Religion and science Books

Book SynopsisThoughtful observers agree that the planetary crisis we now face-climate change; species extinction; the destruction of entire ecosystems; the urgent need for a more just economic-political order-is pushing human civilization to a radical turning point: change or perish. But precisely how to change remains an open question.In Earth-honoring Faith, Larry Rasmussen answers that question with a dramatically new way of thinking about human society, ethics, and the ongoing health of our planet. Rejecting the modern assumption that morality applies to human society alone, Rasmussen insists that we must derive a spiritual and ecological ethic that accounts for the well-being of all creation, as well as the primal elements upon which it depends: earth, air, fire, water, and sunlight. He argues that good science, necessary as it is, will not be enough to inspire fundamental change. We must draw on religious resources as well to make the difficult transition from an industrial-technological age Trade ReviewIn many ways Earth-Honoring Faith resembles an intricate, colorful song played by a vast collection of deft instrumentalists. Rasmussen is a master at tying together a large number of resources and perspectives, each carefully tuned to play the right notes. Persuasively, even lyrically, he has assembled a grand orchestra to inspire deep reflection and animate meaningful practice. * The Christian Century *This book is important, timely, sorely needed and deeply prophetic- delivering a hard, truthful indictment of the world as it is, but also suggesting visionary, hopeful Earth-honoring ways forward... yes, you should, you need , to read this. * Journal of Lutheran Ethics *Larry Rasmussen has once again penned a masterwork uniting ecological ethics and religious practices broadly envisioned. If the Earth is to survive, ethical theory and spiritual praxis are equally vital. Science informs. Religions motivat. A transformation combining these concepts is urgently needed at this moment in time on our planet. * Catholic Books Review *He [Rasmussen] writes extremely well, with elegance and eloquence, and weaves poetry, narrative, and personal stories into a tapestry informed by keen ethical insight and analysis. His treatment of power relations in the economy and of consumerism is masterful. This book is a must for anyone interested in the environment who is not willing to settle for lazy aphorisms and superficial panaceas. * CHOICE *This book is a tour-de-force, bringing together theological reflection and ethical persuasion to argue for the transformation of religions into their ecological phase. Larry Rasmussen is eloquent, comprehensive, and compelling in his articulation of a vision that is sorely needed for our emerging Earth Community. * Mary Evelyn Tucker, Co-Director of the Forum on Religion and Ecology, Yale University *Larry Rasmussen's new work on religious ethics moves from a lyrical homage to the sacred web of life to a searing indictment of the utilitarian use of nature by both capitalist and socialist industrialization. Drawing on mystical, prophetic, and wisdom traditions, Rasmussen shows that a paradigm shift to an ecologically conscious civilization is possible. Inspired by local communities, an earth-honoring faith becomes a song of songs. * Aruna Gnanadason, author of Listen to the Women, Listen to the Earth *Rasmussen argues persuasively that religion needs to stop perceiving nature as the stage for the human salvation drama and view it instead as the locus for experience of the divine. His scholarship is impeccable and his ability to weave together insights from various fields and scholars is exemplary. Earth-honoring Faith is a grand intellectual endeavor that reflects interdisciplinary thinking at its best. * Jim Martin-Schramm, Professor of Religion, Luther College *By writing so lyrically and in open conversation with so many others struggling to create language for this civilizational transition, Larry Rasmussen shows the awkwardness of inherited language and ideas for discussing the new moral world that humanity needs to learn to inhabit. He demonstrates how to make sense of ancient moral traditions in a new context, and how to bend them into a new imagination of the world. This book is a serious contribution to religious ethics. It will be appreciated not only by scholars in the field but by many thinking readers worried about sustainability crises and looking for cultural resources to reshape our shared moral imagination. * Willis Jenkins, author of Ecologies of Grace *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ; Prelude ; PART I ; 1 The Creature We Are ; 2 The World We Have ; 3 The Faith We Seek ; 4 The Ethic We Need: Change and Imagination ; 5 The Ethic We Need: Good Theory ; 6 The Ethic We Need: Community Matrix ; 7 The Ethic We Need: Tilling and Keeping ; Interlude ; PART II ; 8 Asceticism and Consumerism ; 9 The Sacred and the Commodified ; 10 Mysticism and Alienation ; 11 Prophetic/Liberative Practices and Oppression ; 12 Wisdom and Folly ; 13 Closing ; Postlude ; Notes ; Bibliography ; Index

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Book SynopsisDrawing on scientific research and logical argument James Jones directly confronts the claims that cognitive science can eliminate, or debunk, religion. He provides an accessibly written, persuasive account of why these claims are not convincing.Trade Review[T]his volume will be useful to students and scholars alike interested in deepening their engagement with the field of cognitive approaches to religion and will be a useful addition to course or module materials for students studying in this area. * Paul-François Tremlett, Religion *certainly deserves the attention of the general public, and offers a welcome antidote to the misrepresentations of cognitive science of religion * Tom Uytterhoeven, ESSSAT *Table of ContentsAcknowledgements ; Introduction: A Voice from the Border of Religion and Science ; Chapter One: Explanations -How Science Seeks to Explain Religion ; Chapter Two: Explaining-What does it Mean to Explain Religion? ; Chapter Three: Physicalism-Is a Purely Physicalist Account Compelling? ; Chapter Four: Beyond Physicalism-Mind and Nature ; Chapter Five: Our Pluralistic Universe - Living on the Border of Science and Religion ; Appendix: Sources, References, and Further Discussions ; Bibliography of Sources Used In Preparing the Text

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Trade ReviewKlimek's impressive study manages to bring faith and science into earnest conversation in a manner that is both learned and accessible ... This is an important book for anyone desiring a way to think about religious experience that betrays neither faith nor science. * Luke Timothy Johnson, Commonweal Magazine *Klimek deals with this need to know about the nature of the phenomenon, which in this case is something quite extraordinary. In particular, he responds to a major and recurrent ploy that aims to undercut the whole phenomenon by pathologizing it. * Michael Grosso, Religious Studies Review *Like many past entries into this field, Klimek trains his gaze on the scientific study of religious experience, in this case studies that have been done on the psychology and neuroscience of a small group of visionaries who have, for over thirty years, claimed to see daily apparitions of the Virgin Mary in the Balkan village of Medjugorje. What makes Klimek's book noteworthy - and ambitious - is his insistence that these studies both prove the authenticity (and supernatural nature) of the events at Medjugorje, and provide a new framework for cooperation between science and religion. * Samuel J. Gee, Reading Religion *Table of ContentsINTRODUCTION: The Silence of the Birds CHAPTER 1: The Young Woman on the Hill CHAPTER 2: Public Revelation and Private Revelation: How the Catholic Church Discerns the Supernatural CHAPTER 3: Mysticism in the Twentieth Century CHAPTER 4: The Great Debate CHAPTER 5: Medical and Scientific Studies on the Apparitions in Medjugorje CHAPTER 6: Medjugorje's Uniqueness: A Different Case Study for Neuroscience CHAPTER 7: Learning from Shortcomings, Moving Forward with New Methods CONCLUSION: Contributions to the "Eternal-Battleground" BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Book SynopsisThis book takes a bold new look at ways of exploring the nature, origins, and potentials of consciousness within the context of science and religion. Alan Wallace draws careful distinctions between four elements of the scientific tradition: science itself, scientific realism, scientific materialism, and scientism. Arguing that the metaphysical doctrine of scientific materialism has taken on the role of ersatz-religion for its adherents, he traces its development from its Greek and Judeo-Christian origins, focusing on the interrelation between the Protestant Reformation and the Scientific Revolution. He looks at scientists'' long term resistance to the firsthand study of consciousness and details the ways in which subjectivity has been deemed taboo within the scientific community. In conclusion, Wallace draws on William James''s idea for a science of religion that would study the nature of religious and, in particular, contemplative experience. In exploring the nature of consciousness, Trade ReviewWallace has looked carefully at the religious study of consciousness in both East and West, and no one can walk away from this book without a deeper impression of the profound understanding of religious consciousness that religious thinkers and traditions have achieved. The book will thus be welcomed by those who are interested in the phenomenology of religious consciousness as a tool for the cross-cultural study of religious phenomena. For these purposes it is heartily recommended.--The Journal of the American Academy of ReligionThe Taboo of Subjectivity provides a commendable introduction to issues in the relation of science and religion that humanists with an interest in science will find accessible and reasonably persuasive, and its cross-cultural framework offers students of religion a rewarding illustration of comparative work.--The Journal of ReligionThis is a landmark book in consciousness studies in the grand tradition of William James. Indeed it is the kind of book that James would have written had he been updating his writings 100 years on. * Network *

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Book SynopsisTeaching evolution in the public schools has been a perennial problem in America. From the courthouse in Dayton, Tennessee, in 1925, to modern fights over intelligent design and creation science, evolution and its critics have battled over the role of science and religion in American public life.But the antievolution controversies are not merely political problems. In American Genesis, Jeffrey P. Moran explores the ways in which the evolution struggles also have reverberated beyond the confines of legislatures and courthouses. In addition to offering a careful analysis of antievolutionism''s ideological and strategic development, this wide-ranging social history argues that evolution''s reception has been shaped by four peculiarly American forces: a diverse population, regional divisions, a sometimes shaky Protestant dominance, and a tradition of democratic populism. In each area, the battles over evolution exposed and polarized existing divisions.Using extensive research in newspapers, periodicals, and archives, Moran investigates the critical influence that gender ideals have had in antievolutionism, as well as the complex role women play in modern controversies. Similarly, he analyzes the unexamined relationship between African Americans and antievolution. Moran''s reading of regional differences explains how fundamentalism, a movement born in the North, came to flourish primarily in the South.Throughout the nation, Moran argues, antievolutionist ideology has retained strong continuities from its roots in the early twentieth century, despite its modern packaging as creation science or Intelligent Design. Finally, Moran balances scholars'' understandable focus on the unfamiliar territory of antievolutionism by considering the self-conceptions and preconceptions of modern scientists as activists, teachers, and bystanders in the struggle.Trade ReviewMoran...explores aspects of creationism that receive scant attention elsewhere...A well-written, thoroughly researched, valuable contribution. Highly recommended. * CHOICE *Moran's book has much to offer historians of science who are interested in antievolutionism. Historians of American culture, race, gender, and religion will also profit from reading it. * John M. Lynch, Isis Review *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ; Preface ; Introduction: Darwin Comes to America ; Chapter One: Monkeys and Mothers ; Chapter Two: Regionalism and the Antievolution Impulse ; Chapter Three: Fighting for the Future of the Race ; Chapter Four: Descent with Modification ; Chapter Five: Creationism and the Campus ; Notes ; Index

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Trade ReviewI have used this book for years * it never fails to engage the students.Nan E. Woodruff, Pennsylvania State University *Excellent for collateral reading in my history and philosophy of education class. * D. Gough, Washington Bible College *An intriguing book well suited to stimulating discussion in an upper-level course. It addresses issues rented to the social and intellectual history of 20th century American. * Daniel B. Murphy, Hanover College *Very valuable in helping students understand the Scopes Trial and modern Creationists. * Lois N. Magner, Purdue University *Very good for supplemental reading in a survey course on religion in America. Lively and stimulating. The book provokes students to get involved. * W. Calvin Smith, University of South Carolina at Aiken *In his brilliant account of the Tennessee 'monkey trial' of 1925, Mr. Ginger gives us a book where history not only records the events of a time but illuminates their significance for all time. * The New Republic *This volume provides a clear, informative and interesting chronicle of the 1925 Scopes trial. It relates the trial to the Zeitgeist of the era. * William Simons, SUNY-Oneonta *

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Book SynopsisFrom creationism to The God Delusion, the public dialogue of science and religion either uses the early chapters of Genesis in a naïve and simplistic way or rejects their relevance to contemporary questions. This is reinforced by the myth that Darwin caused a rejection of a literalistic reading of Genesis 1 and from that point most Christian theology lost any confidence in these texts. The truth is far more complex. Jewish and Christian interpretation of the early chapters of Genesis had a long a fruitful history from the earliest times. In the 19th century, many more important issues were at stake than biblical literalism, and there were many different interpretations of how the discoveries of Darwin helped or hindered the reading of the biblical text. Today, theologians are returning to the importance of Genesis as a partner in dialogue with science, gender, and environmental care. As the distinguished authors of the papers in this volume show, far from Darwin burying these ancient tTrade ReviewIt's a strange world when science can be used to dismiss the Bible, or when the Bible can be used to reject science - strange because God's people have long affirmed that the world and the Bible comprise God's Two Books. The challenge, then, is how to read the pages of both faithfully and to discern in their coordinated witness the character and aims of God. For its willingness to take up this challenge, and to do so accessibly and sensibly, Reading Genesis after Darwin is a genuinely important book. In their sketches of how Genesis was read before, during, and after the days of Darwin, these authors demonstrate how people might take the natural sciences seriously and continue to turn to Genesis 1-3 as sacred scripture. * Joel B. Green, author of Body, Soul, and Human Life: The Nature of Humanity in the Bible (2008). *Table of ContentsACKNOWLEDGEMENTS; CONTRIBUTORS; INTRODUCTION; STEPHEN C. BARTON AND DAVID WILKINSON; PART 1: ENGAGING AGAIN WITH THE SCRIPTURES; WALTER MOBERLY; FRANCIS WATSON; ANDREW LOUTH; RICHARD S. BRIGGS; PART 2: UNDERSTANDING THE HISTORY; JOHN ROGERSON; JOHN HEDLEY BROOKE; DAVID BROWN; EXPLORING THE CONTEMPORARY RELEVANCE; DAVID WILKINSON; DAVID CLOUGH; JEFF ASTLEY; STEPHEN C. BARTON; ELLEN F. DAVIS; MATHEW GUEST; INDEX OF MODERN AUTHORS

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Book SynopsisIn 2006, scientist Richard Dawkins published a blockbuster bestseller, The God Delusion. This atheist manifesto sparked a furious reaction from believers, who have responded with numerous books of their own. By pitting science against religion, however, this debate overlooks what science can tell us about religion. According to evolutionary psychologist Matt J. Rossano, what science reveals is that religion made us human.In Supernatural Selection, Rossano presents an evolutionary history of religion. Neither an apologist for religion nor a religion-basher, he draws together evidence from a wide range of disciplines to show the valuable--even essential--adaptive purpose served by systematic belief in the supernatural. The roots of religion stretch as far back as half a million years, when our ancestors developed the motor control to engage in social rituals--that is, to sing and dance together. Then, about 70,000 years ago, a global ecological crisis drove humanity to the edge of extincTrade Reviewa valuable book * Bruce Buttler, Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith *Table of ContentsINTRODUCTION

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Book SynopsisOne of the pioneers of the cognitive science of religion, adds insight to the interdisciplinary discussion in this provocatively titled work .... McCauley''s work is erudite, precise, well argued.-Library JournalThe battle between religion and science, competing methods of knowing ourselves and our world, has been raging for many centuries. Now scientists themselves are looking at cognitive foundations of religion--and arriving at some surprising conclusions. Over the course of the past two decades, scholars have employed insights gleaned from cognitive science, evolutionary biology, and related disciplines to illuminate the study of religion. In Why Religion is Natural and Science Is Not, Robert N. McCauley, one of the founding fathers of the cognitive science of religion, argues that our minds are better suited to religious belief than to scientific inquiry. Drawing on the latest research and illustrating his argument with commonsense examples, McCauley argues that religion has existTrade ReviewWhy Religion Is Natural and Science Is Not provides a powerful new paradigm to explore the relationship between science and religion. * Journal of Religion *Table of ContentsChapter One ; Natural Cognition ; Chapter Two ; Maturational Naturalness ; Chapter Three ; Unnatural Science ; Chapter Four ; Natural Religion ; Chapter Five ; Surprising Consequences ; References

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Book SynopsisBig dreams are rare but highly memorable dream experiences that make a strong and lasting impact on the dreamer''s waking awareness. Such dreams can include vivid imagery, intense emotions, fantastic characters, bizarre elements of form and content, and an uncanny sense of being connected to forces beyond one''s ordinary dreaming mind. These types of dreams have played significant roles in religious and cultural history, and even today people still experience them and find them intriguing and thought-provoking. Because of their infrequent occurrence and fantastical tendencies, however, big dreams have rarely been studied in light of modern science. While we know a great deal about the religious manifestations of big dreams through history and around the world, we have not yet integrated that cross-cultural knowledge with new scientific research on their psychological roots in the brain-mind system.In this volume, Kelly Bulkeley provides the first full-scale cognitive scientific analysiTrade Reviewthis book offers so many other insights into psychology, neurology and dream content analysis, it is well worth your money. * Drs. Susanne van Doorn, Mindfunda *Table of ContentsIntroduction Section I. Sleep 1. The evolution of sleep 2. The brain's paradoxical activities in sleep 3. The role of sleep in human health and development 4. Cultural practices of sleep through history Section II. Ordinary Dreaming 5. Dream recall 6. Patterns in form and content 7. Continuities between dreaming and waking life 8. Discontinuities and metaphors Section III. Big Dreams 9. Aggressive 10. Sexual 11. Gravitational 12. Mystical Section IV. Religious Experiences 13. Demonic attack 14. Prophetic vision 15. Ritual healing 16. Contemplative practice Conclusion Appendix: Word search methods in the study of dreams Index

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Book SynopsisDuring the sixteenth century, no part of the Christian West saw the development of a more powerful and pervasive astrological culture than the very home of the Reformation movement--the Protestant towns of the Holy Roman Empire. While most modern approaches to the religious and social reforms of that age give scant attention to cosmological preoccupations, this study argues that astrological concepts and imagery played a key role in preparing the ground for the evangelical movement sparked by Martin Luther in the 1520s, as well as in shaping the distinctive characteristics of German evangelical culture over the following century. Spreading above all through cheap printed almanacs and prognostications, popular astrology functioned in paradoxical ways. It contributed to an enlarged and abstracted sense of the divine that led away from clericalism, sacramentalism, and the cult of the saints; at the same time, it sought to ground people more squarely in practical matters of daily life. The art gained unprecedented sanction from Luther''s closest associate, Philipp Melanchthon, whose teachings influenced generations of preachers, physicians, schoolmasters, and literate layfolk. But the apocalyptic astrology that came to prevail among evangelicals involved a perpetuation, even a strengthening, of ties between faith and cosmology, which played out in beliefs about nature and natural signs that would later appear as rank superstitions. Not until the early seventeenth century did Luther''s heirs experience a crisis of piety that forced preachers and stargazers to part ways. Astrology and Reformation illuminates an early modern outlook that was both practical and prophetic; a world that was neither traditionally enchanted nor rationally disenchanted, but quite different from the medieval world of perception it had displaced.Trade ReviewFor most sixteenth-century Lutherans, the stars were a God-given text that complemented the Bible, a text that mirrored both the divine order of the world and its imminent disintegration. Robin Barnes has argued convincingly that we cannot properly understand the historical realities of the Reformation unless we open our eyes to this aspect of their faith. * William R. Shea, Fides et Historia *Astrology and Reformation will be an enjoyable and instructive resource for every scholar of the long 16th century. * Eugene D. Hill, Religion *Table of ContentsContents ; Acknowledgments ; A Note on Sources ; Introduction ; 1. From Athens to Augsburg ; 2. Mathematics and the Sacred ; 3. The Flood ; 4. The Campaign against Superstition ; 5. Confessional Constellations ; 6. Fate and Faith ; 7. Centrifugal Forces ; Postscript ; Literature ; Index

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Book SynopsisViolence has always played a part in the religious imagination, from symbols and myths to legendary battles, from colossal wars to the theater of terrorism. The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Violence surveys intersections between religion and violence throughout history and around the world. The forty original essays in this volume include overviews of major religious traditions, showing how violence is justified within the literary and theological foundations of the tradition, how it is used symbolically and in ritual practice, and how social acts of violence and warfare have been justified by religious ideas. The essays also examine patterns and themes relating to religious violence, such as sacrifice and martyrdom, which are explored in cross-disciplinary or regional analyses; and offer major analytic approaches, from literary to social scientific studies. The contributors to this volume---innovative thinkers who are forging new directions in theory and analysis related to religioTrade ReviewThe authors of the volume's forty essays, who represent many disciplines including religion, anthropology, sociology, and political science, among others, offer a variety of ways of construing and explaining that relationship in both tradition-specific and cross-cultural contexts. The volume is thus a good resource for teaching as well as for brief introductions to the history of religion and violence in multiple traditions and to theories of religion and violence from multiple disciplines. * Rosemary Kellison, Religious Studies Review *With The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Violence, editors Mark Juergensmeyer, Margo Kitts, and Michael Jerryson have released a timely collection that provides a welcome guide to the emerging field of studies in violence and religion. * Phil Rose, Journal of Contemporary Religion *Table of ContentsContributors ; Introduction: "The Enduring Relationship of Religion and Violence" - Mark Juergensmeyer, Margo Kitts, and Michael Jerryson ; Part I: Overview of Religious Traditions ; 1. Hindu: "Violence and Nonviolence at the Heart of Hindu Ethics" - Veena Das ; 2. Buddhist: "Buddhist Traditions and Violence" - Michael Jerryson ; 3. Sikh: "Sikh Traditions and Violence" - Cynthia Keppley Mahmood ; 4. Jewish: "Religion and Violence in the Jewish Traditions" - Ron Hassner and Gideon Aran ; 5. Christian:"Religion and Violence in Christian Traditions" - Lloyd Steffen ; 6. Islamic: "Muslim Engagement with Injustice and Violence"- Bruce Lawrence ; 7. African: "African Traditional Religion and Violence" - Nathalie Wlodarczyk ; 8. Pacific Island: "Religion and Violence in Pacific Island Societies" - Andrew Strathern and Pamela J. Stewart ; 9. Chinese: "Violence in Chinese Religious Traditions" - Meir Shahar ; Part II: Patterns and Themes ; 10. Evil: "The Religious Problem of Evil" - James Aho ; 11. Sacrifice: "Sacrifice/Human Sacrifice in Religious Traditions" - David Carrasco ; 12. Martyrdom: "Martyrdom in Islam" - David Cook ; 13. Self Mutilation: "Starvation and Self Mutilation in Religious Traditions" - Liz Wilson ; 14. Apocalypse: "Apocalyptic Religion and Violence" - Jamel Velji ; 15. Sacred War: "Cosmic War in Religious Traditions" - Reza Aslan ; 16. Genocide: "Genocide and the Religious Imaginary in Rwanda" - Christopher Taylor ; 17. Terrorism: "Terrorism as Performance Violence" - Mark Juergensmeyer ; 18. Torture: "Christianity and Torture" - Karen King ; 19. Just War: "Just War and Legal Restraints" - John Kelsay ; 20. Abortion: "Religiously Motivated Violence in the Abortion Debate" - Julie Ingersoll ; 21. Contested Sites: "Conflicts over Sacred Ground" - Ron E. Hassner ; 22. Political Violence: "Religion and Political Violence" - Monica Toft ; 23. Death Rituals: "Rituals of Death and Remembrance" - Susumu Shimazono and Margo Kitts ; 24. Violent Death: "Violent Death in Religious Imagination" - Margo Kitts ; Part III: Analytic Approaches ; 25. Sociology: "Religion and Violence from a Sociological Perspective" - John R. Hall ; 26. Anthropology: "Religion and Violence from an Anthropological Perspective" - Pamela J. Stewart and Andrew Strathern ; 27. Psychology: "Religion and Violence from a Psychological Perspective" - James W. Jones ; 28. Political Science: "Religion and Violence from a Political Science Perspective"- Daniel Philpott ; 29. Literary Theory: "Religion and Violence from Literary Perspectives" - Margo Kitts ; 30. Theology: "Religion and Violence from Christian Perspectives" - Charles Kimball ; Part IV: New Directions ; 31 Sacrifice: "Sacrificial Violence: A Problem in Ancient Religions" - Walter Burkert ; 32. Cities: "Cities as One Site for Religion and Violence" - Saskia Sassen ; 33. Armageddon: "Armageddonin Christian, Sunni and Shi'a Traditions" - Michael Sells ; 34. Phenomenal Violence: "Phenomenal Violence and the Philosophy of Religion" - Hent de Vries ; 35. Constructions of Evil : "The Construction of Evil and the Violence of Purification" - David Frankfurter ; 36. Mimetic Theory: "Mimetic Theories of Religion and Violence" - Wolfgang Palaver ; 37. Scarcity: "Religion and Scarcity: A New Theory for the Role of Religion in Violence" - Hector Avalos ; 38. Evolutionary Theory: "Ritual, Religion, and Violence: An Evolutionary Perspective" - Candance S. Alcorta and Richard Sosis ; 39. Rites of Terror: "Divergent Modes of Religiosity and Armed Struggle" - Harvey Whitehouse, with Brian McQuinn ; 40. Sociotheology: "A Sociotheological Approach to Understanding Religious Violence" - Mark Juergensmeyer and Mona Sheik ; Index

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Book SynopsisWilliam Bainbridge contends that the worlds of massively multiplayer online roleplaying games provide a new perspective on the human quest, one that combines the arts and simulates most aspects of real life. The quests in gameworlds also provide meaning for human action, in terms of narratives about achieving goals by overcoming obstacles.Trade RevieweGods may serve as a helpful reference for those researching online gaming, religious symbols, or considering a literary analysis of gaming environments. * Daniel B. Shank, Sociology of Religion *Table of ContentsChapter 1: Disbelief ; Chapter 2: The Culture Game ; Chapter 3: Deities ; Chapter 4: Souls ; Chapter 5: Priests ; Chapter 6: Shrines ; Chapter 7: Magic ; Chapter 8: Morality ; Chapter 9: Cults ; Chapter 10: Death ; Chapter 11: Quests ; Appendix: The Gameworlds

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Book SynopsisThe question typically asked about complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is whether it works. However, an issue of equal or greater significance is why it is supposed to work. The Healing Gods: Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Christian America explains how and why CAM entered the American biomedical mainstream and won cultural acceptance, even among evangelical and other theologically conservative Christians, despite its ties to non-Christian religions and the lack of scientific evidence of its efficacy and safety.Before the 1960s, most of the practices Candy Gunther Brown considers-yoga, chiropractic, acupuncture, Reiki, Therapeutic Touch, meditation, martial arts, homeopathy, anticancer diets-were dismissed as medically and religiously questionable. These once-suspect health practices gained approval as they were re-categorized as non-religious (though generically spiritual) health-care, fitness, or scientific techniques. Although CAM claims are similar to religious Trade ReviewDr. Brown gives religious people of all faiths a very useful and learned approach to complementary and alternative medicine and how to integrate it with their spirituality and healing practices * Herbert Benson, MD, Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School *Table of ContentsAbbreviations ; Introduction: Why is Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) Supposed to Work? ; 1. Is CAM Religious? ; 2. Yoga: I Bow to the God within You ; 3. Is CAM Christian? ; 4. I Love My Chiropractor! ; 5. Does CAM Work, and is it Safe? ; 6. Acupuncture: Reclaiming Ancient Wisdom ; 7. How did CAM become Mainstream? ; 8. Energy Medicine: How Her Karma Ran over His Dogma ; Conclusion: Why does it Matter if CAM is Religious (and not Christian)-even if it Works? ; Bibliography ; Index

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