The Presence of Light

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Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226424928
Total Pages : 340 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (264 download)

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Book Synopsis The Presence of Light by : Matthew Kapstein

Download or read book The Presence of Light written by Matthew Kapstein and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2004-11-03 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There is perhaps no greater constant in religious intuition and experience than the presence of light. In spiritual traditions East and West, light is not only ubiquitous but something that assumes strikingly similar forms in altogether different historical and cultural settings. This study examines light as an aspect of religiously valued experiences and its entailments for mystical theology, philosophy, politics, and religious art. The essays in this volume make an important contribution to religious studies by proposing that it is misleading to conceive of religious experience in terms of an irreconcilable dichotomy between universality and cultural construction. An esteemed group of contributors, representing the study of Asian and Western religious traditions from a range of disciplinary perspectives, suggests that attention to various forms of divine radiance shows that there is indeed a range of principles that, if not universal, are nevertheless very widely occurring and amenable to fruitful comparative inquiry. What results is a work of enormous scope, demonstrating compelling cross-connections that will be of value to scholars of comparative religions, mysticism, and the relationship between art and the sacred. Contributors: * Catherine B. Asher * Raoul Birnbaum * Sarah Iles Johnston * Matthew T. Kapstein * Andrew Louth * Paul E. Muller-Ortega * Elliot R. Wolfson * Mimi Hall Yiengpruksawan * Hossein Ziai

Contemporary Varieties of Religious Experience

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Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 9780742544321
Total Pages : 244 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (443 download)

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Book Synopsis Contemporary Varieties of Religious Experience by : Lynn Bridgers

Download or read book Contemporary Varieties of Religious Experience written by Lynn Bridgers and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2005 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 1902, William James's Varieties of Religious Experience is considered a classic in religious studies and the psychology of religion. But how has James's classic study weathered decades of development in psychology and behavioral sciences? Do the assertions about religious experience in the Varieties still ring true in light of neuro-cognitive and neuro-hormonal research, resiliency studies, studies of temperament, and traumatic studies? By extending William James's own research throughout the century since its publication this volume seeks to answer those questions. In doing so, it revolutionizes our understanding of James's own view of psychology and reveals the extraordinary value of James's perspective for religion, psychology, and spirituality today. In doing so, it offers vital insights for pastoral care and faith development at both the individual and congregational level. From the Introduction by James Fowler: Drawing on the authenticity of her own experience, Bridgers carries us into a remarkably clear and well documented account that traces William James's evolution as a psychologist, philosopher, and a deeply engaged inquirer into the dynamics of spiritual development and transformation... This book has a major contribution to make. Bridgers's study illumines the horizons of contemporary research in the study of religious experience, in all its varieties, and in the context of globalization.

How God Becomes Real

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Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691211981
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (912 download)

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Book Synopsis How God Becomes Real by : T.M. Luhrmann

Download or read book How God Becomes Real written by T.M. Luhrmann and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-10-27 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The hard work required to make God real, how it changes the people who do it, and why it helps explain the enduring power of faith How do gods and spirits come to feel vividly real to people—as if they were standing right next to them? Humans tend to see supernatural agents everywhere, as the cognitive science of religion has shown. But it isn’t easy to maintain a sense that there are invisible spirits who care about you. In How God Becomes Real, acclaimed anthropologist and scholar of religion T. M. Luhrmann argues that people must work incredibly hard to make gods real and that this effort—by changing the people who do it and giving them the benefits they seek from invisible others—helps to explain the enduring power of faith. Drawing on ethnographic studies of evangelical Christians, pagans, magicians, Zoroastrians, Black Catholics, Santeria initiates, and newly orthodox Jews, Luhrmann notes that none of these people behave as if gods and spirits are simply there. Rather, these worshippers make strenuous efforts to create a world in which invisible others matter and can become intensely present and real. The faithful accomplish this through detailed stories, absorption, the cultivation of inner senses, belief in a porous mind, strong sensory experiences, prayer, and other practices. Along the way, Luhrmann shows why faith is harder than belief, why prayer is a metacognitive activity like therapy, why becoming religious is like getting engrossed in a book, and much more. A fascinating account of why religious practices are more powerful than religious beliefs, How God Becomes Real suggests that faith is resilient not because it provides intuitions about gods and spirits—but because it changes the faithful in profound ways.

Religious Experience and the Knowledge of God

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Author :
Publisher : Baker Academic
ISBN 13 : 1493434896
Total Pages : 421 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (934 download)

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Book Synopsis Religious Experience and the Knowledge of God by : Harold A. Netland

Download or read book Religious Experience and the Knowledge of God written by Harold A. Netland and published by Baker Academic. This book was released on 2022-02-08 with total page 421 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For many Christians, personal experiences of God provide an important ground or justification for accepting the truth of the gospel. But we are sometimes mistaken about our experiences, and followers of other religions also provide impressive testimonies to support their religious beliefs. This book explores from a philosophical and theological perspective the viability of divine encounters as support for belief in God, arguing that some religious experiences can be accepted as genuine experiences of God and can provide evidence for Christian beliefs.

Christianity in the Light of Science

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Publisher : Prometheus Books
ISBN 13 : 1633881741
Total Pages : 321 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (338 download)

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Book Synopsis Christianity in the Light of Science by : John W. Loftus

Download or read book Christianity in the Light of Science written by John W. Loftus and published by Prometheus Books. This book was released on 2016-07-26 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This anthology of new critical essays written by experts in their fields, in honor of the late Victor Stenger, examines Christianity using established scientific criteria. Where science specifically touches upon the claims of Christianity the authors seek to show those claims lack the required evidence. The result is that Christianity is not a sufficiently evidenced religion. In his New York Times bestseller, God: The Failed Hypothesis, physicist Victor Stenger argued that claims of religion should be subject to the same standards of scientific rigor as any other truth claim. Taking this approach, the contributors argue that Christianity fails every known scientific test for truth. Stenger himself wrote a chapter for this volume before he died. In it he presents a brief history of ideas about cosmology, showing that Christianity’s premodern understanding of the cosmos is incompatible with current scientific evidence regarding the origin and structure of the cosmos. Other contributors examine a wide variety of topics, including biblical archaeology, Intelligent Design, the Shroud of Turin, free will, the existence of the soul, the efficacy of petitionary prayer, and more. This challenging work is indispensable reading for both skeptical readers and open-minded people of faith.

Christianity in the Light of Religious Experience

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 40 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (1 download)

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Book Synopsis Christianity in the Light of Religious Experience by : Joseph Estlin Carpenter

Download or read book Christianity in the Light of Religious Experience written by Joseph Estlin Carpenter and published by . This book was released on 1906 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

The Medium and the Light

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Publisher : Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN 13 : 1606089927
Total Pages : 249 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (6 download)

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Book Synopsis The Medium and the Light by : Michael McLuhan

Download or read book The Medium and the Light written by Michael McLuhan and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2010-03-01 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Say the name Marshall McLuhan and you think of the great discover's explorations of the media. But throughout his life, McLuhan never stopped reflecting profoundly on the nature of God and worship, and on the traditions of the Church. Often other intellectuals and artists would ask him incredulously, Are you really a Catholic? He would answer, Yes, I am a Catholic, the worst kind -- a convert, leaving them more baffled than before. Here, like a golden thread lining his public utterances on the media, are McLuhan's brilliant probes into the nature of conversion, the church's understanding of media, the shape of tomorrow's church, religion and youth, and the God-making machines of the modern world. This fascinating collection, gathered from his many and scattered remarks, essays, and other writings, shows the deeply Christian side of a man widely considered the most important thinker of our time, a man whose insights into media and culture have revolutionized the field of media study and the way we see the world.

William James and Phenomenology

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 136 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis William James and Phenomenology by : James M. Edie

Download or read book William James and Phenomenology written by James M. Edie and published by . This book was released on 1987 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

The Soul of a Christian

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 324 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (321 download)

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Book Synopsis The Soul of a Christian by : Frank Stephen Granger

Download or read book The Soul of a Christian written by Frank Stephen Granger and published by . This book was released on 1900 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

The Varieties of Religious Experience

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Publisher : The Floating Press
ISBN 13 : 1877527467
Total Pages : 824 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (775 download)

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Book Synopsis The Varieties of Religious Experience by : William James

Download or read book The Varieties of Religious Experience written by William James and published by The Floating Press. This book was released on 2009-01-01 with total page 824 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Harvard psychologist and philosopher William James' The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature explores the nature of religion and, in James' observation, its divorce from science when studied academically. After publication in 1902 it quickly became a canonical text of philosophy and psychology, remaining in print through the entire century. "Scientific theories are organically conditioned just as much as religious emotions are; and if we only knew the facts intimately enough, we should doubtless see 'the liver' determining the dicta of the sturdy atheist as decisively as it does those of the Methodist under conviction anxious about his soul. When it alters in one way the blood that percolates it, we get the Methodist, when in another way, we get the atheist form of mind."

A Sense of the Heart

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Publisher : Abingdon Press
ISBN 13 : 1426756755
Total Pages : 367 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (267 download)

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Book Synopsis A Sense of the Heart by : Bill J. Leonard

Download or read book A Sense of the Heart written by Bill J. Leonard and published by Abingdon Press. This book was released on 2014-11-18 with total page 367 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For many people, knowing about God is not enough; they also want to feel God’s presence. Whether like St. Paul’s experience on the road to Damascus or like Wesley’s “strangely warmed heart,” people believe that nothing can substitute for religious experience. Even today, people go to church in order to encounter the Divine, by which they mean experience God in their midst. This desire to meet or be met by God is as old as humanity, but America especially has been the seed bed for what William James famously called “varieties of religious experience.” These experiences cover a wide spectrum from classic mysticism to revivalist conversion to a contemporary pursuit of spirituality. A Sense of the Heart traces the nature of religious experience from the colonial era to the present, attempting to define and describe the nature of religious experience and noting common and distinct approaches in the work of various scholars and practitioners. Following that, A Sense of the Heart offers a historical review of representative types of religious experience, the nature of such experiences and their impact on the American religious and cultural context as evident in awakenings, controversies, denominations, and new religious communities.

Thoughts on Religious Experience

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Publisher : H&e Publishing
ISBN 13 : 9781774840542
Total Pages : 298 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (45 download)

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Book Synopsis Thoughts on Religious Experience by : Archibald Alexander

Download or read book Thoughts on Religious Experience written by Archibald Alexander and published by H&e Publishing. This book was released on 2022-06-21 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A lively Christian faith is the result of a heart and mind saturated in Scripture. Through God's gracious revelation of himself to his people, the church learns more of God's mercy, grace, and justice. The Christian has no reason for a cold, lifeless faith. However, religious experiences need not be equated with ecstatic frenzy. Reformed Christians are often charged with holding doctrine that results in a languorous life. Charismatics, on the other hand, are said to possess little doctrine yet have an authentic and experiential faith. Is the Christian faith a choice between truth and experience? Archibald Alexander brings the reasoned mind of a gifted pastor-scholar to the issue of Christian experience. He addresses some of the more complex components of the Christian life, such as the experiences of young children in the faith. Is the faith of a child to be judged on different grounds than the faith of an adult? This perennial question turns Alexander's mind to the general evidence of regeneration in all believers. Alexander naturally turns to spiritual warfare and backsliding, the peaks and valleys that every Christian will inevitably face. And with a pastoral pen, he finally addresses the experience of the death of a Christian and the proper understanding of death as release from the enemy.

Religion and the Christian Faith

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Publisher : James Clarke & Co.
ISBN 13 : 9780227170496
Total Pages : 464 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (74 download)

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Book Synopsis Religion and the Christian Faith by : Hendrik Kraemer

Download or read book Religion and the Christian Faith written by Hendrik Kraemer and published by James Clarke & Co.. This book was released on 2003-06 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A rich and profound contribution to the debate on the position of modern Christianity opened up Kraemer's The Christian Message in a Non-Christian World. In Religion and the Christian Faith he deals with many of the criticisms of his position, and offers an apologia, at once luminous and massive, of the Christian religion as the revelation of God to Man and the faith for all mankind. There is a decisive Christian finality about Kraemer's writing, and his book is a significant contribution to the sharp discipline of faith and action under which the universal Christian community lives. All the way through his formidably marshalled arguments run the undertones of Christian involvement in a real, world ' a world which, by his astonishing grasp of philosophy, Biblical theology and the claims of religion and religions, the Author brings alive to the reader. The reading of this formative book, with its strenuous demands on the reader's intelligence and Christian understanding, is a rewarding experience. Its significance for the Christian Church throughout the world is obvious, but it is also a monumental witness to the Christian religion for all those who ask not only for a faith 'once delivered' but a faith to believe in their own day and generation.

The Neuroscience of Religious Experience

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Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1139483560
Total Pages : 319 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (394 download)

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Book Synopsis The Neuroscience of Religious Experience by : Patrick McNamara

Download or read book The Neuroscience of Religious Experience written by Patrick McNamara and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2009-11-06 with total page 319 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Technical advances in the life and medical sciences have revolutionised our understanding of the brain, while the emerging disciplines of social, cognitive, and affective neuroscience continue to reveal the connections of the higher cognitive functions and emotional states associated with religious experience to underlying brain states. At the same time, a host of developing theories in psychology and anthropology posit evolutionary explanations for the ubiquity and persistence of religious beliefs and the reports of religious experiences across human cultures, while gesturing toward physical bases for these behaviours. What is missing from this literature is a strong voice speaking to these behavioural and social scientists - as well as to the intellectually curious in the religious studies community - from the perspective of a brain scientist.

Christianity After Religion

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Publisher : Harper Collins
ISBN 13 : 0062098284
Total Pages : 285 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (62 download)

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Book Synopsis Christianity After Religion by : Diana Butler Bass

Download or read book Christianity After Religion written by Diana Butler Bass and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2012-03-13 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Diana Butler Bass, one of contemporary Christianity’s leading trend-spotters, exposes how the failings of the church today are giving rise to a new “spiritual but not religious” movement. Using evidence from the latest national polls and from her own cutting-edge research, Bass, the visionary author of A People’s History of Christianity, continues the conversation began in books like Brian D. McLaren’s A New Kind of Christianity and Harvey Cox’s The Future of Faith, examining the connections—and the divisions—between theology, practice, and community that Christians experience today. Bass’s clearly worded, powerful, and probing Christianity After Religion is required reading for anyone invested in the future of Christianity.

Jesus > Religion

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Publisher : HarperChristian + ORM
ISBN 13 : 1400205409
Total Pages : 241 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (2 download)

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Book Synopsis Jesus > Religion by : Jefferson Bethke

Download or read book Jesus > Religion written by Jefferson Bethke and published by HarperChristian + ORM. This book was released on 2013-10-14 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abandon dead, dry, religious rule-keeping and embrace the promise of being truly known and deeply loved. Jefferson Bethke burst into the cultural conversation with a passionate, provocative poem titled "Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus." The 4-minute video became an overnight sensation, with 7 million YouTube views in its first 48 hours (and 23+ million in a year). Bethke's message clearly struck a chord with believers and nonbelievers alike, triggering an avalanche of responses running the gamut from encouraged to enraged. In his New York Times bestseller Jesus > Religion, Bethke unpacks similar contrasts that he drew in the poem--highlighting the difference between teeth gritting and grace, law and love, performance and peace, despair, and hope. With refreshing candor, he delves into the motivation behind his message, beginning with the unvarnished tale of his own plunge from the pinnacle of a works-based, fake-smile existence that sapped his strength and led him down a path of destructive behavior. Along the way, Bethke gives you the tools you need to: Humbly and prayerfully open your mind Understand Jesus for all that he is View the church from a brand-new perspective Bethke is quick to acknowledge that he's not a pastor or theologian, but simply an ordinary, twenty-something who cried out for a life greater than the one for which he had settled. On this journey, Bethke discovered the real Jesus, who beckoned him with love beyond the props of false religion. Praise for Jesus > Religion: "Jeff's book will make you stop and listen to a voice in your heart that may have been drowned out by the noise of religion. Listen to that voice, then follow it--right to the feet of Jesus." --Bob Goff, author of New York Times bestsellers Love Does and Everybody, Always "The book you hold in your hands is Donald Miller's Blue Like Jazz meets C. S. Lewis's Mere Christianity meets Augustine's Confessions. This book is going to awaken an entire generation to Jesus and His grace." --Derwin L. Gray, lead pastor of Transformation Church, author of Limitless Life: Breaking Free from the Labels That Hold You Back

Light Beyond All Shadow

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781611470109
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (71 download)

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Book Synopsis Light Beyond All Shadow by : Paul E. Kerry

Download or read book Light Beyond All Shadow written by Paul E. Kerry and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Organized religion is notably absent from J.R.R. Tolkien's Secondary Universe, despite the author's own deep Catholic faith. Essays in Light Beyond All Shadow explore this anomaly across the full sweep of Tolkien's legendarium, plus Peter Jackson's film trilogy. Contributors examine the sources and style of Tolkien's Catholic imagination, from Biblical typology to personal relationships. Although his imagery has both Christian and pagan resonances, Tolkien's "comedy of grace" is neither occult nor Manichaean. Creation reveals the Creator, Light stands for sub-creative power diffusing from the Deity. Water, music, poetry, and the life-giving Feminine are signposts of transcendence. As in its earlier companion volume, The Ring and the Cross, Light Beyond All Shadow illuminates Tolkien beautifully. -- Back cover.