Religion and beliefs Books

Book SynopsisThe most Jewish of gospels in its contents and the most anti-Jewish in its polemics, the Gospel of Matthew has been said to mark the emergence of Christianity from Judaism. This text disagrees by showing us how Matthew wrote from within Jewish tradition to a distinctly Jewish audience.

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Book SynopsisMaria de San Jose Salazar took the veil as a discalced (barefoot) Carmelite nun in 1571, becoming one of Teresa de Avila's most important collaborators in religious reform. This work is a defense of the practice of setting aside hours of the day for conversation, music and plays.

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Book SynopsisPresents an intellectual historical critique of the Fundamentalist movement in America. This work argues that our understanding of this movement has been grievously distorted by the Fundamentalist-Modernist debate of the 1920s, as symbolized by William Jennings Bryan and the Scopes trial.Trade Review"All historians need to face the issues [this book] raises. Serious theological discussion of Fundamentalism tends to be neglected because it is intellectually unfashionable: Mr. Sandeen shows that for the historian such neglect is a luxury he cannot afford." - David M. Thompson, English Historical Review "Sandeen's 'new approach to Fundamentalism' eschews the common tendency to see the movement as parochially American, rurally based, and essentially a phenomenon of the twenties.... It is a highly valuable addition to American and - more singularly - to comparative theological history." - William R. Hutchinson, Journal of American History"

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Book SynopsisIn early modern Europe, the king's body was literally sovereign. This title demonstrates the ways in which democratic societies have continued many of the rituals and practices associated with kingship in displaced, distorted, and, usually, unrecognizable forms.Trade Review"Eric Santner's The Royal Remains stands out, not only as the most important book on political philosophy of the last decade, but as a classic at the level of Walter Benjamin's 'Critique of Violence' or Ernst Kantorowicz's The King's Two Bodies. It prolongs their analyses into today's world of micro-politics, raising the key question of what happens to the king's other sublime body in a democratic society where the people-collectively-are the new sovereign. My reaction to reading this book is of wonder and awe; it is as if a new Benjamin (with the added features of Freud and Lacan) is walking among us." -Slavoj Zizek"

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Book SynopsisIn early modern Europe, the king's body was literally sovereign. This title demonstrates the ways in which democratic societies have continued many of the rituals and practices associated with kingship in displaced, distorted, and, usually, unrecognizable forms.Trade Review"Eric Santner's The Royal Remains stands out, not only as the most important book on political philosophy of the last decade, but as a classic at the level of Walter Benjamin's 'Critique of Violence' or Ernst Kantorowicz's The King's Two Bodies. It prolongs their analyses into today's world of micro-politics, raising the key question of what happens to the king's other sublime body in a democratic society where the people-collectively-are the new sovereign. My reaction to reading this book is of wonder and awe; it is as if a new Benjamin (with the added features of Freud and Lacan) is walking among us." -Slavoj Zizek"

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Book SynopsisRegina Schwartz examines the story of Cain and Abel, as she sees it; that is, emblematic of a tragic biblical influence over Western secular notions of identity - notions often violently exclusionary, negatively defining "us" against "them" in ethnic, religious, racial, nationalistic terms.

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Book SynopsisExamines the turbulent modern history and sociology of the Sri Lankan Buddhist Monkhood and its effects upon contemporary society. Using translated Sinhalese documents and interviews with monks, this text unravels the inner workings of this New Buddhism and the ideology on which it is based.

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Book SynopsisMosques in the Metropolis offers a unique look into two of Europe's largest mosques and the communities they support. Elisabeth Becker provides a complex picture of Islam in Europe at a particularly fraught time, shedding light on both experiences of deep and enduring marginalization and the agency of Muslim populaces. She balances individual Muslim voices with the historical and structural forces at play, revealing, in all their complexity, the people for whom the mosques are centers of religion and community life. As her interlocutors come to life in the pages, the metropolis emerges as a space alternative to the nation in which they can contend with degrading images of Islam and Muslims. Ultimately Becker insists that caste is a crucial lens through which to view Muslims in Europe, and through this lens she critiques what she perceives as the failures of European pluralism. To amplify her point, she brings Jewish history and twentieth-century Jewish thought into the conversation dirTrade Review"Mosques in the Metropolis is packed with interesting ideas, not the least of which is Becker’s provocative intellectual fusion of Jewish thought with classic sociological theory to understand how Muslims in Europe have become marginalized as strangers and Others." * American Journal of Sociology *“Evocative, stirring, and thought-provoking are terms that capture Becker’s compelling narrative about the complex lives of faithful Muslims in several European contexts. Mosques in the Metropolis cunningly and creatively brings the reader into the folds of Europe’s tortured history with Islam and Muslims, which continues to this day. Becker artfully interweaves the stories of Muslim communities with the larger questions of citizenship, faith, and belonging. Punctuated with the voices of strangers of another time, namely European Jews, this readable book teems with insights and makes for indispensable reading.” * Ebrahim Moosa, Mirza Family Professor of Islamic Thought & Muslim Societies, University of Notre Dame and author of What Is a Madrasa? *“Mosques in the Metropolis is a poetic analysis of Muslim lives in Berlin and London. Becker insightfully weaves together the discernments of nineteenth- and twentieth-century European Jewish thinkers with the experiences of contemporary Muslims inhabiting the same spaces. This is one of the most inspiring discussions of palimpsests of history in Europe that shows how the past, present, and future are intimately and unexpectedly connected.” * Esra Özyürek, University of Cambridge *Table of ContentsPreface. Spirit Meeting Stone Chapter 1. The European Metropolis: Where Doors and Walls Meet Chapter 2. Caste, or the Order of Things Defied Chapter 3. Kaaba in Papier-Mâché: Inside the Şehitlik Mosque Chapter 4. Ordinary Angels: Şehitlik Mosque and the Metropolis Chapter 5. Messianic Horizon: Inside the East London Mosque Chapter 6. Hope, Interrupted: The East London Mosque and the Metropolis Chapter 7. Unsettled Europe: On the Threshold of Remembrance Afterword. The Memory of Trees Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisScholars have made urban mothers living in poverty a focus of their research for decades. Offering an analysis of how faith both motivates and at times constrains poor mothers' actions, this book reveals the ways it serves as a lens through which many view and interpret their worlds.Trade Review"Living Faith offers a thoughtful parsing of religious 'coping' as a multidimensional and multidirectional phenomenon. It usefully conceptualizes religious practices that are salient to the book's subjects as well as to broader religious publics. This highly original treatment of the role of religion in the lives of low-income women will be read widely, and for a very long time, by students of inequality, religion, gender, urban institutions, welfare policy, and more." (Omar McRoberts, University of Chicago)"

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Book SynopsisFor centuries readers have struggled to fuse the seemingly scattered pieces of John Donne's works into a complete image of the poet and priest. This book offers a way to read Donne as a writer who returned again and again to a single great subject, one that connected to his deepest intellectual and emotional concerns.Trade Review"Ramie Targoff achieves the rare feat of taking early modern theology seriously, and of explaining why it matters. Her book transforms how we think about Donne." - Helen Cooper, University of Cambridge"

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Book SynopsisArcangela Tarabotti (1604-52) was forced into a Benedictine convent at sixteen by her father. This manifesto argues against the oppression of women by the Venetian patriarchy. Through readings of the Bible Tarabotti demonstrates that women are clearly equal in God's eyes.

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Book SynopsisPosits that money and markets do not exist in a vacuum but grow in a cultural medium, reflecting and in turn shaping their world. This book explores the historical and psychological origins of money, the importance of religious beliefs and practices for emergence of markets, and the unexpected role of religion in the understanding of economics.Trade Review"It is a mark (sign might be a more apt term) of Taylor's continuing provocations, and illuminations of postmodern religion, art, and the economy, that this insightful and illuminating book raises so many far-reaching questions." - Mark Valeri, Journal of the American Academy of Religion"

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Book SynopsisJohn Modern offers a powerful and original critique of neurology's pivotal role in religious history.Trade Review"Neuromatic is a fascinating exploration of the intertwined histories of religion and the brain. More than anything, it raises the question of the nature of belief — whether we can know the unknowable through these shadows that we chase around the cave of the skull." * Psychology Today *"A powerful intervention into how notions of the secular are proliferated and internalized. . . . An innovative and imaginative work that shows the inner workings of our commonsense understandings of ourselves and our world." * Reading Religion *"Among the great virtues of Neuromatic is to show how dark indeed have been systematizers’ assaults on the spirit in the cause of making legible the interior life, of making the brain the organ of reason and order. That project demanded strange machines, cruel experiments, and an extravagant credulity in scientific progress." -- Tracy Fessenden * Religious Studies Review Forum *"Neuromatic had my synapses firing like disco lights at Studio 54—its own kind of Dream Machine." -- William Robert * Religious Studies Review Forum *"What I see John doing here, a high and lovely and estimable thing, is a play with scholarly format via the CULTURE JAM. The book dismantles, sure, but it also creates a Gysin-like fog over the brain, so that Swedenborg’s angels can cavort with electric love therapists. Neurmatic is an irruption in the long attempt to figure out human difference." -- Jason Bivins * Religious Studies Review Forum *"While critical theorists of the John Modern variety might not be worried about violating religious taboos, they can be creeped out by scientific confidence in the ability to make everything measurable and intelligible . . . Throughout Neuromatic, there is a looming sense of calamity lurking behind human attempts to master the brain." -- Finbarr Curtis * Religious Studies Review Forum *"John has compiled the most beautiful and indeed meticulous genealogy of the conditions that allow the cognitive science of religion to constitute knowledge. He also shows the absurd humanity involved in that process. . . The scientists are Ahab, obsessively trying to chart the white whale, and John is Ishmael, somewhere in the ship, trying to tell a story about what is going on." -- Gabriel Levy * Religious Studies Review Forum *"This is a wild ride, engaging and rewarding." * Choice *"What do scholars of religion think about the methodologies and explanations rendered in the Cognitive Science of Religion (CSR)? In Neuromatic, Modern consults a wide range of empirical literature as well as humanist theory about the brain sciences to consider the relation between the concept of religion and the concept of the brain. His book. . . suggests it is not sufficient to study religion without also being aware of its position in broader historical and cultural contexts." * Evolutionary Studies in Imaginative Culture *“A full immersion in that complex world of neuroscience with its many—and at times bizarre—applications, and the occasionally surreal world of cognitive science of religion . . . converging in the supreme attempt to reduce religion to that same pattern. This is an insightful book . . . impiously critical." * Reviews in Science, Religion, and Theology *"In equal turns frustrating, fascinating, and unique." * Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture *"[A] fascinating and wide-ranging survey." * International Society for Science and Religion *"Modern balances the academic and the bizarre with a colorful cast of characters from history, from religious scholars to scientists to psychics. There’s something for anyone with a curious mind." * LNP *“This book is magisterial in scope—masterfully researched, carefully considered, subtly theorized, and energetically executed. Wrangling published, archival, and media sources into a deliberately nonlinear genealogy, Neuromatic will be essential for scholars of religion, history, philosophy, and science studies.” * Mary-Jane Rubenstein, Wesleyan University *“Neuromatic is equal parts brilliant critical analysis and affectionate polemic. I strongly recommend it to my colleagues in the cognitive sciences who should know about the metaphysical skeletons in our closets. I recommend it to everyone else because reading it is so much fun.” * Anthony Chemero, University of Cincinnati *“Neuromatic, though masquerading as both a poke at the smugness of supposedly secular science and a plea against reductionism, is up to something more interesting: anamnesis. It wants us to stop forgetting everything that went into making the brain the font of all order—pills, electro-shock therapy, EEGs, TV screens, cognitive anthropology and other findings from the twilight zone of cybernetics. With flashes of insight going off in an antic zigzag logic, Neuromatic fires on as many synapses as the “enchanted loom” of the brain itself. Modern, a library cormorant of the first order, provides a history of oddballs and kooks, including some heroes of postwar science, and I ended up not being able to tell them apart. I found my brain happily scrambled after reading this book. Neuromatic gleefully demonstrates how the effort to create binaries of pure-dirty, science-kookiness, truth-fabrication, sobriety-credulity, secular-religious fails again and again. An ultimately sane plea to linger in the midworld." * John Durham Peters, Yale University *Table of ContentsPrologue: Already Gone Introduction Saturation Approaching the Neuromatic (with a Short Engineering Aside) Blurred Lines Cybernetics and the Question of Religion Cybernetic Theses of Secularization Poetics Synaptic Gap: Measuring Religion I. Thinking about Cognitive Scientists Thinking about Religion False Positives The Cognitive Science of Religion The Hyperactive Agency Detection Device Distinguishing Marks on a Screen Breaking the Spell Northampton Jonathan Edwards, Hyperactive Agency Detector Detecting the Life of the Brain Agents like Us Cheap Tricks Synaptic Gap: The Information of History II. Neither Matter nor Spirit: Toward a Genealogy of Information Hard Problems Neuromatic Piety: An Overview Ether and the Permeation of the Interspaces Emanuel Swedenborg, Neuroscientist Ghosts of Swedenborg Mental Slavery and the Invention of Spirituality The Diakka and Their Earthly Victims The Mediomaniacal Origins of American Neurology Prehistories of Electroencephalography Brain Waves and Tremulating Information Biofeedback and the Experience of Correspondence The Ontology of Information Concluding Thoughts on Perceptronium Synaptic Gap: Too Much Too Soon III. Imagining the Neuromatic Crash and Burn Opening Scene from a Cybernetic Demimonde Elective Affinities The Mechanics of Mediumship Images of an Oracle Thought Dictated in the Absence of All Control Cut-Ups From Voodoo Death to Virology Engrams and Auditing Past Lives of the Neuromatic Brain Exteriorization Break Through in Grey Room Synaptic Gap: White Machinery IV. Histories of Electric Shock Therapy circa 1978 Of Systems, Sex, and Secular Conversion Moral Treatment and Heads That Differ in Shape Gendered Electricity in the Neuromatic Groove The Operationalization of Napa State Insane Asylum Patients’ Rights The Shaving of Leonard Frank’s Beard Electric Love Therapy The Business of Marriage The Union of All Contradictory Ideas I Watch TV, I Watch TV Live from Napa State Synaptic Gap: Belief Molecules Conclusion: The Elementary Forms of Neuromatic Life Totemic Systems Big Science Artificial Intelligence Index

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Exquisite, mystifying, and inspirational." * The Christian Century *“This is a book about care. Burrus thinks with the reader about tenderness, fragility, loss, protectiveness, and the quiet fact of being alive in a place, and in so doing gives us a walled and green early Christian world that is deeply entwined with our own. It is a pure pleasure.” -- Catherine Michael Chin, University of California, Davis“Quaking and flowering, this captivatingly beautiful book twists free of disciplinary inhibitors to perform a literary cartography of illimitable place. In its dazzling multidimensional collage, a startling spiritual geography unfolds. From the Greek island where she poignantly is not, through earth-bursts of the here and there, then and now, Burrus takes the reader on an unprecedented journey.” -- Catherine Keller, Drew University“With agile imagination and lyrical prose, Burrus troubles how we do history. From the seismic eons of a tectonic earth to bits of Jerome laid out like poetry, Burrus reveals a world of destruction and regeneration on a mythic and literary Cyprus. Translating, fragmenting, recombining, and repurposing, Burrus composes chamber music, a small masterpiece.” -- Derek Krueger, University of North Carolina at Greensboro"Earthquakes and Gardens is hard to classify. It’s not really a religious book, but those interested in saints and hagiography will find much to appreciate. Certainly there is plenty here for those who enjoy the study of antiquity. There is material for people who enjoy reading about agriculture and horticulture. Certainly those who like geology and are interested in the study of earthquakes will find plenty to appreciate. Most of all, however, the book is simply good reading for anyone who loves fine writing and a well-constructed essay." -- Mike Christie * My Point Being *

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Book SynopsisIn the years after World War II, Westerners and Japanese alike elevated Zen to the quintessence of spirituality in Japan. Pursuing the sources of Zen as a Japanese ideal, this title uncovers the role of two cultural touchstones: Eugen Herrigel's "Zen in the Art of Archery" and the Ryoanji dry-landscape rock garden.Trade Review"A powerful critique of the process through which Zen was imported into Western cultures....This is a worthy addition to the literature." (Choice)"

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Book SynopsisIn a pioneering attempt to map the structure of our collective memory, Zerubavel considers the cognitive patterns we use to organize the past in our minds, the mental strategies that help us string together unrelated events into coherent and meaningful narratives.

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Book SynopsisIn Religion in Global Health and Development Benjamin Walker shows how the religious features of colonial state architecture were still operating by the twenty-first century. Uncovering where religion and global health have connected across the twentieth century and focusing on Ghana provides an opportunity to challenge narrow approaches.

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Book SynopsisIn Religion in Global Health and Development Benjamin Walker shows how the religious features of colonial state architecture were still operating by the twenty-first century. Uncovering where religion and global health have connected across the twentieth century and focusing on Ghana provides an opportunity to challenge narrow approaches.

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Book SynopsisTracing Japan's religions from the Hein Period through the middle ages and into modernity, this book explores the unique establishment of Shinto, Buddhism, and Confucianism in Japan, as well as the later influence of Roman Catholicism, and the problem of Restoration--both spiritual and material--following World War II.Table of ContentsPreface to the Paperback Edition Preface Abbreviations Emperor, Shaman, and Priest Kami, Amida, and Jizo The Pure Land, Nichiren, and Zen Kirishitan, Neo-Confucianism, and the Shogunate Modernity, Culture, and Religion Old Dreams or New Vision Chronological Table Glossary Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisBynum examines several periods between the third and fourteenth centuries in which discussions of the body were central to Western eschatology, and suggests that Western attitudes toward the body that arose from these discussions still undergird our modern notions of the individual.Trade ReviewThere are few historians of whom one can say that they have actually shifted some of the landscape of the writing of history in their own generation, but Bynum is one of them. The New Republic Bynum's account is a very impressive and persuasive one... well supported by textual references and by connections she makes between what the ancients wrote and their burial practices, treatment of corpses and cults of relics... [A] fascinating and wide-ranging account that tells us a lot about medieval thinking and practice. New York Times Book Review A remarkable achievement of scholarship and interpretation, an imaginative, determined, and persuasive probing of a counterintuitive thesis. -- Nicholas Terpstra Sixteenth Century Journal

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Book SynopsisIn the sphere of religion Dr. Blau describes the adjustments that Judaism has made in the past two centuries-adjustments that allow both change and continuity within an age-old tradition. He deals in order of their emergence with the religion's major branches (Reform, Neo-Orthodox, and Conservative) and appraises the Zionist movement.Table of Contents1. Emancipation and the Birth of Modern Judaism 2. The Initial Response: Reform Judaism in Europe and America 3. Reformulating Jewish Orthodoxy: Samson Raphael Hirsch and His Successors 4. The Complex Phenomenon of Conservative Judaism 5. Zionism: From Religious Nationalism to National Religion 6. Was Emancipation a Mistake? Mid-Twentieth-Century Appraisals

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Book SynopsisIn an analysis that deftly unites feminist criticism, psychoanalysis, and Catholic theology, Kelley Raab explores the symbolic implications of women at the altar, providing rich insight into issues of gender, symbolism, and power.Table of Contents1. Introduction 2. Gender Reversal 3. Maternal Envy 4. Sacrifice 5. Christ as a Woman 6. Gender, Sex, and God 7. When Women Become Priests Appendix

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewA fine contribution to the Columbia Contemporary American Religion series, Raphael's book is an apt portrait of contemporary Judaism in America. Library Journal Raphael makes an enlightening contribution to the history, development, and future of Judaism... A most pleasurable read. Recommended. Choice This is an excellent addition to all collections because it provides a focused overview of American Jewish life today. Association of Jewish Libraries Newsletter Accessible and absorbing... newcomers will find this an engaging introduction to American Judaism, and even experts may learn something new. Publishers Weekly Raphael's study is not merely a collected analysis of texts, as is clear from his research throughout Jewish communities, but rather an attempt to capture the true nature of the American Jewish community's history: past, present and future. Jewish Book World Raphael gives detailed accounts of Judaism being affected by particularities of society in America... As the title of this excellent study suggests, the book concerns the religion rather than the people. -- Daniel Crewe The Times Literary Supplement A valuable contribution to the teaching of modern Judaism and of religion in America. -- George R. Wilkes The Journal of Jewish Studies An excellent overview of the transformation of Judaism in the United States. -- Shira Kohn Levy H-AmstdyTable of ContentsWhat is American Judaism Beliefs, Festivals, and Life-cycle Events A History of Judaism in America Institutions, Organizations, and American Jewish Religious Activity The Synagogue The Future of American Judaism Select Profiles of Judaic Thinkers in America The Retrieval of Tradition

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Book SynopsisThis book explodes the myth of a monolithic, liberal Judaism and tells the story of the many fierce battles that raged in postwar America over what an authentically Jewish position ought to be on issues ranging from desegregation to Zionism, and from Vietnam to gender relations, sexuality, and family life.Trade ReviewJewish liberalism and its history is a familiar subject, but this book by Michael Staub offers a great deal of new insight and information; indeed, it is arguably the best treatment of the rightward drift of the Jewish mainstream from the late 1940s to the early 1970s. Tikkun Magazine [T]hrough Staub's book we have a much clearer and better appreciation for the depths of the intra-Jewish, internecine struggles that took place within the American Jewish community from the end of World War II until the end of the war in Vietnam. Torn at the Roots paints a sobering picture of a Jewish community torn by ideological conflict. -- Abraham J. Peck Journal of American History Staub explores divisions within Jewish liberalism during the Sixties and into the Seventies, showing that Jews have long differed in their stances on key political issues... recommended. Library Journal Torn at the Roots contributes significantly to our understanding of what Jewish identity meant to different groups of American Jews, those marching on the left, sitting in the establishment's center, and leaning towards the conservative right in the decades after the Holocaust. -- Pamela S. Nadell History [Staub] challenges commonly held notions regarding the purported liberalism of US Jewry while underscoring the growing importance of spirituality for left-of-center Jews... This is an important work... highly recommended. Choice Masterful... A vibrant history of the liberal quest for improving the world, a history relevant for the present and future, and one which deserves wide reading and discussion. American Jewish History Staub's work is important precisely because it records the history of competing visions of Jewishness. -- Marjorie N. Feld The Minnesota Review Staub's carefully researched and cogently argued book explores the evolution and complex dimensions of Jewish politics, calling into question many widely-held assumptions about Jewish liberalism... [Torn at the Roots] offer[s] new insights into the dimensions of Jewish culture in postwar America. -- Beth Wenger Jewish Quarterly Review Another welcome addition to the already large literature on the suprisingly tenacious adherence of Jews to liberalism. -- Nathan Abrams Journal of American Studies Torn at the Roots will force important and powerful historiographic changes. It is a rich, well-researched, and intricate study. -- Marc Dollinger Journal of American Ethnic History a vibrant history of the liberal quest for improving the world -- Gad Nahshon Jewish Post of New York A window into just how complex the conservative - liberal split has been in the American Jewish community... It adds an important chapter to the story of what the American Jewish community is really like. -- Peter J. Haas JAARTable of ContentsIntroduction: "Making my Jewishness too visible" 1. "The racists of America fly blindly at both of us": Atrocity Analogies and Anticommunism 2. "Liberal Judaism is a contradiction in terms": Anti-Racist Zionists, Prophetic Jews, and their Critics 3. "Artificial altruism sows only seeds of error and chaos": Desegregation and Jewish Survival 4. "Protect and keep": Vietnam, Israel, and the Politics of Theology 5. "If there was dirty linen, it had to be washed": Jews for Urban Justice and Radical Judaism 6. "We are coming home": New Left Jews and Radical Zionism 7. "Are you against the Jewish family?": Debating the Sexual Revolution 8. "If we really care about Israel": Breira and the Limits of Dissent

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Book SynopsisInvestigates the varieties of New Age and Neopagan religions in the US from their origins in the nineteenth century to their reemergence in the 1960s counterculture. This book considers the differences and similarities between the New Age and Neopagan movements and observes the antagonistic relationship between these two practices in America.Trade ReviewThis work offers general readers a scholarly assessment of Neopaganism and the New Age movement... Pike provides an overview of key themes of these movements and traces their beliefs back to 19th-century traditions of mesmerism, seances, Swedenborgianism, and Theosophy... her book provides a necessary complement to Margot Adler'sDrawing Down the Moon and Paul Heelas'sThe New Age Movement. Library Journal A view from the mountain...an admirable job of weaving together multiple strands of New Age practice into a single pattern. -- Michael F. Brown Natural History Pike's study is fascinating in all its detail. -- Dan Barnett Enterprise Record A superb introduction to the visions and practices of both neopagan and New Age movements... Highly recommended. -- W. L. Pitts Jr. Choice [A] lucid and interesting survey of esoteric and New-Age religions. -- Philip Jenkins Journal of American History Pike makes a substantial contribution to our understanding of New Age and Neopagan religions in America... -- David H. Vila, John Brown University Religious Studies Review [Pike] offers a succinct, thorough introduction to the wolrds of Neo-Pagan and New Age practices. -- Ed Cook Journal of Church and State This book works wonderfully to introduce readers to the fascinating and still developing religions... An excellent text for courses. -- Cynthia Eller Journal of Religion A clear and well-written primer for what is a bedazzling array of religious worldviews and practices. -- Guy Lancaster Mission StudiesTable of ContentsAncient Mysteries in Contemporary America Introduction to the Religious Worlds of Neopagans and New Agers Early Varieties of Alternative Spirituality in American Religious History The 1960s Watershed Years Healing and Techniques of the Self "All Acts of Love and Pleasure Are My Rituals": Sex, Gender, and the Sacred The Age of Aquarius

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Book SynopsisBenjamin and Scholem are regarded as two of the most influential Jewish thinkers of the 20th century. With material dating from 1918 to 1923, this text aims to make their more obscure work accessible to a wider audience. The topics discussed include messianism, language and divine justice.Trade ReviewJacobson's superb undertaking reveals profound insights in the early writings of Benjamin and Scholem that may serve well in understanding and resolving contemporary problems in political theology... Recommended. Choice Metaphysics of the Profane is an important, thoughtful, profound, and very welcome study. -- Robert Weldon Whalen German Studies Review Metaphysics of the Profane is the first book to make this intellectual exchange clear... This book would be suitable for all Judaica, academic, and public libraries and any institution with an interest in philosophy. -- Magali Milmaniene Association of Jewish Libraries The importance of this passionate intellectual friendship ... has long been recognized. But surprisingly, we have lacked a fine-grained, conceptually sophisticated examination until now... Jacobson has given us a compelling restatement of the argument that Scholem was the legitimate heir of Benjamin's early intentions. -- John McCole The German Quarterly In this erudite discussion ... Jacobson moves from a detailed exploration of Benjamin's and Scholem's works on the messianic in history, to their conceptions of language, to a discussion of notions of justice, [offering] deeper insight into the speculative philosophy of metaphysics through a close reading of original texts. -- Hannah Holtschneider Journal of Theological Studies The term 'political theology' often invokes images of revolutionary political struggles prompted by messianic or apocalyptic expectations. As Eric Jacobson shows... such revolutionary Messianism... is not solely the province of Catholic liberation theology and Protestant theologies of hope, but is also characteristic of the writing of two of the more prominent Jewish thinkers in the twentieth century. ... Jacobson's account of the early religious and political thoughts of Benjamin and Scholem is full of illuminating insights into the interdependence of these two thinkers, and into the distinctiveness of their politics. -- Thomas A. James Journal of Political Theology Jacobson reveals... how the notion of an intensive magic resounds throughout Benjamin's work. Il Sole 24 Ore (Milan) [Jacobson's] compelling proposal concerns the Judaic concepts in anarchism, leading through the traces of Gershom Scholem's thought, one of the exponents of the religious poles of Central European Jews with a utopian sensibility. Il Gazzettino (Venice) [They] were riveted by the question of 'origins' and the recovery of lost meanings, on truth as hidden, part of a greater structure waiting to be revealed, and the possibility of redemptive moments. ... --what Eric Jacobson has described as the metaphysics of the profane. -- Steven E. Aschheim, Beyond the Boarder: The German-Jewish Legacy Abroad Jacobson regards as a key question 'whether redemption is initiated prior to or only after the arrival of the messiah' [which], he argues, ... remains unresolved in Benjamin's thought. -- R. Lane Reading Walter Benjamin: Writing Through the Catastrophe Jacobson's work is focused on the early political and theological concepts of both authors from the years 1915-1923, seeking to reconstruct Benjamin's and Scholem's early discussions on politics and theology... These ideas, which the authors established together in an early phase, were central for both their later thinking and were to have a tremendous impact on contemporary philosophy and Jewish studies in this century. FU-NachrichtenTable of ContentsI. Messianism 1. The Messianic Idea in Walter Benjamin's Early Writings 2. Gershom Scholem's Theological Politics II. On the Origins of Language and the True Names of Things 3. On the Origins of Language 4. Gershom Scholem and the Name of God III. Justice and Redemption 5. Prophetic Justice 6. Judgment, Violence, and Redemption

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Book SynopsisNot since the Crusades of the Middle Ages has Islam evoked the degree of fear, hostility, and ethnic and religious stereotyping that is evident throughout Western culture today. This book explores the historical, political, and institutional forces that have raised the specter of a threatening and monolithic Muslim enemy.Trade ReviewA book of major importance... Essential. Choice Sophisticated, subtle, richly documented, and wide-ranging. -- L. Carl Brown Foreign Affairs This is an important book... for those engaged in challenging the assumptions that lie behind this current 'war on terror'. The Muslim World Book Review The New Crusades assmbles expert knowledges of some tangled historical roots... this work deserves as wide a readership as possible. -- Max Weiss Canadian Review of Studies in Nationalism An insightful work. -- Roxanne D. Marcotte Studies in Religion An important book at an important time in American social thought. -- Daniel L. Smith-Christopher Studies in Contemporary IslamTable of ContentsPreface: A Tribute to Eqbal, by AhmadEmran Qureshi Introduction: Constructing the Muslim Enemy, by Emran Qureshi and Michael A. Sells Part I Palace Fundamentalism and Liberal Democracy, by Fatema Mernissi The Clash of Definitions, by Edward W. Said The Clash of Civilizations: Samuel P. Huntington, Bernard Lewis, and the Remaking of the Post-Cold War World Order, by John Trumpbour The Clash of Civilizations: An Islamicist's Critique, by Roy P. Mottahedeh Among the Mimics and Parasites: V. S. Naipaul's Islam, by Rob Nixon Islamic and Western Worlds: The End of History or Clash of Civilizations, by Mujeeb R. Khan Europe and the Muslims: The Permanent Crusade?, by Tomaz Mastnak The Myth of Westernness in Medieval Literary Historiography, by MarIa Rosa Menocal Islamophobia in France and the "Algerian Problem", by Neil MacMaster The Nationalist Serbian Intellectuals and Islam: Defining and Eliminating a Muslim Community, by Norman Cigar Christ Killer, Kremlin, Contagion, by Michael A. Sells Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisIn the 11th-century Eucharistic Controversy, Alberic of Monte composed a small but important treatise. His treatise was said to have destroyed the argument that the bread and wine survived its consecration. Modern scholars had long believed his treatise to be lost. This book demonstrates that this crucial document is an existing identifiable text.Trade ReviewThis is a very clever book, an exciting detective story based on acute paleographic and political analysis. -- Mary Stroll American Historical Review This book is a valuable contribution to an understanding of the controversy over the Eucharist that swirled around Berengar, thescholasticus of Tours, in the eleventh century... an excellent example of the virtues of collaborative scholarship. -- Gary Macy Catholic Historical Review The handsome volume will help to make an immensely important moment in European culture accessible and comprehensible for students and scholars alike. -- Miri Rubin Ecclesiastical History Will be of interest to all students of the intellectual and ecclesiastical history of the eleventh and twelfth centuries. -- William North SpeculumTable of ContentsPreface List of Abbreviations 1. Berengar of Tours and the Eucharistic Controversy Introduction The Carolingian Background and the Eleventh-Century Debate Berengar's Theology of the Eucharist Berengar's Early Critics The Early Councils The Aftermath of the Council of 1059: Lanfranc and Guitmund The Movement Toward Rome 2. Alberdeen Libellus Against Berengar of Tours The Manuscript The Rubric and Morin's Attribution to Berengar of Venosa The Treatise and It's Author Alberic of Monte Cassino and His "Lost" Treatise 3. Style and Content of the Libellus Alberic's Literary Work The Literary Style of the Aberdeen Libellus The Content of the Libellus Conclusion 4. Berengar of Tours and the Roman Councils of 1078 and 1079 The Sources The Council of All Saints, 1078 Alberic and Berengar Berengar and Alberic at the Lenten Council, 1079 Brief Epilogue: Berengar Remembers Conclusion The Text and Translation of the Libellus Appendix: The Dossier of Unconnected Sententiae Following the Libellus in the Aberdeen Manuscript Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThe "science of religion" is an important element in the interpretation of William James's work and in the methodology of the study of religion. An authority on pragmatism and the philosophy of religion, Wayne Proudfoot and a stellar group of contributors from a variety of disciplines including religion, philosophy, psychology, and history, bring innovative perspectives to James's work.Trade ReviewHis admirers are always inspired... to contribute to the larger whole by putting their highest... and most profound thoughts forward. -- Eugene Taylor Religious StudiesTable of Contents"Damned for God's Glory": William James and the Scientific Vindication of Protestant Culture, by David A. Hollinger Pragmatism and "an Unseen Order" in Varieties, by Wayne Proudfoot The Fragmentation of Consciousness and The Varieties of Religious Experience: William James's Contribution to a Theory of Religion, by Ann Taves James's Varieties and the "New" Constructivism, by Jerome Bruner Some Inconsistencies in James's Varieties, by Richard Rorty A Pragmatist's Progress: The Varieties of James's Strategies for Defending Religion, by Philip Kitcher

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Book SynopsisExamines how the Brahmanical tradition of Purva Mimamsa and the writings of the seventh-century Buddhist Madhyamika philosopher Candrakirti challenged dominant Indian Buddhist views of epistemology. This book retrieves these two different but equally important voices of philosophical dissent.Trade ReviewArnold's book is impressive on many levels. It is a brilliant study of several key figures in the history of medieval Indian thought. It is also a thought-provoking and intelligent exploration of contemporary issues in epistemology and philosophy of religion that makes the potential audience of the book much wider than the relatively small circle of those of who delight themselves by picking their way through the briar patches of difficult Sanskrit and Tibetan texts. Finally, it is a profoundly civilized book, one based on an abundant charity of interpretation that offers thoughtful criticism without any trace of a tone of denigration of the many positions entertained... A delightfully provocative book. -- Richard Hayes Journal of the American Academy of Religion Arnold's book has been an instant success, and it is clear that any future work on Dignaga, Candrakirti, and their Hindu rivals will have to take its arguments into account. -- Malcolm David Eckel H-Buddhism A thoroughly stimulating read for anyone interested in Indian, Buddhist or cross-cultural philosophy. -- Douglas Osto The Journal of Religion An illuminating and lucidly written study... recommended for anyone interested in the study of religious thought. -- Mario D'Amato Religious Studies Review Thought-provoking. Journal of Buddhist EthicsTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction: On the Rational Reconstruction of South Asian Philosophy Part I: Buddhist Foundationalism 1. Dignaga's Transformation of Buddhist Abhidharma 2. The Problems with Buddhist Foundationalism Part II: The Reformed Epistemology of Purva Mimamsa 3. Nobody Is Seen Going to Heaven: Toward an Epistemology That Supports the Authority of the Vedas 4. Are the Vedas Are Intrinsically True? Prima Facie Justification and the Mimasaka Critique of Buddhist Foundationalism Part III: The Metaphysical Arguments of Madhyamaka 5. A Philosophical Grammar for the Study of Madhyamaka 6. Candrakirti Against Bare Particulars: An Expression of Madhyamika Metaphysics 7. Is It Really True That Everything Is Empty? Candrakirti on Essencelessness as the Essence of Things Conclusion: Justification and Truth, Relativism and Pragmatism: Some Lessons for Religious Studies Notes References Index

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Book SynopsisThis is a major project to be undertaken as part of a broad intiative of the Pew Charitable Trusts and the University of Notre Dame on the role of Christianity in modern society. John Witte is one of the editors of the forthcoming Sex, Marriage, and the Family: A Reader in World Religions.Trade ReviewThese essays and excerpts address an extraordinary range of essential theological and political concerns... Highly recommended. Choice This is a most impressive collection of essays, written by some of the most eminent scholars in their fields. Ecclesiastical Law JournalTable of ContentsContents Acknowledgments Introduction Part I. The Roman Catholic Tradition 1. Pope Leo XIII (1810-1903) 2. Jacques Maritain (1882-1973) 3. John Courtney Murray (1904-1967) 4. Pope John XXIII (1881-1963) 5. Gustavo Gutierrez (b. 1928) 6. Dorothy Day (1897-1980) 7. Pope John Paul II (b. 1920) Part II. The Protestant Tradition 8. Abraham Kuyper (1827-1920) 9. Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906) 10. Karl Barth (1886-1968) 11. Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) 12. Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971) 13. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968) 14. William Stringfellow (1928-1985) 15. John Howard Yoder (1927-1997) Part III. The Orthodox Tradition 16. Vladimir Soloviev (1853-1900) 17. Nikolai Berdyaev (1874-1948) 18. Vladimir Nikolaievich Lossky (1903-1958) 19. Mother Maria Skobtsova (1891-1945) 20. Dumitru Staniloae (1903-1993) Contributors Copyright Information Index

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Book SynopsisAn anthology applying Judith Butler's theories to religion. It uses her work to investigate a variety of topics in biblical, Islamic, Buddhist, and Christian traditions. It sheds light on Butler's ideas and highlights their ethical and political import. It discusses subjects such as religious rituals, and biblical constructions of sexuality.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book SynopsisCraig D. Townsend tells the remarkable story of St. Philip’s, the first African American Episcopal church in New York City, and its struggle for autonomy and independence.Trade ReviewCraig Townsend's superb work, Faith in Their Own Color, has made a significant impact on readers through the years. The book's exploration of the interaction of race and religion is needed now more than ever, and I hope it will continue to reach as many people as possible. -- The Most Rev. Michael B. Curry, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal ChurchThe story of St. Philip's church in New York is not the story of one congregation but of the intersection of key issues of religion and race in antebellum America. It is an intriguing and gripping story and Townsend has told it well. This is an illuminating book and fills an important gap in our understanding of the dynamics of African American participation in Euro-American churches. -- Robert Bruce Mullin, General Theological Seminary, author of The Puritan as Yankee: A Life of Horace BushnellThis study of the second-oldest black Episcopal congregation in the United States takes religious ideas no less seriously than the political and social realities of racism that permeated the Protestant Episcopal Church during the first half of the nineteenth century. Townsend deftly peels back the layers of obfuscation, divergent strategies, and political maneuverings that intersected with a passion for the unity of the denomination evidenced by virtually all parties in dispute over the admission of St. Philip's Church to the diocesan convention. Simultaneously, the author opens a window onto the life and inner workings of this prominent African American parish, providing a view that is as rare as it is fascinating. -- Randall K. Burkett, curator of African American Collections, Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library, Robert W. Woodruff Library, Emory UniversityA fascinating encounter with the dynamics of social and religious change impating African Americans in antebellum New York. -- A.J. Williams-Myers * Multicultural Review *Townsend's book is invaluable to any scholar... and has wide application for students of religion and race. -- Graham Russel Gao Hodges * The Journal of American History *I highly recommend this very useful text. -- Sandy Dwayne Martin * Church History *[An] important contribution to our understanding of a neglected chapter of New York City religious history. -- Kenneth A. Scherzer * H-Net Reviews *Faith in Their Own Color will be of interest to all historians of the antebellum North and deserves a wide readership. -- David Brown * Ecclesiastical History *Faith in Their Own Color represents an incredibly detailed story of the trials and tribulations of a single black parish in antebellum New York, one historians of race and religion will surely find useful. -- John Garrison Marks * New York History *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments1. Improper Associates2. Freedom's Defects3. Hobart and the High Church4. One of Their Own Colour5. An Orderly and Devout Congregation6. A Bitter Thralldom7. A Godly Admonition8. Peculiar Circumstances9. The Chains That Bind10. Promoting Improvement11. Partaking of the Heavenly Gift12. To Employ a Colored Clergyman13. A State of Schism14. A Bishop's Trials15. Exciting the Deepest Feelings16. Vouchsafed to All Men17. The Heart Must Be Changed18. The Beauties of Freedom19. Economic Opportunity and Religious Choice20. Attentive to Their Devotions21. The Express Wishes of Nearly All22. Injurious to the Cause of Religion23. A Fulness of Assent24. But One Fold and One Chief ShepherdAppendix. Parishioners of St. Philip's ChurchNotesIndex

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Book SynopsisOffers a different way of understanding Judaism that recognizes both its immense diversity and its unifying features. Presenting a series of portraits of Judaism throughout time and from around the globe, this work explores how communities shaped Jewish tradition in light of historical circumstances.Trade ReviewThis book will give readers a new perspective on a very old product of human creativity. CHOICETable of ContentsAcknowledgments Chronology Introduction 1. Promised Lands 2. Creating Judaism 3. Between Athens and Jerusalem 4. The Rabbis 5. Rabbinic Concepts 6. Mitzvot 7. The Rise of Reason 8. From Moses to Moses 9. Seeing God 10. East and West Epilogue: Whither Judaism? Glossary Bibliographical Notes Index

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Book SynopsisA study of the role of death rites in the making of Islamic society. This book describes how Muslims wailed for the deceased, prepared corpses for burial, marched in funerary processions, and prayed for the dead, highlighting the specific economic and political factors involved in these rituals as well as key religious and sexual divisions.Trade ReviewMuhammad's Grave will be warmly welcomed by scholars and students of premodern Islam, including specialists in both history and religion, and will attract the attention of European medievalists and anthropologists as well. The topic is important, the scholarship solid and original, and the presentation elegant and lucid. -- Everett K. Rowson, New York University The most exhaustive study yet on matters relating to death in early Islam. Leor Halevi meticulously demonstrates how particular beliefs and practices evolved, what sorts of contestation took place in debating these matters, how these beliefs and practices varied from one Islamic city (or community of scholars) to another, what larger questions of identity and authority were at stake, and how to interpret the literary remains that describe the beliefs and practices in question. A major contribution to our understanding of early Islamic history, Islamic religious thought, and the formation of Islam during its first centuries. -- Muhammad Qasim Zaman, professor of Near Eastern studies and religion, Princeton University Leor Halevi persuasively argues that the development of Islamic practices and beliefs relating to death, burial, and the fate of the body was a relatively extended process crucial to the eighth century. He considers a wide range of issues, including matters of sexual propriety and the restriction of the social space available to women, and the way in which a body of rituals served to create an Islamic identity. -- Gerald Hawting, professor of the history of the Near Middle East, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London "[A] signal contribution... Exceptionally rich in its documentation and evidentiary record, highly imaginative, and creative in its use of oral traditions and legal rulings, Muhammad's Grave is a seminal work. -- Albert Hourani Book Award Committee Innovative... A welcome addition to undergraduate and graduate curricula, and an important source book for scholars. -- Kathryn Kueny Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient A welcome contribution... Muhammad's Grave does more than fill the gap. -- Ian Straughn American Anthropologist A truly impressive display of textual scholarship fused with historical anthropology and lit up by enthusiasm. -- Barnaby Rogerson Times Literary Supplement The definitive history of its subject before modern times. Speculum Halevi's book is highly recommended al-Qantara A masterful, well-written work filled with original research. Middle East Quarterly Will be highly valued by anyone who works on early Islam and the process through which a distinctively Islamic community came about. -- Martyn Smith International Journal of Middle East Studies A much-needed corrective to the abstract and textual nature of much of the debate over the nature of early Islam, plunging the reader into a thoroughly imagined and painstakingly documented material world... Erudite and engaging. -- Marion Katz Islamic Law and Society An important contribution to our understanding of the crafting of social ritual in early Islamic society. -- Christine D. Baker Journal of World History A scholarly gem... a spectacular accomplishment. -- Khalid Yahya Blankinship American Historical Review All of this is exciting stuff for students of the early Muslim world, in part because Halevi has suggested and demonstrated several possible ways forward in a notoriously unyielding filed of inquiry. -- Thomas Sizgorich Journal of the American Academy of Religion Original and highly readable... Halevi showcases what historians of Islam can accomplish. Review of Middle East Studies Leor Halevi's Muhammad's Grave is a strikingly original work built on a foundation of meticulous and wide-ranging scholarship. Religion and the Arts [O]riginal and highly readable study Mesa Romes Impressive erudition, which includes a thorough familiarity with scholarship on Judaism and Christianity as well as Islam. History Workshop Journal Matchless imagination in relating the traditions and events of the past. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African StudiesTable of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgments Map Introduction. Funerary Traditions and the Making of Islamic Society 1. Tombstones: Markers of Social and Religious Change, 650-800 2. Washing the Corpse in Arabia and Mesopotamia 3. Shrouds: Worldly Possessions in an Economy of Salvation 4. Wailing for the Dead in the House of Islam 5. Urban Processions and Communal Prayers: Opportunities for Social, Economic, and Religious Distinction 6. The Politics of Burial and Tomb Construction 7. The Torture of Spirit and Corpse in the Grave Epilogue. Death Rites and the Process of Islamic Socialization List of Abbreviations Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisBelieves that early childhood emotional attachments form the cognitive underpinnings of spiritual experience and religious motivation. Classifying the three parts of the spiritual experience: awe, Spirituality proper, and mysticism, the author discusses the foundations of religious sentiment and the processes associated with spiritual experience.Table of ContentsPreface 1. Introduction 2. Spirit 3. Mind: The Psychodynamics of Awe, Spirituality, and Mysticism 4. Religion 5. Brain 6. Mood 7. Apocalypse 8. Demonic Spirituality: Infanticide, Self-Sacrifice, and Fundamentalism 9. Analyzing an Account of a Spiritual Experience References Index

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Book SynopsisInvestigates the role of paradox in Western and Asian religious discourse. Drawing on both philosophy and social scientific theory, this book offers a naturalistic explanation of religion's oft-noted propensity to sublime paradox and argues that religious thinkers employ intractable paradoxes as basis for various techniques of self-transformation.Trade ReviewA major new voice in the philosophy of religion, thoroughly conversant with recent Anglo-American philosophy, but going his own way methodologically. -- Nancy Frankenberry, Dartmouth College Refreshing and persuasive... Clearly written, well-argued... Recommended. CHOICE A thought-provoking reading of religious paradoxes. -- Forrest Clingerman Religious Studies Review It is worth reading for Bagger's original perspective on some of the religious uses of paradox. -- Abigail Turner Lauck Wernicki Journal of Consciousness StudiesTable of ContentsPreface and Acknowledgments 1. Introduction: Paradox Without Piety 2. Credo Quia Absurdum: Cognitive Asceticism and Kierkegaard 3. Mystics and Ascetics 4. Absolute Transcendence 5. Skepticism and Mysticism Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewA timely publication, highly recommended for specialists and non-specialists alike. -- Youssef Choueiri Times Higher Education Supplement This gem of a book offers a thorough, evocative study... Essential. Choice A delightful book. -- David Reisman Journal of Islamic Studies A wide-ranging... welcome addition to a small and growing body of scholarship. -- Brannon Wheeler American Historical Review Rustomji has filled a real gap in the secondary literature... [The Garden and the Fire] is one of the best introductions to the Islamic eschatological literature. -- Walid Saleh Journal of the American Academy of Religion Highly useful not only to students and educated lay people but also to comparativists and specialists. -- Frederick S. Colby Journal of ReligionTable of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction 1. The Garden the Fire 2. Visions of the Afterworld 3. Material Culture and an Islamic Ethic 4. Otherworldly Landscapes and Earthly Realities 5. Humanity, by Servants 6. Individualized Gardens and Expanding Fires 7. Legacy of Gardens Epilogue Notes Glossary Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThrough extensive field research, Elora Shehabuddin explores the profound implications of women's political and social mobilization for reshaping Islam. Specifically, she examines the lives of Muslim women in Bangladesh who have become increasingly mobilized by the activities of predominantly secular NGOs, yet who desire to retain, reclaim, and reshape-rather than reject-their faith. In their employment and in their interactions with the legal system, the state, NGOs, and political and religious groups, women are changing state practices, views of women in the public sphere, and the nature of lived Islam itself. In contrast to most work on Islam and Muslims, which has focused on the Middle East and has privileged the study of religious and legal texts, this book redirects our attention to South Asia, home to one of the largest Muslim populations in the world, and emphasizes the actual experiences of Muslims. Women and gender, as well as Bangladesh's formally democratic context, are cenTrade ReviewReshaping the Holy: Democracy, Development, and Muslim Women in Bangladesh is a welcome addition to what we know about Bangladesh, Islam, and development practices. Journal of Asian StudiesTable of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgments 1. Gender, Islam, and Politics in Bangladesh 2. Gender and Social Reform 3. "A Little Money for Tea": Rural Women's Encounters with the State 4. Contesting Development: Between Islamist and Secularist Perspectives 5. Democracy on the Ground 6. Beyond Muslim Motherhood Coda Notes Works Cited Index

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Book SynopsisSaint Namdev is a figure central to the history of bhakti, or devotional Hinduism, one of the oldest religious practices in India. This book focuses on Namdev as a feature of Marathi public memory and examines the many ways that he has been remembered.Trade ReviewThis erudite study is an important contribution to several important issues in contemporary social theory, especially the relations of memory, history, and community through the past thousand years of the vernacular millennium. Deeply grounded in manuscript sources, it never loses sight of the living context of performance where the texts originated. -- Sumit Guha, Rutgers University In a sometimes dense but always lively way, Christian Lee Novetzke lets us see the processes that allow the songs and stories of a fourteenth-century saint to live vibrantly today. His book might be called the 'many lives of Sant Namdev' a saint (or sant) very important in Marathi and Hindi but neglected in English. With a discussion of 'public memory' and a thorough explanation of the way in which orality influences literacy and performance trumps permanence, Novetzke brings the cultural world of Namdev to life. He breaks new ground in the field of bhakti studies in his use of many kinds of evidence, from the hand written badas used for several centuries by those who perform the song sermon called kirtan to the film industry that features the sants to the contentious disputes over the idea of Namdev as a social bandit. -- Eleanor Zelliot, Larid Bell Professor of History, Carleton College Secular humanist, social bandit, wandering truth-teller, hardscrabble patriot, (pre)-postcolonial critic, humble devotee, saint-Namdev has been many things to many publics. For Christian Lee Novetzke, the many pasts of Namdev offer an opportunity to investigate not only the literary and religious legacy of this important fourteenth-century singer--sant--of Maharashtra but the manner in which he has been remembered across the centuries and its implications in the cultural, social, and political history of early-modern and modern India. Along the way, we learn much about the place and potential of religion in history and the evolution of the public sphere in India and beyond. Novetzke is a skilled and sensitive writer, and he has produced a challenging, erudite, and engaging book that will interest both historians and scholars of religion. -- William R. Pinch, Wesleyan University The mobility and plasticity of saints' lives invite us to consider how the past comes to be remembered in different ways at different moments in the lives of religious communities. Religion and Public Memory offers a theoretically sophisticated and historically textured analysis of one saint's reception and legacy over several centuries. Highlighting the importance of social memory in understanding the transmission of the past into a series of presents, this book makes a substantive theoretical and cultural-historical contribution to the study of public memory in religious contexts. -- Elizabeth Castelli, Barnard College Christian Lee Novetzke is a rising star of his generation. In this book he takes English-language scholarship on Marathi bhakti traditions to new levels of theoretical sophistication, as he investigates the interactions of text with performance and of history with memory in preserving and embellishing the legacy of Sant Namdev. -- Anne Feldhaus, professor of religious studies, Arizona State University In this book Christian Lee Novetzke does a marvelous job of redefining bhakti religion in India--so often described as personal devotion--as a set of practices of recalling the past that constitutes 'public memory.' Novetzke's elegant theorization of the creation of publics at the interstices of memory and history unfolds through original, nuanced studies of the career of the figure of the saint poet Namdev and of kirtan as an oral, performative form in Maharashtra. -- Indira Viswanathan, David B. Truman Professor of Asian Studies, Mount Holyoke College This excellent scholarly study is immensely readable and engaging... Highly Recommended. Choice [A] must read for South Asia scholars. -- Madhuri Deshmukh H-Net Reviews An artful and erudite study... By far one of the most provocative and insightful recent works on religion in South Asia. The bewildering range of Novetzke's sources, combined with the high levels of theoretical sophistication that he brings to the idea of 'public memory,' make this an incredibly substantive contribution. It is bound to become a classic in the field. -- Davesh Soneji The Journal of Asian Studies Like an expert musician, Novetzke has the ability to sit down at a score and transpose. This book transposes the enduringly popular Maharashtrian poet-saint Namdev, a true icon of what it means to be in love with God, into a fundamentally new key: the sphere of religious publics. Religion and Public Memory thus reconceptualizes a major aspect of Hindu religion--indeed, global religion--and for those who cherish Namdev, it is a triumph of sympathetic listening. -- Jack Hawley, Columbia University Novetzke brings us a major twenty-first-century update to the study of Hindu bhakti traditions... [His book] demonstrates a broad intellectual move that is worthy of the attention of all historians of religion. -- Dan Gold History of Religions Innovative, exciting, and in many ways pathbreaking... Its range is surely unusual for a first book. -- Vasudha Dalmia Book Review We can hope others will respond to the historiographic challenges posed so effectively by Novetzke. -- Brian Hatcher American Historical ReviewTable of ContentsList of Illustrations Preface: The Shape of the Book Acknowledgments Introduction: Namdev, Bhakti, Public, and Memory Part 1. Practices of Memory 1. A Sant Between Memory and History 2. Public Performance and Corporate Authorship 3. Orality and Literacy/Performance and Permanence Part 2. Publics of Memory 4. Namdev and the Namas: Anamnetic Authorship from the Sixteenth to Nineteenth Centuries 5. Memories of Suffering in the Eighteenth Century 6. A Sant for the Nation in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries 7. The Idea of Namdev in Two Films in the Twentieth Century Conclusion Notes Glossary References Index

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Book SynopsisKlezmer is a musical tradition that grows out of Eastern European Jewish culture, and its changes reflect Jews' interaction with other groups as well as their shifting relations to their own history. This title offers an understanding of racial, ethnic, and sexual categories in America.Trade ReviewThere are some fascinating vignettes in this book. -- Shoel Stadlen Times Literary Supplement always engaging and at time groundbreaking. -- David Brauner WasafiriTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction 1. Angels, Monsters, and Jews: From Kushner to Klezmer 2. Arthur Miller, Marilyn Monroe,, and the Making of Ethnic Masculinity 3. Antisemitism Without Jews: Left Behind in the American Heartland 4. The Human Stain of Race: Roth, Sirk, and Shaw in Black, White, and Jewish 5. Conversos, Marranos,, and Crypto-Latinos: Jewish-Hispanic Crossings and the Uses of Ethnicity 6. Transgressions of a Model Minority 7. Asians and Jews in Theory and Practice Conclusion: The Klezmering of America Notes Index

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewProvides an ideal introduction to East Asian Buddhist traditions, premodern and modern. Buddhadharma The essays are all of high standard...written in a clear style that are a pleasure to read...required reading for everyone interested in Buddhism. -- Robert F. Rhodes The Eastern Buddhist This impressive collection of essays has been carefully edited for consistency in terminology and structure, and includes a number of supplements that enhance the usefulness of the volume in a classroom setting -- Natalie Gummer Journal of the American Academy of Religion an extremely useful overview of key teachings, associated religious movements, and textual and commentarial traditions that...introduces students to the Lotus... Religious Studies ReviewTable of ContentsContents Foreword, by Sheng Yen Preface, by Stephen F. Teiser and Jacqueline I. Stone 1. Interpreting the Lotus Sutra, by Stephen F. Teiser and Jacqueline I. Stone 2. Expedient Devices, the One Vehicle, and the Life Span of the Buddha, by Carl Bielefeldt 3. Gender and Hierarchy in the Lotus Sutra, by Jan Nattier 4. The Lotus Sutra and Self-Immolation, by James A. Benn 5. Buddhist Practice and the Lotus Sutra in China, by Daniel B. Stevenson 6. Art of the Lotus Sutra, by Willa Jane Tanabe 7. Bodily Reading of the Lotus Sutra, by Ruben L. F. Habito 8. Realizing This World as the Buddha Land, by Jacqueline I. Stone Translations of the Lotus Sutra in European Languages Cross-References to Citations of the Lotus Sutra Character Glossary Bibliography Contributors Index

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