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By Andreas Schweizer. 2011
"The ancient Egyptian sources come alive, speaking to us without seeming alien to our modern ways of thinking. Andreas Schweizer…
invites us to join the nocturnal voyage of the solar barque and to immerse ourselves, with the 'Great Soul' of the sun, into the darkness surrounding us. Here in the illustrations and texts of the Amduat, threats hidden in the depths of our soul become visible as concrete images, an analysis of which remains ever worthwhile: even in the guise of the evil, ominous, or dark side of godhead with which Schweizer concerns himself. The netherworld into which we descend underlies our own world. Creative energies of dreadful intensity are active there, and only death, to which all must surrender, makes us truly alive by offering us regeneration from the depths."—Erik Hornung, from the ForewordThe Amduat (literally "that which is in the netherworld") tells the story of the nocturnal journey of Re, the Egyptian Sungod, through the netherworld from the time when the sun dies, after setting in the west, to its rebirth at sunrise in the east. In the middle of the night, in the profoundest depths of the netherworld, this resurrection is made possible by a mystical union of the sun with the mummified body of Osiris, god of the dead. This great mystery of the union between the freely moving soul of the Sungod, longing for the bright and boundless sky, with Osiris's corpse, which is irrevocably bound to the subterranean realm of the dead, evokes the renewal of all life and the restoration of totality. In the Egyptian belief system, the pharaohs and in later times all blessed dead embarked on this same "night-sea journey" after death, ultimately becoming one with Re and living forever. The vision of the afterlife elaborated in the Amduat, dating from around 1500 B.C.E., has been influential for millennia, providing the model for an entire genre of Egyptian literature, the Books of the Afterlife, which in turn endured into the Greco-Roman era. Its themes and images persisted into gnostic and alchemical texts and made their way into early Christian portrayals of the beyond. In The Sungod's Journey through the Netherworld, Andreas Schweizer guides the reader through the Amduat, offering a psychological interpretation of its principal textual and iconographic elements. He is concerned with themes that run deep and wide in human experience, drawing on Jungian archetypes to find similar expression in many cultures worldwide: sleep as death; resurrection as reawakening or rebirth; and salvation or redemption, whether from original sin (as for Christians) or from the total annihilation of death (as for the ancient Egyptians).By John H. Smith. 2011
The contemporary theologian Hans Küng has asked if the "death of God," proclaimed by Nietzsche as the event of modernity,…
was inevitable. Did the empowering of new forms of rationality in Western culture beginning around 1500 lead necessarily to the reduction or privatization of faith? In Dialogues between Faith and Reason, John H. Smith traces a major line in the history of theology and the philosophy of religion down the "slippery slope" of secularization—from Luther and Erasmus, through Idealism, to Nietzsche, Heidegger, and contemporary theory such as that of Derrida, Habermas, Vattimo, and Asad. At the same time, Smith points to the persistence of a tradition that grew out of the Reformation and continues in the mostly Protestant philosophical reflection on whether and how faith can be justified by reason. In this accessible and vigorously argued book, Smith posits that faith and reason have long been locked in mutual engagement in which they productively challenge each other as partners in an ongoing "dialogue."Smith is struck by the fact that although in the secularized West the death of God is said to be fundamental to the modern condition, our current post-modernity is often characterized as a "postsecular" time. For Smith, this means not only that we are experiencing a broad-based "return of religion" but also, and more important for his argument, that we are now able to recognize the role of religion within the history of modernity. Emphasizing that, thanks to the logos located "in the beginning," the death of God is part of the inner logic of the Christian tradition, he argues that this same strand of reasoning also ensures that God will always "return" (often in new forms). In Smith's view, rational reflection on God has both undermined and justified faith, while faith has rejected and relied on rational argument. Neither a defense of atheism nor a call to belief, his book explores the long history of their interaction in modern religious and philosophical thought.By Michael A. Ryan. 2017
Astrology in the Middle Ages was considered a branch of the magical arts, one informed by Jewish and Muslim scientific…
knowledge in Muslim Spain. As such it was deeply troubling to some Church authorities. Using the stars and planets to divine the future ran counter to the orthodox Christian notion that human beings have free will, and some clerical authorities argued that it almost certainly entailed the summoning of spiritual forces considered diabolical. We know that occult beliefs and practices became widespread in the later Middle Ages, but there is much about the phenomenon that we do not understand. For instance, how deeply did occult beliefs penetrate courtly culture and what exactly did those in positions of power hope to gain by interacting with the occult? In A Kingdom of Stargazers, Michael A. Ryan examines the interest in astrology in the Iberian kingdom of Aragon, where ideas about magic and the occult were deeply intertwined with notions of power, authority, and providence. Ryan focuses on the reigns of Pere III (1336–1387) and his sons Joan I (1387–1395) and Martí I (1395–1410). Pere and Joan spent lavish amounts of money on astrological writings, and astrologers held great sway within their courts. When Martí I took the throne, however, he was determined to purge Joan’s courtiers and return to religious orthodoxy. As Ryan shows, the appeal of astrology to those in power was clear: predicting the future through divination was a valuable tool for addressing the extraordinary problems—political, religious, demographic—plaguing Europe in the fourteenth century. Meanwhile, the kings' contemporaries within the noble, ecclesiastical, and mercantile elite had their own reasons for wanting to know what the future held, but their engagement with the occult was directly related to the amount of power and authority the monarch exhibited and applied. A Kingdom of Stargazers joins a growing body of scholarship that explores the mixing of religious and magical ideas in the late Middle Ages.By Paul Spickard, Jane Naomi Iwamura. 2003
Considered the most authoritative single-volume reference work on Islam in the contemporary world, the German-language Der Islam in der Gegenwart,…
currently in its fifth edition, offers a wealth of authoritative information on the religious, political, social, and cultural life of Islamic nations and of Islamic immigrant communities elsewhere. Now, Cornell University Press is making this invaluable resource accessible to English-language readers. More current than the latest German edition on which it is based, Islam in the World Today covers a comprehensive array of topics in concise essays by some of the world's leading experts on Islam, including:• the history of Islam from the earliest years through the twentieth century, with particular attention to Sunni and Shi'i Islam and Islamic revival movements during the last three centuries;• data on the advance of Islam along with current population statistics;• Muslim ideas on modern economics, on social order, and on attempts to modernize Islamic law (shari'a) and apply it in contemporary Muslim societies;• Islam in diaspora, especially the situation in Europe and America;• secularism, democracy, and human rights; and• women in IslamTwenty-four essays are each devoted to a specific Muslim country or a country with significant Muslim minorities, spanning Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and the former Soviet Union. Additional essays illuminate Islamic culture, exploring local traditions; the languages and dialects of Muslim peoples; and art, architecture, and literature. Detailed bibliographies and indexes ensure the book's usefulness as a reference work.The dominant theme of post-Holocaust Jewish theology has been that of the temporary hiddenness of God, interpreted either as a…
divine mystery or, more commonly, as God's deferral to human freedom. But traditional Judaic obligations of female presence, together with the traditional image of the Shekhinah as a figure of God's 'femaleness' accompanying Israel into exile, seem to contradict such theologies of absence. The Female Face of God in Auschwitz, the first full-length feminist theology of the Holocaust, argues that the patriarchal bias of post-Holocaust theology becomes fully apparent only when women's experiences and priorities are brought into historical light. Building upon the published testimonies of four women imprisoned at Auschwitz-Birkenau - Olga Lengyel, Lucie Adelsberger, Bertha Ferderber-Salz and Sara Nomberg-Przytyk - it considers women's distinct experiences of the holy in relation to God's perceived presence and absence in the camps. God's face, says Melissa Raphael, was not hidden in Auschwitz, but intimately revealed in the female face turned towards the other as a refractive image of God, especially in the moral protest made visible through material and spiritual care for the assaulted other.By Brigid O'Farrell. 2011
Although born to a life of privilege and married to the President of the United States, Eleanor Roosevelt was a…
staunch and lifelong advocate for workers and, for more than twenty-five years, a proud member of the AFL-CIO's Newspaper Guild. She Was One of Us tells for the first time the story of her deep and lasting ties to the American labor movement. Brigid O'Farrell follows Roosevelt—one of the most admired and, in her time, controversial women in the world—from the tenements of New York City to the White House, from local union halls to the convention floor of the AFL-CIO, from coal mines to political rallies to the United Nations. Roosevelt worked with activists around the world to develop a shared vision of labor rights as human rights, which are central to democracy. In her view, everyone had the right to a decent job, fair working conditions, a living wage, and a voice at work. She Was One of Us provides a fresh and compelling account of her activities on behalf of workers, her guiding principles, her circle of friends—including Rose Schneiderman of the Women's Trade Union League and the garment unions and Walter Reuther, "the most dangerous man in Detroit"—and her adversaries, such as the influential journalist Westbrook Pegler, who attacked her as a dilettante and her labor allies as "thugs and extortioners." As O'Farrell makes clear, Roosevelt was not afraid to take on opponents of workers' rights or to criticize labor leaders if they abused their power; she never wavered in her support for the rank and file. Today, union membership has declined to levels not seen since the Great Depression, and the silencing of American workers has contributed to rising inequality. In She Was One of Us, Eleanor Roosevelt's voice can once again be heard by those still working for social justice and human rights.By Steven Vanderputten. 2018
In Dark Age Nunneries, Steven Vanderputten dismantles the common view of women religious between 800 and 1050 as disempowered or…
even disinterested witnesses to their own lives. It is based on a study of primary sources from forty female monastic communities in Lotharingia—a politically and culturally diverse region that boasted an extraordinarily high number of such institutions. Vanderputten highlights the attempts by women religious and their leaders, as well as the clerics and the laymen and -women sympathetic to their cause, to construct localized narratives of self, preserve or expand their agency as religious communities, and remain involved in shaping the attitudes and behaviors of the laity amid changing contexts and expectations on the part of the Church and secular authorities.Rather than a "dark age" in which female monasticism withered under such factors as the assertion of male religious authority, the secularization of its institutions, and the precipitous decline of their intellectual and spiritual life, Vanderputten finds that the post-Carolingian period witnessed a remarkable adaptability among these women. Through texts, objects, archaeological remains, and iconography, Dark Age Nunneries offers scholars of religion, medieval history, and gender studies new ways to understand the experience of women of faith within the Church and across society during this era.By John Milbank. 2003
Being Reconciled is a radical and entirely fresh theological treatment of the classic theory of the Gift in the context…
of divine reconciliation. It reconsiders notions of freedom and exchange in relation to a Christian doctrine which understands Creation, grace and incarnation as heavenly gifts, but the Fall, evil and violence as refusal of those gifts. In a sustained and rigorous response to the works of Derrida, Levinas, Marion, Zizek, Hauerwas and the 'Radical Evil' school, John Milbank posits the daring view that only transmission of the forgiveness offered by the Divine Humanity makes reconciliation possible on earth. Any philosophical understanding of forgiveness and redemption therefore requires theological completion.Both a critique of post-Kantian modernity, and a new theology that engages with issues of language, culture, time, politics and historicity, Being Reconciled insists on the dependency of all human production and understanding on a God who is infinite in both utterance and capacity. Intended as the first in a trilogy of books centred on the gift, this book is an original and vivid new application of a classic theory by a leading international theologian.By R. W. Beardsmore. 2003
By Jacob K. Olupona. 2003
What role do indigenous religions play in today's world? Beyond Primitivism is a complete appraisal of indigenous religions - faiths…
integrally connected to the cultures in which they originate, as distinct from global religions of conversion - as practised across America, Africa, Asia and the Pacific today. At a time when local traditions across the world are colliding with global culture, it explores the future of indigenous faiths as they encounter modernity and globalization. Beyond Primitivism argues that indigenous religions are not irrelevant in modern society, but are dynamic, progressive forces of continuing vitality and influence. Including essays on Haitian vodou, Korean shamanism and the Sri Lankan 'Wild Man', the contributors reveal the relevance of native religions to millions of believers worldwide, challenging the perception that indigenous faiths are vanishing from the face of the globe.By Michael J. Harris. 2003
The central aim of this book is to attempt to determine the response of the classic texts of Jewish traditions…
to the famous dilemma posed in Plato's Euthyphro: Does God freely determine morality, or is morality independent of God? The author argues that the picture that emerges from Jewish texts is significantly more complex and nuanced than most of the contemporary Jewish philosophical literature is prepared to concede. While providing an extensive discussion of the perspective of Jewish tradition on divine command ethics, this book develops a position that is distinct from and critical of other views that have recently been advanced in Jewish scholarship. At the same time, the book provides a substantial analysis of some Christian perspectives on divine command ethics. Relevant biblical, rabbinic and later Jewish texts are discussed, as well as some of the relevant views that have been taken in philosophical literature and in Christian and Jewish thought.By Thomas P O'Connor. 2003
Explore the relationship between faith-based programs, religion, and offender rehabilitation! This book reports on current research from several disciplines to…
help the reader understand the nature and impact of the relationship between faith-based programs, religion, and offender rehabilitation. Religion, the Community, and the Rehabilitation of Criminal Offenders is a unique resourcethere has been very little research published on this important topic. President Bush's faith-based initiative recognized that religion plays a role in the justice system and corrections that is overlooked but essentialit increases the role of community and caring in the system in a unique and important way. This pathbreaking book points the way toward a system of faith-based programs that are not only effective but also economical, as these programs are often staffed by volunteers. Religion, the Community, and the Rehabilitation of Criminal Offenders addresses important questions regarding the importance and effectiveness of faith-based rehabilitation programs, including: What is the relationship between prison religion and offender rehabilitation? What motivates inmates to become involved with religious programs and activities? What is the prison chaplain's role in rehabilitation? Are certain religious denominations more effective than others in preventing crime, delinquency, and recidivism? How does religious activity help inmates adjust to the prison environment? What do inmates have to say about the religious programs they encounter within the system? How did Islam develop within American correctional institutions and what changes has the movement gone through in recent years? Why do female African-American inmates tend to resist conversion to Islam while their male counterparts embrace the Muslim faith in increasing numbers? How can sacred texts and social theory be utilized as teaching tools and intervention strategies in the transformation processes of men incarcerated for violent crimes? (A fascinating study from the Sing-Sing prison) and more!By Arthur Gibson. 2003
Metaphysics and Transcendence takes up this story for the future. Arthur Gibson presents a new metaphysics with a genealogy based…
on counter-intuition and locates counter-intuition and complexity at the foundations of truth. Having devised fresh concepts on the basis of the new frontiers of science and philosophy, the author presents original explanations of transcendence arguing that just as we need revolutionary and original ways of depicting the physical world, so it is with such topics as God, miracles, the resurrection, the source and identity of consciousness and reason itself.By James A. Beckford, James T. Richardson. 2003
In the last half century new religious movements or cults of one sort and another have mushroomed throughout the US…
and Europe. Increasingly these groups have been met with attempts to monitor and control them on the part of the state, and concerns about the protection of religious 'consumers' have been set against the democratic right to religious freedom. In this collection, leading sociologists of religion from the UK, US, Western and Eastern Europe debate the political, practical and ethical issues which arise from these changes in the religious landscape.By Stephen Ellingson, M. Christian Green. 2003
Issues of sexuality and gender are hotly contested in both religious communities and national cultures around the world. In the…
social sciences, religious traditions are often depicted as inherently conservative or even reactionary in their commitments to powerful patriarchal and pronatalist sexual norms and gender categories. In illuminating the practices of religious traditions in various cultures, these essays expose the diversity of religious rituals and mythologies pertaining to sexuality. In the process the contributors challenge conventional notions of what is normative in our sexual lives.By J. L. Stocks. 2003
Learn how to help your congregants work cooperatively with mental health professionals! This revised edition of The Soul in Distress…
i is a reader-friendly overview of the full range of adult psychiatric disorders. Updated with new information on genetics, brain scans, heredity, developmental concerns, new medications, and stress, it suggests ways for clergy to assist their congregants suffering from these illnesses and provides ethical guidance and clinical examples, often illustrating how physical disease can affect mental health. It also examines new short-term therapies and ways to handle difficult personalities. From author Richard W. Roukema, MD, FAPA: With the recent events of terrorism in our country, the need for the clergy to be alert to the fallout on the lives of their congregants is clear. Anxiety, depression, prolonged grief, and post-traumatic stress disorder will be increasingly evident as the threat of terrorism continues. Now more than ever, the clergy should obtain a basic overview of the emotional and mental disorders they may encounter in their congregations. This book will update the clergy to the current state of knowledge in the field. With fascinating case studies, and practical suggestions for dealing with various psychiatric disorders, Counseling for the Soul in Distress: What Every Religious Counselor Should Know About Emotional and Mental Illness, Second Edition examines: new trends in psychotherapy such as EMDR and Christian counseling the art of providing appropriate referrals to psychiatrists the aftermath of the September 11 attacks the ways that loss and grief affect the personality personality disorders depression and other mood disorders eating disorders such as anorexia, bulimia, binge eating, and obesity stress and its implications schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders neuroses organic mental disorders sexual problems drug abuse and alcoholism Written specifically for the clergy by a well-respected psychiatrist, this new edition of Counseling for the Soul in Distress is an essential addition to your reference shelf!By Laura Zam. 2020
Based on popular essays in New York Times&’ Modern Love and Salon, as well as an Off-Broadway one-person play, The…
Pleasure Plan is a sexual healing odyssey, a manifesto for women to claim pleasure as a priority, and a love story all at once.Fifty percent of adult women have some form of sexual dysfunction at some point of their lives, preventing them from enjoying vibrant, soul-satisfying sex. Such was the case with Laura Zam, who suffered the blame, shame, and embarrassment of feeling bedroom broken. For her, delving between the sheets meant physical pain, zero desire, and emotional scars from being molested in her early years. However, in her late forties, after meeting and marrying the love of her life, Zam was determined to finally fix her sensual self. This is her brave and bawdy plan to triage her flaccid romantic life, stepping into a void where intimacy, self-love, and playfulness could be experienced--the full monty of Eros that had been missing from her existence. The Pleasure Plan is what happened when she decided to challenge her hopelessness. In partnership with her initially reluctant husband, she visited 15 healers and tried 30 pleasure-enhancing methods: from dilators and dildos, to hypnosis and hosting a sex brunch, to cleansing chakras, to making love to her husband in front of a geriatric Tantric goddess. Packed with humor, heart, and a healthy dose of prescriptive advice, this book chronicles Zam&’s insight as she confronts many issues—from mismatched libidos to female erection enlightenment. Throughout this journey, she and her husband grow as individuals and as a couple, both in and out of the bedroom. Fearlessly honest and full of inspiration, Zam peels back the layers—or covers—and exposes her foibles, insecurities, and eventual wisdom as she excavates past traumas, accepts and embraces her worth, and claims her right to be completely alive. Today, Laura works as a sexuality educator, wellness coach, and speaker helping other women who suffer from sexual dysfunction, the effects of trauma, or those who would simply like more pleasure (of all kinds) in their lives. She also consults with health care providers so they may better assist their clients in achieving sexual well-being. While The Pleasure Plan is Zam&’s personal narrative, it demystifies pervasive taboos, encouraging women to make pleasure a priority, while teaching them how to claim (or reclaim) the power of their sexual selves. It also shows men how they can support their partners in this #Metoo era. Healthy, sultry intimacy is a right; it is time for women to learn—through glorious trial and error—how to embrace the sensual side of themselves. . . exuberantly and unabashedly.