Search results for """ "The Varieties of Religious Experience A Study in Human Nature""

Book SynopsisIn 1901, William James was appointed as Gifford Lecturer on Natural Religion at the University of Edinburgh. This book is composed of the lectures he gave during that time.

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Book Synopsis'Is life worth living? Yes, a thousand times yes when the world still holds such spirits as Professor James.' - Gertrude SteinA classic of American thought, William Jamesâ The Varieties of Religious Experience is an extraordinary study of human spirituality in all its forms and one of the most profound works of Psychology ever written. When the book was published in 1902 the study of the human mind was a thrillingly new field of scientific enquiry: James was one of the first to seriously examine the psychology of religious faith and where he led, both Jung and Freud would follow. Yet for all its historical significance, this is a book full of humanity, wit and some deeply personal stories of revelation, religious devotion and mystical experience.The Routledge Classics edition of The Varieties of Religious Experience makes available in paperback for the first time the Centenary Edition published by Routledge in 2002 with new iTable of ContentsForeword to the Centenary Edition by Micky James Editors Preface by Eugene Taylor and Jeremy Carrette Introduction by Eugene Taylor: The Spiritual Roots of James's Varieties of Religious Experience Introduction by Jeremy Carrette: The Return to James: Psychology, Religion and the Amnesia of Neuroscience Preface from the 1902 Edition, THE VARIETIES OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE BY WILLIAM JAMES, Index.

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Book SynopsisWilliam James (18421910), the pioneering American philosopher and psychologist, was invited to deliver the prestigious Gifford Lectures at Edinburgh University in 19012. In this resulting collection of his lectures, published in 1902 and reprinted many times, James explores the theme of personal religious experience.Table of ContentsPreface; 1. Religion and neurology; 2. Circumscription of the topic; 3. The reality of the unseen; 4. and 5. The religion of healthy-mindedness; 6. and 7. The sick soul; 8. The divided self, and the process of its unification; 9. Conversion; 10. Conversion, concluded; 11., 12., and 13. Saintliness; 14. and 15. The value of saintliness; 16. and 17. Mysticism; 18. Philosophy; 19. Other characteristics; 20. Conclusions; Postscript; Index.

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Book SynopsisStanding at the crossroads of psychology and religion, this catalyzing work applied the scientific method to a field abounding in abstract theory. William James believed that individual religious experiences, rather than the precepts of organized religions, were the backbone of the world''s religious life. His discussions of conversion, repentance, mysticism and saintliness, and his observations on actual, personal religious experiences - all support this thesis. In his introduction, Martin E. Marty discusses how James''s pluralistic view of religion led to his remarkable tolerance of extreme forms of religious behaviour, his challenging, highly original theories, and his welcome lack of pretension in all of his observations on the individual and the divine.Table of ContentsIntroduction by Martin E. Marty Suggestions for Further Reading A Note on the Text The Varieties of Religious Experience

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Book Synopsis''By their fruits ye shall know them, not by their roots.''The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902) is William James''s classic survey of religious belief in its most personal, and often its most heterodox, aspects. Asking questions such as how we define evil to ourselves, the difference between a healthy and a divided mind, the value of saintly behaviour, and what animates and characterizes the mental landscape of sudden conversion, James''s masterpiece stands at a unique moment in the relationship between belief and culture. Faith in institutional religion and dogmatic theology was fading away, and the search for an authentic religion rooted in personality and subjectivity was a project conducted as an urgent necessity. With psychological insight, philosophical rigour, and a determination not to jump to the conclusion that in tracing religion''s mental causes we necessarily diminish its truth or value, in the Varieties James wrote a truly foundational text for modern belief.Matthew Bradley''s wide-ranging new edition examines the ideas that continue to fuel modern debates on atheism and faith. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.Trade ReviewOne of the seminal works of philosophy and theology. * Catholic Herald *

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Book SynopsisWilliam James''s The Varieties of Religious Experience was an intellectual landmark, paving the way for current study of psychology, philosophy and religious studies. In this new companion to the Varieties, key international experts provide contemporary responses to James''s book, exploring its seminal historical importance and its modern significance. Locating the Varieties within the context of James''s other works and exploring James''s views on psychology, mysticism, religious experience, emotion and truth, the sixteen articles offer new analyses of the Varieties from the perspectives of postcolonial theory, history, social theory and philosophy. As the only critical work dedicated to the cross-disciplinary influence of The Varieties of Religious Experience, this book testifies to William James''s genius and ongoing legacy.Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Notes on Contributors Introduction The Centenary and the Varieties of Interpretation Section 1: James and the History of Psychology 1. Metaphysics and Consciousness in James's Varieties: Origins, Meaning, and Effects 2. Psychologies as Ontology-Making Practices: William James and the Pluralities of Psychological Experience Section 2: James, Psychology and Religion 3. Listening to James a Century Later: The Varieties as a Resource for Renewing the Psychology of Religion 4. The Varieties, the Principles and Psychology of Religion: Unremitting Inspiration from a Different Source 5. Passionate Belief: William James, Emotion and Religious Experience Section 3: James and Mysticism 6. For an Engaged Reading: William James and the Varieties of Postmodern Religious Experience 7. Asian Religions and Mysticism: The Legacy of William James in the History of Religions 8: James and Freud on Mysticism 9. Mystical Assessments: Jamesian Reflections on Spiritual Judgements Section 4: James and Philosophy 10. Varieties of Experience and Pluralities of Perspectives Ruth Putnam 11. The Ecumenicalism of William James 12. James on Truth (Again) 13. Pragmatism and Religious Belief in William James 14. William James as a Religious Realist 15. James' Arationality and its Religious Extremum in the Light of the Concept of Pure Experience Conclusion Experience and the Value of Religion: Overview and Analysis

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Book SynopsisThis work aims to defines the question ""Is there a human nature""? It argues that we know our nature only when it is recognized by our culture and that the liberal democratic idea of the state both celebrates and threatens the notion of fundamental human equality.Trade Review“An exploration of human nature in its various manifestations, this volume makes a valuable contribution to the search for the basis of a common morality.” —The Heythrop Journal

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Book SynopsisBioethicist Stephen G. Post argues that human beings are, by nature, inclined toward a presence in the universe that is higher than their own. In consequence, the institutions of everyday life are not justifed in censoring the spiritual and religious expression that arises from the human spirit.Trade Review"This is a well reasoned and clearly presented thesis that merits serious consideration by thoughtful readers. Recommended for academic and public libraries.” —Library Journal“It is long past time, Stephen Post persuasively argues, to stop tying ourselves into legal, philosophical, and psychological knots in trying to deny the obvious. The obvious is that people are, in maddeningly diverse ways, religious, and that the way people are is a public reality to be welcomed in order to make our common life more authentically human. This book both provokes and convinces.” —First Things"...Post has itegrated diverse sources into an inclusive argument."—Journal of Religion“Although Post’s conclusion is controversial... his premise is nonetheless compelling....” —ForeWord Magazine“… a provocative proposal … Post’s kind of public square would enable millions of Americans to speak where they have felt silenced, and to speak in their native tongue rather than an awkward second language.” —Journal of Church and State“Professor Post’s thought transcends sectarian boundaries by reason of his stress on the givens of human nature. His rigorous demonstration that by nature humanity should enjoy and exercise freedom of religious expression uncovers the foundations, in natural theology, for liberty — an important and urgent proposition. His book sets forth a strenuous argument on behalf of fundamental principles and demands a close reading.” —Jacob Neusner, Bard College“St. Augustine once wrote that our hearts will remain ‘restless till they find their rest in God.’ Stephen Post vindicates Augustine’s insight by mapping acutely our natural inclinations and intuitions of the divine. He also elaborates Augustine’s insight by arguing that our souls will become listless if they are forbidden to speak and our democracies will become feckless if they are forbidden to hear the public voices of religion. This is an elegant, erudite, and engaging meditation that brings the best of law, religion, and science into a rare and powerful combination.” —John Witte, Jr., Emory University"... sharply reasoned and passionate.... This is a boldly creative presentation, with a useful index and rigorous contemporary sourceing, underscoring its obvious relevance to current debates about the place of religious sentiment in the public square. ...this eclectic, reflective book will prove valuable to readers and researchers in religion, psychology, political science, and the law." —Choice"...this work represents a valuable contribution to the discussion of religious freedom, and will be appreciated by a wide audience. Using convincing evidence from medical and neurological studies, Post has demonstrated that religious inclination lies at the heart of what it means to be human."—Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith“This book is a valuable addition to the growing literature proposing promising alternatives to what has been called the naked public square.” —First Things“Stephen Post has done the culture a great favor. He has made religious liberty a question, not of who God is, but of who we are. And that is a question that people from many different traditions can all meaningfully engage. Agree with him or disagree with him about the finer points, you'll have to admit the debate over religion in public life will never be the same.” —Kevin J. “Seamus” Hasson, President of The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty“...a commonsense critique...” —Research News and Opportunities in Science and Theology, October 2003

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Book SynopsisBioethicist Stephen G. Post argues that human beings are, by nature, inclined toward a presence in the universe that is higher than their own. In consequence, the institutions of everyday life are not justifed in censoring the spiritual and religious expression that arises from the human spirit.Trade Review"This is a well reasoned and clearly presented thesis that merits serious consideration by thoughtful readers. Recommended for academic and public libraries.” —Library Journal“It is long past time, Stephen Post persuasively argues, to stop tying ourselves into legal, philosophical, and psychological knots in trying to deny the obvious. The obvious is that people are, in maddeningly diverse ways, religious, and that the way people are is a public reality to be welcomed in order to make our common life more authentically human. This book both provokes and convinces.” —First Things"...Post has itegrated diverse sources into an inclusive argument."—Journal of Religion“Although Post’s conclusion is controversial... his premise is nonetheless compelling....” —ForeWord Magazine“… a provocative proposal … Post’s kind of public square would enable millions of Americans to speak where they have felt silenced, and to speak in their native tongue rather than an awkward second language.” —Journal of Church and State“Professor Post’s thought transcends sectarian boundaries by reason of his stress on the givens of human nature. His rigorous demonstration that by nature humanity should enjoy and exercise freedom of religious expression uncovers the foundations, in natural theology, for liberty — an important and urgent proposition. His book sets forth a strenuous argument on behalf of fundamental principles and demands a close reading.” —Jacob Neusner, Bard College“St. Augustine once wrote that our hearts will remain ‘restless till they find their rest in God.’ Stephen Post vindicates Augustine’s insight by mapping acutely our natural inclinations and intuitions of the divine. He also elaborates Augustine’s insight by arguing that our souls will become listless if they are forbidden to speak and our democracies will become feckless if they are forbidden to hear the public voices of religion. This is an elegant, erudite, and engaging meditation that brings the best of law, religion, and science into a rare and powerful combination.” —John Witte, Jr., Emory University"... sharply reasoned and passionate.... This is a boldly creative presentation, with a useful index and rigorous contemporary sourceing, underscoring its obvious relevance to current debates about the place of religious sentiment in the public square. ...this eclectic, reflective book will prove valuable to readers and researchers in religion, psychology, political science, and the law." —Choice"...this work represents a valuable contribution to the discussion of religious freedom, and will be appreciated by a wide audience. Using convincing evidence from medical and neurological studies, Post has demonstrated that religious inclination lies at the heart of what it means to be human."—Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith“This book is a valuable addition to the growing literature proposing promising alternatives to what has been called the naked public square.” —First Things“Stephen Post has done the culture a great favor. He has made religious liberty a question, not of who God is, but of who we are. And that is a question that people from many different traditions can all meaningfully engage. Agree with him or disagree with him about the finer points, you'll have to admit the debate over religion in public life will never be the same.” —Kevin J. “Seamus” Hasson, President of The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty“...a commonsense critique...” —Research News and Opportunities in Science and Theology, October 2003

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Book SynopsisA respected scholar offers an introduction to the intriguing topic of religious experience and its viability as support for Christian belief.Table of ContentsContentsIntroduction1. Religious Experience: Mapping the Conceptual Territory2. Religious Experience and Interpretation3. The Critical-Trust Approach4. Edwards and Wesley on Experiencing God5. Experiencing God, Basic Beliefs, and the Holy Spirit6. Mysticism7. Theistic Experiences and Religious DiversityConclusionIndex

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

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Book SynopsisThoughtful essays to revive dialogue about atheism beyond belief. The Varieties of Atheism reveals the diverse nonreligious experiences obscured by the combative intellectualism of Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, and Christopher Hitchens. In fact, contributors contend that narrowly defining atheism as the belief that there is no god misunderstands religious and nonreligious persons altogether. The essays show that, just as religion exceeds doctrine, atheism also encompasses every dimension of human life: from imagination and feeling to community and ethics. Contributors offer new, expansive perspectives on atheism's diverse history and possible futures. By recovering lines of affinity and tension between particular atheists and particular religious traditions, this book paves the way for fruitful conversation between religious and non-religious people in our secular age.Trade Review“What does it mean to be an atheist? It’s not just one thing, it’s not just disbelief in god. There’s a positive expression connected to ideas of ethics, our relationship with authority, how reason and experience and the material world inform our lives, when does science become moral–these are big questions that we have to ask. This book points the way to a positive belief.” * Beyond Atheism Podcast *"Fundamental for anyone interested in the study of atheism." * Reading Religion *“What is atheism? Neither a mere negation, nor a single (self-evident?) truth: this book makes clear that it is as rich, varied, and nuanced as religion itself. To call yourself an atheist is not to state a position, but to start a conversation—a conversation for which this book is an excellent primer.” -- Alec Ryrie, author of 'Unbelievers: An Emotional History of Doubt'“An excellent collection of essays by well-established and up-and-coming voices in religious studies, this book is both critical of New Atheism’s reductive critique of religion and constructive with new possibilities—theological, philosophical, ethical, and political. It enriches the debates by giving atheism histories and subtleties that debates themselves frequently lack.” -- Graham Ward, University of Oxford“Just as contemporary scholars of religion have pushed us to move beyond simplistic equations between religion and belief, this stimulating collection of essays urges us to recognize that atheism also comes in many varieties. By exploring the implications of different forms of atheism and their relation to different conceptions of science, politics, power, ethics, literature, and, indeed, life, this book is a major contribution to the study of religion and its critics. Anyone interested in the relation between religion and the modern world will have much to learn from this exciting collection.” -- Leora Batnitzky, Princeton UniversityTable of ContentsIntroduction The Genealogy of Atheism David Newheiser 1 Atheism and Science: On Einstein’s “Cosmic Religious Sense” Mary-Jane Rubenstein 2 Atheism and Society: Hume’s Prefiguration of Rorty Andre C. Willis 3 Atheism and Power: Nietzsche, Nominalism, and the Reductive Spirit Denys Turner 4 Atheism and Ethics: Recovering the Link between Truth and Transformation Susannah Ticciati 5 Atheism and Metaphysics: A Problem of Apophatic Theology Henning Tegtmeyer 6 Atheism and Politics: Abandonment, Absence, and the Empty Throne Devin Singh 7 Atheism and Literature: Living without God in Dante’s Comedy Vittorio Montemaggi 8 Atheism and the Affirmation of Life: Dostoevsky’s Response to Russian Nihilism George Pattison Afterword: The Drama of Atheism Constance M. Furey Acknowledgments Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisMaking a case for the use of affect theory in religious studies, Donovan O. Schaefer challenges the notion that religion is inextricably linked to language and cognition, contending instead that religion is primarily driven by affect and that non-human animals have the capacity to practice religion.Trade Review"Religious Affects represents a challenge to decenter our anthropocentric presuppositions more broadly, and, by appealing to human animality, provides a provocative angle for imagining affect over and above the all-toohuman parameters that usually characterize religious studies.... [M]any scholars will find Schaefer’s animal religion and his strategies for affective readings of religious phenomena both theoretically exciting and critically useful." -- Abigail Kluchin * Journal of the American Academy of Religion *"Schaefer’s book is fascinating, mind-expanding, and entirely worth a read." -- Barbara J. King * Atlantic *"Religious Affects is an original and challenging argument for the discipline, especially to social-constructionist approaches, as it aims to radically reconfigure how we think about religion as a phenomenon grounded in feelings and emotions (affects) that humans share with the animal world." -- Matt Sheedy * Religious Studies Review *"For all its breadth in Religious Affects Schaefer develops a well-crafted argument and clarion call:the study of religion must include,at its very core, the study of affect.... Schaefer's project is timely in an urgent sense." -- Jonathan Russell * Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory *"Religious Affects offers a new way to use affect theory to understand religion that better accounts for its connections with politics, globalization, and power." -- Staci Poston Conner * Affectsphere *"Schaefer . . . is blazing a trail in religious studies." -- Jonathan Benthall * TLS *"Religious Affects is an important book, rendering helpful therapy for some of the myopic methodological tendencies that can afflict the field of religious studies." -- Jason N. Blum * Syndicate *"[Schaefer's] approach to reading affect theory through the lens of animality will enrich critical engagement with the concept of religion as a theoretical tool and as a word of power in the world." -- Pamela Klassen * Syndicate *"Religious Affects comfortably belongs on the bookshelves of those who work with affect theory or in critical animal studies. For religious scholars, or anyone interested in affect theory or critical animal studies, it serves as a concise and valuable introduction to these theories, providing explanations, histories, applications, and paving ways for future scholarship." -- Alexander Cox-Twardowski * Journal of Religion and Popular Culture *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction. Species, Religious Studies, and the Affective Turn 1 1. Religion, Language, and Affect 19 2. Intransigence: Power, Embodiment, and the Two Types of Affect Theory 36 3. Teaching Religion, Emotion, and Global Cinema 60 4. Compulsion: Affect, Desire, and Materiality 92 5. Savages: Ideology, Primatology, and Islamophobia 120 6. Accident: Animalism, Evolution, and Affective Economies 147 7. A Theory of the Waterfall Dance: On Accident, Language, and Animal Religion 178 Conclusion. Under the Rose 206 Notes 219 Bibliography 261 Index 281

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Book SynopsisEnthusiasm for the operas of composer Richard Wagner (1813-1883) flourished in fin-de-siècle France, fed by fascination for the medieval history and literature that inspired his work. Philosopher Marcel Hébert developed his Religious Experience in the Work of Richard Wagner (1895) from this background of sustained popular interest in Wagner.

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Book Synopsis'At a historic moment, when religion shows all its social and political strength in various post-modern societies around our globe, this fascinating collection of studies from the Middle Ages to twentieth-century Europe demonstrates all the richness and innovative force of investigating individual and shared experiences when questioning the cultural, political and social place of religion in society. It also makes known in English the work of a series of Finnish historians elaborating together a pioneering vision of the notion of experience in the discipline of history.'- Piroska Nagy, Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada This open access book offers a theoretical introduction to the history of experience on three conceptual levels: everyday experience, experience as process, and experience as structure. Chapters apply 'experience' to empirical case studies, exploring how people have made and shared their religion through experience in history. This book understands experience as a simultaneously socially constructed and intimately personal process that connects individuals to communities and past to future, thereby forming structures that create and direct societies. It represents the crossroads of a new field of the history of experience, and an established tradition of the history of lived religion. Chapters offer a longue durée view from the fourteenth-century heretics, via experiences of miracle, madness, sickness, suffering, prayer, conversion and death, to the religious artisanship of soldiers in the Second World War frontlines. It concentrates on Northern Europe, but includes materials from Italy, France and United Kingdom.Table of Contents1. Introduction: Religion as historical experience, by Sari Katajala-Peltomaa and Raisa Maria Toivo2. From lived reality to a cultural script: Punishment miracles as an experience- Sari Katajala-Peltomaa3. A taste of dissent. Experiences of heretical blessed bread as a dimension of lived religion in 13th- and early 14th-century Languedoc- Saku Pihko4. The religious experience of ill health in late 16th-century Italy- Jenni Kuuliala5. Prayer and the body in lay religious experience in early modern Finland- Raisa Maria Toivo6. Extended families as communities of religious experience in late 17th-century eastern Finland- Miia Kuha7. Constructing “mad” religious experiences in early modern Sweden- Riikka Miettinen8. The trials of Sarah Wheeler (1807-1867) – experiencing submission- Mervi Kaarninen9. Working-class women living religion in Finland at the turn of the 20th century- Pirjo Markkola10. To the undiscovered country: Facing death in early twentieth-century Finnish poorhouses- Johanna Annola11. Artisans of religion at the moral frontiers: Finnish soldiers’ religious practices, beliefs, and attitudes in World War II- Ville Kivimäki

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Book SynopsisBy what narrow path is the ineffable silence of Zen cleft by the scratch of a pen? The distilled insights of forty years, Norman Fischer’s Experience is a collection of essays about experimental writing as a spiritual practice. Fischer’s work has been deeply enriched through his collaborations with leading rabbis, poets, artists, Zen Buddhist practitioners, Trappist monks, and Buddhist leaders.

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Book SynopsisThe postmodern view that human experience is constructed by language and culture has informed historical narratives for decades. This title offers an account of American religious history to highlight the biological body. It also offers a framework for explaining the richness, diversity, and endless creativity of American religious life.Trade Review"What would a history of American religion look like if it were grounded in a shared human biology, in the genetics, hormones, sexual organs, bilateral structures, and sensorium of the human body? That is precisely what Robert C. Fuller gives us in The Body of Faith. I was deeply inspired and moved by it." (Jeffrey J. Kripal, author of Authors of the Impossible: The Paranormal and the Sacred)"

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Book SynopsisAttempting to provide a revitalized, self-aware vocabulary with which the religious diversity of the 20th century can be accurately described and responsibly discussed, this book contains contributions from scholars working in a variety of religious traditions.

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Book SynopsisThis study reveals an unorganized and previously unacknowledged religion at the heart of American culture. Nature, Albanese argues, has provided a compelling religious center throughout American history.

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Book SynopsisReflects on the relations of faith and culture. This book explores the contact between the spiritual life of the individual and the social and economic organization of modern culture. It focuses on the passing of industrialism, Catholic understanding of the human person, Islamic mysticism, and a Christian account of sexuality.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“What does it mean to be an atheist? It’s not just one thing, it’s not just disbelief in god. There’s a positive expression connected to ideas of ethics, our relationship with authority, how reason and experience and the material world inform our lives, when does science become moral–these are big questions that we have to ask. This book points the way to a positive belief.” * Beyond Atheism Podcast *"Fundamental for anyone interested in the study of atheism." * Reading Religion *“What is atheism? Neither a mere negation, nor a single (self-evident?) truth: this book makes clear that it is as rich, varied, and nuanced as religion itself. To call yourself an atheist is not to state a position, but to start a conversation—a conversation for which this book is an excellent primer.” -- Alec Ryrie, author of 'Unbelievers: An Emotional History of Doubt'“An excellent collection of essays by well-established and up-and-coming voices in religious studies, this book is both critical of New Atheism’s reductive critique of religion and constructive with new possibilities—theological, philosophical, ethical, and political. It enriches the debates by giving atheism histories and subtleties that debates themselves frequently lack.” -- Graham Ward, University of Oxford“Just as contemporary scholars of religion have pushed us to move beyond simplistic equations between religion and belief, this stimulating collection of essays urges us to recognize that atheism also comes in many varieties. By exploring the implications of different forms of atheism and their relation to different conceptions of science, politics, power, ethics, literature, and, indeed, life, this book is a major contribution to the study of religion and its critics. Anyone interested in the relation between religion and the modern world will have much to learn from this exciting collection.” -- Leora Batnitzky, Princeton UniversityTable of ContentsIntroduction The Genealogy of Atheism David Newheiser 1 Atheism and Science: On Einstein’s “Cosmic Religious Sense” Mary-Jane Rubenstein 2 Atheism and Society: Hume’s Prefiguration of Rorty Andre C. Willis 3 Atheism and Power: Nietzsche, Nominalism, and the Reductive Spirit Denys Turner 4 Atheism and Ethics: Recovering the Link between Truth and Transformation Susannah Ticciati 5 Atheism and Metaphysics: A Problem of Apophatic Theology Henning Tegtmeyer 6 Atheism and Politics: Abandonment, Absence, and the Empty Throne Devin Singh 7 Atheism and Literature: Living without God in Dante’s Comedy Vittorio Montemaggi 8 Atheism and the Affirmation of Life: Dostoevsky’s Response to Russian Nihilism George Pattison Afterword: The Drama of Atheism Constance M. Furey Acknowledgments Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisDeals with the complexities of human behavioral research, a domain still dominated by the age-old debate of nature versus nurture. The author dissects five approaches to the study of behavior - quantitative behavioral genetics, molecular behavior genetics, developmental psychology, neurophysiology and anatomy, and social/environmental methods.Trade Review"Helen E. Longino presents many insights about different general methods, assumptions, research goals, and the importance of definitions in researching behavior. I know of no other book that covers such diverse approaches." (Peter Machamer, University of Pittsburgh)"

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Book SynopsisThis volume brings sustainability studies into creative and constructive conversation with actions, practices, and worldviews from religion and theology supportive of the vision and work of the UN SDGs. It features more than 30 chapters from scholars across diverse disciplines, including economics, ethics, theology, sociology, ritual studies, and visual culture. This interdisciplinary content presents new insights for inhibiting ecospheric devastation, which is inextricably linked to unsustainable financial, societal, racial, geopolitical, and cultural relationships. The chapters show how humanistic elements can enable the establishment of sustainable ways of thinking, feeling, and acting. This includes the aesthetic and emotive dimensions of life. The contributors cover such topics as empowering women and girls to systemically reverse climate change; nurturing interreligious peace; decolonizing landscapes; and promoting horticulture, ecovillages, equity, and animal ethics. Coverage integrates a variety of religious and theological perspectives. These include Buddhism, Judaism, Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, and other traditions.To enable the restoration and flourishing of the ecosystems of the biosphere, human societies need to be reimagined and reordered in terms of economic, cultural, religious, racial, and social equitability. This volume illustrates transformative paradigms to help foster such change. It introduces new principles, practices, ethics, and insights to the discourse. This work will appeal to students, scholars, and professionals researching the ethical, moral, social, cultural, psychological, developmental, and other social scientific impacts of religion on the key markers of sustainability.Table of ContentsPart 1. Social Justice and Harmony.- Chapter 1. Martin Luther King, Jr’s Religious Primordium (Aaron Grizzell).- Chapter 2. Betrayed by Accent: Theological Notes on a Racist Worldsound (Filipe Maia).- Chapter 3. Baby Suggs and the Clearing Rock of Ages: Womanist Theoethic of Survival Justice (Valerie Miles-Tribble).- Chapter 4. Climate Colonialism, Subversive Moral-Spiritual Power, and Religious Ethics (Cynthia Moe-Lobeda).- Chapter 5. Lift Up to Drawdown: Empowering Women and Girls to Systemically Reverse Climate Change, and Relevance to Religious Communities (Felicia Chavez).- Part 2. Religion and Sustainable Economics.- Chapter 6. Buddhist Sustainable Economics (Clair Brown).- Chapter 7. A Critique of Economic Reason Between Tradition and Modernity (Purushottama Bilimoria).- Chapter 8. A Threefold Approach of Ecology, Economy, and Theology to Face Climate change with Respect and Kindness (Myoung Ho-Sin).- Chapter 9. Industrial Agriculture and Hindu Vaiṣṇava Animal Ethics Cogen Bohanec).- Part 3. Philosophical and Theological Insights on Sustainability in Global Traditions.- Chapter 10. Tulsidas and Sustainability Through Respect of All Creation (Ramdas Lamb).- Chapter 11. Awareness is Our Birthright: Mindfulness and the Sustainability of the Present (Thomas Calobrisi).- Chapter 12. Chinese Images of Nature, Body, and Cosmos: Visualizing Human Physiology and Homeostasis with the Natural World (Anna Hennessy).- Chapter 13. The Environmental Crisis of our Time: A Muslim Response (Yasin Dutton).- Chapter 14. Relating to Nature: Rendering Nature Visible through Rituals in South Asia (Meera Baindur).- Chapter 15. Environmental Philosophy of Buddhism (Padmasiri De Silva).- Chapter 16. The Deified Cosmos: Maximos the Confessor and Sylouan the Athonite on the Deification of the Natural Order and the Love of Self (Thomas Cattoi).- Part 4. Theoethics for a Sustainable World.- Chapter 17. The Ethics of Enchantment: Spirituality and Ecological Ethics (William O'Neill).- Chapter 18. Justice and Salvation: Towards a Synergetic Sustainability (Andrea Vestrucci).- Chapter 19. Come with Old Khayyam and Leave the Wise to Talk (Freya Matthews).- Chapter 20. Healing Creation or Hearing Confession: The Role of Agency, Sickness and Repentance in the Current Ecological Crisis (Kyle Schiefelbein-Guerrero).- Chapter 21. The Eschatological Family of Life on Earth: A Christian Response to Global Climate Change (Bob Russell).- Chapter 22. Environmental Ethics and Sustainability in Indian Thought: Vision of Mahatma Gandhi (Rana P.B. Singh).- Part 5. Art, Aesthetics, and Ecological Praxis.- Chapter 23. Cultivating Atmoshakti in Indian Villages: Rabindranath Tagore's Holistic, Grass-roots Model for Developing Sustainable Rural Communities (Colette Walker).- Chapter 24. From the "Gardens" of the Qur'an to the Gardens of Lahore (James Wescoat).- Chapter 25. Decolonizing Landscapes: Artistic Activism and Eco-religious Imagination (Yohana Junker).- Chapter 26. Auroville: Land, Technology and the Micropolitics of Integral Living (Debashish Banerji).- Chapter 27. Narrative, Imagination, Transformation: Towards an Engaged Hindu Eco-Aesthetic (Rita D. Sherma).- Chapter 28. Ecocritism and Ecological Intentional Communities (Devin Zuber).- Part 6. Sustainable Relations: Towards Interreligious Spiritual Hospitality.- Chapter 29. Interreligious Relations as Friendship: M.K. Gandhi and Charles Freer Andrews (Anantananda Rambachan).- Chapter 30. Advaita Vedānta, Swami Vivekananda, and Sustainability (Jeffrey D. Long).- Chapter 31. Complete Communion As Means To A Symbiotic Religious Identity (Pravina Rodrigues).- Chapter 32. The Conditions of Hospitality in Interreligious Encounters (Joseph Prabhu).

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Book SynopsisProvides a systematic overview of the advances made by anti-secular religious movements since 1972, showing their impact on human relations, education, women's rights and scientific research. This text considers developments within Islam, Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism and Hinduism in 12 nations.

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Book SynopsisDeals with the complexities of human behavioral research, a domain still dominated by the age-old debate of nature versus nurture. The author dissects five approaches to the study of behavior - quantitative behavioral genetics, molecular behavior genetics, developmental psychology, neurophysiology and anatomy, and social/environmental methods.Trade Review"Helen E. Longino presents many insights about different general methods, assumptions, research goals, and the importance of definitions in researching behavior. I know of no other book that covers such diverse approaches." (Peter Machamer, University of Pittsburgh)"

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Book SynopsisThis work develops methods for unravelling the mysteries of emotions and aims to answer fundamental questions at the heart of emotional life. By using videotapes, interviews and ethnographic description, the author studies emotions as physical and embodied rather than as remembered and recounted.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“In Devotion, the authors probe the limits of knowledge and knowability in a way that does not devolve into a hermeneutics of suspicion. In an age of the collapse of shared narrative and con­spiracy theories ripping at coexistence, this approach might appear politically dangerous. But Devotion instead seeks to turn our inquisitive imaginaries into a way to supplement democracy . . . With its faith in literature, politics, and religion, and the imagination that they require and fuel, Devotion is a promise well kept.” * Journal of the American Academy of Religion *"The book argues that the ways in which we negotiate freedom and authority between a text and its reader impact how we interact with the world intellectually and politically. The book’s originality lies in its novel conceptualization of devotion. Furey, Hammerschlag, and Hollywood use the term to characterize a way of reading that is liberating in creating a safe space for intellectual, existential, and political experimentation . . . an act of reading that demands both fidelity and suspicion. Thus, objects of devotion are extended beyond religious texts to other genres of writing, including literature and philosophy." * Political Theology *“Devotion marvelously reveals the continuing entanglement of religious and aesthetic modes of reading. Even better, Furey, Hammerschlag, and Hollywood also offer new, cogent reflections on the politics of reading; they flag how very urgent an engagement with such politics is at a moment when liberalism and the liberal notion of the political subject seem exhausted and in crisis.” * Deidre Shauna Lynch, Harvard University *“Thanks to the kind of rigor and patience that fidelity to complexity and ambiguity demand, this volume offers up a strikingly fruitful inquiry into religion, literature, and the nature of reading. Devotion is sure to make an influential and important contribution to the recent renewal of the religion and literature subfield as well as to the philosophy of religion.” * Thomas A. Carlson, University of California—Santa Barbara *Table of ContentsIntroduction Amy Hollywood, Sarah Hammerschlag, and Constance M. Furey Vivifying Poetry: Sidney, Luther, and the Psalms Constance M. Furey A Poor Substitute for Prayer: Sarah Kofman and the Fetish of Writing Sarah Hammerschlag Dystopia, Utopia, Atopia Amy Hollywood Afterwards

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Book SynopsisThis book provides a concise introduction into twenty-one trends that are transforming the role of religion and spirituality in “re-globalizing” societies. In referring to processes of “re-globalization”, the book draws attention to profound ongoing changes in the patterns and mechanisms of contemporary globalization. Inter- and transdisciplinary in its approach, clearly structured, and easy to read, the book analyzes the impact of religious self-understanding, rhetoric, and practice on five core fields: economics, politics, culture, demography, and technology. In turn, it describes the effects of these five fields on religion and spirituality themselves.This book represents a broad, encompassing overview of the main transformations that religion is undergoing today. Roland Benedikter combines a “big picture” approach with a keen attention to the details of specific case studies. With its clear and accessible structure and timely examples, this book is ideally suited for students of international relations and religious studies, and will also appeal to researchers engaged in those fields and to interested general readers. The book is also apt to serve as an encompassing basis for contemporary debates in civil society, including both grassroots and expert discussions.Table of ContentsOverview: A “loss-of-control” age?.- Introduction: Transfiguring the ground. Religion in our days: Between return, revival and renewal.- A shifting global scenery: The age of re-globalization.- Re-globalization: An array of factors shaking the fundamentals of neoliberal globalization.- Religious re-globalization rhetoric from the United Nations.- The changing European-Western setting: Post-postmodernity and meta-modernity as carriers of a renaissance of values towards “everyday spirituality”?.

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