'Thich Nhat Hanh does not merely teach peace; Thich Nhat Hanh is peace' Elizabeth Gilbert When we're not held in the grip of fear, we can truly embrace the gifts of life. Learn how to overcome the worries, insecurities and fears that hold you back in this perspective-shifting book. Drawing on his years of experience as a celebrated Zen master, Thich Nhat Hanh shows that by mastering the practices of mindfulness you can learn to identify the sources of pain that cause fear and move past them to live a mindful and happy life. 'The monk who taught the world mindfulness' Time

Find hope and renewal in life's natural cycle of ordinary losses and new beginnings.

"When we intentionally enter into our everyday walk through small losses, the terrain of larger losses, the valley of the shadow of death, is not totally unknown. It is not completely unfamiliar, alien, terrifying, for we have walked some of this way before with our lesser losses. We can journey through this valley of loss, for journey through it we must. And we can emerge markedly changed, but alive, on the other side." from the Prologue

Going beyond loss as a problem to be resolved, a grief to be worked through, Dr. Nancy Copeland-Payton, a spiritual director and ordained clergywoman, reframes loss from the perspective that our everyday losses help us learn what we need to handle the major losses. Weaving in spiritual and classical themes, personal and scriptural story, Dr. Copeland-Payton shows us that by becoming aware of what our lesser losses have to teach us, the larger losses of our lives become less terrifying. Each chapter includes a spiritual practice and questions for reflection to help you: Mine the hidden depths of painful losses of things and placesTraverse the devastating loss of relationships and the heart-wrenching death of people we love.Overcome the steep, dark slopes of loss of beliefs and faith.Venture past our fear of the losses of aging and our own death."

The past decade has witnessed a renaissance in scientific approaches to the study of morality. Once understood to be the domain of moral psychology, the newer approach to morality is largely interdisciplinary, driven in no small part by developments in behavioural economics and evolutionary biology, as well as advances in neuroscientific imaging capabilities, among other fields. To date, scientists studying moral cognition and behaviour have paid little attention to virtue theory, while virtue theorists have yet to acknowledge the new research results emerging from the new science of morality. Theology and the Science of Morality explores a new approach to ethical thinking that promotes dialogue and integration between recent research in the scientific study of moral cognition and behaviour -- including neuroscience, moral psychology, and behavioural economics -- and virtue theoretic approaches to ethics in both philosophy and theology. More particularly, the book evaluates the concept of moral exemplarity and its significance in philosophical and theological ethics as well as for ongoing research programs in the cognitive sciences.

An examination of the uniqueness and universality of Jesus Christ and what this might mean in today's plural world. These days there are tremendous pressures on Christians to conform to a libertarian vision of a multifaith society where no one makes truth-claims about their faith. In such a situation, Christians need to think afresh about the uniqueness and universality of Jesus Christ and what this might mean in today's plural world. In this book, Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali shows how Jesus' understanding of himself and his work bears on contemporary cultures and their values: what does the gospel affirm, what does it fulfil and what does it challenge? How does our understanding of the crucified and risen Lord affect our view of the human condition? How can we evaluate the different religious traditions of the world in the light of Christ? How can we be welcoming and hospitable but also committed to that conversion and transformation of individuals and of human societies which has been revealed as God's purpose in Christ? Christian claims of uniqueness have a direct bearing on what informs the social order. This book tackles the challenge of relativism in the contemporary social and political arena head-on.

Islam is the religion of the majority of Arab citizens in Israel and since the late 1970s has become an important factor in their political and socio-cultural identity. This leads to an increasing number of Muslims in Israel who define their identity first and foremost in relation to their religious affiliation. By examining this evolving religious identity during the past four decades and its impact on the religious and socio-cultural aspects of Muslim life in Israel, Muhammad Al-Atawneh and Nohad Ali explore the local nature of Islam. They find that Muslims in Israel seem to rely heavily on the prominent Islamic authorities in the region, perhaps more so than minority Muslims elsewhere. This stems, inter alia, from the fact that Muslims in Israel are the only minority that lives in a land they consider to be holy and see themselves as a natural.

The Routledge Handbook of Halal Hospitality and Islamic Tourism provides a greater understanding of the current debates associated with Islamic tourism and halal hospitality in the context of businesses, communities, destinations, and the wider socio-political context. It therefore sheds substantial light on one of the most significant travel and consumer markets in the world today and the important role of religion in contemporary hospitality and tourism. The book examines halal hospitality and lodging, Islamic markets, product developments, heritage, certification, and emerging and future trends and issues. It integrates case studies from a range of countries and destinations and in doing so emphasises the significant differences that exist with respect to regulating and commodifying halal, as well as stressing that the Islamic market is not monolithic. Written by highly regarded international academics, it offers a range of perspectives and enables a comprehensive discussion of this integral part of Islam and contemporary society. This handbook will be of significant interest to upper level students, researchers, and academics in the various disciplines of Tourism, Hospitality, Food Studies, Marketing, Religious Studies, Geography, Sociology, and Islamic Studies.

A radical vision for a society transformed by the teachings and spirit of Jesus. Do you feel powerless to change the injustice at every level of society? Are you tired of answers that ignore the root causes of human suffering? This selection of writings by Eberhard Arnold, who left a career and the established church in order to live out the gospel, calls us to a completely different way. Be warned: Arnold doesn't approach discipleship as the route to some benign religious fulfillment, but as a revolution-a transformation that begins within and spreads outward to encompass every aspect of life. Arnold writes in the same tradition of radical obedience to the gospel as his contemporaries Karl Barth and Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

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.

This new edition of the beloved devotional is the first edition of Jesus Calling® to include true stories from readers and from Sarah herself. You'll be able to identify and draw strength from these personal accounts of struggle and weakness, burdens and fears, forgiveness and redeeming love as you savor the presence of the One who understands you perfectly and loves you forever.

With Scripture and personal reflections, bestselling author Sarah Young brings Jesus' message of peace--for today and every day.

This #1 bestselling 365-day devotional is written as if Jesus Himself is speaking directly to you--words of encouragement, comfort, and reassurance of His unending love. Sarah Young shares her personal prayer journal and her reflections based on Jesus' words of hope, guidance, and peace within Scripture. Penned by one who loves Jesus and reveres His Word, these writings have helped millions of people grow in their relationship with Jesus.

This new edition of the beloved devotional includes written-out Scriptures and more than 100 pages of stories from Sarah and readers of Jesus Calling®. Its beautiful packaging and artistic design makes a wonderful gift for anyone eager for a new experience of Jesus Calling® as well as for those reading it for the first time.

The first-ever Jesus Calling® devotional to include real-life, inspirational stories, Jesus Calling, 365 Devotions with Real-Life Stories, Hardcover, with Full Scriptures invites you to experience peace in the presence of the Savior who is closer than you can imagine. These much-loved devotions will help you look forward to your time with the Lord and experience peace in the presence of the Savior who is always with you.

Originally published in 1997 "A wonderful balance of detail and clarity with excellent introductory essays on the Indus Valley civilization, the Vedic Period, the Upanishads, and devotional Hinduism," Religious Studies Review; Choice Outstanding Academic Book selling over 10,000 copies, and now revised and expanded to two volumes (Volume I: Major Deities and Social Structures) Herewith an outstanding introduction to the development of the religion of Hinduism from earliest times. While historical tradition is explored from as far back as pre-Aryan times in the fascinating ancient civilization that existed in India a few thousand years BCE, later expressions of religion and philosophy that informed early Hindu tradition are gleaned from its sacred texts. The author examines how present beliefs and practices have been informed by past traditions, and the resulting accommodation in Hinduism today. The book serves as an introduction to the two strands of theism and philosophical thought that emerged from early scriptures as they are expressed independently in Hinduism as well as in those traditions where they are woven together to create new religious movements. No prior knowledge of Hinduism is required. Contents include: The Indus Valley Civilization; The Vedic Period; Vedanta; The Advaita Vedanta of Sankara; Influential Theories (Samkhya and Yoga); Devotional Hinduism; The Bhagavad Gita; Songs of the Poets; The theistic philosophy of Ramanuja; The devotional theism of Caitanya; Unity and diversity.

The first volume to explore Muslim piety as a form of economy, this book examines specific forms of production, trade, regulation, consumption, entrepreneurship and science that condition - and are themselves conditioned by - Islamic values, logics and politics. With a focus on Southeast Asia as a site of significant and diverse integration of Islam and the economy - as well as the incompatibilities that can occur between the two - it reveals the production of a Muslim piety as an economy in its own right. Interdisciplinary in nature and based on in-depth empirical studies, the book considers issues such as the Qur'anic prohibition of corruption and anti-corruption reforms; the emergence of the Islamic economy under colonialism; 'halal' or 'lawful' production, trade, regulation and consumption; modesty in Islamic fashion marketing communications; and financialisation, consumerism and housing. As such, it will appeal to scholars of sociology, anthropology and religious studies with interests in Islam and Southeast Asia.

In this slender volume, Rumi explores the joy of friendship and the agony of loss. These poetic meditations on the most profound of human relationships are like crystals: they sparkle with the many hues of the rainbow and contain worlds within, capturing us with their mystery.

Here are poems that cause us to reflect on our own relationships, to experience again the intensity of friendship, the ache of loss, and the profundity of immersion.

This is a book for poetry lovers, Rumi fans, and all gift-giving occasions; a book to treasure and to share.

How do religious groups reinvent themselves in order to attract new audiences? How do they rebrand their messages and recast their rituals in order to make their followers more diverse? In Branding Bhakti, Nicole Karapanagiotis considers the new branding of the Hare Krishna Movement, or the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). Known primarily for their orange robes, shaved heads, ecstatic dancing on the streets, and exuberant Hindu-style temple worship, many contemporary ISKCON groups are radically reinventing their public presentation and their style of worship in order to attract a global audience to their movement. Karapanagiotis explores their innovative and complex approaches in both the United States and India by following three new ISKCON brands aimed at gathering new followers. Each is led by a world-renowned ISKCON guru and his global disciples, and each is promoted through a mix of digital and social media and the construction of an innovative "worship-scape." These new spaces trade ISKCON's traditional temples for corporate work-life balance programs, posh yoga studios, urban spiritual lounges, edgy mantra clubs/lofts, and rural meditative retreat facilities. Branding Bhakti not only investigates the methods the ISKCON movement uses to position itself for growth but also highlights devotees' painful and complicated struggles as they work to transform their shrinking, sectarian movement into one with global religious appeal. -- Indiana University Press

The relationship between secularism, democracy, religion, and gender equality has been a complex one across Western democracies and still remains contested. When we turn to Muslim countries, the situation is even more multifaceted. In the views of many western commentators, the question of Women Rights is the litmus test for Muslim societies in the age of democracy and liberalism. Especially since the Arab Awakening, the issue is usually framed as the opposition between liberal advocates of secular democracy and religious opponents of women's full equality. Islam, Gender, and Democracy in Comparative Perspective critically re-engages this too simple binary opposition by reframing the debate around Islam and women's rights within a broader comparative literature. Bringing together leading scholars from a range of disciplines, it examines the complex and contingent historical relationships between religion, secularism, democracy, law, and gender equality. Part One addresses the nexus of religion, law, gender, and democracy through different disciplinary perspectives (sociology, anthropology, political science, law). Part Two localizes the implementation of this nexus between law, gender, and democracy and provides contextualized responses to questions raised in Part One. The contributors explore the situation of Muslim women's rights in minority conditions to shed light on the gender politics in the modernization of the nation and to ponder on the role of Islam in gender inequality across different Muslim countries.

MILLIONS OF READERS HAVE PROVED THAT THE MAGIC OF BELIEVING WORKS WONDERS!

For more than four decades success-oriented Americans have turned to the no-nonsense, time-tested motivational techniques described in The Magic of Believing to achieve all their long- and short-term goals: a better job, an increased income, a happier marriage, or simply a good night's sleep. Now it's your turn to put Claude M. Bristol's special "magic" into your life and into action!

His tough-minded, hard-hitting message speaks directly to You. It has yielded proven results for forty years and remains as fresh and focused as ever. Learn how to:

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How can material artifacts help illuminate the religious lives of women in antiquity? In what ways do archaeological and art historical studies recover women's religious perspectives and experiences that the literary record misses or underrepresents? The authors of the essays in this volume set out to answer such questions in fascinating, new case studies of women and ancient religions in the Near East and Mediterranean world. They cover a broad historical, geographic, and religious spectrum as they explore women's lives from the time of ancient Egypt in the second millennium BCE into the early medieval period, from the Syrian Desert to Western Europe, in the religious traditions of Egypt, Canaan, Greece, Rome, ancient Israel, early Judaism, and early Christianity. Working at the intersections of religion, archaeology, art history, and women's history, these authors make fresh contributions to interdisciplinary studies, and their essays will be of interest to students and scholars across these academic fields.

What would the psalm writers say if they lived in our times? What words would they use to express their prayers? How would their songs reflect the same truth in a different age? "Psalms Now captures the meaning of the psalms for our time. Leslie Brandt restates, in today's language, the psalmists' honest prayers of praise, sorrow, compassion, fatigue, love, and countless other emotions encountered by those who have truly experienced life. Celebrate the reality of God with the psalmists. Begin today. You may never look at the book of Psalms in the same way once you've been gripped and challenged by the modern paraphrase of "Psalms Now.

Steve Howard departed for the Sudan in the early 1980s as an American graduate student beginning a three-year journey in which he would join and live with the Republican Brotherhood, the Sufi Muslim group led by the visionary Mahmoud Mohamed Taha. Taha was a religious intellectual who participated in the early days of Sudan's anticolonial struggle, but quickly turned his movement into a religious reform effort based on his radical reading of the Qur'an. He was executed in 1985 for apostasy. Decades after returning to the life of an academic in the United States, Howard brings us this memoir of his time with the Republican Brotherhood, who advocated, among other things, equality for women. Modern Muslims describes Howard's path to learning not only about Islam and Sufism but also about Sudan's history and culture. When the Brotherhood was thrust into confrontation with Sudan's then-president Jaafar Nimeiry, Howard had a front-line perspective on the difficult choices communities make as they try to reform and practice their faith freely. As well as a story of personal transformation, the book offers an insider's perspective on a modernist nonviolent Islamic movement that thrived and was brutally suppressed. An important book for our times, Modern Muslims yields significant insights for our understanding of modern Islam, African history, and contemporary geopolitics.

What is the relationship between the soul, or inner life, and what we wear in the making of identity and belief? What bearing do religious and political belonging, respectability, and resistance have on the way in which we dress? Why have more traditional religious practices been so prescriptive about body adornment? Historically, fashionable dress and religion have been positioned as polar opposites. Silhouettes of the Soul brings them together, placing them in conversation with each other. By moving beyond traditional, social scientific, and historical analysis of religious attire and adornment the book presents a variety of disciplinary approaches from across regional, social, and religious locations. Contentious and challenging, as well as academically rigorous, the book's diverse range of contributors - from fashion and religious studies scholars, to designers, activists, monastics, and journalists - explore the relationship between religion and fashion, extending the meanings and possibilities of both dress and spirituality. Combining interviews and personal stories with more traditional theoretical analysis, Silhouettes of the Soul offers new ways of looking at the relationship between religion, personal convictions, and self-expression - our sense of self and our sense of fashion.

Lauren Winner's original Mudhouse Sabbath has sold 45,000 copies, been translated into three languages, and spawned a successful video study series. Now, she has created a "Study Edition," appealing to Christians who want to go deeper into what it means to understand, appreciate, and even integrate the Jewish origins of Christianity into their Christian faith. After her conversion from Orthodox Judaism to Christianity, Winner found that her life was indelibly marked by the rich traditions and spiritual practices of Judaism. So she set out to discover how she could incorporate some of these practices into her new faith. Winner presents eleven Jewish practices that can transform the way Christians view the world and God, including attentive eating, marking the days while grieving, a community that supports a marriage, candle-lighting, and a weekly Sabbath. Her honesty and rare insight has helped thousands and thousands of readers over the last decade.

It is now more than a decade since the violent Islamic group Boko Haram launched its reign of terror across northern Nigeria, claiming more than 27,000 lives and displacing over 2 million people. While its territorial gains have largely been recaptured, the insurgency rages on, devastating communities across vast stretches of the north-east and disrupting governance, livelihoods and food security, as well as posing a security risk to Niger, Chad and Cameroon. Less attention is paid to the pervasive popular rejection of violent extremism on the ground. How did a diverse and economically dynamic West African society unravel so violently, and for so long? Why does radicalizationhave so little influence on large Muslim populations in surrounding areas, such as the Yoruba in south-western Nigeria, or the poor ethnically similar Muslim majority in central Niger just north of the border? This book looks beyond the details of the insurgency to examine the wider social and political processes that explain why Boko Haram emerged when and where it did, and what forces exist within society to contain it. Drawing on the detailed fieldworkof specialist Nigerian and Nigerianist scholars from Nigeria, connecting the worst of Boko Haram violence to the wider realities of the present, the book offers new insights into the drivers of Islamic extremism in Nigeria - poverty, regional inequality, environmental stress, migration, youth unemployment, and state corruption and human rights abuses - with a view to charting more sustainable paths out of the conflict. Nigeria: Premium Times Books