Ecologies of ecstasy

Ecologies of Ecstasy recasts religious contemplation as a form of vegetal being, arguing that spiritual practice is rooted in the generation of life on earth.

How god becomes real

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 faithHow 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 cogn...

What is political theology?

This field-changing interdisciplinary book brings together three of the leading voices in political theology—a Christian theologian, a critical theorist, and an anthropologist—to offer new entry points to understand religion and politics.

Rediscovering the islamic classics

The story of how Arab editors of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries revolutionized Islamic literatureIslamic book culture dates back to late antiquity, when Muslim scholars began to write down their doctrines on parchment, papyrus, and paper and then to compose increasingly elabora...

Imagining the past, remembering the future

Imagining the Past, Remembering the Future investigates the interlinked art, history, religion, philosophy, and cosmology of oral traditions across the Afro-Brazilian diaspora, arguing that these varied cultural expressions together constitute distinctive forms of knowledge.

Muslim environmentalisms

Anna M. Gade explores the religious and cultural foundations of Islamic environmentalisms. She blends textual and ethnographic study to offer a comprehensive and interdisciplinary account of the legal, ethical, social, and political principles underlying Muslim commitments to the earth.

Roman catholicism in america

Chester Gillis chronicles the history of American Catholics from the colonial era to the present, with an emphasis on changes and challenges in the contemporary church. This second edition of Roman Catholicism in America pays particular attention to the tumultuous past twenty years.

The complete works of zhuangzi

Now using pinyin romanization, this classic translation captures the visionary thought and stylistic brilliance of a seminal Daoist text.

The millennial sovereign

At the end of the sixteenth century and the turn of the first Islamic millennium, the powerful Mughal emperor Akbar declared himself the most sacred being on earth. The holiest of all saints and above the distinctions of religion, he styled himself as the messiah reborn. Yet the Mughal emperor wa...

A materialism for the masses

Blanton challenges the idea of Paulinism as a pop Platonic worldview or form of social control.

Perilous intimacies

SherAli Tareen explores how leading South Asian Muslim thinkers imagined and contested the boundaries of Hindu-Muslim friendship from the late eighteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries.

Religions of early india

The extraordinary multiplicity of religions and religious cultures in India, chronicled over two thousand yearsFrom its earliest recorded history, India was a place of remarkable and varied religious activity, ranging from elaborate sacrificial rituals and rigorous regimes of personal austerity t...

Christianity in the twentieth century

A history of unparalleled scope that charts the global transformation of Christianity during an age of profound political and cultural changeChristianity in the Twentieth Century charts the transformation of one of the world's great religions during an age marked by world wars, genocide, national...

Wahhābism

An essential history of Wahhābism from its founding to the Islamic StateIn the mid-eighteenth century, a controversial Islamic movement arose in the central Arabian region of Najd that forever changed the political landscape of the Arabian Peninsula and the history of Islamic thought. Its founder...

The rāmāyaṇa of vālmīki

The definitive English translation of the classic Sanskrit epic poem—now available in a one-volume paperbackThe Rāmāyaṇa of Vālmīki, the monumental Sanskrit epic of the life of Rama, ideal man and incarnation of the great god Visnu, has profoundly affected the literature, art, religions, and cult...

The imam of the christians

How Christian leaders adapted the governmental practices and political thought of their Muslim rulers in the Abbasid caliphateThe Imam of the Christians examines how Christian leaders adopted and adapted the political practices and ideas of their Muslim rulers between 750 and 850 in the Abbasid c...

Sufism

A pathbreaking history of Sufism, from the earliest centuries of Islam to the presentAfter centuries as the most important ascetic-mystical strand of Islam, Sufism saw a sharp decline in the twentieth century, only to experience a stunning revival in recent decades. In this comprehensive new hist...

What's divine about divine law?

How ancient thinkers grappled with competing conceptions of divine lawIn the thousand years before the rise of Islam, two radically diverse conceptions of what it means to say that a law is divine confronted one another with a force that reverberates to the present. What's Divine about Divine Law...

Nations under god

Why churches in some democratic nations wield enormous political power while churches in other democracies don'tIn some religious countries, churches have drafted constitutions, restricted abortion, and controlled education. In others, church influence on public policy is far weaker. Why? Nations...

Longing for the lost caliphate

In the United States and Europe, the word "caliphate" has conjured historically romantic and increasingly pernicious associations. Yet the caliphate's significance in Islamic history and Muslim culture remains poorly understood. This book explores the myriad meanings of the caliphate for Muslims ...

The fruitful darkness

Ancient christian magic

This thought-provoking collection of magical texts from ancient Egypt shows the exotic rituals, esoteric healing practices, and incantatory and supernatural dimensions that flowered in early Christianity. These remarkable Christian magical texts include curses, spells of protection from "headless...

The aryan jesus

Was Jesus a Nazi? During the Third Reich, German Protestant theologians, motivated by racism and tapping into traditional Christian anti-Semitism, redefined Jesus as an Aryan and Christianity as a religion at war with Judaism. In 1939, these theologians established the Institute for the Study and...

The bhagavad gita

The Bhagavad Gita has been called India’s greatest contribution to the world. For more than five thousand years, this great scripture has shown millions in the East how to fill their lives with serenity and love. In these pages, Jack Hawley brings these ancient secrets to Western seekers in a bea...

Holy lands

How did the world’s most tolerant region become the least harmonious place on the planet?The news from the Middle East these days is bad. Whatever hopes people may have for the region are being dashed over and over, in country after country. Nicolas Pelham, a veteran correspondent for The Economi...

Grassroots zen

Rooted in a spiritual partnership model based on “power-sharing,” Grassroots Zen emphasizes gender equality and is oriented to social engagement.

The philosophy of the bible as foundation of jewish culture

Like Spinoza in his Theological-Political Treatise, Schweid helps us grasp the potential for seeing radically new messages in this oldest of books, the Bible. The American Founding Fathers realized that the Bible offers strong support for the doctrine of popular sovereignty. Socially, it offers a...

The call

Follows the money to reveal how Saudi Arabia has spread their particular brand of ultraconservative Islam beyond the Middle East.

The teachings of maimonides

The horizontal society (volumes 1 & 2)

The Horizontal Society is an exposition of rabbinic thought as exemplified by Maimonides. The thought streams of Greece, Rome, and Christendom serve as a contrast. This work is in the Hebrew rhetorical tradition of melisa. The main text in five sections-—The God of Israel, The Books of Israel, Th...

Conversations in the spirit

The collectors edition of Lex Hixon's interviews with prominent spiritual teachers Ram Dass, Alan Watts, Kalu Rinpoche, Swami Muktandananda, and more.

Faith on trial

“Anyone who has ever been confused by a Supreme Court decision or unsure of how to embody religious freedom in their own life now has a lawyer, and a pastor, they can trust.” —Dan McKanan, author of Prophetic Encounters Books about religion and the law tend to be highly technical or aimed primar...

Carmi sheli

This volume contains fifteen articles, many in Hebrew, by leading scholars. The articles cover a broad range of subjects, from an analysis of biblical narratives as expounded in the midrash and by medieval commentators, through a discussion of Maimonides’ attitude towards midrash and an analysis ...

The greater judaism in making

Throughout history, Judaism has been under attack by other religions, attacks which strengthened the identification of the group as a whole. Modern challenges, however, are coming from different directions, and are producing different results. Jewish identification is declining at the same time a...

Zoroastrian women in the united states of america

This book examines how ancient Zoroastrianism is practiced in the US diaspora and how it has evolved dynamically.

The jewish body

An encyclopedic survey of the Jewish body as it has existed and as it has been imagined from biblical times to the presentThat the human body can be the object not only of biological study but also of historical consideration and cultural criticism is now widely accepted. But why, Robert Jütte as...

Passing orders

Demonization has increasingly become central to the global religious and political landscape. Passing Orders interrogates this centrality through an analysis of evangelical “spiritual warfare” demonologies in contemporary America. Situating spiritual warfare as part of broader frameworks of Ameri...

Time and difference in rabbinic judaism

How the rabbis of late antiquity used time to define the boundaries of Jewish identityThe rabbinic corpus begins with a question–“when?”—and is brimming with discussions about time and the relationship between people, God, and the hour. Time and Difference in Rabbinic Judaism explores the rhythms...

In your eyes i see my words

In Your Eyes I See My Words, Volume 3 brings together the homilies and speeches of Archbishop Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio from 2009 through his election as Pope Francis on March 13, 2013. These writings provide an intimate glimpse into the theological, philosophical, scientific, and cultural-e...

My heart sutra

A cultural and personal journey into the famous sutra that teaches "form is emptiness; and emptiness is form."

The jefferson bible

The life and times of a uniquely American testamentIn his retirement, Thomas Jefferson edited the New Testament with a penknife and glue, removing all mention of miracles and other supernatural events. Inspired by the ideals of the Enlightenment, Jefferson hoped to reconcile Christian tradition w...

In search of radical theology

This sparkling collection of essays invites readers to join a seasoned scholar on his journey to catch “radical theology” in action, both in the Church and our culture at large.Capturing a career’s worth of thought and erudition, this rich volume treats readers to creative thought, careful argume...

Preaching with their lives

This volume tells the little-known story of the Dominican Family—priests, sisters, brothers, contemplative nuns, and lay people—and integrates it into the history of the United States. Starting after the Civil War, the book takes a thematic approach through twelve essays examining Dominican contr...

The rebellion of the daughters

An in-depth exploration of the flight of young Jewish women from their Orthodox homes during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuriesThe Rebellion of the Daughters investigates the flight of young Jewish women from their Orthodox, mostly Hasidic, homes in Western Galicia (now Poland) in ...