Comprised of fourteen original chapters from a team of esteemed contributors. Covers multiple religious and cultural contexts, including Christian, Muslim, Jewish, and Buddhist contexts as well as newer spiritual movements. Blending case studies with empirical research, this book will be an outstanding resource to theologians and researchers interested in Practical Theology, Gender Studies, Sociology of Religion, and Anthropology.

Introduces an original take on floral design that teaches us to see the world anew Based on Lindsey Taylor’s popular Wall Street Journal column ‘Flower School,’ on its surface this book demonstrates how Taylor creates stunning but achievable floral arrangements inspired by works of art. Riffing on works by a diversity of artists across mediums, periods, and styles, including Alice Neel, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Julie Mehretu, Sheila Hicks, Willem de Kooning, Georgia O’Keeffe, Frank Stella, Salman Toor, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Kerry James Marshall, among others, Taylor inspires readers to interpret the palettes, compositions, brushstrokes, and mood of the art in flowers, and shares florists’ trade secrets for building beautiful arrangements. Through this meditative practice of looking intently at art and nature, readers learn, in the words of David Hockney, ‘to really look,’ and to really see the world.

The only witness to the drive-by shooting of a crack dealer identifies hedge fund manager Jonathan Hendricks as the killer. When Hendricks is questioned by Det. Arnold, who is investigating the murder, Hendricks denies everything - he was at home with his picture perfect wife at the time and the witness must be the same as the victim - just another crackhead. Later, Arnold and his fiancee, lawyer Melinda Devereaux, learn from country club barfly Martha Elizabeth Bennett Johnson von Brandenburg Savoy that Hendricks is the club's coke supplier and that his hedge fund is having serious problems. As Arnold tries to connect Hendricks to the murders, DEA agents Allen and Brady are investigating Hendricks' drug dealing and pop up at inopportune moments to find out what Arnold knows. In the meantime, Melinda has her own problems. Melinda's department chair has it in for her after Melinda snags a major client the chair wanted for herself. While Arnold is trying to solve the murder, Melinda has to juggle office politics, wedding planning, and avoiding Allen and Brady.

Golden Touch Natural Anti-Dandruff Shampoo was the best selling dandruff shampoo in the country. Unfortunately, it was also a fraud, leading to one of the largest class-action settlements ever, with a fight over the attorneys' fees to match. When the fee dispute is settled after one troublemaker is found with a bullet in his head and another is dumped in the Passaic River, no one particularly cares who was responsible except the investigating detectives, and whoever has other scores to settle. As the body count continues to pile up, Det. Arnold tries to locate the killer, solidify his relationship with his lawyer girlfriend, the beautiful Melinda Deveraux, and deal with his family through the holidays.

Environmental activist Jeffrey Marx is a member of the Raritan-Delaware Watershed Commission, which was designed to control development in northwest New Jersey, but through a quirk of politics, only gets funding when it approves projects. Despite his best efforts, Marx has been unable to block a single development in his years on the Commission. When Marx collapses at a Commission meeting, the rescuers discover he was wearing a wire and the Commission members panic. Det. Arnold launches a murder investigation when tests show the organic milk Marx used for his fair trade coffee had been laced with all natural poison. Arnold quickly finds Marx's recorded conversations, which reveal that Marx's most important "green" wasn't the environment, but cash. As the summer heats up, Arnold tries to navigate the twists and turns of both a corruption and a murder investigation. His relationship with his girlfriend - attorney, French cook extraordinaire, and die-hard Yankee fan Melinda Devereaux - is also heating up. What will be more of a challenge, Arnold rounding up dozens of corrupt developers and politicians, and nabbing a murderer, or New York City native Melinda adjusting to Arnold's farm-raised family?

Leo Templeton is a successful partner at a prominent New Jersey law firm. He has lied to, cheated on, and stolen from his partners, his clients, his wife and his girlfriends on his way to the top. When he is found dead just before a partners' meeting to throw him out of the firm, there is no shortage of suspects. All of them, and many more, have motive and opportunity to have committed the murder, and the evidence points everywhere. As his partners discover and try to clean up the mess he left behind and maneuver to try to take his place, Det. Arnold tries to sort through Templeton's sordid life to find the killer. Will the help of beautiful insider Melinda Devereaux be enough for Arnold to solve the crime? With Templeton hurting everyone in his life, will anyone other than Arnold, and the people in the office pool betting on who committed the murder, care whether the murderer is brought to justice?

Orthodox Jewish women are increasingly seeking new ways to express themselves religiously, and important changes have occurred in consequence in their self-definition and the part they play in the religious life of their communities. Drawing on surveys and interviews across different Orthodox groups in London, as well as on the author's own experience of active participation over many years, this is a thoroughly researched study that analyses its findings in the context of related developments in Israel and the USA. Sympathetic attention is given to women's creativity and sophistication as they struggle to develop new modes of expression that will let their voices be heard; at the same time, the inevitable points of conflict with the male-dominated religious establishment are examined and explained. There is a focus, too, on the impact of innovations in ritual: these include not only the creation of women-only spaces and women's participation in public practices traditionally reserved for men, but also new personal practices often acquired on study visits to Israel which are replacing traditions learned from family members. This is a much-needed study of how new norms of lived religion have emerged in London, influenced by both the rise of feminism and the backlash against it, and also by women's new understanding of their religious roles.