Download or read book Decolonizing Contemporary Gospel Music Through Praxis written by Robert Beckford and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2023-08-24 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is contemporary Black British gospel music a coloniality? What theological message is really conveyed in these songs? In this book, Robert Beckford shows how the Black British contemporary gospel music tradition is in crisis because its songs continue to be informed by colonial Christian ideas about God. Beckford explores the failure of both African and African Caribbean heritage Churches to Decolonise their faith, especially the doctrine of God, biblical interpretation and Black ontology. This predicament has left song leaders, musicians and songwriters with a reservoir of ideas that aim to disavow engagement with the social-historical world, black Biblical interpretation and the necessity of loving blackness. This book is decolonisation through praxis. Reflecting on the conceptual social justice album 'The Jamaican Bible Remix' (2017) as a communicative resource, Beckford shows how to develop production tools to inscribe decolonial theological thought onto Black British music(s). The outcome of this process is the creation of a decolonial contemporary gospel music genre. The impact of the album is demonstrated through case studies in national and international contexts.

Download or read book Urban Religious Events written by Paul Bramadat and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-04-08 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How might we best understand the relationship between the vibrant religious landscapes we see in many cities and contemporary urban social processes? Through case studies drawn from around the world, contributors explore the ways in which these processes interact in cities. This book argues that religious events – including rituals, processions, and festivals – are not only choreographies of sacred traditions, but they are also creative disruptions that reveal how urban cultural hierarchies are experienced and contested. Exposing the power dynamics behind these events, this book shows how performative uses of urban space serve to destabilize dominant genealogies and lineages around urban identities just as they lay claims to cultural supremacy or heritage. Through exploring the affective disruptions and political controversies caused by religious events, the contributors engage theoretical discussions in urban studies, the sociology of religion and the ethnography of ritual. This book is a significant contribution to understanding emerging patterns in contemporary religion and also for theories related to heritagization, eventization, and urbanization.

Download or read book Sacred and Secular Musics written by Virinder S. Kalra and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2015-01-15 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An exploration of the?sacred and secular opposition?as it appears in specific forms in African American, South Asian and European music.

Download or read book The Holy Spirit as Communion written by I. Leon Harris and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Holy Spirit as Communion, Leon Harris examines the pneumatologies of Colin Gunton and Frank Macchia. For both theologians, the doctrine of the Holy Spirit is foundational to understanding their doctrine of God, Christology, and ecclesiology. Drawing on the theme of communion, The Holy Spirit as Communion expresses the concept that the Holy Spirit is the person who perfects the divine nature and personhood of the Father and Son. It is the Holy Spirit who perfects the eternal communion within the divine Trinity, which is the source of the divine action that also perfects the communion in creation as an expression of the Father's will through Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit as Communion explores the essentiality of the Holy Spirit through a unique approach to Spirit Christology: Gunton is represented by a radicalized version of Chalcedon Christology, and Macchia formulates his account through the overarching metaphor of ""Spirit baptism."" Therefore, the doctrine of God, Christology, ecclesiology, and eschatology cannot be construed without a proper account of pneumatology that takes into consideration the eschatological perfecting work of the third person of the Trinity--who perfects creation's koinonia as a gift from the Father through the grace of Jesus Christ. ""An excellent study. Harris has invited two outstanding theological minds to a constructive dialogue about the Holy Spirit. Having followed their lively exchange with attentive and gracious insight, Harris advances his own nuanced pneumatology: one focused on the Spirit's active, personal agency--along with Father and Son--not only in individual soteriology, but throughout the created order, both in the church now and also in the age to come."" --Rob Price, Associate Professor of Theology, Talbot School of Theology, Biola University; translator of Hermann Cremer's The Christian Doctrine of the Divine Attributes ""One of the most important frontiers in contemporary ecumenical theology is the one on which historic Protestantism and global Pentecostalism encounter one another. Harris' comparative study of the distinctive contributions of Colin Gunton and Frank Macchia to contemporary pneumatology promises to inform this ecumenical encounter in valuable ways, not least by its careful exploration of how our account of the Holy Spirit can and must give shape to our doctrines of God, creation, reconciliation, and redemption."" --Philip G. Ziegler, Professor of Christian Dogmatics, University of Aberdeen ""Harris' exposition of these two theologians is lucid and illuminating. Gunton and Macchia receive a fair hearing, and their unique contributions are clearly spelled out. What especially stands out to me in this volume is Harris' examination of the influences on Gunton's pneumatology--Richard of St. Victor, Owen, Irving, and others. In taking his time to explore these key figures and their influence on Gunton, Harris has done us a great service. This is the most thorough and penetrating treatment of Gunton's doctrine of the Spirit available, and a wonderful contribution to conversations surrounding 'third article theology, ' as well as discussions of pneumatology more broadly. A fine work!"" --Uche Anizor, Associate Professor of Theology, Talbot School of Theology, Biola University I. Leon Harris (University of Aberdeen, Scotland) is Assistant Professor of Theology at Biola University, Talbot School of Theology. He has written several articles and presented papers at theology conferences internationally. He resides with his family in southern California.

Download or read book Trauma and Lived Religion written by R. Ruard Ganzevoort and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-08-11 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book focuses on the power of the ‘ordinary’, ‘everydayness’ and ‘embodiment’ as keys to exploring the intersection of trauma and the everyday reality of religion. It critically investigates traumatic experiences from a perspective of lived religion, and therefore, examines how trauma is articulated and lived in the foreground of people’s concrete, material actualities. Trauma and Lived Religion seeks to demonstrate the vital relevance between the concept of lived religion and the study of trauma, and the reciprocal relationship between the two. A central question in this volume therefore focuses on the key dimensions of body, language, memory, testimony, and ritual. It will be of interest to academics in the fields of sociology, psychology, and religious studies with a focus on lived religion and trauma studies, across various religions and cultural contexts.

Download or read book This Incredibly Benevolent Force written by C. Van der Kooi and published by Eerdmans. This book was released on 2018-01-10 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A key refrain in Reformed theology is that God's Spirit trumpets the message of salvation through Jesus Christ into every nook and cranny of the universe--but how? And in what way does this cosmic truth touch and shape the mundane reality of our lives and our world? In this distillation of his Warfield Lectures, delivered at Princeton Theological Seminary in spring 2014, leading Reformed theologian Cornelis van der Kooi examines the relationship of the Holy Spirit to Jesus Christ. He demonstrates how a fuller understanding of the interplay between Christology and pneumatology can encourage the Christian church to have open eyes and ears for the inbreaking of God's "incredibly benevolent force" into the cosmological emptiness of today's world.

Download or read book Postsecular Cities written by Justin Beaumont and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2011-06-16 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book reflects the wide-spread belief that the twenty-first century is evolving in a significantly different way to the twentieth, which witnessed the advance of human rationality and technological progress, including urbanisation, and called into question the public and cultural significance of religion. In this century, by contrast, religion, faith communities and spiritual values have returned to the centre of public life, especially public policy, governance, and social identity. Rapidly diversifying urban locations are the best places to witness the emergence of new spaces in which religions and spiritual traditions are creating both new alliances but also bifurcations with secular sectors. Postsecular Cities examines how the built environment reflects these trends. Recognizing that the 'turn to the postsecular' is a contested and multifaceted trend, the authors offer a vigorous, open but structured dialogue between theory and practice, but even more excitingly, between the disciplines of human geography and theology. Both disciplines reflect on this powerful but enigmatic force shaping our urban humanity. This unique volume offers the first insight into these interdisciplinary and challenging debates.

Download or read book A Secular Age Beyond the West written by Mirjam Künkler and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-07-05 with total page 441 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book compares secularity in societies not shaped by Western Christianity, particularly in Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa.

Download or read book Spirituality Corporate Culture and American Business written by James Dennis LoRusso and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2017-02-09 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By the early twenty-first century, Americans had embraced a holistic vision of work, that one's job should be imbued with meaning and purpose, that business should serve not only stockholders but also the common good, and that, for many, should attend to the “spiritual” health of individuals and society alike. While many voices celebrate efforts to introduce “spirituality in the workplace” as a recent innovation that holds the potential to positively transform business and the American workplace, James Dennis LoRusso argues that workplace spirituality is in fact more closely aligned with neoliberal ideologies that serve the interests of private wealth and undermine the power of working people. LoRusso traces how this new moral language of business emerged as part of the larger shift away from the post-New Deal welfare state towards today's global market-oriented social order. Building on other studies that emphasize the link between American religious conservatism and the rise of global capitalism, LoRusso shows how progressive “spirituality” remains a vital part of this story as well. Drawing on cultural history as well as case studies from New York City and San Francisco of businesses and leading advocates of workplace spirituality, this book argues that religion reveals much about work, corporate culture, and business in contemporary America.

Download or read book Making Religion and Human Rights at the United Nations written by Helge Årsheim and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2018-07-23 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume examines the different and sometimes contradictory approaches of four UN human rights committees to the concept of religion. Drawing on critical perspectives from religious studies, the book combines a genealogical assessment of the role of religion in international law with a detailed textual study of the reporting practice of the committees monitoring racial discrimination, civil and political rights, women's rights, and children's rights. Årsheim argues that the role of religion within the rights traditions monitored by the committees varies to the extent that their recommendations risk contradicting one another, thereby undermining their credibility and potential to bring about real change on the ground: Where some committees view religion singularly as a core individual right, others see religion partly as an inherent threat to the realization of other rights, but also as a potent social force to be reckoned with. In order to remedy this situation, Årsheim proposes the publication of a joint general comment by all the committees, spelling out their approach to the role of religion in the implementation of human rights.

Download or read book Sacred and Secular Agency in Early Modern France written by Sanja Perovic and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2012-02-16 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Challenging the master narrative of secularization, an exploration of the persistent influence of religious categories in the cultural landscape of Europe's first secular state.

Download or read book Religious Evolution and the Axial Age written by Stephen K. Sanderson and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2018-01-25 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Religious Evolution and the Axial Age describes and explains the evolution of religion over the past ten millennia. It shows that an overall evolutionary sequence can be observed, running from the spirit and shaman dominated religions of small-scale societies, to the archaic religions of the ancient civilizations, and then to the salvation religions of the Axial Age. Stephen K. Sanderson draws on ideas from new cognitive and evolutionary psychological theories, as well as comparative religion, anthropology, history, and sociology. He argues that religion is a biological adaptation that evolved in order to solve a number of human problems, especially those concerned with existential anxiety and ontological insecurity. Much of the focus of the book is on the Axial Age, the period in the second half of the first millennium BCE that marked the greatest religious transformation in world history. The book demonstrates that, as a result of massive increases in the scale and scope of war and large-scale urbanization, the problems of existential anxiety and ontological insecurity became particularly acute. These changes evoked new religious needs, especially for salvation and release from suffering. As a result entirely new religions-Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Daoism-arose to help people cope with the demands of the new historical era.

Download or read book Exploring the Spiritual in Popular Music written by Georgina Gregory and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-01-28 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book highlights how the diverse nature of spiritual practices are experienced and manifest through the medium of popular music. At first glance, chapters on Krishnacore, the Rave Church phenomenon and post-punk repertoire of Psychic TV may appear to have little in common; however, this book draws attention to some of the similarities of the nuances of spiritual expression that underpin the lived experience of popular music. As an interdisciplinary volume, the extensive introduction unpacks and clarifies terminology relating to the study of religion and popular music. The cross-disciplinary approach of the book makes it accessible and appealing to scholars of religious studies, cultural studies, popular music studies and theology. Unlike existing collections dealing with popular music and religion that focus on a specific genre, this innovative book offers a range of music and case studies, with chapters written by international contributors.

Download or read book Individualized Religion written by Claire Wanless and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-04-08 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on ethnographic research, this book explores individualized religion in and around Hebden Bridge in West Yorkshire. Claire Wanless demonstrates that counter to the claims of secularization theorists, the combination of informal structures and practices can provide a viable basis for socially significant religious activity that can sustain itself. The subjects of this research claim a variety of religious identities and practices, and are suspicious of religious institutions, hierarchies, rules and dogmas. Yet they participate actively in an overlapping and cross-linking informal network of practice communities and other associations. Their engagements propagate and sustain a core ideology that prioritizes subjectivity, locates authority at the level of the individual, and also predicates itself on ideals of sharing, mutuality and community. Providing a new theory of religious association, this book is a nuanced counterpoint to the secularization thesis in the UK and points the way to new research on individual religion.

Download or read book Jonathan s Loves David s Laments written by Dirk von der Horst and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2017-03-24 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jonathan's Loves, David's Laments uses early modern musical interpretations of David's Lament over Saul and Jonathan to deepen the historicist foundations of contemporary feminist and gay relational theologies. After laying out how gay theologian Gary David Comstock connects the story of David and Jonathan to the theology of lesbian theologian Carter Heyward, the argument interrogates both theological and exegetical problems in making those connections, which include contradictory theological stances with regard to modernity and history as well as the indeterminacy of the biblical text. Early modern musical interpretations of the text allow for a double move of engaging the texts through a sensual medium, thus reinforcing queer possibilities for meaning-making from the biblical text, and staying attuned to the fact that the history of interpretation reinforces the indeterminacy of the text, thus keeping queer interpretations aware of the relativizing function of historical difference.

Download or read book Hostage Spaces of the Contemporary Islamicate World written by Dejan Lukic and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2013-03-14 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gripping exposé of the act of hostage-taking, and of being a hostage, in the spheres of war and terrorism in post-communist geographies of global Islam.

Download or read book The Concept of Sister Churches in Catholic Orthodox Relations since Vatican II written by Will T. Cohen and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2017-09-28 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Often invoked between Vatican II and the end of the twentieth century by both Orthodox and Catholic officials across their confessional division, the expression “sister churches” reflected their growing rapprochement, as well as a shift on the Catholic side from a more centralized ecclesiology to one more attentive to the local church and conciliarity. Pope John Paul II in his 1995 encyclical Ut Unum Sint spoke significantly of a “doctrine of sister churches” that would help guide the Catholic and Orthodox toward unity along a path of mutual respect rather than either tradition’s submission to the other. In his comprehensive treatment of the history of the expression “sister churches” over half a century of Catholic-Orthodox relations, Dr. Will Cohen explores why the concept developed as it did, why it was so fiercely contested, and what remains vital about the concept today. In the process, Dr. Cohen illuminates the ways in which Catholic and Orthodox ecclesiology, respectively, is each most capable of renewing and sustaining its proper balance when open to the authentic gifts of the other.