|
Books > Religion & Spirituality > Christianity > Christian worship > General
Kristin Norget explores the practice and meanings of death
rituals in poor urban neighborhoods on the outskirts of the
southern Mexican city of Oaxaca. Drawing on her extensive fieldwork
in Oaxaca City, Norget provides vivid descriptions of the Day of
the Dead and other popular religious practices. She analyzes how
the rites and beliefs associated with death shape and reflect poor
Oaxacans' values and social identity.
Norget also considers the intimate relationship that is
perceived to exist between the living and the dead in Oaxacan
popular culture. She argues that popular death rituals, which lie
largely outside the sanctioned practices of the Catholic Church,
establish and reinforce an ethical view of the world in which the
dead remain with the living and in which the poor (as opposed to
the privileged classes) do right by one another and their dead. For
poor Oaxacans, these rituals affirm a set of social beliefs and
practices, based on fairness, egalitarianism, and
inclusiveness.
Study of surviving Anglo-Saxon kalendars and pontificals
contributes to our understanding of 10th-century England. `His work
demonstrates the importance of these neglected sources for our
understanding of the late Old English church.' HISTORY An important
book of immense erudition. It brings into the open some major
issues of Late Anglo-Saxon history, and gives a thorough overview
of the detailed source material. When such outstanding learning is
being used, through intuitive perception, to bear on the wider
issues such as popular devotion and the reception of the monastic
reform in England, and bold conclusions are bing drawn from such
minutely detailed studies, there is no doubt that David Dumville's
contribution in this area of study becomes invaluable. The sources
for the liturgy of late Anglo-Saxon England have a distinctive
shape. Very substantial survival has given us the possibility of
understanding change and perceiving significant continuity, as well
as identifying local preferences and peculiarities. One major
category of evidence is provided by a corpus of more than twenty
kalendars: some of these (and particularly those which have been
associated with Glastonbury Abbey) are subjected to close
examination here, the process contributing both negatively and
positively to the history of ecclesiastical renewal in the 10th
century. Another significant body of manuscripts comprises books
for episcopal use, especially pontificals: these are examined here
as a group, and their associations with specific prelates and
churches considered. All these investigations tend to suggest the
centrality of the church of Canterbury in the surviving testimony
and presumptively therefore in the history of late Anglo-Saxon
christianity. Historians' study of English liturgy in this period
has heretofore concentrated on the development of coronation-rites:
by pursuing palaeographical and textual enquiries, the author
hassought to make other divisions of the subject respond to
historical questioning. Dr DAVID N. DUMVILLE is Reader in the Early
Mediaeval History and Culture of the British Isles at the
University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Girton College.
An exploration of what worship looks like from a biblical
standpoint and why the topic of worship can be so contentious among
Christians. Because worship is inherently theological--because it's
a manifestation of humanity's response to God's holiness--it's
important to take seriously how we worship and the roles it serves
in personal displays of adoration and in community with other
believers. Exploring the Worship Spectrum provides an overview,
critique, and celebration of six prominent worship styles:
Formal-Liturgical - represented by Paul Zahl Traditional Hymn-Based
- represented by Harold Best Contemporary Music-Driven -
represented by Joe Horness Charismatic - represented by Don
Williams Blended - represented by Robert Webber Emerging -
represented by Sally Morgenthaler This unique format allows those
with a heart for worship to compare different perspectives and draw
their own conclusions on what the Bible teaches. It allows readers
to understand the various approaches to worship, carefully evaluate
their strengths and weaknesses, and make personal choices without
adopting a judgmental spirit. The Counterpoints series presents a
comparison and critique of scholarly views on topics important to
Christians that are both fair-minded and respectful of the biblical
text. Each volume is a one-stop reference that allows readers to
evaluate the different positions on a specific issue and form their
own, educated opinion.
The early Christian and medieval practice of spiritual marriage,
in which husband and wife mutually and voluntarily relinquish
sexual activity for reasons of piety, plays an important role in
the development of the institution of marriage and in the
understanding of female religiosity. Drawing on hagiography,
chronicles, theology, canon law, and pastoral sources, Dyan Elliott
traces the history of spiritual marriage in the West from apostolic
times to the beginning of the sixteenth century.
The services and prayer texts of the Orthodox Church are ancient
and inspirational, and this invaluable reference guides priests,
deacons, servers, readers, and singers in the customs and practices
of the church. Including serving the altar and offering worship
services, the handbook explains to all laity who desire a further
understanding of the church's Typicon--the rule that governs how
divine worship is offered--touching upon a variety of topics,
including the Hours, Vespers, Vigil, Divine Liturgy of St. John
Chrysostom, and the Presanctified Liturgy. Drawn from Russian
resources, this guide also explores the differences found in Greek
usage.
Bryan Spinks is one of the world's leading scholars in the field of
liturgy and to have a comprehensive work by him on the Eucharist is
a major catch for SCM. Like the author's previous work on Baptism,
this will become a standard work about the Eucharist and
Eucharistic theology worldwide. The book, a study of the history
and theology of the Eucharist, is the fifth volume in the SCM
Studies in Worship and Liturgy series and will help to establish
the series as a place for landmark books of liturgical scholarship.
This book will be aimed at undergraduate and graduate theology
students, clergy and theologically literate laity. It will assume
some technical knowledge (i. e. it is not an introduction to
liturgy or introduction to sacraments), but will attempt to outline
what the evidence is, and what current scholars think. On occasions
it will advance or argue for why one interpretation is preferable
to another.
How well do you know the Holy Spirit? How clearly do you hear His
voice? How real is He in your everyday life? Bestselling author and
creator of the Midnight Mom Devotional community Becky Thompson
invites you into a closer relationship with the Holy Spirit by
scripturally unpacking who he is and how he moves in and through
the life of a believer. In God So Close, Thompson wants to lead you
into a deeper understanding of the Holy Spirit so you can have a
closer connection with God. Becky will help you explore who the
Holy Spirit is and why He is important become aware of God moving
around you and within you learn how to listen for the prompting of
the Holy Spirit discern when God is leading you Long gone are the
days of believing that the Spirit of God only attends certain
church services or speaks to or through particular people. God So
Close shows you are a carrier of his Spirit and have been filled
with his power and presence. It's for His glory that you've been
given gifts to impact the world and reveal the message of Jesus.
These papers are the proceedings of the third international Exeter
symposium, and promote an interdisciplinary approach to the
understanding of the medieval mystical tradition in England. This
is an area of study which does not fruitfully lend itself to any
single academic discipline in isolation; here, theologians,
historians, literary crtitics, textual scholars, those engaged in
the study of semiotics and those involved in the practice of
psychiatric medicine exchange ideas and explore together the
differing aspects which engage them in this field of study.
CONTRIBUTORS: R. BRADLEY, R. ALLEN, R. COPELAND, M. MOYES, J. HOGG,
F. WOHRER, A. BALDWIN, S. DICKMAN, D. WALLACE
A companion piece to "The Concept of Anxiety," this work
continues Soren Kierkegaard's radical and comprehensive analysis of
human nature in a spectrum of possibilities of existence. Present
here is a remarkable combination of the insight of the poet and the
contemplation of the philosopher.
In "The Sickness unto Death," Kierkegaard moves beyond anxiety
on the mental-emotional level to the spiritual level, where--in
contact with the eternal--anxiety becomes despair. Both anxiety and
despair reflect the misrelation that arises in the self when the
elements of the synthesis--the infinite and the finite--do not come
into proper relation to each other. Despair is a deeper expression
for anxiety and is a mark of the eternal, which is intended to
penetrate temporal existence."
A Good Advent, the first published work by the new Bishop of London
Rt Revd Dame Sarah Mullally, provides an inspiring and
thought-provoking introduction to the Advent season. The booklet
also includes details of how to download the accompanying free app
which will provide a daily devotion throughout Advent.
|
|