In this groundbreaking book, based on in-depth ethnographic research spanning ten years, Antoinette Elizabeth DeNapoli brings to light the little known, and often marginalized, lives of female Hindu ascetics (sadhus) in the North Indian state of Rajasthan. Her book offers a new perspective on the practice of asceticism in India today, exploring a phenomenon she terms vernacular asceticism. Examining the everyday religious worlds and practices of primarily "unlettered" female sadhus who come from a variety of castes, Real Sadhus Sing to God illustrates that the female sadhus whom DeNapoli knew experience asceticism in relational and celebratory ways and construct their lives as paths of singing to God. While the sadhus have combined ritual initiation with institutionalized and orthodox orders of asceticism, they also draw on the non-orthodox traditions of the medieval devotional poet-saints of North India to create a form of asceticism that synthesizes multiple and competing world views. DeNapoli suggests that in the vernacular asceticism of the sadhus, singing to God serves as the female way of being an ascetic. As women who have escaped the dominant societal expectations of marriage and housework, female sadhus are unusual because they devote themselves to a way of life traditionally reserved for men in Indian society. Female sadhus are simultaneously respected and distrusted for transgressing normative gender roles in order to dedicate themselves to a life of singing to the divine. Real Sadhus Sing to God is the first book-length study to explore the ways in which female sadhus perform and, thus, create gendered views of asceticism through their singing, storytelling, and sacred text practices, which DeNapoli characterizes as the sadhus' "rhetoric of renunciation." The book also examines the relationship between asceticism (sannyas) and devotion (bhakti) in contemporary contexts. It brings together two disparate fields of study in religious scholarship-yoga/asceticism and bhakti-through use of the orienting metaphor of singing bhajans (devotional songs) to understand vernacular asceticism in contemporary India.

There is an interesting knowledge trajectory that God remains incomprehensible, not imperceptible. This lends credence to the fact that religious study since the Enlightenment has dedicated itself almost entirely to the problem of reconciling the non-existence of God in the physical world with his necessary existence in the metaphysical world. When seriously examined, it would be discovered that these two aspects are logically contradictory, and this is a problem with no solution. But interpreting God not as a physical being but as a phenomenological thing changes the nature of the problem enough that a solution emerges almost automatically. In this phenomenological model, the crux of the matter is that God does not exist, but God is real. Therefore, it is imperative to return to experience and verifiability, hence, purging it of unexamined and often hidden assumptions. Phenomenological Approaches to Religion and Spirituality brings together the different disciplines and research approaches to provide a comprehensive analysis of the phenomenology of God and spirituality, as well as offering an effective epistemological apparatus capable of dealing with this concept. The book employs multidisciplinary approaches from religious studies, theology, philosophy, anthropology, and other segments to dissect the subject matter for efficient evaluation and all-inclusive findings. While covering various aspects of religion such as the testaments of the Bible, the church, the religious experience, and various aspects of spirituality, this book is intended for theologians, philosophers, religious leaders, policymakers, academicians, researchers, students, public institutions, and agencies with a special interest in religious matters, values, knowledge, and truth.

Writers of church and mission history have devoted very few pages to George Liele's ministry and most mentions ignore the global nature of his pioneer work, international influence, intelligence, and legacy. He launched a mission movement that reached from Georgia to Jamaica and from Jamaica to Sierra Leone and Nova Scotia-all before the pioneer work of William Carey, Adoniram Judson, Richard Allen, and Lott Cary. Beginning as a slave preacher, Liele learned the Baptist story and theology-a message he preached in South Carolina, Georgia, and Jamaica. In providing a comprehensive introduction to Liele's life and work, this book draws readers into identifying with Liele and those who lived through a difficult historic period and who in the process developed a theology that guided them through the challenges of being a Christian leader in a slave society. The Christian movement has always been greater than any individual or local church community has imagined it to be. In Liele's time, key leaders among the "white" church enabled a gifted person like Liele, despite his slavery, to develop his faith and leadership among blacks and whites, in spite of the perils of slavery. Liele was an organiser, mentor, church and school founder, an abolitionist, and a master negotiator. His roles have been documented by other scholars, but largely as footnotes or a tiny part of their analysis. Approaching the many parts of Liele's life and legacy globally, theologically, and historically, this book is the byproduct of a collaboration of scholars and historians who share the belief that George Liele is truly an unsung hero and one whose leadership and journey needs to be recognized at this particular time in history. Those reading these perspectives on Liele will find new truths about Christian ministry and missions.