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Books > Religion & Spirituality > Aspects of religions (non-Christian) > Religious life & practice > General
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
Filled with practical tips as well as insightful reflections,
"Saving the Earth" provides tools for change while showing how the
Buddhist philosophies of interconnectedness and compassion are of
immense use in our efforts towards preserving the natural world.
Not only does Akuppa help you to discover new ways to reduce your
impact on the Earth but he also helps you to deal with the feelings
of panic and despair that news of the environment can often evoke.
Never driven by panic, but with an ultimately positive view he
champions the human ability to change and celebrates the enormous
difference this can make.
The Kanwar is India's largest annual religious pilgrimage. Millions
of participants gather sacred water from the Ganga and carry it
across hundreds of miles to dispense as offerings in Siva shrines.
These devotees-called bhola, gullible or fools, and seen as
miscreants by many Indians-are mostly young, destitute men, who
have been left behind in the globalizing economy. But for these
young men, the ordeal of the pilgrimage is no foolish pursuit, but
a means to master their anxieties and attest their good faith in
unfavorable social conditions. Vikash Singh walked with the
pilgrims of the Kanwar procession, and with this book, he
highlights how the procession offers a social space where
participants can prove their talents, resolve, and moral worth.
Working across social theory, phenomenology, Indian metaphysics,
and psychoanalysis, Singh shows that the pilgrimage provides a
place in which participants can simultaneously recreate and prepare
for the poor, informal economy and inevitable social uncertainties.
In identifying with Siva, who is both Master of the World and yet a
pathetic drunkard, participants demonstrate their own sovereignty
and desirability despite their stigmatized status. Uprising of the
Fools shows how religion today is not a retreat into tradition, but
an alternative forum for recognition and resistance within a
rampant global neoliberalism.
There are times in life when we are caught utterly unprepared: a
death in the family, the end of a relationship, a health crisis.
These are the times when the solid ground we thought we stood on
disappears beneath our feet, leaving us reeling and heartbroken, as
we stumble back to our faith. The Days of Awe encompass the weeks
preceding Rosh Hashanah up to Yom Kippur, a period in which Jews
take part in a series of rituals and prayers that reenact the
journey of the soul through the world from birth to death. This is
a period of contemplation and repentance, comparable to Lent and
Ramadan. Yet, for Rabbi Alan Lew, the real purpose of this annual
passage is for us to experience brokenheartedness and open our
heart to God. In This is Real and You Are Completely Unprepared,
Lew has marked out a journey of seven distinct stages, one that
draws on these rituals to awaken our soul and wholly transform us.
Weaving together Torah readings, Buddhist parables, Jewish fables
and stories from his own life, Lew lays bare the meanings of this
ancient Jewish passage. He reveals the path from terror to
acceptance, confusion to clarity, doubt to belief, and from
complacency to awe. In the tradition of When Bad Things Happen to
Good People, This Is Real And You Are Completely Unprepared enables
believers of all faiths to reconnect to their faith with a passion
and intimacy that will resonate throughout the year.
Anti-Muslim voices have become louder in many places in the midst
of ongoing atrocities undertaken in the name of Islam. As a result,
much of the creative participation of Western Muslims in the public
sphere has become overshadowed. This tendency is not only visible
in political discussions and the media landscape, but it is also
often reflected in academia where research about Muslims in the
West is predominantly shaped by the post 9/11 narrative. In
contrast, European Muslims Transforming the Public Sphere offers a
paradigm shift. It puts forward a new approach to understanding
minority public engagement, suggesting that we need to go beyond
conceptualisations that look at Muslims in the West mainly through
the minority lens. By bringing into dialogue minority-specific and
non-minority specific concepts, the book offers a relevant
complement. Using young German Muslims engaged in media, the arts
and culture and civil society as ten case studies, this book
utilises the concepts of counterpublics and participatory culture
to re-examine Muslims' engagement within the European public
sphere. It presents a qualitative analysis, which has resulted from
two years of ethnographic fieldwork and participant observation,
in-depth interviews and primary source analysis of material
produced by the research participants. This book is a unique
insight into the outworking of multiculturalism in Western Europe.
It illustrates the many-sidedness of young Muslims' public
contributions, revealing how they transform European public spheres
in different ways. Therefore, it will be a vital resource for any
scholar involved in Islamic Studies, the Sociology of Religion,
Religious Studies, Cultural Studies and Media Studies.
This updated companion guide to "Spiritual Disciplines for the
Christian Life" (see description below) takes you through a
carefully selected array of disciplines that will help you grow in
godliness. Ideal for personal or small-group use.Drawn from a rich
heritage, "Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life" will guide
you through a carefully selected array of disciplines. By
illustrating why the disciplines are important, showing how each
one will help you grow in godliness, and offering practical
suggestions for cultivating them, "Spiritual Disciplines for the
Christian Life" will provide you with a refreshing opportunity to
become more like Christ and grow in character and maturity. Now
updated and revised to equip a new generation of readers, this
anniversary edition features in-depth discussions on each of the
key disciplines.
The foremost U.S. authority on Islam and, Seyyed Hossein Nasr
discusses today's hot button issues--including holy wars, women's
rights, the rise of Islamic fundamentalism, and the future of
Moslems in the Middle East--in this groundbreaking discussion of
the fastest-growing religion in the world. One of the great
scholars in the modern Islamic intellectual tradition, and the
acclaimed author of books such as The Garden of Truth and The Heart
of Islam, Nasr brings incomparable insight to this exploration of
Muslim issues and realities, delivering a landmark publication
promoting cross-cultural awareness and world peace.
Sayyid Abul A'la Mawdudi (1903-79), one of the twentiet-century's
leading Muslim intellectuals and revivalists, wrote Islami Tahdhib
awr uskey Usul-o-Mabadi in the 1930s at a time when the momentum
for independence was growing in British India. In Islamic
Civilization: Its Foundational Beliefs and Principles, Mawdudi
attempts to bring out the vital relationship between the concept of
civilization and Islam's underlying worldview and vision of life.
He argues that the true understanding of Islamic civilization is
possible only by having access to the soul of that civilization and
its underlying fundamental principles - belief in God, the angels,
the Prophets, the Revealed Books and the Last Day - rather than to
its manifestations in knowledge, literature, fine arts or rhetoric,
its social life, its notions of refined living or its system of
governance. With a Foreword by Zafar Ishaq Ansari, this is an
authoritative first complete English translation by Syed Akif,
which will be of interest to students and experts alike.
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Draw Ever Closer
(Paperback)
Henri J.M. Nouwen; Edited by Robert M. Hamma
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Revelatory, lyrical and immersive, this is an extraordinary book
that takes you deep into these ordinary women's worlds... Their
stories are urgent and forcefully articulated - and this book gives
us the chance to hear them. On an island at the eastern edge of
India, rural, remote and dense with jungle, is a Muslim village. In
an ever-shifting landscape of mangroves and rivers, the women here
dwell among contradictions, constrictions and change in a place
where one's neighbours are often too close for comfort. Nine Paths
follows the lives of nine of these women, and their families, over
the course of a year - from one monsoon season to another. There
are weddings to celebrate and deaths to mourn, difficult marriages
to navigate and tragedies to overcome, as we observe the everyday
drudgery and unexpected turmoil, and the dreams of something
better. Revelatory, lyrical and immersive, this is an extraordinary
book that takes you deep into these ordinary women's worlds.
Anthropologist Lexi Stadlen spent sixteen months in this village,
talking, listening, and getting to know these women, who were
willing to share their complicated, fascinating lives. Their
stories are urgent and forcefully articulated - and this book gives
us the chance to hear them.
In 1952, a woman named Hadija was brought to trial in an Islamic
courtroom in the Cameroon Grassfields on a charge of bigamy.
Quickly, however, the court proceedings turned to the question of
whether she had been the wife or the slave-concubine of her
deceased husband. In tandem with other court cases of the day,
Harmony O'Rourke illuminates a set of contestations in which
marriage, slavery, morality, memory, inheritance, status, and
identity were at stake for Muslim Hausa migrants, especially women.
As she tells Hadija's story, O'Rourke disrupts dominant patriarchal
and colonial narratives that have emphasized male activities and
projects to assert cultural distinctiveness, and she brings forward
a new set of women's issues involving concerns for personal
prosperity, the continuation of generations, and Islamic religious
expectations in communities separated by long distances.
Portrayals of Islamic teachings in mass media, often present Muslim
women as victims of patriarchal norms. Often covered in a full
veil, and without individuality, they tend to be depicted using a
monochrome image, across Muslim countries and regions. It does not
portray the social reality and expectations of Muslim women, which
are in fact diverse and contextual. This book consists of articles
that attempt to answer the question, are Muslim women merely
passive objects in constructing their role, despite the spread of
social media and the Internet, the increased demands of earning
disposable income for their families, and their migration to
non-Muslim countries around the world? It closely examines women's
agency in negotiating their role in Muslim-majority societies and
in new places of settlement (Australia). These articles analyse
Muslim women's narratives in a wide range of economic, political,
social and cultural milieu and their relationship to identity
construction and portrayal in the new millennium. This volume was
originally published as a special issue of Islam and
Christian-Muslim Relations.
The Kanwar is India's largest annual religious pilgrimage. Millions
of participants gather sacred water from the Ganga and carry it
across hundreds of miles to dispense as offerings in Siva shrines.
These devotees-called bhola, gullible or fools, and seen as
miscreants by many Indians-are mostly young, destitute men, who
have been left behind in the globalizing economy. But for these
young men, the ordeal of the pilgrimage is no foolish pursuit, but
a means to master their anxieties and attest their good faith in
unfavorable social conditions. Vikash Singh walked with the
pilgrims of the Kanwar procession, and with this book, he
highlights how the procession offers a social space where
participants can prove their talents, resolve, and moral worth.
Working across social theory, phenomenology, Indian metaphysics,
and psychoanalysis, Singh shows that the pilgrimage provides a
place in which participants can simultaneously recreate and prepare
for the poor, informal economy and inevitable social uncertainties.
In identifying with Siva, who is both Master of the World and yet a
pathetic drunkard, participants demonstrate their own sovereignty
and desirability despite their stigmatized status. Uprising of the
Fools shows how religion today is not a retreat into tradition, but
an alternative forum for recognition and resistance within a
rampant global neoliberalism.
This book is all about kindness behaviour training (KBT). The
authors have drawn on their clinical experience as well as Buddhism
to develop a practical course in cultivating kindness, intended to
complement and augment other mindfulness-based approaches. They are
now presenting this training in an eight-week course book. Amid the
recent explosion of secular mindfulness, their aim is to
reemphasize the importance of the heart, introducing the reader to
a variety of ways of approaching kindness-based meditation, as well
as to how to put kindness into practice in daily life.A range of
psychological theories and areas of research inform the KBT
approach, primarily findings from cognitive neuroscience, as well
as evolutionary and positive psychology literatures. It also uses a
range of exercises found to be helpful in Eastern traditions, such
as Buddhism. The KBT exercises have been isolated from their
religious or spiritual origins and are used on a secular basis.The
book will act as a companion, walking the reader through each week
of the course offering guidance, reflections, and outlining the
exercises in a concise user-friendly style.Worksheets and homework
tasks to be completed into the book for each week will make the
book interactive and accessible. Led meditations will be available
to be downloaded by a KBT website.
For decades, the multiple, interlocking forces of technological
advances, neoliberal capitalism, and globalization have been
transforming the very moral fabric and institutional underpinnings
of global society. The effects of these challenges include soaring
economic inequality, a widely experienced social fragmentation, and
increasing disenchantment with liberal democracy and its social
arrangements. This unraveling can be seen in the rise of illiberal
democracy, a deepening ecological crisis, and failures of
governance in coping with natural disasters and social tumults
alike.In response to this crisis of democracy and eroding
community, a growing number of people have been attracted to Saul
D. Alinsky's grassroots method of community organizing. God and
Community Organizing: A Covenantal Approach is written in this
cultural milieu; it brings Alinsky's community organizing into
conversation with the biblical vision of of covenant. Hak Joon Lee
argues that, theologically, covenant reflects the life of the
triune God who eternally organizes Godself as the Father, Son, and
Spirit, while politically, covenant captures the inherent passion
for justice that underlies Jewish and Christian faith. At its heart
is the attempt to structure a wholesome, close-knit community of
love, justice, and power. He points out that not only is covenant
instrumental in the formation of God's people as a community, but
the concept has also played an important role in the rise of modern
Western ideas of democracy, constitutionalism, and human rights. To
demonstrate the political plausibility of covenantal organizing,
Lee incorporates four examples of covenantal organizing in
different historical and social contexts: Exodus, Jesus, Puritans,
and Martin Luther King Jr. Critically engaging with Saul Alinsky's
method, Lee seeks to highlight how the two different streams of
political praxis-covenantal organizing and Alinsky's community
organizing-can complement each other to develop a more vigorous and
effective method of faith-based community organizing. Finally, Lee
explores the political and moral meanings and implications of his
study for the current struggle against the neoliberal corporate
oligarchy by presenting covenantal organizing as an alternative
political philosophy and practice to secular liberal philosophy,
postmodernism, identity politics, and communitarianism.
Warren Felt Evans (1817-1889) converted to Methodism while at
Dartmouth College, became a minister, and spent his Methodist years
as a spiritual seeker. His two extant journals, edited and
annotated by Catherine L. Albanese, appear in print for the first
time and reveal the inner journey of a leading American spiritual
pilgrim at a critical period in his religious search. A voracious
reader, he recorded accounts of intense religious experience in his
journals. He moved from the Oberlin perfectionism he embraced early
on, through the French quietism of Madame J. Guyon and Archbishop
Fenelon, then into Swedenborgianism, spiritualism, and mind cure
with distinct theosophical overtones. His carefully documented
journey is suggestive of the similar journeys of the religious
seekers who made their way into the burgeoning metaphysical
movement at the end of the 19th century-and may shed light too on
today's spirituality.
Who and what are marriage and sex for? Whose practices and which
ways of talking to god can count as religion? Lucinda Ramberg
considers these questions based on two years of ethnographic
research on an ongoing South Indian practice of dedication in which
girls, and sometimes boys, are married to a goddess. Called
"devadasis," or "jogatis," those dedicated become female and male
women who conduct the rites of the goddess outside the walls of her
main temple and transact in sex outside the bounds of conjugal
matrimony. Marriage to the goddess, as well as the rites that the
dedication ceremony authorizes "jogatis" to perform, have long been
seen as illegitimate and criminalized. Kinship with the goddess is
productive for the families who dedicate their children, Ramberg
argues, and yet it cannot conform to modern conceptions of gender,
family, or religion. This nonconformity, she suggests, speaks to
the limitations of modern categories, as well as to the
possibilities of relations--between and among humans and
deities--that exceed such categories.
The theological enterprise in the West finds itself in a critical
moment. Traditional models have failed to supply the church with
the proper tools for engaging the hard, persistent realities of
injustice. This is primarily because the models propose a language
of faith that does not begin from the part of life where faith
begins: namely, the testimonies we encounter along the way. Leaving
Emmaus conceives of theology as "thinking with testimonies of
Christian faith," offering new students and seasoned practitioners
alike a "new departure" for Christian discourse. The book
restructures the sources of theology (Scripture, tradition, reason,
experience) to make space for the integration of new voices
alongside a thoughtful reading of Scripture and classic texts of
the tradition. Discussing and interpreting our encounters with the
risen Christ becomes a way of "leaving our home" of personal
experience or faith conviction. In company with Alice Walker,
Gregory of Nyssa, Rowan Williams, and Eve Sedgwick, Anthony Baker
unfolds this integrative language and initiates a new departure
into classical themes of theology, gathered around the central
image of the Emmaus encounter. The "burning hearts" of that
pericope become a periperformative encounter with the Word, issuing
in the Spirit's internal witnesses to the calling of all creation
by the Father to find itself in the risen Christ. In this way the
act of testimony itself becomes a repetition of the trinitarian
God. This repetition carries through each loci of theology, from
theological anthropology to eschatology. Noteworthy among the new
insights this brings are a thoughtfully structured understanding of
sin, a bold recovery of sacrifice, and an integrated theology of
prayer. Baker equips us with a fresh map for navigating the
peculiar demands of our cultural moment through resourcing the
heritage of our shared faith for a theology that witnesses to the
fullness of life and extends welcome to all.
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