from the experience of physical and emotional pain." from the Introduction

Too many of us faced with bodily illness, whether our own or that of a loved one, feel lost as to what to do or how to handle it.

Grounded in the spiritual traditions of Judaism, this book provides healing rituals, psalms and prayers that help us initiate a dialogue with God, to guide us through the complicated path of healing and wholeness. Olitzky explores: What Judaism teaches us about healing Finding the meaning of illness in Jewish tradition How to draw on prayers, services, psalms, and other spiritual resources for healing How to grow by fully embracing the process of recovery

Olitzky brings together his inspiring guidance in using Jewish texts with his own experience dealing with illness in others including those he loves to demonstrate how the healing of the soul is an indispensable counterpart to curing the body.

The Special Times of the Jewish Year Can Be
a Framework for Your Life as a Couple

Through the holiday cycle we have seen that life is a complex weave of light and darkness, bitter and sweet, striving and surrendering. The twisted candle reminds us that as a couple our two lives have become intertwined as one. Two souls enter a partnership, interwoven yet always distinct, joined by a third strand, the Divine Presence. As we perform the ritual of Havdalah, we hold our hands up to the flame and catch the reflection of the last light on our fingertips. We pray that the light will continue to shine through our words and deeds, in our homes and in the world. from Chapter 9

More than just calendar commitments, the Jewish holidays carry with them a view of what is important in life, a set of assumptions that can challenge and deepen the way we think about relationships.

This inspiring and practical guidebook helps you to understand your life as a couple in the context of the themes of Jewish holidays ("Yom Kippur, Purim, Pesah, Sukkot, Shabbat"): Forgiving and Growing Playing, Laughing and Taking Risks Coming Home, Finding Freedom Blessing Bounty, Facing Impermanence Pausing to Bless What Is and more

Drawing from ancient and contemporary texts, Jewish tradition and personal stories, Rabbi Nancy Fuchs-Kreimer and Rabbi Nancy H. Wiener provide creative exercises, rituals and guided discussions that help you make connections to tradition, community and each other. By experiencing the Jewish holidays as times to focus on your relationship, you ll find renewed meaning in these holy celebrations and new opportunities for spiritual growth all year long.

An examination of the evidence that the Festival of Weeks was the occasion for the celebration of the renewal of the covenant in the Second Temple period, encompassing chapters on the Hebrew Bible, book of Jubilees, Qumran Scrolls, and the New Testament (Luke-Acts and Ephesians).>

Challenging the idea that rituals are static and emotions irrational, the volume explores the manifold qualities of emotions in ritual practices. Focusing explicitly on the relationship between emotions and rituals, it poses two central questions. First, how and to what extent do emotions shape rituals? Second, in what way are emotions ritualized in and beyond rituals? Strong emotions are generally considered to be more spontaneous and uncontrolled, whereas ritual behaviour is regarded as planned, formalized and stereotyped, and hence less emotional. However, as the volume demonstrates, rituals often reveal strong emotions among participants, are motivated by feelings, or are intended to generate them. The essays discuss the motivation for rituals; the healing function of emotions; the creation of new emotions through new media; the aspect of mimesis in the generation of feelings; individual, collective, and non-human emotions; the importance of trance and possession; staged emotions and emotions on stage; emotions in the context of martyrdom; emotions in Indian and Western dance traditions; emotions of love, sorrow, fear, aggression, and devotion. Furthermore, aesthetic and sensory dimensions, as well as emic concepts, of emotions in rituals are underscored as relevant in understanding social practice.

Hallelujah! Finally the book you've been waiting for! Sound, Lighting & Video: A Resource for Worship is the only book that tackles the integration and use of light, sound and video for houses or worship. Connect with more people in ways you never thought possible. Written by the managing editor of "Worship Arts & Technology Magazine" you'll learn how to: * Integrate sound, lighting and video together from the ground up for easy application * Connect with more people in ways you've never imagined * Re-examine and re-incorporate your current media systems * Be up and running like the pros with this beginner-friendly guide * Solve your greatest technical problems efficiently, without the information overload * Better communicate your message using media solutions

Published in 1990, A Systematic Harpoon Into Family Games is a valuable contribution to the field of Family Therapy, using games that were utilised in a workshop in Finland, August 1986, organized by the Family Therapists' Association and the Association for Mental Health. This book was written for professionals who every day, within either the public or the private sector, meet families, couples, or individual patients. The author's main concern was to supply less experienced colleagues with a working tool which could help them on a clinical level.

This thought-provoking book explores medieval perceptions of pilgrimage, gender and space. It examines real life evidence for the widespread presence of women pilgrims, as well as secular and literary texts concerning pilgrimage and women pilgrims represented in the visual arts. Women pilgrims were inextricably linked with sexuality and their presence on the pilgrimage trails was viewed as tainting sacred space.

Providing an overall interpretation of the Buddhist monument Borobudur in Indonesia, this book looks at Mahayana Buddhist religious ideas and practices that could have informed Borobudur, including both the narrative reliefs and the Buddha images. The author explores a version of the classical Mahayana that foregrounds the importance of the visual in relation to Buddhist philosophy, meditation, devotion, and ritual. The book goes on to show that the architects of Borobudur designed a visual world in which the Buddha appeared in a variety of forms and could be interpreted in three ways: by realizing the true nature of his teaching, through visionary experience, and by encountering his numinous presence in images. Furthermore, the book analyses a particularly comprehensive and programmatic expression of Mahayana Buddhist visual culture so as to enrich the theoretical discussion of the monument. It argues that the relief panels of Borobudur do not passively illustrate, but rather creatively "picture" selected passages from texts. Presenting new material, the book contributes immensely to a new and better understanding of the significance of the Borobudur for the field of Buddhist and Religious Studies.

Hoping to rediscover his deeper purpose, Rijumati, an English Buddhist teacher and businessman, embarked on a journey into the unknown: a round-the-world trip by land and sea that became a kind of pilgrimage. Months - and many crises - later he returned with new reverence for ordinary people and places, a sense of veneration for nature's wonders and a profound gratitude for being human. Part travel diary and part record of a spiritual journey, these pages evoke the sacred, remote places encountered in the outer world alongside the 'inner terrain' that unfolded along the way. If you have ever felt the call of the open road, longed to travel as a form of self-discovery, or just wanted to know how to stay sane whilst getting a visa stamp in Kazakhstan, then Pilgrimage to Anywhere is for you.

It has been nearly three decades since Shirley MacLaine commenced her brave and public commitment to chronicling her personal quest for spiritual understanding. In testament to the endurance and vitality of her message, each of her eight legendary bestsellers -- from Don't Fall Off the Mountain to My Lucky Stars -- continues today to attract, dazzle, and transform countless new readers. Now Shirley is back -- with her most breathtakingly powerful and unique book yet.

This is the story of a journey. It is the eagerly anticipated and altogether startling culmination of Shirley MacLaine's extraordinary -- and ultimately rewarding -- road through life. The riveting odyssey began with a pair of anonymous handwritten letters imploring Shirley to make a difficult pilgrimage along the Santiago de Compostela Camino in Spain. Throughout history, countless illustrious pilgrims from all over Europe have taken up the trail. It is an ancient -- and allegedly enchanted -- pilgrimage. People from St. Francis of Assisi and Charlemagne to Ferdinand and Isabella to Dante and Chaucer have taken the journey, which comprises a nearly 500-mile trek across highways, mountains and valleys, cities and towns, and fields. Now it would be Shirley's turn.

For Shirley, the Camino was both an intense spiritual and physical challenge. A woman in her sixth decade completing such a grueling trip on foot in thirty days at twenty miles per day was nothing short of remarkable. But even more astounding was the route she took spiritually: back thousands of years, through past lives to the very origin of the universe. Immensely gifted with intelligence, curiosity, warmth, and a profound openness to people and places outside her own experience, Shirley MacLaine is truly an American treasure. And once again, she brings her inimitable qualities of mind and heart to her writing. Balancing and negotiating the revelations inspired by the mysterious energy of the Camino, she endured her exhausting journey to Compostela until it gradually gave way to a far more universal voyage: that of the soul. Through a range of astonishing and liberating visions and revelations, Shirley saw into the meaning of the cosmos, including the secrets of the ancient civilizations of Atlantis and Lemuria, insights into human genesis, the essence of gender and sexuality, and the true path to higher love.

With rich insight, humility, and her trademark grace, Shirley MacLaine gently leads us on a sacred adventure toward an inexpressibly transcendent climax. The Camino promises readers the journey of a thousand lifetimes.

Dapha, or dapha bhajan, is a genre of Hindu-Buddhist devotional singing, performed by male, non-professional musicians of the farmer and other castes belonging to the Newar ethnic group, in the towns and villages of the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. The songs, their texts, and their characteristic responsorial performance-style represent an extension of pan-South Asian traditions of raga- and tala-based devotional song, but at the same time embody distinctive characteristics of Newar culture. This culture is of unique importance as an urban South Asian society in which many traditional models survive into the modern age. There are few book-length studies of non-classical vocal music in South Asia, and none of dapha. Richard Widdess describes the music and musical practices of dapha, accounts for their historical origins and later transformations, investigates links with other South Asian traditions, and describes a cultural world in which music is an integral part of everyday social and religious life. The book focusses particularly on the musical system and structures of dapha, but aims to integrate their analysis with that of the cultural and historical context of the music, in order to address the question of what music means in a traditional South Asian society.

Surah Yusuf, a chapter of the Qur'an (Koran), was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad at a critical juncture of his life. This was the time when he had gone through ten to eleven years of ridicule and rejection in Makkah, a time when he lost his wife and partner, Khadija, a time when he lost his dear uncle Abu Talib. Allah revealed this precious surah to strengthen the Prophet Muhammad's heart. To remind him that he lives in the footsteps of the great prophets of the past and that Allah's help and support is there. This surah is full of meaningful messages of patience, reliance on Allah and how to overcome hardship and betrayal. It was also educational, teaching the Prophet Muhammad the answers to queries that were posed to him by the local Jews and Muslims. Finally this surah was a timely morale booster for the Prophet and his companions in a time of need. Yasir Qadhi has clearly divided the surah into related themes, as per the revelations, so that the reader can easily understand and grasp the great wealth of knowledge relayed through this surah to all.

In Jews, Judaism, and Success, Robert Eisen attempts to solve a long-standing mystery that has fascinated many: How did Jews become such a remarkably successful minority in the modern western world? Eisen argues that Jews achieved such success because they were unusually well-prepared for it by their religion - in particular, Rabbinic Judaism, or the Judaism of the rabbis. Rooted in the Talmud, this form of Judaism instilled in Jews key values that paved the way for success in modern western society: autonomy, freedom of thought, worldliness, and education. The book carefully analyses the evolution of these four values over the past two thousand years in order to demonstrate that they had a longer and richer history in Jewish culture than in western culture. The book thus disputes the common assumption that Rabbinic Judaism was always an obstacle to Jews becoming modern. It demonstrates that while modern Jews rejected aspects of Rabbinic Judaism, they also retained some of its values, and these values in particular led to Jewish success. Written for a broad range of readers, Jews, Judaism, and Success provides unique insights on the meaning of success and how it is achieved in the modern world.

The Handbook of Contemporary Animism brings together an international team of scholars to examine the full range of animist worldviews and practices. The volume opens with an examination of recent approaches to animism. This is followed by evaluations of ethnographic, cognitive, literary, performative, and material culture approaches, as well as advances in activist and indigenous thinking about animism. This handbook will be invaluable to students and scholars of Religion, Sociology and Anthropology.