Since the 1960s, yoga has become a billion-dollar industry in the West, attracting housewives and hipsters, New Agers and the old-aged. But our modern conception of yoga derives much from nineteenth-century European spirituality, and the true story of yoga's origins in South Asia is far richer, stranger, and more entertaining than most of us realize.

To uncover this history, David Gordon White focuses on yoga's practitioners. Combing through millennia of South Asia's vast and diverse literature, he discovers that yogis are usually portrayed as wonder-workers or sorcerers who use their dangerous supernatural abilities--which can include raising the dead, possession, and levitation--to acquire power, wealth, and sexual gratification. As White shows, even those yogis who aren't downright villainous bear little resemblance to Western assumptions about them. At turns rollicking and sophisticated, "Sinister Yogis" tears down the image of yogis as detached, contemplative teachers, finally placing them in their proper context.

Uncover the ways the Christian church has changed in recent years-from the decline of the mainline denominations to the mega-churchification of American culture to the rise of the Nones and Exvaneglicals-and a hopeful reimagining of what the church might look like going forward. The United States is in the middle of an unprecedented spiritual, technological, demographic, political and social transformation- moving from an older, mostly white, mostly Protestant, religion-friendly society to a younger diverse, multiethnic, pluralistic culture, where no one faith group will have the advantage. At the same time, millions of Americans are abandoning organized religion altogether in favor of disorganized disbelief. Reorganized Religion is an in-depth and critical look at why people are leaving American churches and what we lose as a society as it continues. But it also accepts the dismantling of what has come before and try to help readers reinvent the path forward. This book looks at the future of organized religion in America and outline the options facing churches and other faith groups. Will they retreat? Will they become irrelevant? Or will they find a new path forward? Written by veteran religion reporter Bob Smietana, Reorganized Religion is a journalistic look at the state of the American church and its future. It draws on polling data, interviews with experts, and reporting on how faith communities old and new are coping with the changing religious landscape, along with personal stories about how faith is lived in everyday life. It also profiles faith communities and leaders who are finding interesting ways to reimagine what church might look like in the future and discuss various ways we can reinvent this organization so it survives and thrives. The book also reflects the hope that perhaps people of faith can learn to become, if not friends with the larger culture, then at least better neighbors.

1940 spaltete die gescheiterte Promotion des Tubinger Neutestamentlers Karl Hermann Schelkle (1908-1988) die Katholisch-Theologische Fakultat der Universitat Tubingen. Die Aufarbeitung dieses Konfliktes legt nicht nur ein vergessenes Kapitel Tubinger Fakultatsgeschichte frei, sondern wirft ebenso einen aufschlussreichen Blick in den Wissenschaftsalltag einer Universitat im nationalsozialistischen Deutschland und lotet sensibel die Probleme aus, denen katholische Exegeten auch nach dem Hoehepunkt des kirchlichen Antimodernismus, der vor allem die katholische Bibelwissenschaft hart traf, weiterhin ausgesetzt waren. Die Studie verortet den Konflikt zudem innerhalb der damaligen theologischen Erneuerungsbewegungen, die angesichts tiefgreifender kultureller, politischer und religioeser Krisen nach neuen Antworten suchten.

Der Sammelband beleuchtet die vielfaltigen Auswirkungen der Reformation sowie die Verbreitung des Protestantismus in Spanien und Hispanoamerika vom 16. Jahrhundert bis heute aus (kirchen-)geschichtlicher, literatur- und kulturwissenschaftlicher Perspektive. Lange wurde die These vertreten, es habe in Spanien keine Reformation gegeben. Inquisition und Gegenreformation hatten den Protestantismus im Keim erstickt. Reformatorisches Gedankengut verbreitete sich tatsachlich weder flachendeckend noch fuhrte es zu konfessioneller Spaltung oder kirchlicher Institutionalisierung protestantischer Gruppen. Und doch ubten reformatorische Gedanken Einfluss auf die Kulturen und Literaturen Spaniens und Hispanoamerikas aus. Die Beitrager des Bandes widmen sich diesem, in der Forschung bislang weitgehend vernachlassigten Themenkomplex.

Im Mittelpunkt der Untersuchung stehen die Herausforderungen des interkulturellen Zusammenlebens, die in Interviews, welche der Autor mit Ordensbrudern gefuhrt hat, deutlich wurden. Er geht der Frage nach, wie mit Differenzen umgegangen wird, und formuliert als Ziel, einen sensiblen Ansatz zu entwickeln, in dem die Diversitat von Kulturen ernst genommen und beachtet wird, um gegebene Differenzen in Kraftquellen fur eine interkulturelle Gemeinschaft zu verwandeln.

Die Virtuelle Realitat lasst Menschen in Welten eintauchen, in denen ihr Verantwortungsbereich nur noch verwaschen erkennbar ist. Zudem generiert der Cyberspace Muster mit religioeser Qualitat: Menschen erschaffen sich ihr virtuelles Double. Allein indem man in den Cyberspace eintaucht, kommen neurophysiologisch nachweisbare Glucksgefuhle auf. Die Erlebnisgehalte werden dabei unwichtig; es kommt allein auf die subjektive Erlebnisintensitat an. Das gesuchte Gluck steigt insofern uber die Welt hinaus in ein virtuelles Jenseits. Auf der einen Seite vervielfachen sich menschliche Identitaten, auf der anderen Seite gewinnen Phantasien Kunstlicher Intelligenz an Kontur. Die Autoren gehen der Frage nach, welche Auswirkungen diese Entwicklung fur ethische Subjekte hat, in denen sich Mensch und Maschine vermischen.

"New York Times" Bestseller The momentous third and final volume in the Pope's international bestselling Jesus of Nazareth series, detailing how the stories of Jesus' infancy and childhood are as relevant today as they were two thousand years ago.
In 2007, Joseph Ratzinger published his first book as Pope Benedict XVI in order "to make known the figure and message of Jesus." Now, the Pope focuses exclusively on the Gospel accounts of Jesus' life as a child. The root of these stories is the experience of hope found in the birth of Jesus and the affirmations of surrender and service embodied in his parents, Joseph and Mary. This is a story of longing and seeking, as demonstrated by the Magi searching for the redemption offered by the birth of a new king. It is a story of sacrifice and trusting completely in the wisdom of God as seen in the faith of Simeon, the just and devout man of Jerusalem, when he is in the presence of the Christ child. Ultimately, Jesus' life and message is a story for today, one that speaks to the restlessness of the human heart searching for the sole truth which alone leads to profound joy.

On the eve of the most important presidential election in decades, A NATION FOR ALL sounds the trumpet to the tens of millions of U.S. Catholics who have refused to buy the notion that people of faith must subscribe to the narrow agenda of the far right. By shining the light of authentic Catholic teaching on pressing contemporary concerns like war, human dignity, poverty, and the looming global climate crisis, this book shows Catholics how their own faith tradition calls them to tackle a sweeping array of issues commonly left out of the faith and politics dialog. Most important, A NATION FOR ALL demonstrates how the core Catholic and Christian belief in promoting the common good can provide Americans of all faith traditions with a much-needed solution to the downward spiral of greed, materialism, and excessive individualism.

How old is prejudice against black people? Were the racist attitudes that fueled the Atlantic slave trade firmly in place 700 years before the European discovery of sub-Saharan Africa? In this groundbreaking book, David Goldenberg seeks to discover how dark-skinned peoples, especially black Africans, were portrayed in the Bible and by those who interpreted the Bible--Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Unprecedented in rigor and breadth, his investigation covers a 1,500-year period, from ancient Israel (around 800 B.C.E.) to the eighth century C.E., after the birth of Islam. By tracing the development of anti-Black sentiment during this time, Goldenberg uncovers views about race, color, and slavery that took shape over the centuries--most centrally, the belief that the biblical Ham and his descendants, the black Africans, had been cursed by God with eternal slavery.

Goldenberg begins by examining a host of references to black Africans in biblical and postbiblical Jewish literature. From there he moves the inquiry from Black as an ethnic group to black as color, and early Jewish attitudes toward dark skin color. He goes on to ask when the black African first became identified as slave in the Near East, and, in a powerful culmination, discusses the resounding influence of this identification on Jewish, Christian, and Islamic thinking, noting each tradition's exegetical treatment of pertinent biblical passages.

Authoritative, fluidly written, and situated at a richly illuminating nexus of images, attitudes, and history, "The Curse of Ham" is sure to have a profound and lasting impact on the perennial debate over the roots of racism and slavery, and on the study of early Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

Viele Kirchgemeinden bemuhen sich um ein reichhaltiges Programm fur Kinder. Dabei verfolgen sie bestimmte Ziele. Um diese herauszufinden, wurden im Rahmen dieser Arbeit Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter aus katholischen, evangelischen und freikirchlichen Gemeinden befragt. Es zeigte sich, dass es in allen drei Religionsgemeinschaften wichtig ist, die nachste Generation fur die Gemeinde zu gewinnen. Es kamen aber auch unterschiedliche Denkweisen zum Ausdruck, zum Beispiel, welche Voraussetzungen ein Kind erfullen muss, um als Christ gelten zu durfen. Bei der Wahl ihrer Erziehungsziele orientieren sich die Mitarbeitenden kaum an den Erwartungen, die an sie herangetragen werden. Viel wichtiger ist ihnen ihre eigene Biografie: Was sie selbst erlebt - oder nicht erlebt - haben, moechten sie den Kindern weitergeben.

Can the Christian life be lived alone? When her husband left Christianity several years into their marriage, Stina Kielsmeier-Cook was left "spiritually single"-struggling to live the Christian life on her own, taking her kids to church by herself, and wrestling with her own questions and doubts. In this memoir, Kielsmeier-Cook tells the story of her mixed-faith marriage and how she found community in an unexpected place: an order of Catholic nuns in her neighborhood. As she spent time with them and learned about female Catholic saints, she began to see that she was not "spiritually single" after all-and that no one really is.

Mit der neuzeitlichen Sakularisierung verliert auch der Protestantismus seinen Volkskirchencharakter. Das hat eine Neuorientierung zur Folge. An die Stelledes theistischen Gottesbildes tritt das Paradox vom 'abwesenden' Gott. Der Autor interpretiert das Glaubensparadox als Widerfahrnis von Befreiung und Verpflichtung durch den Anderen in der 'Spur' Gottes. Er diskutiert diese fur die Zivilgesellschaft relevanten Potentiale mit Feministischer Theologie, mit der Umgestaltung des Erloesungschristentums in einen Protestantismus der Versoehnung mit unserer Endlichkeit und der Schoepfungswelt. Vom methodischen Gesichtspunkt wahlt der Autor einen phanomenologisch-dekonstruktiven Ansatz im Gesprach mit Bonhoeffer, Nancy, Levinas und mit der protestantischen Tradition.

A textbook and compendium for students, pastors, teachers of religion and counselors. Pastoral counseling is presented here in its typical conceptions in theory and practice from the beginnings of its history up to the present period. The handling of life s conflicts in pastoral counseling is dealt with, as well as the various areas of counseling activity."

Shrines to Living Men in the Ming Political Cosmos, the first book focusing on premortem shrines in any era of Chinese history, places the institution at the intersection of politics and religion. When a local official left his post, grateful subjects housed an image of him in a temple, requiting his grace: that was the ideal model. By Ming times, the "living shrine" was legal, old, and justified by readings of the classics. Sarah Schneewind argues that the institution could invite and pressure officials to serve local interests; the policies that had earned a man commemoration were carved into stone beside the shrine. Since everyone recognized that elite men might honor living officials just to further their own careers, premortem shrine rhetoric stressed the role of commoners, who embraced the opportunity by initiating many living shrines. This legitimate, institutionalized political voice for commoners expands a scholarly understanding of "public opinion" in late imperial China, aligning it with the efficacy of deities to create a nascent political conception Schneewind calls the "minor Mandate of Heaven." Her exploration of premortem shrine theory and practice illuminates Ming thought and politics, including the Donglin Party's battle with eunuch dictator Wei Zhongxian and Gu Yanwu's theories.

In the "twinkling of an eye" Jesus secretly returns to earth and gathers to him all believers. As they are taken to heaven, the world they leave behind is plunged into chaos. Cars and airplanes crash and people search in vain for loved ones. Plagues, famine, and suffering follow. The antichrist emerges to rule the world and to destroy those who oppose him. Finally, Christ comes again in glory, defeats the antichrist and reigns over the earth. This apocalyptic scenario is anticipated by millions of Americans. These millions have made the Left Behind series--novels that depict the rapture and apocalypse--perennial bestsellers, with over 40 million copies now in print. In Rapture Culture, Amy Johnson Frykholm explores this remarkable phenomenon, seeking to understand why American evangelicals find the idea of the rapture so compelling. What is the secret behind the remarkable popularity of the apocalyptic genre? One answer, she argues, is that the books provide a sense of identification and communal belonging that counters the "social atomization" that characterizes modern life. This also helps explain why they appeal to female readers, despite the deeply patriarchal worldview they promote. Tracing the evolution of the genre of rapture fiction, Frykholm notes that at one time such narratives expressed a sense of alienation from modern life and protest against the loss of tradition and the marginalization of conservative religious views. Now, however, evangelicalism's renewed popular appeal has rendered such themes obsolete. Left Behind evinces a new embrace of technology and consumer goods as tools for God's work, while retaining a protest against modernity's transformation of traditionalfamily life. Drawing on extensive interviews with readers of the novels, Rapture Culture sheds light on a mindset that is little understood and far more common than many of us suppose.

The manuscript contains the 259 documents in Latin and medieval Danish which made up the economical foundations for the monastery's 400 year-old history. This first collected translation of the papal and royal privileges, the court roll and the many deeds of gifts gives an extraordinary insight into a Danish monastery's national and international relations.

Religious faith is a powerful source of comfort and support for individuals and families facing dementia. Many faith leaders need help in adapting their ministries to address the worship/spiritual needs of this group. A product of Faith United Against Alzheimer's, this handbook by 45 different authors represents diverse faith traditions, including Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Sikhism, Buddhism and Native American. It provides practical help in developing services and creating dementia friendly faith communities. It gives an understanding of the cognitive, communicative and physical abilities of people with dementia and shows what chaplains, clergy and lay persons can do to engage them through worship. Included are several articles by persons living with dementia.

The tensions often cited between psychology and Christianity are well known. Much worthwhile work has been done to construct theories and frameworks for integrating the two. But how do Christians in psychology actually weave together these strands of their lives and their work. What are their stories? Here Glendon Moriarty brings together twelve of the foremost clinicians and academics in the field of Christian integration to share their stories. Coming from different perspectives and experiences, reflecting gender and ethnic diversity, these prominent psychologists tell about their spiritual, personal and professional journeys of interrelating their faith and profession. In this book we hear about the developmental issues, the sense of calling and the early career insights that shaped their paths. They recount the importance that significant relationships had on their understanding of Christian integration, especially noting the influence of mentors. Struggles and doubts are common human experiences, and the contributors openly share the stresses they encountered to encourage others with similar issues. On a day-to-day basis, we see how spiritual disciplines and the Christian community assist them in their work and in their understanding. Finally, each writer offers a personal note with lessons learned and hard-won wisdom gained. Randall Sorenson once said, "The integration of psychology and Christianity is caught, not taught." In these stories is a unique opportunity to catch sight of twelve who have already traveled that challenging path. Christian Association for Psychological Studies (CAPS) Books explore how Christianity relates to mental health and behavioral sciences including psychology, counseling, social work, and marriage and family therapy in order to equip Christian clinicians to support the well-being of their clients.