Revelatory Events

Revelatory Events PDF Author: Ann Taves
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691152896
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 378

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Book Description
A leading scholar sheds critical light on the seemingly revelatory events behind new religions and spiritual movements Unseen presences. Apparitions. Hearing voices. Although some people would find such experiences to be distressing and seek clinical help, others perceive them as transformative. Occasionally, these unusual phenomena give rise to new spiritual paths or religious movements. Revelatory Events provides fresh insights into what is perhaps the bedrock of all religious belief—the claim that otherworldly powers are active in human affairs. Ann Taves looks at Mormonism, Alcoholics Anonymous, and A Course in Miracles—three cases in which insiders claimed that a spiritual presence guided the emergence of a new spiritual path. In the 1820s, Joseph Smith, Jr., reportedly translated the Book of Mormon from ancient gold plates unearthed with the help of an angel. Bill Wilson cofounded AA after having an ecstatic experience while hospitalized for alcoholism in 1934. Helen Schucman scribed the words of an inner voice that she attributed to Jesus, which formed the basis of her 1976 best-selling self-study course. In each case, Taves argues, the sense of a guiding presence emerged through a complex, creative interaction between a founding figure with unusual mental abilities and an initial set of collaborators who were drawn into the process by diverse motives of their own. A major work of scholarship, this compelling and accessible book traces the very human processes behind such events.

Revelatory Events

Revelatory Events PDF Author: Ann Taves
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691152896
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 378

Get Book Here

Book Description
A leading scholar sheds critical light on the seemingly revelatory events behind new religions and spiritual movements Unseen presences. Apparitions. Hearing voices. Although some people would find such experiences to be distressing and seek clinical help, others perceive them as transformative. Occasionally, these unusual phenomena give rise to new spiritual paths or religious movements. Revelatory Events provides fresh insights into what is perhaps the bedrock of all religious belief—the claim that otherworldly powers are active in human affairs. Ann Taves looks at Mormonism, Alcoholics Anonymous, and A Course in Miracles—three cases in which insiders claimed that a spiritual presence guided the emergence of a new spiritual path. In the 1820s, Joseph Smith, Jr., reportedly translated the Book of Mormon from ancient gold plates unearthed with the help of an angel. Bill Wilson cofounded AA after having an ecstatic experience while hospitalized for alcoholism in 1934. Helen Schucman scribed the words of an inner voice that she attributed to Jesus, which formed the basis of her 1976 best-selling self-study course. In each case, Taves argues, the sense of a guiding presence emerged through a complex, creative interaction between a founding figure with unusual mental abilities and an initial set of collaborators who were drawn into the process by diverse motives of their own. A major work of scholarship, this compelling and accessible book traces the very human processes behind such events.

Revelatory Events

Revelatory Events PDF Author: Ann Taves
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400884462
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 379

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Book Description
A leading scholar sheds critical light on the seemingly revelatory events behind new religions and spiritual movements Unseen presences. Apparitions. Hearing voices. Although some people would find such experiences to be distressing and seek clinical help, others perceive them as transformative. Occasionally, these unusual phenomena give rise to new spiritual paths or religious movements. Revelatory Events provides fresh insights into what is perhaps the bedrock of all religious belief—the claim that otherworldly powers are active in human affairs. Ann Taves looks at Mormonism, Alcoholics Anonymous, and A Course in Miracles—three cases in which insiders claimed that a spiritual presence guided the emergence of a new spiritual path. In the 1820s, Joseph Smith, Jr., reportedly translated the Book of Mormon from ancient gold plates unearthed with the help of an angel. Bill Wilson cofounded AA after having an ecstatic experience while hospitalized for alcoholism in 1934. Helen Schucman scribed the words of an inner voice that she attributed to Jesus, which formed the basis of her 1976 best-selling self-study course. In each case, Taves argues, the sense of a guiding presence emerged through a complex, creative interaction between a founding figure with unusual mental abilities and an initial set of collaborators who were drawn into the process by diverse motives of their own. A major work of scholarship, this compelling and accessible book traces the very human processes behind such events.

Revelation

Revelation PDF Author:
Publisher: Canongate Books
ISBN: 0857861018
Category : Bibles
Languages : en
Pages : 60

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Book Description
The final book of the Bible, Revelation prophesies the ultimate judgement of mankind in a series of allegorical visions, grisly images and numerological predictions. According to these, empires will fall, the "Beast" will be destroyed and Christ will rule a new Jerusalem. With an introduction by Will Self.

Religious Experience Reconsidered

Religious Experience Reconsidered PDF Author: Ann Taves
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400830974
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 229

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Book Description
How the sciences of the mind can advance the study of religion The essence of religion was once widely thought to be a unique form of experience that could not be explained in neurological, psychological, or sociological terms. In recent decades scholars have questioned the privileging of the idea of religious experience in the study of religion, an approach that effectively isolated the study of religion from the social and natural sciences. Religious Experience Reconsidered lays out a framework for research into religious phenomena that reclaims experience as a central concept while bridging the divide between religious studies and the sciences. Ann Taves shifts the focus from "religious experience," conceived as a fixed and stable thing, to an examination of the processes by which people attribute meaning to their experiences. She proposes a new approach that unites the study of religion with fields as diverse as neuroscience, anthropology, sociology, and psychology to better understand how these processes are incorporated into the broader cultural formations we think of as religious or spiritual. Taves addresses a series of key questions: how can we set up studies without obscuring contestations over meaning and value? What is the relationship between experience and consciousness? How can research into consciousness help us access and interpret the experiences of others? Why do people individually or collectively explain their experiences in religious terms? How can we set up studies that allow us to compare experiences across times and cultures? Religious Experience Reconsidered demonstrates how methods from the sciences can be combined with those from the humanities to advance a naturalistic understanding of the experiences that people deem religious.

Revelations Revealed

Revelations Revealed PDF Author: Jesse Urbano
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781935001492
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
It leaves many good Bible readers and students dismayed. Many preachers won't touch it. Furthermore, scholars, for centuries, have gotten confused, mixing up its elaborate symbols and allegories for the actual and vice versa. How can a book called The Revelation be so concealed? Is it even meant to be understood? Jesse Urbano answers with a resounding YES.Urbano has gathered and compiled the teachings of many pastors, Bible scholars and historians about this wonderful book in the Bible, systematically breaking it down chapter-by-chapter, passage-by-passage, showing that the book's author, Jesus Christ, meant for it to be understood.If you've ever wanted to be able to “look into the book” and “hear what the spirit is saying unto the churches,” this is the guide that will help you to do it.

Revelations

Revelations PDF Author: Elaine Pagels
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 110157707X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 253

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Book Description
A startling exploration of the history of the most controversial book of the Bible, by the bestselling author of Beyond Belief. Through the bestselling books of Elaine Pagels, thousands of readers have come to know and treasure the suppressed biblical texts known as the Gnostic Gospels. As one of the world's foremost religion scholars, she has been a pioneer in interpreting these books and illuminating their place in the early history of Christianity. Her new book, however, tackles a text that is firmly, dramatically within the New Testament canon: The Book of Revelation, the surreal apocalyptic vision of the end of the world . . . or is it? In this startling and timely book, Pagels returns The Book of Revelation to its historical origin, written as its author John of Patmos took aim at the Roman Empire after what is now known as "the Jewish War," in 66 CE. Militant Jews in Jerusalem, fired with religious fervor, waged an all-out war against Rome's occupation of Judea and their defeat resulted in the desecration of Jerusalem and its Great Temple. Pagels persuasively interprets Revelation as a scathing attack on the decadence of Rome. Soon after, however, a new sect known as "Christians" seized on John's text as a weapon against heresy and infidels of all kinds-Jews, even Christians who dissented from their increasingly rigid doctrines and hierarchies. In a time when global religious violence surges, Revelations explores how often those in power throughout history have sought to force "God's enemies" to submit or be killed. It is sure to appeal to Pagels's committed readers and bring her a whole new audience who want to understand the roots of dissent, violence, and division in the world's religions, and to appreciate the lasting appeal of this extraordinary text.

Who Is God?

Who Is God? PDF Author: Richard Bauckham
Publisher: Baker Academic
ISBN: 9781540961907
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Internationally respected scholar Richard Bauckham offers a brief, engaging study of divine revelation in Scripture. He probes the deep meaning of well-known moments in the biblical story in order to address the key question the Bible is designed to answer: Who is God? Accessible for laypeople and important to scholars, this volume begins by exploring three key events in the Bible in which God is revealed: Jacob's dream at Bethel (the revelation of the divine presence), Moses at the burning bush (the revelation of the divine Name), and Moses on Mount Sinai (the revelation of the divine character). In each case, Bauckham traces these themes through the rest of Scripture. He then shows how the New Testament builds on the Old by exploring three revelatory events in Mark's Gospel, events that reveal the Trinity: Jesus's baptism, transfiguration, and crucifixion. This book is based on the Frumentius Lectures for 2015 at the Ethiopian Graduate School of Theology in Addis Ababa and on the Hayward Lectures for 2018 at Acadia Divinity College, Nova Scotia.

A Sequential Chronology of End Time Events as Recorded in the Book of Revelation - Condensed Edition

A Sequential Chronology of End Time Events as Recorded in the Book of Revelation - Condensed Edition PDF Author: Don T. Phillips
Publisher: Virtualbookworm.com Publishing
ISBN: 9781621377542
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 60

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Book Description
The Book of Revelation is a record (unveiling) of events which were shown to the Apostle John by Jesus Christ. The revelation given to John spanned a period of time from approximately 93 AD until a new heaven and new earth is put into place after the Tribulation Period. Perhaps the greatest problem in properly understanding and interpreting the Revelation Record is that the Book of Revelation is not written in a time-sequenced, chronological narrative. General descriptions of things to come are presented and then later followed by details. In addition, parenthetical passages are inserted to describe or clarify main events. While the Book of Revelation is not presented in a chronological sequence, it is clearly divided into three main divisions: (1) Things which thou (John) hast seen, (2) Things which are (7 letters to 7 churches in Asia Minor and visions of God's Throne) and (3) Things which must be hereafter (The tribulation period, the 1000 year millennial kingdom and New Heavens and New Earth). This book arranges all 22 chapters, 404 verses and 12,000 words in the order in which they occur. It is intended to supplement "The Book of Revelation: Mysteries Revealed" by Don T. Phillips.

A John Hick Reader

A John Hick Reader PDF Author: John Hick
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1610975626
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 209

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Book Description
"Canonical criticism" is not a recognized branch of biblical studies--granting new focus to questions of the authority and truth of the scriptural writings. Developed within a critical sense of the dominant historical-critical tone of biblical studies, canonical criticism as it has been pursued by the American scholars Brevard S. Childs and James A. Sanders stands as witness to the theological necessity of a more literary approach to the Bible.This book both criticizes the "canonical" enterprise, and takes it much further into readings of the canon from the perspective not only of literature, but also art, and in particular the biblical art of Rembrandt. In addition, it remains acutely conscious of the contemporary environment of our reading within the political concerns of feminist criticism, popular absorption in film and the narratives of the screen, and finally the crisis, or crises, which characterize the so-called "postmodern condition."What emerges is at once highly critical of traditional strategies of canonization, and at the same time constructive and concerned to recover the Bible for our own time in readings which move outside the limited academic concerns of the biblical critic or the institutions of the church and religious community.

Divine Revelation

Divine Revelation PDF Author: Paul Avis
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1592446639
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
Divine revelation is one of the most fundamental of all theological questions. Indeed, some might say, if we could be clear about whether there is a revelation from God - where it is located, what form it takes, and who has the authority to interpret it - we could solve all other theological problems. Although the question of revelation is crucial, it has not received the attention commensurate with its strategic significance in theology. The seminal approaches of Barth, Rahner, and Pannenberg, for example, are conducted at such an abstract and sophisticated level as to be inaccessible to beginners, and although the work of several individual modern theologians is worthwhile, there is a significant lack of comprehensive resources on the topic. Several years in preparation, this volume aims to redress that deficiency. The contributors, originating from England, Scotland, Ireland, the United States, and Canada, represent a spectrum of religious traditions and views. The aim is to provide biblical, historical, contemporary, and reflective resources on the ways in which divine revelation has been understood in the history of Christian theology and is now understood in theological discussion. Ideal for students of theology in universities, colleges, and seminaries, for those attending training courses for the priesthood, and for lay Christians of all denominations, 'Divine Revelation' enables readers to think constructively about this vital topic in a way that is conducive to a critical, informed, and living faith.