The embattled but empowered community : comparing understandings of spiritual power in Argentine popular and pentecostal cosmologies /
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The global phenomenon of Pentecostal growth continues to interest scholars, particularly its local manifestations. Although previous explanations may have noted the connections between the cultural substrata and local Pentecostal practices, this book concentrates on seeking out the connections. Using both extensive field research and reflection on Latin American scholarship, the author proposes that a major link exists at the level of worldview assumptions, particularly in understandings of spiritual power. The book concludes with a reflection on the implications a conversion based on the search for spiritual power has for the future of the evangelical church in Latin America.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789047440659 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Mission and money : Christian mission in the context of global inequalities /
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Mission and Money; Christian Mission in the Context of Global Inequalities offers academic discussion about the mission of the Church in the context of contemporary economic inequalities globally, challenging the reader to reconsider mission in the light of existing poverty, and investigating how economic structures could be challenged in the light of ethical and spiritual considerations. The book includes contributions on the subjects of poverty and inequality from the theologians, economists and anthropologists who gave keynote presentations at the European Missiological Conference (IAMS Europe) that took place in April 2014 in Helsinki, Finland. This conference was a major step forward in terms of discussion between missiologists and economists on global economic structures and their influence on human dignity. Contributors are: Mari-Anna Auvinen-Pöntinen, Stephen B. Bevans, Jonathan J. Bonk, Ulrich Duchrow, Jonas Adelin Jørgensen, Vesa Kanniainen, Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, Tinyiko Sam Maluleke, Gerrie Ter Haar, Evi Voulgaraki-Pissina, Mika Vähäkangas, Felix Wilfred.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004318496 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
AIDS and religious practice in Africa /
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This volume explores how AIDS is understood, confronted and lived with through religious ideas and practices, and how these, in turn, are reinterpreted and changed by the experience of AIDS. Examining the social production, and productivity, of AIDS - linking bodily and spiritual experiences, and religious, medical, political and economic discourses - the papers counter simplified notions of causal effects of AIDS on religion (or vice versa). Instead, they display people's resourcefulness in their struggle to move ahead in spite of adversity. This relativises the vision of doom widely associated with the African AIDS epidemic; and it allows to see AIDS, instead of a singular event, as the culmination of a century-long process of changing livelihoods, bodily well-being and spiritual imaginaries.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789047442691 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
L'eau, enjeux politiques et théologiques, de Sumer à la Bible /
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This book investigates a corpus of royal inscriptions and literary texts, with special emphasis on those that are mythological and biblical, stretching over several millennia from the early days of Sumer to the Biblical period, in order to determine the ways in which the concept of water was used, in particular the way it functions in the political and theological ideology of the time. Three literary motifs are the object of a careful study : the crossing of water, the flood and the water of abundance. Though their study shows diversity in evolution, transmission and reception, it appears that their function is common at the heart of the Mesopotamian political theology of royal mediation.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [613]-672) and indexes. :
9789047441335 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Religion, gender, and family violence : when prayers are not enough /
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The chapters of Religion, Gender, and Family Violence: When Prayers Are Not Enough have been written from multiple disciplinary perspectives (sociology, religious studies, law) and based on research within diverse religious traditions including Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, as well as new religious movements. Similarities and differences between traditions are highlighted based on empirical research which shows how people actually deal with family violence in different contexts. This book also addresses some of the larger historical and political backgrounds that impact the experiences of family violence amongst ethno-religious minorities. The lives of religious victims and perpetrators of family violence are considered, as well as the responsibilities of religious leaders, congregations and secular professionals in addressing this widespread social problem.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004372399 :
1573-4293 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Violence, scripture, and textual practice in early Judaism and Christianity /
: Proceedings of a conference held Oct. 6-8, 2007 at the University of Minnesota. : 1 online resource. : Includes bibliographical references and indexes. : 9789047444787 : Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Public Islam and the Common Good /
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This book explores the public role of Islam in contemporary world politics. "Public Islam" refers to the diverse invocations and struggles over Islamic ideas and practices that increasingly influence the politics and social life of large parts of the globe. The contributors to this volume show how public Islam articulates competing notions and practices of the common good and a way of envisioning alternative political and religious ideas and realities, reconfiguring established boundaries of civil and social life. Drawing on examples from the late Ottoman Empire, Africa, South Asia, Iran, and the Arab Middle East, this volume facilitates understanding the multiple ways in which the public sphere, a key concept in social thought, can be made transculturally feasible by encompassing the evolution of non-Western societies in which religion plays a vital role.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789047402824
9789004136212
An Introduction to Islamic Finance /
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Although the principles of Shari'ah require banks and financial institutions to be structured on an interest-free basis, this does not mean that such institutions are charitable concerns. As long as a person advancing money expects to share in the profits earned (or losses incurred) by the other party, a stipulated proportion of profit is legitimate. The philosophy is enshrined in the traditional Islamic concepts of musharakah and mudarabah, along with their specialized modern variants murabahah, ijarah, salam, and istisna'. This invaluable guide to Islamic finance clearly delineates the all-important distinctions between Islamic practices and conventional procedures based on interest. Justice Usmani of Pakistan, who chairs several Shari'ah supervisory boards for Islamic banks, clearly explains the various modes of financing used by Islamic banks and non-banking financial institutions, emphasizing the necessary requirements for their acceptability from the Shari'ah standpoint and the correct method for their application. He deals masterfully with practical problems as they arise in the course of his presentation, and offers possible solutions in each instance.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004479913
9789041116192
Le Cercle des lettres de l'alphabet = Da'irat al-ahruf al-abjadiyya ; un traite pratique de magie des lettres attribue a Hermes /
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Le Kitāb dā'irat al-aḥruf al-abjadiyya est un traité de magie pratique attribué à Hermès. Ce texte composite, qui ne peut être daté avec précision, est un ouvrage de magie basée sur la doctrine de la science des lettres ( 'ilm al-ḥurūf ). Le présent livre offre la première édition critique du texte, accompagnée d'une traduction annotée et d'une étude historique et philologique exposant les principes théoriques à la base des procédés décrits dans les recettes ainsi que des entités, objets et ingrédients utilisés (noms des anges invoqués, types de fumigations et d'encres, dessins et figures, et cetera). Il s'agit d'une des premières éditions critiques d'un traité de magie pratique des lettres, genre encore fort méconnu bien qu'abondamment représenté dans les manuscrits arabes. The Kitāb dā'irat al-aḥruf al-abjadiyya is a composite treatise of letter magic attributed to Hermes. The edition and annotated translation of the Arabic text are accompanied by an explanation of the theoretical principles underlying the procedures described in the recipes, and a discussion of the entities, objects and ingredients used. These include names of the angels to be summoned, types of incenses and inks to be used, sketches and images to be drawn, et cetera This is one of the first critical editions and translations of a full-length text of practical magic containing recipes pertaining to 'ilm al-ḥurūf (the science of letters). The book is addressed to Arabists and to any non-Arabist interested in the tradition of magic.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004321540 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Excellence and Precedence : Medieval Islamic Discourse on Legitimate Leadership /
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This volume focuses on how legitimate leadership came to be defined in the formative period of Islam in terms of two key Qur'anic concepts: moral excellence ( faḍl/faḍīla ) and precedence ( sābiqa ). These two concepts undergirded a specific discourse on leadership which developed in the first century of Islam. This discourse is reconstructed through careful scrutiny of the manāqib literature in particular, which contains detailed accounts of the excellences attributed to the Rāshidūn caliphs. This book stresses that all early factions, including the proto-Shī'a, subscribed to the Qur'ānically-mandated vision of a righteous polity guided by its most morally excellent members. Such a conclusion forces us to rethink the nature of leadership in the earliest period and reconsider the criteria invoked to establish its legitimacy.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004492196
9789004120433
Alexander histories and Iranian reflections : remnants of propaganda and resistance /
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Alexander the Great's military campaign to conquer the Achaemenid empire included a propaganda campaign to convince the Iranians his kingship was compatible with their religious and cultural norms. This campaign proved so successful that the overt display of Alexander's Iranian and Zoroastrian preferences alienated some of his Greek and Macedonian allies. Parivash Jamzadeh shows how this original propaganda material displayed multiple layers of Iranian influences. Additionally she demonstrates that the studied sources do not always offer an accurate account of the contemporary Iranian customs, and occasionally included historical inaccuracies. One of the most interesting finds in this study is the confusion of historical sources that arose between the opponents Darius III and Alexander. Jamzadeh argues that the Iranian propaganda regarding Alexander the Great has contributed to this confusion.
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1 online resource (viii, 193 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9789004217522 :
2210-3554 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Unity in diversity : mysticism, messianism and the construction of religious authority in Islam /
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What are the mechanisms of change and adaptation in Islam, regarded as a living organism, and how do they work? How did these mechanisms preserve the integrity of Muslim civilization through the innumerable hazards, divisions and devastations of time? From the perspective of history and intellectual history, this book focuses on a significant, though still largely under studied, aspect of this immense issue, namely, the role of mystical and messianic ferment in the construction and re-construction of religious authority in Islam. Sixteen scholars address this topic with a variety of approaches, providing a fresh outlook on the trends underlying the evolution of Muslim societies and, in particular, the emergence and consolidation of the Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal Empires. Contributors include: Abbas Amanat, Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi, Paul Ballanfat, Shahzad Bashir, Ilker Evrim Binbaş, Daniel De Smet, Devin DeWeese, Armin Eschraghi, Omid Ghaemmaghami, Ahmet T. Karamustafa, Todd Lawson, Pierre Lory, Matthew Melvin-Koushki, Orkhan Mir-Kasimov, A. Azfar Moin, William F. Tucker.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004262805
Religion and magic in western culture /
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In the history of Western culture, theology, and science, a strict dichotomy exists between religion and magic: religion as the intellectually and morally superior one - magic as the primitive, superstitious, demonic other. The present work aims to break with this tradition, and traces the origin of this dichotomy as well as its many purposes. Whose powers does it serve? Which interests and ideological stakes does it conceal? Moreover, the author proposes a new epistemological framework for the study of magisms as well as their "rehumanisation", and argues for a rehabilitation of their studies.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9789004317567 :
2214-3270 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Intellectus gratiae : die erkenntnistheoretische und hermeneutische Dimension der Gnadenlehre Augustins von Hippo /
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This is the first large scale study on the link between the concepts of intellect and grace in the writings of St. Augustine of Hippo. Its five chapters deal with Augustine's writings on grace as they focus on questions concerning epistemology and hermeneutics. Already non-Christian ancient philosophers identified intellectual perfection with salvation as caused by divine grace. Under their influence (I) Augustine developed also his biblical thought (II). The culmination of his concept of intellectus gratiae , however, came in the later works on sacraments (III), hermeneutics (IV) and against Pelagius and Julian of Eclanum (V). This study highlights that development and recommends the concept of intellectus gratiae as a possible key to Augustine's theological thought as a whole.
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Originally presented as the author's thesis--Regensburg, 1996. :
1 online resource (xii, 501 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 427-466) and indexes. :
9789004313057 :
0920-623X ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Sapiential perspectives : wisdom literature in light of the Dead Sea scrolls : proceedings of the Sixth International Symposium of the Orion Center for the Study of the Dead Sea Sc...
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The papers in this volume were originally read at the Sixth International Orion Symposium. The primary focus of the volume is on the wisdom texts from Qumran that have been fully edited only in recent years, especially 1Q/4QMysteries and 4QInstruction. Prior to the discovery of the Scrolls, our knowledge of wisdom literature in the Second Temple period was limited to contemporary biblical books, apocryphal works, and pseudepigraphical writings. These recently published compositions now allow for a more nuanced picture of wisdom literature and its impact on and interaction with other genres. In addition to shedding light on the world of their authors, these texts illustrate how biblical wisdom was reused in new contexts, and provide a missing link between earlier and later sapiential compositions.
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1 online resource (x, 210 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789047412755 :
0169-9962 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The ethics of obscene speech in early Christianity and its environment /
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This book aims to contextualize early Christian rhetoric about foul language by asking such questions as: Where was foul language encountered? What were the conventional arguments for avoiding (or for using) obscene words? How would the avoidance of such speech have been interpreted by others? A careful examination of the ancient uses of and discourse about foul language illuminates the moral logic implicit in various Jewish and Christian texts (e.g. Sirach, Colossians, Ephesians, the Didache, and the writings of Clement of Alexandria). Although the Christians of the first two centuries were consistently opposed to foul language, they had a variety of reasons for their moral stance, and they held different views about what role speech should play in forming their identity as a \'holy people.\'
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [241]-260) and index. :
9789047433675 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Tantra, Ritual Performance, and Politics in Nepal and Kerala : Embodying the Goddess-clan /
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In previous studies of South Asian Tantric ritual, scholars tend to focus on one region or context. For the first time, Tantra, Ritual Performance and Politics in Nepal and Kerala: Embodying the Goddess-clan offers a comparative approach to Tantric mediumship as observed in two locales: Navadurgā rituals in Bhaktapur, Nepal, and Teyyāṭṭam in North Kerala. In this book, Matthew Martin advances a new theory of ritual, which spotlights the way dancer-mediums embody medieval goddess-clans and ancestor deities, through offerings of food and sacrifice, that synchronize their denizens with the land in spiralling web-like ritual networks. Uniquely interdisciplinary in style, this study synthesizes cultural history, ethnography, and theory to explore the continuities - historical, societal, and political - that characterize these ritual traditions across the subcontinent.
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Revision of author's PhD dissertation. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004439023
9789004438996
Grace, reconciliation, concor d the death of Christ in Graeco-Roman metaphors /
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How did the first Christians interpret the death of Christ? The answer lies within the earliest Christian documents, primarily within the Pauline letters. Before the users of a modern language could hope to come near an adequate description of what was expressed in these Greek texts of the first Christians, they have to deconstruct layers of later dogmatic interpretation. They need to keep to descriptive terminology reflecting the Greek of the sources and to trace the origin of the metaphoric language early Christians like Paul used. This volume sets out to construct some of the Jewish and Greco-Roman patterns of thought which were initially utilised to express the meaning of the death of Christ.
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Collection of previously published essays, with revisions. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004188044 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.