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Suffer the Little Children: Uses of the Past in Jewish and African American Children's Literature (North American Religions)
by Jodi Eichler-LevineExamines classic and contemporary Jewish and African American children’s literatureThrough close readings of selected titles published since 1945, Jodi Eichler-Levine analyzes what is at stake in portraying religious history for young people, particularly when the histories in question are traumatic ones. In the wake of the Holocaust and lynchings, of the Middle Passage and flight from Eastern Europe's pogroms, children’s literature provides diverse and complicated responses to the challenge of representing difficultcollective pasts.In reading the work of various prominent authors, including Maurice Sendak, Julius Lester, Jane Yolen, Sydney Taylor, and Virginia Hamilton, Eichler-Levine changes our understanding of North American religions. She illuminates how narratives of both suffering and nostalgia graft future citizens into ideals of American liberal democracy, and into religious communities that can be understood according to recognizable notions of reading, domestic respectability, and national sacrifice. If children are the idealized recipients of the past, what does it mean to tell tales of suffering to children, and can we imagine modes of memory that move past utopian notions of children as our future? Suffer the Little Children asks readers to alter their worldviews about children’s literature as an “innocent” enterprise, revisiting the genre in a darker and more unsettled light.
Suffering And The Heart Of God: How Trauma Destroys And Christ Restores
by Diane LangbergWhen someone suffers through trauma, can healing happen? And, if yes, how does it happen? Dr. Diane Langberg tackles these complex and difficult questions with the insights she has gained through more than forty years of counseling those whose lives have been destroyed by trauma and abuse. Her answer carefully explained in Suffering and the Heart of God is Yes, what trauma destroys, Jesus can and does restore.
Suffering Is Optional: Three Keys to Freedom and Joy
by Cheri HuberSuffering Is Optional: Three Keys to Freedom and Joy centers around three basic aspects of Zen practice: pay attention, believe nothing, and don' t take anything personally. As ending suffering requires that one sees how suffering happens, the book urges readers to be willing to be quiet and pay attention to the process of suffering in an effort to see each moment as an opportunity to step beyond illusion into freedom. It also argues that examining beliefs,abandoning them, and returning attention to the present is essential to ending suffering, as is living in the awareness that nothing in the universe is personal.
Suffering Religion
by Robert Gibbs Elliot R. WolfsonIn a diverse and innovative selection of new essays by cutting-edge theologians and philosophers, Suffering Religion examines one of the most primitive but challenging questions to define human experience - why do we suffer? As a theme uniting very different religious and cultural traditions, the problem of suffering addresses issues of passivity, the vulnerability of embodiment, the generosity of love and the complexity of gendered desire. Interdisciplinary studies bring different kinds of interpretations to meet and enrich each other. Can the notion of goodness retain meaning in the face of real affliction, or is pain itself in conflict with meaning?Themes covered include:*philosophy's own failure to treat suffering seriously, with special reference to the Jewish tradition*Martin Buber's celebrated interpretations of scriptural suffering*suffering in Kristevan psychoanalysis, focusing on the Christian theology of the cross*the pain of childbirth in a home setting as a religiously significant choice*Gods primal suffering in the kabbalistic tradition*Incarnation as a gracious willingness to suffer.
Suffering Saviour
by F KrummacherThe Suffering Saviour is a series of meditations on the events of Holy Week. This rich volume on the sufferings and death of Christ is one of the great devotional classics of all time. Its dramatized discourses interpret and portray the events of the last days of our Lord. The vividness and beauty of Krummacher's style, together with his crystal-clear simplicity, make this volume entirely free from theological verbiage, and suit it for the average Christian. At the same time it is an incomparable source of teaching and preaching material for the advanced student of the Word of God. It throws brilliant new light on every detail of the last week of Christ's earthly ministry.
Suffering Saviour
by F KrummacherThe Suffering Saviour is a series of meditations on the events of Holy Week. This rich volume on the sufferings and death of Christ is one of the great devotional classics of all time. Its dramatized discourses interpret and portray the events of the last days of our Lord. The vividness and beauty of Krummacher's style, together with his crystal-clear simplicity, make this volume entirely free from theological verbiage, and suit it for the average Christian. At the same time it is an incomparable source of teaching and preaching material for the advanced student of the Word of God. It throws brilliant new light on every detail of the last week of Christ's earthly ministry.
Suffering and Hope: The Biblical Vision and the Human Predicament
by J. Christiaan BekerA scholarly exploration of the topic.
Suffering and Possibility
by Norman FischerSuffering and Possibility is part of the Parallax Press Moments series of short ebooks. It is a stand alone chapter from Solid Ground: Buddhist Wisdom for Difficult Times.
Suffering and Salvation in Ciudad Juarez
by Nancy Pineda-MadridSince 1993 more than six hundred girls and women have been brutally slain in Ciudad Juárez in internationally condemned violence for which no one has been arrested. Nancy Pineda-Madrid's powerful reflection on this destructive and dehumanizing violence, based on first-hand knowledge of the traumatic situation in Juárez, attempts to understand the cultural, economic, and even religious factors that feed the violence. She detects in the social suffering of the women there a yearning for release, justice, and healing in their quest for salvation through solidarity and community practices that resist rather than acquiesce to the violence.
Suffering and the Christian Life
by Richard W. MillerSuffering is an inescapable aspect of human experience, and one that raises many questions: Why do we suffer? Where is God in our suffering? Who is this God that allows us to suffer? Where is God's purpose in our suffering? While the negativity of suffering creates many quandaries, the Christian tradition has also viewed suffering in positive terms. Jesus' suffering has been seen as salvific; indeed, his followers are called to take up their cross and follow him. The contributors to this volume, all distinguished Catholic theologians, confront these problems, drawing on the wisdom of the scriptures, Christian doctrine, and contemporary experience to explore the problem of suffering and its meaning for the Christian life. Contributors: Daniel J. Harrington, S. J. ; M. Dennis Hamm, S. J. ; Susan A. Calef; Richard W. Miller; Michael J. Himes; Elizabeth A. Dreyer
Suffering and the Search for Meaning: Contemporary Responses to the Problem of Pain
by Richard Riceme
Suffering and the Sovereignty of God
by John Piper Justin TaylorIn the last few years, 9/11, a tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, and many other tragedies have shown us that the vision of God in today's churches in relation to evil and suffering is often frivolous. Against the overwhelming weight and seriousness of the Bible, many Christians are choosing to become more shallow, more entertainment-oriented, and therefore irrelevant in the face of massive suffering. In Suffering and the Sovereignty of God, contributors John Piper, Joni Eareckson Tada, Steve Saint, Carl Ellis, David Powlison, Dustin Shramek, and Mark Talbot explore the many categories of God's sovereignty as evidenced in his Word. They urge readers to look to Christ, even in suffering, to find the greatest confidence, deepest comfort, and sweetest fellowship they have ever known.
Suffering in Worship: Anglican Liturgy in Relation to Stories of Suffering People (Liturgy, Worship and Society Series)
by Armand Léon van OmmenHow does the universal experience of suffering relate to the experience of worship? Questioning how Anglican liturgy welcomes people who are suffering, Suffering in Worship uniquely applies a narrative–ritual model for the analysis of both the liturgical text and worship services themselves. In this book, van Ommen draws on interviews with participants in worship as well as clergy. Highlighting several elements in the liturgy which address suffering, including the Eucharist, songs, sermons and prayers of intercession, he shows the significance of a warm and safe liturgical community as a necessary context for suffering people to find consolation. This book also uses the concept of remembrance to plead for liturgy that attends to the suffering of both God and people. As such, it will be of interest to scholars of pastoral theology as well as clergy.
Suffering: Psychological and Social Aspects in Loss, Grief, and Care
by Robert DeBellis, Eric Marcus, Austin H. Kutscher, Carole Smith Torres, Virginia Barrett, and Mary-Ellen SiegelLearn to help others understand, cope with, and even overcome emotional and physical suffering. Suffering: Psychological and Social Aspects in Loss, Grief, and Care is a unique and insightful volume of observations, anecdotes, and case studies about suffering. In this important book, doctors, nurses, teachers, funeral directors, and members of the clergy discuss the crucial physical, emotional, and psychological issues that patients and their families must confront when death is imminent. They address a variety of topics including terminal illness, chronic illness, loss, grief, and pain. Ideal for professionals who work with dying people and their families, Suffering highlights topics that are particularly common when working with AIDS patients, cancer patients, children, the elderly, and the mentally ill.
Sufficient Sacrifice: A Novel
by Annette ValentineA father struggles to raise his daughter right as she comes of age in the 1960s in this moving conclusion to a multi-generational family trilogy.Simon Hagan’s life has been portrayed over several decades in Annette Valentine’s novels Eastbound From Flagstaff and Down to the Potter’s House. In Sufficient Sacrifice, he bears the burden of responsibility to give his child, Alexandra, the foundational strength she needs to navigate the bumpy road of her youthful years and the proverbial wings she needs to fly against the winds of young adulthood.With the goal of Sufficient Sacrifice elevating the power of a father’s love for his child, the story poses the question of whether Simon’s influence has diminished over time or been compromised by the eroding push of a determined woman. Simon, however, makes the necessary sacrifices. Having given all he had to give, Sufficient Sacrifice uniquely portrays his stunning and triumphant victory over Alexandra’s confusion and rebellion. The results land her on higher ground, enabling her to be more than conqueror.“Excellent!! An absolute treasure that recounts the warm and sometimes harsh realities of a family striving to maintain a high standard of living amidst currents of mediocrity.” —Becky Hadden Wise, educator, Carver Middle School, Spartanburg, South Carolina
Sufi Bodies: Religion and Society in Medieval Islam
by Shahzad BashirBetween 1300 and 1500 C.E. a new form of Sufi Islam took hold among central Islamic peoples, joining individuals through widespread networks resembling today's prominent paths and orders. Understanding contemporary Sufism requires a sophisticated analysis of these formative years. Moving beyond a straight account of leaders and movements, Shahzad Bashir weaves a rich history around the depiction of bodily actions by Sufi masters and disciples, primarily in Sufi literature and Persian miniature paintings of the period.Focusing on the Persianate societies of Iran and Central Asia, Bashir explores medieval Sufis' conception of the human body as the primary shuttle between interior (batin) and exterior (zahir) realities. Drawing on literary, historical, and anthropological approaches to corporeality, he studies representations of Sufi bodies in three personal and communal arenas: religious activity in the form of ritual, asceticism, rules of etiquette, and a universal hierarchy of saints; the deep imprint of Persian poetic paradigms on the articulation of love, desire, and gender; and the reputation of Sufi masters for working miracles, which empowered them in all domains of social activity. Bashir's novel perspective illuminates complex relationships between body and soul, body and gender, body and society, and body and cosmos. It highlights love as an overarching, powerful emotion in the making of Sufi communities and situates the body as a critical concern in Sufi thought and practice. Bashir's work ultimately offers a new methodology for extracting historical information from religious narratives, especially those depicting extraordinary and miraculous events.
Sufi Castigator: Ahmad Kasravi and the Iranian Mystical Tradition (Routledge Sufi Series #Vol. 19)
by Lloyd RidgeonSufi Castigator investigates the writings of Ahmad Kasravi, one of the foremost intellectuals in Iran. It studies his work within the context of Sufism in modern Iran and mystical Persian literature and includes translations of Kasravi’s writings. Kasravi provides a fascinating topic for those with interests in Sufism and Iranian studies as he attempted to produce a form of Iranian identity that he believed was compatible with the modern age and Iranian nationalism. His stress on reason and the de-mystification of religion caused him to repudiate Sufism and much of the Sufi literary heritage as backwards and believed it a reason for the weakness of modern Iran. Kasravi’s historical observations were weak, and his writings indicate that he was working towards pre-determined conclusions. However, his works are of significance because they contributed to a major discussion in the 1930s to 1940s about the ideal image and identity that Iranians should adopt. Despite the academic weaknesses of Kasravi’s works he had a profound effect on the next generation of thinkers. Sufi Castigator is stimulating and meticulously researched book and includes two lengthy translations of Kasravi’s works, Sufism and What does Hafez Say? and will appeal to scholars of middle eastern studies.
Sufi Civilities: Religious Authority and Political Change in Afghanistan
by Annika SchmedingDespite its pervasive reputation as a place of religious extremes and war, Afghanistan has a complex and varied religious landscape where elements from a broad spectrum of religious belief vie for a place in society. It is also one of the birthplaces of a widely practiced variant of Islam: Sufism. Contemporary analysts suggest that Sufism is on the decline due to war and the ideological hardening that results from societies in conflict. However, in Sufi Civilities, Annika Schmeding argues that this is far from a truthful depiction. Members of Sufi communities have worked as resistance fighters, aid workers, business people, actors, professors, and daily workers in creative and ingenious ways to keep and renew their networks of community support. Based on long-term ethnographic field research among multiple Sufi communities in different urban areas of Afghanistan, the book examines navigational strategies employed by Sufi leaders over the past four decades to weather periods of instability and persecution, showing how they adapted to changing conditions in novel ways that crafted Sufism as a force in the civil sphere. This book offers a rare on-the-ground view into how Sufi leaders react to moments of transition within a highly insecure environment, and how humanity shines through the darkness during times of turmoil.
Sufi Commentaries on the Qur'an in Classical Islam (Routledge Studies in the Qur'an)
by Kristin SandsMeeting the ever increasing interest in Islam and Sufism, this book is the first comprehensive study of Sufi Qur’anic commentaries and includes translations of many writings previously unavailable in English. It examines the shared hermeneutical assumptions of Sufi writers and the diversity in style of Sufi commentaries. Some of the assumptions analyzed are: * the Qur’an is a multi-layered and ambiguous text open to endless interpretation * the knowledge of deeper meanings of the Qur’an is attainable by means other than transmitted interpretations and rational thought * the self is dynamic, moving through states and stations which result in different interpretations at different times. The styles of Sufi commentaries are explored, which range from philosophical musings to popular preaching to literary narrative and poetry. Other commentaries from the classical period are also investigated to provide context in understanding Sufi approaches and exegetical styles.
Sufi Deleuze: Secretions of Islamic Atheism
by Michael Muhammad Knight“There is always an atheism to be extracted from a religion,” Deleuze and Guattari write in their final collaboration, What Is Philosophy? Their claim that Christianity “secretes” atheism “more than any other religion,” however, reflects the limits of their archive. Theological projects seeking to engage Deleuze remain embedded within Christian theologies and intellectual histories; whether they embrace, resist, or negotiate with Deleuze’s atheism, the atheism in question remains one extracted from Christian theology, a Christian atheism. In Sufi Deleuze, Michael Muhammad Knight offers an intervention, engaging Deleuzian questions and themes from within Islamic tradition. Even if Deleuze did not think of himself as a theologian, Knight argues, to place Deleuze in conversation with Islam is a project of comparative theology and faces the challenge of any comparative theology: It seemingly demands that complex, internally diverse traditions can speak as coherent, monolithic wholes. To start from such a place would not only defy Islam’s historical multiplicity but also betray Deleuze’s model of the assemblage, which requires attention to not only the organizing and stabilizing tendencies within a structure but also the points at which a structure resists organization, its internal heterogeneity, and unpredictable “lines of flight.”A Deleuzian approach to Islamic theology would first have to affirm that there is no such thing as a universal “Islamic theology” that can speak for all Muslims in all historical settings, but rather a multiplicity of power struggles between major and minor forces that contest each other over authenticity, authority, and the making of “orthodoxy.” The discussions in Sufi Deleuze thus highlight Islam’s extraordinary range of possibilities, not only making use of canonically privileged materials such as the Qur’an and major hadith collections, but also exploring a variety of marginalized resources found throughout Islam that challenge the notion of a singular “mainstream” interpretive tradition. To say it in Deleuze’s vocabulary, Islam is a rhizome.
Sufi Lyrics: Selections from a World Classic (Murty Classical Library Of India - Hup Ser. #1)
by Bullhe ShahBullhe Shah’s work is among the glories of Panjabi literature, and the iconic eighteenth-century poet is widely regarded as a master of mystical Sufi poetry. His verses, famous for their vivid style and outspoken denunciation of artificial religious divisions, have long been beloved and continue to win audiences around the world. This striking new translation is the most authoritative and engaging introduction to an enduring South Asian classic.
Sufi Narratives of Intimacy
by Sa'Diyya ShaikhThirteenth-century Sufi poet, mystic, and legal scholar Muhyi al-Din ibn al-'Arabi gave deep and sustained attention to gender as integral to questions of human existence and moral personhood. Reading his works through a critical feminist lens, Sa'diyya Shaikh opens fertile spaces in which new and creative encounters with gender justice in Islam can take place. Grounding her work in Islamic epistemology, Shaikh attends to the ways in which Sufi metaphysics and theology might allow for fundamental shifts in Islamic gender ethics and legal formulations, addressing wide-ranging contemporary challenges including questions of women's rights in marriage and divorce, the politics of veiling, and women's leadership of ritual prayer. Shaikh deftly deconstructs traditional binaries between the spiritual and the political, private conceptions of spiritual development and public notions of social justice, and the realms of inner refinement and those of communal virtue. Drawing on the treasured works of Sufism, Shaikh raises a number of critical questions about the nature of selfhood, subjectivity, spirituality, and society to contribute richly to the prospects of Islamic feminism as well as feminist ethics more broadly.
Sufi Talks
by Robert FragerOnce a woman brought her son to the thirteenth-century Turkish Sufi master Nasruddin complaining that the boy had an uncontrollable sweet tooth. She asked Nasruddin to tell the boy to stop eating sweets. He said to bring him back in four weeks. When they returned he said, "Boy, I order you to stop eating sweets!" The mother asked, "Couldn't you have said that at the beginning? Why make us wait four weeks?" "No, I couldn't have said that even two weeks ago," Nasruddin replied. "Why not?" asked the mother. "Because I love sweets myself. First I had to control my own love for them. Only then could I tell your son to stop eating them."That is, words are empty unless backed by experience, says Robert Frager. People will not change until they hear from those who have lived what they teach. Frager has indeed lived his teaching. Founder of the Institute for Transpersonal Psychology in 1975, in 1976 he became a student of the Sufi master Muzaffer Efendi. Since becoming a sheikh in 1985, he has given many sohbets-a Turkish word for the spiritual conversations Sufi teachers hold to inspire their students. The sohbets he presents here are compiled from his talks over the past decade and represent Sufism as it is now practiced in the United States.Frager believes that the wisdom in such talks flows through the sheikh from his teacher and his teacher's teacher all the way back to the Prophet Mohammad and God; the sheikh is merely a channel for something greater than any individual. Moreover, these talks are not lectures but rather living connections going both ways between heart and heart. Indeed, the warm, personal immediacy to Frager's voice is rarely found. Like the tales of Nasruddin, he teaches through colorful anecdote and metaphors. Sufi practice has two sides, he says: one is to develop our love of God; the other is to become less self-centered. We need both, just as a bird needs both wings to fly. "How can I put my knowledge into practice?" is the question we must ask. As the Qur'an states, those who fail to live by their understanding are like donkeys carrying a load of books. The books won't change them. They can carry the holiest books but will still be donkeys.Among the practices Frager teaches are zikr, or remembrance of God through chanting; halvet, or spiritual retreat; and adab, or "right action." Thus do we develop character-or, rather, restore the character we had at birth. "I've never seen a baby with a bad character," he says. "We are all born in a pure state. With hard work and God's blessings we can return to it." Other topics include Obstacles on the Path, Reducing Narcissism, Inner Work, Prayer, Marriage, Generosity, Taking Responsibility, and Waking before We Die.No matter what one's religion, the reader will find such universal wisdom in this book that he will agree with Frager's teacher Muzaffer Efendi who once advised, "You can tell these stories ten thousand times and people will still benefit from them."
Sufi Talks
by Robert FragerOnce a woman brought her son to the thirteenth-century Turkish Sufi master Nasruddin complaining that the boy had an uncontrollable sweet tooth. She asked Nasruddin to tell the boy to stop eating sweets. He said to bring him back in four weeks. When they returned he said, "Boy, I order you to stop eating sweets!" The mother asked, "Couldn't you have said that at the beginning? Why make us wait four weeks?" "No, I couldn't have said that even two weeks ago," Nasruddin replied. "Why not?" asked the mother. "Because I love sweets myself. First I had to control my own love for them. Only then could I tell your son to stop eating them."That is, words are empty unless backed by experience, says Robert Frager. People will not change until they hear from those who have lived what they teach. Frager has indeed lived his teaching. Founder of the Institute for Transpersonal Psychology in 1975, in 1976 he became a student of the Sufi master Muzaffer Efendi. Since becoming a sheikh in 1985, he has given many sohbets-a Turkish word for the spiritual conversations Sufi teachers hold to inspire their students. The sohbets he presents here are compiled from his talks over the past decade and represent Sufism as it is now practiced in the United States.Frager believes that the wisdom in such talks flows through the sheikh from his teacher and his teacher's teacher all the way back to the Prophet Mohammad and God; the sheikh is merely a channel for something greater than any individual. Moreover, these talks are not lectures but rather living connections going both ways between heart and heart. Indeed, the warm, personal immediacy to Frager's voice is rarely found. Like the tales of Nasruddin, he teaches through colorful anecdote and metaphors. Sufi practice has two sides, he says: one is to develop our love of God; the other is to become less self-centered. We need both, just as a bird needs both wings to fly."How can I put my knowledge into practice?" is the question we must ask. As the Qur'an states, those who fail to live by their understanding are like donkeys carrying a load of books. The books won't change them. They can carry the holiest books but will still be donkeys.Among the practices Frager teaches are zikr, or remembrance of God through chanting; halvet, or spiritual retreat; and adab, or "right action." Thus do we develop character-or, rather, restore the character we had at birth. "I've never seen a baby with a bad character," he says. "We are all born in a pure state. With hard work and God's blessings we can return to it." Other topics include Obstacles on the Path, Reducing Narcissism, Inner Work, Prayer, Marriage, Generosity, Taking Responsibility, and Waking before We Die.No matter what one's religion, the reader will find such universal wisdom in this book that he will agree with Frager's teacher Muzaffer Efendi who once advised, "You can tell these stories ten thousand times and people will still benefit from them"
Sufi Women and Mystics: Models of Sanctity, Erudition, and Political Leadership (Routledge Sufi Series)
by Minlib DallhThis book focuses on women’s important contribution to Sufism by analysing the lives and seminal contributions of six mystic Sufi women to Islamic spirituality. To help reverse the sidelining of Sufi women in the recorded academic literature, the author has selected a representative sample of figures from diverse Islamic dynasties with varying backgrounds, social status, and devotional contributions. Taking a historical approach attentive to specific political contexts, readers will be introduced to the contributions of Umm Ali al-Balkhi and Fātima of Nishāpūr in the ninth-century Khurāsān, Aisha al-Mannūbiyya of the Hafsid dynasty in Afriqya, Aisha al-Bā‘únīyya of the Mamlūk dynasties of Egypt and Syria, the Mughal princess Jahan Ara Begum, and the daughter of the Caliph of Sokoto, Nana Asma’u. It is argued that these ascetic and Sufi women were recognized by their male and female peers, became political leaders in their communities, and were honored as examples of sanctity and erudition. Their works influenced mystical discourse, hagiographical writings, religious language and models of religious authority to secure legacies of Islamic orthopraxis. The book will appeal to anyone interested in Sufism and Sufi history, as well as to those wishing to delve into the understudied topic of Muslim women’s spirituality.