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Most eighteenth-century literary scholarship implicitly or explicitly associates the major developments in English literature and culture during the rise of…
modernity with a triumphant and increasingly tolerant Protestantism while assuming that the English Catholic community was culturally moribund and disengaged from Protestant society and culture. However, recent work by historians has shown that the English Catholic community was a dynamic and adaptive religious minority, its leaders among the aristocracy cosmopolitan, its intellectuals increasingly attracted to Enlightenment ideals of liberty and skepticism, and its membership growing among the middle and working classes. This community had an impact on the history of the English nation out of all proportion with its size—and yet its own history is glimpsed only dimly, if at all, in most modern accounts of the period. The Papist Represented reincorporates the history of the English Catholic community into the field of eighteenth-century literary studies. It examines the intersections of literary, religious, and cultural history as they pertain to the slow acceptance by both Protestants and Catholics of the latter group’s permanent minority status. By focusing on the Catholic community’s perspectives and activities, it deepens and complicates our understanding of the cultural processes that contributed to the significant progress of the Catholic emancipation movement over the course of the century. At the same time, it reveals that this community’s anxieties and desires (and the anxieties and desires it provoked in Protestants) fuel some of the most popular and experimental literary works of the century, in forms and modes including closet drama, elegy, the novel, and the Gothic. By returning the Catholic community to eighteenth-century literary history, The Papist Represented challenges the assumption that eighteenth-century literature was a fundamentally Protestant enterprise. Published by University of Delaware Press. Distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press.Special Religious Education in Australia and its Value to Contemporary Society
By Zehavit Gross, Suzanne D. Rutland. 2021
This book explores the advantages of and challenges concerning Special Religious Education (SRE) in multicultural Australia and argues for the…
need for General Religious Education (GRE) as well. Through the lens of the most recent scholarship, and drawing on an in-depth qualitative study and specific case studies, the book examines the current debate on the role of religious education within government schools. It addresses key concepts of values education, spirituality, health and wellbeing, and cultural and religious identity. It analyses why it is important to retain SRE, together with GRE, as government policy. It explores highly relevant, controversial and contested issues regarding SRE, including the 30% of Australia’s population who declare themselves as having “no religion”, and brings fresh insights to the table. While secularization has increased in both the national and international spheres, there has also been an increase in fundamentalism within religious beliefs. Events such as the September 11 terror attacks and the more recent mass shootings by white supremacists and eco-fascists in Christchurch, New Zealand, and Pittsburgh and San Diego in the USA are reminders that religion is still a major actor in the twenty-first century. This poses new challenges for the relationship between church and state, and demonstrates the need to revisit the role of religious education within government schools. While the importance of GRE is generally acknowledged, SRE has increasingly come under attack by some researchers and teacher and parent bodies as being inappropriate and contradictory to the values of the postmodern world. On the other hand, the key stakeholders from all the faith traditions in Australia wish to retain the SRE classes in government schools. The book addresses this burning issue, and shows that it is relevant not only for Australia but also globally.Field Notes from Elsewhere: Reflections on Dying and Living
By Mark C. Taylor. 2009
In the fall of 2005, Mark C. Taylor, the controversial public intellectual and widely respected scholar, suddenly fell critically ill.…
For two days a team of forty doctors, many of whom thought he would not live, fought to save him. Taylor would eventually recover, but only to face a new threat: surgery for cancer. "These experiences have changed me in ways I am still struggling to understand," Taylor writes in this absorbing memoir. "After the past year, I am persuaded that I have done enough fieldwork to write a book that combines philosophical and theological reflection with autobiographical narrative. Writing is not only possible but actually seems necessary."Field Notes from Elsewhere is Taylor's unforgettable, inverted journey from death to life. Each of his memoir's fifty-two chapters and accompanying photographs recounts a morning-to-evening experience with sickness and convalescence, mingling humor and hope with a deep exploration of human frailty and, conversely, resilience. When we confront the end of life, Taylor explains, the axis of the lived world shifts, and everything must be reevaluated. As Taylor sorts through his remembrances, much that once seemed familiar becomes strange, paradoxical, and contradictory. He reads his experience with and against ghosts from his past, recasting the meaning of mortality, sacrifice, solitude, and abandonment, along with a host of other issues, in light of modern ways of dying. "You never come back from elsewhere," Taylor concludes, "because elsewhere always comes back with you."Early Medieval China: A Sourcebook (Suny Series In Chinese Philosophy And Culture Ser.)
By Wendy, Yang Lu, Robert Ford Campany, Eds., Swartz, Jessey J. C. Choo. 2014
This innovative sourcebook builds a dynamic understanding of China's early medieval period (220–589) through an original selection and arrangement of…
literary, historical, religious, and critical texts. A tumultuous and formative era, these centuries saw the longest stretch of political fragmentation in China's imperial history, resulting in new ethnic configurations, the rise of powerful clans, and a pervasive divide between north and south. Deploying thematic categories, the editors sketch the period in a novel way for students and, by featuring many texts translated into English for the first time, recast the era for specialists. Thematic topics include regional definitions and tensions, governing mechanisms and social reality, ideas of self and other, relations with the unseen world, everyday life, and cultural concepts. Within each section, the editors and translators introduce the selected texts and provide critical commentary on their historical significance, along with suggestions for further reading and research.Wendy Doniger's foundational study is both modern in its engagement with a diverse range of religions and refreshingly classic in…
its transhistorical, cross-cultural approach. By responsibly analyzing patterns and themes across context, Doniger reinvigorates the comparative reading of religion, tapping into a wealth of narrative traditions, from the instructive tales of Judaism and Christianity to the moral lessons of the Bhagavad Gita. She extracts political meaning from a variety of texts while respecting the original ideas of each. A new preface confronts the difficulty of contextualizing the comparison of religions as well as controversies over choosing subjects and positioning arguments, and the text itself is expanded and updated throughout.Oro de rey: Luis Miguel. La biografía
By Francisco Javier León Herrera. 2021
Esta nueva biografía, impactante y reveladora como las anteriores, profundiza en los aspectos más importantes de su vida. Desnuda al…
ser humano que hay detrás de la leyenda, comparte las claves de su extenso legado musical lleno de anécdotas y complicadas decisiones, así como el bagaje existencial de amor, dolor, amistades, traiciones, heridas familiares, sueños rotos, amargura y esperanza. Tras sus dos bestsellers sobre el Sol: Luis Mi Rey, biografía autorizada por el artista que sirvió de base para la serie televisiva sobre su vida, y el más reciente, Luis Miguel: la historia, Javier León Herrera y Juan Manuel Navarro completan la trilogía sobre la existencia del cantante más amado en México, Argentina, Colombia, Estados Unidos, Chile, Puerto Rico, Perú, Bolivia, Brasil, España, Italia y Centroamérica. Oro de Rey ayuda a comprender más al artista adentrándose en el adulto lejos de la sombra -no del fantasma- de Luisito Rey. Gracias a sus confesiones y al testimonio de las personas que más lo conocen, los autores desvelan, con rigor y respeto, a un Luis Miguel más íntimo. En estas páginas se descubrirán los miedos, las luces y las sombras de un luchador que no deja de preguntarse por qué ha tenido que nadar tanto tiempo refugiado en un caparazón, a contracorriente de su propio espíritu y deseo, urgido de una catarsis definitiva que cierre círculos y sane su alma de tantas heridas. Los autores se adentran en aspectos determinantes de su vida: sus huellas de abandono, la ausencia materna, su hogar roto, los hermanos separados, sus éxitos y su estancamiento en la más reciente y profunda crisis en la que tocó fondo: el "Trienio Horribilis" de 2015 a 2017, y su resurgir en 2018, con los detalles de su renacer con el que celebró 50 años: sus bodas de oro con la vida. ¡Larga vida al Rey!The Columbia Documentary History of Religion in America Since 1945 (Columbia Contemporary American Religion Ser.)
By Harvey Paul, Philip Goff, Eds.. 2005
Of late, religion seems to be everywhere, suffusing U.S. politics and popular culture and acting as both a unifying and…
a divisive force. This collection of manifestos, Supreme Court decisions, congressional testimonies, speeches, articles, book excerpts, pastoral letters, interviews, song lyrics, memoirs, and poems reflects the vitality, diversity, and changing nature of religious belief and practice in American public and private life over the last half century. Encompassing a range of perspectives, this book illustrates the ways in which individuals from all along the religious and political spectrum have engaged religion and viewed it as a crucial aspect of society. The anthology begins with documents that reflect the close relationship of religion, especially mainline Protestantism, to essential ideas undergirding Cold War America. Covering both the center and the margins of American religious life, this volume devotes extended attention to how issues of politics, race, gender, and sexuality have influenced the religious mainstream. A series of documents reflects the role of religion and theology in the civil rights, feminist, and gay rights movements as well as in conservative responses. Issues regarding religion and contemporary American culture are explored in documents about the rise of the evangelical movement and the religious right; the impact of "new" (post-1965) immigrant communities on the religious landscape; the popularity of alternative, New Age, and non-Western beliefs; and the relationship between religion and popular culture.The editors conclude with selections exploring major themes of American religious life at the millennium, including both conservative and New Age millennialism, as well as excerpts that speculate on the future of religion in the United States. The documents are grouped by theme into nine chapters and arranged chronologically therein. Each chapter features an extensive introduction providing context for and analysis of the critical issues raised by the primary sources.For more than five centuries the shamanistic fox cult has attracted large portions of the Chinese population and appealed to…
a wide range of social classes. Deemed illicit by imperial rulers and clerics and officially banned by republican and communist leaders, the fox cult has managed to survive and flourish in individual homes and community shrines throughout northern China. In this new work, the first to examine the fox cult as a vibrant popular religion, Xiaofei Kang explores the manifold meanings of the fox spirit in Chinese society. Kang describes various cult practices, activities of worship, and the exorcising of fox spirits to reveal how the Chinese people constructed their cultural and social values outside the gaze of offical power and morality.Wu Zhao (624–705), better known as Wu Zetian or Empress Wu, is the only woman to have ruled China as…
emperor over the course of its 5,000-year history. How did she—in a predominantly patriarchal and androcentric society—ascend the dragon throne? Exploring a mystery that has confounded scholars for centuries, this multifaceted history suggests that China's rich pantheon of female divinities and eminent women played an integral part in the construction of Wu Zhao's sovereignty. Wu Zhao deftly deployed language, symbol, and ideology to harness the cultural resonance, maternal force, divine energy, and historical weight of Buddhist devis, Confucian exemplars, Daoist immortals, and mythic goddesses, establishing legitimacy within and beyond the confines of Confucian ideology. Tapping into powerful subterranean reservoirs of female power, Wu Zhao built a pantheon of female divinities carefully calibrated to meet her needs at court. Her pageant was promoted in scripted rhetoric, reinforced through poetry, celebrated in theatrical productions, and inscribed on steles. Rendered with deft political acumen and aesthetic flair, these affiliations significantly enhanced Wu Zhao's authority and cast her as the human vessel through which the pantheon's divine energy flowed. Her strategy is a model of political brilliance and proof that medieval Chinese women enjoyed a more complex social status than previously known.The Crusades, Christianity, and Islam (Bampton Lectures in America)
By Jonathan Riley-Smith. 2008
The Crusades were penitential war-pilgrimages fought in the Levant and the eastern Mediterranean, as well as in North Africa, Spain,…
Portugal, Poland, the Baltic region, Hungary, the Balkans, and Western Europe. Beginning in the eleventh century and ending as late as the eighteenth, these holy wars were waged against Muslims and other enemies of the Church, enlisting generations of laymen and laywomen to fight for the sake of Christendom.Crusading features prominently in today's religio-political hostilities, yet the perceptions of these wars held by Arab nationalists, pan-Islamists, and many in the West have been deeply distorted by the language and imagery of nineteenth-century European imperialism. With this book, Jonathan Riley-Smith returns to the actual story of the Crusades, explaining why and where they were fought and how deeply their narratives and symbolism became embedded in popular Catholic thought and devotional life. From this history, Riley-Smith traces the legacy of the Crusades into modern times, specifically within the attitudes of European imperialists and colonialists and within the beliefs of twentieth-century Muslims. Europeans fashioned an interpretation of the Crusades from the writings of Walter Scott and a French contemporary, Joseph-François Michaud. Scott portrayed Islamic societies as forward-thinking, while casting Christian crusaders as culturally backward and often morally corrupt. Michaud, in contrast, glorified crusading, and his followers used its imagery to illuminate imperial adventures. These depictions have had a profound influence on contemporary Western opinion, as well as on Muslim attitudes toward their past and present. Whether regarded as a valid expression of Christianity's divine enterprise or condemned as a weapon of empire, crusading has been a powerful rhetorical tool for centuries. In order to understand the preoccupations of Islamist jihadis and the character of Western discourse on the Middle East, Riley-Smith argues, we must understand how images of crusading were formed in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.The Future of Catholicism in America (The Future of Religion in America)
By Mark, Silk, Killen, Patricia O’Connell. 2019
Catholics constitute the largest religious community in the United States. Yet most American Catholics have never known a time when…
their church was not embroiled in controversies over liturgy, religious authority, cultural change, and gender and sexuality. Today, these arguments are taking place against the backdrop of Pope Francis’s progressive agenda and the resurgence of the clergy sexual abuse crisis. What is the future of Catholicism in America?This volume considers the prospects at a pivotal moment. Contributors—scholars from sociology, theology, religious studies, and history—look at the church’s evolving institutional structure, its increasing ethnic diversity, and its changing public presence. They explore the tensions among members of the hierarchy, between clergy and laity, and along lines of ethnicity, immigration status, class, generation, political affiliation, and degree of religious commitment. They conclude that American Catholicism’s future will be pluriform—reflecting the variety of cultural, political, ideological, and spiritual points of view that typify the multicultural, democratic society of which Catholics constitute so large a part.A Farewell to Truth
By Gianni Vattimo. 2009
With Western cultures becoming more pluralistic, the question of "truth" in politics has become a game of interpretations. Today, we…
face the demise of the very idea of truth as an objective description of facts, though many have yet to acknowledge that this is changing.Gianni Vattimo explicitly engages with the important consequences for democracy of our changing conception of politics and truth, such as a growing reluctance to ground politics in science, economics, and technology. Yet in Vattimo's conception, a farewell to truth can benefit democracy, exposing the unspoken issues that underlie all objective claims. The end of absolute truth challenges the legitimacy of policies based on perceived objective necessitiesprotecting the free market, for example, even if it devastates certain groups or classes. Vattimo calls for a truth that is constructed with consensus and a respect for the liberty of all. By taking into account the cultural paradigms of others, a more "truthful" societyfreer and more democraticbecomes possible. In this book, Vattimo continues his reinterpretation of Christianity as a religion of charity and hope, freeing society from authoritarian, metaphysical dogmatism. He also extends Nietzsche's "death of God" to the death of an authoritarian God, ushering in a new, postreligious Christianity. He connects the thought of Martin Heidegger, Karl Marx, and Karl Popper with surprising results and accommodates modern science more than in his previous work, reconciling its validity with an insistence that knowledge is interpretive. Vattimo's philosophy justifies Western nihilism in its capacity to dispense with absolute truths. Ranging over politics, ethics, religion, and the history of philosophy, his reflections contribute deeply to a modern reconception of God, metaphysics, and the purpose of reality.In Defense of Religious Moderation
By William Egginton. 2011
In his latest book, William Egginton laments the current debate over religion in America, in which religious fundamentalists have set…
the tone of political discourse—no one can get elected without advertising a personal relation to God, for example—and prominent atheists treat religious belief as the root of all evil. Neither of these positions, Egginton argues, adequately represents the attitudes of a majority of Americans who, while identifying as Christians, Jews, and Muslims, do not find fault with those who support different faiths and philosophies. In fact, Egginton goes so far as to question whether fundamentalists and atheists truly oppose each other, united as they are in their commitment to a "code of codes." In his view, being a religious fundamentalist does not require adhering to a particular religious creed. Fundamentalists—and stringent atheists—unconsciously believe that the methods we use to understand the world are all versions of an underlying master code. This code of codes represents an ultimate truth, explaining everything. Surprisingly, perhaps the most effective weapon against such thinking is religious moderation, a way of believing that questions the very possibility of a code of codes as the source of all human knowledge. The moderately religious, with their inherent skepticism toward a master code, are best suited to protect science, politics, and other diverse strains of knowledge from fundamentalist attack, and to promote a worldview based on the compatibility between religious faith and scientific method.The Complete Works of Zhuangzi (Translations from the Asian Classics)
By Burton Watson. 2013
Only by inhabiting Dao (the Way of Nature) and dwelling in its unity can humankind achieve true happiness and freedom,…
in both life and death. This is Daoist philosophy's central tenet, espoused by the person—or group of people—known as Zhuangzi (369?-286? B.C.E.) in a text by the same name. To be free, individuals must discard rigid distinctions between good and bad, right and wrong, and follow a course of action not motivated by gain or striving. When one ceases to judge events as good or bad, man-made suffering disappears and natural suffering is embraced as part of life.Zhuangzi elucidates this mystical philosophy through humor, parable, and anecdote, deploying non sequitur and even nonsense to illuminate a truth beyond the boundaries of ordinary logic. Boldly imaginative and inventively worded, the Zhuangzi floats free of its historical period and society, addressing the spiritual nourishment of all people across time. One of the most justly celebrated texts of the Chinese tradition, the Zhuangzi is read by thousands of English-language scholars each year, yet only in the Wade-Giles romanization. Burton Watson's pinyin romanization brings the text in line with how Chinese scholars, and an increasing number of other scholars, read it.The Cost of Compassion (Re: CONSIDERING)
By Tim Costello. 2020
Re:CONSIDERING invites you to look at what’s familiar from an unfamiliar angle. To consider how we consider things – and…
how to do it better.Who’s in favour of compassion?Pretty much everybody, actually. Left or right, religious or not, nobody seems to have a bad word to say about compassion.So why do we have so much trouble addressing the conflict, inequality, and suffering in our world?Ranging from the streets of St Kilda to the slums of Delhi, from Plato to Nietzsche, the Dalai Lama to Peter Singer, and from Seinfeld to the Good Samaritan, Tim Costello appeals to our common humanity – and takes an unflinching look at how costly compassion can be.The Pleasures of Pessimism (Re: CONSIDERING)
By Natasha Moore. 2020
Re:CONSIDERING invites you to look at what’s familiar from an unfamiliar angle. To consider how we consider things – and…
how to do it better.Pandemic, supervolcano, late capitalism, transhumanism, populism, cancel culture, the post-antibiotic age, the gig economy, the surveillance state, the cascading effects of climate change …Whatever the specifics, do you ever feel like things are going off the rails - or are just about to?If you’ve read the news, watched a zombie movie, or gotten into an argument on Twitter lately, the answer is probably yes.And you’re not alone.What makes us such apocaholics?What’s so appealing about Armageddon? What are the pleasures - and also the perils of our pessimism?On Death: On Birth; On Marriage; On Death (How To Find God Ser. #3)
By Timothy Keller. 2020
If life is a journey, there are few events as significant as birth, marriage and death. These are the moments…
in which we experience our greatest happiness and our deepest grief. And so it is profoundly important to understand these events and their significance in the course of our lives. In a culture that often refuses to acknowledge death, Timothy Keller - brilliant theologian and bestselling author - brings to light the Christian tradition of facing death and celebrating what comes after. With wisdom and compassion, Keller teaches us to understand death through the lessons embedded within the Bible. A short, powerful book, On Death gives us the tools to understand the meaning of death within God's vision of life.'A Christian intellectual who takes on the likes of Nietzsche, Marx, and Freud.' The Wall Street JournalOn Birth: On Birth; On Marriage; On Death (How To Find God Ser. #1)
By Timothy Keller. 2020
There are few events as significant and life-altering as birth, marriage, and death. These are the moments in which we…
experience our greatest happiness and our deepest grief. And so it is profoundly important to understand these events and their religious and spiritual significance in the course of our lives. In On Birth, Timothy Keller - brilliant theologian and bestselling author - takes us on a journey into the Christian meaning of birth and baptism. With wisdom, joy and compassion, Keller teaches us to understand birth and baptism through the lessons embedded within the Bible. The perfect gift for someone who is about to become a parent, On Birth is a short, powerful book that gives us the tools to understand the miracle and meaning of birth and baptism within God's vision of life.'A Christian intellectual who takes on the likes of Nietzsche, Marx, and Freud.' The Wall Street JournalThe Heart of Communication: How to really connect with an audience
By Rob Parsons. 2020
The ability to connect with an audience is an essential element of public speaking. While an effective presentation can have…
all the elements of good pace, pitch and body language, it can still leave an audience unaffected or unmoved. Rob Parson believes even the most proficient speakers can enhance their public speaking by focusing on the heart of communication: connection.For the first time, Rob Parsons shares his insights from over fifty years of experience. He unpacks methods that will help any public speaker - from how to prepare well and utilise the power of story, to giving top tips on avoiding common distractions. Readers will come away with a better grasp on public speaking - not only how to speak to the head, but to the heart.Having spoken to over a million people around the world, from multinational organisations to church congregations, Rob has fine-tuned approaches that can help anyone wanting to grow in this area.Morality: Restoring the Common Good in Divided Times
By Jonathan Sacks. 2020
We are living through a period of cultural climate change. We have outsourced morality to the markets on the one…
hand, and the state on the other. The markets have brought wealth to many, and the state has done much to contain the worst excesses of inequality, but neither is capable of bearing the moral weight of showing us how to live. This has had a profound impact on society and the way in which we interact with each other. Traditional values no longer hold, yet recent political swings show that modern ideals of tolerance have left many feeling rudderless and adrift. In this environment we see things fall apart in unexpected ways - toxic public discourse makes true societal progress almost unattainable, a more divisive society is fuelled by identity politics and extremism, and the rise of a victimhood mentality calls for 'safe spaces' but stifles debate. The influence of social media seems all-pervading and the breakdown of the family is only one result of the loss of social capital. Many fear what the future may hold.Delivering a devastatingly insightful critique of our modern condition, and assessing its roots and causes from the ancient Greeks through the Reformation and Enlightenment to the present day, Sacks argues that there is no liberty without morality, and no freedom without responsibility.If we care about the future of western civilisation, all of us must play our part in rebuilding our common moral foundation. Then we will discover afresh the life-transforming and counterintuitive truths that a nation is strong when it cares for the weak, and rich when it cares for the poor.Here is an inspiring vision of a world in which we can all find our place, and face the future without fear.