Download or read book Religious Innovation in a Global Age written by George N. Lundskow and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2017-02-10 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Certain timeless questions rise and fall through changing social conditions, scientific advances, and cultural variation--who am I? How should I live? What happens when I die? In modern society, traditions no longer integrate the individual into a larger spiritual community, and so movements have risen to address the crisis of meaning in a rapidly changing world. This collection of essays, while considering variables of work, class, race, and gender, theoretically and empirically examines how diverse groups are trying to restore a sense of meaning through religious innovation. The first group of essays considers new developments in theory, framing critical inquiry into recent developments in religion and the larger quest for meaning. The second section examines grass roots emancipation movements, which seek an expanded role for the individual in both belief and practice. Topics addressed include the dialectic between religious and secular values and norms, anti-Semitism, new evangelism, Neopaganism on the internet, Max Horkheimer's critical theory of religion, Christian speed/thrash metal music, Islamic fundamentalism, modernity and the role of women, French tourist destination Rocamadour's competition between the Catholic shrine and secular attractions, developments within the Polish Roman Catholic Church, the Finnish Satanism scare of 1999, and Islam and politics in Turkey. A bibliography completes each essay. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.
Download or read book Religion in the Age of Re Globalization written by Roland Benedikter and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-12-13 with total page 412 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a concise introduction into twenty-one trends that are transforming the role of religion and spirituality in “re-globalizing” societies. In referring to processes of “re-globalization”, the book draws attention to profound ongoing changes in the patterns and mechanisms of contemporary globalization. Inter- and transdisciplinary in its approach, clearly structured, and easy to read, the book analyzes the impact of religious self-understanding, rhetoric, and practice on five core fields: economics, politics, culture, demography, and technology. In turn, it describes the effects of these five fields on religion and spirituality themselves. This book represents a broad, encompassing overview of the main transformations that religion is undergoing today. Roland Benedikter combines a “big picture” approach with a keen attention to the details of specific case studies. With its clear and accessible structure and timely examples, this book is ideally suited for students of international relations and religious studies, and will also appeal to researchers engaged in those fields and to interested general readers. The book is also apt to serve as an encompassing basis for contemporary debates in civil society, including both grassroots and expert discussions.
Download or read book The Sociology of Religion written by George Lundskow and published by Pine Forge Press. This book was released on 2008-06-10 with total page 465 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most Sociology of Religion texts are decidedly staid and uninteresting, covering "contemporary" developments which are only contemporary only from a disciplinary perspective. They are not contemporary if viewed from the perspective of the religion's practioners (in religious and non-religious settings). The textbooks that attempt to be interesting to undergraduate students often fall short because they either try to cover too much in an encyclopedic format, or sacrifice a sociological perspective for a personal one. Many use real-life examples only superficially to illustrate concepts. Lundskow's approach is the opposite—students will learn the facts of religion in its great diversity, all the most interesting and compelling beliefs and practices, and then learn relevant concepts that can be used to explain empirical observations. The book thus follows the logic of actual research—investigate and then analyze—rather than approaching concepts with no real bearing on how religion is experienced in society. This approach, using provocative examples and with an eye toward the historical and theoretical, not to mention global experience of religion, will make this book a success in the classroom. The author envisions a substantive approach that examines religion as it actually exists in all its forms, including belief, ritual, daily living, identity, institutions, social movements, social control, and social change. Within these broad categories, the book will devote particular chapters to important historical moments and movements, leaders, and various individual religions that have shaped the contemporary form and effect of religion in the world today.
Download or read book Innovation in the Orthodox Christian Tradition written by Trine Stauning Willert and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-05-23 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The relationship between tradition and innovation in Orthodox Christianity has often been problematic, filled with tensions and contradictions starting from the Byzantine era and running through the 19th and 20th centuries. For a long period of time scholars have typically assumed Greek Orthodoxy to be a static religious tradition with little room for renewal or change. Although this public perception continues, the immutability of the Greek Orthodox tradition has been questioned by several scholars over the past few years. This book continues this line of reasoning, but brings it into the centre of contemporary discussion. Presenting case studies from different periods of history up to the present day, the authors trace different aspects in the development of innovation and renewal in Orthodox Christianity in the Greek-speaking world and among the Diaspora.
Download or read book Manifesto of the Critical Theory of Society and Religion 3 vols written by Rudolf Siebert and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2010-08-16 with total page 1878 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Manifesto develops further the Critical Theory of Religion intrinsic to the Critical Theory of Society of the Frankfurt School into a new paradigm of the Psychology, Sociology, Philosophy and Theology of Religion. Its central theme is the theodicy problem in the context of late capitalist society and its globalization.
Download or read book Historicizing Tradition in the Study of Religion written by Steven Engler and published by Walter de Gruyter. This book was released on 2012-02-13 with total page 405 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of essays analyzes ‛tradition’ as a category in the historical and comparative study of religion. The book questions the common assumption that tradition is simply the “passing down” or imitation of prior practices and discourses. It begins from the premise that many traditions are, at least in part, social fabrications, often deliberately serving particular ideological ends. Individual chapters examine a wide variety of historical periods and religions (Congolese, Buddhist, Christian, Confucian, Cree, Esoteric, Hawaiian, Hindu, Islamic, Jewish, New Religious Movement, and Shinto). Different sections of the book consider tradition's relation to three sets of issues: legitimation and authority; agency and identity; modernity and the West.
Download or read book Cosmologies of Suffering written by Agita Lūse and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2009-01-14 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The edited volume elaborates on a range of themes that emerged during a workshop of the 8th biennial of the European Association of Social Anthropologists in Vienna in 2004. Among these themes are: the paradoxical permanence of ‘transition’ in post-communist countries, the accompanying persistence of social suffering and the structural conditions that give rise to it. A final theme focuses on the resources that people mobilize to cope with suffering and trauma. Ways of coping manifest a stance towards agency shared by sufferers from diverse post-communist regions, such as ethnically divided Croatia, politically and economically unstable Zimbabwe, relatively more peaceful countries such as Hungary, Poland and Slovenia, and, finally, two religiously unique areas in Siberia, Russia. Ethnographic accounts from these diverse settings testify that agency has often involved relinquishing reliance on one’s self and turning towards a power higher than the self, whether this is conceptualized through the lens of transcendence, religion, or cosmology.
Download or read book God Technology and the Christian Life written by Tony Reinke and published by Crossway. This book was released on 2021-12-09 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What Does God Think about Technology? From smartphones to self-driving cars to space travel, new technologies can inspire us. But the breakneck pace of change can also frighten us. So how do Christians walk by faith through the innovations of Silicon Valley? And how does God relate to our most powerful innovators? To build a biblical theology of technology, journalist and tech optimist Tony Reinke examines nine key texts from Scripture to show how the world's discoveries are divinely orchestrated. Ultimately, what we believe about God determines how we respond to human invention. With the help of several theologians and inventors throughout history, Reinke dispels twelve common myths in the church and offers fourteen ethical convictions to help Christians live by faith in the age of big tech. Biblical, Informed Look at Technology: Written by the author of 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You and Competing Spectacles: Treasuring Christ in the Media Age Gathers Ideas from Industry Experts and Theologians: Interacts with Christian and non-Christian sources on technology and theology including John Calvin, Herman Bavinck, Wendell Berry, and Elon Musk Educational: Discusses the history and philosophy behind major technological innovations
Download or read book Finding God Among our Neighbors Volume 2 written by Kristin Johnston Largen and published by Fortress Press. This book was released on 2017-02-01 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For too many students, Christian theology is learned in isolation from other religions traditions. With this, the second volume of her important work, Kristin Johnston Largen returns to expand the systematic theology she began in the original volume. Largen places the work of Christian theology soundly within the interreligious dialogue that is the defining feature of our time. In doing so, she prepares students of theology for the task of understanding and articulating their Christian beliefs in the context of a religiously and culturally diverse world. In the original volume, Largen focused her work on three loci—God, Creation, and Humanity. In this second volume she expands the project to include salvation, the Church, and the Holy Spirit. As before, each locus is set within the broader context of interreligious dialogue by considering how the varied beliefs of the world’s religious traditions inform our understanding of our own tradition. This volume explores indigenous religions, Sikhism, Confucianism, and Daoism, in particular.
Download or read book Christian Metal written by Marcus Moberg and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2015-02-26 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Christian metal has always defined itself in contrast to its non-Christian, secular counterpart, yet it stands out from nearly all other forms of contemporary Christian music through its unreserved use of metal's main musical, visual, and aesthetic traits. Christian metal is a rare example of a direct combination between evangelical Christianity and an aggressive and highly controversial form of popular music and its culture. Christian Metal: History, Ideology, Scene is the first full exploration of the phenomenon of Christian metal music, its history, main characteristics, development, diversification, and key ideological traits from its formative years in the early 1980s to the present day. Marcus Moberg situates it in a wider international evangelical cultural environment, accounts for its diffusion on a transnational scale, and explores what religious meanings and functions Christian metal holds for its own musicians and followers. Engaging with wider debates on religion, media and popular culture, Christian Metal: History, Ideology and Scene is a much-needed resource in the study of religion and popular music.
Download or read book Christian Prophecy written by Niels Christian Hvidt and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2007-04-19 with total page 437 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Throughout the Hebrew Bible, God guides and saves his people through the words of his prophets. When the prophets are silenced, the people easily lose their way. What happened after the incarnation, death and resurrection of Christ? Did God fall silent?The dominant position in Christian theology is that prophecy did indeed cease at some point in the past -if not with the Old Testament prophets, then with John the Baptist, with Jesus, with the last apostle, or with the closure of the canon of the New Testament. Nevertheless, throughout the history of Christianity there have always been acclaimed saints and mystics -most of them women-who displayed prophetic traits. In recent years, the charismatic revival in both Protestant and Catholic circles has once again raised the question of the place and function of prophecy in Christianity. Scholarly theological attitudes toward Christian prophecy range from modest recognition to contempt. Mainstream systematic theology, both Protestant and Catholic, has mostly marginalized or ignored the gift of prophecy. In this book, however, Niels Christian Hvidt argues that prophecy has persisted in Christianity as an inherent and continuous feature in the life of the church. Prophecy never died, he argues, but rather proved its dynamism by mutating to meet new historical conditions. He presents a comprehensive history of prophecy from ancient Israel to the present and closely examines the development of the theological discourse that surrounds it. Throughout, though, there is always an awareness of the critical discernment required when evaluating the charism of prophecy.The debate about prophecy, Hvidt shows, leads to some profound insights about the very nature of Christianity and the church. For example, some have argued that Christianity is a perfect state and that all that is required for salvation is acceptance of its doctrines. Others have emphasized how God continues to intervene and guide his people onto the right path as the full implementation of God's salvation in Christ is still far away. This is the position that Hvidt forcefully and persuasively defends and develops in this ambitious and important work.
Download or read book Pilgrimage and Healing written by Jill Dubisch and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 2022-08-02 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bikers converge at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. Thousands flock to a Nevada desert to burn a towering effigy. And the hopeless but hopeful ill journey to Lourdes as they have for centuries. Although pilgrimage may seem an antiquated religious ritual, it remains a vibrant activity in the modern world as pilgrims combine traditional motives—such as seeking a cure for physical or spiritual problems—with contemporary searches for identity or interpersonal connection. That pilgrimage continues to exercise such a strong attraction is testimony to the power it continues to hold for those who undertake these sacred journeys. This volume brings together anthropological and interdisciplinary perspectives on these persistent forms of popular religion to expand our understanding of the role of the traditional practice of pilgrimage in what many believe to be an increasingly secular world. Focusing on the healing dimensions of pilgrimage, the authors present case studies grounded in specific cultures and pilgrimage traditions to help readers understand the many therapeutic resources pilgrimage provides for people around the world. The chapters examine a variety of pilgrimage forms, both religious and non-religious, from Nepalese and Huichol shamanism pilgrimage to Catholic journeys to shrines and feast days to Nevada’s Burning Man festival. These diverse cases suggest a range of meanings embodied in the concept of healing itself, from curing physical ailments and redefining the self to redressing social suffering and healing the wounds of the past. Collectively and individually, the chapters raise important questions about the nature of ritual in general, and healing through pilgrimage in particular, and seek to illuminate why so many participants find pilgrimage a compelling way to address the problem of suffering. They also illustrate how pilgrimage exerts its social and political influence at the personal, local, and national levels, as well as providing symbols and processes that link people across social and spiritual boundaries. By examining the persistence of pilgrimage as a significant source of personal engagement with spirituality, Pilgrimage and Healing shows that the power of pilgrimage lies in its broad transformative powers. As our world increasingly adopts a secular and atheistic perspective in many domains of experience, it reminds us that, for many, spiritual quest remains a potent force.
Download or read book Beyond Modernity written by Artur Mrowczynski-Van Allen and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2016-10-11 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Post-secularism is the fundamental evidence of the end of modernity. Modernity, as sleeping reason in Francisco Goya's painting, realizes that, although it thought that it was awake, it was producing monsters. We try to analyze post-secular philosophy from the point of view of Russian religious thought. We believe that such philosophers as Vladimir Soloviev, Pavel Florensky, Sergey Bulgakov, Nikolai Berdyaev, Georges Florovsky, and Semen Frank may be helpful for understanding and overcoming post-secular order. Their unique views on the relations between religion and philosophy, science, and social life are apparently missing in the current Western debates. It seems to us that Russian religious philosophy becomes surprisingly up-to-date and attractive in the contemporary world. We hope that the present volume will be a significant step forward in the inclusion of the heritage of Russian religious philosophy in contemporary debates.
Download or read book Polemical Encounters written by Olav Hammer and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2007 with total page 349 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In its historical development from late antiquity to the present, western esotericism has repeatedly been the issue of polemical discourse. This volume engages the polemical structures that underlie both the identities within and the controversy about esoteric currents in European history. From Jewish and Christian kabbalah through heretical discourse and interconfessional polemics in early modernity to the legitimization of esoteric identity in modern culture, the 12 chapters, accompanied by an editors' introduction, provide a cornucopia of relevant cases that are interpreted in a framework of polemical discourse and 'Othering'. This volume sheds new light on the ultimately polemical structure of western esotericism and thus opens new vistas for further research into esoteric discourse.
Download or read book Metaldata written by Sonia Archer-Capuzzo and published by A-R Editions, Inc.. This book was released on 2021-06-25 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Metaldata: A Bibliography of Heavy Metal Resources is the first book-length bibliography of resources about heavy metal. From its beginnings in the late 1960s and early 1970s, heavy metal has emerged as one of the most consistently popular and commercially successful music styles. Over the decades the style has changed and diversified, drawing attention from fans, critics, and scholars alike. Scholars, journalists, and musicians have generated a body of writing, films, and instructional materials that is substantial in quantity, diverse in approach, and intended for many types of audiences, resulting in a wealth of information about heavy metal. Metaldata provides a current and comprehensive bibliographic resource for researchers and fans of metal. This book also serves as a guide for librarians in their collection development decisions. Chapters focus on performers, musical instruction, discographies, metal subgenres, metal in specific places, and research relating metal to the humanities and sciences, and encompass archives, books, articles, videos, websites, and other resources by scholars, journalists, musicians, and fans of this vibrant musical style.
Download or read book Pagan Family Values written by S. Zohreh Kermani and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2013-07-29 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "An intriguing, important, and often entertaining look at an under-studied aspect of new religions. Highly recommended." —Douglas E. Cowan, author of Cyberhenge: Modern Pagans on the Internet For most of its history, contemporary Paganism has been a religion of converts. Yet as it enters its fifth decade, it is incorporating growing numbers of second‑generation Pagans for whom Paganism is a family tradition, not a religious worldview arrived at via a spiritual quest. In Pagan Family Values, S. Zohreh Kermaniexplores the ways in which North American Pagan families pass on their beliefs to their children, and how the effort to socialize children influences this new religious movement. The first ethnographic study of the everyday lives of contemporary Pagan families, this volume brings their experiences into conversation with contemporary issues in American religion. Through formal interviews with Pagan families, participant observation at various pagan events, and data collected via online surveys, Kermani traces the ways in which Pagan parents transmit their religious values to their children. Rather than seeking to pass along specific religious beliefs, Pagan parents tend to seek to instill values, such as religious tolerance and spiritual independence, which will remain with their children throughout their lives, regardless of these children's ultimate religious identifications. S. Zohreh Kermani teaches Religious Studies part time at Youngstown State University. In the New and Alternative Religions series
Download or read book Eastern Orthodoxy in a Global Age written by Victor Roudometof and published by Rowman Altamira. This book was released on 2005 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Eastern Orthodoxy in a Global Age brings together fresh and nuanced understandings of the Orthodox churches - inside and outside of Eastern Europe - as they negotiate a networked world. This book is suitable for those interested in the role of Eastern Orthodoxy in the 21st century.
