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Books > Religion & Spirituality > Aspects of religions (non-Christian) > Religious institutions & organizations > Religious & spiritual leaders
Religious controversies frequently center on origins, and at the
origins of the major religious traditions one typically finds a
seminal figure. Names such as Jesus, Muhammad, Confucius, and Moses
are well known, yet their status as "founders" has not gone
uncontested. Does Paul deserve the credit for founding
Christianity? Is Laozi the father of Daoism, or should that title
belong to Zhuangzi? What is at stake, if anything, in debates about
"the historical Buddha"? What assumptions are implicit in the claim
that Hinduism is a religion without a founder? The essays in
Varieties of Religious Invention do not attempt to settle these
perennial arguments once and for all. Rather, they aim to consider
the subtexts of such debates as an exercise in comparative
religion: Who engages in them? To whom do they matter, and when?
When is "development" in a religious tradition perceived as
"deviation" from its roots? To what extent are origins thought to
define the "essence" of a religion? In what ways do arguments about
founders serve as a proxy for broader cultural, theological,
political, or ideological questions? What do they reveal about the
ways in which the past is remembered and authority negotiated? As
the contributors survey the landscape shaped by these questions
within each tradition, they provide insights and novel perspectives
about the religions individually, and about the study of world
religions as a whole.
"Sainthood" has been, and remains, a contested category in China,
given the commitment of China's modern leadership to
secularization, modernization, and revolution, and the discomfort
of China's elite with matters concerning religion. However, sainted
religious leaders have succeeded in rebuilding old institutions and
creating new ones despite the Chinese government's censure. This
book offers a new perspective on the history of religion in modern
and contemporary China by focusing on the profiles of these
religious leaders from the early 20th century through the present.
Edited by noted authorities in the field of Chinese religion,
Making Saints in Modern China offers biographies of prominent
Daoists and Buddhists, as well as of the charismatic leaders of
redemptive societies and state managers of religious associations
in the People's Republic. The focus of the volume is largely on
figures in China proper, although some attention is accorded to
those in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and other areas of the Chinese
diaspora. Each chapter offers a biography of a religious leader and
a detailed discussion of the way in which he or she became a
"saint." The biographies illustrate how these leaders deployed and
sometimes retooled traditional themes in hagiography and
charismatic communication to attract followers and compete in the
religious marketplace. Negotiation with often hostile authorities
was also an important aspect of religious leadership, and many of
the saints' stories reveal unexpected reserves of creativity and
determination. The volume's contributors, from the United States,
Canada, France, Italy, and Taiwan, provide cutting-edge
scholarship-some of which is available here in English for the
first time. Taken together, these essays make the case that vital
religious leadership and practice has existed and continues to
exist in China despite the state's commitment to wholesale
secularization.
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.
Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not
used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad
quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are
images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to
keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the
original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain
imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made
available for future generations to enjoy.
A Revolution in Rhyme: Poetic Co-option under the Islamic Republic
offers, for the first time, an original, timely examination of the
pivotal role poetry plays in policy, power and political legitimacy
in modern-day Iran. Through a compelling chronological and thematic
framework, Shams presents fresh insights into the emerging lexicon
of coercion and unrest in the modern Persian canon. Analysis of the
lives and work of ten key poets traces the evolution of the Islamic
Republic, from the 1979 Revolution, through to the Iran-Iraq War,
the death of a leader and the rise of internal conflicts. Ancient
forms jostle against didactic ideologies, exposing the complex
relationship between poetry, patronage and literary production in
authoritarian regimes, shedding light on a crucial area of
discourse that has been hitherto overlooked.
The last thing you need is another book on leadership. So how is
UnLeader different?Leadership-centric conversations dominate the
contemporary evangelical church scene. The largest church
leadership conferences each year include talks from corporate
business executives and world famous CEOs. We are drilled with the
message that if it worked for them it will work for the
church.There is one overwhelming problem. Jesus himself is not our
first choice when it comes to who we model ourselves after as
leaders. Many times the life of Jesus directly contradicts much of
what is being imported into the church under the mantra of
effective leadership.This book is not about eliminating leadership
in the church. UnLeader will help you redefine and recalibrate your
view of leadership according to Jesus' life. Renew your ministry,
reimagine your path to authentic servant leadership, and discover
that the only leaders worthy of being followed in the Church are
the ones who are following Christ himself.Reviews'In a culture
obsessed with leadership and leaders, this book turns the pyramid
upside down, provoking all Christians to reexamine what the New
Testament really has to say about the subject.'-Frank Viola, author
of Reimagining Church'UnLeader is a fast, engaging read that makes
a compelling case for a different way - a starkly Biblical way -
towards leading the church into God's future. -David Fitch, B R
Linder Chair of Evangelical Theology, Northern Seminary'As the
church struggles through seizmic shifts, UnLeader unwraps the
reality of true God-sized influence. The future of the church and
the fate of the world, at least in your neighborhood, are at
stake...so read only if you intend to give your life away.' -Hugh
Halter, author of The Tangible Kingdom and Sacrilege
This volume provides an introduction to the work of Meister Eckhart
and a guide to the spiritual life.
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