1) The book critically analyses questions of gender and sexuality in the medieval religious texts of Bengal. 2) It contains rich archival resources to understand the projection of the goddess in the text. 3) This book will be of interest to departments of South Asian studies across UK.

In Robert McGee's best-selling book "The Search for Significance," he helps readers realize the fact that they will never be content if they search for their significance in accomplishments or the opinions of others. Instead, God has given them significance and worth through the work of Christ on the cross. Because of McGee's classic book, more than two million readers have learned what it means to be free to enjoy Christ's love and forgiveness.

Now, McGee invites readers of his book to go on a 10-week journey of reflection, discovery, and ultimately victory as they learn how to implement, on a daily basis, the principles of "The Search for Significance." Each page of this valuable companion to The Search for Significance includes: Thought-provoking questions Essential biblical truths Space for readers to reflect on how God is calling them to a deeper realization of his love for them. Daily Prayer

In this book of daily meditations, veteran Buddhist writer and editor Jean Smith gives us Zen’s most memorable teachings in a uniquely accessible format. Drawn from all of Zen’s major schools and teachers, the 365 inspiring selections illuminate Zen’s major themes, including zazen, koans, detachment, karma, emptiness and enlightenment. Complete with a directory of Zen centres, a glossary of Buddhist terms, and an index of topics and authors, 365 Zen is an essential daily companion for anyone interested in Zen.

Ever wonder how to handle the tough ethical issues we face? Such as: Should I attend a same-sex wedding? If two people love each other, why shouldn't they express that love through sex? How can the church support single people seeking to live a godly life? Should divorcees remarry in church? These four accessible, practical guides on sex and marriage will equip both new and mature Christians to think through the issues in the light of the Bible and theology. They offer help to Christians facing these issues themselves and for ministers as they provide guidance. Each guide (also available separately in print or as an e-book) has a 'Go Deeper' section listing resources for further reference. Look out for the other guides on topics such as abortion, euthanasia, wealth and poverty. In a world of increasing ethical complexity this is an invaluable down-to-earth practical resource for Christians. Sean Doherty has produced a much-needed accessible introduction to a series of controversial subjects in which he confronts tough questions based on candour, common sense and personal experience. It will be widely welcomed. - Dr Don Horrocks, Head of Public Policy, Evangelical Alliance

The Routledge Handbook of Mormonism and Gender is an outstanding reference source to this controversial subject area. Since its founding in 1830, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has engaged gender in surprising ways. LDS practice of polygamy in the nineteenth century both fueled rhetoric of patriarchal rule as well as gave polygamous wives greater autonomy than their monogamous peers. The tensions over women's autonomy continued after polygamy was abandoned and defined much of the twentieth century. In the 1970s, 1990s, and 2010s, Mormon feminists came into direct confrontation with the male Mormon hierarchy. These public clashes produced some reforms, but fell short of accomplishing full equality. LGBT Mormons have a similar history. These movements are part of the larger story of how Mormonism has managed changing gender norms in a global context. Comprising over forty chapters by a team of international contributors the Handbook is divided into four parts: * Methodological issues * Historical approaches * Social scientific approaches * Theological approaches. These sections examine central issues, debates, and problems, including: agency, feminism, sexuality and sexual ethics, masculinity, queer studies, plural marriage, homosexuality, race, scripture, gender and the priesthood, the family, sexual violence, and identity. The Routledge Handbook of Mormonism and Gender is essential reading for students and researchers in religious studies, gender studies, and women's studies. The Handbook will also be very useful for those in related fields, such as cultural studies, politics, anthropology, and sociology.

Ever wonder how to handle the tough ethical issues we face? The Only Way Is Ethics is an accessible, practical series of guides designed to equip both new and mature Christians to think through important and current ethical issues in the light of the Bible and theology. It offers help to Christians facing these issues themselves and for ministers as they provide guidance. Each guide (also available separately in print or as an e-book) has a 'Go Deeper' section listing resources for further reference. Accessible and incisive, Sean Doherty's journey through ethics doesn't simply tell us what to think but rather how to think well, and biblically, in a world of sexual confusion. - Glynn Harrison MD FRCPsych, Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry, University of Bristol As Long as You Love Me delves into divorce and re-marriage in the light of the Old Testament and the teachings of Jesus and St Paul. It shows that churches and their leaders can be places of welcome and support for all, whilst challenging readers to be faithful to Jesus's teaching about marriage in today's world.

Ever wonder how to handle the tough ethical issues we face? The Only Way Is Ethics is an accessible, practical series of guides designed to equip both new and mature Christians to think through important and current ethical issues in the light of the Bible and theology. It offers help to Christians facing these issues themselves and for ministers as they provide guidance. Each guide (also available separately in print or as an e-book) has a 'Go Deeper' section listing resources for further reference. Some people are great on experience, some great on the Bible and theology; here is a book that is great on both. Sean's own testimony shaped by the Lord's word and work in his life models what "abundant life" means. - The Right Revd Keith Sinclair, Bishop of Birkenhead Sexual Singleness explores why singleness is hard, yet can be deeply fulfilling - even better than marriage - and needs to be valued much more highly by the church. Drawing on his own experience and that of others, he offers practical suggestions for how churches can nurture and support single people.

Ever wonder how to handle the tough ethical issues we face? The Only Way Is Ethics is an accessible, practical series of guides designed to equip both new and mature Christians to think through important and current ethical issues in the light of the Bible and theology. It offers help to Christians facing these issues themselves and for ministers as they provide guidance. Each guide (also available separately in print or as an e-book) has a 'Go Deeper' section listing resources for further reference. Sean Doherty has provided us with a remarkable resource. It is remarkable, first, because it is deeply rooted in his own experience and reflection as someone who has experienced same-sex attraction. But it is also remarkable for the way it is fully engaged in contemporary research and discussion. Sean manages to connect and integrate his own experience with the best thinking in this area. Finally, Sean offers an account that is remarkably accessible and which will be of help to a wide range of people. It is one of the best resources out there. Revd Dr Ian Paul, theologian, author, and blogger at Psephizo.com In Living Out My Story , Sean tells us his own story of same-sex attraction which he uses to illuminate his discussion of homosexuality, same-sex marriage and the church. He shows how churches can provide a loving welcome and acceptance of gay people whilst being faithful to Jesus's teaching about sex.

Ever wonder how to handle the tough ethical issues we face? The Only Way Is Ethics is an accessible, practical series of guides designed to equip both new and mature Christians to think through important and current ethical issues in the light of the Bible and theology. It offers help to Christians facing these issues themselves and for ministers as they provide guidance. Each guide (also available separately in print or as an e-book) has a 'Go Deeper' section listing resources for further reference. Sean Doherty's new introduction to sexual ethics is firmly grounded in solid biblical scholarship and shows clearly and concisely not only what the Bible teaches about sexuality, marriage, singleness and divorce, but why this teaching makes sense in terms of the nature of God and his desire that men and women should flourish and find fulfilment. It is also firmly connected to the realities of the contemporary world and full of practical wisdom. This is an important and timely book that deserves to be widely read. Buy it and give it away to your friends! - Dr Martin Davie, Tutor in Doctrine, Wycliffe Hall, Oxford; author of A Guide to the Church of England. QUILTBAG: Jesus and sexuality sets out the biblical and theological basis for the Christian view that sex is for marriage only, and that marriage is the union of a woman and a man. Written from within Sean's own experience of same-sex orientation, this guide is accessible and personal.

Do you feel stuck in a mess? Are you wondering how you got to this place and trying to make sense of it all? Don't give up!

In Overcoming When You Feel Overwhelmed, pastor and New York Times bestselling author Jentezen Franklin offers five life-giving steps to help you get up, get out and get free, and walk into the destiny God has prepared for you.

Jentezen pulls back the curtain on the enemy's tactics to hinder your spiritual growth, distract your attention and keep you from living to your fullest potential during this critical season of prophetic history.

If you find that every battle you're fighting has gotten more difficult to conquer--if you are paralyzed and don't know which way to go--remember God doesn't call you just a survivor. He calls you an overcomer.

This book investigates female Muslims pilgrimage practices and how these relate to women's mobility, social relations, identities, and the power structures that shape women's lives. Bringing together scholars from different disciplines and regional expertise, it offers in-depth investigation of the gendered dimensions of Muslim pilgrimage and the life-worlds of female pilgrims. With a variety of case studies, the contributors explore the experiences of female pilgrims to Mecca and other pilgrimage sites, and how these are embedded in historical and current contexts of globalisation and transnational mobility. This volume will be relevant to a broad audience of researchers across pilgrimage, gender, religious, and Islamic studies.

One of the most extraordinary survival stories ever told -- Aron Ralston's searing account of his six days trapped in one of the most remote spots in America, and how one inspired act of bravery brought him home.

It started out as a simple hike in the Utah canyonlands on a warm Saturday afternoon. For Aron Ralston, a twenty-seven-year-old mountaineer and outdoorsman, a walk into the remote Blue John Canyon was a chance to get a break from a winter of solo climbing Colorado's highest and toughest peaks. He'd earned this weekend vacation, and though he met two charming women along the way, by early afternoon he finally found himself in his element: alone, with just the beauty of the natural world all around him.

It was 2:41 P.M. Eight miles from his truck, in a deep and narrow slot canyon, Aron was climbing down off a wedged boulder when the rock suddenly, and terrifyingly, came loose. Before he could get out of the way, the falling stone pinned his right hand and wrist against the canyon wall.

And so began six days of hell for Aron Ralston. With scant water and little food, no jacket for the painfully cold nights, and the terrible knowledge that he'd told no one where he was headed, he found himself facing a lingering death -- trapped by an 800-pound boulder 100 feet down in the bottom of a canyon. As he eliminated his escape options one by one through the days, Aron faced the full horror of his predicament: By the time any possible search and rescue effort would begin, he'd most probably have died of dehydration, if a flash flood didn't drown him before that.

What does one do in the face of almost certain death? Using the video camera from his pack, Aron began recording his grateful good-byes to his family and friends all over the country, thinking back over a life filled with adventure, and documenting a last will and testament with the hope that someone would find it. (For their part, his family and friends had instigated a major search for Aron, the amazing details of which are also documented here for the first time.) The knowledge of their love kept Aron Ralston alive, until a divine inspiration on Thursday morning solved the riddle of the boulder. Aron then committed the most extreme act imaginable to save himself.

"Between a Rock and a Hard Place" -- a brilliantly written, funny, honest, inspiring, and downright astonishing report from the line where death meets life -- will surely take its place in the annals of classic adventure stories.

Teaching Contemporary Yoga provides a novel look at how modern yoga is understood, practiced, and taught globally. Utilising perspectives from several academic disciplines, the authors offer an analysis of the current state of modern yoga and the possibilities for future experimentation and innovation. The authors draw on anthropological, performance, and embodiment theories to understand yoga practice as a potentially powerful ritual of transformation as well as a cultural product steeped in the process of meaning making. They craft a unique analysis that contrasts asana with the largely unexamined philosophy underlying the practice of vinyasa, while imagining a vibrant future for the evolution of yoga through excellence in teaching. Unlike other writings about yoga, the authors offer a critique of the current practice of yoga as both diminished and utilitarian, while providing a path to reinvigorating the discipline based on current scientific knowledge and methods for teaching and practice. Along with these theoretical perspectives and the analysis of contemporary yoga in the West, the authors offer practical applications to address the challenges of teaching yoga in a society where individualism and materialism are core values. Open-ended exercises in reflection and experimentation offer opportunities for readers to apply what they have learned to their teaching and personal practice. This is a vital guide for any yoga-oriented scholar, teacher, or practitioner and is an essential companion for contemporary teacher training.

This textbook not only provides a historical overview of this religious tradition but also focuses on Hinduism in American society today. Making this a very comprehensive overview of the subject areas. Each chapter includes a helpful pedagogy including a general overview, case studies, suggestions for further reading, questions for discussion, and a glossary. Making this the ideal textbook for students approaching the topic for the first time. The use of case studies and first person narratives provides a much needed 'lived religion' approach to the subject area. Helping students to apply their learning to the world around them.

This book reveals how categories of gender, class, culture and religion are modes of power which inform hierarchies of social locations and people's sense of belonging within these spaces and temporalities. It offers an alternative and innovative theoretical framework - new womanhood - for studying middle-class, urban, educated, professional women in South Asia. The book places respectable femininity at the centre of the construction and performance of new womanhood in Bangladesh: a complex and heterogeneous construction of womanhood in relation to women's negotiations with public and private sphere roles and cultural norms of female propriety. It establishes new women as part of the neoliberal middle class as they construct their class identity as a status group, claiming inter-class and intra-class distinction from other women. It also explains how new womanhood is legitimized by alternative and multiple practices of respectability, varying according to women's age, stage of life, profession, household setting and experience of living in Western countries. Finally, as new women forge alternative forms of respectability, theirs is not a straightforward abandonment of old structures of respectability; rather they substitute, conceal or legitimize particular practices of respectability in particular fields. While these new women's gains are vested in the self, rather than a wider feminist politics, they have the potential to positively influence the terrain of possibilities for other women. Finally, through a study of cosmopolitan third world women who are part of a new and potentially powerful social group who occupy a privileged position in the society they live in, the book critiques Western feminist writing and challenges binary social construction of the 'Muslim woman' either as victims of patriarchal culture and religion or as a danger to Western liberalism, developing an understanding of cosmopolitan Muslim women's classed gender identity as a struggle against classifications in the neoliberal times. It is the first book-length project of its kind to provide an understanding of the concept of new women in the Global South, which will be of interest to academics in the fields of sociology, gender studies, feminist theory, postcolonialism, inequality studies, cultural theory, development studies and South Asian Studies.

The chapters in this book explore the transcultural, multi-ethnic, and cross-regional contexts and connections between the Buddhavatamsaka-sutra, Mount Wutai and the veneration of Manjusri that contributed to the establishment and successive transformations of the cult centered on Mount Wutai - and reduplications elsewhere. The contributions reflect on the literature, architecture, iconography, medicine, society, philosophy and several other aspects of the Wutai cult and its significant influence across several Asian cultures, such as Chinese, Japanese, Tibetan, Mongolian and Korean. This book is a significant new contribution to the study of the Wutai cult, and will be a great resource for academics, researchers, and advanced students of Religion, Philosophy, History, Architecture, Literature and Art. The chapters in this book were originally published in the journal Studies in Chinese Religions.

This book provides a pioneering and original study of the regional effects of political Islam. It sets out the multifaceted interactions between Islam and politics in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, focussing in particular on the so-called Islamic State (IS) organization in its broad discussion of political Islam. Utilizing a trans-disciplinary perspective, the book interacts with social constructivism and complex realism theories to analyse the clash between the modern notion of the state and that of identity in the region. Looking at issues such as the rise of IS and its attempts to establish a caliphate, the book offers three different, yet complementary, levels of analysis for its discussion. These being: Regional (dis)order, the erosion of state power and its boundaries, and the role of non-state actors in shaping the politics of the MENA region. Each of these levels are addressed in detail in turn in order to build a comprehensive picture of state and political Islam in the Arab core of the MENA region. What emerges is a comprehensive analysis of the interlinked relationships between political and Islamic elements of Arab polities and societies. As such, this book will be of great interest to academics and policymakers focusing on matters relating to the study of Islam, Islam and politics, study of religion more broadly, and security studies and area studies, particularly in the MENA region.

From woolly scarves and plump orange pumpkins to crunchy leaves and smooth wicker baskets, readers will delight in all the different textures fall has to offer. With simple, rhyming verses and sweet, vibrant illustrations, youngsters can celebrate the season with this touch-and-feel board book that's perfect for small hands.

Based on two decades of fieldwork, including over a hundred interviews with various political and economic actors at different social levels, as well as documentary and media analysis, this volume presents an account of the Buddhist monarchy in Thailand, offering a sociology of elites, an analysis of the economic influence of the Crown and an examination of the magic and ritual dimension of kingship. An exploration of the role and status of the Palace over the last century, whether as a guarantor of democracy, a symbol of stability, a source of power or an object of popular discontent, Thailand's Buddhist Kingship in the 20th and 21st Centuries will appeal to scholars of sociology and anthropology with interests in material religion, politics and Southeast Asian studies.

Teaching Contemporary Yoga provides a novel look at how modern yoga is understood, practiced, and taught globally. Utilising perspectives from several academic disciplines, the authors offer an analysis of the current state of modern yoga and the possibilities for future experimentation and innovation. The authors draw on anthropological, performance, and embodiment theories to understand yoga practice as a potentially powerful ritual of transformation as well as a cultural product steeped in the process of meaning making. They craft a unique analysis that contrasts asana with the largely unexamined philosophy underlying the practice of vinyasa, while imagining a vibrant future for the evolution of yoga through excellence in teaching. Unlike other writings about yoga, the authors offer a critique of the current practice of yoga as both diminished and utilitarian, while providing a path to reinvigorating the discipline based on current scientific knowledge and methods for teaching and practice. Along with these theoretical perspectives and the analysis of contemporary yoga in the West, the authors offer practical applications to address the challenges of teaching yoga in a society where individualism and materialism are core values. Open-ended exercises in reflection and experimentation offer opportunities for readers to apply what they have learned to their teaching and personal practice. This is a vital guide for any yoga-oriented scholar, teacher, or practitioner and is an essential companion for contemporary teacher training.

Tibetan yoga is the hidden treasure at the heart of the Tibetan Tantric Buddhist tradition: a spiritual and physical practice in pursuit of an expanded experience of the human body and its energetic and cognitive potential. Ian A. Baker progressively introduces the core principles and practices of Tibetan yoga in this pioneering overview. In addition to meditations, visualizations and practices for the breath and body, these include elements rather less familiar to yoga initiates in the West, including sexual yoga; dream yoga or lucid dreaming; and yoga practices enhanced by psychoactive plant or mineral substances. Baker draws on contemporary scientific research and contemplative and humanitarian traditions to enable the reader to understand these practices. The book includes ethnographic photography and works of Himalayan art that have never been published before, as well as illustrations of yogic practice and theory from historical books of instruction.