Framing Mary

Framing Mary
Author: Amy Singleton Adams
Publisher: Northern Illinois University Press
Total Pages: 361
Release: 2018-04-24
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1501757008

Despite the continued fascination with the Virgin Mary in modern and contemporary times, very little of the resulting scholarship on this topic extends to Russia. Russia's Mary, however, who is virtually unknown in the West, has long played a formative role in Russian society and culture. Framing Mary introduces readers to the cultural life of Mary from the seventeenth century to the post-Soviet era. It examines a broad spectrum of engagements among a variety of people--pilgrims and poets, clergy and laity, politicians and political activists--and the woman they knew as the Bogoroditsa. In this collection of well-integrated and illuminating essays, leading scholars of imperial, Soviet, and post-Soviet Russia trace Mary's irrepressible pull and inexhaustible promise from multiple disciplinary perspectives. Focusing in particular on the ways in which both visual and narrative images of Mary frame perceptions of Russian and Soviet space and inform discourse about women and motherhood, these essays explore Mary's rich and complex role in Russia's religion, philosophy, history, politics, literature, and art. Framing Mary will appeal to Russian studies scholars, historians, and general readers interested in religion and Russian culture.

Mystics of the Christian Tradition

Mystics of the Christian Tradition
Author: Steven Fanning
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 300
Release: 2005-06-29
Genre: History
ISBN: 1134590970

From divine visions to self-tortures, some strange mystical experiences have shaped the Christian tradition as we know it. Full of colourful detail, Mystics of the Christian Tradition examines the mystical experiences that have determined the history of Christianity over two thousand years, and reveals the often sexual nature of these encounters with the divine. In this fascinating account, Fanning reveals how God's direct revelation to St Francis of Assisi led to his living with lepers and kissing their sores, and describes the mystical life of Margery Kempe who 'took weeping to new decibel levels'. Through presenting the lives of almost a hundred mystics, this broad survey invites us to consider what it means to be a mystic and to explore how people such as Joan of Arc had their lives determined by divine visions. Mystics of the Christian Tradition is a comprehensive guide to discovering what mysticism means and who the mystics of the Christian tradition actually were.

The Heart of Russia

The Heart of Russia
Author: Scott M. Kenworthy
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 547
Release: 2010
Genre: History
ISBN: 0199736138

Studies in particular monastic revivals in the 19th and 20th centuries, as epitomized by Trinity-Sergius.

Monasticism in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Republics

Monasticism in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Republics
Author: Ines Angeli Murzaku
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 418
Release: 2015-08-27
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1317391055

This book looks at Eastern and Western monasticism’s continuous and intensive interactions with society in Eastern Europe, Russia and the Former Soviet Republics. It discusses the role monastics played in fostering national identities, as well as the potentiality of monasteries and religious orders to be vehicles of ecumenism and inter-religious dialogue within and beyond national boundaries. Using a country-specific analysis, the book highlights the monastic tradition and monastic establishments. It addresses gaps in the academic study of religion in Eastern European and Russian historiography and looks at the role of monasticism as a cultural and national identity forming determinant in the region.

Revelation, Mystical Phenomena and Divine Promises

Revelation, Mystical Phenomena and Divine Promises
Author: Deacon Albert Graham
Publisher: Trafford Publishing
Total Pages: 754
Release: 2022-10-05
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1698712693

The reader will be appraised of how God has been speaking to His people through public and private revelation for over 2000 years. A special chapter in this work deals with some saints and holy people who have had private revelations about or visits from souls in purgatory, hell or heaven. Another chapter and several of the appendixes are devoted to Marian Apparitions to include those that are approved, not approved and those appending a decision by the Church. By far one of the greatest strengths of this undertaking is the identification of some 43 categories of concomitant extraordinary phenomena and some of the saints and holy people who have experienced them. Color paintings by artists are depicted of some saints experiencing such mystical phenomena. Another unique feature of the book is a listing of some 600 individuals from the 13th to the 21st centuries who bore the stigmata. By knowing that God is present and alive to His people this book may help bring others to a deeper faith in God.

A Flexible Faith

A Flexible Faith
Author: Bonnie Kristian
Publisher: FaithWords
Total Pages: 246
Release: 2018-05-15
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1478992107

BONNIE KRISTIAN shows that a vibrant diversity within Christian orthodoxy-which is simply to say a range of different ways to faithfully follow Jesus-is a strength of our faith, not a weakness. It is all too easy to fail to grasp the diversity of the Christian faith-especially for those who have grown up in one branch of the church and never explored another. We fail to realize how many ways there are to follow Jesus, convinced that our own tradition is the one Christian alternative to nonbelief. A FLEXIBLE FAITH is written for the convinced and confused believer alike. It is a readable exploration of the lively theological diversity that stretches back through church history and across the spectrum of Christianity today. It is an easy introduction to how Christians have historically answered key questions about what it means to follow Jesus. Chapters will include 17 big theological questions and answers; profiles of relevant figures in church history; discussion questions; single-page Q&As-profiles of more unusual types of Christians (e.g., a Catholic nun or a member of an Amish community); and a guide to major Christian denominations today. As Bonnie shares her wrestlings with core issues-such as who Jesus is, what place the Church has in our lives, how to disagree yet remain within a community, and how to love the Bible for what it actually is-she teaches us how to walk courageously through our own tough questions. Following Jesus is big and it is something that individual believers, movements, and denominations have expressed in uncountably different ways over the centuries. In the process of helping us sort things out, Bonnie shows us how to be comfortable with diversity in the Body. And as we learn to hold questions in one hand and answers in the other, we will discover new depths of faith that will remain secure even through the storms of life.

Women and Gender in Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, and Eurasia

Women and Gender in Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, and Eurasia
Author: Mary Zirin
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 2898
Release: 2015-03-26
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1317451961

This is the first comprehensive, multidisciplinary, and multilingual bibliography on "Women and Gender in East Central Europe and the Balkans (Vol. 1)" and "The Lands of the Former Soviet Union (Vol. 2)" over the past millennium. The coverage encompasses the relevant territories of the Russian, Hapsburg, and Ottoman empires, Germany and Greece, and the Jewish and Roma diasporas. Topics range from legal status and marital customs to economic participation and gender roles, plus unparalleled documentation of women writers and artists, and autobiographical works of all kinds. The volumes include approximately 30,000 bibliographic entries on works published through the end of 2000, as well as web sites and unpublished dissertations. Many of the individual entries are annotated with brief descriptions of major works and the tables of contents for collections and anthologies. The entries are cross-referenced and each volume includes indexes.

Reasons to Believe

Reasons to Believe
Author: Robert Lefavi
Publisher: Hope Publishing House
Total Pages: 184
Release: 1999
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780932727442

The Oxford Handbook of Christian Monasticism

The Oxford Handbook of Christian Monasticism
Author: Bernice M. Kaczynski
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 736
Release: 2020-09-29
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0191003964

The Handbook takes as its subject the complex phenomenon of Christian monasticism. It addresses, for the first time in one volume, the multiple strands of Christian monastic practice. Forty-four essays consider historical and thematic aspects of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Protestant, and Anglican traditions, as well as contemporary 'new monasticism'. The essays in the book span a period of nearly two thousand years—from late ancient times, through the medieval and early modern eras, on to the present day. Taken together, they offer, not a narrative survey, but rather a map of the vast terrain. The intention of the Handbook is to provide a balance of some essential historical coverage with a representative sample of current thinking on monasticism. It presents the work of both academic and monastic authors, and the essays are best understood as a series of loosely-linked episodes, forming a long chain of enquiry, and allowing for various points of view. The authors are a diverse and international group, who bring a wide range of critical perspectives to bear on pertinent themes and issues. They indicate developing trends in their areas of specialisation. The individual contributions, and the volume as a whole, set out an agenda for the future direction of monastic studies. In today's world, where there is increasing interest in all world monasticisms, where scholars are adopting more capacious, global approaches to their investigations, and where monks and nuns are casting a fresh eye on their ancient traditions, this publication is especially timely.