Handbook of hyper-real religions /
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Today a new trend is clearly discernable, that of 'hyper-real religions'. These are innovative religions and spiritualities that mix elements of religious traditions with popular culture. If we imagine a spectrum of intensity of the merging of popular culture with religion, we might find, at one end, groups practicing Jediism appropriated from the Star Wars movies, Matrixism from the Matrix trilogy, and neo-pagan rites based on stories from The Lord of the Rings and the Harry Potter series. At the other end of the spectrum, members of mainstream religions, such as Christianity can be influenced or inspired by, for example, The Da Vinci Code . Through various case studies, this book studies the on- and off-line religious/spiritual consumption of these narratives through a social scientific approach.
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1 online resource (456 pages) :
9789004226944 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The Shape of Anglican Theology : Faith Seeking Wisdom /
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There are numerous books that offer an historical account of Anglican theology or that detail the lives and work of particular Anglican theologians. Books that focus on the nature and character of Anglican theology itself, however, are hard to find. This volume fills that gap. In The Shape of Anglican Theology, Scott MacDougall examines what it is that makes Anglican theology Anglican. Beginning with a treatment of the ways in which Anglican theology is and is not distinct from other types of Christian theology, he describes the theological features that mark the general boundaries of Anglican theologizing before turning to consider a set of eight interconnected characteristics that provide Anglican theology with its distinctive profile. MacDougall argues that, by setting its boundaries as widely as possible and requiring subscription to specific theological propositions as little as possible, Anglican theology is in essence a wisdom theology that seeks to build the capacity for faithful Christian discernment in belief and practice.
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This book reveals the distinctiveness of Anglican theology, describing its boundaries and naming its particular characteristics, finally concluding that Anglican theology is a wisdom theology that seeks to build the capacity for faithful Christian discernment in belief and practice. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004517929
9789004517851
The Fall of the Angels /
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The fall of the angels is one of the biblical narratives which, above all in the history of the bible's reception, have developed an extraordinary effect: In the biblical canon they appear just as hints (Gen. 6; Isaiah 14; Apocalypse 12). Little concern for the text as well as a tradition and reception not covered by the canon makes the narrative grow and change considerably, as well as freely negotiate in the popular media of iconography, liturgy and theatre. As a completed narrative the fall of the angels appears only in the literature of the apocalyptic movement. The so-called Henoch tradition provides revelations about the cosmos and the secrets of Heaven and Earth. Through this mystery our present world is coded as a battle between good and evil.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789047404330
9789004126688
Participatory Learning : Religious Education in a Globalizing Society /
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In many respects children and youths receiving religious instruction in our culture resemble extraterrestrial beings doing an orientation course. Religion and religiosity are unknown quantities which they have hardly encountered at home. Religion seems something else, something greater. This book is a study of the foundations of religious education, centered around six concepts: religion in a globalizing society, religious tradition, religion, the religious self, learning through participation and interreligious learning.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789047402121
9789004130012
Religion and the Good Life /
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Studies in Theology and Religion,10 In this volume, fourteen philosophers of religion reflect on religious views of the good life. Some authors focus on positive religion and its specific religious representations of the good life, while others abstract from these and focus on philosophical religion and its conceptual articulations of the good life. The tension between positive religion and philosophical religion, between representation and concept, is itself also analyzed. This volume is a result of the co-operation of the philosophers of religion who are senior members of the Netherlands School for Advanced Studies in Theology and Religion NOSTER. Religion and the Good Life Religion and the Good Life: Introduction - Marcel Sarot (Utrecht) and Wessel Stoker (Amsterdam) PART I - THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN REPRESENTATION AND CONCEPT The Tension between Representation and Concept as a Challenge for Philosophy of Religion - Peter Jonkers (Utrecht) Beyond Representation and Concept: The Language of Testimony - R.D.N. van Riessen (Kampen) PART II - THE TENSION BETWEEN REPRESENTATION AND CONCEPT Seduction and Guidance: Some Remarks on the Ambiguities of Reason and Reflective Thought in Connection with Religion and the Good Life - W. Dupré (Nijmegen) The Good Life is Historical - Ben Vedder (Nijmegen) The Quality of Life: Comic Vision in Charles Dickens and Iris Murdoch - Henry Jansen (Amsterdam) Narrative, Atonement, and the Christian Conception of the Good Life - Gijsbert van den Brink (Leyden) Myths and the Good Life: Ricoeur's Hermeneutical Approach to Myth - Wessel Stoker (Amsterdam) Bhajans and their Symbols: Religious Hermeneutics of "the Good Life" - Hendrik M. Vroom (Amsterdam) PART III - REPRESENTATIONS OF THE GOOD LIFE Models of the Good Life - Marcel Sarot (Utrecht) The Highest Good and the Kingdom of God in the Philosophy of Kant: A Moral Concept and a Religious Metaphor of the Good Life - Donald Loose (Tilburg-Rotterdam) Jacques Derrida and Messianity - Victor Kal (Amsterdam) Skepticism and the Meaning of Life - Michael Scott (Manchester) Ultimate Happiness and the Love of God - Vincent Brümmer (Utrecht) Human Being and the Natural Desire for God: Reflections on the Natural and the Supernatural - Eef Dekker (Utrecht).
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004493476
9789023240693
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
Bridge or Barrier : Religion, Violence and Visions for Peace /
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The book discusses the transformative role of religion in situations of violent conflict. It considers both the constructive and destructive sides of religious belief and particularly explores ways in which religion(s) may contribute to transforming conflict into peace. This volume analyses the role of religion in its current manifestations and provides alternative views of it. It is concerned with the role of religion as a source of conflict that often takes violent forms, thus contributing significantly to current problems. Attention also focuses on questions of peace from the perspective of the religious traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. A number of essays actualize a vision for peace based on religion and situate visions for peace in the wider context of human security. All chapters consider the policy implications of the theoretical and practical perspectives offered on questions of conflict and peace. The most important documents that have emerged from a variety of religious groups, notably those represented in the book, outlining their view on issues of peace and human rights are collected here, showing how religious believers have engaged with questions similar to those suggested by the principles of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789047405733
9789004139435
Religion and Coping in Mental Health Care /
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Joseph Pieper and Marinus van Uden have proposed a book consisting of previously published papers on the topics of religion, coping, and mental health care. It covers quite a bit of territory: the complex relationships between religion and mental health, surveys that present the views of therapists and patients about the interface between religion and mental health, a case study of a religious patient struggling with psychological problems, empirical studies of religious coping among various groups, and a method for teaching the clinical psychology of religion. Although the papers are diverse, they are unified by several themes. First, the papers convey a balanced approach to religion and psychology. They speak to the potentially positive and negative contributions religion can make to health and well-being. Second, several of the papers focus on the role of religious coping among patients in the Netherlands. This focus is noteworthy since the large majority of this theory and research has been limited to the USA. Third, they underscore the value of a cross-cultural approach to the field. Their surveys point to the importance of religious/worldview perspectives to many patients (and therapists) in the Netherlands, even though the culture is more secularised than the USA. However, their papers also suggest that the manifestation of these religious/worldview perspectives may take different shape in the Netherlands. Fourth, the papers have clinical relevance. The case history of the obsessive-compulsive patient by Van Uden (ch. 4) contains an excellent example of the way in which religious resources can be accessed to counter dysfunctional behaviours. This volume shows initial effort in a newly emerging area of study. It is encouraging to see a significant body of research and practice on the psychology of religion and coping coming out of the Netherlands. It could stimulate further advances in a more cross-culturally sensitive, clinical psychology of religion. - Kenneth Pargament, Professor of Psychology, Bowling Green State University in Ohio, USA.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789401202954
9789042019973
La guerre et les rites de guerre dans le judaïsme du deuxième Temple /
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This work deals with the Jewish warfare in the Hellenistic and Roman Antiquity from the point of view of the religious rites which, for the Ancients, were a necessary part of all social activity. The author rejects the traditional concept of "Holy War" and prefers to emphasise the diversity of representations of war in the Judaism of the Second Temple. The book deals with questions linked to the status of warriors and priests who were involved in war with regard to purity laws. It analyses the rituals specific to military operations. It deals with the Sabbath, with the war oracle of the ourim and toummim as well as the different types of sacrifices associated with war. The book presents a comprehensive but diverse and contrasted portrait of the Jewish practises and representations of war in Ancient times.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789047405535
9789004138971
Households, Sects, and the Origins of Rabbinic Judaism /
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This book suggests a new approach to the social history of Jewish religious movements in the Second Temple and early Rabbinic periods. It argues that most of these movements and their traditions emerged within the context of complex interaction between traditional families and disciple circles. The first part of the book examines the development of Jewish religious movements during the Second Temple period. It culminates with the discussion of the Dead Sea Sect, which is analyzed as the first unambiguous example of a movement shifting from a social structure based on families to a social structure based on disciple circles. The second part of the book discusses the history of pharisaic and early rabbinic movements from a similar perspective. Topics covered in the book will be of interest to scholars of Judaism and Early Christianity.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789047407768
9789004144477
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
Virtues of the Flesh - Passion and Purity in Early Islamic Jurisprudence /
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Robust sexuality, profound spirituality and elaborate legalism are, at first glance, strange bedfellows. The conventional Western wisdom has long conceived of these several modes as comprising an antagonistic trichotomy, in which each component is opposed to the others. Classical Islam, on the other hand, envisioned a unique system of cooperation between the sensual, the ethereal and the forensic. This study employs the vast and hitherto neglected literature of Islamic purity law as a looking glass through which to examine early Muslim attitudes to the romantic and erotic. Probing Qur'ān, Ḥadīth, Tafsīr and Fiqh, it opens a window on a world of unexpectedly explicit and unrestrainedly joyful sexual expression -- a world located squarely within the confines of God's sacred law and its elucidation.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789047406235
9789004140707
Bodywork: Dress as Cultural Tool : Dress and Demeanour in the South of Senegal /
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This book looks at the encounter between dress and the body. In the social sciences, dress tends to be viewed as a form of communication, a way in which the wearer gives expression to his or her ideas or situation. 'Bodywork', rather than looking at what people do with their clothes, looks at what clothes do with the wearers. In the context of three small West African communities - Muslim, Christian and Animist - the book describes the dress styles and dress practices of the villagers and shows how a particular way of dressing influences the body's demeanour and habit. It considers thereby the role played by dress in the enculturation of the body.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789047406402
9789004141070
Food and foodways of medieval Cairenes : aspects of life in an Islamic metropolis of the eastern Mediterranean /
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This is a pioneering study which analyzes the food cultures of medieval Cairenes on the basis of a large corpus of historical texts in Arabic. Individual chapters discuss what, why, and how the inhabitants of medieval Cairo ate what they did, and in which ways food shaped their everyday lives. Given the complex nature of "food" and "foodways" as areas of research, the book covers such diverse subjects as the genesis of the culinary culture of Egypt's capital and various practices related to food and eating. This monograph also considers several relevant social, political and economic circumstances in medieval Cairo, studying food culture in its broader context.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004206465 :
0929-2403 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Military Service and the Integration of Jews into the Roman Empire /
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"According to Raúl González Salinero, the plurality of religious expressions within Judaism prior to the predominance of the rabbinical current disproves the assumption according to which some Jewish customs and precepts (especially the Sabbath) prevented Jews from joining the Roman army without renouncing their ancestral culture. The military exemption occasionally granted to the Jews by the Roman authorities was compatible with their voluntary enlistment (as it was in the Hellenistic armies) in order to obtain Roman citizenship. As the sources attest, Judaism did not pose any insurmountable obstacle to integration of the Jews into the Roman world. They achieved a noteworthy presence in the Roman army by the fourth century CE, at which time the Church's influence over imperial power led to their exclusion from the militia armata"--
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004507258
9789004506756
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
Maurice Blondel on the supernatural in human action : sacrament and superstition /
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How do sacraments differ from superstition? For Enlightenment philosophers such as Kant, both are merely natural actions claiming a supernatural effect, an accusation that has long been ignored in Catholic theology. In Maurice Blondel on the Supernatural in Human Action: Sacrament and Superstition , however, Cathal Doherty SJ reverses this accusation through a theological appropriation of Blondel's philosophy of action, arguing not only that sacraments have no truck with superstition but that the 'Enlightened' are themselves guilty of that which they most abhor, superstitious action. Doherty then uses Blondel's philosophical insights as a heuristic and corrective to putative sacramental theologies that would reduce the spiritual or supernatural efficacy of sacraments to the mere human effort of perception or symbolic interpretation.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004342446 :
2352-5746 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Francis A. Sullivan, S.J. and ecclesiological hermeneutics : an exercise in faithful creativity /
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In Francis A. Sullivan, S.J. and Ecclesiological Hermeneutics , Canaris traces the significant contributions that Francis A. Sullivan, S.J. has made to Catholic ecclesiology, paying particular attention to the method and application of his hermeneutical approach to the writings of the magisterium. Though highly esteemed by professional theologians in both Catholic and ecumenical circles, Sullivan is less well-known among general audiences than many of his peers. The author addresses this lacuna by arguing that Sullivan's work, when viewed through an interpretive lens, can aid the faithful to engage seriously with magisterial texts of various genres and levels of authority, find meaning within them, and encourage an active reception process whereby contemporary understanding of the teaching (and learning) role of the entire church becomes possible.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004326859 :
2352-5746 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
A legacy of learning : essays in honor of Jacob Neusner /
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In a career spanning over fifty years, the questions Jacob Neusner has asked and the critical methodologies he has developed have shaped the way scholars have come to approach the rabbinic literature as well as the diverse manifestations of Judaism from rabbinic times until the present. The essays collected here honor that legacy, illustrating an influence that is so pervasive that scholars today who engage in the critical study of Judaism and the history of religions more generally work in a laboratory that Professor Neusner created. Addressing topics in ancient and Rabbinic Judaism, the Judaic context of early Christianity, American Judaism, World Religions, and the academic study of the humanities, these essays demarcate the current state of Judaic and religious studies in the academy today.
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1 online resource (xiii, 430 pages) : illustrations (color) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004284289 :
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.