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The Rise of Gospel Blues: The Music of Thomas Andrew Dorsey in the Urban Church
by Michael W. HarrisMost observers believe that gospel music has been sung in African-American churches since their organization in the late 1800s. Yet nothing could be further from the truth, as Michael W. Harris's history of gospel blues reveals. Tracing the rise of gospel blues as seen through the career of its founding figure, Thomas Andrew Dorsey, Harris tells the story of the most prominent person in the advent of gospel blues. Also known as "Georgia Tom," Dorsey had considerable success in the 1920s as a pianist, composer, and arranger for prominent blues singes including Ma Rainey. In the 1930s he became involved in Chicago's African-American, old-line Protestant churches, where his background in the blues greatly influenced his composing and singing. Following much controversy during the 1930s and the eventual overwhelming response that Dorsey's new form of music received, the gospel blues became a major force in African-American churches and religion. His more than 400 gospel songs and recent Grammy Award indicate that he is still today the most prolific composer/publisher in the movement. Delving into the life of the central figure of gospel blues, Harris illuminates not only the evolution of this popular musical form, but also the thought and social forces that forged the culture in which this music was shaped.
Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice
by Catherine BellRitual studies today figures as a central element of religious discourse for many scholars around the world. Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice, Catherine Bell's sweeping and seminal work on the subject, helped legitimize the field. In this volume, Bell re-examines the issues, methods, and ramifications of our interest in ritual by concentrating on anthropology, sociology, and the history of religions. Now with a new foreword by Diane Jonte-Pace, Bell's work is a must-read for understanding the evolution of the field of ritual studies and its current state.
Rituals Of Royalty: Power And Ceremonial In Traditional Societies (pdf) (Past And Present Publications)
by David Cannadine Simon Price Lyndal RoperHeads of state today mark their rites of passage with splendid ceremonial, from Reagan's inaugural to Andropov's funeral. Such spectacles continue to be a prominent part of modern political systems, of varied ideological hue, but their precise meaning and importance often remain unclear. The essays in this book - all specially written for it - address the central problem in the understanding of royal rituals, namely the relation between power and anthropologists, and the traditional societies examined range from ancient Babylon to nineteenth-century Madagascar, from medieval Europe to contemporary Ghana.
Sacred Space: An Approach to the Theology of the Epistle to the Hebrews (The Library of New Testament Studies #73)
by Marie IsaacsThe author of Hebrews is not preoccupied with the concepts of the Hellenistic philosophers but with the ideas of the ancient world is frequently conveyed by the notion of 'sacred space', which the worshipper wishes to approach in order to gain access to the deity. Standing as he does within the religious tradition of Judaism, the author of Hebrews inherited notions of sacred space whereby it was identified with the land, Jerusalem, Zion and the sanctuary. He shares priestly concern, so Isaacs argues, to guard the sacred, to protect it from the profane, and to regulate the means whereby the worshipper can approach the holy.
The Second Crusade and the Cistercians
by M. GerversNo subject in medieval history is changing as rapidly as crusade studies. Even so, the Second Crusade has been oddly neglected. The present volume is the first ever to have been devoted to it in English and one of the few which has appeared in any language. Particular attention is paid to the key role played by St.Bernard and the Cistercians in this crusade and their relations with the Military Orders. An interdisciplinary approach is taken, incorporating history, art and music. The Volume contains unparalleled bibliography, listing over 700 primary and secondary sources.
The Shiites
by NA NAThis book describes what Shiism means to those who actually practice it and serves as both an excellent introduction to the subject and an original work of scholarship.
Shinto and the State, 1868-1988
by Helen HardacreHelen Hardacre, a leading scholar of religious life in modern Japan, examines the Japanese state's involvement in and manipulation of shinto from the Meiji Restoration to the present. Nowhere else in modern history do we find so pronounced an example of government sponsorship of a religion as in Japan's support of shinto. How did that sponsorship come about and how was it maintained? How was it dismantled after World War II? What attempts are being made today to reconstruct it? In answering these questions, Hardacre shows why State shinto symbols, such as the Yasukuni Shrine and its prefectural branches, are still the focus for bitter struggles over who will have the right to articulate their significance. Where previous studies have emphasized the state bureaucracy responsible for the administration of shinto, Hardacre goes to the periphery of Japanese society. She demonstrates that leaders and adherents of popular religious movements, independent religious entrepreneurs, women seeking to raise the prestige of their households, and men with political ambitions all found an association with shinto useful for self-promotion; local-level civil administrations and parish organizations have consistently patronized shinto as a way to raise the prospects of provincial communities. A conduit for access to the prestige of the state, shinto has increased not only the power of the center of society over the periphery but also the power of the periphery over the center.
Spinoza and Other Heretics, Volume 2: The Adventures of Immanence
by Yirmiyahu YovelThis ambitious study presents Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677) as the most outstanding and influential thinker of modernity--and examines the question of whether he was the "first secular Jew." A number-one bestseller in Israel, Spinoza and Other Heretics is made up of two volumes--The Marrano of Reason and The Adventures of Immanence. Yirmiyahu Yovel shows how Spinoza grounded a philosophical revolution in a radically new principlethe philosophy of immanence, or the idea that this world is all there is--and how he thereby anticipated secularization, the Enlightenment, the disintegration of ghetto life, and the rise of natural science and the liberal-democratic state. The Adventures of Immanence: Here Yovel discloses the presence of Spinoza's philosophical revolution in the work of later thinkers who helped shape the modern mind. He claims it is no accident that some of the most unorthodox and innovative figures in the past two centuries--including Goethe, Kant, Hegel, Heine, Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, and Einstein--were profoundly influenced by Spinoza and shared his view that immanent reality is the only source of valid social and political norms and that recognizing this fact is necessary for human liberation. But what is immanent reality, and how is liberation to be construed? In a work that constitutes a retelling of much of Western intellectual history, Yovel analyzes the rival answers given to these questions and, in so doing, provides a fresh view of a wide range of individual thinkers.
Sport and Leisure in the Civilizing Process: Critique and Counter-Critique
by Eric Dunning Chris RojekHow do figurational sociologists approach the subjects of sport and leisure? How does their approach differ from other approaches in the field? This major collection, edited by leading writers on sport and leisure, offers a superb introduction to the figurational sociology of sport and leisure. The distinctive features of the approach are clearly explained and contributors show how figurational sociology is applied in the analysis of concrete problems. However, the collection also gives space to critics of the figurational approach. Included here are contributions which claim that the approach is inaccurate, blinkered and irrelevant.
Star Over Bethlehem: Christmas Stories And Poems
by Agatha ChristieA reproduction in one unique volume of three of Agatha Christie’s rarest and most sought-after books – Star Over Bethlehem, The Road of Dreams and Poems.
Strictly Personal: The Adventure of Discovering What God is Really Like
by Eugenia Price“Can man by searching find out God?”Long before Job, man was asking this question. It has stormed the minds and hearts of all peoples in all lands and cultures. What is God really like? Is He discoverable by those He created? Headhunters in shadow-haunted Africa have tried to beat away their restless questioning. The same necessity to know forced the intellectuals of Athens at the peak of its classical glory to create with their minds their own gods. In man’s primitive desperation to claim a knowing relationship with the Divine, gods have been fashioned after man’s own image. There have been animal gods, bird gods, fish gods. Gods of wood and stone and marble and metal. More cultured civilizations have worshiped reason. A few sensed their limits and saluted an Unknown God. None found rest.Is there one true God? Is He discoverable? “Can man by searching find out God?” Can anyone know God personally? On every page of this new and exciting book by Eugenia Price, these time-old questions are faced honestly and without apology. She writes lucidly, avoiding religious clichés, confessing her own questioning mind and including warmly all who question God for any reason. It is a strictly personal book which vibrates with the tremendous potential of the strictly personal relationship with God which she has found possible for herself and which she believes possible for anyone, regardless of background or intellectual blocks.If you have been wondering if there is a God—for you—this is a book you can read without apology, rebellion or embarrassment. It is written especially for you. Your strictly personal questions demand honest and specific explanations. Generalizations will not do. Pious, pat answers will not do. They are not here. But the door to the realistic adventure of a personal discovery of God is here, and it can open for you as you think through the carefully unfolded chapters of Strictly Personal.
The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England, 1400-1580
by Eamon DuffyThis prize-winning account of the pre-Reformation church recreates lay people’s experience of religion, showing that late-medieval Catholicism was neither decadent nor decayed, but a strong and vigorous tradition. For this edition, Duffy has written a new introduction reflecting on recent developments in our understanding of the period. “A mighty and momentous book: a book to be read and re-read, pondered and revered; a subtle, profound book written with passion and eloquence, and with masterly control.”—J. J. Scarisbrick, The Tablet “Revisionist history at its most imaginative and exciting. . . . [An] astonishing and magnificent piece of work.”—Edward T. Oakes, Commonweal “A magnificent scholarly achievement, a compelling read, and not a page too long to defend a thesis which will provoke passionate debate.”—Patricia Morison, Financial Times “Deeply imaginative, movingly written, and splendidly illustrated.”—Maurice Keen, New York Review of Books Winner of the Longman-History Today Book of the Year Award
Structure and the Book of Zechariah (The Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies)
by Mike ButterworthThis synthetic study has two primary tasks. The first is to elucidate the structure of the book of Zechariah. But in order to do this, a satisfactory method of analysis must be found. Thus the author begins by drawing up suitable literary criteria that will help to frame a reliable way of proceeding. The method is then tested on the book of Zechariah, and the results are compared with those of other biblical scholarship. Although this is a study in 'rhetorical criticism', it approaches the text from the standpoint of the authors' and redactors' intentions. The result is a convincing and wide-ranging analysis of the various and complex structural patterns of Zechariah.
Studies in Canonical Criticism: Reading the New Testament as Scripture (The Library of New Testament Studies #No. 76)
by Robert W. WallAs one of the leading figures in New Testament studies, Robert W. Wall has continually focused on the function of the New Testament as a "canonical” or authoritative collection of writings, reflecting not only the content and essence of the Church's emerging faith, but also the life to that community of followers of Jesus who eventually became widely known as “Christians.” In the vein of his defining work, The New Testament as Canon: A Reader in Canonical Criticism, Wall now reflects upon his more recent body of study.Always emphasizing 'canonical conversation', Wall had collected and revised some of his most important essays of the last two decades, including Unity of Luke and Acts (2010), The Unifying Theology of the Catholic Epistles (2003-13) and Images of Church in John's Revelation (2015). Completed by a new essay on the canonical approach to the Paratext of Hebrews, and with vital "introductory notes" for each chapter that highlight both Wall's revisions and his response to critical reception, this book is yet one more asset in Wall's continuing pursuit of the canonical function of the church's Scriptures.
Study of Literature and Religion (Studies in Literature and Religion)
by David JasperThe introduction to a series of interdisciplinary titles, both monographs and essays, concerned with matters of literature, art and textuality within religious traditions founded upon texts and textual study.
The Sun My Heart: From Mindfulness to Insight Contemplation
by Thich Nhat HanhPeace activist, poet, scholar and Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh invites us to welcome The Sun My Heart into our lives like a friend. And, as a true friend, its company is to be savoured. Written as the sequel to The Miracle of Mindfulness, this simple, compassionate book offers warmth and wisdom drawn from everyday anecdotes, Buddhist psychology and even contemporary physics. We can turn to The Sun My Heart again and again, enjoying the book's gentle guidance and companionship on our journey from mindfulness to insight.
Teaching with Authority: Miracles and Christology in the Gospel of Mark (The Library of New Testament Studies #74)
by Edwin K. BroadheadThe foundational inquiries into the relationship of miracles and Christology by Wrede, Dibelius, Bultmann and Marxsen guided a productive half-century of critical research. Their work raised crucial issues concerning the nature of the Gospels and the proper methods of interpretation that have in many ways charted the direction for New Testament studies. A new principle is now to be added to their criteria, however, that strategies of interpretation must be consciously shaped to highlight the features of narrative and its christological focus. The author then employs a consistent narrative strategy of interpretation in order to re-evaluate the relation of miracles and Christology in the Gospel of Mark. The primary goal is reconsideration of the role played by miracle stories in the characterization of Jesus. In particular, the tension posed by recent scholarship between the Jesus of the miracles and the Jesus of the cross is shown to be a false dichotomy.
The Theology and Philosophy of Eliade: Seeking the Centre (Library of Philosophy and Religion)
by C. OlsonThe primary focus of this study is to view Eliade as not only a historian of religions but also as a theologian, a philosopher, novelist and as someone engaged in cross-cultural dialogue with other religious traditions. Besides attempting to view Eliade's work from a variety of perspectives, this study contends that the scholarly work of Eliade cannot be separated from his own personal quest for meaning.
Thomas Cranmer's Doctrine of the Eucharist: An Essay in Historical Development
by Peter Newman Brooks'...essential reading for all students of the English Church.' Patrick Collinson Thomas Cranmer (1489-1556) is arguably the most controversial figure of the English Reformation. The sixteenth century was a period of fierce theological controversy and no doctrine concerned contemporaries more than the vexed issue of the Eucharist. Scholars have always found it notoriously difficult to determine Cranmer's conviction on this central matter of the Christian faith. This and many other questions that have long troubled Cranmer scholars receive fair and full treatment in this absorbing study. This book re-establishes itself as the definitive exposition of Cranmer's doctrine of the Eucharist.
Time and Transcendence: Secular History, the Catholic Reaction and the Rediscovery of the Future (Philosophical Studies in Contemporary Culture #1)
by G. MotzkinThis book investigates one aspect of the story of how our religiously-oriented culture became a secular one. It concentrates on the conflicts enveloping the attitude to the past from the late seventeenth to the early twentieth century. The background argument is that the way the process of secularization occurred in one particular religious context, the Roman Catholic one, was determinative for the possibility of something such as secular culture, and hence for both the modem secular attitude to the past and the modem religious one. In recent years a spate of scholarship has suggested that the expanded version of Weber's theory, according to which modernity is a consequence of Protestan tism, is not quite accurate. Robert Merton modified this theory to argue that modem natllral science originated in the context of seventeenth-century 1 Protestant England. Against this position, many scholars have investigated 2 origins for the development of science in Catholic countries. The development of natural science, however, is not the whole story of the development of modem secular culture, even if the story of that development is restricted to the development of knowledge. Our modem universities are organized around the division between humanities and natural sciences, and it can be thought that this process of modernization or secularization affected the humanities no less than the sciences.
The Trial of Woman: Feminism and the Occult Sciences in Victorian Literature and Society
by D. BashamThe Trial of Woman examines the impact of the nineteenth-century 'Occult Revival' on the Victorian Women's Movement, both in the lives of individual women and in the literature surrounding 'the Woman Question'. The book explores the Victorian Myth of Occult Womanhood and argues that the notion of female occult power was deeply influenced by the advent of Mesmerism, Spiritualism and Theosophy. This myth was itself a determining factor in women's struggle for legal and political rights.
W.M.L. de Wette, Founder of Modern Biblical Criticism: An Intellectual Biography (The Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies)
by John W. RogersonW.M.L. de Wette (1780-1849) was not only one of the founders of modern Old Testament criticism. His loss and recovery of Christian faith, his dismissal from his post in Berlin in 1819 on political grounds and his long subsequent exile in Basel left their mark upon his work in New Testament ethics, dogmatics and aesthetics. This first modern critical study of de Wette's life and work evaluates his achievements in the context of his own times and asesses their importance on modern biblical scholars.
A Walk in the Garden: Biblical, Iconographical and Literary Images of Eden (The Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies)
by Paul Morris Deborah SawyerThis collection of essays by notable scholars offers a unique, multi-faceted approach to the understanding of the Garden story. Starting with the motifs, context, structure and language of the biblical text itself, the chapters trace the Jewish and Christian exegetical traditions, and developments in literature and iconography. This is an invaluable book for students and scholars of biblical studies, theology, literature, art history and the psychology of religion.
Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate (PDF)
by Leila AhmedAre Islamic societies inherently oppressive to women? Is the trend among Islamic women to appear once again in veils and other traditional clothing a symbol of regression or an effort to return to a "pure" Islam that was just and fair to both sexes? In this book Leila Ahmed adds a new perspective to the current debate about women and Islam by exploring its historical roots, tracing the developments in Islamic discourses on women and gender from the ancient world to the present. In order to distinguish what was distinctive about the earliest Islamic doctrine on women, Ahmed first describes the gender systems in place in the Middle East before the rise of Islam. She then focuses on those Arab societies that played a key role in elaborating the dominant Islamic discourses about women and gender: Arabia during the period in which Islam was founded; Iraq during the classical age, when the prescriptive core of legal and religious discourse on women was formulated; and Egypt during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, when exposure to Western societies led to dramatic social change and to the emergence of new discourses on women. Throughout, Ahmed not only considers the Islamic texts in which central ideologies about women and gender developed or were debated but also places this discourse in its social and historical context. Her book is thus a fascinating survey of Islamic debates and ideologies about women and the historical circumstances of their position in society, the first such discussion using the analytic tools of contemporary gender studies.
Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate
by Leila AhmedAre Islamic societies inherently oppressive to women? Is the trend among Islamic women to appear once again in veils and other traditional clothing a symbol of regression or an effort to return to a “pure†? Islam that was just and fair to both sexes? In this book Leila Ahmed adds a new perspective to the current debate about women and Islam by exploring its historical roots, tracing the developments in Islamic discourses on women and gender from the ancient world to the present. In order to distinguish what was distinctive about the earliest Islamic doctrine on women, Ahmed first describes the gender systems in place in the Middle East before the rise of Islam. She then focuses on those Arab societies that played a key role in elaborating the dominant Islamic discourses about women and gender: Arabia during the period in which Islam was founded; Iraq during the classical age, when the prescriptive core of legal and religious discourse on women was formulated; and Egypt during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, when exposure to Western societies led to dramatic social change and to the emergence of new discourses on women. Throughout, Ahmed not only considers the Islamic texts in which central ideologies about women and gender developed or were debated but also places this discourse in its social and historical context. Her book is thus a fascinating survey of Islamic debates and ideologies about women and the historical circumstances of their position in society, the first such discussion using the analytic tools of contemporary gender studies.