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The Impact of Buddhism on Chinese Material Culture (Buddhisms: A Princeton University Press Series #11)
by John KieschnickFrom the first century, when Buddhism entered China, the foreign religion shaped Chinese philosophy, beliefs, and ritual. At the same time, Buddhism had a profound effect on the material world of the Chinese. This wide-ranging study shows that Buddhism brought with it a vast array of objects big and small--relics treasured as parts of the body of the Buddha, prayer beads, and monastic clothing--as well as new ideas about what objects could do and how they should be treated. Kieschnick argues that even some everyday objects not ordinarily associated with Buddhism--bridges, tea, and the chair--on closer inspection turn out to have been intimately tied to Buddhist ideas and practices. Long after Buddhism ceased to be a major force in India, it continued to influence the development of material culture in China, as it does to the present day. At first glance, this seems surprising. Many Buddhist scriptures and thinkers rejected the material world or even denied its existence with great enthusiasm and sophistication. Others, however, from Buddhist philosophers to ordinary devotees, embraced objects as a means of expressing religious sentiments and doctrines. What was a sad sign of compromise and decline for some was seen as strength and versatility by others. Yielding rich insights through its innovative analysis of particular types of objects, this briskly written book is the first to systematically examine the ambivalent relationship, in the Chinese context, between Buddhism and material culture.
The Impact of Critical Rationalism: Expanding the Popperian Legacy through the Works of Ian C. Jarvie
by Raphael Sassower Nathaniel LaorAs a student and disciple of Karl Popper and longtime managing editor of Philosophy of the Social Sciences, Ian C. Jarvie extended the notion of Critical Rationalism to be useful in anthropology, aesthetics, film studies, and various social sciences. In this Festschrift, contributors from a range of interests and disciplines engage with the Popperian legacy and Jarvie’s scholarly and editorial work in Critical Rationalism to contextualize it in the broader, contemporary intellectual landscape. These original essays not only honor Jarvie’s legacy, but expand it to cross the philosophical divide between analytic and continental schools of thought. In so doing, the authors bring the state-of-the-art achievements of Critical Rationalism to the forefront of current academic debates.
The Impact of God: Soundings from St John of the Cross
by Iain MatthewSt John of the Cross testifies to a God who longs to meet us in our deepest need. Whilst rejection and imprisonment played their part in the life of this sixteenth-century Spanish friar, John's poetry and prose reveal the beauty and power of a wondrous God. It gives us courage to believe in the possibility of change in our own lives, however unlikely or impossible this may seem. Father Iain Matthew uses this classic inspirational Christian writing as his starting point, and offers five interpretations which make its richness relevant to the modern reader.
The Impact of Jesus in First-Century Palestine: Textual and Archaeological Evidence for Long-standing Discontent
by Rosemary Margaret LuffAlthough the archaeological evidence indicates a prosperous and thriving Galilee in the early first century CE, the Gospel texts suggest a society under stress, where the rich were flourishing at the expense of the poor. In this multi-disciplinary study, Rosemary Margaret Luff contributes to current debates concerning the pressures on early first-century Palestinian Jews, particularly with reference to socio-economic and religious issues. She examines Jesus within his Jewish environment in order to understand why he rose to prominence when he did, and what motivated him to persevere with his mission. Luff's study includes six carefully-constructed essays that examine Early Christian texts against the wider background of late Second Temple Judaic literature, together with the material evidence of Galilee and Judea (Jerusalem). Synthesizing a wide range of archaeological and textual data for the first time, she offers new insights into the depth of social discontent and its role in the rise of Christianity.
The Impact of Religion, Personality, Values and Worldviews on Attitudes Towards Human Rights: An Empirical-theological Study Among Nigerian Youth (Religion and Human Rights #11)
by Modestus Chiedozie AdimekweThis book provides a rigorous investigation into the adoption and culture of human rights in Nigeria, with a focus on the human rights attitudes of Nigerian students. Exploring the perceived paradox of enthusiastic endorsement of human rights instruments and their poor application in Nigeria, the author uses an empirical-theological research design to understand how young people in Nigeria evaluate human rights and which factors trigger their evaluation. In doing so, this book is the first to empirically examine the predictors of human rights attitudes among Nigerians and provides new insights into the degree of social significance of the religiosity of adolescents in the country. It also offers a compelling quantitative analysis differences in human rights attitudes among Nigerian youth along religious lines. Given the importance of a culture of human rights in our increasingly diverse societies and the salience of religion on this matter in Nigeria, and across the Africancontinent, this book provides a valuable perspective on the interrelationships between religion, value orientations, personality traits, socio-political context, and human rights. Being concerned with the future of human rights in Nigeria, the author argues that it is crucial to understand ‘the religious factor’ among Nigerian students today. This book is therefore recommended to educators, especially teachers of Religion Education, and scholars working in educational settings, but will also be of interest to researchers in social sciences, public administrators, and policymakers.
The Impact of the Holocaust on Jewish Theology
by Steven T KatzThe theological problems facing those trying to respond to the Holocaust remain monumental. Both Jewish and Christian post-Auschwitz religious thought must grapple with profound questions, from how God allowed it to happen to the nature of evil.The Impact of the Holocaust on Jewish Theology brings together a distinguished international array of senior scholars—many of whose work is available here in English for the first time—to consider key topics from the meaning of divine providence to questions of redemption to the link between the Holocaust and the creation of the State of Israel. Together, they push our thinking further about how our belief in God has changed in the wake of the Holocaust.Contributors: Yosef Achituv, Yehoyada Amir, Ester Farbstein, Gershon Greenberg, Warren Zev Harvey, Tova Ilan, Shmuel Jakobovits, Dan Michman, David Novak, Shalom Ratzabi, Michael Rosenak, Shalom Rosenberg, Eliezer Schweid, and Joseph A. Turner.
Impact Player: Leaving a Lasting Legacy on and off the Field
by Bobby Richardson David Thomas Joe GirardiFormer Yankee Bobby Richardson played alongside Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Whitey Ford, Joe Pepitone, and Yogi Berra and he remains the only player from the "losing" team ever to be named World Series MVP. He shares his life story, including never-before-told tales from the clubhouse.
Impeccability and Temptation: Understanding Christ’s Divine and Human Will (Routledge Studies in Analytic and Systematic Theology)
by Johannes Grössl Klaus Von StoschIn Christian theology, the teaching that Christ possessed both a human and divine will is central to the doctrine of two natures, but it also represents a logical paradox, raising questions about how a person can be both impeccable and subject to temptation. This volume explores these questions through an analytic theology approach, bringing together 15 original articles that explore the implications of a strong libertarian concept of free will for Christology. With perspectives from systematic theologians, philosophers, and biblical scholars, several chapters also offer a comparative theology approach, examining the concept of impeccability in the Muslim tradition. Therefore, this volume will be of interest to scholars and graduate students working in analytic theology, biblical scholarship, systematic theology, and Christian-Islamic dialogue.
The Imperatives of Progressive Islam
by Adis DuderijaWith the proliferation of transnational Muslim networks over the last two decades, the religious authority of traditionally educated Muslim scholars, the uluma, has come under increasing scrutiny and disruption. These networks have provided a public space for multiple perspectives on Islam to be voiced, allowing "progressive" Islamic worldviews to flourish alongside more (neo)traditional outlooks. This book brings together the scholarship of leading progressive Muslim scholars, incorporating issues pertaining to politics, jurisprudence, ethics, theology, epistemology, gender and hermeneutics in the Islamic tradition. It provides a comprehensive discussion of the normative imperatives behind a progressive Muslim thought, as well as outlining its various values and aims. Presenting this emerging and distinctive school of Islamic thought in an engaging and scholarly manner, this is essential reading for any academic interested in contemporary religious thought and the development of modern Islam.
Imperfect Justice
by Cara C. Putman“This is the way legal thrillers are meant to be—compelling, intelligent, and deeply satisfying.” —Randy Singer, author of Rule of LawTHE POLICE SAY THE WOMAN WAS A MURDERER. EMILIE WESLEY KNOWS THEY CAN’T BE TALKING ABOUT HER CLIENT . . . CAN THEY?To the world it seems obvious: Kaylene Adams killed her daughter and then was shot by police. Attorney Emilie Wesley knows a different story: Kaylene would never hurt anyone and was looking for a way out of a controlling, abusive relationship. Her death shakes Emilie’s belief that she can make a difference for women in violent marriages. Self-doubt plagues her as she struggles to continue her work in the wake of the tragedy.Reid Billings thought he knew his sister—right up until he learned how she died. He discovers a letter from Kaylene begging him to fight for custody of her daughters if anything should happen to her. No attorney in her right mind would support an uncle instead of the father in a custody case, but Kaylene’s letter claims Emilie Wesley will help him.Thrown together in a race to save Kaylene’s surviving daughter, Emily and Reid pursue the constantly evasive truth. If they can hang on to hope together, can they save a young girl—and find a future for themselves in the process?
The Imperfect Marriage: Help for Those Who Think It's Over
by Darryl Strawberry Tracy Strawberry A J GregoryA marriage guidebook for the not-so-perfect marriage--filled with extremely candid, practical, and biblically based principles--proven to make any relationship successful.Darryl and Tracy Strawberry admit they have "made every possible mistake you can make in marriage." Together, this devoted couple has suffered through--and survived--adultery, addiction, financial destruction, and many other all-too-familiar struggles. A no-holds-barred account of their personal journey, The Imperfect Marriage provides a step-by-step program that will help you and your partner understand the key issues that could be causing damage in your relationship and recognize turning points on the journey toward marriage restoration. Darryl and Tracy Strawberry know firsthand what it takes to make it through the battle and how to come out victorious. Beginning with putting God at the center, their words will inspire you to transform your marriage into an enduring and vital relationship. The Strawberrys keep it real and preach it real. They deal with real people, real problems, and offer solutions for the present. Through candid anecdotes, a great deal of self-awareness, and a true sense of honesty, Darryl and Tracy offer the vision, encouragement, and practical advice that every healthy marriage needs in order to thrive. Whether you and your partner are looking to heal a broken relationship, or avoid the mistakes that doomed a past one, The Imperfect Marriage offers the guidance and wisdom you need to make your marriage a success.
Imperfect Solo: A Dark Comedy of Random Misfortune
by Steven Boykey SidleyFor Readers of Jonathan Tropper and Philip Roth, the Darkly Comic, Poignant Story of a Man Caught Between the Aspirations of Youth and the Realities of Middle Age—Called “A Perfect Riff on What It Means to Be Human in This Unsettled Age” (Renée Montagne, NPR) Meyer is filled with dread. His fading musical aspirations, his tyrannical CEO, his ex-wives, his exiting girlfriend, his elderly father, his beloved and troublesome children, and his confused and bewildered life all attest to his conviction that the sky will soon fall on his head. And then it does. This is the story of a man adrift in anxiety, ill fortune, and comic mishap, buffeted by the existential and prosaic concerns that modern life in Los Angeles inflicts. Forty years old, caught in the netherworld between the reckless optimism of youth and the resignation of age, Meyer tries to find handrails and ballast. Funny, intellectually probing, and poignant, Imperfect Solo follows the flailing and hapless Meyer as he seeks hope and redemption while his world unravels around him. Surrounded by the absurdities of a fading America, the affection of flawed but well-meaning friends and family, and the randomness of everyday life, he tries gamely to stay afloat. He must navigate love lost and found and lost again, the indignities of aging, the courage to stand up to assholes, and the search for the perfect sax solo. Will Meyer find grace? Can he, or we, ever?
Imperfect Spirituality: Extraordinary Enlightenment for Ordinary People
by Polly CampbellPulling a raisin out of a two-year-old's nose probably wasn't on Buddha's path toward enlightenment, but it was one of the obstacles for author Polly Campbell. For many, stuck raisins and other real-life moments provide sometimes the only opportunity for spiritual growth in a day. Imperfect Spiritualityshows readers how to integrate those every-day moments with traditional spiritual techniques to experience personal growth and greater well-being all in the course of your regular routine. Any activity can be transformed into a spiritual practice. Don't have a half-hour to meditate? Can't drop everything ala Elizabeth Gilbert and trek to Italy or India? Do a mini-meditation while stopped at a red light. Working to be mindful and present? Start by brushing your teeth. Imperfect Spirituality is filled with practical tips and dozens of examples like these, as well as anecdotes from real people who are striving to grow both spiritually and personally. Each chapter features fascinating research about how the mind body spirit connection really works as well as illuminating ,quotes, and informative, easy-to-do takeaways from leading-edge academic and spiritual experts who both study and practice the techniques explored in the book. Popular blogger and workshopper Polly Campbel, a favorite journalist for Daily Om and Psychology Today, emerges here as a fresh and important new voice in spirituality who offers a path to enlightenment for "the rest of us."
Imperfect Spirituality
by Polly CampbellPulling a raisin out of a two-year-old's nose probably wasn't on Buddha's path toward enlightenment, but it was one of the obstacles for author Polly Campbell. For many, stuck raisins and other real-life moments provide sometimes the only opportunity for spiritual growth in a day. Imperfect Spiritualityshows readers how to integrate those every-day moments with traditional spiritual techniques to experience personal growth and greater well-being all in the course of your regular routine. Any activity can be transformed into a spiritual practice. Don't have a half-hour to meditate? Can't drop everything ala Elizabeth Gilbert and trek to Italy or India? Do a mini-meditation while stopped at a red light. Working to be mindful and present? Start by brushing your teeth.Imperfect Spirituality is filled with practical tips and dozens of examples like these, as well as anecdotes from real people who are striving to grow both spiritually and personally. Each chapter features fascinating research about how the mind body spirit connection really works as well as illuminating ,quotes, and informative, easy-to-do takeaways from leading-edge academic and spiritual experts who both study and practice the techniques explored in the book. Popular blogger and workshopper Polly Campbel, a favorite journalist for Daily Om and Psychology Today, emerges here as a fresh and important new voice in spirituality who offers a path to enlightenment for "the rest of us."
Imperfection
by Patrick Grant“…aspirations to perfection awaken us to our actual imperfection.” It is in the space between these aspirations and our inability to achieve them that Grant reflects upon imperfection. Grant argues that an awareness of imperfection, defined as both suffering and the need for justice, drive us to an unrelenting search for perfection, freedom, and self-determination. The twenty-one brief chapters of Imperfection develop this governing idea as it relates to the present situation of the God debate, modern ethnic conflicts, and the pursuit of freedom in relation to the uncertainties of personal identity and the quest for self-determination. Known for his exploration of the relationship between Buddhism and violent ethnic conflict in modern Sri Lanka, as well as his contribution to the study of Northern Ireland and the complex relationships among religion, literature, and ethnicity, Grant provides the reader with an analysis of the widespread rise of religious extremism across the globe. Referencing Plato, Van Gogh, Jesus, and the Buddha, he enlightens the reader with both succinct and original insights into human society. Imperfection is the result of an important Canadian public intellectual at work.
Imperfections: A Novel
by Lynda DurrantAs the Civil War looms, a teenager finds refuge from her abusive father in a Shaker community in this &“lovely and thought-provoking&” novel (Kirkus Reviews). Rosemary Elizabeth likes Pleasant Hill. Unlike her former home, the Kentucky Shaker community is serene and full of beautiful things. The food is plentiful and delicious, and she dresses in spotless white garments. Above all, she and her younger siblings are now safe from their drunken, often violent, father, and from the war between the Union and the Confederacy, which is said to be drawing closer every day. Perfection is the goal at Pleasant Hill, and Rosemary Elizabeth vows to be perfect so she&’ll be allowed to stay. As time passes, however, she finds herself more and more at odds with the Shaker path, the rules that are supposed to govern everything she says and does and even what she dreams. If she eliminates all the imperfections the Shakers find in her, will anything remain? &“Built around a historical incident—a visit by the soldiers of Morgan&’s Raiders to Pleasant Hill in 1862—this fine coming-of-age novel rewards readers with an unusual glimpse into a rarely portrayed religion as well as a different perspective on the Civil War.&” —Booklist
The Imperial Church: Catholic Founding Fathers and United States Empire (The United States in the World)
by Katherine D. MoranThrough a fascinating discussion of religion's role in the rhetoric of American civilizing empire, The Imperial Church undertakes an exploration of how Catholic mission histories served as a useful reference for Americans narrating US settler colonialism on the North American continent and seeking to extend military, political, and cultural power around the world. Katherine D. Moran traces historical celebrations of Catholic missionary histories in the upper Midwest, Southern California, and the US colonial Philippines to demonstrate the improbable centrality of the Catholic missions to ostensibly Protestant imperial endeavors.Moran shows that, as the United States built its continental and global dominion and an empire of production and commerce in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, Protestant and Catholic Americans began to celebrate Catholic imperial pasts. She demonstrates that American Protestants joined their Catholic compatriots in speaking with admiration about historical Catholic missionaries: the Jesuit Jacques Marquette in the Midwest, the Franciscan Junípero Serra in Southern California, and the Spanish friars in the Philippines. Comparing them favorably to the Puritans, Pilgrims, and the American Revolutionary generation, commemorators drew these missionaries into a cross-confessional pantheon of US national and imperial founding fathers. In the process, they cast Catholic missionaries as gentle and effective agents of conquest, uplift, and economic growth, arguing that they could serve as both origins and models for an American civilizing empire.The Imperial Church connects Catholic history and the history of US empire by demonstrating that the religious dimensions of American imperial rhetoric have been as cross-confessional as the imperial nation itself.
Imperial Encounters: Religion and Modernity in India and Britain
by Peter van der VeerPicking up on Edward Said's claim that the historical experience of empire is common to both the colonizer and the colonized, Peter van der Veer takes the case of religion to examine the mutual impact of Britain's colonization of India on Indian and British culture. He shows that national culture in both India and Britain developed in relation to their shared colonial experience and that notions of religion and secularity were crucial in imagining the modern nation in both countries. In the process, van der Veer chronicles how these notions developed in the second half of the nineteenth century in relation to gender, race, language, spirituality, and science. Avoiding the pitfalls of both world systems theory and national historiography, this book problematizes oppositions between modern and traditional, secular and religious, progressive and reactionary. It shows that what often are assumed to be opposites are, in fact, profoundly entangled. In doing so, it upsets the convenient fiction that India is the land of eternal religion, existing outside of history, while Britain is the epitome of modern secularity and an agent of history. Van der Veer also accounts for the continuing role of religion in British culture and the strong part religion has played in the development of Indian civil society. This masterly work of scholarship brings into view the effects of the very close encounter between India and Britain--an intimate encounter that defined the character of both nations.
Imperial Mecca: Ottoman Arabia and the Indian Ocean Hajj (Columbia Studies in International and Global History)
by Michael Christopher LowWith the advent of the steamship, repeated outbreaks of cholera marked oceanic pilgrimages to Mecca as a dangerous form of travel and a vehicle for the globalization of epidemic diseases. European, especially British Indian, officials also feared that lengthy sojourns in Arabia might expose their Muslim subjects to radicalizing influences from anticolonial dissidents and pan-Islamic activists. European colonial empires’ newfound ability to set the terms of hajj travel not only affected the lives of millions of pilgrims but also dramatically challenged the Ottoman Empire, the world’s only remaining Muslim imperial power.Michael Christopher Low analyzes the late Ottoman hajj and Hijaz region as transimperial spaces, reshaped by the competing forces of Istanbul’s project of frontier modernization and the extraterritorial reach of British India’s steamship empire in the Indian Ocean and Red Sea. Imperial Mecca recasts Ottoman Arabia as a distant, unstable semiautonomous frontier that Istanbul struggled to modernize and defend against the onslaught of colonial steamship mobility. As it turned out, steamships carried not just pilgrims, passports, and microbes, but the specter of legal imperialism and colonial intervention. Over the course of roughly a half century from the 1850s through World War I, British India’s fear of the hajj as a vector of anticolonial subversion gradually gave way to an increasingly sophisticated administrative, legal, and medical protectorate over the steamship hajj, threatening to eclipse the Ottoman state and Caliphate’s prized legitimizing claim as protector of Islam’s most holy places. Drawing on a wide range of Ottoman and British archival sources, this book sheds new light on the transimperial and global histories traversed along the pilgrimage to Mecca.
The Imperial Politics of Architectural Conservation: The Case of Waqf in Cyprus (Heritage Studies in the Muslim World)
by Reyhan SabriThis book documents the changing role of the Islamic Waqf institution in Cyprus and the conservation of Waqf heritage buildings of Ottoman and Western origins. Previously ignored archives of documents detailing the conservation of Waqf buildings during Ottoman and British rule allow a fine-grained analysis of the colonial introduction of Western approaches to heritage conservation. Colonial rule saw major legislative and administrative changes to the originally autonomous Ottoman Waqf institution, which had already been subject to reforms under the Ottoman regime. Under British rule, Western heritage concepts and modern architectural conservation discourses became the core conservation principles in Cyprus. Earlier centralisation attempts during the Ottoman Tanzimat (1831-1876), and the procedural, technical, and political reconfigurations during the British colonial era in Cyprus (1878-1960), were key factors of the transformation of the Waqf’s traditional building upkeep system. These imperial interventions, their orientalist mindset, and the rise of nationalism, finally led to the erosion of Waqf in Cyprus as a non-Western and sustainable form of building conservation. This study reveals how the Western approach, the forms of expertise it privileges, and pragmatic diversions from this practice for political purposes, were useful in neutralizing the legitimacy of local practices, except in cases where opportunistic ‘recognition’ of their utility played a role in inter-communal, colonial, nationalist, and inter-imperial politics.
Imperial Unity and Christian Divisions: The Church 450-680 AD (Church History)
by John MeyendorffAlmost without exception, the "histories of the Church" available in print are, in fact, histories of Western Christianity, with only brief and superficial mentions of the East. This volume, the second in a planned series of six, attempts to achieve a more balanced approach. Filling the needs of students, but also of a wider readership, it describes the expansion of Christianity in the East and the West in the fifth, sixth, and seventh centuries - from Ireland and the Indian Ocean and from Germany to Nubia. It exposes the tensions which arose between the inevitable cultural pluralism and the needs of Church unity, an issue which stands at the center of modern ecclesiological concerns. It discusses the debates on the identity of Christ, formally solved by the decrees of the great ecumenical councils, but which left Christendom divided. It defines the problems raised by the arbitrariness of Eastern Roman emperors and by the gradual development of Roman primacy.
Imperial Zions: Religion, Race, and Family in the American West and the Pacific (Studies in Pacific Worlds)
by Amanda Hendrix-KomotoIn the nineteenth century, white Americans contrasted the perceived purity of white, middle-class women with the perceived eroticism of women of color and the working classes. The Latter-day Saint practice of polygamy challenged this separation, encouraging white women to participate in an institution that many people associated with the streets of Calcutta or Turkish palaces. At the same time, Latter-day Saints participated in American settler colonialism. After their expulsion from Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois, Latter-day Saints dispossessed Ute and Shoshone communities in an attempt to build their American Zion. Their missionary work abroad also helped to solidify American influence in the Pacific Islands as the church became a participant in American expansion.Imperial Zions explores the importance of the body in Latter-day Saint theology with the faith&’s attempts to spread its gospel as a &“civilizing&” force in the American West and the Pacific. By highlighting the intertwining of Latter-day Saint theology and American ideas about race, sexuality, and the nature of colonialism, Imperial Zions argues that Latter-day Saints created their understandings of polygamy at the same time they tried to change the domestic practices of Native Americans and other Indigenous peoples. Amanda Hendrix-Komoto tracks the work of missionaries as they moved through different imperial spaces to analyze the experiences of the American Indians and Native Hawaiians who became a part of white Latter-day Saint families. Imperial Zions is a foundational contribution that places Latter-day Saint discourses about race and peoplehood in the context of its ideas about sexuality, gender, and the family.
Impermanence in Plain English
by Bhante Gunaratana Julia HarrisThe bestselling author of Mindfulness in Plain English guides the reader toward a direct and personal realization of one of the foundational tenets of Buddhism: all things that arise must pass away.In Impermanence in Plain English, the beloved author and teacher Bhante Gunaratana, alongside Julia Harris, clearly and masterfully explains the key Buddhist insight of impermanence and invites the reader to personally investigate its truth. Once-youthful bodies grow old and weary. New thoughts, feelings, and sensations arise and fade every second. Impermanence is not some abstract, metaphysical idea. This is the Dhamma, and you can see it for yourself. Drawing from Pali scriptures and writing with fresh, direct language, Bhante Gunaratana and Julia Harris highlight the Buddha&’s exhortation that we must directly realize for ourselves the liberating insights that free us from suffering and cyclic existence, without relying only on the word of religious authorities or academic or philosophical musings.
The Impersonal Life: The Classic of Self-Realization
by Joseph S. BennerThe classic of practical mysticism is published with four bonus works in this handsome signature edition. Since it first appeared in 1914, The Impersonal Life has touched hundreds of thousands of readers. Its simple meditative message teaches you, step by step, to realize that your own consciousness is one with all of Creation—that you are an outlet of Divine will. Once that extraordinary truth is understood, your wishes become one with God, and your life unfolds in a meaningful, exuberant mosaic in which your fondest hopes and highest purposes are realized. Written anonymously by American mystic Joseph S. Benner (1872-1938), The Impersonal Life is one of the modern landmarks of New Thought and mystical spirituality As a special bonus, this edition includes four of Benner's most powerful essays: The Way Out; The Way Beyond; Wealth; and The Teacher. Here is a complete journey into the work of a spiritual genius and practical mystic.
Impersonations: The Artifice of Brahmin Masculinity in South Indian Dance
by Harshita Mruthinti KamathLearn more at www.luminosoa.org.Impersonations: The Artifice of Brahmin Masculinity in South Indian Dance centers on an insular community of Smarta Brahmin men from the Kuchipudi village in Telugu-speaking South India who are required to don stri-vesam (woman’s guise) and impersonate female characters from Hindu religious narratives. Impersonation is not simply a gender performance circumscribed to the Kuchipudi stage, but a practice of power that enables the construction of hegemonic Brahmin masculinity in everyday village life. However, the power of the Brahmin male body in stri-vesam is highly contingent, particularly on account of the expansion of Kuchipudi in the latter half of the twentieth century from a localized village performance to a transnational Indian dance form. This book analyzes the practice of impersonation across a series of boundaries—village to urban, Brahmin to non-Brahmin, hegemonic to non-normative—to explore the artifice of Brahmin masculinity in contemporary South Indian dance.