Mobile Saints examines the central medieval (ca. 950-1150 CE) practice of removing saints' relics from rural monasteries in order to take them on out-and-back journeys, particularly within northern France and the Low Countries. Though the permanent displacements of relics-translations- have long been understood as politically and culturally significant activities, these temporary circulations have received relatively little attention. Yet the act of taking a medieval relic from its "home," even for a short time, had the power to transform the object, the people it encountered, and the landscape it traveled through. Using hagiographical and liturgical texts, this study reveals both the opportunities and tensions associated with these movements: circulating relics extended the power of the saint into the wider world, but could also provoke public displays of competition, mockery, and resistance. By contextualizing these effects within the discourses and practices that surrounded traveling relics, Mobile Saints emphasizes the complexities of the central medieval cult of relics and its participants, while speaking to broader questions about the role of movement in negotiating the relationships between sacred objects, space, and people.

A companion to the PBS series, "This Far by Faith" isthe story of how religious faith inspired the greatest social movementin American history -- the U.S. Civil Rights movement.

Hailed upon publication as a beautiful, seminal book on the role of the church in the African American community as well as on the social history of America, "This Far by Faith" reveals the deep religious conviction that empowered a people viewed as powerless to blaze a path to freedom and deliverance, to stand and be counted in this one nation under God. Here are the stories of politics, tent revivals, and the importance of black churches as touchstones for every step of the faith journey that became the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

Using archival and contemporary photography, historical research, and modern-day interviews, "This Far by Faith" features messages from some of today's foremost religious leaders.

This book critically examines the intersection of religion, public health and human security in Nigeria. Focusing on Christianity, Islam, traditional religions and "intra-religious" doctrinal divergencies, the book explores the impact faith has on health-related decisions and how this affects security in Nigeria. The book assesses the connection between religion and five contemporary major health and medical issues in the country. This includes the issue of epidemics and pandemics such as the Covid-19 pandemic, vaccines, contraception, blood transfusion and the controversies associated with "miracle healing". In particular, this book explores situations where individuals have the power of choice but instead embraces faith and religious positions that contradict science in the management of their health and, in the process, expose themselves and others to personal health insecurity. It investigates aspects of human security including the wider international ramifications of health issues, approaches to cures and the interpretation of causes of diseases, as well as the ethno-religious connotations of such interpretations. Exploring key issues that have brought religion into the politics of health and human security in Nigeria, this book will be of interest to students and scholars in the field of African Religion, African Politics, African Studies, public health, security, and Sociology.

This book offers insights into the building of trust in Muslim communities through community engagement in a climate of counter-terrorism. Police engagement with Muslim communities is complex with a history of distrust. This book first attempts to understand the role and implications of uncertainty on community engagement in Muslim communities, and then explores the cultural nuances associated with the demonstration of trustworthiness, and decisions to bestow trust. It further highlights the complexities and implications for Muslim leaders when trying to simultaneously engage police and appease their own communities; the book exposes community perceptions of an over-reaction by authorities that has moved suspicion from a handful of terrorists to the entire Muslim community, resulting in problematic community perceptions that Muslim communities are being targeted by police. The findings suggest that the intentionality of police is a highly significant consideration in trust negotiations, and reveals a number of cultural preferences considered critical to trust negotiations. The book further highlights opportunities to enhance the development of trust and avoid pitfalls that can be problematic to community engagement. The lessons learned seek to enhance the existing body of literature regarding strategies and resources to improve counter-terrorism community engagement with Muslim communities. This book will be of much interest to students of counter-terrorism, preventing violent extremism, deradicalization, and security studies.

Volume 19 of The Jewish Law Annual is a festschrift in honor of Professor Neil S. Hecht. It contains thirteen articles, ten in English and three in Hebrew. Several articles are jurisprudential in nature, focusing on analysis of halakhic institutions and concepts. Elisha Ancselovits discusses the concept of the prosbul, asking whether it is correct to construe it as a legal fiction, as several scholars have asserted. He takes issue with this characterization of the prosbul, and with other scholarly readings of Tannaitic law in general. The concepts of dignity and shame are addressed in two very different articles, one by Nahum Rakover, and the other by Hanina Ben-Menahem. The former discusses halakhic sources pertaining to the dignity inherent in human existence, and the importance of nurturing it. The latter presents a fascinating survey of actual legal practices that contravened this haklakhic norm. Attestations of these practices are adduced not only from halakhic and semi-halakhic documents, but also from literary, historical, and ethnographic sources. Three articles tackle topical issues of considerable contemporary interest. Bernard S. Jackson comments on legal issues relating to the concept of conversion arising from the story of the biblical heroine Ruth, and compares that concept to the notion of conversion invoked by a recent English court decision on eligibility for admission to denominational schools. An article by Dov I. Frimer explores the much agonized-over question of halakhic remedies for the wife whose husband refuses to grant her a get (bill of divorce), precluding her remarriage. Frimer s focus is the feasibility of inducing the husband to grant the get through monetary pressure, specifically, by awarding the chained wife compensatory tort damages. Tort remedies are also discussed in the third topical article, by Ronnie Warburg, on negligent misrepresentation by investment advisors. Two papers focus on theory of law. Shai Wozner explores the decision rules conduct rules dichotomy in the Jewish law context, clarifying how analysis of which category a given law falls under enhances our understanding of the law s intent. Daniel Sinclair explores the doctrine of normative transparency in the writings of Maimonides, the Hatam Sofer, and R. Abraham Isaac Kook, demonstrating that although transparency was universally endorsed as an ideal, some rabbinical authorities were willing to forego transparency where maintenance of the halakhic system itself was imperiled. An article by Alfredo M. Rabello reviews the primary and secondary literature on end-of-life issues, and contextualizes the much-discussed talmudic passage bAvoda Zara 18a. And an article by Chaim Saiman offers a critical survey of the main approaches to conceptualizing and teaching Jewish law in American universities; it also makes suggestions for new, and perhaps more illuminating pedagogic direction. In the Hebrew section, an intriguing article by Berachyahu Lifshitz presents a comparison of Persian and talmudic law on the status of promises and the role of the divine in their enforcement. Yuval Sinai discusses the halakhic law of evidence, particularly the well-known "two witnesses" requirement and departures from it. The volume closes with a historical article by Elimelech Westreich on the official rabbinical court in nineteenth century Jerusalem. It focuses on the rabbinical figures who served on the court, the communities for whom it adjudicated, and its role in the broader geopolitical and sociocultural context.

First published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

First published in 1931, this is an attempt by the great economist J. A. Hobson to analyse the relations between economics and religion. After considering the origins of the conflicts and compromises between God and Mammon in the life of primitive man, the author concerns himself primarily with medieval and modern Christianity and the business climate and ethos corresponding with these periods. In particular he focuses upon Catholicism and Protestantism, before considering the attitude of the church towards modern economic movements.

This book examines the theory of consciousness developed by the school of Recognition, an Indian philosophical tradition that thrived around the tenth c. CE in Kashmir, and argues that consciousness has a linguistic nature. It situates the doctrines of the tradition within the broader Indian philosophical context and establishes connections with the contemporary analytic debate. The book focuses on Utpaladeva and Abhinavagupta (tenth c. CE), two Hindu intellectuals belonging to the school of Recognition, Pratyabhijñā in Sanskrit. It argues that these authors promoted ideas that bear a strong resemblance with contemporary ‘higher–order theories’ of consciousness. In addition, the book explores the relationship between the thinkers of the school of Recognition and the thought of the grammarian/philosopher Bhartṛhari (fifth c. CE). The book bridges a gap that still exists between scholars engaged with Western traditions and Sanskrit specialists focused on textual materials. In doing so, the author uses concepts from contemporary philosophy of mind to illustrate the Indian arguments and an interdisciplinary approach with abundant reference to the original sources. Offering fresh information to historians of Indian thought, the book will also be of interest to academics working on Non-Western Philosophy, Comparative Philosophy, Indian Philosophy, Religion, Hinduism, Tantric Studies and South Asian Studies.

The Sacred Men's Club examines the global struggle of religious conservatism against women's rights, and the ways in which a rise in the power of organised religions in western countries in the last two decades affects the lives of women. Institutionalised religion is, as feminist theorist Mary Daly points out, a sacred men's club'. The rise of religious ideals and movements in world politics can be understood as representing a movement focusing on men's rights and power. Contrary to this lies the marginalisation of women in religion and religious power structure. The book explores and provides: * a feminist critique of the politics of religion * a view that the contemporary rise of religion endangers the rights of women in two ways: on the world stage through the United Nations, and in western democracies through multifaithism and desecularisation. * concrete examples of the ways in which the rise of religion affects women's status by looking at polygamy and dress practices. Following on from The Industrial Vagina, Sheila Jeffrey's incisive and often controversial views provide a polemical and radical re-envisioning of some of the most important issues in the fields of religion, politics and gender studies.

Traditionally, the human soul is regarded as a nonphysical concept that can only be examined by psychiatrists and theologists. In his new book, The Astonishing Hypothesis, Nobel Laureate Francis Crick boldly straddles the line between science and spirituality by examining the soul from the standpoint of a modern scientist, basing the soul's existence and function on an in-depth examination of how the human brain "sees."

Comprehensive, multidisciplinary analysis of contemporary Japan Features leading scholars from around the globe providing an insiders' view on what happened in Japan and why its significant for understanding the challenges of a nation facing stark dilemmas Delves deeply into the layers of a complex and increasingly diverse society in the context of simmering ethnonationalism, economic torpor, political stagnation and cultural dynamism One of the few volumes to provide insights from the social sciences and humanities Asia is in flux and here we examine how this is forcing Japan to question longstanding verities and values and what this portends for its future and regional relations

Blending material from social work with religious and spiritual sources, this book makes explicit that engaging with spirituality in its broadest sense is an essential aspect of socially just social work practice. Gardner connects shared understandings of spiritual/religious traditions, critically reflective social work, First Nations relational world views, green and relational approaches. Through multiple unique case studies, Embedding Spirituality and Religion in Social Work Practice: A Socially Just Approach outlines the theoretical framework of critical spirituality, which is explored as a way of workers' understanding their own and others' sense of meaning, whether it is spiritual and/or religious, and to encourage workers to be mindful, open, humble and energised as workers. Combining the theoretical and practical, this book outlines strategies and processes to ensure social workers embed spirituality in their practice constructively and inclusively across all areas of practice. This book will be of interest to those engaged in the wider field of social work, from direct service to policy development.

Contemporary studies on Syria assume that the country's Ba'thist regime has been effective in subduing its Islamic opposition, placing Syria at odds with the Middle East's larger trends of rising Islamic activism and the eclipse of secular ideologies as the primary source of political activism. Yet this assumption founders when confronted with the clear resurgence in Islamic militantism in the country since 2004. This book examines Syria's current political reality as regards its Islamic movement, describing the country's present day Islamic groups -- particularly their social profile and ideology -- and offering an explanation of their resurgence. The analysis focuses on: * Who are today's Syrian Islamic groups? * Why and how are they re-emerging after 22 years of relative silence as an important socio-economic and political force? * How is the Syrian state dealing with their re-emergence in light of Syria's secularism and ideologically diverse society? Bridging area studies, Islamic studies, and political science, this book will be an important reference for those working within the fields of Comparative Politics, Political Economy, and Middle Eastern Studies.

This book draws on extensive fieldwork among Muslims in Nepal to examine the local and global factors that shape contemporary Muslim identity and the emerging Islamic revival movement based in the Kathmandu valley. Nepal's Muslims are active participants in the larger global movement of Sunni revival as well as in Nepal's own local politics of representation. The book traces how these two worlds are lived and brought together in the context of Nepal's transition to secularism, and explores Muslim struggles for self-definition and belonging against a backdrop of historical marginalization and an unprecedented episode of anti-Muslim violence in 2004.

Through the voices and experiences of Muslims themselves, the book examines Nepal 's most influential Islamic organizations for what they reveal about contemporary movements of revival among religious minorities on the margins--both geographic and social--of the so-called Islamic world. It reveals that Islamic revival is both a complex response to the challenges faced by modern minority communities in this historically Hindu kingdom and a movement to cultivate new modes of thought and piety among Nepal 's Muslims.

This text examines the history, theory, cultural context, and professional aspects of media and religion. While religion has been explored more fully in psychology, sociology, anthropology, and the humanities, there is no clear bridge of understanding to the communication discipline. Daniel A. Stout tackles this issue by providing a roadmap for examining this understudied area so that discussions about media and religion can more easily proceed.

Offering great breadth, this text covers key concepts and historical highlights; world religions, denominations, and cultural religion; and religion and specific media genres. The text also includes key terms and questions to ponder for every chapter, and concludes with an in-class learning activity that can be used to encourage students to explore the media religion interface and review the essential ideas presented in the book.

Media and Religion is an ideal introduction for undergraduate students in need of a foundation for this emerging field.

Religious authority and political power have existed in complex relationships throughout India 's history. The centuries of the early modern in South Asia saw particularly dynamic developments in this relationship. Regional as well as imperial states of the period expanded their religious patronage, while new sectarian centres of doctrinal and spiritual authority emerged beyond the confines of the state. Royal and merchant patronage stimulated the growth of new classes of mobile intellectuals deeply committed to the reappraisal of many aspects of religious law and doctrine. Supra-regional institutions and networks of many other kinds - sect-based religious maths, pilgrimage centres and their guardians, sants and sufi orders - flourished, offering greater mobility to wider communities of the pious. This was also a period of growing vigour in the development of vernacular religious literatures of different kinds, and often of new genres blending elements of older devotional, juridical and historical literatures. Oral and manuscript literatures too gained more rapid circulation, although the meaning and canonical status of texts frequently changed as they circulated more widely and reached larger lay audiences.

Through explorations of these developments, the essays in this collection make a distinctive contribution to a critical formative period in the making of India 's modern religious cultures.

This book was published as a special issue of South Asian History and Culture.

Aims to do for Religious Education what developmental psychology has already done for learning in science, maths and literacy. Informed by research with both children and teachers and offers perspectives from a range of faiths and traditions - Christian, Hindu, Muslim and Jewish. Essential reading for all developmental psychologists researching religious and spiritual development, and special teachers and researchers of RE who want to better understand children's knowledge, teaching and learning.

A dynamic and authoritative collection on material religion with contributions from leading figures in the field. Deep and thorough coverage of material religion, essential for any student religious studies and media studies. The Handbook will also be very useful for those in related fields, such as cultural studies, sociology, anthropology, and art history.

Godwired offers an engaging exploration of religious practice in the digital age. It considers how virtual experiences, like stories, games and rituals, are forms of world-building or "cosmos construction" that serve as a means of making sense of our own world. Such creative and interactive activity is, arguably, patently religious. This book examines: the nature of sacred space in virtual contexts technology as a vehicle for sacred texts who we are when we go online what rituals have in common with games and how they work online what happens to community when people worship online how religious "worlds" and virtual "worlds" nurture similar desires. Rachel Wagner suggests that whilst our engagement with virtual reality can be viewed as a form of religious activity, today's virtual religion marks a radical departure from traditional religious practice - it is ephemeral, transient, rapid, disposable, hyper-individualized, hybrid, and in an ongoing state of flux.

This book analyses the root causes of suicide terrorism at both the elite and rank-and- file levels of the Hamas and also explains why this tactic has disappeared in the post-2006 period. This volume adopts a multi-causal, multi-level approach to analyse the use of suicide bombings by Hamas and its individual operatives in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It uses extensive fieldwork and on-the-ground interviews in order to delve beneath the surface and understand why and how suicide operations were adopted as a sustained mechanism of engagement within the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Three core factors fuelled Hamas's suicide bombing campaigns. First, Palestinian suicide operations are a complex combination of instrumental and expressive violence adopted by both organisations and individuals to achieve political and/or societal survival, retaliation and competition. In other words, suicide bombings not only serve distinct political and strategic goals for both Hamas and its operatives but they also serve to convey a symbolic message to various audiences, within Israel, the Palestinian territories and around the world. Second, suicide operations perform a crucial role in the formation and consolidation of Palestinian national identity and are also the latest manifestation of the historically entrenched cultural norm of militant heroic martyrdom. Finally, Hamas's use of political Islam also facilitates the articulation, justification and legitimisation of suicide operations as a modern-day jihad against Israel through the means of modern interpretations and fatwas. This approach not only facilitates a much needed, multifaceted, holistic understanding of suicide bombings in this particular region but also yields policy-relevant lessons to address extreme political violence in other parts of the world. This book will be of much interest to students of Hamas, terrorism, Middle East politics and security studies.

Religious belief is an extremely powerful motivator of human behaviour. Religious considerations permeate and influence all parts of a culture. Religious systems are universal in human cultures, around the world and through all stages of human history and prehistory. Of all academic approaches to religion, the anthropological approach is the most comprehensive and the most useful to students of human belief and behaviour, because it examines religion as a cultural system that cannot fully be understood separated from the other systems with which it interacts. This new four-volume collection from Routledge assembles exemplary scholarship in the field from its Victorian beginnings to the present, and represents all generally accepted categories of religious belief and ritual, plus some new ones. Topics covered include: 'Early Explorations'; 'Symbols'; 'Supernatural Beings'; 'Magical Power and Forces'; 'Human Agents of Supernatural Danger'; 'Myth'; 'Ritual'; 'Religious Practitioners'; 'Women and Gender'; 'Belief'; 'Ecology'; 'Mind and Body-Neurobiological Bases'; and 'Religion in Socio-Cultural Change'. The first volume is prefaced with a general introduction newly written by the editor which outlines the history and salient aspects of the anthropological concern for religion, and introduces the specific sections of the work. Each thematic part also includes a short introduction to set the gathered materials in context. Anthropology of Religion is destined to be valued by scholars, students, researchers, and practitioners as an essential one-stop reference.

Mawlana Mawdudi was one of the most influential and important Islamic thinkers of the modern world, whose brand of political Islam has won widespread acceptance in South and South East Asia as well as the Middle East. He was not only an Islamic scholar, but also a journalist and political activist who founded the Jama?at-i-Islami, which has subsequently influenced the development of many Islamic movements and parties throughout the Muslim world.

This book is the first to critically engage and assess his career and legacy within the wider context of political Islam. It includes coverage of his early life and influences, and examines his considerable influence in the contemporary Islamic world. The issues that were a concern for Mawdudi and continue to have resonance for our world today include such questions as the role of women in Islam, the possibilities for democracy in an Islamic state, the importance of jihad, and the moral and religious responsibility of the individual. Whilst focus is on Mawdudi's life and writings, this is placed within the wider context of topical, often contentious, Islamic thought. ?

Providing an up-to-date and detailed critical study of Mawlana Mawdudi and many issues surrounding political Islam both in his time and today, this book will be an important text for scholars of Islamic Studies, Political Science and Philosophy.

"Spots of a leopard - on being a man" is a quest to discover the meaning of life in this day and age. When internationally acclaimed journalist Aernout Zevenbergen moved to Kenya in 1997, he had no idea how deeply his encounters with joy and sorrow in Africa would effect him. Writing about the most inspiring as well as the most disconcerting facets of life, Zevenbergen goes onto a subtle journey of self-discovery. What is love? If it takes a village to raise a child, does it also take a village to bury one? How does romance play a role in our lives? When is a man considered to be a good father? Can friendship conquer loneliness? What gives strength and inspiration when the going gets tough? Zevenbergen discusses these questions with a wide variety of men; from truckers to bikers, from paupers to presidents, from warriors to widowers. 'We are leopards wiping away their spots.' The author asks questions few have dared to ask men. Faced with their honesty, the author finds the courage to finally grow up as well. === Matthew Fox (author of 'The Hidden Spirituality of Men'): 'Your story telling is very powerful and moving and altogether creates a tapestry that gets one thinking strong thoughts and asking important questions.' The Weekender: 'Zevenbergen has a true talent for getting people to open up and speak their hearts' Cape Argus: 'Wordsmith: Aernout Zevenbergen has written beautifully crafted essays' Jury report Dick Scherpenzeel Foundation: 'He portrays in an extremely skillful way the face of traditions-in-flux.' Olivia Umurerwa Rutazibwa - politics.be: 'By voicing his own doubts and questions and by openly reflecting upon his own life, the journalistic stories get a beautiful human face.' Biblion: 'An extremely well written work on a topic for which there has been little attention.'

This book is about Christian mentality, a matter of some consequence for the way we think about our communities, others, and the nation. The focus is on the social issues currently under discussion in the United States, a discussion that reveals an uncertainty about the reasons that have been taken for granted in forming our policies and practices as a nation. The thesis of the book is that the narrative grammar of the Christian myth is entangled with the underlying reasons for these policies and practices, reasons that are rooted in our self-understanding as an exceptional nation of manifest destiny. The correlations between this self-understanding and the social grammar of the Christian myth is the challenge that confronts the efforts now underway to reimagine and restructure a society that is not a Christian nation, but a polycultural people seeking to clarify their vision of a social democracy.

As #MeToo and its sister movement #ChurchToo demonstrated, sexual violence is systemic in many and varied workplace settings, including Christian churches, and can destroy women's careers and vocational aspirations. The study draws on empirical evidence - personal stories from survivors and the views of church leaders and educators - in dialogue with theoretical perspectives, to consider clergy sexual abuse of adult women and the conditions that support it. Institutional abuse only changes when survivors come forward. This study focusses on New Zealand Anglicanism, the locus of the author's experience, and has resonance for a range of denominational settings. It aims to be a useful resource to clergy, ministry educators, and those training for ministry, and to academics and scholars with an interest in theology, gender, and professional ethics. Notably, it will be a potentially helpful text for women survivors of sexual misconduct by clergy, not least those who are considering a future in the church or grieving the loss of one. The volume concludes by suggesting that alternative theological models and relational ethics are essential if the church is to truly address the problem of clergy sexual abuse and give greater priority to the abused.