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Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > Aspects of religions (non-Christian) > Religious experience > General

The Origin and Evolution of Religion (Routledge Revivals) (Hardcover): Albert Churchward The Origin and Evolution of Religion (Routledge Revivals) (Hardcover)
Albert Churchward
R5,120 Discovery Miles 51 200 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Churchward s "The Origin and Evolution of Religion, "first published in 1924, explores the history and development of different religions worldwide, from the religious cults of magic and fetishism to contemporary religions such as Christianity and Islam. This text is ideal for students of theology. "

The Good Book - A Secular Bible (Paperback): A. C. Grayling The Good Book - A Secular Bible (Paperback)
A. C. Grayling
R563 R472 Discovery Miles 4 720 Save R91 (16%) Ships in 9 - 15 working days
Sage, Saint and Sophist - Holy Men and Their Associates in the Early Roman Empire (Paperback): Graham Anderson Sage, Saint and Sophist - Holy Men and Their Associates in the Early Roman Empire (Paperback)
Graham Anderson
R1,512 Discovery Miles 15 120 Ships in 9 - 15 working days

Holy men, both pagan and Christian are persistent and puzzling figures in the religious life of the Roman Empire. In this first historical study of Holy Men for more than half a century, Dr Anderson applies techniques of literary analysis to throw light on the lifestyles and behaviour of these figures, from Jesus Christ to Peregrinus Proteus to dio Chrysostom, stressing their individuality as much as their common features.
Sage, Saint and Sophist examines the variety of services, real or imaginary, that these colouful figures had to offer and how they maintained their credibility to become the objects of successful religious cults.

Lessons from a Bedside - Wisdom For Living (Hardcover): Breda Casserly Lessons from a Bedside - Wisdom For Living (Hardcover)
Breda Casserly
R362 Discovery Miles 3 620 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

WE ARE ALL ON A JOURNEY - from the moment we are born to the final minutes before our death. But as we live our busy lives, we oftentimes ignore the inner hurts and pain we may be carrying. In Lessons from a Bedside, Breda Casserly, a healthcare chaplain at the Galway Hospice Foundation, shares the wisdom she's learned from her patients as she's journeyed with them through serious, often terminal, illness. Here are stories of self-acceptance, grief, forgiveness and memory inspired by the people Breda has met over the course of her work, along with her own story of coming to terms with personal loss. Told with simplicity and compassion, Lessons from a Bedside is a book of love, spirituality and humanity which shows us paths to healing.

Witch, Please: A Memoir - Finding Magic in Modern Times (Paperback): Misty Bell Stiers Witch, Please: A Memoir - Finding Magic in Modern Times (Paperback)
Misty Bell Stiers
R351 Discovery Miles 3 510 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

A touching and thought-provoking account of how a woman explored a spectrum of religions-ancient and new-and ended up, unexpectedly, becoming a bona fide witch-plus a celebration of modern Wicca and witchcraft, spell books, broomsticks, holiday recipes and recipes for the changing of the seasons, and much more. Misty Bell Stiers set out on a spiritual path to find a faith that worked for her, and accidentally became a witch. She knew the Bible well, and got to know the Torah and Koran. She studied Eastern philosophies, even the stories of the Egyptians and Greeks. Finally, after overcoming an immediate prejudice ("Um, no," she writes as her initial reaction), she found Wicca. Witch, Please reveals what makes the mysterious religion of Wicca so desirable for more than a million Americans. In her witty, direct, and heartfelt text, Misty explores spirituality, perseverance, and finding oneself. She shares what Wicca means to her and what defines her as a witch; what she uses her spell book, cauldron, and broomstick for; the significance of Wiccan holidays, many about new beginnings; the surprising history of Wicca; and what kinds of witches there are. She also shares how in her busy New York City life, as a mother and a creative director, her faith grounds and sustains her. Her uplifting, you-too-can-find-what-works-for-you voice speaks like a best friend: relatable, honest, and encouraging. This unusual and beautifully written memoir explores what it's like to be a modern-day witch, and how it's changed Misty's outlook on life. It's candid, but it's also threaded with magic and has a warming, lightheartedness to it. Bewitching original drawings by Misty are throughout, and Misty even shares ten original recipes for her Wiccan holiday treats (including the likes of her cinnamon rolls and roasted garlic rosemary bread, sprinkled with magic and seasoned with love, laughter, and healing).

Minding the Self - Jungian meditations on contemporary spirituality (Hardcover): Murray Stein Minding the Self - Jungian meditations on contemporary spirituality (Hardcover)
Murray Stein
R4,198 Discovery Miles 41 980 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Many people have an aptitude for religious experience and spirituality but don't know how to develop this or take it further. Modern societies offer little assistance, and traditional religions are overly preoccupied with their own organizational survival. "Minding the Self: Jungian meditations on contemporary spirituality" offers suggestions for individual spiritual development in our modern and post-modern times. Here, Murray Stein argues that C.G. Jung and depth psychology provide guidance and the foundation for a new kind of modern spirituality.

Murray Stein explores the problem of spirituality within the cultural context of modernity and offers a way forward without relapsing into traditional or mythological modes of consciousness. Chapters work towards finding the proper vessel for contemporary spirituality and dealing with the ethical issues that crop up along the way. Stein shows how it is an individual path but not an isolationist one, often using many resources borrowed from a variety of religious traditions: it is a way of symbol, dream and experiences of the numinous with hints of transcendence as these come into personal awareness.

"Minding the Self: Jungian meditations on contemporary spirituality" uses research from a wide variety of fields, such as dream-work and the neuroscience of the sleeping brain, clinical experience in Jungian psychoanalysis, anthropology, ethics, Zen Buddhism, Jung's writings and the recently published "Red Book." It will be of interest to psychoanalysts, Jungian scholars, undergraduates, graduate and post-graduate students and anyone with an interest in modern spirituality."

The Synchronicity Key - The Hidden Intelligence Guiding the Universe and You (Paperback, Main): David Wilcock The Synchronicity Key - The Hidden Intelligence Guiding the Universe and You (Paperback, Main)
David Wilcock
R538 R438 Discovery Miles 4 380 Save R100 (19%) Ships in 12 - 17 working days

In The Synchronicity Key, David Wilcock goes beyond this new understanding to investigate how our universe works. Using history and astrology, as well as new research into fractals, spiritual geometry and quantum physics, Wilcock demonstrates that there is a hidden architecture within time which guides individuals and nations through a system of enlightenment (which Joseph Campbell called the Hero's Journey). Historical events occur in shockingly precise and repeating cycles of time and once the hidden laws governing our fate through seemingly random 'synchronicity' are identified we are left with a remarkable blueprint of how to lead our lives in an uncertain world. David Wilcock's understanding of the living fabric that binds the universe together is behind his knowledge of synchronicity, the connections between seemingly unrelated events, and how we are guided by it. Synchronicity is a means to awaken us to our true identity, the thoughts we think and the actions we take are being guided by hidden cycles that repeat throughout the universe and time. David Wilcock is our guide to this new world.

Experiences From the Threshold and Beyond - Understood Through Anthroposophy (Paperback): Are Thoresen Experiences From the Threshold and Beyond - Understood Through Anthroposophy (Paperback)
Are Thoresen
R518 R428 Discovery Miles 4 280 Save R90 (17%) Ships in 10 - 15 working days

`There is a physical world, which we all accept as real, but there is also a spiritual world, which interpenetrates this material world and is its cause and foundation. Between these two worlds exists a threshold that can be felt, seen clairvoyantly, traversed and passed through by anyone with a real desire to do so... At this threshold there is a guardian, whose task is to stop humans from passing across it unprepared...' - From the Introduction. Based on first-hand knowledge, Are Thoresen offers insights into the meaning of the threshold to the spiritual world. He describes his own experiences in encountering this threshold and going beyond it. But there are many thresholds to the spiritual world, he says, and many ways to pass them - as there are many aspects to the `guardian of the threshold' and versions of the so-called `animals at the threshold'. The worlds beyond, too, have a variety of different constructions - or, as the Bible says: `In my Father's house are many mansions'. The author describes the methods and techniques for opening the spiritual sense organs required to cross the threshold, and clarifies the differences between Imagination (seeing spiritual `pictures'), Inspiration (understanding those pictures) and Intuition (living `inside' the spiritual reality). Structuring the book on his own biography, Thoresen conveys many of the lessons he has learnt through decades of familiarity with the invisible dimensions. However, he warns that there is only one good reason to attempt to cross the threshold, and that is to serve God and humanity in the name of love. If we do it out of curiosity, or to enhance our personal development, it would be better not to try.

Men and Gods in Mongolia (Hardcover): Henning Haslund Men and Gods in Mongolia (Hardcover)
Henning Haslund
R3,211 Discovery Miles 32 110 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

First published in 1935, Men & Gods in Mongolia is rare and unusual travel book that takes the reader into the virtually unknwon world of Mongolia, a country only now opening up to the West. Henning Haslund was a Swedish Explorer who accompanied Sven Hedin and other explorers into Mongolia and Central Asia in the 1920s and 30s. Haslund takes the reader to the lost city of Karakota in the Gobi desert, introduces the reader to the Bodgo Gegen, a God-king in Mongolia, and allows the reader to meet Dambin Jansang, the dreaded warlord of the 'Black Gobi'. Alongside the esoteric and mystical material, there is plenty of adventure; caravans across the Gobi desert; kidnapped and held for ransom; initation into shamanic societies; encounters with warlords; and the violent birth of a new nation.

New Age Spirituality - Rethinking Religion (Paperback, New): Steven J. Sutcliffe, Ingvild Saelid Gilhus New Age Spirituality - Rethinking Religion (Paperback, New)
Steven J. Sutcliffe, Ingvild Saelid Gilhus
R1,242 Discovery Miles 12 420 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

New Age and holistic beliefs and practices - sometimes called the "new spirituality" - are widely distributed across modern global society. The fluid and popular nature of new age makes these movements a very challenging field to understand using traditional models of religious analysis. Rather than treating new age as an exotic specimen on the margins of 'proper' religion, "New Age Spirituality" examines these movements as a form of everyday or lived religion. The book brings together an international range of scholars to explore the key issues: insight, healing, divination, meditation, gnosis, extraordinary experiences, and interactions with gods, spirits and superhuman powers. Combining discussion of contemporary beliefs and practices with cutting-edge theoretical analysis, the book repositions new age spirituality at the forefront of the contemporary study of religion.

Religious Conversion and Identity - The Semiotic Analysis of Texts (Paperback): Massimo Leone Religious Conversion and Identity - The Semiotic Analysis of Texts (Paperback)
Massimo Leone
R1,527 Discovery Miles 15 270 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

The way in which people change and represent their spiritual evolution is often determined by recurrent language structures. Through the analysis of ancient and modern stories and their words and images, this book describes the nature of conversion through explorations of the encounter with the religious message, the discomfort of spiritual uncertainty, the loss of personal and social identity, the anxiety of destabilization, the reconstitution of the self and the discovery of a new language of the soul.

Shamans in Asia (Paperback): Clark Chilson, Peter Knecht Shamans in Asia (Paperback)
Clark Chilson, Peter Knecht
R1,527 Discovery Miles 15 270 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Shamans throughout much of Asia are regarded as having the power to control and coerce spirits. Many Asians today still turn to shamans to communicate with the world of the dead, heal the sick, and explain enigmatic events. To understand Asian religions, therefore, a knowledge of shamanism is essential. Shamans in Asia provides an introduction to the study of shamans and six ethnographic studies, each of which describes and analyses the lives and activities of shamans in five different regions: Siberia, China, Korea, and the Ryukyu islands of southern Japan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. The essays show what type of people become shamans, what social roles they play, and how shamans actively draw from the worldviews of the communities in which they operate. As the first book in English to provide in-depth accounts of shamans from different regions of Asia, it allows students and scholars to view the diversity and similarities of shamans and their religions. Those interested in spiritual specialists, the anthropological study of religion, and local religions in Asia will be intrigued, if not entranced, by Shamans in Asia.

Religious Change and Indigenous Peoples - The Making of Religious Identities (Hardcover, New Ed): Helena Onnudottir, Adam... Religious Change and Indigenous Peoples - The Making of Religious Identities (Hardcover, New Ed)
Helena Onnudottir, Adam Possamai
R4,348 Discovery Miles 43 480 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Exploring religious and spiritual changes which have been taking place among Indigenous populations in Australia and New Zealand, this book focuses on important changes in religious affiliation in census data over the last 15 years. Drawing on both local social and political debates, while contextualising the discussion in wider global debates about changing religious identities, especially the growth of Islam, the authors present a critical analysis of the persistent images and discourses on Aboriginal religions and spirituality. This book takes a comparative approach to other Indigenous and minority groups to explore contemporary changes in religious affiliation which have raised questions about resistance to modernity, challenges to the nation state and/or rejection of Christianity or Islam. Helena Onnudottir, Adam Posssamai and Bryan Turner offer a critical analysis to on-going public, political and sociological debates about religious conversion (especially to Islam) and changing religious affiliations (including an increase in the number of people who claim 'no religion') among Indigenous populations. This book also offers a major contribution to the growing debate about conversion to Islam among Australian Aborigines, Maoris and Pacific peoples.

A Heart to Serve - Serving The Gift & Ministry of God (Paperback): Reginald Ezell A Heart to Serve - Serving The Gift & Ministry of God (Paperback)
Reginald Ezell
R278 Discovery Miles 2 780 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

The information contained in this book is vital to those called to the Ministry of Helps. It is a valuable resource for individuals who desire to understand and apply the scriptural principles to the area of servanthood. It can be used as a guide for all denominational churches in teaching members and leaders how to develop a heart to serve the individual that God has set as the overseer of the church. In every church, God has appointed an individual to oversee the sheep, or to teach and train His people. Everyone else has been called within the ministry to fulfill the vision of the ministry.

Finding Peace - Meditation and Wisdom for Modern Times (Paperback): Yeshe Losal Rinpoche Finding Peace - Meditation and Wisdom for Modern Times (Paperback)
Yeshe Losal Rinpoche
R240 R192 Discovery Miles 1 920 Save R48 (20%) Ships in 5 - 10 working days

'This transformational book will help you calm your mind, remove negativity and find inner peace.' Jay Shetty, author of Think Like a Monk 'The perfect manual for the mind, bringing deep insight to today's world and offering practical tools for transformation' Gelong Thubten, author of A Monk's Guide to Happiness _______________________________________________________________________________ In this hectic, modern world, the practice of meditation is the greatest way to calm your mind and find peace. A collection of teachings from one of the world's wisest minds, the lessons in this book have transformed the lives of people across the world and have never been more pertinent. In this book world-renowned meditation master, Lama Yeshe,shares how meditation enabled him to overcome the strains and pressures of modern life and find peace - and reveals how we can all do the same. He teaches us that our minds are infinite like the sky, which can easily become clouded with stress and emotions, but with meditation we are able to see beyond the clouds and free our minds of obstacles. With practical steps on breathing, posture, forgiveness, relationships and establishing a meditation routine, this is the definitive guide for beginners and experienced meditators alike to learn from the wisdom of a globally revered meditation master.

Questioning Spirituality - Is It Irrational to Believe in God? (Paperback): Eldon Taylor Questioning Spirituality - Is It Irrational to Believe in God? (Paperback)
Eldon Taylor
R483 R442 Discovery Miles 4 420 Save R41 (8%) Ships in 9 - 15 working days

A pragmatic case for the rational viability of a spiritual belief in a higher power. [Taylor] makes a compelling case that the scientific worldview--one that sees humans as "meat machines"--is inconsistent with people's experiences of themselves and is not nearly as rationally superior as it is so often presented. This alone makes the author's compact consideration a worthwhile read. A philosophically astute challenge to the rational supremacy of science over its spiritual rivals. Kirkus Reviews

The Goddess, The - From Nature to the Divine Sophia (Paperback): Rudolf Steiner The Goddess, The - From Nature to the Divine Sophia (Paperback)
Rudolf Steiner; Translated by C. Von Arnim, C.Von Armin
R280 Discovery Miles 2 800 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Subjects include: Rediscovering the Goddess Natura Retracing our Steps - Mediaeval Thought and the School of Chartres The Goddess Natura in the Ancient Mysteries The Goddess in the Beginning - the Birth of the Word Esoteric Christianity - the Virgin Sophia The Search for the New Isis The Renewal of the Mysteries The Modern Isis, the Divine Sophia

Gender and Power in Contemporary Spirituality - Ethnographic Approaches (Hardcover, New): Anna Fedele, Kim Knibbe Gender and Power in Contemporary Spirituality - Ethnographic Approaches (Hardcover, New)
Anna Fedele, Kim Knibbe
R4,198 Discovery Miles 41 980 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

This book explores the entanglements of gender and power in spiritual practices and analyzes strategies used by spiritual practitioners to attain what to social scientists might seem an impossible goal: creating spiritual communities without creating gendered hierarchies. What strategies do people within these networks use to attain gender equality and gendered empowerment? How do they try to protect and develop individual freedom? How do gender and power nevertheless play a role? The chapters in this book together and separately demonstrate that, in order to understand contemporary spirituality, the analytical lenses of gender and power are essential. Furthermore, they show that it is not possible to make a clear distinction between established religions and contemporary spirituality: the two sometimes overlap, and at other times spirituality distances itself from religion while reproducing some of its underlying interpretative frameworks. This book does not take the discourses of spiritual practitioners for granted, yet recognizes the reflexivity of spiritual practitioners and the reciprocal relationship between spirituality and disciplines such as anthropology. The ethnographic descriptions of lived spirituality included in this volume span a wide range of countries, from Portugal, Italy, and the Netherlands to Mexico and Israel.

Shamanism - An Encyclopedia of World Beliefs, Practices, and Culture [2 volumes] (Hardcover): Mariko Namba Walter, Eva Jane... Shamanism - An Encyclopedia of World Beliefs, Practices, and Culture [2 volumes] (Hardcover)
Mariko Namba Walter, Eva Jane Neumann Fridman
R2,846 Discovery Miles 28 460 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

A guide to worldwide shamanism and shamanistic practices, emphasizing historical and current cultural adaptations. This two-volume reference is the first international survey of shamanistic beliefs from prehistory to the present day. In nearly 200 detailed, readable entries, leading ethnographers, psychologists, archaeologists, historians, and scholars of religion and folk literature explain the general principles of shamanism as well as the details of widely varied practices. What is it like to be a shaman? Entries describe, region by region, the traits, such as sicknesses and dreams, that mark a person as a shaman, as well as the training undertaken by initiates. They detail the costumes, music, rituals, artifacts, and drugs that shamans use to achieve altered states of consciousness, communicate with spirits, travel in the spirit world, and retrieve souls. Unlike most Western books on shamanism, which focus narrowly on the individual's experience of healing and trance, Shamanism also examines the function of shamanism in society from social, political, and historical perspectives and identifies the ancient, continuous thread that connects shamanistic beliefs and rituals across cultures and millennia.

Fire by Night - Finding God in the Pages of the Old Testament (Paperback): Melissa Florer-Bixler Fire by Night - Finding God in the Pages of the Old Testament (Paperback)
Melissa Florer-Bixler
R429 R351 Discovery Miles 3 510 Save R78 (18%) Ships in 10 - 15 working days
Finding Time for Your Self - A Spiritual Survivors Workbook  -- 52 Weeks of Reflections & Exercises for Busy People... Finding Time for Your Self - A Spiritual Survivors Workbook -- 52 Weeks of Reflections & Exercises for Busy People (Paperback)
Patty de Llosa
R668 Discovery Miles 6 680 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Finding Time for Your Self invites busy women and men to connect with deeper longings for self-fulfillment as they navigate the stressful demands of daily life. Thought-provoking reflections by the author are followed by practical exercises for a weekly study over a year of many aspects of life experience. Most of us feel scattered a lot of the time. Like the dismembered Egyptian god Osiris, we are spread out all over our personal world. Finding Time for Your Self offers help to bring ourselves back together again and learn how to re-member ourselves, not by withdrawing from the world but by being engaged right in the middle of our daily life. Fifty-two reflections on familiar life situations help the reader stay inwardly alive and present to meet life's many challenges to pause and reflect at any moment of the day. They are followed by practical exercises that offer day-by-day experiments to assist in finding a more balanced sense of ourselves in the midst of outer activity. The old Shaker song "It's a gift to be simple" tells us that the solution is in the turning, until "by turning, turning, turning we come round right." When we turn away for a short time from activities, goals and commitments and toward the inner self we discover a world that's just as active and full of surprises as the outer one. Turning our attention to the world within allows us to reconnect with that person who we essentially are, in the depths of our being.

To Be or Not To Be - Discredited (Paperback): Ismail Yavas, Orhan Tuncay To Be or Not To Be - Discredited (Paperback)
Ismail Yavas, Orhan Tuncay
R482 R393 Discovery Miles 3 930 Save R89 (18%) Ships in 12 - 17 working days

To live an elevated life or a base spiritual life depends on how you perceive the world and how you act. To Be or Not To Be - Discredited is a personal development book telling you how to develop your spirit by giving samples from the lives of various people. This book tells you the true stories of the ones who are ascending spiritually when it seems that they are descending and vice versa. People may possess wealth, post, power, etc. but if they are slaves of these material and worldly issues, even they seem to be ascending, in reality their spirits are descending and they will be losers in the end. They need to feed their spirits - this book explains how. On the other hand, you can find the stories of the people who are ascending spiritually even if they seem to be descending worldly. Every suffering possesses a wisdom that one may not be able to see at the beginning. Suffering can be a launching platform for ascending. With his plain and fluent language, Doctor Ismail Yavas sheds light to the past and present and gives advices for a brilliant future.

The Spirit of Project Management (Paperback, New Ed): Judi Neal, Alan Harpham The Spirit of Project Management (Paperback, New Ed)
Judi Neal, Alan Harpham
R1,493 Discovery Miles 14 930 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Projects have always been essentially human endeavours. Large modern projects are generally highly complex, fraught with technical difficulties and supported by diverse, often apparently conflicted stakeholders. The spirituality that originally defined some of the great construction projects of the classical era surely has a role in project management today. The Spirit of Project Management explains the context for spirituality in projects and explores how it can be used to create a larger sense of purpose and achievement; to help encourage an esprit de corps amongst all those involved; to act as a touchstone for ethical and sustainable decision-making. This is a very pragmatic book. The first part includes an explanation and a variety of useful models for understanding the significance and value of spirituality in projects. Judi Neal and Alan Harpham devote the second part of the book to help you integrate these ideas into your day-to-day management of projects. Thus there are chapters on spirituality from the perspective of the individual, the project team, the project organization and even project management within a sustainable world framework. Read this book, use the ideas to help you articulate your projects; engage and sustain your project team and your stakeholders; and frame how you work in terms of your organisation, society and the environment.

Faith and You, Volume 2 - More Essays on Faith in Everyday Life (Paperback): Terry Pluto Faith and You, Volume 2 - More Essays on Faith in Everyday Life (Paperback)
Terry Pluto
R382 R314 Discovery Miles 3 140 Save R68 (18%) Ships in 10 - 15 working days

More from "the sportswriter who writes about faith" . . . Here's a second helping of Terry Pluto's plain and personal musings on topics we all face in everyday life: insults and what they really mean, prayers that don't seem to get answered, endless sibling rivalry, figuring out how to relate to our fathers . . .

"My goal is not to convert anyone reading the paper," Terry writes. "It is to make them think, and to bring some comfort. I write for people who are struggling with faith, or people in pain--physical or emotional. My job is to give them a voice, and to talk about the kind of faith we need to get through what life throws at us each day."

Terry already had a dream job: getting paid to write about sports for a daily newspaper. But when the opportunity arose to write about more spiritual topics, he embraced the challenge. Readers are glad he did. His "Faith and You" column now regularly touches the lives of thousands of loyal readers.

Terry writes for people who aren't always confident in their beliefs but know faith is still important to them . . . For people who sometimes get mad at their church or disagree with their pastor yet don't want to lose the spiritual side of their lives . . . For people of different faiths or backgrounds or who aren't even sure they're religious. These essays don't claim to have all the answers. But the questions they raise give readers something to think about all week.

The Church of Saint Thomas Paine - A Religious History of American Secularism (Hardcover): Leigh Eric Schmidt The Church of Saint Thomas Paine - A Religious History of American Secularism (Hardcover)
Leigh Eric Schmidt
R579 Discovery Miles 5 790 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

The forgotten story of the nineteenth-century freethinkers and twentieth-century humanists who tried to build their own secular religion In The Church of Saint Thomas Paine, Leigh Eric Schmidt tells the surprising story of how freethinking liberals in nineteenth-century America promoted a secular religion of humanity centered on the deistic revolutionary Thomas Paine (1737-1809) and how their descendants eventually became embroiled in the culture wars of the late twentieth century. After Paine's remains were stolen from his grave in New Rochelle, New York, and shipped to England in 1819, the reverence of his American disciples took a material turn in a long search for his relics. Paine's birthday was always a red-letter day for these believers in democratic cosmopolitanism and philanthropic benevolence, but they expanded their program to include a broader array of rites and ceremonies, particularly funerals free of Christian supervision. They also worked to establish their own churches and congregations in which to practice their religion of secularism. All of these activities raised serious questions about the very definition of religion and whether it included nontheistic fellowships and humanistic associations-a dispute that erupted again in the second half of the twentieth century. As right-wing Christians came to see secular humanism as the most dangerous religion imaginable, small communities of religious humanists, the heirs of Paine's followers, were swept up in new battles about religion's public contours and secularism's moral perils. An engrossing account of an important but little-known chapter in American history, The Church of Saint Thomas Paine reveals why the lines between religion and secularism are often much blurrier than we imagine.

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