Religion: general Books

This book contains a unique perspective: that of a scientifically and philosophically educated agnostic who thinks there is impressive-if maddeningly hidden-evidence for the existence of God. Science and philosophy may have revealed the poverty of the...

The study of religion by the humanities and social sciences has become receptive for an evolutionary perspective. Some proposals model the evolution of religion in Darwinian terms, or construct a synergy between biological and non-Darwinian processes...

This volume presents the most recent joint study of the research group Religion and Human Rights. This text is comprised of studies carried out in twelve countries and divided into three parts according to their respective tree continents. Almost...

This book explores the fascinating world of religious hair observances within six religious traditions that account for 77% of the world's adherents: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Sikhism. Symbolic use of hair has been, and...

Pentecostalism is a growing movement in world Christianity. However, the growth of Pentecostalism in South Africa has faced some challenges, including the abuse of religion by some prophets. This book first names these prophets and the churches they lead...

Moving from a historical and cultural perspective, this book examines the geo-political and socio-economic changes involving the enlarged Mediterranean. Organised into two main sections, the first section (The new centrality of the Mediterranean Basin:...

This first study of faith-based development NGOs' (FBOs) political roles focuses on how U.S. FBOs in international development educate and mobilize their constituencies. Most pursue cautious reformist agendas, but FBOs have sometimes played important...

This book offers a re-evaluation of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, the prominent Italian Renaissance philosopher and prince of Concord. It argues that Pico is part of a history of attempted concordance between philosophy and theology, reason and faith...

This volume explores the multiple meanings and implications of lobola in Southern Africa. The payment of lobola (often controversially translated as 'bridewealth') is an entrenched practice in most societies in Southern Africa. Although having a...

This book argues that contemporary Christianity is in crisis because freedom of religion is concealed and under pressure by secularization and migration. A drastic change is necessary - in the Catholic Church at first - from a God-given hierarchical...

This book offers global perspectives from Mediterranean, Asian, Australian, and American cultures on sacred sites and their related stories in regional history. Contemporary society witnesses many travelers visiting sacred sites (temples, mountains,...

This book is the first to systematically examine the connection between religion and transitional justice in post-communism. There are four main goals motivating this book: 1) to explain how civil society (groups such as religious denominations)...

This volume addresses three things many people do not discuss candidly with strangers or mere acquaintances: God, sex, and politics. These can easily become topics of fierce debate, particularly when taken together, as has been the case with same-sex...

Why is epistemic fallibilism a viable topic for Christian thought and cultural engagement today? Religious fundamentalists and scientific positivists tend to deal with reality in terms of "knockdown" arguments, and such binary approaches to lived reality...

Throughout their shared history, Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches have lived through a very complex and sometimes tense relationship - not only theologically, but also politically. In most cases such relationships remain to this day; indeed, in...

This book highlights the pivotal roles of individuals in England's complex sixteenth-century reformations. While many historians study broad themes, such as religious moderation, this volume is centred on the perspective that great changes are instigated...

The nineteenth century witnessed a proliferation of alternative religious currents and practices, appropriating earlier traditions, entangling geographically distinct spiritual discourses, and crafting a repository of mindscapes eminently suitable to be...

The painful reality faced by refugees and migrants is one of the greatest moral challenges of our time, in turn, becoming a focus of significant scholarship. This volume examines the global phenomenon of migration in its theological,...

This book challenges the modern myth that tolerance grows as societies become less religious. The myth inseparably links the progress of toleration to the secularization of modern society. This volume scrutinizes this grand narrative theoretically and...

In this book, Paul Crittenden offers a critical guide to the problematic origins of biblical teaching about the afterlife and the way in which it was subsequently developed by Church authorities and theologians-Origen, Augustine, and Thomas Aquinas in...

This book offers a psychohistorical analysis of the rapid growth of the Korean Protestant Church. KwangYu Lee looks at some of the traumatic historical events of Korea in the 20th century, including the fall of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910), the...

This volume, dedicated to the memory of Gerard Mannion (1970-2019), former Joseph and Winifred Amaturo Chair in Catholic Studies at Georgetown University, explores the topic of changing the church from a range of different theological perspectives...

This book provides original and controversial contributions into specific areas of Johannine studies, along with defenses of various traditional theological interpretations of John that are commonly overlooked in New Testament scholarship. Kirk R...

This volume deals with the relation between faith and reason, and brings the latest developments of modern logic into the scene. Faith and rationality are two perennial key concepts in the history of ideas. Philosophers and theologians have struggled to...

Interrogating Modernity returns to Hans Blumenberg's epochal The Legitimacy of the Modern Age as a springboard to interrogate questions of modernity, secularisation, technology and political legitimacy in the fields of political theology,...

This edited collection brings together varying angles and approaches to tackle the multi-dimensional issue of anti-Catholicism since the Protestant Reformation in Britain and Ireland. It is of course difficult to infer from such geographically...

There is a growing realization that religion plays a major role in development, particularly in the Global South. Whereas theories of secularization assumed that religion would disappear, the reality is that religion has demonstrated its tenacity. In the...

This volume offers innovative approaches to the study of religion. It brings together junior and senior scholars from the Global North and South. The contributors also explore the context-specific formations of religion and religious knowledge production...

This volume explores how Catholicism began and continues to open its doors to the wider world and to other confessions in embracing ecumenism, thanks to the vision and legacy of the Second Vatican Council. It explores such themes as the twentieth century...

This book assesses how Vatican II opened up the Catholic Church to encounter, dialogue, and engagement with other world religions. Opening with a contribution from the President of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, Cardinal Jean-Louis...

This book examines the effects of Jewish conversions to Christianity in late medieval Spanish society. Ingram focuses on these converts and their descendants (known as conversos) not as Judaizers, but as Christian humanists, mystics and evangelists, who...

This book explores the place of the body and embodied practices in the production and experience of grace in order to generate transformative futures. The authors offer a range of phenomenologies in order to move the philosophical anchoring of...

This book addresses the discourses, agendas and actions of Muslim faith-based organizations and activists to empower Muslim communities in contemporary sub-Saharan Africa. The individual chapters discuss how traditional Muslim welfare and charity...

Situated within the wider post-secular turn in politics and international relations, this volume focuses not on religion per se, but rather explicitly on theology. Contributions to this collection highlight the political theological foundations of...

This volume brings together diverse Asian religious perspectives to address critical issues in the encounter between tradition and modern western evolutionary thought. Such thought encompasses the biological theories of Charles Darwin, Jean-Baptiste...

This book examines the relation between religion and jurisprudence, God, and peace respectively. It argues that in order to elucidate the possible role religion can play in the contemporary world, it is useful to analyse religion by associating it with...

This book addresses the challenge of providing for the free exercise of religion without allowing religious exercise by some individuals and groups to impinge upon the conscientious convictions of others. State neutrality toward religion is impossible,...

This book uses Pseudo-Dionysius and his mystic theology to explore attitudes and beliefs about images in the early medieval West and Byzantium. Composed in the early sixth century, the Corpus Dionysiacum, the collection of texts transmitted under the...

Orthodox Churches, like most religious bodies, are inherently political: they seek to defend their core values and must engage in politics to do so, whether by promoting certain legislation or seeking to block other legislation. This volume examines the...

This volume contains essays that examine the work and legacy of the Cambridge Platonists. The essays reappraise the ideas of this key group of English thinkers who served as a key link between the Renaissance and the modern era. The contributors examine...

This book examines the nearly 400-year tradition of Quaker engagements with mystical ideas and sources. It provides a fresh assessment of the way tradition and social context can shape a religious community while interplaying with historical and...

For a long time, the philosophically difficult topic of religious experience has been on the sidelines of phenomenological research (with a notable exception of Anthony Steinbock, who focused on mysticism). The book The Problem of Religious Experience:...

This volume engages in conversation with the thinking and work of Max Charlesworth as well as the many questions, tasks and challenges in academic and public life that he posed. It addresses philosophical, religious and cultural issues, ranging from...

Has your sense of security been shattered amidst the chaos of our current times? Winning the Battle for Your Soul will help you find solid ground and clarity of purpose.Internationally renowned author, María Vallejo-Nájera, writes in her...

From Ibn Sina and Al-Ghazali to Maimonides and St. Thomas Aquinas, the Golden Age of Islam produced and influenced some of the greatest philosophers in history. Despite their profound intellectual achievements, however, the contributions of Muslim...

Detta är en reviderad och utökad version av den ursprungliga utgåvan av Världens Religioner som publicerades 1966. Douglas Harding reviderade den på 1980-talet. Med sin insikt om kärnan, själva hjärtat i de stora världsreligionerna delar Harding här med...

Written around 400 B.C. by Kautilya, the 'Indian Machiavelli', THE ARTHASHASTRA was thought lost for more than a thousand years. It was rediscovered in 1905, when scholar Rudrapatnam Shamashastry was asked to catalogue an unpromising pile of...

Have you ever wanted accessible introductions to the key figures and periods of Christian history?Faith in the Byzantine World For many people the Byzantine world is an intriguing mystery. Here, Mary Cunningham presents readers with an ideal guide...