Anthropology and mysticism in the making of initiation

Anthropology and mysticism in the making of initiation
Author: Andy Hilton
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 332
Release: 2023-09-14
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9086868967

By the 1980s, interest in initiation was at its peak; it was being employed both theoretically and practically, in gender politics and humanistic therapy. How did that come to be, how should we understand 'initiation', and what can be its future? This wide-ranging book looks at the history, evolution and contemporary idea of initiation. It traces origins in the ancient Mysteries and early Christian texts, through Renaissance rediscoveries to admission in Freemasonry and anthropological investigations in French Canada and British Australia. It introduces the 'initiation discourse', as something that was constructed through centuries of translations and nineteenth century human science leading to the making of the modern concept. It argues for a subject, 'initiation studies', that effectively secularised the eighteenth-century rites of admission to produce the twentieth-century rites of passage. And it details, as compensation for this hollowing out of the mystery, the study of shaman 'spirit-workers', the idea of death and rebirth, and the later sacralisation of the liminal in adolescent/adult initiation. Finally, a contemporary revision is explored that incorporates neglected aspects like depth psychology and education for an idea of youth as a life-stage. And while ritual is now deemphasised, the religious dimension is reaffirmed with a critical analysis of cosmic consciousness, the enduring Great Mystery.

The Routledge Handbook on Contemporary Turkey

The Routledge Handbook on Contemporary Turkey
Author: Joost Jongerden
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 674
Release: 2021-07-26
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0429559062

This Handbook discusses the new political and social realities in Turkey from a range of perspectives, emphasizing both changes as well as continuities. Contextualizing recent developments, the chapters, written by experts in their fields, combine analytical depth with a broad overview. In the last few years alone, Turkey has experienced a failed coup attempt; a prolonged state of emergency; the development of a presidential system based on the supreme power of the head of state; a crackdown on traditional and new media, universities and civil society organizations; the detention of journalists, mayors and members of parliament; the establishment of political tutelage over the judiciary; and a staggering economic crisis. It has also terminated talks with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK); intervened in and occupied mountainous border areas in northern Iraq to fight that organization; occupied Afrin and strips of territory in northern Syria; intervened in Libya; articulated an assertive transnational politics toward “kin” across the world; strained its relations with the European Union and the US, while developing relations with Russia; flirted with China’s intercontinental Belt and Road Initiative; and carved out a presence in Africa, to name just a few of the most recent developments. This volume provides a comprehensive and wide-ranging overview of the making of modern Turkey. It is a key reference for students and scholars interested in political economy, security studies, international relations and Turkish studies.

The Anthropology of Religious Charisma

The Anthropology of Religious Charisma
Author: C. Lindholm
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 246
Release: 2013-12-18
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1137377631

According to Max Weber, charisma is opposed to bureaucratic order. This collection reveals the limits of that formula. The contributors show how charisma is a part of cultural frameworks while retaining its ecstatic character among American and Italian Catholics, Syrian Sufis, Taiwanese Buddhists, Hassidic Jews, and Amazonian shamans, among others.

Eucharistic Church, Eucharistic Formation

Eucharistic Church, Eucharistic Formation
Author: Owen F. Cummings
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 181
Release: 2023-02-28
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1666747610

Theological colleges preparing ministerial candidates for ordination are constantly engaged in revising their curricula. In the American Catholic Church at this time (in 2022), this process is guided by the US bishops’ document the Program of Priestly Formation. Mount Angel Seminary believes that its theological curriculum centered on the Eucharist and known as communion ecclesiology offers an integrated approach to priestly formation in all four dimensions of that document: academic, personal, spiritual, and pastoral. The various essays in this book both illustrate how this is done and offer an example to other institutions involved in priestly formation.

Moebius Anthropology

Moebius Anthropology
Author: Don Handelman
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Total Pages: 363
Release: 2020-10-07
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1789208556

Don Handelman’s groundbreaking work in anthropology is showcased in this collection of his most powerful essays, edited by Matan Shapiro and Jackie Feldman. The book looks at the intellectual and spiritual roots of Handelman’s initiation into anthropology; his work on ritual and on “bureaucratic logic”; analyses of cosmology; and innovative essays on Anthropology and Deleuzian thinking. Handelman reconsiders his theory of the forming of form and how this relates to a new theory of the dynamics of time. This will be the definitive collection of articles by one of the most important anthropologists of the late 20th Century.

The Anthropology of Alternative Medicine

The Anthropology of Alternative Medicine
Author: Anamaria Iosif Ross
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 192
Release: 2020-05-27
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1000180743

Alternative medicine is not a fashionable new trend but an established cultural strategy, as well as a dynamic feature of mainstream contemporary medicine, in which elements of folk traditions are often blended with western scientific approaches.The Anthropology of Alternative Medicine is a concise yet wide-ranging exploration of non-biomedical healing. The book addresses a broad range of practices including: substance, energy and information flows (e.g. helminthic therapy); spirit, consciousness and trance (e.g. shamanism); body, movement and the senses (e.g. reiki and aromatherapy); as well as classical medical traditions as complements or alternatives to Western biomedicine (e.g. Ayurveda). Exploring the cultural underpinnings of contemporary healing methods, while assessing current ideas, topics and resources for further study, this book will be invaluable to undergraduate and graduate students in anthropology, sociology, psychology, and health related professions such as nursing, physical and occupational therapy, and biomedicine.

The Secrets of Spirituality & Occult

The Secrets of Spirituality & Occult
Author: Helena Blavatsky
Publisher: e-artnow
Total Pages: 2915
Release: 2019-06-03
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN:

This eBook has been formatted to the highest digital standards and adjusted for readability on all devices. This edition uncovers the fundamental unity from which everything springs and shows the Occult side of Nature that has never been approached by the Science of modern civilization. Isis Unveiled The Secret Doctrine The Key to Theosophy The Voice of the Silence Studies in Occultism From the Caves and Jungles of Hindostan Nightmare Tales

Collected Essays

Collected Essays
Author: Haym Soloveitchik
Publisher: Liverpool University Press
Total Pages: 471
Release: 2020-11-04
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1789624282

Continuing his major contribution to medieval Jewish intellectual history, Haym Soloveitchik focuses here on the radical German Pietists and their main literary work Sefer Ḥasidim, and on the writings and personality of the Provençal commentator Ravad of Posquières. In both areas he challenges reigning views and sets a new agenda for research.

Creation and Humanity

Creation and Humanity
Author: Veli-Matti Karkkainen
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Total Pages: 574
Release: 2015-03-26
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1467443093

The third installment in a wide and deep constructive theology for our time This third volume of Veli-Matti Karkkainen’s ambitious five volume theology project develops a Christian theology of creation and humanity (theological anthropology) in dialogue with the Christian tradition, with contemporary theology in all its global and contextual diversity, and with other major living faiths -- Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism. In constructing his theology of creation and humanity, Karkkainen uniquely engages the natural sciences, including physical, cosmological, and neuroscientific theories. He devotes particular attention to the topics of divine action in a world subjected to scientific study, environmental pollution, human flourishing, and the theological implications of evolutionary theory -- with regard to both cosmos and humanity.