The Culture of the Sacred

The Culture of the Sacred
Author: Michael V. Angrosino
Publisher: Waveland PressInc
Total Pages: 246
Release: 2004
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9781577662938

A study of religion and culture explores religion's role in social, economic, and political affairs, considering both religion and culture to be holistic systems comprised of interrelated elements including mythology, ritual, belief, and ethics.

In Search of the Sacred Book

In Search of the Sacred Book
Author: Aníbal González
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
Total Pages: 324
Release: 2018-05-03
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0822983028

In Search of the Sacred Book studies the artistic incorporation of religious concepts such as prophecy, eternity, and the afterlife in the contemporary Latin American novel. It departs from sociopolitical readings by noting the continued relevance of religion in Latin American life and culture, despite modernity's powerful secularizing influence. Analyzing Jorge Luis Borges's secularized "narrative theology" in his essays and short stories, the book follows the development of the Latin American novel from the early twentieth century until today by examining the attempts of major novelists, from María Luisa Bombal, Alejo Carpentier, and Juan Rulfo, to Julio Cortázar, Gabriel García Márquez, and José Lezama Lima, to "sacralize" the novel by incorporating traits present in the sacred texts of many religions. It concludes with a view of the "desacralization" of the novel by more recent authors, from Elena Poniatowska and Fernando Vallejo to Roberto Bolaño.

Religion, Culture, and Sacred Space

Religion, Culture, and Sacred Space
Author: M. Smith
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 189
Release: 2008-10-27
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0230616178

Religion, Culture, and Sacred Spaces is a comparative exploration into the nature of the human relationship to physical space advancing the startling thesis that the human capacity for narrative and identity imbues landscapes with meaning and sacredness.

Creation of the Sacred

Creation of the Sacred
Author: Walter Burkert
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 274
Release: 1998-01-13
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780674175709

Sacrifice is essential to all religions. Could there be a natural, even biological, reason? Why are sacrifice and numerous other religious rituals and concepts shared by so many different cultures? In this extraordinary book, one of the world’s leading authorities on ancient religions explores the possibility of natural religion.

Material Culture and Sacred Landscape

Material Culture and Sacred Landscape
Author: Peter Jordan
Publisher: Rowman Altamira
Total Pages: 344
Release: 2003
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780759102774

This study provides a concrete example of how foraging societies enculturate and transform the natural environment and, through the use of material objects, create sacred spaces and sites. Using ethnographic and ethnohistorical information about the Khanty of Siberia, Jordan shows the shortcomings of both interpretive and materialist anthropological theorizing about hunters and gatherers. He focuses on the rich and complex relationship between the symbolism of the Khanty, their material culture, and the bringing of meaning to physical places. His examination looks at the topic in both historical and contemporary contexts, and in scales from the core-periphery model of Russian colonialism to the portrait of a single yurt community. Jordan's work will be of importance to those studying cultural anthropology, archaeology, and comparative religion.

A Sacred Look: Becoming Cultural Mystics

A Sacred Look: Becoming Cultural Mystics
Author: Nancy Usselmann
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 147
Release: 2018-04-18
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1532635729

How should a follower of Christ engage the popular media culture? By becoming a mystic! Sr. Nancy challenges Christians today to delve deep into the rich theological tradition of the church as the root and foundation for recognizing the beauty of God present in all that is truly human. The artists of popular culture sometimes unwittingly seek transcendence while grappling with some of humanity's most profound existential longings. The cultural mystics of today point out those needs of humanity in the culture's artifacts in order to enter into dialogue with those who seek something beyond what this world satisfies. The anthropological-sacramental-incarnational paradigm presented gives us this ability to take a sacred look of the culture and offer the joy of the Gospel, Christ who is the answer of all humanity's yearnings!

The Sacred Act of Reading

The Sacred Act of Reading
Author: Anne Margaret Castro
Publisher: University of Virginia Press
Total Pages: 381
Release: 2020-01-13
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0813943469

From Zora Neale Hurston to Derek Walcott to Toni Morrison, New World black authors have written about African-derived religious traditions and spiritual practices. The Sacred Act of Reading examines religion and sociopolitical power in modern and contemporary texts of a variety of genres from the black Americas. By engaging with spiritual traditions such as Vodou, Kumina, and Protestant Christianity while drawing on canonical Eurocentric literary theory, Anne Margaret Castro presents a novel, nuanced reading of power through the physical and metaphysical relationships portrayed in these great works of New World black literature. Castro examines prophecy in the dramas of Derek Walcott, preaching in the ethnography of Zora Neale Hurston, and liturgy in the novels of Toni Morrison, offering comparative readings alongside the works of Afro-Colombian anthropologist Manuel Zapata Olivella, Jamaican sociologist Erna Brodber, and Canadian fiction writer Nalo Hopkinson. The Sacred Act of Reading is the first book to bring together literary texts, historical and contemporary anthropological studies, theology, and critical theory to show how black authors in the Americas employ spiritual phenomena as theoretical frameworks for thinking within, against, and beyond structures of political dominance, dependence, and power.

Sacred Matters

Sacred Matters
Author: Associate Professor of American Religious History and Culture Gary Laderman
Publisher: ReadHowYouWant.com
Total Pages: 322
Release: 2011-02
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 145873174X

Widely praised in hardcover as a fascinating and important addition to religious and cultural studies, Sacred Matters reveals the remarkable ways that religious practices permeate American cultural life.In a country where references to God are as normal as proclaiming love of country, support for the military, or security for the nation's children, religion scholar Gary Laderman casts his eye over our deeply hidden spiritual landscape, questioning whether our conventional views even begin to capture the rich and strange diversity of religious life in America. A compelling read, Sacred Matters shows that genuinely religious practices and experiences can be found in the unlikeliest of places-in science laboratories and movie theaters, at the Super Bowl and Star Trek conventions, and in Americans' obsession with prescription drugs and pornography. When devoted fans make a pilgrimage to Graceland because of their love for Elvis, Laderman argues, their behavior doesn't just seem religious, it is religious-enacting a well-known ritual pattern toward saints in the history of Christianity. In a dramatic reframing of what is holy and secular, Sacred Matters makes a powerful and illuminating case that religion is everywhere-and that we have barely begun to reckon with its hold on our cultural life.

Nature, Culture and the Sacred

Nature, Culture and the Sacred
Author: Nina Simons
Publisher:
Total Pages: 248
Release: 2019
Genre: Leadership in women
ISBN: 9781732841406

Bioneers co-founder Nina Simons offers inspiration for anyone who aspires to grow into their own unique form of leadership with resilience and joy. Informed by her extensive experience with multicultural women's leadership development, Simons replaces the old patriarchal leadership paradigm with a more feminine-inflected style that illustrates the interconnected nature of the issues we face today. Sharing moving stories of women around the world joining together to reconnect people, nature and the land--both practically and spiritually--Nature, Culture and the Sacred is necessary reading for anyone who wants to learn from and be inspired by women who are leading the way towards transformational change by cultivating vibrant movements for social and environmental justice.

The Sacred and the Profane

The Sacred and the Profane
Author: Mircea Eliade
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Total Pages: 268
Release: 1959
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780156792011

Famed historian of religion Mircea Eliade observes that even moderns who proclaim themselves residents of a completely profane world are still unconsciously nourished by the memory of the sacred. Eliade traces manifestations of the sacred from primitive to modern times in terms of space, time, nature, and the cosmos. In doing so he shows how the total human experience of the religious man compares with that of the nonreligious. This book serves as an excellent introduction to the history of religion, but its perspective also emcompasses philosophical anthropology, phenomenology, and psychology. It will appeal to anyone seeking to discover the potential dimensions of human existence. -- P. [4] of cover.