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Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > Aspects of religions (non-Christian) > Religious life & practice
For anyone with an interest in Judaica and sacred objects, this
book presents some of the most outstanding examples of contemporary
Judaica-sacred Jewish objects-that have been created over the last
30+ years. Fifty-three makers have told their stories in their own
words, giving incredible insights into why they make Judaica and
what it means in their lives and in their journeys as artists. The
featured works include Seder plates, ketubah (Jewish marriage
documents), kiddush cups, hand-lettered Torahs, and even a Tefillin
Barbie. Stretch your perception of Judaica and gain insights into
the next generation of makers and how Judaica responds to
significant social issues affecting Jews and the world population
as a whole. More than 250 color photographs illustrate the makers'
works, and Jewish artists from the United States, Israel,
Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom are
featured.
This book, first published in 1978, introduces readers to the topic
of the philosophy of religious education in a way which demands
little philosophical expertise on their part. It puts forward a
particular theory of religious education in such a way that most of
the major questions are faced and sufficient answers given to
enable readers to examine the theory critically, and so further the
development of philosophy and education.
Freedom of speech and extremism in university campuses are major
sources of debate and moral panic in the United Kingdom today. In
2018, the Joint Committee on Human Rights in Parliament undertook
an inquiry into freedom of speech on campus. It found that much of
the public concern is exaggerated, but identified a number of
factors that require attention, including the impact of government
counter-terrorism measures (the Prevent Duty) and regulatory bodies
(including the Charity Commission for England and Wales) on freedom
of speech. This book combines empirical research and philosophical
analysis to explore these issues, with a particular focus on the
impact upon Muslim students and staff. It offers a new conceptual
paradigm for thinking about freedom of speech, based on
deliberative democracy, and practical suggestions for universities
in handling it. Topics covered include * The enduring legacy of key
thinkers who have shaped the debate about freedom of speech * The
role of right-wing populism in driving moral panic about
universities * The impact of the Prevent Duty and the Charity
Commission upon Muslim students, students' unions and university
managers * Students' and staff views about freedom of speech *
Alternative approaches to handling freedom of speech on campus,
including the Community of Inquiry This highly engaging and topical
text will be of interest to those working within public policy,
religion and education or religion and politics and Islamic
Studies.
First Published in 2005. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor &
Francis, an informa company.
As a minority, Jews in Britain are confident, their institutions
competent and mature. And yet within Jewish life in Britain there
is a pervading sense of anxiety. Jews in Britain have done very
well. They have risen to the top of nearly every profession, they
run major companies, sit at the top tables in politics, make their
voices heard in the media, are prominent in science and the arts.
Of course there is serious poverty and gross disadvantage, just as
there is in any community. But on any objective measure, British
Jews have done well. Particularly when we consider where they came
from, the impoverished, often oppressed lives that many Jews lived
in Eastern Europe and the Ottoman Empire less than 200 years ago.
Jews have lived in Britain longer than any other minority. They've
been here so long, and are so ingrained into the national fabric,
that they are often not considered to be a minority at all. Until a
periodic outburst of antisemitism or a flare up in the Middle East,
or both, turns the spotlight on them once again. British Jews have
another distinction too. They have lived safely and securely,
continuously, in Britain longer than any other modern Jewish
community has lived anywhere else in the world. They have organised
themselves in a way that serves as a model both to more recent
immigrant communities in Britain and to Jewish communities
elsewhere. Being British, they wear their distinctions lightly,
they don't trumpet their achievements, in fact they rarely make a
noise at all. But they give back quietly: established Jewish
organisations help more recently arrived minorities to create their
own structures, charities draw on the Jewish experience of
dislocation and persecution to help oppressed people in the
developing world, philanthropists support causes far beyond the
boundaries of their own communities. Britain's Jews is a
challenging look at Jewish life in the UK today. Based on
conversations with Jews from all walks of life, it depicts, in ways
that are at times disturbing, at other times inspiring, what it is
like to be Jewish in 21st century Britain. And why Jewish life is
still a subject of fascination.
This book focuses on social and cultural trends in present-day
Hadrami Arab societies in Eastern and Central Indonesia, and the
history of the Hadrami Arab people, which demonstrates an early
form of globalization. For centuries migration has played a vital
part in Hadrami adaptation. External forces, such as the expanding
powers of the Portugese in the Indian Ocean and the Turkish
conquering Yemen, and internal forces like poverty, droughts and
political unrest as well as trading opportunities and missionary
work instigated migration movements. While some Hadrami Arabs
sought work in North America and Europe, other waves of Hadrami
migration have followed the monsoon winds of the Indian Ocean to
the Zanzibar coast, India, Malaysia and Indonesia. The story of
Hadramis in Indonesia has largely been a story of success, in terms
of trade, politics, education and religious activities. Despite
continual debate regarding what constitutes Indonesian Hadrami
identity, the author argues that they are still "an
Indonesia-oriented group with an Arab signature". This book will be
of interest to Southeast Asian and Middle East specialists and
scholars in Anthropology and Migration Studies.
This book offers a new direction for the study of contemporary
Islam by focusing on what being Muslim means in people's everyday
lives. It complements existing studies by focusing not on
mosque-going, activist Muslims, but on how people live out their
faith in schools, workplaces and homes, and in dealing with
problems of health, wellbeing and relationships. As well as
offering fresh empirical studies of everyday lived Islam, the book
offers a new approach which calls for the study of 'official'
religion and everyday 'tactical' religion in relation to one
another. It discusses what this involves, the methods it requires,
and how it relates to existing work in Islamic Studies.
The book attends to a historical question - how to account for the
high numbers of renouncers (sadhvis) mentioned in medieval and
ancient texts - which has been acknowledged and raised, but left
unaddressed within Jain studies. It does so through ethnographic
data gathered through extensive fieldwork among the sadhvis in
Delhi and Jaipur. The volume foregrounds the primacy of 'choice'
and 'agency'- upheld by the nuns themselves, who associate
asceticism with autonomy, freedom, joy, spiritual well-being,
self-worth and peace, and grihastha (household) with loss of
independence, fettered existence, degradation, burdensome familial
obligations and social responsibilities. It also examines whether
it may be apt to term Jain nuns as practitioners of an 'indigenous
mode of feminism'. The book challenges the existing sociological
theories of renunciation and tests the feminist concepts of agency
and autonomy by investigating the culturally coded roles ascribed
to women in Jainism, which are variegated, and examines how a
fractured discourse and reality is resolved in the subjectivities
and identities of female ascetics. The very legitimacy of the
institution of female asceticism, and the way in which the society
(samaj) upholds and sustains it, renders female asceticism into a
socially approved alternative institution - albeit one that allows
Jain nuns to create spaces of relative and autonomy and even
prestige for themselves.
This book provides a socio-economic examination of the status of
women in contemporary Turkey, assessing how policies have combined
elements of neoliberalism and Islamic conservatism. Using rich
qualitative and quantitative analyses, Women in Turkey analyses the
policies concerning women in the areas of employment, education and
health and the fundamental transformation of the construction of
gender since the early 2000s. Comparing this with the situation
pre-2000, the authors argue that the reconstruction of gender is
part of the reshaping of the state-society relations, the
state-business relationship, and the cultural changes that have
taken place across the country over the last two decades. Thus, the
book situates the Turkish case within the broader context of
international development of neoliberalism while paying close
attention to its idiosyncrasies. Adopting a political economy
perspective emphasizing the material sources of gender relations,
this book will be useful to students and scholars of Middle Eastern
politics, political Islam and Gender Studies.
Provides the reader with insights and tools to enrich his/her
spiritual practice through "passive" meditative techniques, which
involves stilling the conscious mind, and "active" meditative
techniques, using guided visualizations and interaction with
others. These are derived from Christian contemplative and Eastern
meditation traditions. Unique to this handbook are exercises for
couples and families. Included is a thirty-day plan of
contemplation on Christ.
The Hindu-derived meditation movement, The Art of Living (AOL),
founded in 1981 by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar in Bangalore, has grown
into a global organization which claims presence in more than 150
countries. Stephen Jacobs presents the first comprehensive study of
AOL as an important transnational movement and an alternative
global spirituality. Exploring the nature and characteristics of
spirituality in the contemporary global context, Jacobs considers
whether alternative spiritualities are primarily concerned with
individual wellbeing and can simply be regarded as another consumer
product. The book concludes that involvement in movements such as
AOL is not necessarily narcissistic but can foster a sense of
community and inspire altruistic activity.
This volume features powerful essays by Edward Alexander on the
phenomenon of anti-Zionism on the part of the Jewish
intelligentsia. It also analyzes the explosive growth of
traditional anti-Semitism, especially in Europe, among
intellectuals and Muslims. Alexander notes that anti-Zionism has
established a presence even in Israel, where it frequently takes
the form of intellectuals sympathizing with their country's enemies
and perversely apologizing for their own existence. Alexander
begins with an examination of the origins of Jewish self-hatred in
nineteenth-century Europe. He then explores the mindset of
disaffected Jews in reacting, or failing to react, to the two
events that shape modern Jewry: the Holocaust and the founding of
the State of Israel. The book concludes with a focus on
contemporary anti-Zionism, including three essays about the role
played by Jews in the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement
to expel Israel from the family of nations. A final essay addresses
the need for American Jews to decide whether they are going to
judge Judaism by the standards of The New York Times or The New
York Times by the standards of Judaism.
The number of Buddhists in Australia has grown dramatically in
recent years. In 2006, Buddhists accounted for 2.1 per cent of
Australia's population, almost doubling the 1996 figures, and
making it the fastest growing religion in the country. This book
analyses the arrival and localisation of Buddhism in Australia in
the context of the globalisation of Buddhism. Australia's close
geographical proximity to Asia has encouraged an intense flow of
people, ideas, practices and commodities from its neighbouring
countries, while at the same time allowing the development of the
religion to be somewhat different to its growth in other Western
countries. The book seeks to explore the Buddhist experience in
Australia, looking at the similarities and particularities of this
experience in relation to other Western countries. The inception of
Buddhism in Australia is investigated, and a voice is provided to
people on the ground who have been fundamental in making this
process possible. For the first time, academic analysis and
practitioners' experience are juxtaposed to show the adaptations
and challenges of Buddhism in Australia from above and below. This
book is a unique and valuable contribution to the study of Buddhism
in the West, globalization of religion, and studies in Asian
Religion.
In this volume, contributors consider the ways that Jewish
communities and users of new media negotiate their uses of digital
technologies in light of issues related to religious identity,
community and authority. Digital Judaism presents a broad analysis
of how and why various Jewish groups negotiate with digital culture
in particular ways, situating such observations within a wider
discourse of how Jewish groups throughout history have utilized
communication technologies to maintain their Jewish identities
across time and space. Chapters address issues related to the
negotiation of authority between online users and offline religious
leaders and institutions not only within ultra-Orthodox
communities, but also within the broader Jewish religious culture,
taking into account how Jewish engagement with media in Israel and
the diaspora raises a number of important issues related to Jewish
community and identity. Featuring recent scholarship by leading and
emerging scholars of Judaism and media, Digital Judaism is an
invaluable resource for researchers in new media, religion and
digital culture.
This book is the first to provide a complete overview of Islamic
extremism in Kuwait. It traces the development of Islamist
fundamentalist groups in Kuwait, both Shiite and Sunni, from the
beginning of the twentieth century. It outlines the nature and
origins of the many different groups, considers their ideology and
organization, shows how their activities are intertwined with the
wider economy, society and politics to the extent that they are now
a strong part of society, and discusses their armed activities,
including terrorist activities. Although focusing on Kuwait, it
includes overage of the activities of Islamist groups in other Gulf
States. It also discusses the relation between Ruling Families with
Islamist political groups, thereby demonstrating that the
intertwining of Islamic ideology and armed activities with politics
is not a new development in the region.
* Shares Tom's profound teachings on life, death, and unconditional
love gained through his near-death experiences and direct encounter
with the Light * Includes more than 160 true and remarkable stories
about Tom completing his mission to spread God's Unconditional Love
* Details Tom's death experiences and how in 2007, when he felt he
had fulfilled his mission from God, he consciously left life on
Earth In the early evening of May 23, 1978, while making repairs
under his pick-up truck full of firewood, the heavy truck crashed
down on Tom Sawyer, crushing his chest flat. A 33-year-old
Olympic-trained bike racer and mechanic, Tom was clinically dead.
Fifteen minutes later, he came back to life, recounting his strange
experience of going through a tunnel, having his life review, and
meeting the Light. Spiritually energized by this experience and
endowed with supernatural abilities, Tom demonstrated repeatedly
that the reality we believe in is an illusion, that walls are not
necessarily barriers, severe health challenges can be healed in a
moment, and it is possible to walk on water. During his death
experience, Tom was charged by God with a three-part mission: teach
that death does not exist, prevent nuclear war, and promote the
Order of Melchizedek, in which he became a highly respected
teacher. Through more than 160 remarkable stories, Rev. Daniel
Chesbro and Rev. James B. Erickson share Tom's profound and
enlightening insights on life, death, and Unconditional Love. The
most complete and in-depth account of the life and teachings of Tom
Sawyer, this book reveals Tom as a modern-day messenger of God who
returned to life a powerful conduit of Unconditional Love,
compelled to create positive change for humanity.
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