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Piety and Politics in Qajar Iran: The Takkiyya Mu’avin al-Mulk in Kermanshah (British Institute of Persian Studies)
by Nahid Massoumeh AssemiThe Takkiyya Mu'avin al-Mulk is a building complex in the city of Kermanshah in western Iran, dedicated to the annual commemoration of the martyrdom of Husayn ibn 'Ali at the Battle of Karbala in 680, an event of seminal significance to Shi'i Islam. Private takkiyyas built by social elites were a phenomenon of the Qajar period, with their construction motivated by a political quest for legitimacy. This book examines the intersection of art and architecture, popular piety, and the politics of legitimation. Through an examination of the building and its decorative programme, it addresses issues of patronage, Shi'i iconography and popular religious practices during the early 20th century in Iran. It further argues for the role of takkiyyas in creation of a sense of community and group identity; the formative stage of the emergent idea of nationhood at the time, amongst those who frequented them.
Place Experience of the Sacred: Silence and the Pilgrimage Topography of Mount Athos
by Christos KakalisThis book explores the topography of Mount Athos, emphasizing the significance of silence and communal ritual in its understanding. Mount Athos, a mountainous peninsula in northern Greece, is a valuable case study of sacred topography, as it is one of the world’s largest monastic communities and an important pilgrimage destination. Its phenomenological examination highlights the importance of embodiment in the experience of religious places. Combining interdisciplinary insights from architectural theory, philosophy, theology and anthropology with archival and ethnographic materials, the book brings a fresh contribution to both Athonite studies and scholarship on sacred space. By focusing on the interrelation between silence and communal ritual, it offers an alternative to the traditional art historical, objectifying approaches. It reintroduces the phenomenological understanding of place, investigating also how this is expressed through a number of narratives, such as travel literature, maps and diaries.
Playing with Scripture: Reading Contested Biblical Texts with Gadamer and Genre Theory (Routledge Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Biblical Criticism)
by Andrew JuddThis book puts a creative new reading of Hans-Georg Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics and literary genre theory to work on the problem of Scripture. Reading texts as Scripture brings two hermeneutical assumptions into tension: that the text will continually say something new and relevant to the present situation, and that the text has stability and authority over readers. Given how contested the Bible’s meaning is, how is it possible to ‘read Scripture’ as authoritative and relevant? Rather than anchor meaning in author, text or reader, Gadamer’s phenomenological model of hermeneutical experience as Spiel (‘play’) offers a dynamic, intersubjective account of how understanding happens, avoiding the dead end of the subjective–objective dichotomy. Modern genre theory addresses some of the criticisms of Gadamer, accounting for the different roles played by readers in different genres using the new term Lesespiel (‘reading game’). This is tested in three case studies of contested texts: the recontextualization of psalms in the book of Acts, the use of Hagar’s story (Genesis 16) in nineteenth-century debates over slavery and the troubling reception history of the rape and murder in Gibeah (Judges 19). In each study, the application of ancient text to contemporary situation is neither arbitrary, nor slavishly bound to tradition, but playful.
Playing with Scripture: Reading Contested Biblical Texts with Gadamer and Genre Theory (Routledge Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Biblical Criticism)
by Andrew JuddThis book puts a creative new reading of Hans-Georg Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics and literary genre theory to work on the problem of Scripture. Reading texts as Scripture brings two hermeneutical assumptions into tension: that the text will continually say something new and relevant to the present situation, and that the text has stability and authority over readers. Given how contested the Bible’s meaning is, how is it possible to ‘read Scripture’ as authoritative and relevant? Rather than anchor meaning in author, text or reader, Gadamer’s phenomenological model of hermeneutical experience as Spiel (‘play’) offers a dynamic, intersubjective account of how understanding happens, avoiding the dead end of the subjective–objective dichotomy. Modern genre theory addresses some of the criticisms of Gadamer, accounting for the different roles played by readers in different genres using the new term Lesespiel (‘reading game’). This is tested in three case studies of contested texts: the recontextualization of psalms in the book of Acts, the use of Hagar’s story (Genesis 16) in nineteenth-century debates over slavery and the troubling reception history of the rape and murder in Gibeah (Judges 19). In each study, the application of ancient text to contemporary situation is neither arbitrary, nor slavishly bound to tradition, but playful.
Poet-Monks: The Invention of Buddhist Poetry in Late Medieval China
by Thomas J. MazanecPoet-Monks focuses on the literary and religious practices of Buddhist poet-monks in Tang-dynasty China to propose an alternative historical arc of medieval Chinese poetry. Combining large-scale quantitative analysis with close readings of important literary texts, Thomas J. Mazanec describes how Buddhist poet-monks, who first appeared in the latter half of Tang-dynasty China, asserted a bold new vision of poetry that proclaimed the union of classical verse with Buddhist practices of repetition, incantation, and meditation.Mazanec traces the historical development of the poet-monk as a distinct actor in the Chinese literary world, arguing for the importance of religious practice in medieval literature. As they witnessed the collapse of the world around them, these monks wove together the frayed threads of their traditions to establish an elite-style Chinese Buddhist poetry. Poet-Monks shows that during the transformative period of the Tang-Song transition, Buddhist monks were at the forefront of poetic innovation.
The Poetry and Essays of Uri Zvi Grinberg: Politics and Zionism (ISSN)
by Tamar Wolf-MonzonThis book focuses on the complex network of relationships between the poet Uri Zvi Grinberg and the Labor Movement in Mandate Palestine from 1923 to 1937.Making use of letters found in the Uri Zvi Grinberg Archive at the National Library of Israel (NLI), the author reconstructs the characteristics of Grinberg’s pioneer readership, attesting to their special relationship with his poetry. In the 1920s, it is argued, they considered Grinberg’s poetry an authentic expression of their complex spiritual world and especially of the reality of their lives. On his side, Grinberg accepted the pioneering ethos as the ideological basis of his works, becoming an outstanding poet of the Labor Movement. The chapters of this book track the various phases of Grinberg’s life and poetry, from his emigration to Palestine through to the 1930s, when he joined the Revisionist Movement and became increasingly ostracized from the Labor Movement. The story of Grinberg’s relations with the pioneers was emotionally charged—a mixture of enchantment and rejection, spiritual closeness and repulsion. Ultimately, this book analyzes the intensity of this connection and its many contradictory layers.This book will interest researchers in a range of fields, including Hebrew poetry and reception theory, as well as anyone interested in Israeli studies and the history of the Labor Movement in Palestine.
The Poetry and Essays of Uri Zvi Grinberg: Politics and Zionism (ISSN)
by Tamar Wolf-MonzonThis book focuses on the complex network of relationships between the poet Uri Zvi Grinberg and the Labor Movement in Mandate Palestine from 1923 to 1937.Making use of letters found in the Uri Zvi Grinberg Archive at the National Library of Israel (NLI), the author reconstructs the characteristics of Grinberg’s pioneer readership, attesting to their special relationship with his poetry. In the 1920s, it is argued, they considered Grinberg’s poetry an authentic expression of their complex spiritual world and especially of the reality of their lives. On his side, Grinberg accepted the pioneering ethos as the ideological basis of his works, becoming an outstanding poet of the Labor Movement. The chapters of this book track the various phases of Grinberg’s life and poetry, from his emigration to Palestine through to the 1930s, when he joined the Revisionist Movement and became increasingly ostracized from the Labor Movement. The story of Grinberg’s relations with the pioneers was emotionally charged—a mixture of enchantment and rejection, spiritual closeness and repulsion. Ultimately, this book analyzes the intensity of this connection and its many contradictory layers.This book will interest researchers in a range of fields, including Hebrew poetry and reception theory, as well as anyone interested in Israeli studies and the history of the Labor Movement in Palestine.
Polin: Jewish Childhood in Eastern Europe (Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry #36)
by Natalia Aleksiun, François Guesnet and Antony PolonskyChanges in childhood and children’s roles in society, and in how children participate in determining their own lives, have long been of interest to historians. Recent years have seen the emergence of new perspectives on the study of childhood, both in historical scholarship and in literary and cultural studies. Children’s experiences are now scrutinized not only as a means of examining the lives and self-representation of young individuals and their families, but also to investigate how the early experiences of individuals can shed light on larger historical questions. This volume applies both approaches in the context of Jewish eastern Europe. Historian Gershon Hundert has argued that studying the experience of children and attitudes towards coming of age offers an important corrective to the way we think of the Jewish past. This volume proves the potential of this approach in exploring many areas of historical interest. Among the topics investigated here are changes in perceptions of childhood and family, progress in the medical treatment of children, and developments in education. The work of charitable institutions is also considered, along with studies of emotion, gender history, and Polish–Jewish relations. From the First World War until after the Holocaust and the Second World War, countless children experienced traumatizing events. A special section is dedicated to their fate.
The Politics of Grace in Early Modern Literature
by Deni KasaThis book tells the story of how early modern poets used the theological concept of grace to reimagine their political communities. The Protestant belief that salvation was due to sola gratia, or grace alone, was originally meant to inspire religious reform. But, as Deni Kasa shows, poets of the period used grace to interrogate the most important political problems of their time, from empire and gender to civil war and poetic authority. Kasa examines how four writers—John Milton, Edmund Spenser, Aemilia Lanyer, and Abraham Cowley—used the promise of grace to develop idealized imagined communities, and not always egalitarian ones. Kasa analyzes the uses of grace to make new space for individual and collective agency in the period, but also to validate domination and inequality, with poets and the educated elite inserted as mediators between the gift of grace and the rest of the people. Offering a literary history of politics in a pre-secular age, Kasa shows that early modern poets mapped salvation onto the most important conflicts of their time in ways missed by literary critics and historians of political thought. Grace, Kasa demonstrates, was an important means of expression and a way to imagine impossible political ideals.
The Politics of Grace in Early Modern Literature
by Deni KasaThis book tells the story of how early modern poets used the theological concept of grace to reimagine their political communities. The Protestant belief that salvation was due to sola gratia, or grace alone, was originally meant to inspire religious reform. But, as Deni Kasa shows, poets of the period used grace to interrogate the most important political problems of their time, from empire and gender to civil war and poetic authority. Kasa examines how four writers—John Milton, Edmund Spenser, Aemilia Lanyer, and Abraham Cowley—used the promise of grace to develop idealized imagined communities, and not always egalitarian ones. Kasa analyzes the uses of grace to make new space for individual and collective agency in the period, but also to validate domination and inequality, with poets and the educated elite inserted as mediators between the gift of grace and the rest of the people. Offering a literary history of politics in a pre-secular age, Kasa shows that early modern poets mapped salvation onto the most important conflicts of their time in ways missed by literary critics and historians of political thought. Grace, Kasa demonstrates, was an important means of expression and a way to imagine impossible political ideals.
The Portrait
by Dawn WoodsThe Portrait is set mainly in the late summer/early autumn 1928, and opens in France where Richard Anderson, in his mid-thirties, a wealthy publisher and writer is researching for a book he is writing on his home, Shearwater Manor, a 17th century manor house in Berkshire. The house was very run down when Richard first saw it five years earlier, having been empty for almost one hundred years, since the death of Thomas Courtney, he young squire. His ill-fated life and untimely death had deterred all prospective purchasers until, that is, the arrival of the level-headed and skeptical Richard Anderson. He ordered extensive renovations to return the manor to its former glory, and has been living there for three years, alone, except for the servants, all of whom live out, apart from Maurice, the butler, who has a room at the manor. Whilst in France, Richard meets Yvette Moreau, a young French woman in her early twenties, and after a whirlwind romance the pair fall in love. Yvette has no family, so they return to Shearwater Manor, with plans to marry some weeks later, to enable Richard's closest friends, the Appleby's, to attend the wedding. On their arrival at the manor, Yvette sees a portrait hanging in the sitting room and asks Richard about it. He tells her it is the portrait of Thomas Courtney, who became squire of the estate in the 1820s after the death of his father. He relates the tale of Thomas's short and tragic life, and his eventual suicide, following the death of his wife, Catherine, in a riding accident. However, Richard could never have imagined the effect this subsequently has on Yvette. From that point she becomes obsessed with the story, having vivid dreams and imaginings, with the result that tragedy lies in wait.
Posthuman Buddhism and the Digital Self: The Production of Dwellspace
by Les RobertsIn Posthuman Buddhism and the Digital Self, Les Roberts extends his earlier work on spatial anthropology to consider questions of time, spaciousness and the phenomenology of self. Across the book’s four main chapters – which range from David Bowie’s long-standing interest in Buddhism, to street photography of 1980s Liverpool, to the ambient soundscapes of Derek Jarman’s Blue, or to the slow, contemplative cinema of Tsai Ming-Liang – Roberts lays the groundwork for the concept of ‘dwellspace’ as a means by which to unpick the shifting spatial, temporal and experiential modalities of everyday mediascapes. Understood as a particular disposition towards time, Roberts’s foray into dwellspace proceeds from a Pascalian reflection on the self/non-self in which being content in an empty room vies with the demands of having content in an empty room. Taking the idea of posthuman Buddhism as a heuristic lens, Roberts sets in motion a number of interrelated lines of enquiry that prompt renewed focus on questions of boredom, distraction and reverie and cast into sharper relief the psychosocial and creative affordances of ambience, spaciousness and slowness. The book argues that the colonisation of ‘empty time’ by 24/7 digital capitalism has gone hand-in-hand with the growth of the corporate mindfulness industry, and with it, the co-option, commodification and digitisation of dwellspace. Posthuman Buddhism is thus in part an exploration of the dialectics of dwellspace that orbits around a creative self-praxis rooted in the negation and dissolution of the self, one of the foundational cornerstones of Buddhist theory and practice.
Posthuman Buddhism and the Digital Self: The Production of Dwellspace
by Les RobertsIn Posthuman Buddhism and the Digital Self, Les Roberts extends his earlier work on spatial anthropology to consider questions of time, spaciousness and the phenomenology of self. Across the book’s four main chapters – which range from David Bowie’s long-standing interest in Buddhism, to street photography of 1980s Liverpool, to the ambient soundscapes of Derek Jarman’s Blue, or to the slow, contemplative cinema of Tsai Ming-Liang – Roberts lays the groundwork for the concept of ‘dwellspace’ as a means by which to unpick the shifting spatial, temporal and experiential modalities of everyday mediascapes. Understood as a particular disposition towards time, Roberts’s foray into dwellspace proceeds from a Pascalian reflection on the self/non-self in which being content in an empty room vies with the demands of having content in an empty room. Taking the idea of posthuman Buddhism as a heuristic lens, Roberts sets in motion a number of interrelated lines of enquiry that prompt renewed focus on questions of boredom, distraction and reverie and cast into sharper relief the psychosocial and creative affordances of ambience, spaciousness and slowness. The book argues that the colonisation of ‘empty time’ by 24/7 digital capitalism has gone hand-in-hand with the growth of the corporate mindfulness industry, and with it, the co-option, commodification and digitisation of dwellspace. Posthuman Buddhism is thus in part an exploration of the dialectics of dwellspace that orbits around a creative self-praxis rooted in the negation and dissolution of the self, one of the foundational cornerstones of Buddhist theory and practice.
The Power of Du'a
by Aliyah Umm Raiyaan'Empowering....of great benefit to those who want their doors flung open by Allah' - Mufti MenkWhat seems impossible can become possible through du’aIn The Power of Du’a, Sunday Times bestselling author and revert, Aliyah Umm Raiyaan takes you on a journey that shows how faith and practising du’a (a personal supplication) can transform your life.Featuring inspirational real-life stories from those who have experienced miraculous results from living with du’a, this book is a comforting guide to revive and develop a close relationship with Al Mujeeb – The One Who Responds. Through life’s challenges and struggles, with tools from the Qur’an and Sunnah, you will learn how to:Sincerely prepare your heart before du’aAsk of Allah from a place of certainty, during du’aMove forward in faithful trust after He respondsYou will learn how to prepare your heart and then ask of Allah from a place of sincerity and certainty. This book provides tools to navigate the response to your du’a, developing a close and trusting relationship with The Most High.Deeply moving and uplifting, The Power of Du’a is for anyone looking to reflect, reshape their dialogue with the Divine and walk in complete faith – embracing the perfect plans Allah has for each and every one of us.
Proceedings of the International Conference on Islamic and Muhammadiyah Studies (Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research #773)
by Triono Ali Mustofa Syamsul Hidayat Mohammad Zakki Azani Muhammad Wildan ShohibThis is an open access book. We cordially invite you to submit your papers for the International Conference on Islamic and Muhammadiyah Studies (ICIMS) 2023, This conference is part of a conference program called International Summit on Science Technology and Humanity (ISETH) 2022 Organized by Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta. This conference will be hosted online from Surakarta, Indonesia on 11–12 January 2023.
The Promise of Piety: Islam and the Politics of Moral Order in Pakistan
by Arsalan KhanIn The Promise of Piety, Arsalan Khan examines the zealous commitment to a distinct form of face-to-face preaching (dawat) among Pakistani Tablighis, practitioners of the transnational Islamic piety movement the Tablighi Jamaat. This group says that Muslims have abandoned their religious duties for worldly pursuits, creating a state of moral chaos apparent in the breakdown of relationships in the family, nation, and global Islamic community. Tablighis insist that this dire situation can only be remedied by drawing Muslims back to Islam through dawat, which they regard as the sacred means for spreading Islamic virtue. In a country founded in the name of Muslim identity and where Islam is ubiquitous in public life, the Tablighi claim that Pakistani Muslims have abandoned Islam is particularly striking. The Promise of Piety shows how Tablighis constitute a distinct form of pious relationality in the ritual processes and everyday practices of dawat and how pious relationality serves as a basis for transforming domestic and public life. Khan explores both the promise and limits of the Tablighi project of creating an Islamic moral order that can transcend the political fragmentation and violence of life in postcolonial Pakistan.
Prophecy and Politics in the Early Carolingian World (Apocalypse and the Global Middle Ages)
by Andrew SorberProphetic and apocalyptic rhetoric play critical roles in the development and articulation of political authority in the reigns of Charlemagne (d. 814) and Louis the Pious (d. 840). The rhetorical authority derived from claims of receiving revelation, interpreting divine communication, speaking for God, and foreseeing calamities became a competitive medium through which individuals legitimized political behaviour, debated their long- and short-term aspirations, and struggled for political supremacy. Ranging from claims of revelations, dreams, and visions, to the adoption of rhetorical voices based on biblical prophets, to the interpretation of signs and portents, prophetic rhetoric enjoyed extensive experimentation and varied application throughout early medieval political discourse.Prophecy and Politics in the Early Carolingian World argues that claims of divine revelation, resistant to any attempts to monopolize them, provided a powerful means of speaking with authority for all participants in Frankish political discourse. This authority proved instrumental in the articulation and dismantling of effective Carolingian royal authority from 768 to 840. The volume introduces and reinterprets early Carolingian political discourse and intellectual activity, as well as the centrality of apocalypticism in the Carolingian period, by emphasizing prophecy, or revelation and authority, rather than prediction and calamity.Early Carolingian political discourse was a dialogue that took place across royal proclamations, legal statements, historical texts, visions, scriptural commentaries, and manifestations of the natural world, and in this dialogue, the ability to interpret God’s will was as powerful as it was problematic.
Prophecy and Politics in the Early Carolingian World (Apocalypse and the Global Middle Ages)
by Andrew SorberProphetic and apocalyptic rhetoric play critical roles in the development and articulation of political authority in the reigns of Charlemagne (d. 814) and Louis the Pious (d. 840). The rhetorical authority derived from claims of receiving revelation, interpreting divine communication, speaking for God, and foreseeing calamities became a competitive medium through which individuals legitimized political behaviour, debated their long- and short-term aspirations, and struggled for political supremacy. Ranging from claims of revelations, dreams, and visions, to the adoption of rhetorical voices based on biblical prophets, to the interpretation of signs and portents, prophetic rhetoric enjoyed extensive experimentation and varied application throughout early medieval political discourse.Prophecy and Politics in the Early Carolingian World argues that claims of divine revelation, resistant to any attempts to monopolize them, provided a powerful means of speaking with authority for all participants in Frankish political discourse. This authority proved instrumental in the articulation and dismantling of effective Carolingian royal authority from 768 to 840. The volume introduces and reinterprets early Carolingian political discourse and intellectual activity, as well as the centrality of apocalypticism in the Carolingian period, by emphasizing prophecy, or revelation and authority, rather than prediction and calamity.Early Carolingian political discourse was a dialogue that took place across royal proclamations, legal statements, historical texts, visions, scriptural commentaries, and manifestations of the natural world, and in this dialogue, the ability to interpret God’s will was as powerful as it was problematic.
A Prototype Approach to Hate and Anger in the Hebrew Bible (Routledge Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Biblical Criticism)
by Deena E. GrantThis innovative book applies findings from the field of cognitive linguistics to the study of emotions in the Hebrew Bible. The book draws on the prototype approach to conceptual categories to help interpret emotion language in biblical passages. Contemporary scholarship has come to recognize that biblical emotion terms do not necessarily possess exact equivalents within our modern lexicons, even if some of these terms express (or appear to express) concepts similar to those conveyed by modern emotion language. In particular, the book focuses on sn’ and ḫrh, which are almost always equated in modern English with hate and anger. However, the ancient Hebrew roots evoke varied and robust emotion-scripts that are quite different than their English counterparts. We see how the prototype script model may help to expose the unique nuances of sn’ and ḫrh and put into profile elements of these emotions that may otherwise go unnoticed. Overall, the study demonstrates that even though modern emotion terms cannot fully capture the ancient emotional experience, our shared use of language to evoke meaning offers us entrée into the emotional world represented in the Hebrew Bible.
A Prototype Approach to Hate and Anger in the Hebrew Bible (Routledge Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Biblical Criticism)
by Deena E. GrantThis innovative book applies findings from the field of cognitive linguistics to the study of emotions in the Hebrew Bible. The book draws on the prototype approach to conceptual categories to help interpret emotion language in biblical passages. Contemporary scholarship has come to recognize that biblical emotion terms do not necessarily possess exact equivalents within our modern lexicons, even if some of these terms express (or appear to express) concepts similar to those conveyed by modern emotion language. In particular, the book focuses on sn’ and ḫrh, which are almost always equated in modern English with hate and anger. However, the ancient Hebrew roots evoke varied and robust emotion-scripts that are quite different than their English counterparts. We see how the prototype script model may help to expose the unique nuances of sn’ and ḫrh and put into profile elements of these emotions that may otherwise go unnoticed. Overall, the study demonstrates that even though modern emotion terms cannot fully capture the ancient emotional experience, our shared use of language to evoke meaning offers us entrée into the emotional world represented in the Hebrew Bible.
Psalms: My Psalm My Context (Texts @ Contexts)
by Athalya Brenner-Idan and Gale A. YeeThis unique volume on the Psalms is the final Hebrew Bible installment of the Texts@Contexts series. Each contribution provides a contextual reflection on a Psalm as chosen by the contributor. These contributions take account of the contributor's own personal context or the contexts of those around them, providing readings that are varied in geographical and linguistic scope, that reflect on pressing themes such as immigration, diversity, race, marginalized voices (such as those of adults with learning disabilities) and postcolonialism. Scholars also reflect on their own contexts of research and education. Taken together the contributions to this volume provide a sort of contextual commentary on the Psalms, gathering a wide range of voices and reflecting a diverse range of cultural afterlives of the Psalms.
The Psalms (Essentials of Biblical Studies)
by Keith BodnerWithin the library of the world's classics, the book of Psalms occupies a unique place. Few books were composed over a longer period of time and have exercised more cultural and religious influence than the Psalms, the longest and most complex collection in the Hebrew Bible. Nearly 1,000 years in the making with dozens of contributors, this ancient anthology includes 150 prayers and poems for a host of public occasions and private exigencies, ranging from the comforting passage ?Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,? Ps 23:4 to some of the most violent imprecations, such as ?Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth,? Ps 58:6). The Psalms is an introduction to the world of the Psalms that focuses on the content and the poetic forms in the collection, guiding the reader toward an appreciation of the purposes of the Psalms and their contribution to the Scriptures of Israel. Rather than abstract theorizing, Keith Bodner offers close readings of numerous psalms, exploring the poetically-framed questions raised in the Psalms, ranging from the problem of evil and the silence of God to issues of philosophical speculation, practical atheism, and even life after death.
Queer Ministers’ Voices from the Global South: "A Burning Fire in My Bones" (Gender, Theology and Spirituality)
This book brings together the narratives of diverse ministers from the Global South in order to show that queer theologies are impacting many parts of the world and queer lives are molding and enriching Christian ministry. Across Asia, Africa, and Latin America, we are witnessing the emergence of queer faith-based communities in very different contexts and with very different histories. The perspectives included in the book form a tapestry that honors diversity among the Global South’s queer communities and ministries. They demonstrate the various ways in which queer ministry challenges and changes theological understanding as well as religious practice. Each chapter highlights issues pertaining to liturgy, sacraments, pastoral rites, and the personal faith journey that each minister underwent to foster pastoral queer theologies. Contributors focus on their understanding of the relationship between faith and sexuality, how rituals relate to the daily lives of queer believers, and the struggles they face within the political structures of religious institutions. The narratives highlight some of the challenges and mechanisms deployed to cope with ingrained LGBTIQ+ phobia. They also evidence how communities enact interreligious and multi-religious dialog and rituals while honoring faith and activism, and how prophetic ministries counter oppressive discourses and colonial performativities. This is a valuable resource for academics and religious leaders interested in the study of queer theologies, Asian, African, and Latin American Christianity, as well as ecclesiastical and liturgical issues.
Queer Ministers’ Voices from the Global South: "A Burning Fire in My Bones" (Gender, Theology and Spirituality)
by Lisa Isherwood Hugo Córdova QueroThis book brings together the narratives of diverse ministers from the Global South in order to show that queer theologies are impacting many parts of the world and queer lives are molding and enriching Christian ministry. Across Asia, Africa, and Latin America, we are witnessing the emergence of queer faith-based communities in very different contexts and with very different histories. The perspectives included in the book form a tapestry that honors diversity among the Global South’s queer communities and ministries. They demonstrate the various ways in which queer ministry challenges and changes theological understanding as well as religious practice. Each chapter highlights issues pertaining to liturgy, sacraments, pastoral rites, and the personal faith journey that each minister underwent to foster pastoral queer theologies. Contributors focus on their understanding of the relationship between faith and sexuality, how rituals relate to the daily lives of queer believers, and the struggles they face within the political structures of religious institutions. The narratives highlight some of the challenges and mechanisms deployed to cope with ingrained LGBTIQ+ phobia. They also evidence how communities enact interreligious and multi-religious dialog and rituals while honoring faith and activism, and how prophetic ministries counter oppressive discourses and colonial performativities. This is a valuable resource for academics and religious leaders interested in the study of queer theologies, Asian, African, and Latin American Christianity, as well as ecclesiastical and liturgical issues.
Queer Thriving in Catholic Education: Going Beyond the Pastoral Paradigm for LGBTQ+ Inclusion
by Sean Whittle Seán HenryThis book provides readers with the opportunity to go beyond anecdote and supposition in order to get a fuller grasp of research around Catholic education and LGBTQ+ matters. This is an edited collection of chapters which explores LGBTQ+ matters in relation to Catholic education. Although the field of Catholic Education Studies has grown exponentially over the past two decades, little if any attention has been published specifically about the place of LGBTQ+ students (and teachers) in the context of Catholic education. This edited book presents the various strands of research about Catholic education and LGBTQ+ inclusion. More specifically, this edited book of chapters addresses a number of broader themes including:• Is it possible for Catholic education to sit in harmony with the concerns of LGBTQ+ inclusive education?• What does it mean to ‘queer’ education at all? How does this sit in relation to Catholic perspectives on the purpose of Catholic education?• When it comes to LGBTQ+ issues in relation to Catholic education, what is the research agenda?• How might Catholic schools move beyond a ‘pastoral accommodation’ approach to LGBTQ+ students?• What does the evidence from research in Catholic schools indicate? Are they places of inclusion, hospitality, and welcome for LGBTQ+ young people?