By considering transformative ideas and experiences which are explicitly articulated or implicitly structured in languages of religion and spirituality, Alternative Salvations probes concepts including 'religious', 'secular', 'spiritual', 'post-Christian', and 'post-secular', providing a series of studies which question the functionality of these broad categories. Part one draws on contemporary salvation narratives showing how current cultural forms, social practices and secular discourses are influenced by, or are interpreted through, the lens of religious and theological accounts of salvation. Examples include twelve step recovery programs, drug culture, and public policy surrounding HIV-AIDs in Kenya. Although outside traditional religious contexts, the contributors show ways in which they are not free from religious symbolism. Part two explores alternative accounts of salvation rooted in religious traditions. Established orthodoxies are confronted by contemporary critical questions, for example about gender, the status of animals, and the political dimensions of salvation. By contributing new perspectives and unique case studies, Alternative Salvations provides a deliberate challenge to easy binaries which often underpin contemporary and traditional discourses of salvation.

Al-Ghazali (d. 505/1111) is one of the most influential thinkers of Islam. There is hardly a genre of Islamic literature where he is not regarded as a major authority. Islamic Law, Sufism, ethics, philosophy, and theology are all deeply shaped by him. Yet in the past thirty years, the field of Ghazali-studies has been shaken by the realization that Avicenna (Ibn Sina, d. 428/1037) and other philosophers had a strong influence on him. Now, after the 900th anniversary at his death, the field emerges stronger than ever. This second volume of Islam and Rationality: The Impact of al-Ghazali brings together twelve leading experts on al-Ghazali who write about his thought and the impact it had on later Muslim thinkers. Contributors are: Anna Ayse Akasoy, Ahmed El Shamsy, Kenneth Garden, Frank Griffel, Jules Janssens, Damien Janos, Taneli Kukkonen, Stephen Ogden, M. Sait OEzervarli, Martin Riexinger, Ulrich Rudolph, and Ayman Shihadeh.

What is religion? Where does it come from? Which religion best fits our needs? Mankind has always been curious to discover what's beyond the visible. From the moment that confusion surrounded the existence and the true identity of God, new sciences developed, and many philosophers fell into question. Many more questions have followed ever since.In Beyond the Visible: Uniting Science and Religion, author Issa Gammoh ponders some of these age-old questions, considering whether there is a universally true answer. In the twenty-first century, with humanity's advanced knowledge and ways of thinking, science is getting closer to resolving many of the questions that have been confounding humanity for centuries. The discovery of the Higgs field, the derivation of the famous equation E=mc2, a better psychological understanding of ourselves, and our developing knowledge about neurology--all of these and much more provide us with guidance. One way of thinking can link all of these concepts together to reach scientific answers about many unknowns that humanity has pursued for many generations.Beyond the Visible travels a path of discovery to find the link between many unknown phenomena and theories. This journey seeks to erase your confusion with what will be the scientific evidences of invisible randomness. Expand your consciousness and understanding about life and the world in which you are living.