Mind and life

For over a decade, a small group of scientists and philosophers—members of the Mind and Life Institute—have met regularly to explore the intersection between science and the spirit. At one of these meetings, the themes discussed were both fundamental and profound: can physics, chemistry, and biol...

The future of evangelicalism in america

Evangelicalism has outpaced mainline Protestantism to encompass more than a third of American adults and nearly half of all U.S. Christians. This volume offers unique insight into evangelical culture, spirituality, theology, politics, and ethnicity, revealing a vibrant and controversial movement’...

Shinran's gospel of pure grace

The central aim of this study of Shinran's thought is to make a systematic presentation of his cardinal ideas which, though well known in general studies of Buddhism, have not been given the detailed attention they merit. It is therefore hoped that this presentation will fill a need in Buddhist s...

Between a man and a woman?

Through a probing investigation of conservative Christianity and its response to an issue that, according to the statistics of conservative Christian groups, affects only a small number of Americans, Ludger Viefhues-Bailey alights on a profound theological conundrum: in today's conservative Chris...

The faith of biology and the biology of faith

An award-winning biologist presents his moving yet deeply reasoned discussion on the intersection of scientific method and religious faith.

Meditations of a buddhist skeptic

A radical approach to studying the mind.Renowned Buddhist philosopher B. Alan Wallace reasserts the power of shamatha and vipashyana, traditional Buddhist meditations, to clarify the mind's role in the natural world. Raising profound questions about human nature, free will, and experience versus ...

Image and pilgrimage in christian culture

Race and secularism in america

This anthology draws bold comparisons between secularist strategies to contain, privatize, and discipline religion and the treatment of racialized subjects by the American state. Contributors from a range of disciplines expose secularism’s prohibitive practices in all facets of American society a...

Faith in development

This book presents the changes of worldview and meaning-making that people associate with their religious, spiritual, agnostic and atheist identifications.

God and the mathematics of infinity

Drawing on the science and mathematics of infinity, H. Chris Ransford analyzes the traditional concept of godhood and reaches surprising conclusions. He addresses humankind's abiding core debate on the meaning of spirituality and God. Using mathematics, he explores key questions within this debat...

Confucianism and sacred space

This book brings together studies from Chin-shing Huang’s decades-long research into Confucius temples that individually and collectively consider Confucianism as religion. It offers keen insights into Confucius temples and their significance in the intertwined intellectual, political, social, an...

The gathering of intentions

The Gathering of Intentions reads a single Tibetan Buddhist ritual system through the movements of Tibetan history, revealing the social and material dimensions of an ostensibly timeless tradition. By subjecting tantric practice to historical analysis, the book offers new insight into the origins...

Contemplation

This book offers a philosophical introduction to the theory and practice of contemplation. Kevin Hart examines a variety of religious, aesthetic, and philosophical notions, shedding light on the singular qualities of contemplation.

Religion, secularism, and constitutional democracy

Critically engaging with traditional secularism and religious accommodationism, this collection introduces a constitutional secularism that robustly meets contemporary challenges.

Politics and religion in ancient and medieval europe and china

William james and a science of religions

The "science of religion" is an important element in the interpretation of William James's work and in the methodology of the study of religion. An authority on pragmatism and the philosophy of religion, Wayne Proudfoot and a stellar group of contributors from a variety of disciplines including r...

The quakers in america

The Quakers in America is a multifaceted history of the Religious Society of Friends and a fascinating study of its culture and controversies today. Lively vignettes of Conservative, Evangelical, Friends General Conference, and Friends United meetings illuminate basic Quaker theology and reflect ...

The teachings of modern protestantism on law, politics, and human nature

The Teachings of Modern Protestantism on Law, Politics, and Human Nature examines how modern Protestant thinkers have answered the most pressing political, legal, and ethical questions of our time. It discusses the enduring teachings of important Protestant intellectuals of the late nineteenth an...

Faithful to secularism

In Faithful to Secularism, David T. Buckley develops the concept of “benevolent secularism” to describe institutions that combine a basic division of religion and state with extensive room for participation of religious actors in public life.

Henry stubbe and the beginnings of islam

the first English text to positively document the Prophet Muhammad’s life, celebrate the Qur’ān as a divine revelation, and praise the Muslim toleration of Christians, undermining a long legacy of European prejudice and hostility

Practicing science, living faith

Twelve scientists from diverse backgrounds and disciplines demonstrate that it is indeed possible for profound intellectuals to integrate the life of science with the life of faith. In honest and inspiring interviews, they describe the difficult though rewarding process of reconciling their faith...

The analects of confucius

Compiled by disciples of Confucius in the centuries following his death in 479 B.C.E., The Analects of Confucius is a collection of aphorisms and historical anecdotes embodying the basic values of the Confucian tradition: learning, morality, ritual decorum, and filial piety. Reflecting the model ...

Guardians of islam

Muslim enclaves within non-Islamic polities are commonly believed to have been beleaguered communities undergoing relentless cultural and religious decline. Cut off from the Islamic world, these Muslim groups, it is assumed, passively yielded to political, social, and economic forces of assimilat...

Displacing the divine

As religious leaders, ministers are often assumed to embody the faith of the institution they represent. As cultural symbols, they reflect subtle changes in society and belief-specifically people's perception of God and the evolving role of the church. For more than forty years, Douglas Alan Walr...

Who made early christianity?

A revisionist history of the split between Jews and Christians and the role of Paul in fostering animosity between them.

Buddhist masculinities

This transdisciplinary book brings together essays that explore the variety and diversity of Buddhist masculinities, from early India to the contemporary United States, and from bodhisattva-kings to martial monks.

Why this new race

Why This New Race offers a radical new way of thinking about the origins of Christian identity. Conventional histories have understood Christianity as a religion that from its beginnings sought to transcend ethnic and racial distinctions. Denise Kimber Buell challenges this view by revealing the ...

At home and abroad

At Home and Abroad bridges the divide in the study of American religion, law, and politics between domestic and international, bringing together diverse authors to explore ties across conceptual and political boundaries. They examine the ideas, people, and institutions that provide links between ...

Living karma

Ouyi Zhixu (1599–1655) was an eminent Chinese Buddhist monk who, contrary to his contemporaries, believed karma could be changed. Drawing attention to Ouyi's unique reshaping of religious practice, Living Karma reasserts the significance of an overlooked individual in the modern development of Ch...

Revelry, rivalry, and longing for the goddesses of bengal

Annually during the months of autumn, Bengal hosts three interlinked festivals to honor its most important goddesses: Durga, Kali, and Jagaddhatri. While each of these deities possesses a distinct iconography, myth, and character, they are all martial. Durga, Kali, and Jagaddhatri often demand bl...

The teachings of master wuzhu

The Record of the Dharma-Jewel Through the Generations (Lidai fabao ji) is a little-known Chan/Zen Buddhist text of the eighth century, rediscovered in 1900 at the Silk Road oasis of Dunhuang. The only remaining artifact of the Bao Tang Chan school of Sichuan, the text provides a fascinating sect...

The sacred universe

A leading scholar, cultural historian, and Catholic priest who spent more than fifty years writing about our engagement with the Earth, Thomas Berry possessed prophetic insight into the rampant destruction of ecosystems and the extinction of species. In this book he makes a persuasive case for an...

The awakened ones

While a rational consciousness grasps many truths, Gananath Obeyesekere believes an even richer knowledge is possible through a bold confrontation with the stuff of visions and dreams. Spanning both Buddhist and European forms of visionary experience, he fearlessly pursues the symbolic, nonration...

Love letters from golok

Love Letters from Golok chronicles the courtship between two Buddhist tantric masters, Tare Lhamo (1938–2002) and Namtrul Rinpoche (1944–2011), and their passion for reinvigorating Buddhism in eastern Tibet during the post-Mao era. Holly Gayley retrieves the personal and prophetic dimensions of t...

Pragmatism and naturalism

Distinguished scholars evaluate the contribution pragmatism can make to a viable naturalism, exploring what distinguishes pragmatic naturalism from other naturalisms. They examine pragmatism’s distinctive form of nonreductive naturalism and consider its merits for the study of religion, democrati...

From the heart

From the Heart weaves together a personal narrative of a life-threatening ailment with considerations of philosophy, art, and science to contemplate ultimate questions: matters of life and death.

Mind beyond brain

Neuroscientist David E. Presti, with the assistance of other researchers, explores how evidence for anomalous phenomena—such as near-death experiences, apparent memories of past lives, apparitions, and other so-called psi or paranormal phenomena, including telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognitio...

The teachings of modern orthodox christianity on law, politics, and human nature

The Teachings of Modern Orthodox Christianity on Law, Politics, and Human Nature examines how modern Orthodox Christian thinkers have answered the most pressing political, legal, and ethical questions of our time. It discusses the enduring teachings of important Orthodox Christian intellectuals o...

Muhammad's grave

Winner, 2007 Albert Hourani Book Award, Middle East Studies AssociationWinner, 2008 Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion in Analytical-Descriptive Studies, American Academy of ReligionWinner, 2011 John Nicholas Brown Prize, Medieval Academy of AmericaWinner, 2008 Ralph Waldo Emerson Awar...

The silent qur'an and the speaking qur'an

The first book to evaluate the writing of Islam’s major scriptural sources within the context of the bloody, brutal conflicts that surrounded the succession of the Prophet.

After the human

After the Human is an ambitious and audacious grand synthesis that weaves together philosophy, theology, quantum mechanics, relativity theory, information theory, ecology, plant and animal cognition, and artificial intelligence to forge a new philosophical vision for the future.