Demonstrates that Buddhists appropriated the practice, vocabulary, and ideology of sacrifice from Vedic religion, and discusses the relationship of this sacrificial discourse to ideas of karma in the Pali canon and in early Buddhism.

"Epistle on Worship: Risalat al-ubudiyya" aims to shed new light on the thought of Ibn Taymiyya who remains one of the most controversial Islamic thinkers today because of his supposed influence on many fundamentalist movements. In this work, Professor James Pavlin argues that the common understanding of Ibn Taymiyya's ideas has been filtered through fragments of his statements-which have been misappropriated by alleged supporters and avowed critics alike-and that most people still have limited access to Ibn Taymiyya's beliefs and opinions as expressed in his own writings. "Epistle on Worship: Risalat al-ubudiyya" aims to begin filling this gap by presenting an annotated translation of one of Ibn Taymiyya's most important epistles on the theology of worship.---The introduction to "Epistle on Worship: Risalat al-ubudiyya" gives the reader an overview of Ibn Taymiyya's biography, situating him in the broader world of Islamic intellectual history by explaining his methodological arguments and theological opinions, while the annotated translation captures the immediacy of his ideas as they impacted his world as well as the relevancy they have for our times.

This inspirational collection of prayers and reminders is the perfect companion for anyone who wishes to connect to the Divine. Shaykh Omar Suleiman provides us with thirty short prayers taken from the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad and the early generations, each with a short reminder to deepen the impact of the prayer in our lives. Prayers of the Pious provides spiritual gems that serve as valuable wisdom and practical advice for the soul. By reading this short work with an attentive heart, the reader can cultivate love for God and His Messenger and live life with gratitude and contentment. The author has directed that 100% of the royalties from the sale of this book be donated to Yaqeen Institute, a US based nonprofit research institute, supporting their research and activities for the global Muslim community.

The first book to cover the fascinating story of Jewish pilgrimage from its mythic beginnings to current times. The history and breadth of Jewish pilgrimage traditions is rich and varied. Here the authors tell the fascinating, and sometimes harrowing, story of Jewish pilgrimage from the beginnings of Judaism to the present time. They trace the history of Jewish pilgrimage and show how the repeated cycles of exile and return to Israel serve the Jews as a kind of pilgrimage in reverse. This lively account is sure to appeal to anyone interested in religious pilgrimage, tourism, and travel. From Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives, to the tombs of King David, Rachel, and Joseph, from Galilee to Curacao, Jewish pilgrims seek out spiritual transcendence, a return to their roots, communion with those who have gone before, and connection to their common heritage as they visit holy shrines, important synagogues around the world, Nazi death camps, and the graves of leaders, among other places. But what makes these places holy? And what purpose do the pilgrimages serve? How has recent unrest in the Middle East contributed to, or detracted from, modern Jewish pilgrimage and its future? comprehensive historical overview of Jewish pilgrimage. It includes photographs of sites discussed in the book. It is the first book that looks exclusively at Jewish pilgrimage in its entirety. It also considers the current situation in the Middle East and the current state of Jewish pilgrimage.

Social Functions of Synagogue Song: A Durkheimian Approach by Jonathan L. Friedmann paints a detailed picture of the important role sacred music plays in Jewish religious communities. This study explores one possible way to approach the subject of music s intimate connection with public worship: applying sociologist Emile Durkeim s understanding of ceremonial ritual to synagogue music. Durkheim observed that religious ceremonies serve disciplinary, cohesive, revitalizing, and euphoric functions within religious communities. Drawing upon musical examples from different composers, regions, periods, rites, and services, Friedmann demonstrates how Jewish sacred music performs these functions.

Going beyond the more usual focus on Jerusalem as a sacred place, this book presents legal perspectives on the most important sacred places of the Mediterranean. The first part of the book discusses the notion of sacred places in anthropological, sociological and legal studies and provides an overview of existing legal approaches to the protection of sacred places in order to develop and define a new legal framework. The second part introduces the meaning of sacred places in Jewish, Christian and Islamic thought and focuses on the significance and role that sacred places have in the three major monotheistic religions and how best to preserve their religious nature whilst designing a new international statute. The final part of the book is a detailed analysis of the legal status of key sacred places and holy cities in the Mediterranean area and identifies a set of legal principles to support a general framework within which specific legal measures can be implemented. The book concludes with a useful appendix for the protection of sacred places in the Mediterranean region. Including contributions from leading law and religion scholars, this interesting book will be valuable to those in the fields of international law, as well as religion and heritage studies.

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.

Bodh Gaya in the North Indian state of Bihar has long been recognized as the place where the Buddha achieved enlightenment. This book brings together the recent work of twelve scholars from a variety of disciplines - anthropology, art history, history, and religion - to highlight their various findings and perspectives on different facets of Bodh Gaya's past and present. Through an engaging and critical overview of the place of Buddha's enlightenment, the book discusses the dynamic and contested nature of this site, and looks at the tensions with the on-going efforts to define the place according to particular histories or identities. It addresses many aspects of Bodh Gaya, from speculation about why the Buddha chose to sit beneath a tree in Bodh Gaya, to the contemporary struggles over tourism development, education and non-government organizations, to bring to the foreground the site's longevity, reinvention and current complexity as a UNESCO World Heritage monument. The book is a useful contribution for students and scholars of Buddhism and South Asian Studies.

Exploring what does and what does not constitute pilgrimage, Redefining Pilgrimage draws together a wide variety of disciplines including politics, anthropology, history, religion and sociology. Leading contributors offer a broad range of case studies from a wide geographical area, exploring new ways of approaching pilgrimage beyond the classical religious model. Re-thinking the global phenomenon of pilgrimages in the 21st century, this book offers new perspectives to redefine pilgrimage.

Over the past few years, secularism has become an intrinsic component of discussions on religious freedom and religious governance. The question of whether states should restrict the wearing of headscarves and other religious symbols has been particularly critical in guiding this thought process. Refashioning Secularisms in France and Turkey documents how, in both countries, devout women have contested bans on headscarves, pointing to how these are inconsistent with the 'real' spirit of secularism. These activists argue that it is possible to be simultaneously secular and religious; to believe in the values conveyed by secularism, while still remaining devoted to their faith. Through this examination, the book highlights how activists locate their claims within the frame of secularism, while at the same time revisiting it to craft a space for their religiosity. Addressing the lacuna in literature on the discourse of devout Muslims affected by these restrictions, this book offers a topical analysis on an understudied dimension of secularism and is a valuable resource for students and researchers with an interest in Religion, Gender Studies, Human Rights and Political Science.

Umar was the second of the four 'rightly guided' caliphs. At first, he railed against the new Islam religion until he read parts of the Quran. He was instantly impressed and became a believer. Umar is credited for establishing most of the major political institutions of the Muslim state and stabilising the rapidly expanding Arab empire.

In a world that increasingly sees religion as a source of violence, this book explores resources from within religious traditions that might help build peace. Drawing from the rich textual histories of Christianity and Islam, the contributors mine their faith traditions for ways of thinking and ways of being that help shift perceptions about religion, and actively contribute to the growth of peace in our troubled times. Not content with retreat into religious exclusivism, these essays are an act of sharing something held dear. In sharing, the thing offered no longer remains the possession of the one who offers, and so these essays are an act of vulnerability and trust-building. In sharing precious things together, in giving and receiving, peace becomes not only a matter of dialogue, but also shared commitments to ways of being.

Am Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts setzt sich die tschechische Gesellschaft intensiv mit neuen spirituellen Stroemungen wie Theosophie, Anthroposophie und Okkultismus auseinander. Durch die UEbersetzungen der Werke von Huysmans, Strauss, Nietzsche, Steiner und anderen einflussreichen europaischen Denkern gerat der Katholizismus immer starker in den Konflikt mit der Moderne. Die Bewegung Katolicka moderna versucht in Boehmen den Katholizismus zu erneuern. Zu den Mitarbeitern der Zeitschrift Novy zivot zahlen wichtige tschechische Kunstlerpersoenlichkeiten. Auch die Autoren der Zeitschrift Moderni revue streben eine entsprechende Reform religioes ausgerichteter Kunst an. Die tschechische Musik dieser Zeit widerspiegelt die vielfaltige Auseinandersetzung mit den neuen Denkrichtungen. Charakteristisch fur die betreffenden Werke ist der Synkretismus in Form einer persoenlichen Synthese aus verschiedenen Formen der Spiritualitat. In diesem Kongressband werden neben den Beitragen zu diesen Fragen bislang unbekannte Dokumente zur tschechischen Musik der Jahrhundertwende veroeffentlicht und die Rezeptionswege von massgebenden Komponisten der Zeit (Dvorak, Janacek, Haba, Schulhoff, Novak, Martinu) untersucht. At the end of the 19th century, Czech society was preoccupied with new spiritual trends such as theosophy, anthroposophy, pantheism and occultism. The ideas of Schure, Huysmans, Peladan, Renan, Strauss, Nietzsche, Steiner, Blavatsky and other influential European thinkers were compiled and made available thanks to numerous translations. At the same time, Catholicism was coming into increasing conflict with modernism. One of the attempts at its revival in Bohemia was represented by the movement Catholic Modernism. The contributors to the review Novy zivot (New Life) were distinct personalities of Czech cultural life. The authors of the magazine Moderni revue (Modern Review) strove for reform of religion-oriented arts too. Czech music of that period reflects the multifaceted encounters with the new intellectual trends. Works are characterised by syncretism, in the form of a personal synthesis of various types of spirituality. In addition, the congress proceedings comprise research into hitherto unknown documents dealing with Czech music at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, as well as the paths of reception of the foremost composers of the time (Dvorak, Janacek, Haba, Schulhoff, Novak, Martinu).

Thinking Jewish Culture in America argues that Jewish thought extends our awareness and deepens the complexity of American Jewish culture. This volume stretches the disciplinary boundaries of Jewish thought so that it can productively engage expanding arenas of culture by drawing Jewish thought into the orbit of cultural studies. The eleven contributors to Thinking Jewish Cultures, together with Chancellor Arnold Eisen s postscript, position Jewish thought within the dynamics and possibilities of contemporary Jewish culture. These diverse essays in Jewish thought re-imagine cultural space as a public and sometimes contested performance of Jewish identity, and they each seek to re-enliven that space with reflective accounts of cultural meaning. How do Jews imagine themselves as embodied actors in America? Do cultural obligations limit or expand notions of the self? How should we imagine Jewish thought as a cultural performance? What notions of peoplehood might sustain a vibrant Jewish collectivity in a globalized economy? How do programs in Jewish studies work within the academy? These and other questions engage both Jewish thought and culture, opening space for theoretical works to broaden the range of cultural studies, and to deepen our understanding of Jewish cultural dynamics. Thinking Jewish Culture is a work about Jewish cultural identity reflected through literature, visual arts, philosophy, and theology. But it is more than a mere reflection of cultural patterns and choices: the argument pursued throughout Thinking Jewish Culture is that reflective sources help produce the very cultural meanings and performances they purport to analyze.

During the goddess Gangamma s festival in the town of Tirupati, lower-caste men take guises of the goddess, and the streets are filled with men wearing saris, braids, and female jewelry. By contrast, women participate by intensifying the rituals they perform for Gangamma throughout the year, such as cooking and offering food. Joyce Burkhalter Flueckiger argues that within the festival ultimate reality is imagined as female and women identify with the goddess, whose power they share. Vivid accounts by male and female participants offer new insights into Gangamma s traditions and the nature of Hindu village goddesses."

Pilgrimages can be analysed as acts of conflict - such as the Crusades - or also as platforms for relationship building and rapprochement between religions. With a set of contributions from leading experts in the field, this book explores the concept of pilgrimage in Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Some specific examples of pilgrimages that helped to strengthen links between different religions or civilisations are explored, ranging from Europe to Asia and from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century. Even though every pilgrimage that is investigated here has helped to link different worlds, the case studies show that this relationship rarely led to a better in inter-understanding. Nowadays, peaceful coexistence seems to be its greatest achievement.

Exploring European changes in religious and secular beliefs and practices related to life passages, this book provides a deeper understanding of the impacts of social change on personal identity and adjustment across the life course, According to latest research, Europeans who consider religious services appropriate to mark life passages significantly outnumber those who declare themselves as believers. Drawing on fascinating oral histories of older people's memories in both Eastern and Western Europe, this book presents illuminating views on peoples' quests for existential meaning in later life. Ageing, Ritual and Social Change presents an invaluable resource for all those exploring issues of ageing, including those looking from perspectives of sociology and psychology of religion, social and oral history and East-Central European studies.

Exploring European changes in religious and secular beliefs and practices related to life passages, this book provides a deeper understanding of the impacts of social change on personal identity and adjustment across the life course, According to latest research, Europeans who consider religious services appropriate to mark life passages significantly outnumber those who declare themselves as believers. Drawing on fascinating oral histories of older people's memories in both Eastern and Western Europe, this book presents illuminating views on peoples' quests for existential meaning in later life. Ageing, Ritual and Social Change presents an invaluable resource for all those exploring issues of ageing, including those looking from perspectives of sociology and psychology of religion, social and oral history and East-Central European studies.

"It's a nice piece of pageantry. . . . Rationally it's lunatic, but in practice, everyone enjoys it, I think."-HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh Founded by Edward III in 1348, the Most Noble Order of the Garter is the highest chivalric honor among the gifts of the Queen of England and an institution that looks proudly back to its medieval origins. But what does the annual Garter procession of modern princes and politicians decked out in velvets and silks have to do with fourteenth-century institutions? And did the Order, in any event, actually originate in the wardrobe malfunction of the traditional story, when Edward held up his mistress's dropped garter for all to see and declared it to be a mark of honor rather than shame? Or is this tale of the Order's beginning nothing more than a vulgar myth? With steady erudition and not infrequent irreverence, Stephanie Trigg ranges from medieval romance to Victorian caricature, from imperial politics to medievalism in contemporary culture, to write a strikingly original cultural history of the Order of the Garter. She explores the Order's attempts to reform and modernize itself, even as it holds onto an ambivalent relationship to its medieval past. She revisits those moments in British history when the Garter has taken on new or increased importance and explores a long tradition of amusement and embarrassment over its formal processions and elaborate costumes. Revisiting the myth of the dropped garter itself, she asks what it can tell us about our desire to seek the hidden sexual history behind so venerable an institution. Grounded in archival detail and combining historical method with reception and cultural studies, Shame and Honor untangles 650 years of fact, fiction, ritual, and reinvention.

Ascetic practices are a common feature of religion in Japan, practiced by different religious traditions. This book looks at these ascetic practices in an inter-sectarian and inter-doctrinal fashion, in order to highlight the underlying themes common to all forms of asceticism. It does so by employing a multidisciplinary methodology, which integrates participant fieldwork - the author himself engaged extensively in ascetic practices - with a hermeneutical interpretation of the body as the primary locus of transmission of the ascetic 'embodied tradition'. By unlocking this 'bodily data', the book unveils the human body as the main tool and text of ascetic practice. This book includes discussion of the many extraordinary rituals practiced by Japanese ascetics.

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.