A Replacement for Religion

A Replacement for Religion PDF Author: The School of Life
Publisher: School of Life Press
ISBN: 9781912891030
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Many of us find ourselves in the odd situation of not believing in religion – but nevertheless being interested in it, moved by it and sympathetic to some of its aims. We may enjoy religious art and architecture, music and community, and even some of the rituals – while being unable to believe in angels, divine commandments or stories about the afterlife. This book is about those feelings and what we might do about them. The School of Life is a secular organisation fascinated by the gaps left in modern society by the gradual disappearance of religion. We’re interested in how hard it is to find a sense of community, how rituals are dying out and how much we sometimes crave the solemn quiet you find in religious buildings. This book lays out how we might absorb the best lessons of religion, update them for our times and incorporate them into our daily lives and societies – without taking on the supernatural or doctrinaire elements. This book tries to rescue some of what remains wise and useful from all that no longer seems (to many of us) to be quite true.

A Replacement for Religion

A Replacement for Religion PDF Author: The School of Life
Publisher: School of Life Press
ISBN: 9781912891030
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
Many of us find ourselves in the odd situation of not believing in religion – but nevertheless being interested in it, moved by it and sympathetic to some of its aims. We may enjoy religious art and architecture, music and community, and even some of the rituals – while being unable to believe in angels, divine commandments or stories about the afterlife. This book is about those feelings and what we might do about them. The School of Life is a secular organisation fascinated by the gaps left in modern society by the gradual disappearance of religion. We’re interested in how hard it is to find a sense of community, how rituals are dying out and how much we sometimes crave the solemn quiet you find in religious buildings. This book lays out how we might absorb the best lessons of religion, update them for our times and incorporate them into our daily lives and societies – without taking on the supernatural or doctrinaire elements. This book tries to rescue some of what remains wise and useful from all that no longer seems (to many of us) to be quite true.

Religion for Atheists

Religion for Atheists PDF Author: Alain De Botton
Publisher: Signal
ISBN: 0771025998
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 298

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Book Description
From the author of The Architecture of Happiness, a deeply moving meditation on how we can still benefit, without believing, from the wisdom, the beauty, and the consolatory power that religion has to offer. Alain de Botton was brought up in a committedly atheistic household, and though he was powerfully swayed by his parents' views, he underwent, in his mid-twenties, a crisis of faithlessness. His feelings of doubt about atheism had their origins in listening to Bach's cantatas, were further developed in the presence of certain Bellini Madonnas, and became overwhelming with an introduction to Zen architecture. However, it was not until his father's death -- buried under a Hebrew headstone in a Jewish cemetery because he had intriguingly omitted to make more secular arrangements -- that Alain began to face the full degree of his ambivalence regarding the views of religion that he had dutifully accepted. Why are we presented with the curious choice between either committing to peculiar concepts about immaterial deities or letting go entirely of a host of consoling, subtle and effective rituals and practices for which there is no equivalent in secular society? Why do we bristle at the mention of the word "morality"? Flee from the idea that art should be uplifting, or have an ethical purpose? Why don't we build temples? What mechanisms do we have for expressing gratitude? The challenge that de Botton addresses in his book: how to separate ideas and practices from the religious institutions that have laid claim to them. In Religion for Atheists is an argument to free our soul-related needs from the particular influence of religions, even if it is, paradoxically, the study of religion that will allow us to rediscover and rearticulate those needs.

The Blind Eye

The Blind Eye PDF Author: Georgia Blain
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
ISBN: 1743314248
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Book Description
The Blind Eye captures brilliantly the enervating spirit of an emptied town.' - The Age.

The End of Religion

The End of Religion PDF Author: Bruxy Cavey
Publisher: Tyndale House
ISBN: 1615215026
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 176

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Book Description
In The End of Religion, Bruxy Cavey shares that relationship has no room for religion. Believers and seekers alike will discover anew the wondrous promise found in our savior. And Christ’s eternal call to walk in love and freedom will resonate with readers of all ages and denominations.

Seculosity

Seculosity PDF Author: David Zahl
Publisher: Fortress Press
ISBN: 1506449441
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 236

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Book Description
At the heart of our current moment lies a universal yearning, writes David Zahl, not to be happy or respected so much as enough--what religions call "righteous." To fill the void left by religion, we look to all sorts of everyday activities--from eating and parenting to dating and voting--for the identity, purpose, and meaning once provided on Sunday morning. In our striving, we are chasing a sense of enoughness. But it remains ever out of reach, and the effort and anxiety are burning us out. Seculosity takes a thoughtful yet entertaining tour of American "performancism" and its cousins, highlighting both their ingenuity and mercilessness, all while challenging the conventional narrative of religious decline. Zahl unmasks the competing pieties around which so much of our lives revolve, and he does so in a way that's at points playful, personal, and incisive. Ultimately he brings us to a fresh appreciation for the grace of God in all its countercultural wonder.

What is Religion?

What is Religion? PDF Author: Robert George Crawford
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 9780415226707
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
What is Religion? serves not only as an introduction to the different belief systems flourishing throughout the modern world, but asks us to consider how the very boundaries of faith might be drawn now and in the future.

The Meaning and End of Religion

The Meaning and End of Religion PDF Author: Wilfred Cantwell Smith
Publisher: Fortress Press
ISBN: 9781451420142
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description
Wilfred Cantwell Smith, maintained in this vastly important work that Westerners have misperceived religious life by making "religion" into one thing. He shows the inadequacy of "religion" to capture the living, endlessly variable ways and traditions in which religious faith presents itself in the world.

Why Religion?

Why Religion? PDF Author: Elaine Pagels
Publisher: HarperLuxe
ISBN: 9780062860989
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
Why is religion still around in the twenty-first century? Why do so many still believe? And how do various traditions still shape the way people experience everything from sexuality to politics, whether they are religious or not? In Why Religion? Elaine Pagels looks to her own life to help address these questions. These questions took on a new urgency for Pagels when dealing with unimaginable loss—the death of her young son, followed a year later by the shocking loss of her husband. Here she interweaves a personal story with the work that she loves, illuminating how, for better and worse, religious traditions have shaped how we understand ourselves; how we relate to one another; and, most importantly, how to get through the most difficult challenges we face. Drawing upon the perspectives of neurologists, anthropologists, and historians, as well as her own research, Pagels opens unexpected ways of understanding persistent religious aspects of our culture. A provocative and deeply moving account from one of the most compelling religious thinkers at work today, Why Religion? explores the spiritual dimension of human experience.

Why We Need Religion

Why We Need Religion PDF Author: Stephen T. Asma
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190469676
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
Religion appears to be about God, messiahs, churchgoing, and morality, but that is only the appearance. It is really about lust, rage, grief, love and the other core emotions. Why We Need Religion is about the way religion successfully manages human emotions, for the good of the individual and the group.

Religion: The Basics

Religion: The Basics PDF Author: Malory Nye
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134059477
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
The new edition has been fully revised and updated, and includes new discussions of: the study of religion and culture in the 21st century texts, films and rituals cognitive approaches to religion globalisation and multiculturalism spirituality in the West popular religion.