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Books > Religion & Spirituality > Non-Christian religions
The first Christians to encounter Islam were not Latin-speakers
from the western Mediterranean or Greek-speakers from
Constantinople but Mesopotamian Christians who spoke the Aramaic
dialect of Syriac. Under Muslim rule from the seventh century
onward, Syriac Christians wrote the most extensive descriptions
extant of early Islam. Seldom translated and often omitted from
modern historical reconstructions, this vast body of texts reveals
a complicated and evolving range of religious and cultural
exchanges that took place from the seventh to the ninth century.
The first book-length analysis of these earliest encounters,
Envisioning Islam highlights the ways these neglected texts
challenge the modern scholarly narrative of early Muslim conquests,
rulers, and religious practice. Examining Syriac sources including
letters, theological tracts, scientific treatises, and histories,
Michael Philip Penn reveals a culture of substantial interreligious
interaction in which the categorical boundaries between
Christianity and Islam were more ambiguous than distinct. The
diversity of ancient Syriac images of Islam, he demonstrates,
revolutionizes our understanding of the early Islamic world and
challenges widespread cultural assumptions about the history of
exclusively hostile Christian-Muslim relations.
In this book, the author, with his extensive knowledge of the Pali
canon (the earliest texts of Buddhism), argues that, in his
lifetime, the Buddha and his mission were regarded quite
differently to the manner in which they are presented today. Far
from being seen as one teaching a means of liberation for all to
follow, he was instead regarded - as is still the typical Indian
guru - as one imparting teachings only to those whom he deemed
capable of benefiting from them. In the story of initiation as
recorded in the "Nikayas" (discourses of the Buddha compiled by his
contemporaries immediately following his death), this book presents
evidence that makes it clear that salvation in early Buddhism
depended upon the saving intervention of the Buddha's grace and
that, contrary to the now commonly accepted view of Buddhism as a
rationalistic philosophy of self-endeavour, the picture that
emerges from a careful examination of the canonical texts is one of
Buddhism as a revealed religion in every sense of the term, and the
Buddha as every bit the divine guru. In considering the
relationship of Buddhism to the Brahmanic (Hindu) tradition, this
book shows that the Buddha was critical of the Brahmins solely on
the grounds that they no longer lived up to the social and
religious ideals associated with their predecessors, and that, if
the Buddha was a reformer, this was only so in the sense that he
advocated a return to the former conservatism of Vedic India.
This volume focuses on the migration and acculturation of images in
Jewish culture and how that reflects intercultural exchange. Gender
aspects of Jewish art are also highlighted, as is the role of
images in interreligious encounters. Other topics covered include
the history, codicology, and iconography of a Haggadah produced in
the late fifteenth century.
Nirmala S. Salgado offers a groundbreaking study of the politics of
representation of Buddhist nuns. Challenging assumptions about
writing on gender and Buddhism, Salgado raises important
theoretical questions about the applicability of liberal feminist
concepts and language to the practices of Buddhist nuns. Based on
extensive research in Sri Lanka as well as on interviews with
Theravada and Tibetan nuns from around the world, Salgado's study
invites a reconsideration of female renunciation. How do scholarly
narratives continue to be complicit in reinscribing colonialist and
patriarchal stories about Buddhist women? In what ways have recent
debates contributed to the construction of the subject of the
Theravada bhikkhuni? How do key Buddhist concepts such as dukkha,
samsara, and sila ground female renunciant practices? Salgado's
provocative analysis of modern discourses about the supposed
empowerment of nuns challenges interpretations of female
renunciation articulated in terms of secular notions such as
''freedom'' in renunciation, and questions the idea that the higher
ordination of nuns constitutes a movement in which female
renunciants act as agents seeking to assert their autonomy in a
struggle against patriarchal norms. Salgado argues that the concept
of a global sisterhood of nuns-an idea grounded in a notion of
equality as a universal ideal-promotes a discourse of dominance
about the lives of non-Western women and calls for more nuanced
readings of the everyday renunciant practices and lives of Buddhist
nuns. Buddhist Nuns and Gendered Practice is essential reading for
anyone interested in the connections between religion and power,
subjectivity and gender, and feminism and postcolonialism.
The Man Who Inspired the World's Fastest-Growing Religion
"Muhammad" presents a fascinating portrait of the founder of a
religion that continues to change the course of world history.
Muhammad's story is more relevant than ever because it offers
crucial insight into the true origins of an increasingly
radicalized Islam. Countering those who dismiss Islam as fanatical
and violent, Armstrong offers a clear, accessible, and balanced
portrait of the central figure of one of the world's great
religions.
Written in 1938, Composite Nationalism and Islam laid out in
systematic form the positions that the author had taken in speeches
and letters from the early 1920s on the question of nationalism as
well as other related issues of national importance. The book aimed
at opposing the divisive policy of Mohammad Ali Jinnah and the
Muslim League. It mainly deals with two aspects, i.e. the meaning
of the term qaum and how it is distinct from the term millat, and
secondly, the crucial distinction between these two words and their
true meanings in the holy Koran and the Hadith tradition. By
proposing composite nationalism, this important book strongly
argues that despite cultural, linguistic and religious differences,
the people of India are but one nation. According to the author,
any effort to divide Indians on the basis of religion, caste,
culture, ethnicity and language is a ploy of the ruling power.
This volume addresses the interplay of hadith and ethics and
contributes to examining the emerging field of hadith-based ethics.
The chapters cover four different sections: noble virtues (makarim
al-akhlaq) and virtuous acts (fada'il al-a'mal); concepts (adab,
tahbib, 'uzla); disciplines (hadith transmission, gender ethics);
and individual and key traditions (the hadith of intention, consult
your heart, key hadiths). The volume concludes with a
chronologically ordered annotated bibliography of the key primary
sources in the Islamic tradition with relevance to understanding
the interplay of hadith and ethics. This volume will be beneficial
to researchers in the fields of Islamic ethics, hadith studies,
moral philosophy, scriptural ethics, religious ethics, and
narrative ethics, in addition to Islamic and religious studies in
general. Contributors Faqihuddin Abdul Kodir, Nuha Alshaar, Safwan
Amir, Khairil Husaini Bin Jamil, Pieter Coppens, Chafik Graiguer,
M. Imran Khan, Mutaz al-Khatib, Salahudheen Kozhithodi and Ali
Altaf Mian. . " " " ". . : : ( ) ( ) . . : . .
Yogacara and Tathagatagarbha are often regarded as antagonistic
Indian Buddhist traditions. Paramartha (499-569) is traditionally
credited with amalgamating these philosophies by translating one of
the most influential Tathagatagarbha texts in East Asia, the
Awakening of Faith in Mahayana, and introducing Tathagatagarbha
notions into his translations of Yogacara texts. Engaging with the
digitalized Chinese Buddhist canon, Ching Keng draws on clues from
a long-lost Dunhuang fragment and considers its striking
similarities with Paramartha's corpus with respect to terminology,
style of phrasing, and doctrines. In this cutting-edge
interpretation of the concept of jiexing, Keng demystifies the
image of Paramartha and makes the case that the fragment holds the
key to recover his original teachings.
In this volume, Alessandro Grazi offers the first intellectual
biography of the Italian Jewish writer and politician David Levi
(1816-1898). In this intriguing journey through the mysterious
rites of Freemasonry and the bizarre worldviews of
Saint-Simonianism, you can discover Levi's innovative
interpretation of Judaism and its role in modernity. As a champion
of dialogue with Catholic intellectuals, Levi's importance
transcends the Jewish world. The second part of the book presents
an unpublished document, Levi's comedy "Il Mistero delle Tre
Melarancie", a phantasmagorical adventure in search of his Jewish
identity, with an English translation of its most relevant excerpt.
The study of religions is essential for understanding other
cultures, building a sense of belonging in a multicultural world
and fostering a global intercultural dialogue. Exploring Chinese
religions as one interlocutor in this dialogue, Diana Arghirescu
engages with Song-dynasty Confucian and Buddhist theoretical
developments through a detailed study of the original texts of the
Chan scholar-monk Qisong (1007-1072) and the Neo-Confucian master
Zhu Xi (1130-1200). Starting with these figures, she builds an
interpretive theory focusing on "ethical interrelatedness" and
proposes it as a theoretical tool for the study of the Chinese
religious traditions. By actively engaging with other contemporary
theories of religion and refusing to approach Chinese religions
with Western frameworks, Arghirescu's comparative perspective makes
it possible to uncover differences between the various Western and
Chinese cultural presuppositions upon which these theories are
built. As such, this book breaks new ground in the methodology of
religious studies, comparative philosophy and furthers our
understanding of the Confucian-Buddhist interaction.
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