Invitation and Belonging in a Christian Ashram

Invitation and Belonging in a Christian Ashram
Author: Nadya Pohran
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2022-04-21
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1350238198

Based on 10 months of ethnographic fieldwork, this book presents a social history of Sat Tal Christian Ashram (STA), an Ashram in the Kumaon foothills of northern India. This book explores how some Christian missionaries have sought to inflect Christianity with Advaita Vedantic undertones in a number of Indian contexts; it then analyses how STA draws upon, but also differs from, existing practices of inculturation. In demonstrating the distinctions of STA, this book offers new ethnographic data on the topics of Indian Christianity, Christian missiology and Hindu-Christian relations. This book also contributes to emergent discussions of multiple religious orientation, existential belonging and the negotiation that occurs as individuals and communities seek to invite or belong alongside individuals whose proclaimed faiths are different than their own. It is written in a clear and accessible style, making it suitable for undergraduate students, while also offering specialists new qualitative data and insightful theoretical reflections.

Christian Ashrams, Hindu Caves and Sacred Rivers

Christian Ashrams, Hindu Caves and Sacred Rivers
Author: Mario I. Aguilar
Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
Total Pages: 202
Release: 2016-07-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1784503479

In late 20th-century India, Christian-Hindu dialogue was forever transformed following the opening of Shantivanam, the first Christian ashram in the country. Mario I. Aguilar brings together the histories of the five pioneers of Christian-Hindu dialogue and their involvement with the ashram, to explore what they learnt and taught about communion between the two religions, and the wide ranging consequences of their work. The author expertly threads together the lives and friendships between these men, while uncovering the Hindu texts they used and were influenced by, and considers how far some of them became, in their personal practice, Hindu. Ultimately, this book demonstrates the impact of this history on contemporary dialogue between Christians and Hindus, and how both faiths can continue to learn and grow together.

Consuming Religion

Consuming Religion
Author: Kathryn Lofton
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 374
Release: 2017-09-12
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 022648209X

Introduction: being consumed -- Practicing commodity. Binge religion: social life in extremity ; The spirit in the cubicle: a religious history of the American office -- Revising ritual. Ritualism revived: from scientia ritus to consumer rites ; Purifying America: rites of salvation in the soap campaign -- Imagining celebrity. Sacrificing Britney: celebrity and religion in America ; The celebrification of religion in the age of infotainment -- Valuing family. Religion and the authority in American parenting ; Kardashian nation: work in America's klan ; Rethinking corporate freedom -- Corporation as sect. On the origins of corporate culture ; Do not tamper with the clues: notes on Goldman Sachs -- Conclusion: family matters

The Christian Ashram Movement in India

The Christian Ashram Movement in India
Author: Zdeněk Štipl
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 198
Release: 2020-03-20
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 100005702X

This book is one of the first to present a definitive history of the Christian Ashram Movement. It offers insights into the development of the Movement, Europe’s Orientalist view of Eastern mysticism and how the concept of the "ashram" spread beyond the borders of India. Drawing extensively from ashram literature and the author’s field research, the book critically analyzes the notions of inculturation in the encounter between Christianity and Hindu spirituality and ritualism. It looks at how the Movement grew out of the colonial encounter and how it evolved through the years, which was contingent on developments within Christian churches outside India. The volume also discusses the reinterpretation of the idea of the "ashram" by Christian theologians, the introduction of elite Brahmanical concepts within the Movement and the unique theological perspectives which were nurtured in these ashrams. The book offers an alternative perspective to the generally perceived history of Christianity in India. It will be of interest to scholars and researchers of religious studies, Christianity, sociology, social anthropology and religious history.

Chosen Peoples

Chosen Peoples
Author: Christopher Tounsel
Publisher: Duke University Press
Total Pages: 135
Release: 2021-03-22
Genre: History
ISBN: 1478013109

On July 9, 2011, South Sudan celebrated its independence as the world's newest nation, an occasion that the country's Christian leaders claimed had been foretold in the Book of Isaiah. The Bible provided a foundation through which the South Sudanese could distinguish themselves from the Arab and Muslim Sudanese to the north and understand themselves as a spiritual community now freed from their oppressors. Less than three years later, however, new conflicts emerged along ethnic lines within South Sudan, belying the liberation theology that had supposedly reached its climactic conclusion with independence. In Chosen Peoples, Christopher Tounsel investigates the centrality of Christian worldviews to the ideological construction of South Sudan and the inability of shared religion to prevent conflict. Exploring the creation of a colonial-era mission school to halt Islam's spread up the Nile, the centrality of biblical language in South Sudanese propaganda during the Second Civil War (1983--2005), and postindependence transformations of religious thought in the face of ethnic warfare, Tounsel highlights the potential and limitations of deploying race and Christian theology to unify South Sudan.

Saving History

Saving History
Author: Lauren R. Kerby
Publisher: UNC Press Books
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2020-02-21
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 146965590X

Millions of tourists visit Washington, D.C., every year, but for some the experience is about much more than sightseeing. Lauren R. Kerby's lively book takes readers onto tour buses and explores the world of Christian heritage tourism. These expeditions visit the same attractions as their secular counterparts—Capitol Hill, the Washington Monument, the war memorials, and much more—but the white evangelicals who flock to the tours are searching for evidence that America was founded as a Christian nation. The tours preach a historical jeremiad that resonates far beyond Washington. White evangelicals across the United States tell stories of the nation's Christian origins, its subsequent fall into moral and spiritual corruption, and its need for repentance and return to founding principles. This vision of American history, Kerby finds, is white evangelicals' most powerful political resource—it allows them to shapeshift between the roles of faithful patriots and persecuted outsiders. In an era when white evangelicals' political commitments baffle many observers, this book offers a key for understanding how they continually reimagine the American story and their own place in it.

A History of Christian-Muslim Relations

A History of Christian-Muslim Relations
Author: Hugh Goddard
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2000
Genre: Christianity and other religions
ISBN: 1566633400

Hugh Goddard investigates the history of the relationships between Christians and Muslims over the centuries.

Entering the Twofold Mystery

Entering the Twofold Mystery
Author: Erik Varden
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2022-01-20
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1472979443

Erik Varden published The Shattering of Loneliness in 2018. Now, with the world in the throes of uncertainty and turbulence, he helps us interpret the signs of the times, convinced that the perennial experience of monks and nuns has much to teach us. The principles of monasticism have become attractive to many, awakened as we are to the importance of integrity, the pursuit of peace, asceticism as a path to freedom, hospitality and contemplative seeing. After a deeply personal introduction, Varden invites us to consider what makes a monk. He then takes us on a pilgrimage through the Church's year, drawing on Scripture, tradition and literary and religious figures of our time. Varden lets the reader discover the generous breadth and depth of a monk's outlook on life. In so doing he provides inspiration, enjoyment and enlightenment in equal measure.

Atando Cabos

Atando Cabos
Author: Elizabeth Conde-Frazier
Publisher:
Total Pages: 176
Release: 2021-08-31
Genre:
ISBN: 9780802879011

Decolonizing theological education and restoring agency to the people Latinx Protestantism is a rapidly growing element of American Christianity--in both Pentecostal and non-charismatic forms. How should institutions of theological education in the United States welcome and incorporate the gifts of these populations into their work? This is an especially difficult question considering the painful history of colonization in Latin America and the Caribbean, an agenda in which theological education was long complicit. In this book, Elizabeth Conde-Frazier takes stock of the cabos sueltos--loose ends--left over from the history of Latinx Christianity, including the ways the rise of Pentecostalism disrupted existing power structures and opened up new ways for Latinx people to assert agency. Then, atando cabos--tying these loose ends together--she reflects on how a new paradigm, centered on the work of the Holy Spirit, can serve to decolonize theological education going forward, bringing about an in-breaking of the kingdom of God. Conde-Frazier illustrates how this in-breaking would bring changes in epistemology, curriculum, pedagogy, and models for financial sustainability. Atando Cabos explores each of these topics and proposes a collaborative ecology that stresses the connections between theological education and wider communities of faith and practice. Far from taking a position of insularity, Atando Cabos works from the particularities of the Latinx Protestant context outward to other communities that are wrestling with similar issues so that, by the end, it is a call for transformation--a new reformation--for the entire Christian church.

Glossolalia and the Problem of Language

Glossolalia and the Problem of Language
Author: Nicholas Harkness
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 242
Release: 2021-03-19
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 022674955X

Speaking in tongues, also known as glossolalia, has long been a subject of curiosity as well as vigorous theological debate. A worldwide phenomenon that spans multiple Christian traditions, glossolalia is both celebrated as a supernatural gift and condemned as semiotic alchemy. For some it is mystical speech that exceeds what words can do, and for others it is mere gibberish, empty of meaning. At the heart of these differences is glossolalia’s puzzling relationship to language. ? Glossolalia and the Problem of Language investigates speaking in tongues in South Korea, where it is practiced widely across denominations and congregations. Nicholas Harkness shows how the popularity of glossolalia in Korea lies at the intersection of numerous, often competing social forces, interwoven religious legacies, and spiritual desires that have been amplified by Christianity’s massive institutionalization. As evangelicalism continues to spread worldwide, Glossolalia and the Problem of Language analyzes one of its most enigmatic practices while marking a major advancement in our understanding of the power of language and its limits.