Philosophical concepts are influential in the theories and methods to study the world religions. Even though the disciplines of anthropology and religious studies now encompass communities and cultures across the world, the theories and methods used to study world religions and cultures continue to be rooted in Western philosophies. For instance, one of the most widely used textbooks used in introductory courses on religious studies, introduces major theoreticians such as Edward Burnett Tylor, James Frazer, Sigmund Freud, Emile Durkheim, Karl Marx, Max Weber, Mircea Eliade, William James, E. E. Evans-Pritchard, and Clifford Geertz. Their theories are based on Western philosophy. In contrast, in Indic philosophical systems, such as Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism, one of the common views on reality is that the world both within one self and outside is a flow with nothing permanent, both the observer and the observed undergoing constant transformation. This volume is based on such innovative ideas coming from different Indic philosophies and how they can enrich the theory and methods in religious studies.

This book is unique in its focus on showing students in the behavioral sciences how to analyze longitudinal data using R software. The book focuses on application, making it practical and accessible to students in psychology, education, and related fields, who have a basic foundation in statistics. It provides explicit instructions in R computer programming throughout the book, showing students exactly how a specific analysis is carried out and how output is interpreted. "This text excels in the explanation of models with the side-by-side use of R, so the audience can see the models in action. There is a gentle coverage of the mathematics driving the models, which does not seem intimidating to a non technical audience."-William Anderson, Cornell University