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Post-Secular Society
by Gustaaf GeeraertsPost-Secular Society argues for several characteristics of the secular: the experience of living in a secular age and the experience of living without religion as a normal condition.Religion in the West is often seen as marked by both innovation and disarray. In spite of differing approaches and perspectives of secularization, rational choice and de-secularization, many scholars agree that the West is experiencing a general "resurgence" of religion across most Western societies.Post-Secular Society discusses the changes in religion related to globalization and New Age forms of popular religion. The contributors review religion that is rooted in the globalized political economy and the relationship of post-secularism to popular consumer culture. Also reviewed is innovative discourse as a religious belief system, theories of the post-secular, religious, and spiritual well-being, and healing practices in Finland and environmentalism. This paperback edition includes a new preface by Peter Nynas.
Post-Soviet Graffiti: Free Speech in Authoritarian States
by Alexis LernerFor more than a decade, Alexis Lerner combed the alleyways, underpasses, and public squares of cities once under communist rule, from Berlin in the west to Vladivostok in the east, recording thousands of cases of critical and satirical political street art and cataloging these artworks linguistically and thematically across space and time. Complemented by first-hand interviews with leading artists, activists, and politicians from across the region, Post-Soviet Graffiti provides theoretical reflection on public space as a site for political action, a semiotic reading of signs and symbols, and street art as a form of text. The book answers the question of how we conceptualize avenues of dissent under authoritarian rule by showing how contemporary graffiti functions not only as a popular public aesthetic, but also as a mouthpiece of political sentiment, especially within the post-Soviet region and post-communist Europe. A purposefully anonymous and accessible artform, graffiti is an effective tool for circumventing censorship and expressing political views. This is especially true for marginalized populations and for those living in otherwise closed and censored states. Post-Soviet Graffiti reveals that graffiti does not exist in a vacuum; rather, it can be read as a narrative about a place, the people who live there, and the things that matter to them.
Post-Traumatic Church Syndrome: One Woman's Desperate, Funny, and Healing Journey to Explore 30 Religions by Her 30th Birthday
by Reba RileyWritten with humor and personality, this debut memoir recounts a woman’s spiritual quest of experiencing thirty religions before her thirtieth birthday. Post-Traumatic Church Syndrome is for questioners, doubters, misfits, and seekers of all faiths, and tackles the universal struggle to heal what life has broken.On her twenty-ninth birthday, while guests were arriving downstairs, Reba Riley was supposedly upstairs getting dressed. In actuality, she was slumped on the floor sobbing about everything from the meaning of life to the pile of dirty laundry on the floor. Life without God was crashing in on her. And she was sick and tired of feeling sick and tired. She uttered a desperate prayer, and then the idea came to her—thirty by thirty. And thus she embarked on a year-long quest to experience thirty religions by her thirtieth birthday. During her spiritual sojourn, Riley: -Was interrogated about her sex life by Amish grandmothers -Disco danced in a Buddhist temple -Fasted for thirty days without food—or wine -Washed her lady parts in a mosque bathroom -Was audited by Scientologists -Learned to meditate with an urban monk -Snuck into a Yom Kippur service with a fake grandpa in tow -And finally discovered she didn’t have to choose a religion to choose God In a debut memoir that is funny and earnest, Riley invites questioners, doubters, misfits, and curious believers to participate in the universal search to heal what life has broken. Post-Traumatic Church Syndrome takes you by the hand and reminds you that sometimes you first have to be lost in order to be found.
Post-Traumatic Public Theology
by Stephanie N. Arel Shelly RamboThis book imagines new modes of religious response to trauma, moving beyond simple answers to the 'why' of human suffering toward discussions of profound expressions of faith in the aftermath of trauma. Engaging current realities such as war, race, and climate change, chapters feature specific locations from which theology is done and draw on the resources of Christian faith in order to respond. This volume recognizes religious leaders as first-responders to trauma and offers theological reflections that can stand up in the current realities of violence and its aftermath. The writings provide models for how to integrate the language of faith with the literature of trauma.
Postcard to Heaven
by Duane Parrish"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord." How can we know where the testing times in our lives come from? Do they come from a loving God? Or do they come from the age-old deceiver? How can we tell the difference, and is there always eventual relief from pain? When the Gethsemane experiences come to us - when circumstances bring sweatdrops of blood - how do we find our way back to the mountaintop?
Postcards for People Who Hurt
by Claire CloningerHealing messages from God's Word are quoted and coupled with a personalized letter, paraphrased from Scripture, from God to you. These love-letters are written especially for the bruised and brokenhearted.
Postcards from Heaven: Messages of Love from the Other Side
by Dan Gordon"Nearly all of us either have had or have heard of an experience in which a soul already departed reaches back to us who have been left behind.... Sometimes, it's no more than a whisper, a familiar smell in the air, or just the feeling of presence as vivid as when the loved one was still alive. These moments are just that...moments, a glimpse behind the veil; not a letter from heaven, but a postcard." (Dan Gordon, Postcards from Heaven) A postcard from heaven is not a revelation from on high -- rather, it's "a whisper, a familiar smell in the air, or just the feeling of presence" of someone who's passed away. It is just enough of a message to imply that what we call life is not ended by what we call death. Dan Gordon has been receiving these postcards all his life -- from his father, his older brother, and his son Zaki, who was killed in a car accident when he was only twenty-two. Postcards from Heaven is the beautiful, inspirational memoir of four generations of a remarkable family and how they remain interconnected, a part of one another's stories, even after passing to the other side. Here is the span of his father's long life, moving and funny, from the Russian Revolution to his improbable Depression-era courtship of a woman named Goddess -- Gordon's mother -- to his spiritual later years in Israel; his incorrigible older brother's mischievous magic, able to find humor even in cancer treatment; and his brilliant son, a natural storyteller who looked destined to follow his father into the movie business. These are the stories of their lives on earth as well as after death. Full of humor, compassion, and love, Postcards from Heaven comforts and assures us that those we loved can reach back to those of us still on earth -- and, if only we are attentive enough to listen, we can hear them say, Got here safe. It's really beautiful. Much love, till we meet again.
Postcards to the Universe: Harness the Universe's Power and Manifest Your Dreams
by Melisa Caprio&“Masterfully weaves thought-provoking text, inspiring stories, and soul-empowering activities all into one fantastic life changing book.&” —G. Brian Benson, bestselling author of Habits for Success: Inspired Ideas to Help You Soar We have the ability to be in open communication with the Universe, the loving energy behind all creation. But do we listen to what the Universe has to say? Do we use our own voices to speak back? Artist-photographer, radio host, and blogger Melisa Caprio helps us enter into deep conversation with the Universe by combining creative visualization with the power of intention. Too often we are so caught up in daily life that we don&’t stop and ask ourselves what we truly desire. While it is tempting to stay in our comfort zone, our heart longs for more than the mundane. It desires manifestation. Caprio is here to foster that state of mindfulness and spirituality through photography, postcard art, written messages, and affirmations from others who are living their greatest desires. Harness your own spiritual power with this unique visual guide to attain the creativity and fulfillment you long for in your life—as you learn to bend the ear of the Universe and: Put mind over matter and pursue your deepest desiresForm an active and poignant relationship with the UniverseReach your full potential and feel empowered to live an inspired and successful life
Postcolonial Hauntings: Play and Transnational Feminism (Dissident Feminisms)
by Sushmita ChatterjeeOften examined separately, play and hauntings in fact act together to frame postcolonial issues. Sushmita Chatterjee showcases their braided workings in social and political fabrics. Drawing on this intertwined idea of play and hauntings, Chatterjee goes to the heart of conundrums within transnational postcolonial feminisms by examining the impossible echoes of translations, differing renditions of queer, and the possibilities of solidarity beyond the fraternal friendships that cement nation-states. Meaning-plays, or slippages through language systems as we move from one language to another, play a pivotal role in a global world. As Chatterjee shows, an attentiveness to meaning-plays discerns the past and present, here and there, and moves us toward responsive ethics in our theories and activisms. Insightful and stimulating, Postcolonial Hauntings centers the inextricable work of play and hauntings as a braided ethics for postcolonial transnational struggles.
Postcolonial Images of Spiritual Care: Challenges of Care in a Neoliberal Age
by Emmanuel Y. Lartey Hellena Moon Bonnie Miller-McLemore Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'ImThis anthology is about caring for all persons as a part of the revolutionary struggle against colonialism in its many forms. In recognition of the varied ways in which different forms of oppression, injustice, and violence in the world today are traceable to the legacy and continuing effects of colonialism, various authors have contributed to the volume from diverse backgrounds including differing ethnic identities, religious and cultural traditions, gender and sexual orientations, as well as communal and personal realities. <P><P> As a postcolonial critique of spiritual care, it highlights the plurality of voices and concerns that have been overlooked or obscured because of the politics of race, religion, sexuality, nationalism, and other structures of power that have shaped what discursive spiritual care entails today. Postcolonial Images of Spiritual Care presents voices of practical and pastoral theologians, academics, spiritual care providers, religious leaders, students, and activists working to provide greater intercultural spiritual care and awareness in the areas of healthcare, community work, and education. The volume, as such, expands the discourse of spiritual care and participates in the ongoing paradigm shifts in the field of pastoral and practical theology.
Postcolonial Imagination and Feminist Theology
by Kwok Pui-LanThe burgeoning field of postcolonial studies argues that most theology has been formed in dominant cultures, laden intrinsically with imperializing structures. An essential task facing theology is thus to "decolonize" the mind and free Christianity from colonizing bias and structures. Here, in this truly groundbreaking study, highly respected feminist theologian Kwok Pui-lan offers the first full-length theological treatment of what it means to do postcolonial feminist theology. She explains her methodological basis and explores several specific topics, including Christology, pluralism, and creation.
Postcolonial Philosophy of Religion
by Andrew B. Irvine Purushottama BilimoriaThe essays in this volume take up the history of philosophy of religion and contemporary problems within the discipline. They pursue these tasks as opportunities to correct Eurocentric biases that distort knowledge not only of religions originating beyond the West, but of the West's own traditions. This is the first collection of its kind. The contributions re-examine colonial experience in India and the Americas, offering discussion of broad methodological issues, critical re-readings of influential Western interpreters of religion, and arguments that explore blindspots and insights typical of colonial difference when viewed through "non-Western" eyes. The volume is aimed at advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and professional scholars in philosophy, religion, and related fields. Readers will benefit from its broad coverage of regions, traditions and problems, and the balance of philosophical critique and reconstruction.
Postcolonial Resistance and Asian Theology
by Simon Shui-Man KwanPresenting a fundamental re-thinking of Asian theology, this book focuses on theological indigenization in Asia in light of the postcolonial theory of resistance advanced by Homi K. Bhabha, among others. Two types of anti-colonialist resistance within Asian theologies are identified and interrogated. The first is nationalistic in kind, operating from a theological language that is binaristic and oppositional. The second is illustrated by that which was mounted by the three Chinese Christian thinkers whose indigenous theologies are analysed in this book as case studies. This second kind, postcolonial in its character, is characterized by collaboration rather than antagonistic binarism. In spite of much dissimilarity between these two kinds of resistance, the book argues that they are similarly anti-colonialist, and both can be equally valid in resisting colonial forces. Given that the binarism and antagonism imbedded in the Asian theological movement are historically contingent, and that the sole reliance on this resistance has made the movement self-ensnaring, the book suggests that the Asian theological movement widen its choice of colonial-resistant strategies. Drawing attention to the otherwise subtle politics of the Asian theological indigenization discourse, this book addresses the relationship between postcolonialism and Asia contextual theology, and is of interest to students and scholars of Asian Religion and Philosophy.
Postcolonial Theology of Religions: Particularity and Pluralism in World Christianity
by Jenny DaggersThis original and ambitious book considers the terms of engagement between Christian theology and other religious traditions, beginning with criticism of Christian theology of religions as entangled with European colonial modernity. Jenny Daggers covers recent efforts to disentangle Eurocentrism from the meeting of the religions, and investigates new constructive possibilities arising in the postcolonial context. In dialogue with Asian and feminist theologies, she reflects on ways forward for relations between the religions and offers a particularist model for theology of religions, standing within a classical Trinitarian framework.
Postcolonial Yearning: Reshaping Spiritual and Secular Discourses in Contemporary Literature
by Asha SenAnglophone postcolonial studies has been characterized by its secular nature. Yet as the first generation of scholars grapples with mortality, a yearning for spiritual meaning is emerging in many texts. This study synthesizes the sacred language used in these texts with critical theory in order to create a holistic frame for interpretive analysis.
Postcolonialism and Islam: Theory, Literature, Culture, Society and Film (Routledge Islamic Studies Series)
by Geoffrey Nash Kathleen Kerr-Koch Sarah E. HackettWith a focus on the areas of theory, literature, culture, society and film, this collection of essays examines, questions and broadens the applicability of Postcolonialism and Islam from a multifaceted and cross-disciplinary perspective. Topics covered include the relationship between Postcolonialism and Orientalism, theoretical perspectives on Postcolonialism and Islam, the position of Islam within postcolonial literature, Muslim identity in British and European contexts, and the role of Islam in colonial and postcolonial cinema in Egypt and India. At a time at which Islam continues to be at the centre of increasingly heated and frenzied political and academic deliberations, Postcolonialism and Islam offers a framework around which the debate on Muslims in the modern world can be centred. Transgressing geographical, disciplinary and theoretical boundaries, this book is an invaluable resource for students of Islamic Studies, Cultural Studies, Sociolgy and Literature.
Postcolonialism, Feminism and Religious Discourse
by Kwok Pui-Lan Laura E. DonaldsonContributors examine white feminist theology's misappropriations of Native North American women, Chinese footbinding, and veiling by Muslim women, as well as the Jewish emancipation in France, the symbolic dismemberment of black women by rap and sermons, and the potential to rewrite and reclaim canonical stories.
Postcolonising the Medieval Image
by Eva Frojmovic Catherine E. KarkovPostcolonial theories have transformed literary, historical and cultural studies over the past three decades. Yet the study of medieval art and visualities has, in general, remained Eurocentric in its canon and conservative in its approaches. 'Postcolonising', as the eleven essays in this volume show, entails active intervention into the field of medieval art history and visual studies through a theoretical reframing of research. This approach poses and elicits new research questions, and tests how concepts current in postcolonial studies - such as diaspora and migration, under-represented artistic cultures, accented art making, displacement, intercultural versus transcultural, hybridity, presence/absence - can help medievalists to reinvigorate the study of art and visuality. Postcolonial concepts are deployed in order to redraft the canon of medieval art, thereby seeking to build bridges between medievalist and modernist communities of scholars. Among the varied topics explored in the volume are the appropriation of Roman iconography by early medieval Scandinavian metalworkers, multilingualism and materiality in Anglo-Saxon culture, the circulation and display of Islamic secular ceramics on Pisan churches, cultural negotiation by Jewish minorities in Central Europe and the Iberian peninsula, Holy Land maps and medieval imaginative geography, and the uses of Thomas Becket in the colonial imaginary of the Plantagenet court.
Postdigital Theologies: Technology, Belief, and Practice (Postdigital Science and Education)
by John Reader Maggi Savin-BadenThis book is about the relationships between technologies and the content of religious belief and practice. A number of models are now starting to emerge, but each of these depends on the theological or philosophical framework within which the debate is set. At at the same time, there are dilemmas operating at different ends of the spectrum. For example, at one end there is a tendency towards subsuming the digital within the divine, and at the other an instrumental stance relating to how technology is deployed. Either of these stances could be said to ignore rather than acknowledge that the human itself is being changed as a result of the interactions with the digital. The book explores the following areas: · Where is God to be found or present in the postdigital condition? · What are the implications of the postdigital condition for spirituality and indeed for the activity of God through the Holy Spirit? · How do concepts of transhumanism or posthumanism effect understandings of the incarnation? · Does the doctrine of the Trinity need revisiting in the light of the digital as medium of relationship? · Does Creation now include the postdigital? · What of the Kingdom of God now that the kingdom of the Tech giants is so powerful all-consuming?
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.
Posting Peace: Why Social Media Divides Us and What We Can Do About It
by Douglas S. BurschWhy is everyone so angry online? The internet seems to have brought the world together only so we can tear each other apart. Social media platforms have become toxic and polarizing environments. Many of us are overwhelmed and disillusioned by endless online conflict and negativity. How did we get here, and what can we do about it? The internet changes not only how we communicate but also what we communicate. Pastor and former radio host Douglas Bursch provides a spiritual examination of why social media divides people and how Christians can address polarization through a ministry of peacemaking. Digital media dehumanizes and disembodies us, dulling our ability to know when to speak and when to remain silent. But healthy online communication is possible through a constructive posture of reconciliation. Bursch offers practical examples of how to proactively manage social media and handle online conflict in redemptive ways. Together we can change the discourse of online Christian communication. Discover how we can use social media in a positive, Christ-like manner.
Postmissionary Messianic Judaism: Redefining Christian Engagement With the Jewish People
by Mark Kinzer"Mark Kinzer gives us this powerful book in the fullness of time. It probably could not have been written before now [2005], nor can we do without it any longer. The church needs this book to know how to be the church of the God of Israel. Messianic Judaism needs this book to know how to be a Judaism. And Christians and Jews can no longer 'dialogue' as if Messianic Judaism did not exist. In a brilliant, thorough, and compelling way Kinzer boldly interrupts the conversation of contemporary theology with the voice of Messianic Judaism. We are left with no option but to engage it. There is no turning back." In this book, the author discusses all aspects of the Christian-Jewish, Christian, and Jewish experiences embracing both the positive and negative aspects from ancient to modern times. It is important for Christian Gentiles to understand the author's polemics and documentation supporting these arguments in order to avoid making the same past mistakes when engaging with Jewish people. Even though the author, addresses Christian Gentile readers, Messianic-Jewish readers will gain valuable information as well and gain insight into the development and preservation of their unique religious and spiritual experiences. Also, non-religious people will learn about a new, cultural, intellectual, spiritual, and religious movement that is changing the current theological landscape.
Postmodern Belief: American Literature and Religion since 1960 (20/21)
by Amy HungerfordHow can intense religious beliefs coexist with pluralism in America today? Examining the role of the religious imagination in contemporary religious practice and in some of the best-known works of American literature from the past fifty years, Postmodern Belief shows how belief for its own sake--a belief absent of doctrine--has become an answer to pluralism in a secular age. Amy Hungerford reveals how imaginative literature and religious practices together allow novelists, poets, and critics to express the formal elements of language in transcendent terms, conferring upon words a religious value independent of meaning. Hungerford explores the work of major American writers, including Allen Ginsberg, Don DeLillo, Cormac McCarthy, Toni Morrison, and Marilynne Robinson, and links their unique visions to the religious worlds they touch. She illustrates how Ginsberg's chant-infused 1960s poetry echoes the tongue-speaking of Charismatic Christians, how DeLillo reimagines the novel and the Latin Mass, why McCarthy's prose imitates the Bible, and why Morrison's fiction needs the supernatural. Uncovering how literature and religion conceive of a world where religious belief can escape confrontations with other worldviews, Hungerford corrects recent efforts to discard the importance of belief in understanding religious life, and argues that belief in belief itself can transform secular reading and writing into a religious act. Honoring the ways in which people talk about and practice religion, Postmodern Belief highlights the claims of the religious imagination in twentieth-century American culture.
Postmodern Children's Ministry: Ministry to Children in the 21st Century Church
by Ivy BeckwithThis practical, thought-provoking book presents a new paradigm for children’s ministry in the emerging 21ST century and explores how churches are currently putting that vision into practice. Advocating the need to regard children as full participants in their faith communities, the book provides strategies for building intergenerational community where children feel they belong and have the opportunity to serve.
Postmodern Christianity: Doing Theology in the Contemporary World
by John W. RiggsPostmodern Christianity, John Riggs proposes that postmodernism and Christianity have much to offer each other. Each should take the other seriously, he writes, afiirming the others position but avoiding complete acceptance or rejection. On the one hand, he argues, we should take seriously the Postmodern challenge to the traditional view of God as omnipotent Controller-one who directs the world to its predetermined end according to "his" divine purpose. On the other hand, there is merit in challenging the postmodern view that no universal claims can be made irrespective of context and that no particular claims can be made about what is good or true. Riggs argues for finding a common ground between postmodernism and Christianity, focusing on how this applies to issues such as reproductive rights and the ordination of women, gay men, and lesbians. He suggests that Christianity avoid the extreme positions of either completely accommodating itself to or completely rejecting postmodern culture. John W. Riggs is Associate Professor of Historical Theology and Church History at Eden Theological Seminary, St. Louis. Missouri.