Now a major film called The Unholy starring The Walking Dead's Jeffrey Dean Morgan. In James Herbert's horror novel Shrine, innocence and evil have become one . . . A little girl called Alice. A deaf-mute. A vision. A lady in shimmering white who says she is the immaculate conception. And Alice can suddenly hear and speak, and she can perform miracles. Soon the site of the visitation, beneath an ancient oak tree, has become a shrine, a holy place for thousands of pilgrims. But Alice is no longer the guileless child overwhelmed by her new saintliness. She has become the agent of something corrupt, a vile force that is centuries old.
Based on the travels of Griffis, Morse, and Hearn in the late 1800s, these stories evoke the immediacy of daily experience in Meiji, Japan, a nation still feudal in many of its habits yet captivating to Westerners for its gentleness, beauty, and pure charm. Illustrated.
What we today call Shinto has been at the heart of Japanese culture for almost as long as there has been a political entity distinguishing itself as Japan. A Year in the Life of a Shinto Shrine describes the ritual cycle at Suwa Shrine, Nagasaki’s major Shinto shrine. Conversations with priests, other shrine personnel, and people attending shrine functions supplement John K. Nelson’s observations of over fifty shrine rituals and festivals. He elicits their views on the meaning and personal relevance of the religious events and the place of Shinto and Suwa Shrine in Japanese society, culture, and politics. Nelson focuses on the very human side of an ancient institution and provides a detailed look at beliefs and practices that, although grounded in natural cycles, are nonetheless meaningful in late-twentieth-century Japanese society. Nelson explains the history of Suwa Shrine, basic Shinto concepts, and the Shinto worldview, including a discussion of the Kami, supernatural forces that pervade the universe. He explores the meaning of ritual in Japanese culture and society and examines the symbols, gestures, dances, and meanings of a typical shrine ceremony. He then describes the cycle of activities at the shrine during a calendar year: the seasonal rituals and festivals and the petitionary, propitiary, and rite-of-passage ceremonies performed for individuals and specific groups. Among them are the Dolls’ Day festival, in which young women participate in a procession and worship service wearing Heian period costumes; the autumn Okunchi festival, which attracts participants from all over Japan and even brings emigrants home for a visit; the ritual invoking the blessing of the Kami for young children; and the ritual sanctifying the earth before a building is constructed. The author also describes the many roles women play in Shinto and includes an interview with a female priest. Shinto has always been attentive to the protection of communities from unpredictable human and divine forces and has imbued its ritual practices with techniques and strategies to aid human life. By observing the Nagasaki shrine’s traditions and rituals, the people who make it work, and their interactions with the community at large, the author shows that cosmologies from the past are still very much a part of the cultural codes utilized by the nation and its people to meet the challenges of today.
________________________________________ AN UNSPEAKABLE CRIME When he was arrested in July 1991, Jeffrey Dahmer had a severed head in the refrigerator, two more in the freezer, two skulls and a skeleton in a filing cabinet. A DEPRIVED ACT But if anything could be more disturbing than the brute horror of this scene, it was the evidence that Dahmer had been using these human remains not only for sexual gratification, but as part of a dark ritual of his own devising -- to furnish a shrine to himself. A KILLER, BEYOND OUR UNDERSTANDING ________________________________________ The Shrine of Jeffrey Dahmer offers a chilling insight into the mind of a serial killer and reveals the horrors within. Perfect for fans of Making a Murderer, Mindhunter and The Ted Bundy Tapes, this is a gripping and gruesome read that delves into the mind of a murder and what possesses someone to kill. __________ By the author of Killing for Company, which was adapted into the hit ITV true crime drama DES, starring David Tennant. __________ PRAISE FOR THE SHRINE OF JEFFREY DAHMER: 'Irresistible. . . . It's subject is terrible and repellent. But the study itself is enlightening' Independent 'Unputdownable' Patricia Highsmith 'The persuasive account of a young man spiraling into unspeakable insanity . . . fascinating'Daily Telegraph
The introduction, translation and commentary on the Temple Scroll by Johann Maier has been thoroughly revised and updated by the author for its English edition, taking account of improvements in readings, and, among other recent secondary literature, the English translation of Yadin's edition, to which cross-references are given. Students of Second Temple Judaism, and the Dead Sea Scrolls in particular, will at last have a convenient English edition of this most important document from Qumran.
When Maria meets Russell at a school dance, she sees him as her ticket out of the ghetto, but gradually the balance of their love shifts. He loves her more, while she shoves him aside and devotes her attention to their son.
In 1947, a Bedouin shepherd literally stumbled upon a cave near the Dead Sea, a settlement now called Qumran, to the east of Jerusalem. This cave, along with the others located nearby, contained jars holding hundreds of scrolls and fragments of scrolls of texts both biblical and nonbiblical—in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. The biblical scrolls would be the earliest evidence of the Hebrew Scriptures, or Old Testament, by hundreds of years; and the nonbiblical texts would shed dramatic light on one of the least-known periods of Jewish history—the Second Temple period. This find is, quite simply, the most important archaeological event in two thousand years of biblical studies. The scrolls provide information on nearly every aspect of biblical studies, including the Old Testament, text criticism, Second Temple Judaism, the New Testament, and Christian origins. It took more than fifty years for the scrolls to be completely and officially published, and there is no comparable brief, introductory resource. Core Biblical Studies fulfill the need for brief, substantive, yet highly accessible introductions to key subjects and themes in biblical studies. In the shifting tides of biblical interpretation, these books are designed to help students locate relevant meanings in conversation with the text. As a first step toward substantive and subsequent learning, the series draws on the best scholarship in order to provide foundational concepts and contextualized information on a broad scope of issues, methods, perspectives, and trends.
This volume is a catalog of the ancient Egyptian imports and Egyptianizing artifacts found in 1962 during the excavation of a cave near Tsoutsouros (ancient Inatos), Crete, Greece. The cave was a sanctuary dedicated to the Minoan and Greek goddess Eileithyia. The Aegyptiaca of the Minoan and Mycenaean eras on Crete signify the political and economic relations between the Aegean rulers and the Egyptian royal court. Several of the objects are Egyptian scarabs, and they certainly represent official Egyptian-Cretan affairs, especially those dating from the reign of Amenophis III to the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty. Much of the cataloged objects come from the 10th to 7th centuries B.C., and they are appropriate for venerating the goddess of childbirth and motherhood. The statuettes, seals, and vessels are lavishly illustrated with plates of color photographs.
The Dead Sea Scrolls are regarded as perhaps the most important archaeological find of the twentieth century - their importance to the history and development of Judaism and Christianity is unquestionable. This lavishly produced book shows the scrolls in their context, providing translations, pictures, and information on associated finds.
Plastic Madonnas, packaged holy tours, and biblical theme parks can arouse discomfort, laughter, and even revulsion in religious believers and nonbelievers alike. Scholars, too, often see the intermingling of religion and commerce as a corruption of true spirituality. Suzanne K. Kaufman challenges these assumptions in her examination of the Lourdes pilgrimage in late nineteenth-century France.Consuming Visions offers new ways to interpret material forms of worship, female piety, and modern commercial culture. Kaufman argues that the melding of traditional pilgrimage activities with a newly developing mass culture produced fresh expressions of popular faith. For the devout women of humble origins who flocked to the shrine, this intensely exciting commercialized worship offered unprecedented opportunities to connect with the sacred and express their faith in God.New devotional activities at Lourdes transformed the act of pilgrimage: the train became a moving chapel, and popular entertainments such as wax museums offered vivid recreations of visionary events. Using the press and the strategies of a new advertising industry to bring a mass audience to Lourdes, Church authorities remade centuries-old practices of miraculous healing into a modern public spectacle. These innovations made Lourdes one of the most visited holy sites in Catholic Europe.Yet mass pilgrimage also created problems. The development of Lourdes, while making religious practice more democratically accessible, touched off fierce conflicts over the rituals and entertainments provided by the shrine. These conflicts between believers and secularists played out in press scandals across the European continent. By taking the shrine seriously as a site of mass culture, Kaufman not only breaks down the opposition between sacred and profane but also deepens our understanding of commercialized religion as a fundamental feature of modernity itself.
