Sacro-Egoism: The Rise of Religious Individualism in the West discusses the relationship between secularization, participation in religious practices and belief, and the emergence of radical individualized expressions of faith in the West. Using McMinnville, Oregon, as a case study, it presents the data collected and analyzed from several churches, denominations, and spiritual settings in that unassuming town, and compares it to the results of Heelas and Woodhead's "Spiritual Revolution" project, arriving at a provocative conclusion. Rather than abandoning Christianity for alternative spirituality practices, McMinnville citizens still feel strongly about their Christian faith, taking their spiritual walk to a more personal level than ever before in church history. Utilizing both quantitative and qualitative research, along with personal stories of faith and exploration from McMinnville residents themselves, Sacro-Egoism: The Rise of Religious Individualism in the West tells a story of radical individualists who have become the highest religious authority in their lives--even over the church, the Bible, and traditional Christian society.
Is the modern Christian church losing the battle against postmodern society and the current hate culture? Deconverted reflects research gathered from interviews with once self-professed Christians who have now walked away from the church and their previously deeply-held religious beliefs. With so much at risk in the lives of postmodern seekers, who is being misled and what apologetical truths can the church learn from this phenomenon?
This book explores the inter-relationship between religious groups and wider society and examines the way religious groups change in relation to societal norms, potentially to the point of undergoing processes of ‘internal secularisation’ within secular and secularist cultures. Received sociological wisdom suggests that over time religious groups moderate their claims. This comes with the potential loss of new adherents, for theorists of secularisation suggest unique or universal, rather than moderate, truth claims appear attractive to would-be recruits. At the same time, religious groups need to appear equivalent, in terms of harmlessness, to state-sanctioned religious expression in order to secure rights. Thus, religious organisations face a perpetual conundrum. Using British Quakers as a case study as they moved from a counter-cultural group to an accepted and accepting part of twentieth- and twenty-first-century society, the author builds on models of religion and non-religion in terms of flows and explores the consequences of religious assimilation when the process of constructing both distinctive appeal and ‘harmlessness’ in pursuit of rights is played out in a secular culture. A major contribution to the sociology of religion, The Cultivation of Conformity presents a new theory of internal secularisation as the ultimate stage of the cultivation of conformity, and a model of the way sects and society inter-relate.
Modern Christian apologists and evangelists employ a variety of tools designed to aid communities in their understanding of God and salvation via Christ's atonement. One of the ways that defenders of the faith add to their field is in discerning the real significance of the treasures found in Christ. This work begins by dissecting the true meaning of freedom in Christ from a Judeo-Christian viewpoint. Building on that foundation, it then evaluates the sociological phenomenon of postmodernism in many of its characteristics and approaches--both positive and negative. The goal is to find pathways through which the apologist can respond to postmoderns in pointing them to Christ. Finally, the work closes by discussing how a newfound understanding of freedom in Christ adds to the three main branches of apologetics: classical, reformed, and presuppositionalism.
With exacting scholarship and fecund analysis, Manuel Oliveira probes through the lens of Martin Buber (1878-1965) the theological and political ambiguities of Israel’s divine election. These ambiguities became especially pronounced with the emergence of Zionism. Wary, indeed, alarmed by the tendency of some of his fellow Zionists to conflate divine chosenness with nationalism, Buber sought to secure the theological significance of election by both steering Zionism from hypertrophic nationalism and by a sustained program to revalorize what he called alternately “Hebrew Humanism.” As Oliveira demonstrates, Buber viewed the idea of election teleologically, espousing a universal mission of Israel, which effectively calls upon Zionism to align its political and cultural project to universal objectives. Thus, in addressing a Zionist congress, he rhetorically asked, “What then is this spirit of Israel of which you are speaking? It is the spirit of fulfillment. Fulfillment of what? Fulfillment of the simple truth that man has been created for a purpose (...) Our purpose is the upbuilding of peace (...) And that is its spirit, the spirit of Israel (...) the people of Israel was charged to lead the way to righteousness and justice.”
In the second decade of the twenty-first century, Quakers are increasingly divided over matters of theology, religious belonging, and the status of Friends’ Christian past. Recent controversies over Theism, Non-Theism and Universalism have highlighted deep-rooted transformations of Quaker self-understanding. In contrast to earlier decades, many contemporary Quakers hanker after an intensely inclusive community, unhampered by the particulars of Christian theology. Many British Friends no-longer see the Quaker movement as an expression of the Gospel nor a manifestation of the Universal Church. What might Friends be missing by re-imagining Quakerism in these resolutely post-Christian terms? Author Benjamin Wood argues that, far from limiting the bounds of Quaker identity, a selective return to Quakerism’s seventeenth-century roots can restore to modern Liberal Friends a shared story capable of deepening their spiritual life and worship-practice. Based neither on doctrinal agreement nor inflexible religious borders, the Quaker narrative recovered in The Living Fountain: Remembrances of Quaker Christianity is drawn together by sacred experiments in mutual love and enduring hope. Through a series of extended reflections on God, Jesus, and the language of salvation, Wood seeks to uncover a dynamic faith ncommitted to universal healing, reconciliation, and the crossing of religious and cultural boundaries. At the centre of this retrieval is the insistence that the God revealed in Quaker worship cherishes our differences and delights in our diversity.
From the Founding Fathers through the present, Christianity has exercised powerful influence in the United States—from its role in shaping politics and social institutions to its hand in inspiring art and culture. The Encyclopedia of Christianity in the United States outlines the myriad roles Christianity has played and continues to play. This masterful five-volume reference work includes biographies of major figures in the Christian church in the United States, influential religious documents and Supreme Court decisions, and information on theology and theologians, denominations, faith-based organizations, immigration, art—from decorative arts and film to music and literature—evangelism and crusades, the significant role of women, racial issues, civil religion, and more. The first volume opens with introductory essays that provide snapshots of Christianity in the U.S. from pre-colonial times to the present, as well as a statistical profile and a timeline of key dates and events. Entries are organized from A to Z. The final volume closes with essays exploring impressions of Christianity in the United States from other faiths and other parts of the world, as well as a select yet comprehensive bibliography. Appendices help readers locate entries by thematic section and author, and a comprehensive index further aids navigation.
Edward Conze’s The Psychology of Mass Propaganda presents a commentary on the psychology of propaganda during the rise of fascism in Europe in the 1930s. It discusses the conditions which generate vulnerability to misinformation in human societies, and thus offers insight into how propaganda may be "withstood." Completed in 1939, during the period of Conze’s own inflection from Marxist philosophy to Buddhist studies, the original manuscript was never published and is now in print for the first time. Presenting a unique historical perspective, while also appealing to an acutely topical interest in the conditions under which autocracy and fascism arise, the book examines the psychology of mass propaganda through copious contemporary and historical examples. Conze focuses especially on recent news articles and the statements of the propagandists of many of the governments that would go on to participate in the Second World War, including Germany, Italy, the USSR, USA and UK, all of which he interprets through the lens of recent psychological and historical research. The book has been edited and includes a new introduction by Richard N. Levine and Nathan H. Levine, also featuring a foreword by American legal scholar Laurence H. Tribe, and an afterword by actor, director, writer, and Buddhist priest Peter Coyote. This is a fascinating opportunity for scholars across several disciplines, including political scientists and psychologists, historians and sociologists, to access one of Conze’s previously unpublished works. It will also be of importance to those interested in Conze’s work on Buddhist philosophy, and in the psychology of propaganda more broadly.
Stefan Zweig was a leading talisman of a united Europe of unfettered movement, of pro-active cultural exchange, humane decency and tolerance, all polar opposites of the Nationalist regimes he loathed, and which came to power in the 1930s. In these poignant essays and addresses, forged in the last years or even months of his life, he shows his profound concern for and dedication to the survival of Europe's spiritual integrity. These essays form the natural accompaniment to Zweig's renowned memoir The World of Yesterday, registering the same themes and evoking the same nostalgia for a world brutally consigned to history. They can be seen as a vital addendum to that major work or as a prefiguration. But perhaps even more so than the prose of the memoir, these essays, few in number but rich in content, reveal the essence of Zweig's thought.
Ralph attended public high school in Ogden, Utah, where he was born. His higher education began at Weber State University and continued at the University of Utah where, following 3 years studying in the Netherlands, he completed B.A. and Masters Degrees. He earned a doctorate in Germanic and Hispanic studies at the State University of New York in Albany and also studied at universities in California, Switzerland and Spain. He has continued to travel extensively throughout the world, including several stays in foreign countries with the Experiment in International Living as leader of student home placement groups.He studied with Dr. Brewster Ghiselin, at the University of Utah who encouraged Ralph to write and stressed " render, render, render" in order to achieve a "vital fullness". Be sparing yet incisive with language and recounting. An author should convey the greatest meaning through wise choice of words while avoiding verbosity. In reading many postwar German works such as novels by the "Gruppe "47, who formed a group that was always a very loose group, he quickly perceived that the same philosophy prevailed as it did with Hemingway. Words were to be treated with the greatest respect and used sparingly and precisely. Ralph's working life has been devoted to education and supervision in colleges and high schools. For the last 12 years he has been engaged in the evaluation of schools throughout the world. He is fluent in Dutch, German and Spanish, passable in French, dabbles in Italian and Bahasa Indonesian, and is able to utter a few words in other languages. He serves on the Arts and Humanities Committee, as an advisor to the Dean of Humanities at Weber State University and writes articles and reviews as a "guest columnist" from time to time for local newspapers. Ralph and his wife, Judith Howell Vander Heide, last year published with Xlibris,Chris and Louisa,a novel which spans 125 years of Mormonism, polygamy and changes in the church from its founding by Joseph Smith in New York State to the 1960´s. The German Leaves grew out of Ralph´s work for his Ph.D. and focus on German Exilliteratur Exile Literature. Although much work has been done on the subject, both in Germany and the USA, the exile writings are still not widely known, yet the literary production of the exiles comprise some of the most excellent pieces in the history of German literature. Indeed, America has greatly profited by the so-call "brain drain" of men and women writers from Germany and Austria. The German Leaves is a work of devotion to the cause of world peace and the great importance of teaching/enjoying the humanities, in encouraging children to be all they can be, to strive and achieve, but always while considering the rights and respecting the way of life of all humans who share our planet. Persons who have read the manuscript have expressed only words of praise. They agree that they have learned a great deal about a subject they had known nothing or very little about.
