In these times of increasingly contentious politics and uncivil discourse in the United States, the ongoing encounter of adherents of the Abrahamic faiths in the American heartland offers a model of positive interfaith relations. Edited by a Muslim, a Jew, and a Christian, this volume describes the three goals of the Central Ohio Abrahamic encounter: Enhancing mutual understanding and relationships, disseminating accurate information about the three major Abrahamic traditions (Judaism, Chr...

Religion and Community in the New Urban America examines the interrelated transformations of cities and urban congregations. The authors ask how the new metropolis affects local religious communities and what role those communities play in creating the new metropolis. Through an in-depth study of fifteen Chicago congregations-Catholic parishes, Protestant churches, Jewish synagogues, Muslim mosques, and a Hindu temple, both city and suburban-this book describes congregational life...

Buddhists, Hindus, and Sikhs in America explores the challenges that Asian immigrants face when their religion--and consequently culture--is "remade in the U.S.A." Peppered with stories of individual people and how they actually live their religion, this informative book gives an overview of each religion's beliefs, a short history of immigration--and discrimination--for each group, and how immigrants have adapted their religious beliefs since they arrived. Along the way, the roles of men ...

Space sharing by groups and organizations is widespread in the United States, from commercial partnerships, to government and private sector joint use agreements, to the use of public facilities and commons, and more. Drawing upon a variety of historical examples and contemporary cases, The Religious Dimensions of Shared Spaces offers a focused and systematic analysis of space sharing involving religious groups or organizations. All space-sharing arrangements are similar in most respects, ...

Dharma is central to all the major religious traditions which originated on the Indian subcontinent. Such is its importance that these traditions cannot adequately be understood apart from it. Often translated as “ethics,” “religion,” “law,” or “social order,” dharma possesses elements of each of these but is not confined to any single category familiar to Western thought. Neither is it the straightforward equivalent of what many in the West might usually consider to be “a philosophy”. Thi...

Books of this importance and intelligence come along rarely. Wandering Beyond the Darkness is an absolute must-read for anyone who struggles with faith, love, and the continuum of life after death. Whether 19 or 90, we all search for understanding. For thousands of years, our religious and spiritual comprehension has been defined by a codified doctrine that was initially established by illiterate nomads living in tents. These now-faded cultures were attempting to provide some historical conse...

From handshakes and toasts to chant and genuflection, ritual pervades our social interactions and religious practices. Still, few of us could identify all of our daily and festal ritual behaviors, much less explain them to an outsider. Similarly, because of the variety of activities that qualify as ritual and their many contradictory yet, in many ways, equally legitimate interpretations, ritual seems to elude any systematic historical and comparative scrutiny. In this book, Catherine Bell ...

Back in the 1970s and '80s most of the great lamas to leave Tibet were still alive and teaching. Those of us who had the good fortune to be in India and Nepal at that time were able to benefit by sitting at their feet, drinking in the nectar of their holy speech. Many of the teachings in this book were given at Tushita Mahayana Meditation Center, New Delhi. Two of His Holiness the Dalai Lama's teachings were published in a souvenir booklet issued for Tushita's Second Dharma Celebration, No...

The first collection of plays by one of the most moving and astonishing writers of the last 15 years. Though critics reflexively class his work as magical realism,” Rivera’s extravagant, original imagery always serves to illuminate the gritty realities and touching longings of our daily lives. Also includes: Each Day Dies with Sleep and Cloud Tectonics.

The Religion Of The Sikhsby Dorothy FieldThis entry in the Wisdom of the East series is the only one devoted to the Sikh religion. This volume, written by a sympathetic westerner at the turn of the 20th century, includes background on the history, beliefs and sacred texts of the Sikh religion. This includes an extensive, and moving, selection from the Granth Sahib, the central text of Sikhism. This book serves as a succinct introduction to the Sikh religion and people.

Counter to popular perceptions, contemporary American sociology is and promotes a profoundly sacred project at heart. Sociology today is in fact animated by sacred impulses, driven by sacred commitments, and serves a sacred project. Sociology appears on the surface to be a secular, scientific enterprise--its founding fathers were mostly atheists. Its basic operating premises are secular and naturalistic. Sociologists today are disproportionately not religious, compared to all Americans, an...

Pixar animator and Academy Award–nominated director Sanjay Patel (Sanjay’s Super Team) brings to life Hinduism’s most important gods and goddesses—and one sacred stone—in fun, full-color illustrations, each accompanied by a short, lively profile.The Little Book of Hindu Deities is chock-full of monsters, demons, noble warriors, and divine divas. Find out why Ganesha has an elephant’s head (his father cut his off!); why Kali, the goddess of time, i...