Category: Travel

Book Summary :

This book is a study of religious ecstasy, and the ways that it has been suppressed in both the academic study of religion, and in much of the modern practice of religion. It examines the meanings of the term, how ecstatic experience is understood in a range of religions, and why the importance of religious and mystical ecstasy has declined in the modern West. June McDaniel examines how the search for ecstatic experience has migrated into such areas as war, terrorism, transgression, sexuality, drug use, and anti-institutional forms of spirituality. She argues that the loss of religious and mystical ecstasy, as both a religious goal and as a topic of academic study, has had wide-ranging negative effects. She also proposes that the field of religious studies must go beyond criminalizing, trivializing and pathologizing ecstatic and mystical experiences. Both religious studies and theology need to take these states seriously as important aspects of lived human experience.

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A multi-authored book, with editors and authors who are leaders in Faith Community Nursing (FCN) that aims to address contemporary issues in faith-based, whole person, community based health offering cost effective, accessible, patient centered care along the patient continuum while challenging contemporary health policy to include more health promotion services. Twenty-five chapters take the reader from a foundational understanding of this historic grass-roots movement to the present day international specialty nursing practice. The book is structured into five sections that describe both the historical advancement of the Faith Community Nursing, its current implications and future challenges, taking into account the perspectives of the pastor, congregation, nurse, health care system and public health national and international organizations. The benefits of this book are that it is intended for a mixed audience including lay, academic, medical professionals or health care executives. By changing the mindset of the reader to see the nurse as more than providing illness care, the faith community as more than a place one goes to on Sunday and health as more than physical, creative alternatives for promoting health emerge through Faith Community Nursing.

Book Summary :

Our Sacred Dimension makes an important contribution to the anthropological, philosophical and psychological consideration of man in our era. It explores the role of the sacred in our lives, how it constitutes an antidote to the deterioration of our Personhood and to suffering, and how recent history has facilitated the withdrawal of our minds into a narrowly understood mechanical and material realism that in effect puts a shroud over our ability to perceive, and live, our lives in their full dimensions.This book identifies the problem of modern egoism and explains the nature of sacredness in our lives. It encourages us to explore the sacred and instructs us how to do so. This is not a primer for ascetics, but a handbook for realizing our spiritual potential in our secular lives. This book is a call to reflection in a fast-paced, commercialized and self-centred world. Every person, regardless of their past, can rise to the sacred and realize their personhood.

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A how-to book on ministering to two distinct generations in the Catholic Church that includes a look at recent historical and technological changes and their effect on young adults.

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A collection of Luther's writings relating specifically to his spirituality.

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In inclusive and contemporary translations, this volume introduces the reader to the rich complex of issues that Luther contributes to the history of spirituality

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Sri Aurobindo stands out as one of the most profound and profoundly relevant of contemporary Asian spiritual masters speaking to the West. His vision transcends the distinctive strengths and weaknesses of India and the West, and his discipline brings the yogas of the Gita to the task of world transformation.Professor Robert McDermott's afterword recounts the increased significance of Aurobindo's message for the West in modern times.

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This volume includes a translation of four spiritual treatises of Maximus the Confessor (c. 580-662), plus an account of his trial. Included are The Four Hundred Chapters of Love, Commentary on the Lord's Prayer, Chapters on Knowledge, The Church's Mystagogy, and Trial of Maximus.

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This book brings together a collection of articles from eminent scholars and practitioners from India, Europe, the USA, and Australia and investigates the applicability of spiritually inspired business models in Indian and Western contexts. This book is a tribute to the revered Indian management scholar and philosopher Professor S. K. Chakraborty, a pioneer of human values and Indian ethos in management. It explores the potentials and pitfalls of spiritual-based leadership and provides directions for renewing business education to embrace human values and spirituality. The forty contributions in the book are divided into seven sections—introduction; business ethics and management; developing new organizational models and processes; potentials and pitfalls of spirituality-based leadership; leaders and their world; education, spirituality, and society; ways to go—to bring out different aspects of the spirituality in business model endorsed by Chakraborty. The book is a treasure trove for researchers of not only business ethics, but also of leadership and strategy studies, in addition to the organization professionals and the general reader for expert insights on the topic.

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"Passionate Spirituality explores the roots and meanings of passion in Western culture, and then examines how passion is expressed in the works of two medieval women mystics - Hildegard of Bingen and Hadewijch of Brabant - and in the lives of contemporary Christians seeking to deepen their own spiritual journeys. Too often, the term "passion' is associated only with steamy films, sexual, sin, and emotional excess - cutting off the breadth of its meaning and expression for positive good. But the great mystics succeed precisely because they hold together both the affective and the intellectual aspects of the spiritual life in creative and convincing ways. Their accounts of their mystical experience are important resources for information and understanding about how to talk about God more formally, and for what it means to be passionately in love with God and the world."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Book Summary :

This book is an in-depth account of people’s cultural and religious life in the Jammu region of Jammu and Kashmir, India. It brings out the significance of Sufi and deity shrines as alternative places of worship that give meaning and purpose to people’s lives. It includes sites and practices commonly associated with Islam/Sufism and Hinduism as spaces of shared culture. Most of the existing literature of Jammu and Kashmir is on Kashmir focusing mostly on topics such as politics, state, identity, conflict or violence. This book proposes to go beyond these works by delimiting the focus and area of the study to culture, society and religion. It explores the sites of religious pluralism and tolerance in the violence-ridden territory of Jammu and Kashmir. The chapters are mainly based on ethnographic data collected through qualitative methods like observation – participant and non-participant, case studies, in-depth interviews and oral history. The book is of interest to researchers, both faculty and graduate students, in the areas of sociology of religion, social anthropology, religious studies, cultural studies, Sufism, shrines and deity worship in South Asia.

Book Summary :

Global society stands at a crossroads, one of those critical moments in the history of humankind. The simple fact is that the Earth cannot support our rampant overuse and misuse of its abundant gift of resources. Not only are we depleting the forests, oceans, soil, we are also poisoning the air and polluting our rivers, lakes, and oceans. We are living far beyond our means. Life as we are creating it is measurably and extravagantly unsustainable. - Bill Phipps. All societies live by their stories. This provocative book from one of the most provocative leaders in the Canadian church challenges the governing story that has shaped and defined Western culture and society - a story that has manifested itself in ecological destruction, war and the obscene military expenditures that go with it, unprecendented consumerism, economic disparity between rich and poor, mistreatment of non-white cultures and races, sexism, and fear. Clearly, it is time for a new story. Bill Phipps takes on the task of outlining the core themes of this new story with the passion and vision of a modern-day prophet. He shows us the deeply spiritual nature of the issues and choices that confront us. Recognizing that the challenges we face are inherently interconnected and can no longer be treated in isolation from each other, his approach is multi-faceted, touching on all aspects of life, including the role of the arts in bringing about transformation. As a culture and as a society, we do indeed stand at a crossroads - one of those rare grace-moments when we are granted the opportunity to choose our future. So the question remains before us. Will we choose the way of death, or the way of new life? Cause for Hope is part warning cry, part visionary exploration, part encouragement for the journey. As such, it is itself a cause for hope. Each chapter concludes with questions for discussion, making this book a valuable resource for study group use.