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In sub-Saharan Africa over the last two decades there has been an explosion of Christianity. This book sets out to identify its particular character, focusing on a particular place: Greater Accra, the capital of Ghana. Paul Gifford examines a wide range of Accra's new churches, giving priority to mega-churches. Every dimension -- discourse, theological vision, worship, rituals, music, media involvement, use of the Bible, conventions, finances, clientele -- is analysed. Gifford argues that this C...

This book discusses the Chinese nation’s spiritual home in a modern context. It analyzes various aspects of the problem, including background, theory, history, recent advances and solutions, from a global view. In discussing the development of Chinese national spirit, it also refers to western experiences of national culture and national spirit. To build the spiritual home, the traditional culture, values and faith need to be learned, analyzed and adapted to the modern context. Doing so helps to...

"Shared" sites, where members of distinct, or factionally opposed, religious communities interact-or fail to interact-is the focus of this volume. Chapters based on fieldwork from such diverse sites as India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, China, Turkey, Morocco, Tunisia, and Vietnam demonstrate how sharing and tolerance are both more complex and multifaceted than they are often recognized to be. By including both historical processes (the development of Chinese funerals in late imperial Beijing or the ref...

In the first part of this controversial critique of Christian teachings about sexuality, Alison Webster demonstrates how Christianity has idolized a particular heterosexual idea which has been devised, refined and imposed with scant consideration of the experience, desires or needs of women. Part two gives voice to women who are on the periphery of the Christian community because of their sexuality and/or personal relationships. They reveal the Church's silence about lesbian relationships, the m...

An exploration of the Roman Catholic Church under the rubric of love

The book makes out a case for the introduction of a new genre of tale, the shamanic story, which has either been based on or inspired by a shamanicjourney, or contains a number of the elements that are typical of such a journey.The stories featured are the Book of Jonah from the Old Testament, two traditional stories from the Republic of Georgia-The Earth will take itsOwn and Davit, a contemporary German tale Bundles, and the Korean story of Shimchong, the Blindman's Daughter.By making use of te...

This collected volume draws together essays written by International Relations scholars from a variety of regional, methodological and theoretical perspectives to confront the challenges of identity-centered analysis. In particular, the contributors seek to elucidate the general meaning and methodological implications of the commonly state yet largely unexamined, assertion that identities are relational, fluid, constructed, and multiple.

In a politically uncertain and distrusted world, citizens appear to be seeking political expression in their everyday lives and quite prominently in their consumption practices. In advanced consumer societies, the politics of consumption have come to the centre stage. This book elaborates on the grounded perceptions, practices and problematizations of the equation of political action and market action. It presents the opportunities and hindrances of alternative forms of partaking in civic life b...

In der Folge von Globalisierungsprozessen und der veränderten Bedeutung von Nationalstaaten wird zunehmend eine transnationale soziale Ungleichheitsforschung gefordert, die gleichzeitig regionenspezifische soziohistorische Besonderheiten berücksichtigt. In diesem Sinne geht es in diesem Buch um eine Zusammenführung interdisziplinärer Beiträge aus historischer, kultur- und religionssoziologischer, sozial- und politikwissenschaftlicher Perspektive, die von führenden und innovativen Wissenschaftler...

A Theology for the Social Gospel is undoubtedly Walter Rauschenbusch's most enduring work. It is here that Rauschenbusch, the father of the social gospel in the United States, articulates the theological roots of social activism that surged forth from mainline Protestant churches in the early part of the twentieth century. Skillfully examining the great theological issues of the Christian faith--sin, evil, salvation, and the kingdom of God--Rauschenbauch offers a powerful justification for the c...

First published in 2004. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Testing Fresh Expressions investigates whether fresh expressions of church really do what is claimed for them by the fresh expressions movement and, in particular, whether their unique approach helps to reverse trends of decline experienced by traditional churches. Part 1 examines those claims and untangles their sociological and theological assumptions. From a careful study of factors underlying attendance decline and growth, Part 2 argues that long-term decline can be resisted only if church...

This book explores human dignity, human rights and social justice based on a Chinese interdisciplinary dialogue and global perspectives. In the Chinese and other global contexts today, social justice has been a significant topic among many disciplines and we believe it is an appropriate topic for philosophers, theologians, legal scholars, and social scientists to sit together, discuss, enrich each other, and then deepen our understanding of the topic. Many of them are concerned with the conj...