Preaching has been central to Muslim communities throughout the centuries. The liturgical Friday sermon is a prime example, although other genres that are less commonly known also serve important functions. This book addresses the ways in which Muslims relate various forms of religious oratory to authoritative tradition in 21st-century Islamic practice, while striving to adapt to local contexts and the changing circumstances of politics, media and society. This is the first book of its kind to look at homiletics beyond a specific country focus. Taking into consideration the historical developments of Muslim preaching, it offers a collection of thoroughly contextualised case studies of oratory in Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bosnia, Sweden and the USA. The analyses presented here show shared emphasis on struggles for legitimacy, efforts to speak authoritatively, as well as discursive opportunities and constraints.

Award-winning author, inspirational speaker and contributing writer of "Today's Christian Woman" Cheri Fuller writes about prayer with vulnerability and hope. As a woman who juggles many roles, Fuller shares her secrets of living and continual prayer that is a deep joy.

Mock Ritual in the Modern Era explores the complex interrelations between ritual and mockery, the latter of which is not infrequently the unofficial face of claims to rationality. McGinnis and Smyth consider how the mocking and parodying of ritual often associated with modern rationalism may itself become ritualized, and other ways in which supposedly sham ritual may survive its "outing." This volume traces the evolution of "mock ritual" in various forms throughout the modern era, as found in literary, historical, and anthropological texts as well as encyclopedias, newspapers, and films. Mock Ritual in the Modern Era places famous eighteenth- and nineteenth-century authors in dialogue with contemporary popular culture, from Diderot, Sterne, and Flaubert to the TV shows Survivor and Judge Judy, and from Voltaire to the Charlie Hebdo tragedy of 2015. Ritualistic and mock ritualistic aspects of comedy and ridicule are considered along with those, notably, of sexuality, medicine, art, education, and justice.

Objects of worship are an aspect of the material dimension of lived religion in South Asia. The omnipresence of these objects and their use is a theme which cuts across the religious traditions in the pluralistic religious culture of the region. Divine power becomes manifest in the objects and for the devotees they may represent power regardless of religious identity. This book looks at how objects of worship dominate the religious landscape of South Asia, and in what ways they are of significance not just from religious perspectives but also for the social life of the region. The contributions to the book show how these objects are shaped by traditions of religious aesthetics and have become conceptual devices woven into webs of religious and social meaning. They demonstrate how the objects have a social relationship with those who use them, sometimes even treated as being alive. The book discusses how devotees relate to such objects in a number of ways, and even if the objects belong to various traditions they may attract people from different communities and can also be contested in various ways. By analysing the specific qualities that make objects eligible for a status and identity as living objects of worship, the book contributes to an understanding of the central significance of these objects in the religious and social life of South Asia. It will be of interest to students and scholars of Religious Studies and South Asian Religion, Culture and Society.

This book examines the ways in which two distinct biblical conceptions of impurity-"ritual" and "moral"-were interpreted in the Hebrew Bible, the Dead Sea Scrolls, rabbinic literature, and the New Testament. In examining the evolution of ancient Jewish attitudes towards sin and defilement, Klawans sheds light on a fascinating but previously neglected topic.

Profound insight and wisdom from the world's great cultures, and religious traditions ""Through the use of a story, you can understand even the deepest truths."" These words, taken from a Jewish parable, underscore the power of Candles in the Dark. This exquisite collection of profound and enlightening parables contains the wisdom and insight of the world's great religions, philosophies, and cultural traditions. In these stories, you'll find spiritual inspiration and practical guidance to help you cope with life's many problems and conflicts. Christian and Buddhist, Jewish and Islamic, African and Native American, ancient and modern parables: these wonderfully diverse and entertaining stories address every aspect of life, from family issues to personal freedom, from money problems to the power of friendship. They will help you discover truth, beauty, and satisfaction within yourself and in the world around you. The lessons they teach will deepen your understanding of basic human and spiritual truths and increase your ability to: * Live a life of faith, hope, and love * Appreciate the beauty that surrounds you * Embrace the freedom to live your life * Seek and find guidance * Discover strength in a virtuous life * Encourage others who are in need

The Passover seder is the most celebrated event in the Jewish calendar. But often the true meaning of this celebration is lost amid the many rituals and customs of the night and the long complex text of the Passover Haggadah. In this intriguing and enlightening exploration of the Passover Seder, Rabbi Laufer uncovers the hidden meaning of the Seder's rituals and customs and brings an original, accessible yet scholarly perspective to understanding the Haggadah text. Unlike other books on the Seder which offer only fragmentary insights about this or that item of the Seder or this or that phrase in the Passover Haggadah, Leading the Passover Journey reveals the unifying theory connecting the fifteen pieces of the Seder and our own experiencing of the Passover story. It turns out that the order of the Seder is crucial to reliving and re-experiencing the transformative moments of the Jewish People's journey from slavery to freedom. Leading the Passover Journey was written for anyone who plans to participate in, contribute to, or lead a Passover Seder. Whether an average layperson or an already well-educated scholar, the reader of this book will come away with a deeper understanding and a more passionate appreciation of the Passover Seder experience. Leading the Passover Journey will transform one's family and friends from reluctant bystanders at the Passover Seder who repeatedly ask: "When are we going to eat already?" to enthusiastic, knowledgeable participants in our people's journey toward redemption.

Who and what are marriage and sex for? Whose practices and which ways of talking to god can count as religion? Lucinda Ramberg considers these questions based on two years of ethnographic research on an ongoing South Indian practice of dedication in which girls, and sometimes boys, are married to a goddess. Called "devadasis," or "jogatis," those dedicated become female and male women who conduct the rites of the goddess outside the walls of her main temple and transact in sex outside the bounds of conjugal matrimony. Marriage to the goddess, as well as the rites that the dedication ceremony authorizes "jogatis" to perform, have long been seen as illegitimate and criminalized. Kinship with the goddess is productive for the families who dedicate their children, Ramberg argues, and yet it cannot conform to modern conceptions of gender, family, or religion. This nonconformity, she suggests, speaks to the limitations of modern categories, as well as to the possibilities of relations--between and among humans and deities--that exceed such categories.

The Mahabodhi temple at Bodhgaya in eastern India has long been recognised as the place where the Buddha sat in meditation and attained enlightenment. The site, soon identified as the 'Diamond Throne' or vajrasana, became a destination for pilgrims and a focus of religious attention for more than two thousand years. This volume presents new research on Bodhgaya and assesses the important archaeological, artistic and literary evidence that bears witness to the Buddha's enlightenment and to the enduring significance of Bodhgaya in the history of Buddhism. The book brings together a team of international scholars to look at the history and perception of the site across the Buddhist world and its position in the networks of patronage and complex religious landscape of northern India. The volume assesses the site's decline in the thirteenth century, as well as its subsequent revival as a result of archaeological excavations in the nineteenth century. Using the British Museum's collections as a base, the authors discuss the rich material culture excavated from the site that highlights Bodhgaya's importance in the field of Buddhist studies.

Discover how to make virtually any moment in your day a significant part of a meaningful Jewish life.

As we have discovered, and as our sages have long known, there is no experience in the life of a Jew that cannot be marked in Jewish ways . The book you hold in your hands is the result of the kinds of rituals we have sculpted together over the years. It is not a prayer book or even a compendium of obligatory Jewish rituals. Rather, it is a source for all to use creatively. from the Introduction

Decades of experience by CLAL The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership in connecting spirituality with daily life come together in this one comprehensive handbook. In these pages, you have access to teachings that can help to sanctify almost any moment in your day.

Offering a meditation, a blessing, a profound Jewish teaching, and a ritual for more than one hundred diverse everyday events and holidays, this guide includes sacred practices for:
Lighting Shabbat candlesBlessing your parentsRunning a marathonVisiting the sickBuilding a sukkahSeeing natural wondersMoving into a new homeSaying goodbye to a beloved petMaking a shiva callTraveling ... and much more

Drawing from both traditional and contemporary sources, The Book of Jewish Sacred Practices will show you how to make more holy any moment in your daily life."

How to manage the process with grace, joy and good sense.

A practical guide that gives parents and teens the "how-to" information they need to navigate the bar/bat mitzvah process and grow as a family through this experience. For the first time in one book, everyone directly involved offers practical insights into how the process can be made easier and more enjoyable for all. Rabbis, cantors and Jewish educators from the Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist movements, parents, and even teens speak from their own experience. What's it all about? Preparation for Parent and Child Tutoring, stress, expectations, enjoyment, planning for children with special needs Negotiating the ceremony and celebration Designing a creative service, heightening the spiritual exercise, special issues related to divorced and interfaith families, planning a party that neither breaks the bank nor detracts from the inherent spirituality of the event."

This book offers a fresh perspective on religious culture in the medieval Middle East. It investigates how Muslims thought about and practised at sacred spaces and in sacred times through two detailed case studies: the shrines in honour of the head of al-Husayn (the martyred grandson of the Prophet); and the (arguably) holy month of Rajab. Author Daniella Talmon-Heller explores the diverse expressions of the veneration of the shrine and the month from the formative period of Islam until the late Mamluk period. She pays particular attention to changing political and sectarian affiliations and to the development of new genres of religious literature. And she juxtaposes the sanctification of space and time in individual and communal Sunni, Ithna'ashari and Isma'ili piety.

Spiritual and ethical lessons for the workaday world: how to do well and do good.

How can I find greater satisfaction in my work?

How can I lead my employees through difficult times?

If you get up each morning to go to work, this guide contains the reminder you need to succeed: you can do well and, at the very same time, you can do good.

Rabbi Wayne Dosick gives us tools to solve both the major moral dilemmas and the day-to-day questions of life at work. He offers ten new commandments that can transform our work and work environment into places for accomplishment and satisfaction, honesty and integrity, decency and dignity and success.

Through stories, real-life business situations, and artfully chosen spiritual texts, "The Business Bible" reminds us that principles don t have to be sacrificed for profits, that value means more than net worth, and that spiritual ethics can lead to business excellence.

What did Jesus intend when he spoke the words, "This is my body"? The Lost Supper argues that Jesus' words and actions at the Last Supper presupposed an already-existing Passover ritual in which the messiah was represented by a piece of bread: Jesus was not instituting new symbolism, but using an existing symbol to speak about himself. Drawing on both second temple and early Rabbinic sources, Matthew Colvin places Jesus' words in the Upper Room within the context of historically attested Jewish thought about Passover. The result is a new perspective on the Eucharist: a credible first-century Jewish way of thinking about the Last Supper and Lord's Supper - and a sacramentology that is also at work in the letters of the apostle Paul. Such a perspective gives us the historical standpoint to correct Christian assumptions, past and present, about how the Eucharist works and how we ought to celebrate it.

Reviewing peace and reconciliation, secular pilgrimages, and international perspectives on sacred journeys, this book offers the reader an opportunity to encounter multiple voices and viewpoints on one of the most ancient practices of humankind. With an estimated third of all international travellers now undertaking journeys anticipating an aspect of transformation (the hallmark of pilgrimage), this book includes both spiritual and non-spiritual voyages, such as journeys of self-therapy, mindfulness and personal growth. It also: - Provides a multidisciplinary perspective, covering themes such as gender, human rights, equality, the environment, peace, history, literature, and politics - Reflects the rich diversity and multiple meanings of pilgrimage through an international writer team spanning four continents - Includes case studies of pilgrimage in action from around the world An innovative and engaging addition to the pilgrimage literature, this book provides an important resource for researchers of religious tourism and related subjects.

Contents:
1. Cultural Creativity on Stage 2. Rituals of Concheros Indians in Mexico 3. Christian Pilgrimages to Walsingham 4. Rituals in Shrines in Benin and Nigeria 5. Bullfighting in Cordoba 6. The Performance of the Welsh National Eisteddfod 7. Television in Bali and Ballet Performance

The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Ritual and Religion provides a comprehensive overview by period and region of the relevant archaeological material in relation to theory, methodology, definition, and practice. Although, as the title indicates, the focus is upon archaeological investigations of ritual and religion, by necessity ideas and evidence from other disciplines are also included, among them anthropology, ethnography, religious studies, and history. The Handbook covers a global span-Africa, Asia, Australasia, Europe, and the Americas-and reaches from the earliest prehistory (the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic) to modern times. In addition, chapters focus upon relevant themes, ranging from landscape to death, from taboo to water, from gender to rites of passage, from ritual to fasting and feasting. Written by over sixty specialists, renowned in their respective fields, the Handbook presents the very best in current scholarship, and will serve both as a comprehensive introduction to its subject and as a stimulus to further research.

This book analyses religion and change in relation to music within the context of contemporary progressive Judaism. It argues that music plays a central role as a driving force for religious change, comprising several elements seen as central to contemporary religiosity in general: participation, embodiment, experience, emotions and creativity. Focusing on the progressive Anglo-Jewish milieu today, the study investigates how responses to these processes of change are negotiated individually and collectively and what role is allotted to music in this context. Building on ethnographic research conducted at Leo Baeck College in London (2014-2016), it maps how theologically unsystematic life-views take form through everyday musical practices related to institutional religion, identifying three theoretically relevant processes at work: the reflexive turn, the turn within and the turn to tradition.