Religion, Language, Narrative and the Search for Meaning

Religion, Language, Narrative and the Search for Meaning
Author: Anthony Campbell
Publisher: Lulu.com
Total Pages: 198
Release: 2009-08-09
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1409284484

This is a book about religion from a secular standpoint which nevertheless takes its subject seriously. Anthony Campbell is a medical doctor who has long been interested in religion and spirituality and has written several books about it in the last 30-odd years, including the first detailed examination of the philosophical ideas underlying Transcendental Meditation (Seven States of Consciousness, published in 1973). He has also made a study of the Persian heretical Islamic sect known in the West as the Assassins (The Assassins of Alamut, available from Lulu). In 2008 he published a personal account, in Totality Beliefs and the Religious Imagination, also available from Lulu, of his own gradual abandonment of the search for religiouatruth. The present book looks at a number of attempts to explain the existence of religious belief and concludes that religion will probablyalways appear naturally in human consciousness because of the way in which our minds have evolved.

Figuring the Sacred

Figuring the Sacred
Author: Paul Ricœur
Publisher: Fortress Press
Total Pages: 358
Release:
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9781451415704

The thought of Paul Ricoeur continues its profound effect on theology, religious studies and biblical interpretation. The 28 papers contained in this volume constitute the most comprehensive overview of Ricoeur's writings in religion since 1970. Ricoeur's hermeneutical orientation and his sensitivity to the mystery of religious language offer fresh insight to the transformative potential of sacred literature, including the Bible.

A None's Story

A None's Story
Author: Corinna Nicolaou
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 443
Release: 2016-03-29
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0231541252

The rising population known as "nones" for its members' lack of religious affiliation is changing American society, politics, and culture. Many nones believe in God and even visit places of worship, but they do not identify with a specific faith or belong to a spiritual community. Corinna Nicolaou is a none, and in this layered narrative, she describes what it is like for her and thousands of others to live without religion or to be spiritual without committing to a specific faith. Nicolaou tours America's major traditional religions to see what, if anything, one might lack without God. She moves through Christianity's denominations, learning their tenets and worshiping alongside their followers. She travels to Los Angeles to immerse herself in Judaism, Berkeley to educate herself about Buddhism, and Dallas and Washington, D.C., to familiarize herself with Islam. She explores what light they can shed on the fears and failings of her past, and these encounters prove the significant role religion still plays in modern life. They also exemplify the vibrant relationship between religion and American culture and the enduring value it provides to immigrants and outsiders. Though she remains a devout none, Nicolaou's experiences reveal points of contact between the religious and the unaffiliated, suggesting that nones may be radically revising the practice of faith in contemporary times.

Adolescents in the Search for Meaning

Adolescents in the Search for Meaning
Author: Mary L. Warner
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
Total Pages: 340
Release: 2006
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9780810854307

As is painfully evident from the reports of school shootings, gang violence, dysfunctional family life, and from statistics on adolescent suicide, many teens live troubled lives. Even those who live a normal life still face the challenges adults face, but teens are also engaged in establishing independence and finding their identity. However, few adolescents have the same resources as adults for surviving life challenges. Building from the idea that story is a powerful source of meaning, particularly those stories that resonate with our own lives, this book suggests that the stories of other young adults offer a resource yet to be fully tapped. Adolescents in the Search for Meaning begins from the perspective of young adults by sharing the results of a survey of over 1400 teens and also includes the insights of authors of Young Adult Literature. The book presents over 120 novels that teens have identified as meaningful as well as books recommended by YA authors and experts in the field of YA literature. For any teacher, librarian, parent or counselor wanting to reach young adults, this book is ideal.

Man's Search For Meaning

Man's Search For Meaning
Author: Viktor E Frankl
Publisher: Random House
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2013-12-09
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1448177685

Over 16 million copies sold worldwide 'Every human being should read this book' Simon Sinek One of the outstanding classics to emerge from the Holocaust, Man's Search for Meaning is Viktor Frankl's story of his struggle for survival in Auschwitz and other Nazi concentration camps. Today, this remarkable tribute to hope offers us an avenue to finding greater meaning and purpose in our own lives.

Making Sense of God

Making Sense of God
Author: Timothy Keller
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 338
Release: 2016-09-20
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0525954155

We live in an age of skepticism. Our society places such faith in empirical reason, historical progress, and heartfelt emotion that it’s easy to wonder: Why should anyone believe in Christianity? What role can faith and religion play in our modern lives? In this thoughtful and inspiring new book, pastor and New York Times bestselling author Timothy Keller invites skeptics to consider that Christianity is more relevant now than ever. As human beings, we cannot live without meaning, satisfaction, freedom, identity, justice, and hope. Christianity provides us with unsurpassed resources to meet these needs. Written for both the ardent believer and the skeptic, Making Sense of God shines a light on the profound value and importance of Christianity in our lives.

Narrative Cultures and the Aesthetics of Religion

Narrative Cultures and the Aesthetics of Religion
Author: Dirk Johannsen
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 391
Release: 2020-01-29
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 900442167X

Narrative Cultures and the Aesthetics of Religion presents the aesthetics of narrativity in religious contexts by approaching narrative acts as situated modes of engaging with reality, equally shaped by the immersive character of the stories told and the sensory qualities of their performances. Introducing narrative cultures as an integrative framework of analysis, the volume builds a bridge between classical content-based approaches to narrative sources and the aesthetic study of religions as constituted by sensory and mediated practices. Studying stories in conjunction with the role that performative acts of storytelling play in the cultivation of the senses, the contributors explore the efficacy of storytelling formats in narrative cultures from ancient times until today, in regions and cultures across the globe. Contributors are: Stefan Binder, Arianna Borrelli, Markus Altena Davidsen, Laura Feldt, Ingvild Sælid Gilhus, Dirk Johannsen, Jens Kreinath, Isabel Laack, Martin Lehnert, Brigitte Luchesi, Bastiaan van Rijn, Caroline Widmer, Annette Wilke, Katharina Wilkens.

Introduction to Biblical Hermeneutics

Introduction to Biblical Hermeneutics
Author: Walter C. Kaiser, Jr.
Publisher: Zondervan Academic
Total Pages: 353
Release: 2009-08-19
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0310539498

Since its publication in 1994, An Introduction to Biblical Hermeneutics has become a standard text for a generation of students, pastors, and serious lay readers. This second edition has been substantially updated and expanded, allowing the authors to fine-tune and enrich their discussions on fundamental interpretive topics. In addition, four new chapters have been included that address more recent controversial issues: • The role of biblical theology in interpretation • How to deal with contemporary questions not directly addressed in the Bible • The New Testament’s use of the Old Testament • The role of history in interpretation The book retains the unique aspect of being written by two scholars who hold differing viewpoints on many issues, making for vibrant, thought-provoking dialogue. What they do agree on, however, is the authority of Scripture, the relevance of personal Bible study to life, and why these things matter.

Hell Without Fires

Hell Without Fires
Author: Yolanda Nicole Pierce
Publisher:
Total Pages: 151
Release: 2005
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9780813028064

Examines the spiritual and earthly results of conversion to Christianity for African-American antebellum writers. Using autobiographical narratives, Yolanda Pierce argues that for African Americans, accounts of spiritual conversion revealed "personal transformations with far-reaching community effects.

The Great Partnership

The Great Partnership
Author: Jonathan Sacks
Publisher: Schocken
Total Pages: 385
Release: 2014-09-02
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0805212507

Impassioned, erudite, thoroughly researched, and beautifully reasoned, The Great Partnership argues not only that science and religion are compatible, but that they complement each other—and that the world needs both. “Atheism deserves better than the new atheists,” states Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, “whose methodology consists of criticizing religion without understanding it, quoting texts without contexts, taking exceptions as the rule, confusing folk belief with reflective theology, abusing, ridiculing, and demonizing religious faith and holding it responsible for the great crimes against humanity. Religion has done harm; I acknowledge that. But the cure for bad religion is good religion, not no religion, just as the cure for bad science is good science, not the abandonment of science.” Rabbi Sacks’s counterargument is that religion and science are the two essential perspectives that allow us to see the universe in its three-dimensional depth. Science teaches us where we come from. Religion explains to us why we are here. Science is the search for explanation. Religion is the search for meaning. There have been times when religion tried to dominate science. And there have been times, including our own, when it is believed that we can learn all we need to know about meaning and relationships through biochemistry, neuroscience, and evolutionary psychology. In this fascinating look at the interdependence of religion and science, Rabbi Sacks explains why both views are tragically wrong. ***National Jewish Book Awards 2012, Finalist*** Dorot Foundation Award for Modern Jewish Thought and Experience