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A rich source for comparative studies of the 'body', and of its relation to society.
Machine generated contents note: -- Preface and Introduction -- 1. The Body in Creation Myths -- 2. Representation of the Divine in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Sacred Texts -- 3. Celebrating the Body in Religious Ritual -- 4. Notions of Purity in Biblical and Indigenous Traditions -- 5. Body Modifications -- 6. Marriage, Sexuality, and Modesty -- 7. Asceticism in Christianity and Jainism -- 8. Food: Laws and Practices -- 9. Erotic Desire and Divine Love in Religious Poetry -- 10. Death and the Afterlife -- 11. Asian Traditions and Views of Harmony, Health and Healing -- 12. Contemporary Issues in Body and Religion
How does religion relate to bodies and sexualities? Many people would answer, simply, "through repression," but the relationship is much more complicated than that. While many religions draw boundaries between what they consider to be appropriate and inappropriate use of the human body, especially in the realm of sexuality, the same religions often celebrate human sexuality and even expect sexual partners to provide each other with sexual pleasure. Celibacy, too, is more than just repression, and sometimes it is even seen as providing the practitioner with great spiritual power; in other settings, the sex act itself is understood to provide this power. Religion, the Body, and Sexuality offer...
This book sheds an interdisciplinary light on ‘transforming bodies’: bodies that have been subjected to, contributed to, or have resisted social transformations within religious or secular contexts in contemporary Europe. It explores the intersections of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality and religion that underpin embodied transformations. Using post-secularist, postcolonial and gender/queer perspectives, it aims to gain a better understanding of the orchestrations and effects of larger social transitions related to religion. This volume is the outcome of the intensive collaboration of the authors, who for years have been meeting regularly in Utrecht, the Netherlands, to discuss themes ...
Subtle-body practices are found particularly in Indian, Indo-Tibetan and East Asian societies, but have become increasingly familiar in Western societies, especially through the various healing and yogic techniques and exercises associated with them. This book explores subtle-body practices from a variety of perspectives, and includes both studies of these practices in Asian and Western contexts. The book discusses how subtle-body practices assume a quasi-material level of human existence that is intermediate between conventional concepts of body and mind. Often, this level is conceived of in terms of an invisible structure of channels, associated with the human body, through which flows of ...
This book reflects on the implications of neurobiology and the scientific worldview on aspects of religious experience, belief, and practice, focusing especially on the body and the construction of religious meaning.
In this book, contributors argue that the Black Church must begin to address the significance of sexuality if it is to actually present liberation as a mode of existence that fully appreciates the body. The contributors argue that we not only have to look at the Black Church in this discussion, but also explore black Christianity in general.
The postmodern view that human experience is constructed by language and culture has informed historical narratives for decades. Yet newly emerging information about the biological body now makes it possible to supplement traditional scholarly models with insights about the bodily sources of human thought and experience. The Body of Faith is the first account of American religious history to highlight the biological body. Robert C. Fuller brings a crucial new perspective to the study of American religion, showing that knowledge about the biological body deeply enriches how we explain dramatic episodes in American religious life. Fuller shows that the body’s genetically evolved systems—pain responses, sexual passion, and emotions like shame and fear—have persistently shaped the ways that Americans forge relationships with nature, to society, and to God. The first new work to appear in the Chicago History of American Religion series in decades, The Body of Faith offers a truly interdisciplinary framework for explaining the richness, diversity, and endless creativity of American religious life.
'Giving the bst of yourself' in sports : the Catholic Church's attention to sports in past and present / Dries Vanysacker -- Holy marathon : 'running religion'? : religious interpretations of body vulnerability in the context of marathons / Kristin Graff-Kallevåg and Sturla J. Stålsett -- Gaining balance in religious training : what might sports and physical culture coaches learn from this? / David Torevell -- Corporeal enhancement and sport's spiritual dimension : a virtue ethics proposal / Tracy J. Trothen -- Training the body (stretching the mind) and moulding the spirit : sport, Christian asceticism and life as self-gift / Paul Rowan -- Towards an A to Z of faith in sport / Simon Lee -...
Following in the very successful tradition of Critical Terms for Literary Studies and Critical Terms for Art History, this book attempts to provide a revitalized, self-aware vocabulary with which this bewildering religious diversity can be accurately described and responsibly discussed. Leading scholars working in a variety of traditions demonstrate through their incisive discussions that even our most basic terms for understanding religion are not neutral but carry specific historical and conceptual freight.