Free Worldwide Delivery : Eight Theories of Religion : Paperback : Oxford University Press Inc : 9780195165708 : 0195165705 : 23 Feb 2006 : Offers summary, analysis, and appraisal of many landmark modern efforts to explain the origin and function of religion. Beginning in the middle decades of the nineteenth century, this book considers the Victorian anthropology of E B Tylor and James Frazer; the "reductionist" social science of Sigmund Freud, Emile Durkheim, and Karl Marx; and more.

In the tradition of Bertrand Russell's Why I Am Not a Christian and Sam Harris's recent bestseller, The End of Faith, Christopher Hitchens makes the ultimate caseagainst religion. With a close and erudite reading of the major religious texts, he documents the ways in which religion is a man-made wish, a cause of dangerous sexual repression, and a distortion of our origins in the cosmos. With eloquent clarity, Hitchens frames the argument for a more secular life based on science andreason, in which hell is replaced by the Hubble Telescope's awesome view of the universe, and Moses and the burning bush give way to the beauty and symmetryof the double helix.

This is a new text for the sociology of religion course. Instead of surveying the field systematically, the text is organized around a set of big questions that generate the most discussion and debate in the sociology of religion field.Big questions covered in the text, include: Whatever happened to the so-called 'decline of religion'? Explaining religious vitality in today's world. Why is there a rising tide of fundamentalism around the world? How have recent waves of immigration changed the landscape of religion in the US and elsewhere? What are we to make of innovative ways to get your religion? -Mega-churches, televangelism and the crystal shop around the corner Is religion a force for social change or a tool of the status quo? Can democratic political systems accommodate... Less

The current ecological crisis is a matter of urgent global concern, with solutions being sought on many fronts. In this book, Seyyed Hossein Nasr argues that the devastation of our world has been exacerbated, if not actually caused, by the reductionist view of nature that has been advanced by modern secular science. What is needed, he believes, is the recovery of the truth to which the great, enduring religions all attest; namely that nature is sacred. Nasr traces the historical process through which Western civilization moved away from the idea of nature as sacred and embraced a world view which sees humans as alienated from nature and nature itself as a machine to be dominated and manipulated by humans. His goal is to negate the totalitarian claims of modern science and to re-open the... Less

"This is a fascinating and important study of popular science in America after the mid-nineteenth century, filled with memorable characters and the amazing demonstrations of their wonders."—James B. Gilbert, author of Redeeming Culture: American Religion in an Age of Science "A timely and illuminating exploration of American science and pseudo-science as embodied in ‘wonder shows.’ Fred Nadis impressively connects these colorful performances to contemporary debates about the power and prestige of traditional science amid recent challenges to science’s intellectual and moral authority. A terrific book!"—Howard Segal, Bird Professor of History, University of Maine"This is a fascinating examination of the boundaries between science, religion, and magic."—Robert W. Rydell, author of All the... Less

Religion and the Creation of Race and Ethnicity is the first collection devoted to demonstrating the role that religion and myth have played in the creation of the categories of “race” and “ethnicity.” When scholars approach religion and race, they tend to focus on such issues as how African Americans have expressed Christianity, or how Japanese or Mexicans have lived “religiously.” This volume, meant specifically for those new to the field, brings together an ensemble of prominent scholars and illuminates instead the role religious myths have played in shaping those very social boundaries that we call “races” and “ethnicities.” It asks, what part did Christianity play in creating “Blackness”? To what extent was Japanese or Mexican identity itself the product of religious life?The text,... Less

The religious practices and understandings of small indigenous societies are recognized by many to be in no way inferior to other religious beliefs....

The Truth presents a concise summary of the divine messages sent to us by God through our greatest prophets. When studied successively, these spiritual lessons form a Tower of Truth that should not be broken or interpreted along religious lines. Instead, these spiritual Truths should be shared and assimilated by everyone, regardless of one’s religious affiliation. In addition, The Truth explores the five primary religions that evolved after the prophets died: Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam, to determine whether any of these manmade religions have remained faithful to the Truth, including the primordial Truth that the Supreme Being is comprised of both masculine and feminine energy.

Free Worldwide Delivery : Religion and Youth : Paperback : Ashgate Publishing Group : 9780754667681 : 0754667685 : 21 Jul 2010 : What is the future of religion given the responses of young people? Offering a comprehensive international perspective on the sociology of youth and religion, this book reveals key geographical and organisational variables as well as the complexities of the engagement between youth and religion.

Many evangelicals have embraced a Christianized 'folk religion' characterized by glib sayings they've never deeply examined....

An exploration into the vitality and richness of Japanese religious life! Distinguished scholar and teacher H. Byron Earhart provides a fresh, firsthand look at Japanese religious life, sensitively distilling its unique characteristics. Within the larger framework of the distinctive Japanese religious heritage, Earhart explains the major traditions; provides a historical- cultural context; examines objects of worship--kami ("gods"), Buddhas, ancestors, and holy persons; interprets Japanese concepts of worship reflected in views on society, space, time, and human life; and assesses the general world view created by the individual traditions taken as a whole. Religions of Japan is enriched by the author's fieldwork, which brings an immediacy to his description of a traditional rural... Less

In the 1600s Colonial French settlers brought Christianity into the lands that are now the state of Mississippi. Throughout the period of French rule and the period of Spanish dominion that followed, Roman Catholicism remained the principal religion. By the time that statehood was achieved in 1817, Mississippi was attracting Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, and other Protestant evangelical faiths at a remarkable pace, and by the twentieth century, religion in Mississippi was dominantly Protestant and evangelical. In this book Randy J. Sparks traces the roots of evangelical Christianity in the state and shows how the evangelicals became a force of cultural revolution. They embraced the poorer segments of society, welcomed high populations of both women and African Americans, and deeply... Less

Living Religions presents a highly readable and stimulating survey of the modern religious world though an emphasis on the personal consciousness of believers and their own accounts of their religion and relevance in contemporary life."Religion is not a museum piece. Religion is a vibrant force in the lives of many people around the world, and many religions are presently experiencing a renaissance." - Mary Pat Fisher, Preface to Living ReligionsAlong with a team of specialist consultants in each faith, and drawing on a wealth of scholarly research and firsthand source material, Mary Pat Fisher provides a fresh and challenging insight into the historical development and teachings of traditional faiths, indigenous religions, and new religious movements. She considers how the contemporary... Less

Over the last decade the once marginal extreme right of the Turkish ideological spectrum has grown in size as well as in influence and has effectively reshaped party competition in Turkey. Policy mandates and electoral bases of the rising extreme right rely on potentially explosive social cleavages in the country. One such confrontation is between the secularist and pro-Islamist forces, which has always been one of the centrepieces of modern Turkish politics. The rise of pro-Islamist electoral forces from a marginal to an undeniably imposing position in Turkish electoral politics has led many to worry that a deep-rooted schism has come to the forefront of Turkish politics. The frontline of this secularist vs pro-Islamist confrontation is quite widespread ranging from a debate around the... Less

Religion is central to the lives of millions of people around the globe....

What is the subject of theology? These fourteen essays argue against the view that "religion" is the name of one particular territory that we may consider or ignore if we feel so inclined. That "religion" is a subject quite different from others, such as politics, art, science, law and economics, is peculiar to modern Western culture. But Professor Lash states that the "modern" world is ending, and in the consequent confusion is the possibility of discovering new forms of ancient wisdom that the "modern" world obscured from view. Part I explores the dialogue between Christianity and Hinduism. Those essays in Part II (six were published between 1988 and 1994, and five are unpublished) consider relations between theology and science, the secularity of Western culture and questions of... Less

This book provides a comprehensive selection of readings that relate to and explore the definition of religion. The texts come from a wide range of approaches, unified both by the questions they address and their broadly social scientific perspective. The disciplines covered include anthropology, phenomenology, psychology and sociology. The editors have also included some key texts relating to the feminist approach to and critique of religion. The initial section of the book includes some of the foundational texts, such as materials by Marx, Freud, and Durkheim. The remaining sections look at more recent discussions of the issues from the different disciplinary perspectives. Each reading is introduced by a biographical sketch of the author. The book also includes introductory discussions... Less

For introductory courses in world religions, comparative religions or introduction to religion. Conceived for students with little or no background in the academic study of religions, Religions of the World offers the most broad coverage of world religions supported by primary source documents, coverage of religions as they exist today, and integrated media resources.In preparing the eleventh edition of Religions of the World, Mark Woodward drew on his experience in teaching an introductory course on the religions of the world to thousands of undergraduates over the last two decades, living and working in Buddhist, Muslim and Chinese cultures for extended periods and on conversations with friends and colleagues in the Arizona Native American community. In this edition, he has edited... Less

God without religion? Andrew Farley's experience as a Christian was first characterized by self-effort as he tried to please God at any cost....

In Religion and Science (1961), Bertrand Russell's popular polemic against religious dogma, he covers the ground from demonology to quantum physics....

Why do people study religion? How have they studied it in the past? How do we study religion today? Is the academic study of religion the same as religious education? These and many other questions are addressed in this engaging introduction to the discipline of religious studies, written by two experienced university teachers. The authors have crafted this book to familiarize novice students with key concepts and terminology in the study of religion. More advanced students will find a varied array of theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches to the field. Topics include: definitions of religion perspectives in the study and teaching of religion how religion began to be studied: traditional perspectives – philosophical and theological how people experience religion:... Less

This book, the first in the field for two decades, looks at the relationships between geography and religion. It represents a synthesis of research by geographers of many countries, mainly since the 1960s. No previous book has tackled this emerging field from such a broad, interdisciplinary perspective, and never before have such a variety of detailed case studies been pulled together in so comparative or illuminating a way. Examples and case studies have been drawn from all the major world religions and from all continents from both a historical and contemporary perspective. Major themes covered in the book include the distribution of religion and the processes by which religion and religious ideas spread through space and time. Some of the important links between religion and... Less

Like taxes, death is inevitable. Everyone experiences it sooner or later. This book offers perspectives on death and dying from all major religions, written by experts in each of those religions. Focusing on the major world traditions, it offers important information about what death and dying means to those practicing these faiths. The second part of the book adds a necessary and truly unique perspective - a personal look at how people actually die in the various world religions, as told by a hospital chaplain, with anecdotes and experiences that bring the death process to life, so to speak.Each chapter engages the theology of each religion, giving quotes from the literature of their respective scriptural traditions, to explain the process of dying, death, and the afterlife. In doing... Less

Religion and Alcohol: Sobering Thoughts is an intriguing and thought- provoking collection of ten essays divided into two main parts. The first part focuses on the use or prohibition of alcohol in various religious traditions, with chapters exploring the Christian New Testament, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and tribal religions. The second half of the book considers alcohol in its historical context, with chapters examining drinking in medieval monasticism, Victorian England, the American South, and films, as well as the influence of movements such as Alcoholics Anonymous.

.cs7CED571B{text-a lign:left;text-ind ent:0pt;padding:0p t 0pt 0pt 0pt;margin:0pt 0pt 0pt 0pt} .cs5EFED22F{color: #000000; background-color: transparent;font-f amily:Times New Roman; font-size:12pt; font-weight:normal ; font-style:normal; } In this insightful work, Harry H. Singleton, III, analyzes the white religious establishment’s use of Christian faith throughout American history to link divine will with black oppression. This exploitation establishes Christian faith as the single most persuasive tool in convincing whites of their superiority and blacks of their inferiority. Singleton calls for a reexamination of the major categories of Christian theology due to its misuse by many leading white clergy and theologians. He constructs a more liberating approach to Christian... Less

In the tradition of Bertrand Russell's Why I Am Not a Christian and Sam Harris' recent best-seller, The End of Faith, Christopher Hitchens makes the ultimate case against religion....

The Discipline of Religion is a lively critical journey through religious studies today, looking at its recent growth as an academic discipline, and its contemporary political and social meanings. Focusing on the differences between religious belief and academic religious discourse, Russell T. McCutcheon argues that the invention of religion as a discipline blurs the distinction between criticism and doctrine in its assertion of the relevance of faith as a credible object of study. In the leap from disciplinary criticism to avowal of actual cosmic and moral meaning, schools of religious studies extend their powers far beyond universities and into the everyday lives of those outside, managing and curtailing specific types of speech and dissent.

We live, allegedly, in a postmodern age in which we have cast aside the narrative fantasies of the pre-modern era. If postmodernism represents the final abandonment of all grand theories, where does religion stand? If religion is a particularly unbelievable form of explanation, why does it power still affect social and political change? Here, like the skeptics of our age, the author asks, What has theology ever had to say that was of the slightest use to anyone? He argues that religion without God is like a car without an engine, and draws on many aspects of human culture to offer a defense of religion that is not only credible but necessary in an age when postmodernism itself has been exposed as a cruel illusion.

This book, the first in the field for two decades, looks at the relationships between geography and religion. It represents a synthesis of research by geographers of many countries, mainly since the 1960s. No previous book has tackled this emerging field from such a broad, interdisciplinary perspective, and never before have such a variety of detailed case studies been pulled together in so comparative or illuminating a way. Examples and case studies have been drawn from all the major world religions and from all continents. Many historical examples complement the contemporary ones in this wide-ranging review. Major themes covered in the book include the distribution of religion and the processes by which religion and religious ideas spread through space and time. Some of the important... Less