Author: S. Brent Plate
Publisher: Beacon Press
ISBN: 0807036706
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 256
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Book Description
A leading scholar explores the importance of physical objects and sensory experience in the practice of religion. A History of Religion in 5½ Objects takes a fresh and much-needed approach to the study of that contentious yet vital area of human culture: religion. Arguing that religion must be understood in the first instance as deriving from rudimentary human experiences, from lived, embodied practices, S. Brent Plate asks us to put aside, for the moment, questions of belief and abstract ideas. Instead, beginning with the desirous, incomplete human body, he asks us to focus on five ordinary objects—stones, incense, drums, crosses, and bread—with which we connect in our pursuit of religious meaning and fulfillment. As Plate considers each of these objects, he explores how the world’s religious traditions have put each of them to different uses throughout the millennia. Religion, it turns out, has as much to do with our bodies as our beliefs. Maybe even more.
Author: Laurel
Publisher: Oracle Institute Press, LLC
ISBN: 9780977392902
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 452
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Book Description
The Truth is the award-winning first book in The Oracle Institute foundational trilogy. It presents a summary of the divine messages sent to us by God through the Prophets. When studied successively, these spiritual lessons form a "Tower of Truth" that should not be broken or interpreted along sectarian lines. Instead, these Truths should be assimilated into a contemporary spiritual and scientific database and shared by everyone, regardless of religious affiliation.The Truth explores the five primary religions that evolved after the Prophets died: Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam, to determine whether these manmade religions have remained faithful to the Truth, including the primordial Truth that God is half masculine and half feminine energy. The Truth reveals that mankind has built a "Tower of Babel" with God's messages. Moreover, these now ancient religions have polarized humanity and brought us to the brink of World War III. The book also includes an objective template for measuring the adequacy of any religion, and an Appendix that shows the nexus between politics and religion and politics thought human history.
Author: Aaron W. Hughes
Publisher: Equinox Publishing (UK)
ISBN: 9781781796122
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
Religion in Five Minutes provides an accessible and lively introduction to the questions about religion and religious behaviour that interest most of us, whether or not we personally identify with - or practice - a religion. Suitable for beginning students and the general reader, the book offers more than 60 brief essays on a wide range of fascinating questions about religion and its study, such as: How did religion start? What religion is the oldest? Who are the Nones? Why do women seem to play lesser roles in many religions? What's the difference between a religion and a cult? Is Europe less religious than North America? Is Buddhism a philosophy? How do we study religions of groups who no longer exist?Each essay is written by a leading authority and offers succinct, insightful answers along with suggestions for further reading, making the book an ideal starting point for classroom use or personal browsing.
Author: Adam Possamai
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004218815
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 457
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Book Description
‘Hyper-real religions’ are innovative religions and spirituality that mix elements of religious tradition with popular culture. Through various case studies, this book studies the on and off-line religious/spiritual consumption of these narratives through a social scientific approach.
Author: Capital University
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 986
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Book Description
Author: Philippe Huguelet
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521889529
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 387
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Book Description
This book was the first to specifically address the impact of religion and spirituality on mental illness.
Author: Henry Goldschmidt
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780195149180
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 338
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Book Description
A collection of new essays exploring the complex and unstable articulations of race and religion. Drawing on original research, the authors investigate how race and religion have defined global relations, shaped the everyday lives of individuals and communities and how communities use religion to contest the power of racism.
Author: Jeffrey Haynes
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317986458
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 353
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Book Description
This book examines key debates on religion and democratization from three main perspectives: Religious traditions have core elements which are more or less conducive to democratization and democracy; Religious traditions may be multi-vocal – but at any moment there may be dominant voices more or less receptive to and encouraging of democratization; Religious actors rarely if ever determine democratization outcomes. However, they may in various ways and with a range of outcomes be of significance for democratization. The contributions are divided into two sections: (1) Religion, democratization and democracy, and (2) Secularization, democratization and democracy. Overall, they examine the three assertions in the bullet points above. The book’s starting point is that in general around the world, religions have left their assigned place in the private sphere. This means they have in many cases become recognisably politically active in various ways and with assorted outcomes. This re-emergence from political marginality dates back until at least the 1980s. At that time, the US sociologist, Jose Casanova noted that ‘what was new and became "news" ... was the widespread and simultaneous refusal of religions to be restricted to the private sphere’. This involved a remodelling and re-assumption of public roles by religion, which theories of secularisation had long condemned to social and political marginalisation. This book was published as a special issue of Democratization.
Author: Olaf Müller
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 131701555X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 279
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Book Description
Engaging with some of the central issues in the sociology of religion, this volume investigates the role and significance of churches and religion in contemporary Western and Eastern Europe. Based on an extensive international research project, it offers case studies of various countries (including Finland, Ireland, Portugal, Germany, Poland, Russia, Estonia, Hungary and Croatia), as well as cross-country comparisons. Researching more precisely the present social relevance of church and religion at different levels, The Social Significance of Religion in the Enlarged Europe raises and responds to both descriptive and explanatory questions: Can we observe tendencies of religious decline in the various Western and Eastern European countries? Are we witnessing trends of religious individualization? To what extent has there been a religious upswing in the last few years? And what are the factors causing the observed processes of religious change? Marked by its broad range of data and a coherent conceptual framework, in accordance with which each chapter assesses the extent to which three important theoretical approaches in the sociology of religion - secularization theory, the market model of religion, and the individualization thesis - are applicable to the data, this book will be of interest to scholars of sociology, politics and religion exploring religious trends and attitudes in contemporary Europe.
Author: Wayne Talbot
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1796000221
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 679
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Book Description
Is there evidence for the existence of God, defined as the transcendent entity responsible for all material existence? The author believes that there is, albeit such evidence is not necessarily proof for everyone. In this two-part study, Wayne Talbot firstly presents the evidence that has convinced him that God is the most plausible explanation. With a limited but sufficient understanding of the nature of existence, in terms of energy, matter, space, and time, he demonstrates his primary axiom: that nothing can explain itself. The natural corollary of this is that scientists will never be able to explain the origins of material existence by examining the material itself. An explanation of origins must always lie outside the entity being examined. This is why scientists cannot explain the origin of the proposed singularity and why some scientists seek an alternative to the Big Bang model of our universe, even resorting to logical absurdities such as the universe creating itself out of nothing while in the presence of something. With the reality of God being his presupposition for what follows, the author examines the case for monotheistic religions versus polytheistic, concluding that the latter are antithetical to a God who is one. Left with a choice between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, he concludes that if God has communicated his guidance for living to any, it is most likely Judaism as recorded in the Hebrew scriptures. The question becomes, Which parts of those scriptures were intended for the children of Israel alone, and which were for all people for all time? Researching ever deeper, he reveals what he has come to believe about how God wants us to relate to him and the specific guidance that should be reworded for contemporary times. The spirit of Torah is so much more than the mere words.
