The book analyzes the place of religious difference in late modernity through a study of the role played by Jews and Muslims in the construction of contemporary Spanish national identity. The focus is on the transition from an exclusive, homogeneous sense of collective Self toward a more pluralistic, open and tolerant one in an European context. This process is approached from different dimensions. At the national level, it follows the changes in nationalist historiography, the education system and the public debates on national identity. At the international level, it tackles the problem from the perspective of Spanish foreign policy towards Israel and the Arab-Muslim states in a changing global context. From the social-communicational point of view, the emphasis is on the construction of the Self-Other dichotomy (with Jewish and Muslim others) as reflected in the three leading Spanish newspapers.

Islam in the School of Madina Mufid al-'Ibad, of which this book is a translation, is a summation of all the previous commentaries on the work of Ibn 'Ashir on Ash'ari 'aqida, Maliki fiqh and Junaydi tasawwuf and is augmented not infrequently by the author's own subtle understanding of the finer aspects of the 'amal of the people of Madina. Ahmad ibn al-Bashir al-Qalawi ash-Shinqiti Shaykh Ahmad bin al-Bashir al-Qalawi ash-Shinqiti (1216 AH/1802 CE- 1276 AH/1853 CE), whose lineage can be traced to Abu Bakr as-Siddiq, came from a family and tribe in present day Mauritania renowned for its knowledge and active implementation of the deen. Although he himself refrained from any sufic commentary on Ibn Ashir's work, he was recognised as a wali by the men of this science around him. Dr. Asadullah Yate Dr Yate (Cantab.) has translated works from Arabic, Persian, German and French, and, in collaboration with others, from Turkish. He teaches Arabic and Fiqh at the Weimar Institute, is a Founding fellow of The Muslim Faculty of Advanced Studies, and is active on the shariat board of the World Islamic Mint.

What does it mean to be modern? This study regards the concept of 'society' as foundational to modern self-understanding. Identifying Arabic conceptualizations of society in the journal al-Manar, the mouthpiece of Islamic reformism, the author shows how modernity was articulated from within an Islamic discursive tradition. The fact that the classical term umma was a principal term used to conceptualize modern society suggests the convergence of discursive traditions in modernity, rather than a mere diffusion of European concepts.

Often when people have become alienated from their religious backgrounds, they access their traditions through lifecycle events such as marriage. At times, modern values such as gender equality may be at odds with some of the traditions; many of which have always been in a state of flux in relationship to changing social, economic and political realities. Traditional Jewish marriage is based on the man acquiring the woman, which has symbolic and actual ramifications. Grounded in the traditional texts yet accessible, this book shows how the marriage is an acquisition and contextualises the gender hierarchy of marriage within the rabbinic exclusion of women from Torah study, the highest cultural practice and women's exemption from positive commandments. Melanie Landau offers two alternative models of partnership that partially or fully bypass the non-reciprocity of traditional Jewish marriage and that have their basis in the ancient rabbinic texts.

This shorter edition of Christian Prayer presents a selection of material for Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer in a format that is easier for the lay person to use that the complete Christian Prayer or the four-volume Liturgy of the Hours.

Our willingness and faithfulness to pray for others is the hallmark of an effective prayer life. Sometimes our prayers are hindered because we focus only on our needs or requests. But the church has been commissioned to make disciples of all nations, and it is the responsibility of each member to pray for others in our world.

Well-organized and inspirational, The Prayer Manifesto for the Globally Conscious explores the importance of having a heart to pray for God's people across the world by denying ourselves and taking up our cross to follow God. Author Lischa T. Brooks uses scriptural examples and humorous, personal stories to illustrate how to develop an effective personal prayer life and focus on our responsibility to pray for others.

In addition to finding a deeper purpose and understanding of prayer principles, you can learn how to:

-begin your prayer with worship;-conduct an examination of your attitudes and actions;-pray with the Word of God;-take time to listen to the Father;-establish prayer partners; and-connect with a local church body.

Establishing a life of prayer requires more than just passion and desire; it involves a commitment to applying the principles outlined in the Word of God every day. Develop a rich prayer life committed to God with The Prayer Manifesto for the Globally Conscious.

Animism is an important part of many religions - from Shinto, Hinduism and Buddhism to Paganism and a range of indigenous religions - which connects the spiritual and material and holds that humans might not be unique in possessing souls or in being intentional agents. Over recent decades, research into animism has broadened its scope to consider, at one end, the vibrant roles of objects in human lives and, at the other, the possible similarities between humans and other species. "The Handbook of Contemporary Animism" brings together an international team of scholars to examine the full range of animist worldviews and practices. The Handbook opens with an examination of recent approaches to animism. This is followed by evaluations of ethnographic, cognitive, literary, performative, and material culture approaches as well as advances in activist and indigenous thinking about animism. "The Handbook of Contemporary Animism" invites readers to think creatively and critically about the world around us and will be invaluable to students and scholars of Religion, Sociology and Anthropology.

The author applies the fields of gender studies, psychoanalysis, and literature to Talmudic texts. In opposition to the perception of Judaism as a legal system, he argues that the Talmud demands inner spiritual effort, to which the trait of humility and the refinement of the ego are central. This leads to the question of the attitude to the Other, in general, and especially to women. The author shows that the Talmud places the woman (who represents humility and good-heartedness in the Talmudic narratives) above the character of the male depicted in these narratives as a scholar with an inflated sense of self-importance. In the last chapter (that in terms of its scope and content could be a freestanding monograph) the author employs the insights that emerged from the preceding chapters to present a new reading of the Creation narrative in the Bible and the Rabbinic commentaries. The divine act of creation is presented as a primal sexual act, a sort of dialogic model of the consummate sanctity that takes its place in man's spiritual life when the option of opening one's heart to the other in a male-female dialogue is realized.

Women's seders have recently emerged as one of the most meaningful and popular rituals in contemporary Jewish life. These two books bring together the voices of over 150 Jewish women -- authors, scholars, activists, rabbis, artists, political leaders, and students -- to share new insights about Passover and to discuss the origins, evolution, and significance of women's seders.

This first-of-its-kind resource provides in The Women's Passover Companion a complete exploration of the questions at the heart of this contemporary ritual, and in The Women's Seder Sourcebook over 200 texts and ideas for a women's seder and practical guidance for planning the event. These innovative readings can be easily incorporated into a family seder as well.
-- Presents an inspiring collection of Jewish women's writings on Passover, the Exodus story, and women's seders.
-- Provides readers with textual resources to compile their own women's Haggadah and a practical guide to planning a women's seder, based on information from successful seder organizers around the world.
-- Offers a wide variety of women's writings that can be incorporated into the family seder to bring women's voices to the table.
-- Includes a formal curriculum of texts, discussion questions, and writing exercises for further study, to transform the planning process for a women's seder into a community-building and Jewish learning experience.

Widely used for centuries in Sufi circles, the prayer known as "The Most Elevated Cycle" ("al-Dawr al-a'la") or "The Prayer of Protection" ("Hizb al-wiqaya"), written by the great Sufi master Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi, has never before been available in English. This book provides a lucid English translation and an edited Arabic text of this beautiful and powerful prayer. It includes a transliteration for those unable to read Arabic, who wish to recite the prayer in the original language. Showing the importance of Ibn 'Arabi's devotional teaching, the book explores the prayer's contemporary life, properties and historical transmission. It gives full details of generations of well-known scholars and Sufi masters who have transmitted the prayer, providing an intimate and fascinating insight into Islamic history.

An accessible introduction to the concepts of Jewish mysticism, their religious
and spiritual significance, and how they relate to our lives.

"The Way Into Jewish Mystical Tradition" allows us to experience and understand mysticism s inexpressible reverence before the awe and mystery of creation, and celebrate this rich tradition s quest to transform our ordinary reality into holiness.

Mysticism and Intellect in Medieval Christianity and Buddhism explores two influential intellectual and religious leaders in Christianity and Buddhism, Bonaventure (c. 1217-74) and Chinul (1158-1210), a Franciscan theologian and a Korean Zen master respectively, with respect to their lifelong endeavors to integrate the intellectual and spiritual life so as to achieve the religious aims of their respective religious traditions. It also investigates an associated tension between different modes of discourse relating to the divine or the ultimate-positive (cataphatic) discourse and negative (apophatic) discourse. Both of these modes of discourse are closely related to different ways of understanding the immanence and transcendence of the divine or the ultimate. Through close studies of Bonaventure and Chinul, the book presents a unique dialogue between Christianity and Buddhism and between West and East.

Narasimha is one of the least studied major deities of Hinduism. Furthermore, there are limited studies of the history, thought, and literature of middle India. Lavanya Vemsani redresses this by exploring a range of primary sources, including classical Sanskrit texts (puranas and epics), and regional accounts (sthalapuranas), which include texts, artistic compositions, and oral folk stories in the regional languages of Telugu, Oriya, and Kannada. She also examines the historical context as well as contemporary practice. Moving beyond the stereotypical classifications applied to sources of Hinduism, this unique study dedicates chapters to each region of middle India bringing together literary, religious, and cultural practices to comprehensively understand the religion of Middle India (Madhya Desha). Incorporating lived religion and textual data, this book offers a rich contribution to Hindu studies and Indian studies in general, and Vaishnava Studies and regional Hinduism in particular.

Each year, more than two million pilgrims from over 100 countries converge on the holy city of Mecca to reenact the ritual dramas that Muslims have been performing for centuries. Making the hajj is one of the most important duties in the life of a Muslim. The pilgrimage-and its impact on international politics-is enormous and growing every year, yet Westerners know virtually nothing about it. What is the hajj and what does it mean? Who are the hajjis? What do they do and say in Mecca and how do they interpret their experiences? Who runs the hajj and what are their political objectives? How does the hajj encourage international cooperation among Muslims and can it also promote harmony between Islam and the West? In Guests of God, Robert R. Bianchi seeks to answer these and many other questions. While it is first and foremost a religious festival, he shows, the hajj is also very much a political event. The Muslim world's leading multinational organization, the Organization of the Islamic Conference, has established the first international regime explicitly devoted to pilgrimage. Every large Muslim nation has developed a comprehensive hajj policy and a powerful bureaucracy to enforce it. Yet, Bianchi argues, no authority- secular or religious, national or international-can really control the hajj. Pilgrims believe that they are entitled to travel freely to Mecca as "Guests of God"-not as guests of any nation or organization that might wish to restrict or profit from their efforts to fulfill a fundamental religious obligation. Drawing on his personal experience as a pilgrim and a wealth of data gathered over the course of ten years of research, Bianchi has produced a fascinating look at the hajj filled with personal, candid stories from political and religious leaders and hajjis from all walks of life. A wide-ranging study of Islam, politics, and power, Guests of God is the most complete picture of the hajj available anywhere.