Toward a sociological theory of religion and health
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Driven by funding agencies, empirical research in the social scientific study of health and medicine has grown in quantity and developed in quality. When it became evident, in what is now a tradition of inquiry, that people's religious activities had significant health consequences, a portion of that body of work began to focus more frequently on the relationship between health and religion. The field has reached a point where book-length summaries of empirical findings, especially those pertinent to older people, can identify independent, mediating, and dependent variables of interest. Every mediating variable, even if considered as a "control" variable, represents an explanation, a small theory of some kind. However, taken in granular form, as it were, the multiple theories do not comprise mid-level theory, let alone a general theoretical framework. This volume seeks to move toward more general theoretical development.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9789004210844 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The spirit, indigenous peoples, and social change : Maori and a Pentecostal theology of social engagement /
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In The Spirit, Indigenous Peoples and Social Change Michael Frost explores a pentecostal theology of social engagement in relation to Māori in New Zealand. Pentecostalism has had an ambiguous relationship with Māori and, in particular, lacks a robust and coherent theological framework for engaging in issues of social concern. Drawing on a number of interviews with Māori pentecostal leaders and ministers, Frost explores the transformative role of pentecostal experience for Māori cultural identity, a holistic theology of mission, an indigenous prophetic emphasis, and consequent connections between pentecostalism and liberation. He thus contributes a way forward for pentecostal theologies of social change in relation to Māori, with implications for pentecostalism and indigenous peoples in the West.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9789004384996 :
1876-2247 ;
Social justice, poverty and race : normative and empirical points of view /
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A clear understanding of social justice requires complex rather than simple answers. It requires comfort with ambiguity rather than absolute answers. This is counter to viewing right versus wrong, just vs. unjust, or good vs. evil as dichotomies. This book provides many examples of where and how to begin to view these as continuums rather than dichotomies.
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1 online resource (xviii, 222 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 183-214) and index. :
9789401206815 :
0929-8436 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Interpreting Globalization : Polish Perspectives on Culture in the Globalized World /
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The main hypothesis of the volume is that globalization is a cultural phenomenon. Therefore, the book offers an explanation of how globalization emerged from cultural exchange between groups, nations, and religions. The articles in this volume register the thematically multi-dimensional and theoretically complex contribution of Polish research on globalization. Polish debates on globalization, as presented in this book, on the one hand reflect international disputes and controversies, and on the other hand address local issues. As their crucial feature, the articles in this volume exhibit a special sensitivity to historical and contemporary cultural contexts. They do not approach globalization as an abstract process, instead exploring it through the lens of clearly defined factors.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004443792
9789004443785
Beyond legal minds : sex, social violence, systems, methods, possibilities /
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In this book, William Brant uncovers social causes of violence, in search of reductive measures. Multiple legal systems are explored as reducers and implementers of violence and threats, especially criminal justice systems. War, propagandizing, power, corporate and governmental involvement in social domination, statehood, dangerous ideologies, and tribal sexual domination are explored in many cultures. Various levels and methods are given for observing, measuring and analyzing how people think and behave regarding the law, including examples of comedy. A theoretical chapter presents legal theory in relation to conceptions of possibility and misconceptions. These ideas are applied to judiciaries, which expose winning strategies for lawyers' desired verdicts. Dr. Brant accounts for the interconnections between sexual selection, legal systems and wars.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004385955 :
0929-8436 ;
The social dimension of Shin Buddhism /
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Shin Buddhism (Jōdo Shinshū), although weakened in many ways by secularization, continues to be a stable presence in Japanese society, as is emblematically shown by the very symmetrical position of the Nishi (Honganji-ha) and the Higashi Honganji (Ōtani-ha) head temples in the center of Kyōto, and by the recent projects for their renovation. This book addresses the need for more academic research on Shin Buddhism, and is specifically directed at describing and analyzing distinctive social aspects of this religious tradition in historical and contemporary perspective. The contributions collected here cover a wide range of issues, including the intersection between Shin Buddhism and fields as diverse as politics, education, social movements, economy, culture and the media, social ethics, gender, and globalization.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004193796 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Thinking about provincialism in thinking /
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The volume addresses a problem rarely discussed by philosophers - the question of provincialism in science (in the broadest sense of the term). There are only a few great centers of science, which attract funding and provide almost ideal opportunities for research and development. They also attract some of the best researchers. Some - but not all. For a variety of reasons, some of the best researchers, or ones who have that potential, may do science outside these centers, in the provinces. The volume is devoted to the problems they face. What is an intellectual province? Who are the provincial thinkers? What is the mark of provincialism? Do provincial (or central) thinkers have any special duties? Are there ways of overcoming one's own provincialism? The authors address these questions across different disciplines, cultures, locations and time periods.
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1 online resource (301 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9789401209007 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Cosmopolitan dharma : race, sexuality, and gender in British Buddhism /
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Within Western Buddhism, practitioners are often assumed to be white and middle-class. Based in ground-breaking empirical research, Cosmopolitan Dharma: Race, Sexuality, and Gender in British Buddhism explores the stories of Buddhists from minority communities, through a rich analysis of their lived experiences. Smith, Munt and Yip explore their various contestations of dominant white and heteronormative cultures in Western Buddhism. Using cosmopolitanism as the theoretical lens, Cosmopolitan Dharma argues convincingly that the Buddhist ethos of human interconnectivity needs to be further developed to truly embrace the 'Other' of different kinds (not least Western Buddhism's own internal 'Others'). Cosmopolitan Dharma , through Buddhists' own narratives, explores how cultural politics from the ground up can offer a more inclusive philosophy and lived experience of spirituality.
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1 online resource (xv, 290 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 252-277) and index. :
9789004232808 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
A cultural history of Aramaic : from the beginnings to the advent of Islam /
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Aramaic is a constant thread running through the various civilizations of the Near East, ancient and modern, from 1000 BCE to the present, and has been the language of small principalities, world empires, and a fair share of the Jewish-Christian tradition. Holger Gzella describes its cultural and linguistic history as a continuous evolution from its beginnings to the advent of Islam. For the first time the individual phases of the language, their socio-historical underpinnings, and the textual sources are discussed comprehensively in light of the latest linguistic and historical research and with ample attention to scribal traditions, multilingualism, and language as a marker of cultural self-awareness. Many new observations on Aramaic are thereby integrated into a coherent historical framework.
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1 online resource (466 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004285101 :
0169-9423 ;
0169-9423 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Historical and archaeological aspects of Egyptian funerary culture : religious ideas and ritual practice in Middle Kingdom elite cemeteries /
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Historical and Archaeological Aspects of Egyptian Funerary Culture , a thoroughly reworked translation of Les textes des sarcophages et la démocratie published in 2008, challenges the widespread idea that the "royal" Pyramid Texts of the Old Kingdom after a process of "democratisation" became, in the Middle Kingdom, accessible even to the average Egyptian in the form of the Coffin Texts. Rather they remained an element of elite funerary culture, and particularly so in the Upper Egyptian nomes. The author traces the emergence here of the so-called "nomarchs" and their survival in the Middle Kingdom. The site of Dayr al-Barshā, currently under excavation, shows how nomarch cemeteries could even develop into large-scale processional landscapes intended for the cult of the local ruler. This book also provides an updated list of the hundreds of (mostly unpublished) Middle Kingdom coffins and proposes a new reference system for these.
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1 online resource (pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004274990 :
1566-2055 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The philosophy of Viagra : bioethical responses to the Viagrification of the modern world /
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The impotency remedy Viagra is the fastest selling drug in history. It has grown beyond being simply a medical phenomenon, but has achieved the status of cultural icon, appearing on television as a pretext for jokes or even as a murder weapon. Viagra has socio-cultural implications that are not limited to sexuality. The Philosophy of Viagra offers a unique perspective as it examines the phenomenon of Viagra through ideas derived from more than two thousand years of philosophical reasoning. In philosophy, Eros has always had a central position. Since Plato, philosophy has held that desire is not only a medical but also a spiritual phenomenon and that scientific explanations claiming to give an exhaustive account of erotic perception are misleading. Philosophical ideas are able to debunk various scientific rationalizations of sexuality - one of which is the clinical-sexological discourse on Viagra. In this volume, several authors interpret Viagra through the lens of classical philosophy explicating the themes of immortality and hedonism. Others offer psychoanalytical considerations by confronting clinical sexology with psychological realities. Still others evoke intercultural aspects revealing the relative character of potency that the phenomenon of Viagra attempts to gloss over.
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1 online resource (vi, 227 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789401200363 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Religion and society : an agenda for the 21st century /
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Religion is set to be a major force in the twenty-first century. Here is a book that tells us what the world's leading scholars have to say about this. Issues of conflict and peace, ethical questions concerning the use of advanced technology, explanations of the global religious revival, and the role of women in religious leadership, as well as questions about how to study religion, are all discussed. It is a volume that ranges exceptionally widely, in terms of the themes discussed, the variety of disciplines, and the participation of international scholars debating with each other. One section of the book is devoted to Japanese scholarship concerning the world's major religions. Contributors include: Talal Asad, Chin Hong Chung, Armin Geertz, Gerrie ter Haar, Rosalind Hackett, Eiko Hanaoka, Shōtō Hase, Mark Juergensmeyer, Noriko Kawahashi, Kiyotaka Kimura, Ursula King, Pratap Kumar, William Lafleur, Sylvia Marcos, Tomoko Masuzawa, Ebrahim Moosa, Kōjirō Nakamura, Vasudha Narayanan, Haruko Okano, Suwanna Satha-Anand, Susumu Shimazono, Noriyoshi Tamaru, Masakazu Tanaka, Hiroshi Tsuchiya, Yoshio Tsuruoka, Manabu Watanabe, Pablo Wright.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [283]-297) and index. :
9789047422464 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Evolutionary Ontology : Reclaiming the Value of Nature by Transforming Culture.
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This book examines new concept of evolutionary ontology based on the idea of radically different "ontic orders" - natural and cultural being. It explains how culture evolved out of nature and how it became "anti-natural". The remedy is seen in the global biophilous reconstruction of culture. The value of the "live planet" Earth and the "subject" capable of creative activity and evolution are given fundamental philosophical interpretation.
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1 online resource (233 pages) :
9789401206228 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Smart Technologies and Fundamental Rights /
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"Smart Technologies and Fundamental Rights covers a broad range of vital topics that highlight the ethical, socio-political, and legal challenges as well as technical issues of AI with respect to fundamental rights. Either humanity will greatly profit from the use of AI in almost all domains in human life that may eventually lead to a much better and more humane society. Or, it could be the case that people may misuse AI for idiosyncratic purposes as well as intelligent machines may turn against human beings. Therefore, we should be extremely cautious with respect to the technological development of AI because we might not be able to control the machines once they reached a certain level of sophistication"--
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004437876
9789004436732
Science in Culture : Translated from the Polish by Hugh McDonald.
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This book tries to uncover science's discoverer and explain why the conception of science has been changing during the centuries, and why science can be beneficial and dangerous for humanity. Far from being hermetic, this research can be interesting for all who want to understand deeper what really conditions the place of science in culture.
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1 online resource (351 pages) :
9789401203852 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Aesthetic capitalism /
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Aesthetic Capitalism debates the social aesthetics of contemporary economic processes. The book connects modern cultural dynamics with the workings of contemporary capitalism. It explores art and the new spirit of capitalism; visual culture and the experience economy; aesthetics and organisations; the art of fiscal management; capitalism without myth; and architecture in the age of aesthetic capitalism. Contributors include: Peter Murphy, Eduardo de la Fuente, Antonio Strati, Ken Friedman, Dominique Bouchet, Anders Michelsen, David Roberts, Carlo Tognato
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Includes index. :
1 online resource (pages) :
9789004274723 :
1572-459X ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
A new kind of containment : "the war on terror," race, and sexuality /
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This book addresses "containment" as it relates to interlocking discourses around the "War on Terror" as a global effort and its link to race and sexuality within the United States. The project emerged from the recognition that the events of 11 September 2001, prompted new efforts at containment with both domestic and international implications.
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1 online resource (xii, 205 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 167-183) and index. :
9789042029194 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Satanism : a social history /
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A 17th-century French haberdasher invented the Black Mass. An 18th-century English Cabinet Minister administered the Eucharist to a baboon. High-ranking Catholic authorities in the 19th century believed that Satan appeared in Masonic lodges in the shape of a crocodile and played the piano there. A well-known scientist from the 20th century established a cult of the Antichrist and exploded in a laboratory experiment. Three Italian girls in 2000 sacrificed a nun to the Devil. A Black Metal band honored Satan in Krakow, Poland, in 2004 by exhibiting on stage 120 decapitated sheep heads. Some of these stories, as absurd as they might sound, were real. Others, which might appear to be equally well reported, are false. But even false stories have generated real societal reactions. For the first time, Massimo Introvigne proposes a general social history of Satanism and anti-Satanism, from the French Court of Louis XIV to the Satanic scares of the late 20th century, satanic themes in Black Metal music, the Church of Satan, and beyond.
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1 online resource (xi, 655 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004244962 :
1871-1405 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.