Download or read book Saintly Intervention written by Kevin Beardsley and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2015-01-14 with total page 165 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1944, Nonno Benogetti, a sixteen-year-old shepherd, was falsely accused of conniving with the Germans against the Partisans and was about to be executed by the local Partisans in the valley below the farmhouse where he lived, when he is saved by a New Zealand soldier who was on patrol in the area. He lived with his mother in a large farmhouse with two other families in the Apennines above the town of Gubbio in Italy. He and his mother are convinced that his miraculous escape from death was because the patron saint of the area, Sant'Ubaldo, had intervened on his behalf. In 2013, Nonno, now retired, still lives in the farmhouse with his married daughter, son-in-law, and grandson. The grandson who works in the bar and cafe near the church of Sant'Ubaldo above Gubbio is selling drugs, supplied to him by a member of one of the families that used to live on the farm back in 1944. A New Zealand young farmer on a farming scholarship with the same name as the soldier who saved him from the Partisans all those years ago is living with Nonno for a few weeks. Nonno is intrigued when a father and daughter with the same name as a German soldier deserter, who he and his mother once hid from the Germans, comes to stay in one of the family units in the large farmhouse. He becomes alarmed when he learns that the man who is supplying his grandson with drugs has the same name as one of the families who once lived in the farmhouse with him in 1944. Another grandson of Nonno is a detective in Rome who is engaged in a case involving the murder of a prominent judge. There appears to be no definite leads, until the body of a prosecuting attorney is found in the Tiber River. Both he and the judge had been involved in a drug and gangster case involving a well-known criminal family in which a prominent member of the family was found guilty. At first it is thought the murders might have been committed by some of the gang that remain at large, until it is obvious when several attempt on the detective's life were made that the culprits were more likely be members of the family run by someone called the General. After following several leads, Nonno's grandson detective follows a lead that brings him to Gubbio. He is unaware that while he seeks his quarry, others seek him and are not far behind him. Nonno is convinced that when the chase is taking place in the valley where he was saved by Sant'Ubaldo that his grandson detective will also be saved by the patron saint of the area. He hears pistol shots followed by the sound of a high-powdered rifle coming from among the trees below in the valley and wonders if the saint has deserted him.
Download or read book Warfare and the Miraculous in the Chronicles of the First Crusade written by Elizabeth Lapina and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2015-08-13 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Warfare and the Miraculous in the Chronicles of the First Crusade, Elizabeth Lapina examines a variety of these chronicles, written both by participants in the crusade and by those who stayed behind. Her goal is to understand the enterprise from the perspective of its contemporaries and near contemporaries. Lapina analyzes the diversity of ways in which the chroniclers tried to justify the First Crusade as a “holy war,” where physical violence could be not just sinless, but salvific. The book focuses on accounts of miracles reported to have happened in the course of the crusade, especially the miracle of the intervention of saints in the Battle of Antioch. Lapina shows why and how chroniclers used these miracles to provide historical precedent and to reconcile the messiness of history with the conviction that history was ordered by divine will. In doing so, she provides an important glimpse into the intellectual efforts of the chronicles and their authors, illuminating their perspectives toward the concepts of history, salvation, and the East. Warfare and the Miraculous in the Chronicles of the First Crusade demonstrates how these narratives sought to position the crusade as an event in the time line of sacred history. Lapina offers original insights into the effects of the crusade on the Western imaginary as well as how medieval authors thought about and represented history.
Download or read book Preaching Islamic Renewal written by Jacquelene G. Brinton and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2015-10-27 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Preaching Islamic Renewal examines the life and work of Muhammad Mitwalli Sha‘rawi, one of Egypt's most beloved and successful Islamic preachers. His wildly popular TV program aired every Friday for years until his death in 1998. At the height of his career, it was estimated that up to 30 million people tuned in to his show each week. Yet despite his pervasive and continued influence in Egypt and the wider Muslim world, Sha‘rawi was for a long time neglected by academics. While much of the academic literature that focuses on Islam in modern Egypt repeats the claim that traditionally trained Muslim scholars suffered the loss of religious authority, Sha‘rawi is instead an example of a well-trained Sunni scholar who became a national media sensation. As an advisor to the rulers of Egypt as well as the first Arab television preacher, he was one of the most important and controversial religious figures in late-twentieth-century Egypt. Thanks to the repurposing of his videos on television and on the Internet, Sha‘rawi’s performances are still regularly viewed. Jacquelene Brinton uses Sha‘rawi and his work as a lens to explore how traditional Muslim authorities have used various media to put forth a unique vision of how Islam can be renewed and revived in the contemporary world. Through his weekly television appearances he popularized long held theological and ethical beliefs and became a scholar-celebrity who impacted social and political life in Egypt.
Download or read book Master Piece written by Andy Dane Nye and published by Artavia Publishing. This book was released on with total page 390 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As far as Norman Penkridge is concerned, there’s only one problem with having an angel floating above his living room carpet. He’s an atheist! When reclusive computer geek, Norman, starts receiving heavenly visitations, his fiercely logical brain assumes he’s going mad. But as attempts to prove they’re a figment of his imagination fail, he’s faced with a far more alarming scenario. If real, he must accept he’s been chosen from the whole of humanity to prevent EVERYTHING in the Universe... and a few extra dimensions he’s never even heard of... ceasing to exist. That not only includes a Supreme Being he doesn’t believe in, but - of far more immediate concern to Norman - his own bedsit off the Bayswater Road. Writing in a refreshingly original style that's been described as "Douglas Adams meets Terry Pratchett meets Dan Brown", Andy Dane Nye casts a satirical eye over the subject of religion, whilst encouraging the reader to explore the true nature of spirituality in this engaging, humorous, quirky, mystery adventure. “Just brilliant. Witty, clever and totally enthralling. Couldn't put it down.” Amazon review. “Captivating from beginning to end.” Amazon review. “An unfolding intelligent puzzle that’s gripping all the way through.” Amazon review. “A rollicking good read!” Amazon review. “Brilliant, surreal and laugh out loud funny.” Amazon review. “So good I read it twice.” Amazon review. If you’re looking for an unputdownable, thought-provoking read, centred around a mysterious international art conspiracy… featuring spiritual paradoxes and Templar intrigue… where an unlikely hero has to do battle with a group of ruthless industrialists who've chosen to style themselves on the Gods of Ancient Greece… two crack CIA operatives, whose corrupt boss is in the latter’s pay… an eccentric tramp with a posh voice who claims to talk to the dead… an increasingly irate and problematic landlord with the same surname as the father of the atomic bomb… and where the hero's toughest opponent might turn out to be himself… then this is the perfect book for you! A definite must for those who love their fictional intrigue to be mixed with a healthy dose of philosophical musings... and plenty of laughs!
Download or read book Beshara and Ibn Arabi written by Suha Taji-Farouki and published by Anqa Publishing. This book was released on 2010-11-18 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Investigating Sufi-inspired spirituality in the modern world, this interdisciplinary text combines cultural study with solid data to provide a comprehensive look at how the teachings of Ibn 'Arabi have been adopted and adapted by Muslims and non-Muslims. At the heart of this movement is the Beshara School in Scotland, founded in the 1960s, and now a center of international scholarship. Using the school as a case study, the discussion describes its emergence and evolution, its approach to spiritual education, the origins of its spiritual teacher, its major teachings and practices, and its projection of Ibn 'Arabi. Both rigorous and very timely, this effort points to areas of cultural exchange between East and West and highlights commonalities in the various historical changes both societies have undergone.
Download or read book Islamic Dilemmas Reformers Nationalists and Industrialization written by Ernest Gellner and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2019-07-22 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The series Religion and Society (RS) contributes to the exploration of religions as social systems - both in Western and non-Western societies; in particular, it examines religions in their differentiation from, and intersection with, other cultural systems, such as art, economy, law and politics. Due attention is given to paradigmatic case or comparative studies that exhibit a clear theoretical orientation with the empirical and historical data of religion and such aspects of religion as ritual, the religious imagination, constructions of tradition, iconography, or media. In addition, the formation of religious communities, their construction of identity, and their relation to society and the wider public are key issues of this series.
Download or read book Sacred Plunder written by David M. Perry and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2015-06-18 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Sacred Plunder, David Perry argues that plundered relics, and narratives about them, played a central role in shaping the memorial legacy of the Fourth Crusade and the development of Venice’s civic identity in the thirteenth century. After the Fourth Crusade ended in 1204, the disputes over the memory and meaning of the conquest began. Many crusaders faced accusations of impiety, sacrilege, violence, and theft. In their own defense, they produced hagiographical narratives about the movement of relics—a medieval genre called translatio—that restated their own versions of events and shaped the memory of the crusade. The recipients of relics commissioned these unique texts in order to exempt both the objects and the people involved with their theft from broader scrutiny or criticism. Perry further demonstrates how these narratives became a focal point for cultural transformation and an argument for the creation of the new Venetian empire as the city moved from an era of mercantile expansion to one of imperial conquest in the thirteenth century.
Download or read book Embodying Charisma written by Pnina Werbner and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 1998 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book illuminates the remarkable resilience of South Asian Sufi saints and their cults in the face of radical economic and political dislocations and breaks new ground in current research.
Download or read book Places of Contested Power written by Ryan Lavelle and published by Boydell & Brewer. This book was released on 2020 with total page 403 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First full examination of why and how certain locations were chosen for opposition to power, and the meaning they conveyed.
Download or read book Sharing the Sacred written by Anna Bigelow and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2010-01-28 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Inter-religious relations in India are notoriously fraught, not infrequently erupting into violence. This book looks at a place where the conditions for religious conflict are present, but active conflict is absent. Bigelow focuses on a Muslim majority Punjab town (Malkerkotla) where both during the Partition and subsequently there has been no inter-religious violence. With a minimum of intervention from outside interests, Muslims, Hindus, and Sikhs have successfully managed conflict when it does arise. Bigelow explores the complicated history of the region, going back to its foundation by a Sufi saint in the fifteenth century. Combining archival and interview material, she accounts for how the community's idealized identity as a place of peace is realized on the ground through a variety of strategies. As a story of peace in a region of conflict, this study is an important counterbalance to many conflict studies and a corrective to portrayals of Islamic cultures as militant and intolerant. This fascinating town with its rich history will be of interest to students and scholars of Islam, South Asia, and peace and conflict resolution.
Download or read book Medieval Crime Fiction written by Anne McKendry and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2019-05-14 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Combining elements of medievalism, the historical novel and the detective narrative, medieval crime fiction capitalizes upon the appeal of all three--the most famous examples being Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose (one of the best-selling books ever published) and Ellis Peters' endearing Brother Cadfael series. Hundreds of other novels and series fill out the genre, in settings ranging from the so-called Celtic Enlightenment in seventh-century Ireland to the ruthless Inquisition in fourteenth-century France to the mean streets of medieval London. The detectives are an eclectic group, including weary ex-crusaders, former Knights Templar, enterprising monks and nuns, and historical poets such as Geoffrey Chaucer. This book investigates the enduring popularity of the largely unexamined genre and explores its social, cultural and political contexts.
Download or read book Saints Miracles and Social Problems in Italian Renaissance Art written by Diana Bullen Presciutti and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2023-03-31 with total page 730 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book, Diana Bullen Presciutti explores how images of miracles performed by mendicant saints-reviving dead children, redeeming the unjustly convicted, mending broken marriages, quelling factional violence, exorcising the demonically possessed-actively shaped Renaissance Italians' perceptions of pressing social problems related to gender, sexuality, and honor. She argues that depictions of these miracles by artists-both famous (Donatello, Titian) and anonymous-played a critical role in defining and conceptualizing threats to family honor and social stability. Drawing from art history, history, religious studies, gender studies, and sociology, Presciutti's interdisciplinary study reveals how miracle scenes-whether painted, sculpted, or printed-operated as active agents of 'lived religion' and social negotiation in the spaces of the Renaissance Italian city.
Download or read book Martyrdom Murder and Magic written by Patricia Healy Wasyliw and published by Peter Lang. This book was released on 2008 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Martyrdom, Murder, and Magic: Child Saints and Their Cults in Medieval Europe is a comprehensive history of child saints and their cults from late Antiquity to the end of the fifteenth century. The child martyrs of the persecutions, including the Holy Innocents, were the first child saints recognized by the Church and their cults spread throughout Europe in the early Middle Ages. Alongside these cults, medieval society also venerated child «martyrs», victims of political or domestic violence. The increasing role of the papacy in the canonization process after the tenth century resulted in the veneration of saintly child confessors in the high Middle Ages, but from the end of the twelfth century, most children worshipped as saints were the alleged victims of ritual murder by Jews. This book considers the formation and transformation of child saints and their cults in the context of popular belief and the history of childhood.
Download or read book Why Can the Dead Do Such Great Things written by Robert Bartlett and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2015-09-15 with total page 806 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A sweeping, authoritative, and entertaining history of the Christian cult of the saints from its origin to the Reformation From its earliest centuries, one of the most notable features of Christianity has been the veneration of the saints—the holy dead. This ambitious history tells the fascinating story of the cult of the saints from its origins in the second-century days of the Christian martyrs to the Protestant Reformation. Robert Bartlett examines all of the most important aspects of the saints—including miracles, relics, pilgrimages, shrines, and the saints' role in the calendar, literature, and art. The book explores the central role played by the bodies and body parts of saints, and the special treatment these relics received. From the routes, dangers, and rewards of pilgrimage, to the saints' impact on everyday life, Bartlett's account is an unmatched examination of an important and intriguing part of the religious life of the past—as well as the present.
Download or read book Stumbling Blocks Before the Blind written by Edward Wheatley and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2010-04-27 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Bold, deeply learned, and important, offering a provocative thesis that is worked out through legal and archival materials and in subtle and original readings of literary texts. Absolutely new in content and significantly innovative in methodology and argument, Stumbling Blocks Before the Blind offers a cultural geography of medieval blindness that invites us to be more discriminating about how we think of geographies of disability today." ---Christopher Baswell, Columbia University "A challenging, interesting, and timely book that is also very well written . . . Wheatley has researched and brought together a leitmotiv that I never would have guessed was so pervasive, so intriguing, so worthy of a book." ---Jody Enders, University of California, Santa Barbara Stumbling Blocks Before the Blind presents the first comprehensive exploration of a disability in the Middle Ages, drawing on the literature, history, art history, and religious discourse of England and France. It relates current theories of disability to the cultural and institutional constructions of blindness in the eleventh through fifteenth centuries, examining the surprising differences in the treatment of blind people and the responses to blindness in these two countries. The book shows that pernicious attitudes about blindness were partially offset by innovations and ameliorations---social; literary; and, to an extent, medical---that began to foster a fuller understanding and acceptance of blindness. A number of practices and institutions in France, both positive and negative---blinding as punishment, the foundation of hospices for the blind, and some medical treatment---resulted in not only attitudes that commodified human sight but also inhumane satire against the blind in French literature, both secular and religious. Anglo-Saxon and later medieval England differed markedly in all three of these areas, and the less prominent position of blind people in society resulted in noticeably fewer cruel representations in literature. This book will interest students of literature, history, art history, and religion because it will provide clear contexts for considering any medieval artifact relating to blindness---a literary text, a historical document, a theological treatise, or a work of art. For some readers, the book will serve as an introduction to the field of disability studies, an area of increasing interest both within and outside of the academy. Edward Wheatley is Surtz Professor of Medieval Literature at Loyola University, Chicago.
Download or read book European Religion in the Age of Great Cities written by Hugh McLeod and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2005-08-18 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Written by an international team of specialists, this book provides an authoritative account of religious change in seven European countries, both at the institutional & popular level, in Catholic, Protestant & Orthodox cities.
Download or read book Rebel Between Spirit and Law written by Scott Alan Kugle and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2006 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the authority of saints in Islam and their ability to build communities among Muslims in North Africa. It analyzes the power generated in religious communities through their allegiance to saints, a power usually identified with the term Sufism. In the late 15th and 16th centuries, a community of Sufis in Fes (Fez), Morocco, and other urban centers in North Africa advocated this paradigm of sainthood during a time of intense political and religious crisis. Juridical sainthood, a concept that fuses Islamic legal rectitude and devotional piety, was the center of their reformist agenda. The juridical saint was to be absorbed in legal training and religious values, in ways that questioned political loyalty and dynastic legitimacy. Scott A. Kugle explores this tradition by focusing on the life and writings of Shaykh Ahmad Zarruq. Following his exile from Fes, Zarruq traveled widely over North Africa, spreading his teachings and writings and attracting followers from Morocco to Mecca. The life and teachings of Zarruq remain useful for Muslims. They are a piece of the past that present-day Muslims are rediscovering and redeploying to reconcile Islam's heritage with its very troubled post-colonial present.
