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Making Pilgrimages: Meaning and Practice in Shikoku
by Ian Reader<p>This study involves a fourteen-hundred-kilometer-long pilgrimage around Japan’s fourth largest island, Shikoku. In traveling the circuit of the eighty-eight Buddhist temples that make up the route, pilgrims make their journey together with Kôbô Daishi (774–835), the holy miracle-working figure who is at the heart of the pilgrimage. <p>Once seen as a marginal practice, recent media portrayal of the pilgrimage as a symbol of Japanese cultural heritage has greatly increased the number of participants, both Japanese and foreign. In this absorbing look at the nature of the pilgrimage, Ian Reader examines contemporary practices and beliefs in the context of historical development, taking into account theoretical considerations of pilgrimage as a mode of activity and revealing how pilgrimages such as Shikoku may change in nature over the centuries.</p>
Making Place for Muslims in Contemporary India
by Kalyani Devaki MenonMaking Place for Muslims in Contemporary India looks at how religion provides an arena to make place and challenge the majoritarian, exclusionary, and introverted tendencies of contemporary India.Places do not simply exist. They are made and remade by the acts of individuals and communities at particular historical moments. In India today, the place for Muslims is shrinking as the revanchist Hindu Right increasingly realizes its vision of a Hindu nation. Religion enables Muslims to re-envision India as a different kind of place, one to which they unquestionably belong. Analyzing the religious narratives, practices, and constructions of religious subjectivity of diverse groups of Muslims in Old Delhi, Kalyani Devaki Menon reveals the ways in which Muslims variously contest the insular and singular understandings of nation that dominate the sociopolitical landscape of the country and make place for themselves. Menon shows how religion is concerned not just with the divine and transcendental but also with the anxieties and aspirations of people living amid violence, exclusion, and differential citizenship. Ultimately, Making Place for Muslims in Contemporary India allows us to understand religious acts, narratives, and constructions of self and belonging as material forces, as forms of the political that can make room for individuals, communities, and alternative imaginings in a world besieged by increasingly xenophobic understandings of nation and place.
Making Places Sacred: New Articulations of Place and Power (Elements in New Religious Movements)
by Matt Tomlinson Yujie ZhuAlthough claims to sacredness are often linked to the power of a distant past, the work of making places sacred is creative, novel, renewable, and reversible. This Element highlights how sacred space is newly made. It is often associated with blood, death, and geographic anomalies, yet no single feature determines sacred associations. People make space sacred by connecting with 'extrahuman' figures – the ancestors, spirits, and gods that people attempt to interact with in every society. These connections can be concentrated in people's bodies, yet bodies are particularly vulnerable to loss. The Element also examines the multidimensional and multisensory dimensions of sacred space, which can be made almost anywhere, including online, but can also be unmade. Unmaking sacred space can entail new sacralization. New and minority religions in particular provide excellent sites for studying sacredness as a value, raising the reliably productive question: sacred for whom?
Making Religion Safe for Democracy
by J. Judd OwenDoes the toleration of liberal democratic society mean that religious faiths are left substantively intact, so long as they respect the rights of others? Or do liberal principles presuppose a deeper transformation of religion? Does life in democratic society itself transform religion? In Making Religion Safe for Democracy, J. Judd Owen explores these questions by tracing a neglected strand of Enlightenment political thought that presents a surprisingly unified reinterpretation of Christianity by Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Thomas Jefferson. Owen then turns to Alexis de Tocqueville's analysis of the effects of democracy on religion in the early United States. Tocqueville finds a religion transformed by democracy in a way that bears a striking resemblance to what the Enlightenment thinkers sought, while offering a fundamentally different interpretation of what is at stake in that transformation. Making Religion Safe for Democracy offers a novel framework for understanding the ambiguous status of religion in modern democratic society.
Making Ripples
by Mike BreauxMike Breaux doesn’t do life halfway—maybe that’s why he thinks a "cannonball” is the only suitable entry into a swimming pool. “Deep down, I think all of us sense we were put on this planet to do something significant—to touch someone’s life; to do some good.” Again and again, he’s seen the cannonball approach make that happen. “Water goes flying everywhere! The ripples go out, hit the side, and come back in.” In this book, Breaux shares the concept of creating “ripples”—where a life touches a life, which touches a life, which touches a life.
Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition
by Christine D. PohlAlthough hospitality was central to Christian identity and practice in earlier centuries, our generation knows little about its life-giving character. Making Room revisits the Christian foundations of welcoming strangers and explores the necessity, difficulty, and blessing of hospitality today.Combining rich biblical and historical research with extensive exposure to contemporary Christian communities -- the Catholic Worker, L'Abri, L'Arche, and others -- this book shows how understanding the key features of hospitality can better equip us to faithfully carry out the practical call of the gospel.
Making Room: Sharing the Love of Christmas (Making Room)
by Ed RobbOften our Advent preparations have an inward focus as we prepare for the significance of God breaking into our world through the birth of the Christ child. But in a closer examination of the Advent story, we quickly learn that the focus of the coming of the newborn king is outward. In this book and Advent study, Dr. Ed Robb explores the warmth of welcome at Christmas following interactions with Mary and Joseph, the shepherds, and the magi. Just as Jesus made room in God’s kingdom for a host of people that society wanted to leave on the margins, beginning with the appearance of the shepherds, we too should be asking ourselves who we can make room for this Christmas. Perhaps it is to the people in your community, or the newly immigrated family in town that doesn’t speak your language. Or maybe it’s the next-door neighbor who just settled in from yet another corporate move? The story of Christ’s birth encourages us to widen our borders and increase our sense of community—and make room for others. Additional components for a four-week study include a DVD featuring Dr. Ed Robb and a comprehensive Leader Guide.
Making Room, 25th anniversary edition: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition
by Christine D. PohlHospitality is crucial to Christian ministry. To the early Christians, hospitality was central to the gospel mission. This hospitality did not consist of entertaining neighbors, but welcoming the stranger, especially those who could not return the favor. Yet despite urgent need, hospitality has fallen by the wayside. Christine Pohl&’s classic work, Making Room, first spoke to this issue in 1999. And it is just as relevant today, with the refugee crisis, the rise in homelessness, and growing loneliness and isolation. This revitalized edition, with a new foreword and afterword by the author, introduces the theology of hospitality to a new generation. Pohl combines rich biblical and historical research with experience in contemporary Christian communities, including the Catholic Worker, L&’Abri, Good Works, Inc., and others. Pragmatic and thoughtful, Pohl deals frankly with both the blessings and the boundaries of hospitality. Readers will find a wealth of wisdom to revive authentic hospitality in their ministry.
Making Room for Life: Trading Chaotic Lifestyles for Connected Relationships
by Randy FrazeeWhat if you could get all your work done by 6:00 p.m.? Eat dinner with your family every night? Form deep, satisfying relationships? Naturally blend the world of church with your everyday life? Spend hours a week on your hobbies?You can! Making Room for Life reveals how to make all of these things a reality. Not by working faster or having more gadgets, but by simply choosing a lifestyle of conversation, and community over accumulation.Randy Frazee's practical, motivating insights call you back to the kind of relationships and life rhythms you were created to enjoy. In Making Room for Life, Frazee shows you how and why it's so important to balance work and play, establish healthy boundaries, deal with children's activities and homework, bring Jesus to your neighbors, and build authentic bonds with a circle of close friends. Share these insights with those around you and help usher in an amazing transformation: your life and the lives of others blooming, in the midst of the chaos and fragmentation of today's culture, into communities of purpose and peace.
Making Room in Advent: 25 Devotions for a Season of Wonder
by Bette DickinsonPreparation for the Christmas season can often feel busy and frantic, but it doesn't have to be this way.Making Room in AdventThe unfolding of God's plan often happens in unlikely spaces, both in Scripture and in our own lives. Join Bette Dickinson as she moves through the story of Jesus' birth and the stories of the many people that were part of the journey. Each page is filled with an original painting that will fill you with hope and wonder during the Advent season. The twenty-five devotionals offer spiritual practices, breath prayers, and reflection questions that allow you to truly make room for God's work in your life, your community, and the world.
Making Room Leader Guide: Sharing the Love of Christmas (Making Room)
by Ed RobbOften our Advent preparations have an inward focus as we prepare for the significance of God breaking into our world through the birth of the Christ child. But in a closer examination of the Advent story, we quickly learn that the focus of the coming of the newborn king is outward. In this book and Advent study, Dr. Ed Robb explores the warmth of welcome at Christmas following interactions with Mary and Joseph, the shepherds, and the magi. Just as Jesus made room in God’s kingdom for a host of people that society wanted to leave on the margins, beginning with the appearance of the shepherds, we too should be asking ourselves who we can make room for this Christmas. Perhaps it is to the people in your community, or the newly immigrated family in town that doesn’t speak your language. Or maybe it’s the next-door neighbor who just settled in from yet another corporate move? The story of Christ’s birth encourages us to widen our borders and increase our sense of community—and make room for others. The Leader Guide contains everything needed to guide a group through the four-week study including session plans, activities, and discussion questions, as well as multiple format options.
Making Saints: How The Catholic Church Determines Who Becomes A Saint, Who Doesn'T, And Why
by Kenneth L. WoodwardFrom inside the Vatican, the book that became a modern classic on sainthood in the Catholic Church.Working from church documents, Kenneth Woodward shows how saint-makers decide who is worthy of the church's highest honor. He describes the investigations into lives of candidates, explains how claims for miracles are approved or rejected, and reveals the role politics -- papal and secular -- plays in the ultimate decision. From his examination of such controversial candidates as Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador and Edith Stein, a Jewish philosopher who became a nun and was gassed at Auschwitz, to his insights into the changes Pope John Paul II has instituted, Woodward opens the door on a 2,000-year-old tradition.
Making Sense of Church
by Colleen Pepper Spencer BurkeSamplings of online discussions about God, truth, and church—from theOoze.com Our culture is rapidly changing and people are searching for new models and paradigms to find meaning in their lives. As in all transitional periods, this search takes place in grass-roots conversations where the “new” is taking form. No other place so uniquely captures this struggle more than the message boards at theOoze.com, the premier melting pot of emerging spiritual conversation. Making Sense of Church is a snapshot of this “community conversation” as it tries to make sense of God in the emerging worldview. It represents a gathering of individuals with different points of view, theologies, life contexts, and feelings. Author Spencer Burke, creator of theOoze.com, provides the framework writing for each chapter and acts as a “guide” to the accompanying e-mail postings that supplement the chapters. Subjects discussed include: • Authentic Community • Experiential Worship • The Internet and God • Art as a Vehicle for Communicating Truth • Spirituality and Sexuality • What Is the Church? • What Is Postmodernism?
Making Sense of God: An Invitation to the Sceptical
by Timothy KellerWe live in an age of scepticism. Our society places such faith in empirical reason, historical progress, and heartfelt emotion that it's easy to wonder: why should anyone believe in Christianity? What role can faith and religion play in our modern lives? In this thoughtful and inspiring book, pastor and New York Times bestselling author Timothy Keller invites sceptics to consider that Christianity is as relevant now as ever. As human beings, we cannot live without meaning, satisfaction, freedom, identity, justice and hope - and Christianity provides us with unsurpassed resources to meet all these needs. Written for both sceptic and believer, Making Sense of God shines a light on the profound value and importance of Christianity in our lives.
Making Sense of God: An Invitation To The Skeptical
by Timothy KellerWe live in an age of skepticism. Our society places such faith in empirical reason, historical progress, and heartfelt emotion that it's easy to wonder: Why should anyone believe in Christianity? What role can faith and religion play in our modern lives? In this thoughtful and inspiring new book, pastor and New York Times bestselling author Timothy Keller invites skeptics to consider that Christianity is more relevant now than ever. As human beings, we cannot live without meaning, satisfaction, freedom, identity, justice, and hope. Christianity provides us with unsurpassed resources to meet these needs. Written for both the ardent believer and the skeptic, Making Sense of God shines a light on the profound value and importance of Christianity in our lives.From the Hardcover edition.
Making Sense of God: An Invitation to the Sceptical
by Timothy KellerWe live in an age of scepticism. Our society places such faith in empirical reason, historical progress, and heartfelt emotion that it's easy to wonder: why should anyone believe in Christianity? What role can faith and religion play in our modern lives? In this thoughtful and inspiring book, pastor and New York Times bestselling author Timothy Keller invites sceptics to consider that Christianity is as relevant now as ever. As human beings, we cannot live without meaning, satisfaction, freedom, identity, justice and hope - and Christianity provides us with unsurpassed resources to meet all these needs. Written for both sceptic and believer, Making Sense of God shines a light on the profound value and importance of Christianity in our lives.
Making Sense of God: An Invitation to the Sceptical
by Timothy KellerWe are unavoidably hope-based creatures. Imagine two women given the same boring task to do eight hours a day in the same conditions - but you tell one woman she will be paid £15,000 for a year of this work, and you tell the other that she will be paid £15 million. Each woman in identical circumstances will be experiencing those circumstances in completely different ways, because what we believe about the future determines how we live in the present. In this dynamic new book, New York pastor and bestselling author Tim Keller explores the biblical understanding of hope. A profound grasp of what we are hopeful for, he argues, can re-energise and transform us personally, can help us face death, can influence our community practices with regard to sex, money and power - and even be applied globally, to renew our culture.
Making Sense of It All: Pascal and the Meaning of Life
by Thomas V. Morris'Pascal's Pensees--Thoughts--are notes that Pascal might have organized into a book if he had not died so early. Morris here gives us a book organized out of some of those thoughts. . . This is a Pascalian book filled with a passion for life and for finding the sense of life as it actually comes to us. In Pascal, and now in Morris, we can hear a philosophical voice that calls up our own deep longing and that invites us to an everlasting love. ' - George I. Mavrodes, University of Michigan
Making Sense of Man and Sin: One of Seven Parts from Grudem's Systematic Theology (Making Sense of Series)
by Wayne A. GrudemWith clear writing—technical terms kept to a minimum—and a contemporary approach, emphasizing how each doctrine should be understood and applied by present-day Christians, Making Sense of Man and Sin explores how mankind is distorted, but not lost, through sin and is renewed through redemption in Christ. Topics include but are not limited to the creation of male and female, including harmonious personal relationships, equality in personhood and importance, and difference in role and authority; equality and differences in the Trinity; the essential nature of man; and our inherited guilt and corruption because of Adam’s sin. Written in a friendly tone, appealing to the emotions and the spirit as well as the intellect, Making Sense of Man and Sin helps readers overcome wrong ideas, make better decisions on new questions, and grow as Christians.
Making Sense of Mind Only: Why Yogacara Buddhism Matters
by William S. WaldronThrough engaging, contemporary examples, Making Sense of Mind Only reveals the Yogacara school of Indian Buddhism as a coherent system of ideas and practices for the path to liberation, contextualizing its key texts and rendering them accessible and relevant.The Yogacara, or Yoga Practice, school is one of the two schools of Mahayana Buddhism that developed in the early centuries of the common era. Though it arose in India, Mahayana Buddhism now flourishes in China, Tibet, Korea, Vietnam, and Japan. While the other major Mahayana tradition, the Madhyamaka (Middle Way), focuses on the concept of emptiness—that all phenomena lack an intrinsic essence—the Yogacara school focuses on the cognitive processes whereby we impute such essences. Through everyday examples and analogues in cognitive science, author William Waldron makes Yogacara&’s core teachings—on the three turnings of the Dharma wheel, the three natures, the storehouse consciousness, and mere perception—accessible to a broad audience. In contrast to the common characterization of Yogacara as philosophical idealism, Waldron presents Yogacara Buddhism on its own terms, as a coherent system of ideas and practices, with dependent arising its guiding principle. The first half of Making Sense of Mind Only explores the historical context for Yogacara&’s development. Waldron examines early Buddhist texts that show how our affective and cognitive processes shape the way objects and worlds appear to us, and how we erroneously grasp onto them as essentially real—perpetuating the habits that bind us to samsara. He then analyzes the early Madhyamaka critique of essences. This context sets the stage for the book&’s second half, an examination of how Yogacara texts such as the Samdhinirmocana Sutra and Asanga&’s Stages of Yogic Practice (Yogacarabhumi) build upon these earlier ideas by arguing that our constructive processes also occur unconsciously. Not only do we collectively, yet mostly unknowingly, construct shared realities or cultures, our shared worlds are also mediated through the storehouse consciousness (alayavijñana) functioning as a cultural unconscious. Vasubandhu&’s Twenty Verses argues that we can learn to recognize such objects and worlds as &“mere perceptions&” (vijñaptimatra) and thereby abandon our enchantment with the products of our own cognitive processes. Finally, Maitreya&’s Distinguishing Phenomena from Their Ultimate Nature (Dharmadharmatavibhaga) elegantly lays out the Mahayana path to this transformation.
Making Sense of Modern Times: Peter L. Berger and the Vision of Interpretive Sociology (Routledge Revivals)
by James Davison Hunter Stephen C. AinlayPeter Berger (1929-2017) was one of the pre-eminent sociologists of the twentieth century. His highly creative and controversial writing made a distinct impact not only in sociology but in such disciplines as political science, public policy, history, religious studies and theology.Originally published in 1986 Making Sense of Modern Times shows how Peter Berger struggled with the classical legacy of the sociological enterprise – a legacy abandoned by contemporary sociology. Berger made a self-conscious effort to recover this vision. Each of the four sections of the book – Social Theory; Modernization; Religion; The Method and Vocation of Sociology – contains essays which examine Berger’s efforts in the light of these broader issues and assess the degree to which Berger succeeds or fails in his efforts. The book includes a contribution from Berger himself, responding to the preceding essays as well as presenting his own appraisal of the future of interpretive sociology.
Making Sense of Muslim Fundamentalisms: The Clash Within Islam
by Nimrod Hurvitz Eli AlshechStudying Muslim fundamentalisms, this book compares key movements, examining their commonalities, differences, and intricate relations, as well as their achievements and failures. Muslim fundamentalisms have the sympathy of approximately half of the Muslim population in the world. Yet, they are divided among themselves and are in a constant state of controversy. The research dwells on the leading fundamentalist movements, such as the Muslim Brothers, Tablighi-Jamaʻat, al-Qaeda, and ISIS, and illustrates how differently they think about the West and its culture, democracy, and women’s presence in the public sphere. By identifying these trends, and studying them comparatively, the book enables the interested reader to make sense of the plethora of fundamentalist movements, which are otherwise lumped together by the media and are barely discernible for the reader. Whereas most studies of Muslim fundamentalism focus on organizational or militant actions that the movements perform, this study concentrates on their efforts to Islamize society through everyday life in a peaceful manner. Identifying the different strands of Muslim fundamentalisms, the book will be a key resource to a wide range of readers including researchers and students interested in politics, religious, Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies.
Making Sense Of Nonsense: The Logical Bridge Between Science And Spirituality
by Raymond MoodyWhat do the whimsical writings of Dr. Seuss have in common with near-death experiences? The answer is that nonsense writing and spiritual experiences seem to defy all logic and yet they both can make a powerful personal impact. In this book, New York Times bestselling author Dr. Raymond Moody shares the groundbreaking results of five decades of research into the philosophy of nonsense, revealing dynamic new perspectives on language, logic, and the mystical side of life. Explore the meaningful feelings that accompany nonsense language and learn how engaging with nonsense can help you on your own spiritual path. Discover how nonsense transcends classical logic, opening the doorway to new spiritual and philosophical breakthroughs. With dozens of examples from literature, comedy, music, and the history of religion, this book presents a unique new approach to the mysteries of the human spirit.
Making Sense of Salvation: One of Seven Parts from Grudem's Systematic Theology (Making Sense of Series)
by Wayne A. GrudemWith clear writing—technical terms kept to a minimum—and a contemporary approach, emphasizing how each doctrine should be understood and applied by present-day Christians, Making Sense of Salvation explores God’s common grace to redeem those who will be saved, and to demonstrate his goodness, mercy, justice, and glory. Topics include but are not limited to the order of salvation—from God’s choice of people to be saved to the chosen people receiving a resurrection body; effective calling—the act of God the father speaking through the human proclamation of the gospel to summons people to himself in saving faith; regeneration—a secret act of God in which he imparts new spiritual life to us; and glorification—when Christ returns and raises from the dead the bodies of all believers for all time who have died. Written in a friendly tone, appealing to the emotions and the spirit as well as the intellect, Making Sense of Salvation helps readers overcome wrong ideas, make better decisions on new questions, and grow as Christians.
Making Sense of Sex: Attitudes Towards Sexuality in Early Jewish and Christian Literature
by William LoaderThis book is about listening to what writers were saying about sex in early Judaism and Christianity -- ancient words surprisingly relevant for today. It functions as both a summary and a conclusion to William Loader's five previous books on sexuality in a form accessible to those who may not have a background knowledge of early Judaism and Christianity. It also contains a useful subject index to those five previous volumes. <p><p> In examining thoroughly all the relevant writings and related evidence of the Greco-Roman period, Loader dialogues with scholarship related to each writing in order to make his conclusions as objective as possible. By enabling the reader to listen respectfully to these ancient texts, Making Sense of Sex provides a basis for informed discussion of sexual issues today.