The Sacred Chain
"In this marvelously accessible book, philosopher-Christian Jim Stump provides the reader with new eyes for a journey through time, the origin of the soul, suffering, and morality, and reveals how the latest scientific findings about what it means to be human have led him to a deeper and more authentic faith."--Francis S. Collins, Director of the Human Genome Project and Founder of BioLogos, author of The Language of GodA thought-provoking and eye-opening work by Jim Stump, Vice President at BioLogos and host of the Language of God podcast, offering a compelling argument about how evolution does not have to be at odds with faith, but can actually enrich and deepen it.In this moving and deeply thoughtful book, Jim Stump takes readers with him on his journey to understanding evolution and reconciling it with his faith. The Sacred Chain draws on philosophy, theology, and the latest scientific research to tackle some of the biggest questions facing humanity and people of faith today, such as: How can we hold the Bible as a sacred text and yet reconcile modern science with it?By condensing noteworthy events in the history of our universe into one calendar week, what can we learn about God's creative process and priorities, and where humans fit in?If humans are created in the image of God, what does evolution have to teach us about our species and our place in creation?What about the soul? How can we understand our transcendent qualities if the human body is the product of evolution?How does evolutionary science help us understand how God might use pain and suffering for important and good purposes?Does it have to be one or the other--science or religion--or is there a third way, one that not only preserves faith in the face of modern science, but leads to a stronger, more relevant, and more authentic faith?Deeply researched and a delight to read, The Sacred Chain provides clarity in our uncertain times, revealing a bigger picture of our world and our place within it. It is a panorama consistent with the scientific findings about who we are and where we come from that can actually bolster our faith as it engages our curiosity about ourselves, our universe, and the nature of existence itself.
Contemporary Arab Thought
In the last third of the twentieth century, the Arab intellectual and political scene polarized between totalizing doctrines--nationalist, Marxist, and religious--and radical critique. Arab thinkers were reacting to the disenchanting experience of postindependence and a widespread sense of malaise, as well as to authoritarianism, intolerance, injustice, failed development, and successive defeats by Israel. The foundational account of these responses, Contemporary Arab Thought illuminates the relationship between cultural and political critique in the work of major Arab thinkers. Elizabeth Suzanne Kassab also connects Arab debates to the postcolonial issues of Latin America and Africa, revealing the shared struggles of different regions. Since its first publication in 2009, this book has stood as the foremost account of contemporary Arab debates on culture, philosophy, modernity, tradition, identity, and liberation. It is widely used in Middle Eastern studies courses, and it has become a classic in the field of Arab intellectual history. Contemporary Arab Thought now features an extensive new introduction that reconsiders post-1967 Arab intellectual history in light of the 2011 uprisings and the upheavals that have occurred over the intervening years. Kassab critically reflects on the book's arguments and the responses it has provoked, and she surveys the new preoccupations that have emerged in Arab debates since 2011. As crises again overtake the Middle East, this landmark work continues to offer indispensable insight into the richness of contemporary Arab thought.
Cross-Cultural Heritage
For centuries, Christian missions have intervened in local religious communities, practices and ideas across the globe, generating encounters between Indigenous and Western cultures that have ranged from hostile confrontation to intercultural osmosis. While primarily intended as a strategy for evangelisation, forms of inculturation also led to the emergence of new hybrid cultural and religious expressions. These creative processes were rarely unidirectional; instead, they involved reciprocal cultural transactions in which local communities exerted significant agency. Cross-Cultural Impacts deepens our understanding of the intricate relationships between missions and missionised communities. These are reflected in the material and immaterial legacies of missionary histories in various contexts in South America, Africa, Asia, the Pacific and Europe. Often, they remain deeply rooted in landscapes, memories and practices today.Contributing authors: Paola Granado (Universit矇 Lumi癡re Lyon 2), Leah Abayao (University of the Philippines Baguio), Kwami Edem Afoutou (Universit矇 Laval), Karen Jacobs (University of East Anglia), Naziru Yahaya Shu'Aibu (College of Advance and Remedial Studies, Kano), Leon Bouwmeester (KU Leuven), Jennifer Bond (University College London), Rinald D'Souza (KU Leuven), Markus A. Scholz (Philosophisch-Theologische Hochschule Sankt Georgen Frankfurt am Main), Idesbald Goddeeris (KU Leuven).
From Death-Camp to Existentialism
In this powerful and deeply introspective account, psychiatrist Viktor E. Frankl shares his firsthand experiences as a prisoner in Auschwitz and a sub-camp of Dachau. Rather than dwelling on the horrors of the Holocaust in detail, *From Death-Camp to Existentialism* focuses on the psychological and emotional states of those who endured the unimaginable. Frankl explores the mental journey of concentration camp inmates, identifying three distinct phases: the initial shock upon arrival, the emotional apathy that set in for survival, and the profound depersonalization upon release. He delves into the human capacity for resilience, the struggle to find meaning even in suffering, and the crucial role of free will in determining one's inner strength. Through his observations, Frankl presents a compelling argument that even in the most extreme conditions, an individual's ability to hold on to their moral and spiritual identity is what ultimately determines their fate. These reflections would later form the foundation of *logotherapy*, his groundbreaking approach to psychotherapy. *From Death-Camp to Existentialism* is essentially an earlier edition of what later became *Man's Search for Meaning*, one of the most influential books of the 20th century. A testament to the endurance of the human spirit, this thought-provoking and transformative work continues to inspire readers seeking meaning in the face of adversity.
Letter to the White World
Father Zanotelli, an Italian missionary priest, served for many years among the poorest of the poor in a slum in Nairobi. Eventually, he felt "commissioned" by these people to minister and evangelize the members of his "White Tribe," in order to open their eyes to the history of oppression perpetrated by their European ancestors and continued into the present day--through racism, colonialism, exploitation, and treating the poor world as unworthy of respect or care. In this book he sets out do that.
On Ritual
Close, microhistorical examination of the way rituals are actually performed goes well beyond the standard, ideal description of such ceremonies to reveal participants who modify the proceedings in shrewd, subtle, strategic ways that advance their own interests, sometimes going so far as to challenge, even subvert the protocols, traditions, and values favored by presiding officials. The wide-ranging set of examples includes a Roman funeral, a Mesoamerican healing ceremony, a Jewish-American Thanksgiving dinner and others, each of which receives meticulously detailed consideration. Each one has its own engaging characters, intricate maneuvers, analytically revealing developments, and moments of high drama.
Companions of the Sun
Companions of the Sun is a comprehensive overview of the mystical traditions that arose throughout the ages in the religion currently centered on Iran, with an emphasis on sacred dance. The book is a lively exploration of the archaeological, anthropological, and ethnological roots of the practices, folk-ways, and art forms that this region has contributed to human spiritual culture.
A Political Theology for the Us-Mexico Borderlands
Since 1994, over 4,000 human remains have been recovered from the Sonoran Desert. Victims of a border enforcement strategy that weaponizes the landscape against migrants, the ever-growing ledger of the dead counts the human cost at which the present political paradigm is secured. Through a series of readings of biblical texts, informed by philosophical, theological, and legal theory, this book facilitates a reckoning between the self-determining polity and the excluded outsider's ethical demand. Finding in their demand the motivation for novel forms of legal interpretation and political agency, Ellrod sketches a hopeful, life-affirming alternative to Realist Political Theologies of Migration.
Mūka Pancaśatī
The 20th head of Kanchipura Mutt was Mookendra Saraswati Swami. It is said that he is re-birth of Kalidasa. By birth he was dumb. With the blessings of Sri Kamakshi Devi of Kanchi, he got back his speech and also wrote the Stotra called Mooka Pancashati. Since it had 500 (Panca = 5, shati = 100) verses, it is called as Pancashati. It was authored by a person who was earlier dumb (Mooka). Hence it is called as Mooka Pancashati, in the name of the poet himself. Even after getting his speech, taking Sanyasa and becoming head of Kanchi Mutt, he was address as Mookacharyar. He was very particular about Kamakshi Devi of Kanchipuram only. The entire Stotra was divided into 5 shatakams (100 verses) as below;Āryā Śatakaṃ - Contemplating the GoddessPādāravinda Śatakaṃ - Worshiping the feet of KamakshiStuti Śatakaṃ - Describing the beauty of the Sri DeviKaṭākṣa Śatakaṃ - Praising the Goddess for her benedictionsMandasmita Śatakaṃ - bringing the smiling goddess in front of usAn attempt has been made in this book to dive deep into the verses alongwith comparisons of same message being conveyed in the other storas like Soundaryalahari, Sri Lalita Sahasranama, Sri Lalita Trishati, Abhirami Andadi, etc. Let Sri Kamakshi Devi shower her blessings to all readers.
Bahaism and Its Claims A Study of the Religion Promulgated by Baha Ullah and Abdul Baha
Church, Sacrament of the World
Six decades on from Vatican II, the Catholic Church continues to struggle with a crisis precipitated by clerical child sexual abuse. The faith of believers has been shaken and a chasm has opened between popular conceptions of the church and the theological ones prized by Scripture and Tradition. Seeking to bridge the chasm, this work approaches the church as sacrament of the world. It underscores the need for continuing ecclesial reform while also insisting on the importance of mutual engagement between church and world, even when the relationship between them is strained and the questions arising are divisive. Among the most complex of those are ones associated with Paul VI's Humanae Vitae, an encyclical that was even dismissed by many committed Catholics. Yet, as history frequently does, questions that once appeared to be closed can reopen in surprising ways, thereby forcing us to grapple afresh with the mysterious workings of divine providence in ways that are quite challenging.
Salud Y Shalom
Jewish volunteers made up almost one-third of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade (ALB) during the Spanish Civil War. Most belonged to a Communist Party focused on the antifascist goals of the Popular Front and faithful to the internationalist idea of erasing ethnicity, including Jewish ethnicity. Joseph Butwin's oral history presents conversations with ten Jewish veterans of the ALB. Recorded from 1992-94 in the wake of European communism's collapse, the interviews explore the milieus that formed the volunteers. Immigrants established the secular Yiddish-speaking socialism that became a part of many Jewish American communities. Their children, reacting to economic depression and the rise of fascism, enlisted in the ALB. Butwin follows their stories from their youthful motives and choices through their lives as Jews and leftists, and records the reckonings that took place as they reflected on their past. Insightful and revealing, Salud y Shalom explores the forces of identity and history that led young Jewish leftists to fight fascism.
Śambūka and the Rāmāyaṇa Tradition
According to Vālmīki's Sanskrit Rāmāyaṇa, Śambūka was practicing severe acts of austerity to enter heaven. In engaging in these acts as a Śūdra, Śambūka was in violation of class- and caste-based societal norms prescribed exclusively by the ruling and religious elite. Rāma, the hero of the Rāmāyaṇa epic, is dispatched to kill Śambūka, whose transgression is said to be the cause of a young Brahmin's death. The gods rejoice upon the Śūdra's execution and they restore the life of the Brahmin. The developmental history of the Śambūka narrative begins with the appearance of this story as a late addition to the core of Vālmīki's Rāmāyaṇa in the first few centuries of the common era, a period of immense revision to and consolidation of an idealistic political Brahminism. The Śambūka story, with its hardline depiction of varṇa-dharma, fit quite well within this project of widely asserting Brahmanical dominance. Subsequent Rāmāyaṇa poets almost instantly recognized the incident of Śambūka's execution as a blemish on Rāma's character and they began problematizing this earliest version of the story by adjusting the story to suit the expectations of their audiences. Such adjustments included a more sympathetic view of Śambūka that exhibited a concern for his afterlife in the form of Rāma granting Śambūka salvation, albeit through their deadly contact. This particular narrative took hold especially in medieval India when Rāma became the object of fervent religious devotion. More pointed departures from Vālmīki's Śambūka narrative developed within Jain Rāma texts and involved a complete overhaul in its exposition whereby Śambūka's death occurs accidentally and at the hands of Rāma's brother, Lakṣmaṇa. As a figure who embodies Jain ideals, Rāma could not participate in any act of violence, so Jain poets removed him from any involvement in Śambūka's execution. In a display of intercommunal exchange, this motif of Śambūka's accidental death is also found in some Hindu Rāmāyaṇas of the medieval period. In the modern era, author-activists find that the story of Śambūka as known in Vālmīki's Rāmāyaṇa leaves out some critical details--that Śambūka was a revolutionary leader who peacefully advocated for equal access to education for India's oppressed populations and the abolishment of the caste system. Creators of new works on Śambūka seek to enter these details into the record of the Rāmāyaṇa tradition, thus correcting what they see as centuries of misrepresentation.
Christian America and the Kingdom of God
The myth of a Christian America fuels a powerful political force sure of its moral superiority and intent on implementing a Christian nationalist agenda. Richard T. Hughes and Christina Littlefield draw on discussions of civil religion and forms of nationalism to explore the complex legal and cultural arguments for a Christian America. The authors also provide an in-depth examination of the Bible's words on the "chosen nation" and "kingdom of God" that Christian nationalists quote to support the idea of the US as a Christian nation. A timely new edition of the acclaimed work, Christian America and the Kingdom of God spotlights how the centuries-long pursuit of a Christian America has bred an aggressive white Christian nationalism that twists faith, unleashes unchristian behavior, and threatens the nation.
Vaiṣṇava Concepts of God
This book analyses the concepts of God in Vaiṣṇavism. It will be of interest to researchers in the fields of philosophy of religion and Indian philosophy, cross-cultural and comparative philosophy, analytic philosophy of religion, Hindu studies, theology and religious studies.
Interreligious Dialogue Models
How did the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) converse and engage with other religious believers? This book analyses six models of the dealings in the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), specifically, but not restricted, to the siblings of Abrahamic religious believers.
Lee Edelman and the Queer Study of Religion
This book takes the ground-breaking work of Lee Edelman in queer theory and for the first time demonstrates its importance and relevance to contemporary theology, Biblical studies, and religious studies.
The Path of the Sephirot
As our world becomes increasingly divided between extremes, Jewish mysticism offers a vision of integration, healing, and balanced transformation. The Path of the Sephirot invites readers on a journey through the 49 days of the Omer, blending ancient Kabbalistic wisdom with grounded, modern insight to inspire meaningful personal growth.Each day of the Omer corresponds to a unique combination of the seven Sephirot-divine qualities that shape our lives. Through daily reflections and meditative as well as action-based practices, this book guides you to embody harmony, motivation, compassion, and strength. Walking this road, you can refine your inner dimensions and deepen your connection to Reality itself. With clarity and depth, Rabbi Matthew Ponak reveals how the mystical can meet the practical, offering a framework for healing that begins with the individual and radiates outward into the world. Whether you are new to Jewish spirituality or well-versed in Kabbalah, this book will help you cultivate a self-aware, connected, and vibrant life rooted in spiritual insight.
Christian Missionaries, Ethnicity, and State Control in Globalized Yunnan
Following the Communist Revolution of 1949, missionaries were kicked out of China and proselytizing was outlawed. However, since the beginning of the reform era, China has witnessed a massive return of missionary workers. Today there are more Christians in church on a given Sunday in China than anywhere else on the globe.This book investigates the interaction of Western missionaries, ethnic minorities, and Han Chinese converts with the Chinese state in an increasingly globalized China. Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Yunnan, it tries to make sense of the disparity between official state rhetoric and everyday reality. Examining morality in the context of the free-market system, spatial practices, linguistic activity, and Christian welfare organizations, Gideon Elazar reveals the ways in which the previously conflicting Communist Party and Christian "civilizing projects" have reached a measure of convergence, enabling local authorities to treat missionaries with a degree of tolerance. Elazar shows how this unofficial arrangement relates to the social realities and challenges of the reform era, including ethnic culture and identity, Yunnan's many social problems, and the integration of ethnic minorities into the state system.By exploring the continuously shifting social and religious borders negotiated by converts, missionaries, and state authorities in Southwest China, this book sheds light on the larger issue of contemporary religion in China's global era. It will be of interest to researchers of religion, Christianity, and minority groups in the People's Republic of China.
Colored Women Sittin' on High
From blue-note turmoil to grace-note power, Black women preachers stand tall. In Colored Women Sittin' on High, Melanie R. Hill offers a new perspective on the art of the sermon in African American literature, music, and theology. Drawing on the womanist cadence of Alice Walker in literature and the rhythmical flow of named womanist theologians, Hill makes interventions at the intersections of African American literary criticism, music, and religious studies.Pushing against the patriarchal dominance that often exists in religious spaces, Hill argues that Black women's religious practice creates a "sermonic space" that thrives inside and outside the church, allowing for a critique of sexism and anti-Black racism. She examines literature by writers such as Zora Neale Hurston and James Baldwin, music by Aretha Franklin and Ms. Lauryn Hill, and sermons by theologians Ruby Sales and Vashti M. McKenzie, and she takes readers into a sermonic artwork of artists, preachers, and freedom movement activists who are, as Hill contends, the greatest "virtuosic alchemists" of our time.
Colored Women Sittin' on High
From blue-note turmoil to grace-note power, Black women preachers stand tall. In Colored Women Sittin' on High, Melanie R. Hill offers a new perspective on the art of the sermon in African American literature, music, and theology. Drawing on the womanist cadence of Alice Walker in literature and the rhythmical flow of named womanist theologians, Hill makes interventions at the intersections of African American literary criticism, music, and religious studies.Pushing against the patriarchal dominance that often exists in religious spaces, Hill argues that Black women's religious practice creates a "sermonic space" that thrives inside and outside the church, allowing for a critique of sexism and anti-Black racism. She examines literature by writers such as Zora Neale Hurston and James Baldwin, music by Aretha Franklin and Ms. Lauryn Hill, and sermons by theologians Ruby Sales and Vashti M. McKenzie, and she takes readers into a sermonic artwork of artists, preachers, and freedom movement activists who are, as Hill contends, the greatest "virtuosic alchemists" of our time.
