Download or read book Dealing with Deities written by Selva J. Raj and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2012-02-01 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on original field research, Dealing with Deities explores the practice of taking ritual vows in the lives of ordinary religious practitioners in South Asia. The cornerstone of lay religious activity, vow rituals are adopted by Muslims, Hindus, Christians, Buddhists, Jains, and Sikhs who wish to commit themselves to ritually enacted relationships with sacred figures in order to gain earthly boons and spiritual merit. The contributors to this volume offer a fascinating look at the varieties and complexities of vows and also focus on a unique characteristic of this vow-taking culture, that of resorting to deities and shrines of other religions in defiance of institutional directives and religious boundaries. Richly illustrated, the book explores the creativity of South Asian devotees and their deeply felt convictions that what they require, they can achieve faithfully—and independently—by dealing directly with deities.
Download or read book Dealing with Dieties written by Raven Kaldera and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 127 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Hekate written by Sorita D'Este and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collection of devotional essays on working with Hekate.
Download or read book Sacred Play written by Selva J. Raj and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2010-01-12 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores the significance of levity and humor in South Asian religious traditions.
Download or read book Popular Christianity in India written by Selva J. Raj and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2012-02-01 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Popular Christianity in India explores Indian Christianity as crafted and expressed through lived experience, providing an important balance to currently available, typically theological, studies. Drawing from many disciplines, this volume unearths the multifaceted terrain of festivals, rituals, saints, miracle workers, missionaries, and visionaries in Christian India, providing a wonderful glimpse of its richness and complexities. The contributors reveal the ways in which local Christian traditions deftly challenge assumed divisions and power imbalances between East and West, Hindu and Christian, foreign and indigenous, and elite and local expressions. Whether forging complicated religious, caste, and national identities, employing religious hybridity to promote well-being, or asserting autonomy within oppressive social and religious structures, local Christianity provides a crucial means for its participants to manage their earthly needs and desires.
Download or read book Dictionary of Gods and Goddesses written by Michael Jordan and published by Infobase Publishing. This book was released on 2014-05-14 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents brief entries describing the gods and goddesses from the mythology and religion of a wide variety of cultures throughout history.
Download or read book Depicted Deities written by M.L.B. Blom and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2023-08-07 with total page 98 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book deals with the rules of art. More specifically, it treats of the unwritten rules of Nepalese religious art as laid down in ‘model books’. These can be seen as manuals for the artists, in which they can find the correct way to represent, in visual art, any of some 2000 godly figures. The representation of these gods, all of them with their particular attributes, was (and is) subject to more or less strict rules. These books, the kind of which is also found in Europe in the early Middle Ages, have developed into a special tradition in Nepal, where a unique number of model books was found to be in existence, the oldest of them going back to the 15th century. The author of this study (the first in its kind) has traced the development in time of some 150 popular Hindu deities to determine the meaning of these model books for the artists using them, and also to see if the representation of these gods is in any way related to changes in society.
Download or read book Wicca Magical Deities written by Lisa Chamberlain and published by . This book was released on 2016-06-29 with total page 126 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Everything You Need to Know to Start Connecting with the God and Goddess Perhaps the biggest difference between Wicca and other religions is the belief that individuals can do more than simply pray to a supreme, all-powerful deity and hope that things will work out to their benefit. Wiccans understand that individuals can actually co-create with the forces of nature by linking their own personal energy with the divine through ritual and magic. But what is "the divine" when it comes to Wicca? Who are the Goddess and the God, and where did they come from? Why do they have different names in different Wiccan traditions, and how do you begin to work with them in your personal practice? Magical Deities, by best-selling author Lisa Chamberlain, answers these questions and more. Going beyond the usual brief introduction to the God and Goddess found in many beginner guides to Wicca, Lisa covers the origins of the Wiccan deities, as well as their varying manifestations among different Wiccan traditions. What's more, she explains the difference between traditional duotheism and more eclectic polytheistic practices, both of which are found among the diversity of forms within this dynamic religion. You'll find advice for learning to forge your own spiritual connection with the divine masculine and feminine, and introductions to sixteen ancient deities who often function as "aspects" of the God and Goddess within Wiccan practices. Finally, you'll find ideas for honoring and working with these deities in your magical practice-and make no mistake, having the assistance of the gods and goddesses of the Universe is an enormous boon in the magic department! Foundations in Wiccan Concepts of Divinity and Magic For many practitioners who keep to the traditional duotheistic concept of Wicca, the ancient deities are "aspects" of the "supreme" Goddess and God and don't have a role to play on their own. For those who fall into the category of "eclectic" Wiccans, the inclusion of ancient deities is more polytheistic. Eclectics often have personal relationships with "patron" gods and/or goddesses, who may be included in ritual practice alongside the God and Goddess. In both approaches, deities may be called upon for assistance with specific magical aims. But it's not simply a matter of speaking a god's or goddess' name in your spellwork-you need to develop an understanding and personal relationship with your chosen deities. Magical Deities will help you to do just that, with valuable information including: - The history of the Wiccan Goddess and God and their evolution through various traditions - An introduction to the Triple Goddess and her three aspects: Maiden, Mother and Crone - Introductions to the Sun God, the Horned God, the Green Man, and the Holly and Oak Kings - How to represent the God and Goddess on the Wiccan altar - The mythology, cosmology, and magical practices of the ancient cultures that gave rise to Wicca - The most popular deities of the Egyptian, Roman, Greek, and Celtic pantheons - Advice for choosing deities to work with, and magical goals and methods specific to each one The paths to connection with the God and Goddess, or to any of the deities "borrowed" from other cultures are as multiple and varied as the people who worship them. Ultimately, your intuition and your heart are your best guides along your journey. But the more you know about the gods and goddesses you seek to work with, the more authentic and astounding your connection with them has the potential to be. As you make your way deeper into the realm of Wicca, Magical Deities will be a trusted travel guide! Scroll to the top of the page, hit the buy button, and you'll receive an exclusive free gift!
Download or read book Pagan Theology written by Michael York and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2005-04 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Pagan Theology, Michael York situates Paganism—one of the fastest-growing spiritual orientations in the West—as a world religion. He provides an introduction to, and expansion of, the concept of Paganism and provides an overview of Paganism's theological perspective and practice. He demonstrates it to be a viable and distinguishable spiritual perspective found around the world today in such forms as Chinese folk religion, Shinto, tribal religions, and neo-Paganism in the West. While adherents to many of these traditions do not use the word “pagan” to describe their beliefs or practices, York contends that there is an identifiable position possessing characteristics and understandings in common for which the label “pagan” is appropriate. After outlining these characteristics, he examines many of the world's major religions to explore religious behaviors in other religions which are not themselves pagan, but which have pagan elements. In the course of examining such behavior, York provides rich and lively descriptions of religions in action, including Buddhism and Hinduism. Pagan Theology claims Paganism’s place as a world religion, situating it as a religion, a behavior, and a theology.
Download or read book Encyclopedia of Gods written by Michael Jordan and published by Echo Point Books & Media, LLC. This book was released on 2022-12-27 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This reference book offers a comprehensive survey of gods and goddesses from cultures across the globe, with each entry covering specific cultures, dates of worship, the role the god played, and defining characteristics and symbols.
Download or read book Dealing with Deities written by Kaldera Raven and published by . This book was released on 2012-12-20 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Invading the Sacred written by Krishnan Ramaswamy and published by Rupa Company. This book was released on 2007 with total page 576 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: India, once a major civilizational and economic power that suffered centuries of decline, is now newly resurgent in business, geopolitics and culture. However, a powerful counterforce within the American academy is systematically undermining core icons and ideals of Indic culture and thought. For instance, scholars of this counterforce have disparaged the Bhagavad Gita as a dishonest book ; declared Ganesha s trunk a limpphallus ; classified Devi as the mother with apenis and Shiva as a notorious womanizer who incites violence in India.
Download or read book Miracle as Modern Conundrum in South Asian Religious Traditions written by Corinne G. Dempsey and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 2009-01-07 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Claims of the miraculous are foundational to faith and skepticism, making and breaking religious careers and movements in their wake. Drawing on a variety of South Asian religious traditions-Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Christianity-this book revolves around the theme of conundrum, demonstrating how miracles offer divine proof, tenacious embarrassment, and, in many cases, both. The contributors explore not only how modern miracles are conundrums themselves but also how they make conundrums out of assumed divides between scientific and supernatural realms, modernity and tradition, the West and the rest, and ethnographer and native. Book jacket.
Download or read book Accidental Gods written by Anna Della Subin and published by Metropolitan Books. This book was released on 2021-12-07 with total page 435 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY ESQUIRE, THE IRISH TIMES AND THE TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT A provocative history of men who were worshipped as gods that illuminates the connection between power and religion and the role of divinity in a secular age Ever since 1492, when Christopher Columbus made landfall in the New World and was hailed as a heavenly being, the accidental god has haunted the modern age. From Haile Selassie, acclaimed as the Living God in Jamaica, to Britain’s Prince Philip, who became the unlikely center of a new religion on a South Pacific island, men made divine—always men—have appeared on every continent. And because these deifications always emerge at moments of turbulence—civil wars, imperial conquest, revolutions—they have much to teach us. In a revelatory history spanning five centuries, a cast of surprising deities helps to shed light on the thorny questions of how our modern concept of “religion” was invented; why religion and politics are perpetually entangled in our supposedly secular age; and how the power to call someone divine has been used and abused by both oppressors and the oppressed. From nationalist uprisings in India to Nigerien spirit possession cults, Anna Della Subin explores how deification has been a means of defiance for colonized peoples. Conversely, we see how Columbus, Cortés, and other white explorers amplified stories of their godhood to justify their dominion over native peoples, setting into motion the currents of racism and exclusion that have plagued the New World ever since they touched its shores. At once deeply learned and delightfully antic, Accidental Gods offers an unusual keyhole through which to observe the creation of our modern world. It is that rare thing: a lyrical, entertaining work of ideas, one that marks the debut of a remarkable literary career.
Download or read book The Goddess written by David Leeming and published by Reaktion Books. This book was released on 2016-03-15 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For as long as we have sought god, we have found the goddess. Ruling over the imaginations of humankind’s earliest agricultural civilizations, she played a critical spiritual role as a keeper of nature’s fertile powers and an assurance of the next sustaining harvest. In The Goddess, David Leeming and Christopher Fee take us all the way back into prehistory, tracing the goddess across vast spans of time to tell the epic story of the transformation of belief and what it says about who we are. Leeming and Fee use the goddess to gaze into the lives and souls of the people who worshipped her. They chart the development of traditional Western gender roles through an understanding of the transformation of concepts of the Goddess from her earliest roots in India and Iran to her more familiar faces in Ireland and Iceland. They examine the subordination of the goddess to the god as human civilizations became mobile and began to look upon masculine deities for assurances of survival in movement and battle. And they show how, despite this history, the goddess has remained alive in our spiritual imaginations, in figures such as the Christian Virgin Mother and, in contemporary times, the new-age resurrection of figures such as Gaia. The Goddess explores this central aspect of ancient spiritual thought as a window into human history and the deepest roots of our beliefs.
Download or read book Mixanthr poi written by Emma Aston and published by Presses universitaires de Liège. This book was released on 2017-10-25 with total page 383 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many of the beings in this book – Cheiron, Pan, Acheloos, the Sirens and others – will be familiar from the narratives of Greek mythology, in which fabulous anatomies abound. However, they have never previously been studied together from a religious perspective, as recipients of cult and as members of the ancient pantheon. This book is the first major treatment of the use of part-animal – mixanthropic – form in the representation and visual imagination of Greek gods and goddesses, and of its significance with regard to divine character and function. What did it mean to depict deities in a form so strongly associated in the ancient imagination with monstrous adversaries? How did iconography, myth and ritual interact in particular sites of worship? Drawing together literary and visual material, this study establishes the themes dominant in the worship of divine mixanthropes, and argues that, so far from being insignificant curiosities, they make possible a greater understanding of the fabric of ancient religious practice, in particular the tense and challenging relationship between divinity and visual representation.
Download or read book When God Isn t There written by David Bowden and published by Thomas Nelson. This book was released on 2016-10-11 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why does God feel so far away? Why is my worship so empty? Has God left me? David Bowden knows these questions firsthand, having wrestled for years with God’s apparent absence and studying what the Bible says about it. In this new book, Bowden tackles the subject head-on, finding the key to understanding it in the Bible’s depiction of a God who is infinitely far from us, free to move where he wants, but who chooses to come near in the person of Jesus. A resource of encouragement for those who struggle with feeling God’s absence and a wake-up call to those who take God’s presence for granted, When God Isn’t There will forever change your understanding of why God sometimes seems to vanish and how he can be found again. Praise for the work of David Bowden “Awesome and inspiring.”—Blake Mycoskie, Founder and Chief Shoe Giver at TOMS Shoes “David brings a fresh, engaging and highly impactful approach to Scripture. His passion for the Word is both contagious and inspirational.” —Roy Peterson, President of American Bible Society
