Why Religion?

Why Religion?
Author: Elaine Pagels
Publisher: HarperLuxe
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2018-11-06
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780062860989

Why is religion still around in the twenty-first century? Why do so many still believe? And how do various traditions still shape the way people experience everything from sexuality to politics, whether they are religious or not? In Why Religion? Elaine Pagels looks to her own life to help address these questions. These questions took on a new urgency for Pagels when dealing with unimaginable loss—the death of her young son, followed a year later by the shocking loss of her husband. Here she interweaves a personal story with the work that she loves, illuminating how, for better and worse, religious traditions have shaped how we understand ourselves; how we relate to one another; and, most importantly, how to get through the most difficult challenges we face. Drawing upon the perspectives of neurologists, anthropologists, and historians, as well as her own research, Pagels opens unexpected ways of understanding persistent religious aspects of our culture. A provocative and deeply moving account from one of the most compelling religious thinkers at work today, Why Religion? explores the spiritual dimension of human experience.

A Religion of One's Own

A Religion of One's Own
Author: Thomas Moore
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 308
Release: 2014-01-09
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0698148592

The New York Times bestselling author and trusted spiritual adviser offers a follow-up to his classic Care of the Soul. Something essential is missing from modern life. Many who’ve turned away from religious institutions—and others who have lived wholly without religion—hunger for more than what contemporary secular life has to offer but are reluctant to follow organized religion’s strict and often inflexible path to spirituality. In A Religion of One’s Own, bestselling author and former monk Thomas Moore explores the myriad possibilities of creating a personal spiritual style, either inside or outside formal religion. Two decades ago, Moore’s Care of the Soul touched a chord with millions of readers yearning to integrate spirituality into their everyday lives. In A Religion of One’s Own, Moore expands on the topics he first explored shortly after leaving the monastery. He recounts the benefits of contemplative living that he learned during his twelve years as a monk but also the more original and imaginative spirituality that he later developed and embraced in his secular life. Here, he shares stories of others who are creating their own path: a former football player now on a spiritual quest with the Pueblo Indians, a friend who makes a meditative practice of floral arrangements, and a well-known classical pianist whose audiences sometimes describe having a mystical experience while listening to her performances. Moore weaves their experiences with the wisdom of philosophers, writers, and artists who have rejected materialism and infused their secular lives with transcendence. At a time when so many feel disillusioned with or detached from organized religion yet long for a way to move beyond an exclusively materialistic, rational lifestyle, A Religion of One’s Own points the way to creating an amplified inner life and a world of greater purpose, meaning, and reflection.

Beyond Religion

Beyond Religion
Author: David N Elkins
Publisher: Quest Books
Total Pages: 325
Release: 2013-11-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0835630587

Let David Elkins, psychologist and former minister, show you how to find authentic, soul-nurturing spirituality outside church or temple walls. Discover your personal path to the sacred and explore new ways to bring nonreligious spirituality into your life.

Personal Religion and Magic in Mamasa, West Sulawesi

Personal Religion and Magic in Mamasa, West Sulawesi
Author: C.W. Buijs
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 173
Release: 2016-10-05
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 900432657X

In Personal Religion and Magic in Mamasa, West Sulawesi, Kees Buijs describes the traditional culture of the Toraja’s, which is rapidly vanishing. The focus is on personal religion as it has its centre in the kitchen of each house. In the kitchen and also by the use of magical words and stones the gods are sought for their powers of blessing. This book adds important information to Buijs’ earlier Powers of Blessing from the Wilderness and from Heaven (Brill, 2006).

Religion in Ancient Egypt

Religion in Ancient Egypt
Author: John Baines
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 236
Release: 1991
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780801497865

Lectures given at a symposium held in 1987, sponsored by Fordham University.

Religion and the Individual

Religion and the Individual
Author: Abby Day
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 237
Release: 2016-04-08
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1317067800

What does religion mean to the individual? How are people religious and what do their beliefs, practices and identities mean to them? The individual's place within studies of religion has tended to be overlooked recently in favour of macro analyses. Religion and the Individual draws together authors from around the world to explore belief, practice and identity. Using original case studies and other work firmly placed in the empirical, contributors discuss what religious belief means to the individual. They examine how people embody what religion means to them through practice, considering the different meanings that people attach to religion and the social expressions of their personal understandings and the ways in which religion shapes how people see themselves in relation to others. This work is cross-cultural, with contributions from Asia, Europe and North America.

In Search of Personal Welfare

In Search of Personal Welfare
Author: Mu-chou Poo
Publisher: SUNY Press
Total Pages: 350
Release: 1998-01-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780791436295

The first major reassessment of ancient Chinese religion to appear in recent years, this book presents the religious mentality of the period through personal and daily experiences.