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The Panacea Society was a small religious community of women that was established in England in the early twentieth century. They followed the early nineteenth-century mystic Joanna Southcott, as well other emerging spiritual movements of the day, and developed a remarkable spiritual healing practice that spread around the world. Based on the thousands of letters held in the Society's healing archive, which were sent by ordinary people from around the world, Alastair Lockhart offers a detailed study of the religious ideas of religious seekers from the 1920s to the 1970s. Focusing on Great Britain, Finland, Jamaica, and the US, Lockhart provides unique insight into the personal nature of spirituality in recent times and how ancient and modern spiritual strands were harnessed to the needs of late-modern spiritual seekers. This book addresses debates about the complexity and meaning of the rise or decline of religion in the twentieth century and the processes involved in the formation of popular nontraditional spiritualities. It informs our understanding of global and transnational religions and recent forms of spiritual healing.
A diverse group of scholars charts new paths in the quest for the historical Jesus. After a decade of stagnation in the study of the historical Jesus, James Crossley and Chris Keith have assembled an international team of scholars to envision the quest anew. The contributors offer new perspectives and fresh methods for reengaging the question of the historical Jesus. Important, timely, and fascinating, The Next Quest for the Historical Jesus is a must read for anyone seeking to understand Jesus of Nazareth. Contributors Michael P. Barber, Augustine Institute Graduate School of Theology, United States of America Giovanni B. Bazzana, Harvard Divinity School, United States of America Helen K. B...
This is a study of the relationship between Anglicans and the armed forces, of the military heritage and history of the Anglican Communion, and the changing nature of this relationship between the mid-Victorian period and the 1970s. This era spanned a period of imperial expansion and colonial conflict round the turn of the twentieth century, the two World Wars, the Cold War, wars of decolonisation, and Vietnam. In terms of armed conflict, it was the bloodiest period in the history of humanity and marked the advent of weaponry that had the capacity to extinguish human civilization. This book assesses the contribution of an expansive Anglican Communion to the armed forces of the English-speaking world, examines the ways in which this has been remembered, and explores its challenging legacy for the twenty-first century Church of England.
In How Religion Evolved, Robin Dunbar explores the evolution of religion from the earliest practices to the world religions familiar to us today. Examining religion's origins, social functions, its effects on the brain and body, and its place in the modern era, Dunbar offers a fascinating and far-reaching analysis of the quintessentially human impulse to believe.
Meet the real John the Baptist. For many, John the Baptist is a footnote in the gospels—Jesus’s unkempt forerunner. But if we look closer, John emerges as a fascinating and influential religious leader in his own right. Esteemed New Testament scholar James F. McGrath turns his critical eye to overlooked details in Scripture and long-neglected sources to discover who John the Baptist really was. McGrath covers the well-known events of John’s life, from his miraculous conception to his execution at the hands of Herod Antipas. Along the way, he introduces key context about John’s social and religious world that fleshes out John’s character. John becomes a rebel son of a priest. An innovator of ritual. A mentor of Jesus. McGrath also explores John’s far-reaching impact on the history of religion. Aside from his influence on Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, John is also revered by the Mandaeans, the last extant gnostic sect, who consider themselves John’s faithful disciples. This fresh look at the life of John the Baptist will fascinate any reader interested in John, Jesus, and their dynamic world.
This book gives an up-to-date overview and evaluation of what psychology tells us about religious beliefs, practices, and experiences.
Is the human self singular and unified or essentially plural? This book explores the seemingly disparate ways that Christian theology and the secular human sciences have approached this complex question. The latter have largely embraced the idea of the plural self as an inescapable, even adaptive feature of psychological life. Contemporary Christian theology, by contrast, has largely neglected recent psychological accounts of the naturalness of self-plurality, and has sought to reaffirm the self's unity in opposition to those postmodern theorists who would dismantle it. Through an original analysis of recent theological and secular accounts of self and personhood, this book examines the exte...
What happens when prophecies fail? Timothy Jenkins' re-reading of Leon Festinger's classic work on "cognitive dissonance" seeks to answer this question by studying a 50s doomsday group. This volume explores the relations between anthropology and psychology, and between social scientific and natural scientific accounts of human behavior.
What does the future hold? Will faithful Christians face persecution? How can I be sure to stand strong during these troubled times? The book of Revelation was written for those going through difficult times. The first readers of this biblical book were experiencing a wave of persecution in the Roman world. To follow the Christian faith was to experience opposition. Renown Bible teacher and prophecy expert, Dr. Michael Youssef, believes twentieth-first century Christians are experiencing a similar wave of hostility in our culture. That is why the words of Jesus in Revelation can be especially compelling to modern readers. It is a source of comfort and encouragement for those who are determin...