Hindi Christian Literature in Contemporary India

Hindi Christian Literature in Contemporary India
Author: Rakesh Peter-Dass
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 217
Release: 2019-09-12
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1000702243

This is the first academic study of Christian literature in Hindi and its role in the politics of language and religion in contemporary India. In public portrayals, Hindi has been the language of Hindus and Urdu the language of Muslims, but Christians have been usually been associated with the English of the foreign ‘West’. However, this book shows how Christian writers in India have adopted Hindi in order to promote a form of Christianity that can be seen as Indian, desī, and rooted in the religio-linguistic world of the Hindi belt. Using three case studies, the book demonstrates how Hindi Christian writing strategically presents Christianity as linguistically Hindi, culturally Indian, and theologically informed by other faiths. These works are written to sway public perceptions by promoting particular forms of citizenship in the context of fostering the use of Hindi. Examining the content and context of Christian attention to Hindi, it is shown to have been deployed as a political and cultural tool by Christians in India. This book gives an important insight into the link between language and religion in India. As such, it will be of great interest to scholars of Religion in India, World Christianity, Religion and Politics and Interreligious Dialogue, as well as Religious Studies and South Asian Studies.

Christians and Christianity in India Today

Christians and Christianity in India Today
Author: Lalsangkima Pachuau
Publisher: Augsburg Fortress Publishers
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2024-11-12
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1506493475

"This book provides a panoramic view of Christians in India today. It deals with Christianity's history, major theological themes and approaches, and missiological issues in India within the framework of World Christianity"--

Anti-Christian Violence in India

Anti-Christian Violence in India
Author: Chad M. Bauman
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 317
Release: 2020-09-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1501751433

Does religion cause violent conflict, asks Chad M. Bauman, and if so, does it cause conflict more than other social identities? Through an extended history of Christian-Hindu relations, with particular attention to the 2007–2008 riots in Kandhamal, Odisha, Anti-Christian Violence in India examines religious violence and how it pertains to broader aspects of humanity. Is "religious" conflict sui generis, or is it merely one species of intergroup conflict? Why and how might violence become an attractive option for religious actors? What explains the increase in religious violence over the last twenty to thirty years? Integrating theories of anti-Christian violence focused on politics, economics, and proselytization, Anti-Christian Violence in India additionally weaves in recent theory about globalization and, in particular, the forms of resistance against Western secular modernity that globalization periodically helps to provoke. With such theories in mind, Bauman explores the nature of anti-Christian violence in India, contending that resistance to secular modernities is, in fact, an important but often overlooked reason behind Hindu attacks on Christians. Intensifying the widespread Hindu tendency to think of religion in ethnic rather than universal terms, the ideology of Hindutva, or "Hinduness," explicitly rejects both the secular privatization of religion and the separability of religions from the communities that incubate them. And so, with provocative and original analysis, Bauman questions whether anti-Christian violence in contemporary India is really about religion, in the narrowest sense, or rather a manifestation of broader concerns among some Hindus about the Western sociopolitical order with which they associate global Christianity.

History of Modern India

History of Modern India
Author: Radhey Shyam Chaurasia
Publisher: Atlantic Publishers & Dist
Total Pages: 524
Release: 2002
Genre: History
ISBN: 9788126900855

Tremendous Progress Has Been Made In India During The Modern Period. British Rule Unified India, Gave New Ideals Of Parliamentary Government And Established Factories, Railways, Telephone, Etc. Due To Development Of New Scientific Weapons And Impact Of Industrial Revolution, East India Company Was Able To Defeat Indian Powers And Succeeded In Establishing British Rule In India, Burma And Ceylon. In 1857, Great Rebellion Took Place Which Ended Rule Of East India Company And British Parliament In The Name Of Queen And King Began To Rule All Over India Through The Secretary Of State For India And The Viceroy Of India. The Book Is Divided Into Two Parts. Part I Deals With Anglo-French Wars, Maratha And Sikh Wars And Wars With Other Small Powers And Role Of Different Governor Generals Such As Clive, Warren Hastings, Cornwallis, Wellesley, Hastings And Dalhousie Etc. Socio-Religious Movements Took Place During This Period And Brahmo Samaj Was Established By Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Arya Samaj By Swami Dayanand, Ram Krishna Mission By Swami Vivekanand. Reform Movements Of Muslims And Sikhs Also Took Place.Part Ii Of The Book Deals With The Constitutional Developments And Nationalist Movement And The Role Played By The Eminent Leaders During This Period. Ultimately, India Became Free On 15Th August, 1947, And Constitutional Parliamentary Government Was Established And India Became The Largest Democracy Of The World. India Was Divided, Pakistan Came Into Existence, Which Gave Rise To Conflicts Between These Two Powers. Though In 1971, Pakistan Was Divided And Bangladesh Came Into Existence But Conflict Is Still Continuing. After Independence, India Has Made Great Progress And She Is Now One Of The Mightiest Powers On Earth With Nuclear Weapons And Viable Economy. From 1947 To 2002 Tremendous Progress Has Been Made In Scientific Inventions, Art, Literature And In Other Social Aspects Which Have Been Described In Brief.Unfortunately, Modern History Of India Has Been Written By British Writers With Imperialist Point Of View. In This Book An Attempt Has Been Made To Give Objective Outlook.

Freethought and Atheism in Central and Eastern Europe

Freethought and Atheism in Central and Eastern Europe
Author: Tomáš Bubík
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 309
Release: 2020-02-26
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1000039838

This book provides the first comprehensive overview of atheism, secularity and non-religion in Central and Eastern Europe in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. In contrast to scholarship that has focused on the ‘decline of religion’ and secularization theory, the book builds upon recent trends to focus on the ‘rise of non-religion’ itself. While the label of ‘post-communism’ might suggest a generalized perception of the region, this survey reveals that the precise developments in each country before, after and even during the communist era are surprisingly diverse. A multinational team of contributors provide interdisciplinary case studies covering Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, Ukraine, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria. This approach utilises perspectives from social and intellectual history in combination with sociology of religion in order to cover the historical development of secularity and secular thought, complemented with sociological data. The study is framed by methodological and analytical chapters. Offering an important geographical perspective to the study of freethought, atheism, secularity and non-religion, this wide-ranging book will be of significant interest to scholars of twentieth-century social and intellectual history, sociology of religion and non-religion, cultural and religious studies, philosophy and theology.

Media and Science-Religion Conflict

Media and Science-Religion Conflict
Author: Thomas Aechtner
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2020-01-22
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1000030717

This book examines why the religion-science skirmishes known as the Evolution Wars have persisted into the 21st century. It does so by considering the influences of mass media in relation to decision-making research and the Elaboration Likelihood Model, one of the most authoritative persuasion theories. The book’s analysis concentrates on the expression of cues, or cognitive mental shortcuts, in Darwin-sceptic and counter-creationist broadcasts. A multiyear collection of media generated by the most prominent Darwin-sceptic organizations is surveyed, along with rival publications from supporters of evolutionary theory described as the pro-evolutionists. The analysed materials include works produced by Young Earth Creationist and Intelligent Design media makers, New Atheist pacesetters, as well as both agnostic and religious supporters of evolution. These cues are shown to function as subtle but effective means of shaping public opinion, including appeals to expertise, claims that ideas are being censored, and the tactical use of statistics and technical jargon. Contending that persuasive mass media is a decisive component of science-religion controversies, this book will be of keen interest to scholars of Religion, Science and Religion interactions, as well as researchers of Media and Communication Studies more generally.

Music, Branding and Consumer Culture in Church

Music, Branding and Consumer Culture in Church
Author: Tom Wagner
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 176
Release: 2019-10-16
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0429018878

Starting as a single congregation in Australia, Hillsong Church now has campuses worldwide, releases worship music that sells millions of albums and its ministers regularly appear in mainstream media. So, how has a single church gained such international prominence? This book offers an ethnographic exploration of the ways in which music and marketing have been utilised in the pursuit and production of spiritual experience for members of Hillsong Church. An experience that has proven to be incredibly popular. The main theme of this book is that marketing, specifically branding, is not just a way to "sell" religion, but rather an integral part of spiritual experience in consumer society. Focussing on the London Hillsong church as a case study, the use of its own music in tandem with strong branding is shown to be a co- and re-productive method of organizing, patterning, and communicating information. The church provides the branded material and cultural context in which participants’ sacred experience of self unfolds. However, this requires participants to "do the work" to properly understand, and ultimately embody, the values associated with the brand. This book raises important questions about the role of branding and music in forming modern scared identities. As such, it will be of great interest to scholars of Religious Studies, Ethnomusicology and Media Studies.

Orthodox Christianity and Gender

Orthodox Christianity and Gender
Author: Helena Kupari
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 218
Release: 2019-10-17
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1351329863

The Orthodox Christian tradition has all too often been sidelined in conversations around contemporary religion. Despite being distinct from Protestantism and Catholicism in both theology and practice, it remains an underused setting for academic inquiry into current lived religious practice. This collection, therefore, seeks to redress this imbalance by investigating modern manifestations of Orthodox Christianity through an explicitly gender-sensitive gaze. By addressing attitudes to gender in this context, it fills major gaps in the literature on both religion and gender. Starting with the traditional teachings and discourses around gender in the Orthodox Church, the book moves on to demonstrate the diversity of responses to those narratives that can be found among Orthodox populations in Europe and North America. Using case studies from several countries, with both large and small Orthodox populations, contributors use an interdisciplinary approach to address how gender and religion interact in contexts such as, iconography, conversion, social activism and ecumenical relations, among others. From Greece and Russia to Finland and the USA, this volume sheds new light on the myriad ways in which gender is manifested, performed, and engaged within contemporary Orthodoxy. Furthermore, it also demonstrates that employing the analytical lens of gender enables new insights into Orthodox Christianity as a lived tradition. It will, therefore, be of great interest to scholars of both Religious Studies and Gender Studies.

Religion, Modernity, Globalisation

Religion, Modernity, Globalisation
Author: François Gauthier
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 362
Release: 2019-09-30
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1000725979

This book argues that the last four decades have seen profound and important changes in the nature and social location of religion, and that those changes are best understood when cast against the associated rise of consumerism and neoliberalism. These transformations are often misunderstood and underestimated, namely because the study of religion remains dependent on the secularisation paradigm which can no longer provide a sufficiently fruitful framework for analysis. The book challenges diagnoses of transience and fragmentation by proposing an alternative narrative and set of concepts for understanding the global religious landscape. The present situation is framed as the result of a shift from a National-Statist to a Global-Market regime of religion. Adopting a holistic perspective that breaks with the current specialisation tendencies, it charts the emergence of the State and the Market as institutions and ideas related to social order, as well as their changing rapports from classical modernity to today. Breaking with a tradition of Western-centeredness, the book offers probing enquiries into Indonesia and a synthesis of global and Western trends. This long-awaited book offers a bold new vision for the social scientific study of religion and will be of great interest to all scholars of the Sociology and Anthropology of religion, as well as Religious Studies in general.

Transformational Embodiment in Asian Religions

Transformational Embodiment in Asian Religions
Author: George Pati
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2019-10-28
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1000735443

This volume examines several theoretical concerns of embodiment in the context of Asian religious practice. Looking at both subtle and spatial bodies, it explores how both types of embodiment are engaged as sites for transformation, transaction and transgression. Collectively bridging ancient and modern conceptualizations of embodiment in religious practice, the book offers a complex mapping of how body is defined. It revisits more traditional, mystical religious systems, including Hindu Tantra and Yoga, Tibetan Buddhism, Bon, Chinese Daoism and Persian Sufism and distinctively juxtaposes these inquiries alongside analyses of racial, gendered, and colonized bodies. Such a multifaceted subject requires a diverse approach, and so perspectives from phenomenology and neuroscience as well as critical race theory and feminist theology are utilised to create more precise analytical tools for the scholarly engagement of embodied religious epistemologies. This a nuanced and interdisciplinary exploration of the myriad issues around bodies within religion. As such it will be a key resource for any scholar of Religious Studies, Asian Studies, Anthropology, Sociology, Philosophy, and Gender Studies.