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Books > Religion & Spirituality > Aspects of religions (non-Christian) > Worship > General
In the late nineteenth century, as a consequence of imperial
conquest and a mobility revolution, Russia became a crossroads of
the hajj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca. The first book in
any language on the hajj under tsarist and Soviet rule, Russian
Hajj tells the story of how tsarist officials struggled to control
and co-opt Russia's mass hajj traffic, seeing it as not only a
liability but also an opportunity. To support the hajj as a matter
of state surveillance and control was controversial, given the
preeminent position of the Orthodox Church. But nor could the hajj
be ignored, or banned, due to Russia's policy of toleration of
Islam. As a cross-border, migratory phenomenon, the hajj stoked
officials' fears of infectious disease, Islamic revolt, and
interethnic conflict, but Eileen Kane innovatively argues that it
also generated new thinking within the government about the utility
of the empire's Muslims and their global networks.
An Introduction to Swaminarayan Hinduism, third edition, offers a
comprehensive study of a contemporary form of Hinduism. Begun as a
revival and reform movement in India 200 years ago, it has now
become one of the fastest growing and most prominent forms of
Hinduism. The Swaminarayan Hindu transnational network of temples
and institutions is expanding in India, East Africa, the UK, USA,
Australasia, and in other African and Asian cities. The devotion,
rituals, and discipline taught by its founder, Sahajanand Swami
(1781-1830) and elaborated by current leaders in major festivals,
diverse media, and over the Internet, help preserve ethnic and
religious identity in many modern cultural and political contexts.
Swaminarayan Hinduism, here described through its history,
divisions, leaders, theology and practices, provides valuable case
studies of contemporary Hinduism, religion, migrants, and
transnationalism. This new edition includes up-to-date information
about growth, geographic expansion, leadership transitions, and
impact of Swaminarayan institutions in India and abroad.
The "Festpredigten" festival sermons were originally published in
German in Frankfurt am Main in 1903. A window into the past, they
offer a fascinating glimpse of German Jewry at the turn of the
century. The author, Isaac Rosenberg, received his semichah at the
Rabbiner-Seminar (Hildesheimer) in Berlin in 1888, and graced the
synagogue pulpit in the eastern German city of Thorn for
twenty-five years. He belonged to a new class of rabbis known as
Rabbiner Doktor with Ph.D.s as well as rabbinic ordination. A
leader in his community, Dr Rosenberg delivered passionate sermons
in impeccable High German sermons that uplifted and inspired rather
than rebuked. Yet they contain messages that are as fresh today as
they were a century ago. This English volume includes an intriguing
introduction by Dr Fred Gottlieb on the history of German- Jewish
homiletics and associated controversies.
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