A plain language exploration of the theology of worship Professional theological terminology is often inaccessible to the average Christian. A House of Meanings presents liturgical theology in accessible ways, free of technical language. The book is designed for individual reading and structured to be a resource for a series of parish workshops, especially during the Easter season. Chapters conclude with a discussion guide intended to assist parishioners in developing their own sense of the value of worship and its relationship to our daily lives. Dedicated to deepening parishioners' understandings of the Church and how it has both gathered and sent into service to the world, A House of Meanings will be useful not only to congregations, but to seminarians and anyone planning or evaluating worship.

The National Shrine in Washington, DC has been deeply loved, blithely ignored, and passionately criticized. It has been praised as a "dazzling jewel" and dismissed as a "towering Byzantine beach ball." In this intriguing and inventive book, Thomas Tweed shows that the Shrine is also an illuminating site from which to tell the story of twentieth-century Catholicism. He organizes his narrative around six themes that characterize U.S. Catholicism, and he ties these themes to the Shrine's material culture--to images, artifacts, or devotional spaces. Thus he begins with the Basilica's foundation stone, weaving it into a discussion of "brick and mortar" Catholicism, the drive to build institutions. To highlight the Church's inclination to appeal to women, he looks at fund-raising for the Mary Memorial Altar, and he focuses on the Filipino oratory to Our Lady of Antipolo to illustrate the Church's outreach to immigrants. Throughout, he employs painstaking detective work to shine a light on the many facets of American Catholicism reflected in the shrine.

Deep emotions pervade our human lives and ongoing moods echo them. Religious traditions often shape these and give devotees a sense of identity in a hopeful and meaningful life despite the conflicts, confusion, pain and grief of existence. Driven by anthropological and sociological perspectives, Douglas J. Davies describes and analyses these dynamic tensions and life opportunities as they are worked out in ritual, music, theology, and the allure of sacred places. Davies brings some newer concepts to these familiar ideas, such as 'the humility response' and 'moral-somatic' processes, revealing how our sense of ourselves responds to how we are treated by others as when injustice makes us 'feel sick' or religious ideas of grace prompt joyfulness. This sense of embodied identity is shown to be influenced not only by 'reciprocity' in the many forms of exchange, gifts, merit, and actions of others, but also by a certain sense of 'otherness, whether in God, ancestors, supernatural forces or even a certain awareness of ourselves. Drawing from psychological studies of how our thinking processes engage with the worlds around us we see how difficult it is to separate out 'religious' activity from many other aspects of human response to our environment. Throughout these pages many examples are taken from the well-known religions of the world as well as from local and secular traditions.

The meaning of holiness and how one can speak about it remains an active research question in religious studies and theology. The articles analyze discourses about holiness from the religious cultures of late antiquity. Terminologies, practices, and reflections related to holiness are explored in the context of their particular religious frames of reference.

We all have a little bit of Pharisaism in us.

Pharisaism is one of the sins that angered Jesus the most. Yet we are often in bondage to it without realizing it. How can we recognize the warning signs in our own hearts and lives and be set free?

Do you consider yourself a better Christian than others? Do you enjoy pointing out others' faults while ignoring your own? Do you fail to practice what you preach? If so, you might be a Pharisee--a modern-day version of the religious leaders in Jesus' day whom He condemned for their legalism and self-righteousness. It's time to take a hard look at your attitudes and behavior and allow the Holy Spirit to set you free.

You will learn the following:

• Twenty-five signs that indicate you might be a Pharisee
• Why the sin of pharisaism angered Jesus
• The opposite character trait Jesus modeled
• Steps to take to rid pharisaism from your heart and mind

The home of Martin Luther for thirty six years and seat of the German Reformation, Wittenberg, Germany is now a UNESCO World Heritage site. Wittenberg has long been Protestant sacred space, but since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the city and surrounding region have been developing their considerable cultural capital. Today, Wittenberg is host to two large-scale annual Luther-themed festivals, and is becoming a center for pilgrimage and heritage tourism. In a recent study, Charles Taylor notes that festivity is experiencing a renaissance as "one of the new forms of religion in our world." Festivals and pilgrimage routes are an integral part of contemporary religion and spirituality, and important cultural institutions in a globalized world. In Performing the Reformation, Stephenson offers a field-based case study of contemporary festivity and pilgrimage in the City of Luther. Welcome to Lutherland, where atheists dress up as monks and nuns for Luther's Wedding; conservative Lutherans work to sacralize the secular, carnival-like festivities; and medieval players, American Gospel singers, and Peruvian pan flute bands compete for the attention of the bustling crowds. Festivals and tourism in Wittenberg include a range of performative genres (parades and processions, liturgies and concerts, music and dance), cut across multiple cultural domains (religion, politics, economics), and effect connections and shifts among identities (religious, secular, American, German, traditional, postmodern). Incorporating visual methodologies and grounded in historical and social contexts, Stephenson provides an on-the-ground account of the annual Luther's Wedding Festival, the Reformation Day Festival, and Lutheran pilgrimage. He also brings his case study into dialogue with important methodological and theoretical issues informing the fields of ritual studies and performance studies. A model of interdisciplinary research, the book includes a DVD with over 2.5 hours of material, extending and animating textual accounts and interpretations.

This examination of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Letters of Paul finds that, in both these bodies of literature, religious self-understanding is expressed in terms of the concept of purity so important to primitive religion and earlier Judaism. Dr Newton contradicts the view held by most scholars that the traditional Jewish attitude to purity had no place in Christianity. By using the concept of purity not unlike that at Qumran or of Pharisaic and Rabbinic Judaism, Paul could elucidate his views on, among other things, the nature of the Church, the divine presence, the basis of ethical behaviour and the significance of the death of Jesus.

Rituals transform citizens into presidents and princesses into queens. They transform sick persons into healthy ones, and public space into prohibited sanctuary. Shamanic rituals heal, legal rituals bind, political rituals ratify, and religious rituals sanctify. But how exactly do they accomplish these things? How do rituals work? This is the question of ritual efficacy, and although it is one of the very first questions that people everywhere ask of rituals, surprisingly little has been written on the topic. In fact, this collection of 10 contributed essays is the first to explicitly address the question of ritual efficacy. The authors do not aspire to answer the question 'how do rituals work?' in a simplistic fashion, but rather to show how complex the question is. While some contributors do indeed advance a particular theory of ritual efficacy, others ask whether the question makes any sense at all, and most show how complex it is by referring to the sociocultural environment in which it is posed, since the answer depends on who is asking the question, and what criteria they use to evaluate the efficacy of ritual. In his introduction, William Sax emphasizes that the very notion of ritual efficacy is a suspicious one because, according to a widespread 'modern' and 'scientific' viewpoint, rituals are merely expressive, and therefore cannot be efficacious. Rituals are thought of as superficial, 'merely symbolic,' and certainly not effective. Nevertheless many people insist that rituals 'work,' and the various positions taken on the question tell us a great deal about the social and historical background of the people involved. One essay, for example, illuminates a dispute between 'materialist' and 'enlightenment' Catholics in Ecuador, with the former affirming the notion of ritual efficacy and the latter doubting it. In other essays, contributors address instances in which orthodox religious figures (mullahs, church authorities, and even scientific positivists) discount the efficacy of rituals. In several of the essays, 'modern' people are suspicious of rituals and tend to deny their efficacy, confirming the theme highlighted in Sax's introduction.

This is a collection of readings for individual or group reflection throughout the four weeks of Advent. This book does not advocate a 'cosy' view of Christmas but rather urges people to use this season to address some of the most important issues of our time. To do so the author makes creative use of quotes from the other sources, interspersed with her own perspective on the subjects under consideration.

Religion African-American StudiesLet It Shine! probes the distinctive contribution of black Catholics to the life of the American church, and to the unfolding of lived Christianity in the United States. This im, portyant book explores the powerful spiritual renaissance that has marked African American life and self-understanding over the last several decades by examining one critical dimension: the forging of new expressions of Catholic worship rooted in the larger Catholic tradition, yet shaped in unique ways by African American religious culture.Starting with the 1960s, the book traces the dynamic interplay of social change, cultural awakening, and charismatic leadership that have sparked the emergence of distinctive styles of black Catholic worship. In their historical overview, McGann and Eva Marie Lumas chronicle the liturgical and pastoral issues of a Black Catholic liturgical movement that has transformed the larger American church. McGann then examines the foundational vision of Rev. Clarence R. J. Rivers, who promoted forms of black worship, music, preaching, and prayer that have enabled African American Catholics to reclaim the fullness of their religious identity. Finally, Harbor constructs a black Catholic aesthetic based on the theological, ethical, and liturgical insights of four African American scholars and expressed through twenty-three performative values. This liturgical aesthetic illuminates the distinctive gift of black Catholics to the multicultural tapestry of lived faith in the American church, and can also serve as a pastoral model for other cultural communities. Blending history, theology, and liturgy, Let It Shine! is a valuable resource for scholars, teachers, and students and a practical pastoral guide to bringing African American spirituality more firmly into the sacramental life of American parishes.

This is a beautifully crafted collection of prayers for each Sunday and most major festivals in the church's year, together with additional material for each season. The Sunday prayers - known as "collects" in the Anglican tradition - follow the three-year cycle of the Revised Common Lectionary. The author uses expansive and inclusive language and imagery to address and describe God, to describe God's presence and action in the world, and to describe the people of God. Ideal for use at weekday celebrations, including the Book of Common Prayer Order for Eucharist.

A church service is concerned with the renewal of life. Thus art, e.g. music, plays a central role: it gives scope to deal with different perspectives on life and reaches beyond every-day experience to transcendental experience. In its own way, music achieves the objective at which the gospel of the crucifixion and resurrection aims: the worshiping community is "enchanted" into becoming alive and human. The model of incantation demonstrates how music and words can combine in liturgy to achieve this goal.

Religion African-American StudiesLet It Shine! probes the distinctive contribution of black Catholics to the life of the American church, and to the unfolding of lived Christianity in the United States. This im, portyant book explores the powerful spiritual renaissance that has marked African American life and self-understanding over the last several decades by examining one critical dimension: the forging of new expressions of Catholic worship rooted in the larger Catholic tradition, yet shaped in unique ways by African American religious culture.Starting with the 1960s, the book traces the dynamic interplay of social change, cultural awakening, and charismatic leadership that have sparked the emergence of distinctive styles of black Catholic worship. In their historical overview, McGann and Eva Marie Lumas chronicle the liturgical and pastoral issues of a Black Catholic liturgical movement that has transformed the larger American church. McGann then examines the foundational vision of Rev. Clarence R. J. Rivers, who promoted forms of black worship, music, preaching, and prayer that have enabled African American Catholics to reclaim the fullness of their religious identity. Finally, Harbor constructs a black Catholic aesthetic based on the theological, ethical, and liturgical insights of four African American scholars and expressed through twenty-three performative values. This liturgical aesthetic illuminates the distinctive gift of black Catholics to the multicultural tapestry of lived faith in the American church, and can also serve as a pastoral model for other cultural communities. Blending history, theology, and liturgy, Let It Shine! is a valuable resource for scholars, teachers, and students and a practical pastoral guide to bringing African American spirituality more firmly into the sacramental life of American parishes.

Cotter gracefully merges the beauty and poetry of the original Psalms with the reality of today's world in well-crafted, contemporary language.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is the mother of all the churches, erected on the spot where Jesus Christ was crucified and rose from the dead and where every Christian was born. In 1927, Jerusalem was struck by a powerful earthquake, and for decades this venerable structure stood perilously close to collapse. In Saving the Holy Sepulchre , Raymond Cohen tells the engaging story of how three major Christian traditions - Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Armenian Orthodox - each with jealously guarded claims to the church, struggled to restore one of the great shrines of civilization. It almost didn't happen. For centuries the communities had lived together in an atmosphere of tension and mistrust based on differences of theology, language, and culture-differences so sharp that fistfights were not uncommon. And the project of restoration became embroiled in interchurch disputes and great power politics. Cohen shows how the repair of the dilapidated basilica was the result of unprecedented cooperation among the three churches. It was tortuous at times - one French monk involved in the restoration exclaimed: "I can't take any more of it. Latins - Armenians - Greeks - it is too much. I am bent over double." But thanks to the dedicated efforts of a cast of kings, popes, patriarchs, governors, monks, and architects, the deadlock was eventually broken on the eve of Pope Paul VI's historic pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1964. Today, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is in better shape than it has been for five hundred years. Light and space have returned to its ancient halls, and its walls and pillars stand sound and true. Saving the Holy Sepulchre is the riveting story of how Christians put aside centuries of division to make this dream a reality.

A little God time is what all mothers need but can rarely find in the craziness of everyday life. This daily devotional encourages mothers of all ages to carve out some time for the refreshment and renewal found in God's presence. When life demands your attention, find some time in your day to reflect on the God who truly desires to be with you.

Sabbatarianism is commonly treated as a puritan characteristic, a theological innovation formulated by precisionists in the 1580s and 1590s, and among the earliest issues dividing conformists and puritans. The English Sabbath challenges this orthodoxy. Using local, ecclesiastical and parliamentary evidence, as well as theological works, Dr Parker traces the origins of this doctrine to medieval scholastic theology and finds a broad consensus on the issue in the Elizabethan and Jacobean Church. Re-examining the Book of Sports controversies and the sabbatarian disputes of the 1630s, the author argues that Laudian propagandists triggered vigorous opposition by denying the orthodoxy of this long-established doctrine and calling its defenders innovators. This propaganda polarized opinion and made sabbatarianism one of the most cherished puritan causes during the Civil War. The book is a significant contribution to current re-appraisals of Tudor and Stuart religious history and to our understanding of the origins of the Civil War.

Pilgrimage was a central feature of medieval English life which affected history, politics, art and literature. The shrines were destroyed during the Reformation and pilgrimage stopped, yet the idea of pilgrimage continued--refashioned - in Protestant theology. By reaching beyond the Reformation to explore the transformation of the idea of the pilgrim, this book confronts the religious experience of the English laity over half a millennium. In a series of ground-breaking studies the contributors challenge many orthodox assumptions about English pilgrims and their history.

The best way to prepare for the Camino is with one of the world's greatest pilgrims, Ignatius Loyola. In Contemplating the Camino Brendan McManus SJ prepares you spiritually, emotionally and practically for the task of walking the Camino de Santiago. Drawing on his own experience of this walk, and his background in Ignatian spirituality, he develops an approach to the Camino inspired by the teachings of Ignatius Loyola. Focusing on the balance of grief and joy in our lives, and the changes in our own emotions, Contemplating the Camino is a key to the challenges and triumphs of pilgrimage.

An entertaining, often surprising look at the life of the world's most influential fictional character.
He is the embodiment of charity and generosity, a creation of mythology, a tool of clever capitalists. The very idea of him is enduring and powerful.
Santa Claus was born in early-nineteenth-century America, but his family tree goes back seven hundred years to Saint Nicholas, patron saint of children. Intervening generations were shaggy and strange -- whip-wielding menaces to naughty boys and girls. Yet as the raucous, outdoor, alcohol-fuelled holiday gave way to a more domestic, sentimental model, a new kind of gift-bringer was called for -- a loveable elf, still judgmental but far less threatening.
In this engaging social and cultural history, Gerry Bowler examines the place of Santa Claus in history, literature, advertising, and art. He traces his metamorphosis from a beardless youth into a red-suited peddler. He reveals the lesser-known aspects of the gift-bringer's life -- Santa's involvement with social and political causes of all stripes (he enlisted on the Union side in the American Civil War), his starring role in the movies and as adman for gun-makers and insurance companies. And he demolishes the myths surrounding Santa Claus and Coca-Cola.
"Santa Claus: A Biography" will stand as the classic work on the long-lived and multifarious Mr. Claus.

"From the Hardcover edition."