Search results for ""Equinox Publishing""

Social and Cognitive Perspectives on the Sermon on the Mount offers fresh readings of themes and individual sayings in the Sermon on the Mount (SM) using socio-cognitive approaches. Because these approaches are invested in patterns of human cognition and social mechanisms, the resulting collection highlights the persistent appeal and persuasiveness of the SM: from innate moral drives, to the biology of emotion and risk-taking, to the formation and obliteration of in-group/out-group distinctions. Through these theories the authors show why--even across cultures and history--the SM continues to grip both individual minds and groups of people in order to shape moral communities. Classical historical-critical readings interpret the sermon according to the conventions of literature, seeking a relationship to other texts and ideas. By contrast our volume explores the SM not so much for the logical and historical relationships to other literary traditions, but also--and perhaps more importantly--for the ways it stimulates emotional, biologically, culturally habituated, evolutionarily preconditioned, and socially sanctioned characteristics of humans. In short, the volume shines a light on the action-inducing properties of the text. The volume will introduce a broader group of scholars, students, and clergy to the relevance of social scientific and cognitive studies for interpretation of the Bible, by applying these approaches to possibly the most read and discussed text in the Bible.

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This volume aims to create--in Walter Benjamin's terms--dialectical images from early Christian texts and the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It blasts the past and the present into one another, creating new constellations of thought, ones connected with tensions and mediated by theory (mediation being what Theodor Adorno adds to Benjamin's concept of the dialectical image). Our ancient images derive from the Gospels, the Apostle Paul, Revelation, Irenaeus, Origen, and Augustine. Our modern images and theories derive from Walter Benjamin, Gilles Deleuze, Alain Badiou, and Judith Butler. Together these images and theories challenge the way we think about gentrification, progress, early Christianity, revolutionary movements, history, the body of Christ, canonicity, language, gender, and bodies, both human and non-human. Eleven international scholars contribute to this volume. These scholars are experts in the fields of Biblical Studies, Early Christian Studies, Philosophy, and Critical Theory.

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This book is a study on the nature and effects of the Theravada Buddhist religious experiences of the four supramundane fruits of the Noble Eightfold Path - the experience of the fruit which is stream-entry, once returning, non-returning and Arahanthship - with special focus on the experience of stream-entry.It represents the first time within Theravada Buddhist studies that a serious textual study has been combined with a substantial field research. Despite disciplinary rules which virtually prohibit a monk with higher ordination from discussing their personal religious experiences, this book presents seven comprehensive anonymous interviews conducted mainly with forest monks on their meditative experiences.The study presents a definition for the 'supramundane fruit' of the path and an alternate framework to discuss and evaluate Theravada Buddhist religious experiences. It then uses this framework to address some longstanding debates around the Theravada path and its fruits thus bringing experience back to the centre stage of these debates.

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Peripheral Concerns examines the influence of one "core" region of the ancient Near Eastern world-Egypt-on urban development in the southern Levant in the Early and Middle Bronze Ages, with emphasis on the relative stability and sustainability of this development in each era. The study utilizes a very broad scale "macro" approach to examine urban development using core-periphery theories, specifically in regard to southern Levantine-Egyptian interactions.While many studies examine urban development in both the Early Bronze Age and the Middle Bronze Age, few compare this phenomenon in the two periods. Likewise, there are few studies of urban development in the southern Levant that compare contemporary Egyptian policies in that region to those in Nubia, despite the fact that Egyptian activities linked the eastern Mediterranean, the Nile Valley, and Nubia into one interactive system. The broad chronological and geographic framework utilized in this study therefore allows for a new approach to urban development in the southern Levant.

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The essays collected in this volume focus on methodological and historical topics related to the study of the history of ancient Israel. Contributors offer readers new readings of disputed texts, new methodological tools for study of the ancient world inhabited by an entity called aIsraela, and a variety of reinterpretations of biblical texts. Contributors include Thomas L. Thompson, Philip Davies, Niels Peter Lemche, Etienne Nodet, Mario Liverani, and many other leading academics.

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The contemporary popular or new religious landscape in Sweden - arenas with religious elements outside the established churches - is large and multifaceted. Religion is today expressed in different localities, like retreat centers, health centers and gyms, and can manifest as for example healing, mindfulness, seances, coaching and body therapies. The boundaries between religious and secular arenas are becoming increasingly blurred. The popular or new religiosity is firmly rooted in older traditions, but also expresses creative innovation as a result of globalization, secularism, individualism and the impact of psychological and therapeutic orientations. The book is based on a local study of contemporary popular or new religiosity in the area of Dalarna, Sweden. Religious expression always reflects its time. One of the book's purposes is to explore how religion is perceived in our time and how Christianity has shaped our view of what belongs to the "religion" and what is seen as "superstition". To understand religion it is necessary to study its practical everyday expressions.

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This book examines the history of the European Scramble for Africa from the perspective of the Omanis and other Arabs in East Africa. It will be of interest not only to African specialists, but also those working on the Middle East, where awareness is now emerging that the history of those settled on the southern peripheries of Arabia has been intimately entwined with Indian Ocean maritime activities since pre-Islamic times. The nineteenth century, however, saw these maritime borderlands being increasingly drawn into a new world economy, one of whose effects was the development of an ivory front in the interior of the continent that, by the 1850s, led the Omanis and Swahili to establish themselves on the Upper Congo. A reconstruction of their history and their interaction with Europeans is a major theme of this book. European colonial rivalries in Africa is not a subject in vogue today, while the Arabs are still largely viewed as invaders and slavers. The fact that the British separated the Sultanates of Muscat and Zanzibar is reflected in European research so that historians have little grasp of the geographic, tribal and religious continuum that persisted between overseas empire and the Omani homeland. Ibadism is regarded as irrelevant to the mainstream of Islamic religious protest whereas, during the lead up to establishing direct colonial rule, its ideology played a significant role; even the final rally against the Belgians in the Congo was conducted in the name of an Imam al-Muslimin. Back home, the fall out from the British massacre that crushed the last Arab attempt to reassert independence in Zanzibar was an important contributory cause towards the re-founding of an Imamate that survived until the mid-1950s.

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In recent years there has been a renewed interest in textbooks, partly because they have maintained their position as an important genre. Not too many years ago - and perhaps currently as well - many considered textbooks outdated or archaic compared with technological advances such as the Internet and different kinds of educational software. Despite these changes, textbooks for school subjects and for academic studies continue to be in demand. Textbooks seem to constitute a genre in which established truths are conveyed, and may thus represent stable forces in a world of flux and rapid changes. Textbook Gods offers perspectives on representations of religion and religions in textbooks. The contributions emerge from different contexts, ranging from European countries, to North America, Japan and Australia.

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Summer farms occur throughout the world where there are rich pastures that can only be utilised for part of the year, mainly because they are under snow and ice during the winter. In Europe transhumance is often a major event when the cattle and other livestock leave their home villages and move up into the mountains, and likewise on their return. The best known sites in Europe are perhaps those found in the Alpine areas, but they occur everywhere where there are suitable highland areas to exploit. Traditionally they have been the subject of the studies of ethnographers and anthropologists, especially in the second half of the 20th century when technological and economic changes led to the gradual abandonment of the farms and to other ways of exploiting the highlands. The last of these farmers are gradually disappearing and with them the oral records and memories. Now it is archaeologists who are leading the recording of this material and also looking at the history of such farming from prehistory and from the Bronze Age with the rise in importance of `Secondary Products’ such as cheese which could be stored for use over winter. Much of the evidence can only be gathered by surface survey and by excavation, though in some cases there are good written sources which have yet to be fully exploited. This volume provides case studies, as well as brief summaries of other projects in Europe, extending from the Black Sea in the east to northern Spain and Iceland in the west, though with a concentration on the Alpine area. One thing that emerges is the very varied nature of these sites in terms of their chronology, who went to the farms, the distances travelled, and the other activities associated with transhumance such as mining. In some cases the products were primarily for the subsistence of the agricultural population, but in other cases they were traded and could produce a large amount of profit. This is the first overview of these sites in Europe written from an archaeological point of view.

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This book adopts an integrative approach to investigate the role of monumental architecture in shaping social dynamics and power relations on the island of Cyprus during the Late Bronze Age (LBA; c.1700-1050 BCE). Using such an approach, archaeologists studying ancient societies elsewhere can analyze the relationship between the built environment and human behaviour. Monumental buildings on Late Bronze Age Cyprus provided contexts for social interactions, such as ceremonial feasting and cultic rituals, that created social bonds and forged wider community identities, while also materializing social boundaries and inequalities. More than just spaces, these contexts were socially-constructed places, imbued with identity and memory, that played an integral role in social organization during this transformative period. This integrative approach emphasizes the role of buildings in configuring movement and encounter and in serving as the contexts for interactions through which sociopolitical relations are developed, maintained, transformed and reproduced. It investigates this using an interdisciplinary methodology that integrates access analysis with the study of the materiality of built environments and how they encode and communicate meanings and shape the experiences of those who interact with them.

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The Beatles’ lives and work continue to delight fans and influence musicians half a century since their heyday. Yet their contribution to contemporary culture and their relationship to social change remain controversial topics in need of reappraisal. This collection brings together fourteen leading scholars of The Beatles to examine their origins, output and legacy. Interdisciplinary in its approach and international is its outlook, The Beatles in Perspective showcases the latest research by historians, literary critics, musicologists, sociologists, poets and cultural critics bringing new perspectives on The Beatles and their milieu which will interest academics and fans alike. This book explores the relationship between The Beatles and their times, situating them in the changing class, gender and ethnic dynamics of postwar Britain, and considers them as Liverpudlians, Orientalists, and creative pioneers.

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The book is targeted at professional scholars as well as language students who plan their own research in the fuzzy field of applied linguistics, while working on their degree papers, or doing an any academic work related to language study. The uniqueness of the volume consists in its methodological character which is made operational and thus the book may function as a methodological manual. The academically fashionable and catchy word 'interdisciplinarity' is frequently made void in the research perspective. Comprehended as a mark of academic liberalism, standing for anything goes, it is questioned by orthodox minds adhering to the compartmentalization of scientific disciplines. This volume tries to bridge the gap in at least three ways. It offers theoretical justification for crossing disciplinary borders in methodological terms, presents an application of adopted methods or techniques from a different discipline and finally considers research benefits resulting from such an approach. These three elements, around which each chapter is organized, account for the integrationist aspect of interdisciplinarity. The volume includes seven chapters dedicated to a selected methodology incorporating an empirical avenue coming from outside of the linguistic domain, yet it is applied to linguistic issues which are interdisciplinary in their character. They either occupy a contested space between disciplines, or need an interdisciplinary insight, which ultimately imparts a more comprehensive understanding.

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This book offers an updated introduction to Relational Network Theory (RNT), a neurocognitive model of language compatible with systemic-functional tenets. It describes and illustrates the logical types of relations found in a linguistic network. Part I traces the evolution of RNT from the 1960s to the present, highlighting its systemic and stratificational origins, introducing its main notational devices, and identifying successive theoretical milestones (from structural, to operational, to neurocognitive considerations). Part II offers an unprecedented collection of case studies showing descriptive applications of RNT. The studies deal with varied linguistic phenomena in different languages (phonological patterns in Russian, morphological systems in Polish and Spanish, pronouns and nouns in English discourse, speech errors in English and Polish). The book is prefaced by Michael Halliday and includes a recent interview with Sydney Lamb, the main developer of the theory. Its didacti

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Dub reggae and the techniques associated with it have, since the late-1980s, been used widely by producers of dance and ambient music. However, the term was originally applied to a remixing technique pioneered in Jamaica as far back as 1967. Recording engineers produced reggae tracks on which the efforts of the producer were often more evident than those of the musicians - these heavily engineered tracks were termed 'versions'. The techniques used to produce versions quickly evolved into what is now known as 'dub'. The term, in this sense, arrived in 1972 and was largely the result of experiments by the recording engineer Osbourne Ruddock/King Tubby. Over the decades, not only has dub evolved, but it has done so especially in the UK. Indeed, much contemporary music, from hip hop to trance and from ambient soundscapes to experimental electronica and drum 'n' bass is indebted to the 'remix culture' principally informed by dub techniques. However, while obviously an important genre, its significance is rarely understood or acknowledged. Part One of the book examines the Jamaican background, necessary for understanding the cultural significance of dub, and Part Two analyses its musical, cultural and political importance for both African-Caribbean and, particularly, white communities in the United Kingdom during the late-1970s and early 1980s. Particular attention is given to the subcultures surrounding the genre, especially its relationship with Rastafarian culture - the history and central beliefs of which are related to reggae and examined. There is also analysis of its cultural and musicological influence on punk and post-punk, the principal political music in late-1970s Britain. Finally, moving into the period of the decline of post-punk and, indeed, British dub in the early 1980s, there will be an examination of what can be understood as the postmodern turn in dub. In summary, the book is a confluence of several lines of thought. Firstly, it provides a cultural and musical history of dub from its early days in Jamaica to the decline of post-punk in early-1980s Britain. Secondly, it examines the religio-political ideas it carried and traces these through to the ideologies informing the subcultures of the late-1970s and, finally, to their transformation and, arguably, neutralisation in the postmodern pastiche of post-punk dub. Thirdly, with reference to these lines of thought, it looks at dub's and roots reggae's contribution to race relations in 1970s Britain. Finally, it analyses the aesthetic and arguably 'spiritual' significance of dub, looking at, for example, its foregrounding of bass and reverb.

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The word 'yoga' conjures up in the minds of many Westerners images of people performing exercises and adopting unusual, sometimes contortive postures. Such exercises and postures do have a place within the practice of yoga, but it is much more than that. Indeed, the early literature on yoga describes and defines it as a form of mental rather than physical discipline. Yoga is also associated with the Indian subcontinent and the religions of Hinduism and Buddhism. This revised edition of a classic textbook concentrates on the evolution of yoga in the context of Indian culture, though the final chapters also explore some of its links with non-Indian mystical traditions and some of its developments outside of India during the modern period. The book is aimed at both university students taking courses in Comparative Religion and Philosophy and practitioners of yoga who seek to go beyond the activity and explore its spiritual dimensions. Hence, it presents yoga in the context of its historical evolution in India and seeks to explain the nature of its associations with various metaphysical doctrines. The work also draws upon a number of conceptual schemes designed to facilitate comparative study. Some of these are employed throughout the book so as to link the material from each chapter together within a common framework. This edition incorporates revisions and expansions to most chapters and contains one new chapter on the future of modern yoga in the West.

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Religions of the World: Questions, Challenges, and New Directions provides a critical introduction to the social, political, and cultural interests that inform how people describe and identify with religion. One of its goals is to provide a sense of methodological transparency that few, if any, other textbooks today offer. The book opens with an Introduction that discusses contemporary methodological concerns in the study of religion, with special focus on the World Religions Paradigm. This is followed by ten chapters, six (6) of which discuss a distinct religion and four (4) of which discuss regional traditions. This organization is intentional and self-conscious, as the authors discuss how these scholarly categories (distinct tradition vs. regional tradition) shape the ways that both insiders and outsiders discuss, practice, and engage religion in their daily lives. Each chapter introduces four different popular descriptions, or representations, of a particular religion or regional tradition. Following each representation is an analysis of what this representation accomplishes for those who promote it and what (or who) it also leaves out. Following this, a specific case study provides a real-world example of the difficulties in thinking about religion in overly simplistic ways. The text does not attempt to diminish or reconcile the possible contradictions between the different representations so as not to leave the reader with the idea that one representation is more correct or authentic than another, or that all four can be easily stitched together to make a tidy picture. Instead, students take away from each chapter a foundation of knowledge about the practices, issues, and conceptions that are associated with global religious traditions as well as the complexity behind any single representation. The objective is to make more transparent the human activity of constructing religion as well as the contemporary consequences of these representations, as people use them to legitimize identities and negotiate for social, legal, and economic resources. Thus, throughout the text, students are challenged to interrogate who gets to decide on a particular portrayal of a religious tradition as well as the interests informing those decisions. An Afterword also discusses ways that the skills learned in the text have applicability beyond the study of religious discourses.

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Everybody knows John Altman's music, but not so many people know his name. Yet he is one of the most prolific composers, conductors and arrangers in history and his saxophone playing has been heard live and on record with many great names. In this vivid account of over fifty years in the world of popular music, Altman explains why he is the 'Hidden Man', whose scores include such well-known film sequences as 'Always Look on the Bright Side of Life' from Life of Brian, which he arranged, conducted and whistled; the tank chase through St. Petersburg in the James Bond movie Goldeneye and the ship sinking in Titanic, with the orchestra playing on deck. In all, he has composed the music for over 50 movies, and won most major film awards in his long and distinguished career. His orchestrations can be heard in film scores by legends like Elmer Bernstein and Jule Styne, and he was musical director for several television series, notably Miss Marple, starring Joan Hickson, as well as Peak Practice. As an arranger/conductor he has worked on hit records for numerous stars, among them Rod Stewart, George Michael, Tina Turner, Barry White, Diana Ross, Bjork, and Alison Moyet. As a saxophonist, flautist and clarinet player he has performed with an equally stellar list of musicians. John Altman has also found time to write, produce and arrange over 4,000 commercials worldwide, including his theme for the 'Sheila's Wheels' advertisement. Such anonymity coupled with universally-known themes is why Monty Python's Terry Gilliam named Altman the 'Hidden Man'. In this entertaining, fast-paced memoir you will discover how Ingrid Bergman smiled at his back; how a Beatle always greeted him by singing one of his musical phrases; how he tried in vain to persuade Nick Drake to continue performing in public; how he reduced Freddy Mercury to helpless laughter; how he got Pierce Brosnan his big movie break; how he sat with Charlie Chaplin watching a movie that hadn't been seen for a quarter of a century (with a running commentary from the great man himself); how he sang over a mobile phone to James Cameron and the cast of Titanic; how he inspired a five-year-old George Michael to become a musician; how he was the Wailers' tour guide around London, and how Tina Turner made him a cup of tea. One of the most poignant parts of the story is how he mentored the young Amy Winehouse.

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It can be suggested that today we live in a new nomadic age, an age of global movement and migration. For the majority of people on earth, however, especially from the global south, crossing national borders and moving from the global south to the global north is risky, perilous, often lethal. Many are forced or compelled to migrate due to war, persecution, or the structural violence of poverty and deprivation. The phenomenon of forced and undocumented migration is one of the defining features of our era. And while the topic is at the centre of attention and study in many scholarly fields, the materiality of the phenomenon and its sensorial and mnemonic dimensions are barely understood and analysed. In this regard, contemporary archaeology can make an immense contribution. This book, the first archaeological anthology on the topic, takes up the challenge and explores the diverse intellectual, methodological, ethical, and political frameworks for an archaeology of forced and undocumented migration in the present. Matters of historical depth, theory, method, ethics and politics as well as heritage value and public representation are investigated and analysed, adopting a variety of perspectives. The book contains both short reflections and more substantive treatments and case studies from around the world, from the Mexico-USA border to Australia, and utilizes a diversity of narrative formats, including several photographic essays.

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Vinyl Ventures: My Fifty Years at Rounder Records is less a standard history and more an idiosyncratic memoir written by one of the three Rounder founders. Rounder Records was born in 1970, a “hobby that got out of control,” a fledgling record company more or less conceived when vinyl still reigned, while the Sixties were still in flower, and which began publishing on a shoestring budget of just over $1,000. Founded by three friends just out of college, the Boston-area company produced over 3,000 record albums, the most active company of the last half-century, specializing in roots music and its contemporary offshoots. Rounder won fifty-six Grammy Awards and documented a swath of music that in many cases might otherwise never have been presented to a broader public. It’s arguably a quintessentially American success story. This book focuses on the early years up to and just through when Rounder evolved to a second stage, with a generational change that has kept the label healthy and flourishing when so many other cultural enterprises from the era have folded or gone dark. It includes original photographs taken by the author or drawn from the Rounder Records archives. It’s the story of three people with no background in business who took an idea and, through hard work and passion, built something of lasting cultural significance.

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When it comes to the study of religion, Willi Braun is a paragon of what a methodologically rigorous and epistemologically modest academic ought to look like. Braun’s career began in the 1990s, when he studied among a cadre of other notable graduate students at the Centre for the Study of Religion at University of Toronto—what is often referred to as the “Toronto School.” There, Braun and his comrades maintained a fidelity to a particular methodological ethos: that religion should be studied as a fundamentally human phenomenon and that scholars should examine how the “data” of religions (texts, artifacts, rituals, etc) reveal the interests, concerns, and values of the humans who imbue that same data with something divine or transcendent. The Toronto School’s commitment to this ethos led to the inauguration of the North American Society for the Study of Religion and fostered development of the now-renowned journal Method & Theory in the Study of Religion. Braun was a catalyst in these discipline-changing initiatives and brought them to bear in his own work on antiquity and early Christianities. Yet beyond that, Braun’s career also involved an unwavering commitment to pedagogy, as he selflessly endeavored to pass on his exceptional professional and personal qualities to his students. In an effort to honor Braun’s work and mentorship, this volume is focused on exploring, probing, and theorizing ancient religious data as reflections of human interests and activities.

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Award-winning saxophonist and writer Simon Spillett, widely regarded as the world's leading authority on Hayes and his work, painstakingly outlines a career which alternated professional success and personal downfall.

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Brian Wilson is a genius. Ever since British press agent Derek Taylor launched a publicity campaign with that theme to promote the landmark LP Pet Sounds in 1966, some variation of that claim has been obligatory when discussing the significance of the Beach Boys' founder and chief composer. Originally designed to liberate Wilson from his outmoded image as a purveyor of sun-and-surf teen pop so the symphonic sophistication of his music might be properly appreciated, the assertion has been repeated so often in the forty-plus years since as to render it virtually meaningless. Indeed, if anything, the label today seems an albatross around the man's neck, inasmuch as Wilson's slow-but-steady reemergence as a working musician since the mid-nineties after three decades of mental illness and drug abuse, has been freighted with expectations that he again produce something as epochal as "Good Vibrations" to justify the adoration he inspires in impassioned defenders. Brian Wilson interrogates this and other paradigms that stymie critical appreciation of Wilson's work both with the Beach Boys and as a solo artist.This is the first study of Wilson to eschew chronology for a topical organization that allows discussion of lyrical themes and musical motifs outside of any prejudicial presumptions about their place in the trajectory of his career. The chapter on lyrics explores questions of quality, asking why the words to Wilson's songs are often considered a detriment, before surveying such tendencies as melancholy and introspection, the conceit of childlike wisdom, his depiction of women, and Americana/nostalgia. The section on music focuses on his falsetto, the famous harmonies, the peculiar whiteness of the Beach Boys' sound, as well as song structure. A final chapter on iconicity asks how rock criticism's investment in auteurship both maintains and limits his reputation. Finally, Curnutt examines what Brian Wilson means to his most fervent fans. Together, these issues emphasize the often overlooked point that, despite his status as a "living legend," Brian Wilson does not always fit neatly into the paradigms of taste and value by which critics grant certain artists entry into the pantheon of pop and rock importance.

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This volume analyses the work of Nick Cave, a singular, idiosyncratic and brilliant musician, specifically through his engagements with theology and the Bible. It does so not merely in terms of his written work, the novels and plays and poetry and lyrics that he continues to produce, but also the music itself. Covering more than three decades of extraordinarily diverse creativity, the book has seven chapters focusing on: the modes in which Cave engages with the Bible; the total depravity of the worlds invoked in his novels and other written work; the consistent invocation of apocalyptic themes; his restoration of death as a valid dimension of life; the twists of the love song; the role of a sensual and heretical Christ; and then a detailed, dialectical analysis of his musical forms. The book draws upon a select number of theorists who provide the methodological possibilities of digging deep into the theological nature of Cave's work, namely Ernst Bloch, who is the methodological foundation stone, as well as Theodor Adorno, Theodore Gracyk and Jacques Attali.

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Early issues of The Eastern Buddhist contain short translations from various Buddhist texts, some of them quite important and all of considerable interest. Since they are set unobtrusively between modern statements and arguments about the nature of Buddhism, and in any case are difficult to locate, they have often gone unnoticed by students. Assembled here is a selection of those texts which have stood the test of time. Derived from Sanskrit, Chinese and Japanese originals, they illustrate the importance of lay spirituality for Japanese Buddhists, both in the nenbutsu tradition and in the wider context of Mahayana Buddhism. Drawing them together into one volume brings out the fact that these varied Buddhist traditions are intricately related to each other. The result is an unusual and fascinating reader which would grace many a course in Buddhist studies.

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This new translation of the Qur'an is specifically designed for use in the college classroom, and offers students and instructors, as well as general readers, a one-volume resource comparable to what is available for the Jewish and Christian scriptures. It presents a reliable rendering into contemporary English of the artistry and power of the original Arabic, along with a wealth of supplementary annotations which will illuminate the text for first-time readers, yet still prove valuable to those long familiar with the Qur'an. These notes are replete with cross references, both internally to the Qur'an as well as externally to the scriptures of Judaism and Christianity (including non-canonical scriptures). In addition, transliterated Arabic is supplied for key Qur'anic terms, alternative renderings into English are offered where appropriate, and important historical and linguistic information is provided for a richer understanding and deeper appreciation of the text. Finally, this new edition contains an index to the Qur'an much more comprehensive than any other now on the market. The index, along with a new introduction, set of maps, chronological table, and guide to the pronunciation of Arabic, makes this the edition of the Qur'an all English-speaking students of religion - beginning as well as advanced - will want to possess for their exploration and understanding of Islam's central text.

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It is almost universally recognized that the Middle East and Asia constitute two of the most important regions today when thinking about international relations, energy and sustainable development, economics, religion, culture, and the so called 'clash' or 'dialogue' of civilizations. Both the Middle East and Asia are, independent of one another, significant sources of natural resources, military conflict, cultural production, human migration and political attention. Despite the high level of international interest in the Middle East and Asia, there have been relatively few publications focused on the interactions of the two regions and how the two regions are inextricably linked in the economic and political impact they have on the rest of the world. East by Mid-East provides a multi-disciplinary and trans-regional approach to the historical roots and continued development of ties between the Middle East and Asia, from Muslim-Confucian relations to nuclear technology exchange between China and Saudi Arabia. The contributors include academics, policy makers and consultants, leaders in international business, law professionals and military.

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In light of the ongoing public debate that focuses on differences between Islam and the West, this book suggests a change of perspective. It departs from the observation that both western Orientalists and Islamist activists have defined Islam similarly as an all-encompassing religious, political and social system. In shifting from differences to similarities, it leaves behind the increasingly circular debate about the true nature of Islam in which the Muslim religion has been represented either as intrinsically hostile to or as principally compatible with modern culture. Instead, it associates the evolution of a particularly essentialist image of Islam with a complex process of cross-cutting (self)-interpretations of Muslim and Western societies within an emerging global public sphere. Putting its focus on the life and work of a number of paradigmatic individuals, the book investigates the intellectual encounters and discursive interdependencies among western and Muslim intellectuals. In a historical genealogy it deconstructs the essentialist image of Islam in uncovering its conceptual foundations in the modern transformation of European and Muslim societies from the nineteenth century onwards. Thereby, the changing infrastructure of the global public sphere has facilitated the gradual popularization, trivialization, and dissemination of a previously elitist discourse on Islam and modernity. In this way, the idea of Islam as an all-encompassing system has been turned into accepted knowledge in the Western and Muslim worlds alike.

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This book explores how funk emerged in the mid-1960s at the very apex of the civil rights movement and shows how this music mirrored the broader changes taking place within the African-American community at a crucial political time and continues to this day to underpin remix culture. It traces the extent of the Brown legacy, musically, culturally and otherwise articulating decisive links between Brown's work and the DJ culture that embraced it so emphatically that Brown is now considered to be the most widely sampled African-American recording artist in history; indeed, we seem to have reached a point where many of Brown's refrains - the screams, the horn stabs, the "funky drummer" breakbeats - have been sampled so often as to have seemingly become part of the public domain. Traversing the past forty years of popular music, the book explores how the ubiquitous presence of Brown's groove, the affective and transformative capacities of a grunt or a well-timed "Good God" or punctuating scream take over where language fails and compel even the most sedate listener to take to the floor.

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Since the early 1970s the increasingly effective conduct of archaeological work in the City of London and surrounding parts of the conurbation have revolutionised our view of the development and European importance of London between 1100 and 1600. There have been hundreds of archaeological excavations of every type of site, from the cathedral to chapels, palaces to outhouses, bridges, wharves, streams, fields, kilns, roads and lanes. The study of the material culture of Londoners over these five centuries has begun in earnest, based on thousands of accurately dated artefacts, especially found along the waterfront. Work by documentary historians has complemented and filled out the new picture. This book, written by an archaeologist who has been at the centre of this study since 1974, will summarise the main findings and new suggestions about the development of the City, its ups and downs through the Black Death and the Dissolution of the Monasteries; its place in Europe as a capital city with great architecture and relations with many other parts of Europe, from the Baltic to the Mediterranean. London has been the most intensively studied medieval city in Europe by archaeologists, due to the pace of development especially since the 1970s. Thus although this will be a study of a single medieval city, it will be a major contribution to the Archaeology of Europe, 1100-1600.

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This collection of essays draws inspiration from the late James Deetz's In Small Things Forgotten (1977). Deetz's seminal work broke new ground by using structuralist theory to show how artefacts reflected the 'worldviews' or ideologies of their makers and users, and went on to claim that the American colonial world had been structured according to a British intellectual blueprint, the so-called 'Georgian Order'. Thirty years on, this influential thesis has been substantially revised by more recent scholarship, but Deetz's central premise, that the systematic study of mundane material objects such as tombstones, architecture, and furniture, can render palpable the intangible aspects of human cognition and belief systems, has become a fundamental tenet of modern historical archaeology. Drawing upon James Deetz's insight that everyday objects from the recent past are freighted with social significance, and that material culture operates alongside language as a system of communication, the authors present a series of case studies which unravel specific cultural moments in well-documented historical periods across the modern world. The very best historical archaeologies create intimate material histories that expose constructions of race, class, gender, and have the capacity to challenge taken-for-granted knowledge and received political histories. The studies in this volume range in date from the early 17th century to the late 20th century and are unified by the way in which they employ theory from archaeology and anthropology to elucidate the complex links between human thought and action. The authors in this volume make a significant contribution to archaeological knowledge through their ability to move beyond simple materialities to create interesting human stories that transcend purely descriptive show-and-tell accounts of archaeological sites. Chapters by international scholars from North America, Europe, and Australia demonstrate the vitality of their approaches to historical archaeology through a series of compelling case studies. For the first time to an Anglophone audience this volume presents the latest research from Finland and Spain.

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Although musical tributes play a significant role within contemporary culture and despite their relative longevity as a form of entertainment, little serious research has been published on the subject. This book makes an important contribution to the understanding of the phenomenon of the tribute band by linking it to other types of imitative entertainment such as 'ghost', cover and parody bands. It also demonstrates the impact of a changing cultural Zeitgeist on the evolution of popular music tributes, showing how music tributes can be related to other examples of retrospection. These influences are linked to the impact of new technology in making the art of paying tribute possible, showing how certain developments have created the musical equipment and apparatus for self-promotion, marketing and communication with fans. Whilst critical opinion on this type of entertainment remains divided, the author challenges negative responses through an interrogation of critiques of imitative cultural practices within a broader historical and cultural framework. The diversity of the homage industry is highlighted and the book avoids concentrating solely on well-known tributes, looking too, at the work of those operating in the 'alternative' tribute scene. The book explores the working life of musicians involved in the 'bargain basement' end of the live music industry, using interviews and first hand observations to show the trials and tribulations of paying homage. Finally, through an examination of the audience at tribute events, fandom and associated social and psychological aspects of participation are explored.

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This volume gathers papers from the first conference ever to be held on the disappearance of writing systems, in Oxford in March 2004. While the invention and decipherment of writing systems have long been focuses of research, their eclipse or replacement have been little studied. Because writing is so important in many cultures and civilizations, its disappearance - followed by a period without it or by replacement by a different writing system - is of almost equal significance to invention as a mark of radical change. Probably more writing systems have disappeared than survived in the last five thousand years. Case studies from the Old and New Worlds are presented, ranging over periods from the first millennium BC to the present. In order to address many types of transmission, the broadest possible definition of 'writing' is used, notably including Mexican pictography and the Andean khipu system.One chapter discusses the larger proportion of known human societies which have not possessed complex material codes like writing, offering an alternative perspective on the long-term transmission of socially salient subjects. A concluding essay draws out common themes and offers an initial synthesis of results. This volume offers a new perspective on approaches to writing that will be significant for the understanding of writing systems and their social functions, literacy, memory, and high-cultural communication systems in general.

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This selection of articles argues that the Old Testament is not exclusively a book about history but is dominated by interests in theology both as literature and as an expression of the community in which biblical writings originated.

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This book is the first detailed comparative study of the philosophical and meditative concepts of NikayaBuddhism and early Chan.

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This is the first annotated translation of his magnum opus The Limits of Discursive Interpretation. The Translator's introduction and notes shed a detailed light on the linguistic sources of Q unaw i's lexicon. The Introduction also summarizes the key ideas of the book and explains their significance to philosophy.

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This book offers an expansive survey and analysis of local and regional musical responses to the global coronavirus moment.

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Mediterranean Resilience examines various forms of adaptation adopted by coastal societies in the ancient Mediterranean in response to external pressures they occasionally experienced. The investigation spans the longue durée stretching from the epi-paleolithic to the Medieval period. Special attention is given to the impact of two groups of variables: climate and sea level changes on the one hand, and fluctuations in political circumstances connected with the domination of empires, on the other hand. For adaptation, the volume analyses modes of coastal residence, subsistence, and maritime connectivity, not as a static feature, constant throughout history, but as a process that requires permanent adjustments due to changes in environmental, social and political conditions. Methodologically, various forms of case studies are employed, isolating thematic issues, geographic micro-regions, temporal boundaries, and disciplinary perspectives, ultimately seeking to embrace as wide an array of phenomena as possible in the human experience of collapse and adaptation.

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Venue Stories is an anthology of creative non-fiction that remembers, celebrates and reinvigorates our complex and plural relationship with small and independent music spaces. Written by musicians, promoters, fans and academics who have a shared passion for small music venues and musical cultures in all their splendid variety, this anthology features memoir, essays, life writing, historiography and autoethnography. Each chapter is united by a focus on the personal, the sensory and half-remembered. These are stories that cross disciplinary lines and blur distinctions between creativity, reportage and critical analysis. Venue Stories pays a visit to the toilet venues, back rooms and ad-hoc club nights that make up so much of our musical landscape. It spends time in small and local venues and asks what they mean in personal and cultural terms. Writers visit celebrated spots, long forgotten spaces and emergent venues. Whatever the lineage, they are independent, original and wonderfully weird. The stories are memories of seismic gigs and life-altering raves. They are mosaic remembrances and recollections; funny, heart-breaking, rage induced and sometimes a combination of all of these things. This is a collection of stories by and for fans, band members, merch sellers, pint pullers, journalists with a freebie, roadies with a backache and sound techs with an earache.

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The Shepherd of Hermas (70-150 CE) is one of the oldest Christian works from a major urban center. While the majority of manuscript evidence of the Shepherd is concentrated in North Africa, the work has long-standing association with the city of Rome. It consists of three major sections: the Book of Visions, the Mandates, and the Similitudes. The Shepherd was enormously popular during the early centuries as a catechetical text used for moral formation. Its manuscript evidence during the early centuries far exceeded that of the Gospels. This book uses cognitive literary theory, specifically the approach known as enactive reading, to investigate why a work that was exceedingly popular among readers in antiquity has failed to receive the same reception by modern scholars. The study focuses on the first section of the Shepherd known as the Book of Visions, which narrates Hermas's visionary experiences in first-person voice. The book argues that enactive reading can help to generate immersive experiences of Hermas's visions and explain the success and appeal of the Book of Visions among ancient readers. Cognitive approaches also highlight how modern scholars trained to read apocalypses 'against the grain' to search for historical or theological information fail to notice and appreciate the very things that made apocalypses engaging and entertaining to a broad range of ancient readers and hearers.

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This book, like others in the series, provides both theory and practical tools for TESOL educators (and others) to use as they guide pre-service teachers of English to reflect in meaningful ways in a service-learning context. Service-learning in TESOL is valuable because it enables pre-service teachers to collaborate with a community partner in implementing projects that benefit culturally and linguistically diverse learners, while concomitantly improving their own academic and professional skills through increased opportunities to practice and reflect on teaching and learning. Effectively reflecting on service-learning experiences helps pre-service teachers develop an inquiring disposition and transform their learning, enabling them to question their beliefs and challenge existing norms and work towards a more just future for learners of English. In this book, interpretations of service-learning are presented along with the crucial role that reflective practice plays in it. Challenges in defining and implementing reflective practice in TESOL service-learning contexts are explored and practical tools and strategies to help address them are shared.

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This concise and accessible introduction brings the writings of Marx and Engels and later thinkers in the Marxist tradition including Althusser, Gramsci, the Frankfurt School as well as Liberation Theologians such as Gutierrez and Maduro, into focus in relation to questions of religion, social change and social justice. Marx was a nineteenth century thinker trying to develop a theory that could explain the dramatic social and technological changes that he lived through. Later thinkers modified and developed key elements of Marx' theoretical model, with religion - particularly Christianity - providing a vital point of critical self-reflection for thinkers in the Marxist tradition. This book tracks these modifications and developments to Marx' ideas, and their continuing relevance to contemporary debates about religion, social change and social justice.

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This volume presents a thorough analysis of newspaper language from a regional and functional perspective. Based on a collection of 4,000 newspaper articles from five English-speaking regions and five different news domains, it discusses the benefit of register analysis in a systemic functional framework to comparing varieties and determining their developmental status. For this purpose, it starts with revisiting the states of the art in the fields of media studies, text analysis and variational studies, and then combines the three strands to result in an operationalization of register parameters and thus the basis for the analysis. The results are presented for each parameter as well as in terms of correlations, and are visualized frequently. After a discussion of the findings, the work considers their implications for the theory and method as well as the author's ideas for enhancements and future research.

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The U.S. Constitution was written more than 230 years ago for a new country on the periphery of the world. Two centuries later, it governs the most powerful nation on earth, and its meaning is constantly debated. The U.S. Constitution in Five Minutes presents fifty-nine essays on subjects central to the meaning and application of the U.S. Constitution. Written by scholars, these essays cover origins; institutions, processes, and structural features; civil rights and liberties; and modes of interpretation and address common questions and misunderstandings about the Constitution, such as: • Can the president start a war? • Does the Constitution protect hate speech? • Does the Second Amendment give everyone the right to have a gun? • Does the Constitution protect noncitizens? • How can we tell what the Constitution means? Intended for anyone who wants a deeper understanding of the underlying principles of the U.S. political system, the book will also be a valuable supplement to political science courses. As with all the “Five Minutes” books, the essays are written in lively and accessible prose and are brief enough to be read in five minutes.

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Dora Bright was a 'stage star' before the term 'star' had even been invented. After a successful period at the Royal Academy of Music, reports of her ability circulated the globe from America, across Europe and as far as Australia. She became known as one of the finest pianists of her generation and was the first woman to be invited to perform at a Philharmonic Society concert in 1892, where she performed her newly composed Fantasia No. 2. A woman of considerable determination and stamina, she was at the forefront of the English Musical Renaissance at the turn of the twentieth century, and an avid supporter of the music of her friends and colleagues. Marriage did not prevent her from performing and composing, but the death of her husband made her turn away from public view for a time as she mourned his loss. Returning to the stage, she became friends with Adeline Genee, and together they returned English ballet to the centre of London Theatre, and were key to the creation of the Royal Academy of Dancing. This book takes the reader from the arrival of Dora Bright's grandfather in Sheffield in 1769 through to her death in 1951 providing, through a rich variety of archival materials, a public perspective on the life of this important, but now little-known, musician and composer.

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Atheism in Five Minutes offers insights into a number of commonly held questions about the ideas, practices and attitudes concerning atheism and atheists. The volume highlights approaches based on the study of religion, sociology, history, anthropology, politics and psychology. It also examines the implications and assumptions in common questions about atheism. Ideal for both classroom use and personal study, some of the questions asked include: Are atheists immoral? Are children born atheist? Do atheists have rituals? How has atheism related to politics? Why do some atheists remain members of religious groups? Is it difficult to be an atheist in Muslim countries? Do atheist parents have atheist children? Why are there so few black atheists? What are the most atheistic societies? Has the Internet made atheism more popular? Each essay is based on the latest research written by a leading scholar in the field. They offer concise and thoughtful answers along with suggestions for further reading.

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Cooperative Learning through a Reflective Lens explores cooperative learning through the lens of reflective language teaching, delving into a wide range of issues on which teachers will want to reflect and suggesting ways that they could do that reflection. The book begins with background on cooperative learning including its theoretical roots and the research which supports its use. Next, eight principles for using cooperative learning are explained and examples are given as to how to implement those principles. Further highlighting the book' practical focus is a chapter on nuts and bolts matters that need to be considered when teachers help their students do cooperative learning. Of course, the light of reflection shines throughout the book, including in a chapter on how to encourage reflection among students on their own learning and on the functioning of their cooperative learning groups. Another chapter offers guidance on how reflection can inform teachers' use of cooperative learning with their students, as well as teachers' cooperation with their colleagues. The book finishes with example lessons which bring to life the principles and practicalities discussed in earlier chapters of the book.

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Twenty years ago some biblical scholars at the University of Copenhagen were denounced as being nihilists and a threat to western civilization. What was their crime? They had exposed the fallacies of traditional historical-critical biblical scholarship, which was neither historical nor critical. Although the historical-critical interpretation of the Bible had developed over a period of more than a hundred years, it had ended up, with the help of a rationalistic paraphrase of the stories of the Old Testament, creating a society out of this world called biblical Israel. Israel was like no other society in the ancient world, and scarcely a real historic society at all. It was structured like a house of cards. Therefore, when some scholars began to question the historical content of the construction of ancient Israel, as it was usually called, the edifice broke down, first in bits and then totally. This study addresses the development of 'Minimalism' from its roots in the historical-critical paradigm and outlines an alternative theory which exposes and explains the intention behind the fallacy of using a story found in the Old Testament to simply invent the biblical concept of Israel.

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