Download or read book Imagining Religion written by Jonathan Z. Smith and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1982 with total page 181 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With this influential book of essays, Jonathan Z. Smith has pointed the academic study of religion in a new theoretical direction, one neither theological nor willfully ideological. Making use of examples as apparently diverse and exotic as the Maori cults in nineteenth-century New Zealand and the events of Jonestown, Smith shows that religion must be construed as conventional, anthropological, historical, and as an exercise of imagination. In his analyses, religion emerges as the product of historically and geographically situated human ingenuity, cognition, and curiosity—simply put, as the result of human labor, one of the decisive but wholly ordinary ways human beings create the worlds in which they live and make sense of them. "These seven essays . . . display the critical intelligence, creativity, and sheer common sense that make Smith one of the most methodologically sophisticated and suggestive historians of religion writing today. . . . Smith scrutinizes the fundamental problems of taxonomy and comparison in religious studies, suggestively redescribes such basic categories as canon and ritual, and shows how frequently studied myths may more likely reflect situational incongruities than vaunted mimetic congruities. His final essay, on Jonestown, demonstrates the interpretive power of the historian of religion to render intelligible that in our own day which seems most bizarre."—Richard S. Sarason, Religious Studies Review

Download or read book Who Invented Hinduism written by David N. Lorenzen and published by Yoda Press. This book was released on 2006 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Who Invented Hinduism? presents ten masterly essays on the history of religious movements and ideologies in India by the eminent scholar of religious studies, David N. Lorenzen. Stretching from a discussion on the role of religion, skin colour and language in distinguishing between the Aryas and the Dasas, to a study of the ways in which contact between Hindus, on the one hand, and Muslims and Christians, on the other, changed the nature of the Hindu religion, the volume asks two principal questions: how did the religion of the Hindus affect the course of Indian history and what sort of an impact did the events of Indian history have on the Hindu religion. The essays cast a critical eye on scholarly Arguments which are based as much on current fashion or on conventional wisdom as on evidence available in historical documents. Taking issue with renowned scholars such as Louis Dumont, Romila Thapar, Thomas Trautmann and Dipesh Chakrabarty on some central conceptions of the religious history of India, Lorenzen establishes alternative positions on the same through a thorough and compelling look at a vast array of literary sources. Touching upon some controversial arguments, this well-timed and insightful volume draws attention to the unavoidably influential role of religion in the history of India, and in doing so, it creates a wider space for further discussion focusing on this central issue.

Download or read book India s Agony Over Religion written by Gerald James Larson and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 1995-02-16 with total page 412 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many of ancient India's religious traditions are alive in modern India, and many of these religious traditions are in conflict with one another regarding the future of India. Even the so-called "secular state" is deeply pervaded by religious sentiments growing out of the Neo-Hindu nationalist movement of Gandhi and Nehru. A careful analysis of the current religious scene when placed in its proper long-term historical perspective raises interesting questions about the nature and future of religion not only in India but elsewhere as well.

Download or read book Swami Vivekananda written by Narasingha Prosad Sil and published by Susquehanna University Press. This book was released on 1997 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book also takes a hard look at his universally acknowledged reputation as a hypercosmological renouncer who championed the causes of the poor and the downtrodden and thus exemplified the doctrines of socialism at their finest. Sil is the first scholar to critically examine Vivekananda's attitude toward women in general and to probe into his experience with Margaret Noble (Sister Nivedita) in particular, and he is the first author to provide a detailed analysis of Vivekananda's popularity as a preacher and lecturer.

Download or read book Orientalism and Religion written by Richard King and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-04-03 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Orientalism and Religion offers us a timely discussion of the implications of contemporary post-colonial theory for the study of religion. Richard King examines the way in which notions such as mysticism, religion, Hinduism and Buddhism are taken for granted. He shows us how religion needs to be reinterpreted along the lines of cultural studies. Drawing on a variety of post-structuralist and post-colonial thinkers, such as Foucault, Gadamer, Said, and Spivak, King provides us with a challenging series of reflections on the nature of Religious Studies and Indology.

Download or read book Swami Vivekananda s Legacy of Service written by Gwilym Beckerlegge and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2006 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Publisher Description

Download or read book The Ramakrishna Mission written by Gwilym Beckerlegge and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2000 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Book Explores Ways In Which The Ramakrishna Movement Has Been Presented By Scholars, Promoted By Its Own Adherents And Has Seen Prominent Defections From Its Own Ranks. Will Be Of Special Interest To Historians And Religious Studies Specialists.

Download or read book Swami Vivekananda in India written by Rajagopal Chattopadhyaya and published by Motilal Banarsidass Publ.. This book was released on 1999 with total page 524 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Swami Vivekananda in india: A Corrective Biography attempts to inform the reader accurately about his life both before and after his historic visits to the West. Much material has been translated anew from original Bengali books. At the same time it challenges current popular and pious notions held about this humanitarian-monk. The four major chapters in this book are about his meetings with Sri Ramakrishna, his travels in India during 1886-1893, media waves about him in India, and his triumphant return from the West in 1897. Analysis of original eyewitness reports in both India and Western newspapers and periodicals forms an integral part of this biography.

Download or read book Unifying Hinduism written by Andrew J. Nicholson and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2013-12-01 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Some postcolonial theorists argue that the idea of a single system of belief known as "Hinduism" is a creation of nineteenth-century British imperialists. Andrew J. Nicholson introduces another perspective: although a unified Hindu identity is not as ancient as some Hindus claim, it has its roots in innovations within South Asian philosophy from the fourteenth to seventeenth centuries. During this time, thinkers treated the philosophies of Vedanta, Samkhya, and Yoga, along with the worshippers of Visnu, Siva, and Sakti, as belonging to a single system of belief and practice. Instead of seeing such groups as separate and contradictory, they re-envisioned them as separate rivers leading to the ocean of Brahman, the ultimate reality. Drawing on the writings of philosophers from late medieval and early modern traditions, including Vijnanabhiksu, Madhava, and Madhusudana Sarasvati, Nicholson shows how influential thinkers portrayed Vedanta philosophy as the ultimate unifier of diverse belief systems. This project paved the way for the work of later Hindu reformers, such as Vivekananda, Radhakrishnan, and Gandhi, whose teachings promoted the notion that all world religions belong to a single spiritual unity. In his study, Nicholson also critiques the way in which Eurocentric concepts—like monism and dualism, idealism and realism, theism and atheism, and orthodoxy and heterodoxy—have come to dominate modern discourses on Indian philosophy.

Download or read book VIVE KANANDA A Biography written by SWAMI NIKHILANANDA and published by . This book was released on with total page 2 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Hinduism in the Modern World written by Brian A. Hatcher and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-10-05 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hinduism in the Modern World presents a new and unprecedented attempt to survey the nature, range, and significance of modern and contemporary Hinduism in South Asia and the global diaspora. Organized to reflect the direction of recent scholarly research, this volume breaks with earlier texts on this subject by seeking to overcome a misleading dichotomy between an elite, intellectualist "modern" Hinduism and the rest of what has so often been misleadingly termed "traditional" or "popular" Hinduism. Without neglecting the significance of modern reformist visions of Hinduism, this book reconceptualizes the meaning of "modern Hinduism" both by expanding its content and by situating its expression within a larger framework of history, ethnography, and contemporary critical theory. This volume equips undergraduate readers with the tools necessary to appreciate the richness and diversity of Hinduism as it has developed during the past two centuries.

Download or read book Knowledge and Reference in Empirical Science written by Jody Azzouni and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-04-15 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Knowledge and Reference in Empirical Science is a fascinating study of the bounds between science and language: in what sense, and of what, does science provide knowledge? Is science an instrument only distantly related to what's real? Can the language of science be used to adequately describe the truth? In this book, Jody Azziouni investigates the technology of science - the actual forging and exploiting of causal links, between ourselves and what we endeavor to know and understand.

Download or read book Letters of Swami Vivekananda written by Swami Vivekananda and published by . This book was released on 1960 with total page 522 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt: "Liberty is the first condition of growth. Just as man must have liberty to think and speak, so must he have liberty in food, dress, and marriage, and in every other thing as long as he does not injure others."

Download or read book Religious Conversion written by Sante De Sanctis and published by . This book was released on 1927 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Religious Conversion written by Sante de Sanctis and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-10-08 with total page 331 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is Volume II of six in a collection on Psychology and Religion. Originally published in 1927, this is a Bio-Psychological study with a special aim (the reconstruction of the empirical Ego), and its own method (introspection).

Download or read book Religious Theories of Personality and Psychotherapy written by Frank De Piano and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 452 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Integrate spiritual traditions with psychological healing! In this fascinating volume, clinical practitioners of different religious traditions examine the same clinical case, offering insights, interventions, and explanations of transformation and healing. This practical approach allows them to explore broader issues of personality theory and psychology from the perspectives of various spiritual traditions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Religious Theories of Personality and Psychotherapy addresses both the practical issues of doing psychotherapy and the deeper need to relate psychology and theology. After providing a thorough introduction to the spiritual tradition, each author presents a critical psychological theory of personality and psychotherapy grounded in that tradition. The authors address the questions of what it means to be a person, what causes human distress, and how individuals experience healing. Religious Theories of Personality and Psychotherapy offers profound insights into the urgent issues of human suffering and psychological transformation, including: theories of personality structure and human motivation the nature of experience and processes of change the dialectical relation of theology and psychology convergences and difference among the religious psychologies Marrying theory and practice, spirit and psyche, Religious Theories of Personality and Psychotherapy offers profound insights and effective interventions. Mental health professionals, clergy, and scholars in religion, cross-cultural studies, personality, counseling, and psychotherapy will find this breakthrough book a life-changing experience and an invaluable resource.

Download or read book Language and Self Transformation written by Peter G. Stromberg and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2008-06-26 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Using the Christian conversion narrative as a primary example, this book examines how people deal with emotional conflict through language.