Akhenaten and the Religion of Light
Akhenaten and the Religion of Light

Author: Erik Hornung

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 164

ISBN-13: 9780801487255

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Akhenaten, also known as Amenhotep IV, was king of Egypt during the Eighteenth Dynasty and reigned from 1375 to 1358 B.C. E. Called the "religious revolutionary," he is the earliest known creator of a new religion. The cult he founded broke with Egypt's traditional polytheism and focused its worship on a single deity, the sun god Aten. Erik Hornung, one of the world's preeminent Egyptologists, here offers a concise and accessible account of Akhenaten and his religion of light.Hornung begins with a discussion of the nineteenth-century scholars who laid the foundation for our knowledge of Akhenaten's period and extends to the most recent archaeological finds. He emphasizes that Akhenaten's monotheistic theology represented the first attempt in history to explain the entire natural and human world on the basis of a single principle. "Akhenaten made light the absolute reference point," Hornung writes, "and it is astonishing how clearly and consistently he pursued this concept." Hornung also addresses such topics as the origins of the new religion; pro-found changes in beliefs regarding the afterlife; and the new Egyptian capital at Akhetaten which was devoted to the service of Aten, his prophet Akhenaten, and the latter's family.

The Medium and the Light
The Medium and the Light

Author: Michael McLuhan

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2010-03-01

Total Pages: 249

ISBN-13: 1606089927

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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.

Darkness Falls on the Land of Light
Darkness Falls on the Land of Light

Author: Douglas L. Winiarski

Publisher: UNC Press Books

Published: 2017-02-09

Total Pages: 632

ISBN-13: 1469628279

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This sweeping history of popular religion in eighteenth-century New England examines the experiences of ordinary people living through extraordinary times. Drawing on an unprecedented quantity of letters, diaries, and testimonies, Douglas Winiarski recovers the pervasive and vigorous lay piety of the early eighteenth century. George Whitefield's preaching tour of 1740 called into question the fundamental assumptions of this thriving religious culture. Incited by Whitefield and fascinated by miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit--visions, bodily fits, and sudden conversions--countless New Englanders broke ranks with family, neighbors, and ministers who dismissed their religious experiences as delusive enthusiasm. These new converts, the progenitors of today's evangelical movement, bitterly assaulted the Congregational establishment. The 1740s and 1750s were the dark night of the New England soul, as men and women groped toward a restructured religious order. Conflict transformed inclusive parishes into exclusive networks of combative spiritual seekers. Then as now, evangelicalism emboldened ordinary people to question traditional authorities. Their challenge shattered whole communities.

The Light of Christ
The Light of Christ

Author: Thomas Joseph White

Publisher: CUA Press

Published: 2017-09-15

Total Pages: 329

ISBN-13: 0813229715

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The Light of Christ provides an accessible presentation of Catholicism that is grounded in traditional theology, but engaged with a host of contemporary questions or objections. Inspired by the theologies of Iranaeus, Thomas Aquinas and John Henry Newman, and rooted in a post-Vatican II context, Fr. Thomas Joseph White presents major doctrines of the Christian religion in a way that is comprehensible for non-specialists: knowledge of God, the mystery of the Trinity, the Incarnation and the atonement, the sacraments and the moral life, eschatology and prayer. At the same time, The Light of Christ also addresses topics such as evolution, the modern historical study of Jesus and the Bible, and objections to Catholic moral teaching. Touching on the concerns of contemporary readers, Fr. White examines questions such as whether Christianity is compatible with the findings of the modern sciences, do historical Jesus studies disrupt or confirm the teaching of the faith, and does history confirm the antiquity of Catholic claims. This book serves as an excellent introduction for young professionals with no specialized background in theology who are interested in learning more about Catholicism, or as an introduction to Catholic theology. It will also serve as a helpful text for theology courses in a university context. As Fr. White states in the book’s introduction: “This is a book that offers itself as a companion. I do not presume to argue the reader into the truths of the Catholic faith, though I will make arguments. My goal is to make explicit in a few broad strokes the shape of Catholicism. I hope to outline its inherent intelligibility or form as a mystery that is at once visible and invisible, ancient and contemporary, mystical and reasonable.”

Light and Darkness in Ancient Greek Myth and Religion
Light and Darkness in Ancient Greek Myth and Religion

Author: Menelaos Christopoulos

Publisher: Lexington Books

Published: 2010-09-25

Total Pages: 326

ISBN-13: 0739139010

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Light and Darkness in Ancient Greek Myth and Religion is a ground-breaking volume dedicated to a thorough examination of the well known empirical categories of light and darkness as it relates to modes of thought, beliefs and social behavior in Greek culture. With a systematic and multi-disciplinary approach, the book elucidates the light/darkness dichotomy in color semantics, appearance and concealment of divinities and creatures of darkness, the eye sight and the insight vision, and the role of the mystic or cultic.

The Presence of Light
The Presence of Light

Author: Matthew Kapstein

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2004-11-03

Total Pages: 340

ISBN-13: 0226424928

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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

Towards the Light
Towards the Light

Author: John Compere

Publisher: Writers Cramp Publishing

Published: 2010-11

Total Pages: 242

ISBN-13: 0977723577

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Towards the Light describes the agonizing journey of a devout fifth-generation Southern Baptist clergyman from unassailable belief to utter and complete atheism. The book lays out in detail why he outgrew the religion of his ancestors and moved towards the light of reason. After leaving the ministry, Dr. Compere went back to graduate school where he received a PhD in Clinical Psychology. Thus, his book includes psychological explanations for many religious phenomena including being born again, believing in the efficacy of prayer, and why religion continues to be so ubiquitous in an otherwise modern society. Dr. Compere is convinced that many people of faith have entertained serious doubts about the religion they inherited and should be supported in their search for how to live a good life without a belief in the supernatural. He examines many of the essential tenets of the Christian faith including an explanation of their origin while providing cogent reasons for no longer accepting the myths upon which they rest. "Growing up a minister's son, the church was not just a part of my life -- it WAS my life. Everything in my world revolved around the church and its teachings. From my earliest memories, Christian dogma was relentlessly drilled into me until I believed that my only purpose on earth was to glorify God. Anything short of that was failure. I got the message. I gave my first sermon at age fifteen and became an ordained minister in the Southern Baptist Church at eighteen. Although serious theological doubts began in college, I set them aside and managed to continue in the ministry until I had completed a seminary degree and served two pastorates. After a decade of denial, I finally admitted to myself that I was becoming publicly phony and privately cynical. I couldn't live with that so at age 32, I left the ministry which had been my whole life, and struck out in a new direction, one which would allow me to live with integrity. This is the story of my journey Towards the Light and of the inescapable, but heretical, conclusions about religion which occurred along the way."

My Religion
My Religion

Author: Helen Keller

Publisher: Garden City, N.Y. : Doubleday, Page

Published: 1927

Total Pages: 230

ISBN-13:

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From Light Into Darkness
From Light Into Darkness

Author: Stephen Mehler

Publisher: SCB Distributors

Published: 2014-06-16

Total Pages: 216

ISBN-13: 1939149371

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Building on the esoteric information first revealed in Land of Osiris, this exciting book presents more of Abd'El Hakim's oral traditions, with radical new interpretations of how religion evolved in prehistoric and dynastic Khemit, or Egypt. * Have popular modern religions developed out of practices in ancient Egypt? * Did religion in Egypt represent only a shadow of the spiritual practices of prehistoric people? * Have the Western Mystery Schools such as the Rosicrucian Order evolved from these ancient systems? * Author Mehler explores the teachings of the King Akhenaten and the real Moses, the true identity of the Hyksos, and Akhenaten’s connections to The Exodus, Judaism and the Rosicrucian Order. Here for the first time in the West, are the spiritual teachings of the ancient Khemitians, the foundation for the coming new cycle of consciousness—The Awakening; more.

Light Against Darkness
Light Against Darkness

Author: Armin Lange

Publisher: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht

Published: 2010-11-17

Total Pages: 369

ISBN-13: 3647550167

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Light Against Darkness is comprised of articles that put on display the power and pervasiveness of dualistic thought. Dualism has proved a potent cultural tool for clarifying and ordering reality. Particularly in times of social stress and psychological insecurity, it can offer a valuable conceptual grid that provides orientation to the world and a clear sense of identity. At the same time, though, there are important questions to be asked about the social effects of binary thinking. As history amply illustrates, dualistic notions can readily be deployed to legitimate cultural demonization and to rationalize violence. At a deeper level, a dualist worldview can also obscure the possibilities to be found in multiplicity.The articles in this volume treat Dualism across a wide historical spectrum and from multiple methodological perspectives. The studies are organized around the religious and cultural contexts of Ancient Judaism and they include contributions from leading voices on ancient Persia, Israel, Greece, and Egypt.Experts on modern religious and philosophical thought not only lend context to concepts applied to the ancient world, but engage recent European and American experiments in binary thought. All of the studies contribute to a richer and more complete portrait of dualism in ancient Judaism.