Search results

By examining relics - the bits and pieces of long-dead saints at the heart of nearly all religious traditions - Peter Manseau delivers a book about life, and about faith and how it is sustained. The result of wide travel and the author's own deep curiosity, filled with true tales of the living and dubious legends of the dead, Rag and Bone tells of a California seeker who ended up in a Jerusalem convent because of a nun's disembodied hand; a French forensics expert who travels on the metro with t...

Offering a theology of migration, Cruz reflects on the Christian vision of 'one bread, one body, one people' in view of the gifts and challenges of contemporary migration to Christian spirituality, mission, and inculturation and the need for reform of migration policies based on the experience of refugees, migrant women, and others.

For centuries, Muslim countries and Europe have engaged one another through theological dialogues, diplomatic missions, political rivalries, and power struggles. In the last thirty years, due in large part to globalization and migration from Islamic countries to the West, what was previously an engagement across national and cultural boundaries has increasingly become an internalized encounter within Europe itself. Questions of the Hijab in schools, freedom of expression in the wake of the Danis...

Islam is one of the most rapidly growing religions in the world. Islamic fundamentalism is one of its most forceful manifestations—and one of its least understood. This lack of understanding, combined with recent terrorist attacks, often leads to fear of Islamic fundamentalism in the West. Davidson offers a clearer picture of Islamic fundamentalism by explaining its history, identifying its adherents throughout history, and analyzing what the fundamentalists believe and what they want. A mixt...

This intriguing three-volume set explores the ways in which religion is bound to the practice of daily life and how daily life is bound to religion. In Religion and Everyday Life and Culture, 36 international scholars describe the impact of religious practices around the world, using rich examples drawn from personal observation. Instead of repeating generalizations about what religion should mean, these volumes examine how religions actually influence our public and private lives "on the groun...

Each year, 200 million of us embark on a pilgrimage of some kind. We have been making ritual journeys for millennia, ever since our ancient ancestors followed migrating animals, coming together to hunt and celebrate. The era of setting out as a matter of survival is long gone, but the impulse to travel somewhere sacred to us remains. Victoria Preston discovers that, whether we set forth in search of solace or liberation, as an expression of gratitude or faith, journeys of meaning and purpose a...

Christian punk is a surprisingly successful musical subculture and a fascinating expression of American evangelicalism. Situating Christian punk within the modern history of Christianity and the rapidly changing culture of spirituality and secularity, this book illustrates how Christian punk continues punk's autonomous and oppositional creative practices, but from within a typically traditional evangelical morality. Analyzing straight edge Christian abstinence and punk-friendly churches, this bo...

Christianity in the United States has long been organized around congregations and denominations. However, a different type of organization operating outside of these traditional structures is claiming an increasingly important place in the religious market. The growth of Christian nonprofits, popularly called "parachurch" organizations, has been recognized by churchgoers and social scientists alike as an important development that is transforming the composition and dynamics of American Christi...

Former ambassador to Kenya and president of Lincoln Center Glenn W. Ferguson has kept a journal for 22 years. One issue that has sustained his interest throughout the decades is the conflicting views of nonbelievers and religious believers, and the paradoxical attitudes that result from the clash of increasingly secular, international trends with traditional belief systems. This book is a compilation of brief essays culled from this journal, all on the subject of religion. Ferguson begins with a...

This book explores the significance of the international book town movement and its impact on contemporary society. It examines how book towns have emerged and how their culture and unique characteristics help to explain a steadily growing phenomenon that has enabled peripheral communities around the world to reclaim their economic futures and impact on the cultural sphere as increasingly powerful sites and sources of creativity. Regenerating Regional Culture assesses why, at a time when the boo...

Sydney Anglicans, always ultra-conservative in terms of liturgy, theology and personal morality, have increasingly modelled themselves on sixteenth century English Puritanism. Over the past few decades, they have added radical congregationalism to the mix. They have altered church services, challenged church order, and relentlessly opposed all attempts to ordain women as priests, let alone bishops. Muriel Porter unpacks how Australia's largest and, until recently, richest diocese developed its i...