By carefully listening to the words and wisdom of survivors, this volume focuses on ways forward in the work of creating an atmosphere of accountability, healing, and trust in today’s church.In March of 2022, practitioners of psychology, law, and theology, gathered at the University of Notre Dame for a major conference to explore practical strategies to increase accountability, promote healing, and rebuild trust in the life of the Catholic Church in the wake of the...

An inclusive and innovative account of religious ethical thinking and acting in the world.Rather than merely applying existing forms of philosophical ethics, Religious Ethics defines the meaning of the field and presents a distinct and original method for ethical reflection through comparisons of world religious traditions. Written by leading scholars and educators in the field, this unique volume offers an innovative approach that reveals how religions co...

Moral Struggle and Religious Ethics offers a comparative discussion of the challenges of living a moral religious life. This is illustrated with a study of two key thinkers, Bonaventure and Buddhaghosa, who influenced the development of moral thinking in Christianity and Buddhism respectively.Provides an important and original contribution to the comparative study and practice of religious ethicsMoves away from a comparison of theories by discussing the sha...

Jean Francois-Revel, a pillar of French intellectual life in our time, became world famous for his challenges to both Communism and Christianity. Twenty-seven years ago, his son, Matthieu Ricard, gave up a promising career as a scientist to study Tibetan Buddhism -- not as a detached observer but by immersing himself in its practice under the guidance of its greatest living masters.Meeting in an inn overlooking Katmandu, these two profoundly thoughtful men explored the questions th...

Merton, one of the rare Western thinkers able to feel at home in the philosophies of the East, made the wisdom of Asia available to Westerners."Zen enriches no one," Thomas Merton provocatively writes in his opening statement to Zen and the Birds of Appetite--one of the last books to be published before his death in 1968. "There is no body to be found. The birds may come and circle for a while... but they soon go elsewhere. When they are gone, the 'nothing,' the 'no-body' that was ...

It has been suggested that 'spirituality' has become a word that 'can define an era'. Why? Because paradoxically, alongside a decline in traditional religious affiliations, the growing interest in spirituality and the use of the word in a variety of contexts is a striking aspect of contemporary western cultures. Indeed, spirituality is sometimes contrasted attractively with religion, although this is problematic and implies that religion is essentially dogma, moralism, institutions, buildi...

The spiritualist author of The Seven Storey Mountain explores various religions and theologies and examines their similarities.Thomas Merton's devotion to the Roman Catholic Church never impeded his ability to appreciate the world's varieties of religious thought—if anything, the contemplative nature of his monasticism encouraged it. In Mystics and Zen Masters, Merton discusses diverse religious and theologies—f...

Writing together with Timothy Wyllie, the angel Georgia details the events of Earth’s ancient history in the 8th millennium BC• Reveals how Atlantis had copper mines in North America and tin mines in England, which initiated the Bronze Age and made Atlantis outrageously wealthy• Explains the true purpose of Gobekli Tepe as part of Prince Caligastia’s plan to enslave mortal souls• Interwoven with observations about Wyllie’s current and previous lives, such as his inv...

"There are no unsacred places," the poet Wendell Berry has written. "There are only sacred places and desecrated places." What might it mean to behold the world with such depth and feeling that it is no longer possible to imagine it as something separate from ourselves, or to live without regard for its well-being? To understand the work of seeing things as an utterly involving moral and spiritual act? Such questions have long occupied the center of contemplative spiritual traditions. In

Fascinated by the polarity of being, Paz has boldly attempted to write a "history of man". Unlike countless other histories that simply chronicle civilizations and cultures, Paz's work explores the human heart, the meaning of human nature, and the duality that exists within all beings.

A study of how Japan once had no concept of "religion," and what happened when officials were confronted by American Commodore Perry in 1853.Throughout its long history, Japan had no concept of what we call "religion." There was no corresponding Japanese word, nor anything close to its meaning. But when American warships appeared off the coast of Japan in 1853 and forced the Japanese government to sign treaties demanding, among other things, freedom of religion, the...

The Cambridge Companion to Religious Studies is both informative and provocative, introducing readers to key debates in the contemporary study of religion and suggesting future research possibilities. A group of distinguished scholars takes up some of the most pressing theoretical questions in the field. What is a 'religious tradition'? How are religious texts read? What takes place when a religious practitioner stands before a representation of gods or goddesses, ghosts, ancestors, saints...