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Books > Religion & Spirituality
From beloved spiritual writer and Catholic leader Gregory Floyd
comes a moving meditation on the power of memory and how God is
often more clearly seen when we look back. This is a book about
memory, about what stays in the mind, and why. It is a book about
the presence of God in our lives and the sights, sounds, words, and
experiences that become unforgettable. Beginning with a single word
he heard in the middle of the night-one that changed his life-this
powerful memoir by Gregory Floyd asks the question: without memory,
who are we? It is a meditation on beauty, marriage, family, and
prayer, asking of the memories that each implants: what do they
reveal? Where do they lead? -and witnessing to their potential to
draw us to God.
In Ancient Egypt: State and Society, Alan B. Lloyd attempts to
define, analyse, and evaluate the institutional and ideological
systems which empowered and sustained one of the most successful
civilizations of the ancient world for a period in excess of three
and a half millennia. The volume adopts the premise that all
societies are the product of a continuous dialogue with their
physical context - understood in the broadest sense - and that, in
order to achieve a successful symbiosis with this context, they
develop an interlocking set of systems, defined by historians,
archaeologists, and anthropologists as culture. Culture, therefore,
can be described as the sum total of the methods employed by a
group of human beings to achieve some measure of control over their
environment. Covering the entirety of the civilization, and
featuring a large number of up-to-date translations of original
Egyptian texts, Ancient Egypt focuses on the main aspects of
Egyptian culture which gave the society its particular character,
and endeavours to establish what allowed the Egyptians to maintain
that character for an extraordinary length of time, despite
enduring cultural shock of many different kinds.
This is a brief, accessible introduction to the thought of the
philosopher John Buridan (ca. 1295-1361). Little is known about
Buridan's life, most of which was spent studying and then teaching
at the University of Paris. Buridan's works are mostly by-products
of his teaching. They consist mainly of commentaries on Aristotle,
covering the whole extent of Aristotelian philosophy, ranging from
logic to metaphysics, to natural science, to ethics and politics.
Aside from these running commentaries on Aristotle's texts, Buridan
wrote influential question-commentaries. These were a typical genre
of the medieval scholastic output, in which the authors
systematically and thoroughly discussed the most problematic issues
raised by the text they were lecturing on. The question-format
allowed Buridan to work out in detail his characteristically
nominalist take on practically all aspects of Aristotelian
philosophy, using the conceptual tools he developed in his works on
logic. Buridan's influence in the late Middle Ages can hardly be
overestimated. His ideas quickly spread not only through his own
works, but to an even larger extent through the work of his
students and younger colleagues, such as Nicholas Oresme,
Marisilius of Inghen, and Albert of Saxony, who in turn became very
influential themselves, and turned Buridan's ideas into standard
textbook material in the curricula of many late medieval European
universities. With the waning of scholasticism Buridan's fame
quickly faded. Gyula Klima argues, however, that many of Buridan's
academic concerns are strikingly similar to those of modern
philosophy and his work sometimes quite directly addresses modern
philosophical questions.
The academic study of death rose to prominence during the 1960s.
Courses on some aspect of death and dying can now be found at most
institutions of higher learning. These courses tend to stress the
psycho-social aspects of grief and bereavement, however, ignoring
the religious elements inherent to the subject. This collection is
the first to address the teaching of courses on death and dying
from a religious-studies perspective.
The book is divided into seven sections. The hope is that this
volume will not only assist teachers in religious studies
departments to prepare to teach unfamiliar and emotionally charged
material, but also help to unify a field that is now widely
scattered across several disciplines.
If man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that
proceeds from the mouth of God, then Johann Starck has provided a
bread basket for the Church with his Prayer-Book. This book of
daily prayers, hymns, poetry, and devotions presents in every
syllable the Bread that has come down from heaven. Written as daily
nourishment in the Word of God, this book also lends itself to
meditation and prayer during many of life's peculiar situations.
Professor Dau describes Starck well when he writes, "Starck loved
nothing sensational, nothing that was for mere display in matters
of religion. Christian life, to him, was real and earnest, to be
conducted in a sober mind. He was always bent on its practical
applications to every pursuit and action, and on enlisting really
the whole of a person in the service of the Master." When
Christians nourish their souls daily with meditation upon the Word
of God and the Sacraments, faith is strengthened. The Bread of Life
fills hearts and minds, and Christ finds expression in the world
through Christian life and speech. A contemporary pastor said it
best when he said "Starck gives Christians a daily helping of
meditation in God's Word, and leads them to satisfaction in their
vocational tasks."
Of the spiritual odysseys which dominate the literature of
nineteenth-century England, Newman's Apologia Pro Vita Sua is
universally acknowledged as one of the greatest and yet one of the
most difficult. Newman wrote the Apologia in 1864, as a reply to
Charles Kingsley's attack on his veracity and that of his fellow
Roman Catholic clergy; the following year he revised it extensively
and thereafter amended new impressions almost until his death in
1890. This fine edition, long unavailable, has been reissued for
the centenary; it includes all the variants resulting from Newman's
revisions, in both the printed texts and the surviving manuscripts.
William Penn, the might of Pittsburgh steel and the Revolutionary
figures of Philadelphia dominate the scene of Pennsylvania history.
Thomas White brings together a collection of tales that have been
cast in the shadows by these giants of the Keystone State. From the
1869 storm that pelted Chester County with snails to the bloody end
of the Cooley gang, White selects events with an eye for the
humorous and strange. Mostly true accounts of cannibalistic feasts,
goat-rescuing lawmen, heroic goldfish, the funeral of a gypsy queen
and a Pittsburgh canine whose obituary was featured in the "New
York Times" all leap from the lost pages of history.
Damn Great Empires! offers a new perspective on the works of
William James by placing his encounter with American imperialism at
the center of his philosophical vision. This book reconstructs
James's overlooked political thought by treating his
anti-imperialist Nachlass - his speeches, essays, notes, and
correspondence on the United States' annexation of the Philippines
- as the key to the political significance of his celebrated
writings on psychology, religion, and philosophy. It shows how
James located a craving for authority at the heart of empire as a
way of life, a craving he diagnosed and unsettled through his
insistence on a modern world without ultimate foundations.
Livingston explores the persistence of political questions in
James's major works, from his writings on the self in The
Principles of Psychology to the method of Pragmatism, the study of
faith and conversion in The Varieties of Religious Experience, and
the metaphysical inquiries in A Pluralistic Universe. Against the
common view of James as a thinker who remained silent on questions
of politics, this book places him in dialogue with champions and
critics of American imperialism, from Theodore Roosevelt to W. E.
B. Du Bois, as well as a transatlantic critique of modernity, in
order to excavate James's anarchistic political vision. Bringing
the history of political thought into conversation with
contemporary debates in political theory, Damn Great Empires!
offers a fresh and original reexamination of the political
consequences of pragmatism as a public philosophy.
How, if at all, do Muslims and non-Muslims differ? The question
spurs spirited discussion among people the world over, in Muslim
and non-Muslim lands alike, but we still lack answers based on
sound empirical evidence. This book engages a set of the biggest
issues using rigorous methods and data drawn from around the globe.
It reveals that in some areas Muslims and non-Muslims differ less
than is commonly imagined, and shows that Muslims are not unusually
religious or inclined to favor the fusion of religious and
political authority. Nor are Muslims especially prone to mass
political violence. Yet in some areas Muslims and non-Muslims
diverge: Gender inequality is more severe among Muslims, Muslims
are unusually intolerant of homosexuality and other controversial
behaviors, and democracy is rare in the Muslim world. Other areas
of divergence bear the marks of a Muslim advantage: Violent crime
and class-based inequities are less severe among Muslims than
non-Muslims. Committed to discovering social facts rather than
either stoking prejudices or stroking political sensibilities, Are
Muslims Distinctive? represents the first major scientific effort
to assess how Muslims and non-Muslims differ-and do not differ-in
the contemporary world. Its findings have vital implications for
human welfare, interfaith understanding, and the foreign policies
of the United States and other Western countries.
Written from the perspective of the various denominations that thrived in the 19th century, this comprehensive survey of the middle period in America's religious past actually starts a little earlier, in the 1780s. In the aftermath of the American Revolution, the citizens of the newly-minted republic had to cope with more than the havoc wreaked on churches and denominations by the war. They also tasted for the first time the effects of two novel ideas incorporated in the Constitution and the First Amendment: the separation of church and state and the freedom to practice any religion. Grant Wacker takes readers on a lively tour of the numerous religions and the major historical challenges--from the Civil War and westward expansion to immigration and the Industrial Revolution--that defined the century. The narrative focuses on the rapid growth of evangelical Protestants, in denominations such as Methodists, Presbyterians, and Baptists, and their competition for dominance with new immigrants' religions such as Catholicism and Judaism. The author discusses issues ranging from temperance to Sunday schools and introduces the personalities--sometimes colorful, sometimes saintly, and often both--of the men and women who shaped American religion in the 19th century, including Methodist bishop Francis Asbury, ex-slave Sojourner Truth, Christian Science founder Mary Baker Eddy, and evangelist Dwight L. Moody. Religion in American Life explores the evolution, character, and dynamics of organized religion in America from 1500 to the present day. Written by distinguished religious historians, these books weave together the varying stories that compose the religious fabric of the United States, from Puritanism to alternative religious practices. Primary source material coupled with handsome illustrations and lucid text make these books essential in any exploration of America's diverse nature. Each book includes a chronology, suggestions for further reading, and index.
Most of us believe everything happens for a reason. Whether it is
"God's will," "karma", or "fate," we want to believe that an
overarching purpose undergirds everything, and that nothing in the
world, especially a disaster or tragedy, is a random, meaningless
event. Abraham's Dice explores the interplay between chance and
randomness, as well as between providence and divine action in the
monotheistic religious traditions, looking at how their interaction
has been conceptualized as our understanding of the workings of
nature has changed. This lively historical conversation has
generated intense and engaging theological debates, and provocative
responses from science: what of the history of our universe, where
chance and law have played out in complex ways? Or the evolution of
life, where random mutations have challenged attempts to find
purpose within evolution and convinced many that human beings are a
"glorious accident." The enduring belief that everything happens
for a reason is examined through a conversation with major
scholars, among them holders of prestigious chairs at Oxford and
Cambridge universities and the University of Basel, as well as
several Gifford lecturers, and two Templeton prize winners. Now, as
never before, confident scientific assertions that the world
embodies a profound contingency are challenging theological claims
that God acts providentially in the world. The random and
meandering path of evolution is widely used as an argument that God
did not create life. Organized historically, Abraham's Dice
provides a wide-ranging scientific, theological, and biblical
foundation to address the question of divine action in a world shot
through with contingency.
Kabir was a great iconoclastic-mystic poet of fifteenth-century
North India; his poems were composed orally, written down by others
in manuscripts and books, and transmitted through song. Scholars
and translators usually attend to written collections, but these
present only a partial picture of the Kabir who has remained
vibrantly alive through the centuries mostly in oral forms.
Entering the worlds of singers and listeners in rural Madhya
Pradesh, Bodies of Song combines ethnographic and textual study in
exploring how oral transmission and performance shape the content
and interpretation of vernacular poetry in North India. The book
investigates textual scholars' study of oral-performative
traditions in a milieu where texts move simultaneously via oral,
written, audio/video-recorded, and electronic pathways. As texts
and performances are always socially embedded, Linda Hess brings
readers into the lives of those who sing, hear, celebrate, revere,
and dispute about Kabir. Bodies of Song is rich in stories of
individuals and families, villages and towns, religious and secular
organizations, castes and communities. Dialogue between
religious/spiritual Kabir and social/political Kabir is a
continuous theme throughout the book: ambiguously located between
Hindu and Muslim cultures, Kabir rejected religious identities,
pretentions, and hypocrisies. But even while satirizing the
religious, he composed stunning poetry of religious experience and
psychological insight. A weaver by trade, Kabir also criticized
caste and other inequalities and today serves as an icon for Dalits
and all who strive to remove caste prejudice and oppression.
The fully anglicized text uses the accurate and accessible ERV
(Easy-to-Read Version) translation. The contemporary language makes
the ERV Holy Bible easy to get into, so that you can get a lot out
of it! Many extra features are included to help you understand the
Bible, including introductions to each Bible book, 164 studies that
dig deeper into key passages, and 275 insight boxes that help
explain the meaning of certain verses. The ERV Holy Bible is the
perfect choice to help you get into the Bible for yourself and
develop strong foundations in the faith. Content Benefits: The ERV
Holy Bible is a contemporary and accessible translation that is
bursting with extra features that will help you understand and live
out God's Word today. * Contemporary translation which is relevant
and accurate * Simple to understand * Anglicized text, with UK
spelling and grammar * Ideal for new Christians or anyone just
starting out reading the Bible * Perfect for anyone wanting to dig
deeper into the Bible * Introductory notes size up the setting and
discover the Who, When and What of each Bible book * Introductions
to both the Old and New Testaments help set the scene * 164 Bible
Bit pages help you dig deeper and explore key passages * 275
Insight boxes enable you to probe passages and explore the meaning
of verses * Easy to read type in two columns * Font size 8.5pt * A
dictionary helps explains difficult or key words * How to read the
Bible section helps readers get started * Maps of key periods * A
list of Bible verses to help in various situations * Presentation
page * Ribbon marker * Adapted from the Authentic Youth Bible
Twenty-five years ago, when Pat Robertson and other radio and
televangelists first spoke of the United States becoming a
Christian nation that would build a global Christian empire, it was
hard to take such hyperbolic rhetoric seriously. Today, such
language no longer sounds like hyperbole but poses, instead, a very
real threat to our freedom and our way of life. In "American
Fascists, " Chris Hedges, veteran journalist and author of the
National Book Award finalist "War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning,
" challenges the Christian Right's religious legitimacy and argues
that at its core it is a mass movement fueled by unbridled
nationalism and a hatred for the open society.
Hedges, who grew up in rural parishes in upstate New York where
his father was a Presbyterian pastor, attacks the movement as
someone steeped in the Bible and Christian tradition. He points to
the hundreds of senators and members of Congress who have earned
between 80 and 100 percent approval ratings from the three most
influential Christian Right advocacy groups as one of many signs
that the movement is burrowing deep inside the American government
to subvert it. The movement's call to dismantle the wall between
church and state and the intolerance it preaches against all who do
not conform to its warped vision of a Christian America are pumped
into tens of millions of American homes through Christian
television and radio stations, as well as reinforced through the
curriculum in Christian schools. The movement's yearning for
apocalyptic violence and its assault on dispassionate, intellectual
inquiry are laying the foundation for a new, frightening
America.
"American Fascists, " which includes interviews and coverage of
events such as pro-life rallies and weeklong classes on conversion
techniques, examines the movement's origins, its driving
motivations and its dark ideological underpinnings. Hedges argues
that the movement currently resembles the young fascist movements
in Italy and Germany in the 1920s and '30s, movements that often
masked the full extent of their drive for totalitarianism and were
willing to make concessions until they achieved unrivaled power.
The Christian Right, like these early fascist movements, does not
openly call for dictatorship, nor does it use
physical violence to suppress opposition. In short, the movement
is not yet revolutionary. But the ideological architecture of a
Christian fascism is being cemented in place. The movement has
roused its followers to a fever pitch of despair and fury. All it
will take, Hedges writes, is one more national crisis on the order
of September 11 for the Christian Right to make a concerted drive
to destroy American democracy. The movement awaits a crisis. At
that moment they will reveal themselves for what they truly are --
the American heirs to fascism. Hedges issues a potent, impassioned
warning. We face an imminent threat. His book reminds us of the
dangers liberal, democratic societies face when they tolerate the
intolerant.
A 120-day journal to experience the power of prayer and to draw closer
to God. This prayer guide will strengthen women in their quiet times,
helping them to pray with intention and connect with God on a deeper
level. It is perfect for Bible study or personal worship.
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