Like many of the clergy leaders in the civil rights movement, Oliver embodied what Gayraud S. Wilmore identified as the radical tradition in Black religion. Unlike most of those leaders, Oliver was educated in predominantly white, conservative religious circles. He drew many of his theological convictions from the conservative Presbyterian…[Read more]

Functions of Religion
1. Fear of the unknown Fear of the unknown is a popular theory. The philosopher David Hume, the anthropologist Malinowski, and Einstein all emphasize the role of anxiety – or fear.
2. Anthropomorphism, the attribution of human characteristics or behavior to a god, animal, or object, is another favorite theory. Xenophanes (…[Read more]

As a theoretical paradigm is a very natural and common-sense, idea-model – an idea or paradigm of a human being that is easily grasped model-idea. It is not surprisingly, then, that the Body-Mind-Spirit Paradigm appeared very early in human history.

The Ho’omana religion actually recognizes three different types or levels of “spirit,” which…[Read more]

Perhaps the most incredible case Edgar Cayce ever encountered was the case of the Dietrich child. In fact, because newspapers did publish the remarkable story of the Dietrich child, Edgar Cayce immediately became a sensation. In 1902, Cayce had just begun to gain a reputation as a healer. Aimee Dietrich was a six-year-old child who had become…[Read more]

Kenneth Pargament vigorously argues that, “There is a deeper dimension to our problems. Illness, accident, interpersonal conflicts, divorce, layoffs, and death are more than “significant life events.” They raise profound and disturbing questions about our place and purpose in the world, they point to the limits of and underscore our finitude.” (p.…[Read more]

Spirituality is a natural human predisposition. It is more primal than institutional religion and concerns a person’s sense of connectedness with self, others, and the world (or cosmos). Kate Adams Bishop Grosseteste University College Lincoln & Brendan Hyde Australian Catholic University
Preface: Edna’s story of her struggle with the death of…[Read more]

Up close and personal: J. E. Kennedy points out that “45% of people in one particular study reported an initial reaction of fear to their spiritual-psychic experiences.” Categorization is well-known and well-proven process in the human mind. In my experience it is clear that my experience which was and still is unexplainable under the normal sta…[Read more]

The theory of language that underlies Plotinus’ Enneads is considered in relation to his broader metaphysical vision. For Plotinus, language is neither univocal nor equivocal, but is something in-between, incapable of precisely describing reality, but nonetheless not completely useless. Propositional knowledge expressed discursively represents a…[Read more]

The theory of language that underlies Plotinus’ Enneads is considered in relation to his broader metaphysical vision. For Plotinus, language is neither univocal nor equivocal, but is something in-between, incapable of precisely describing reality, but nonetheless not completely useless. Propositional knowledge expressed discursively represents a…[Read more]

The world of Platonic idealism will not be satisfactorily imported into the world of phenomenological consciousness. The task of phenomenological philosophers is to return to the interpretation of experience itself and seek to recast meaning not in terms of theoretical idealism, but in terms of existential meaning. The phenomenological philosopher…[Read more]

The world of Platonic idealism will not be satisfactorily imported into the world of phenomenological consciousness. The task of phenomenological philosophers is to return to the interpretation of experience itself and seek to recast meaning not in terms of theoretical idealism, but in terms of existential meaning. The phenomenological philosopher…[Read more]

In theological discourse about voluntary assisted dying, two of the most contested areas are those that relate broadly to matters of individualism, autonomy and rights, and those that are concerned with interpretations around the sanctity of human life given by God. These two areas represent unavoidably difficult theological spaces, with profound…[Read more]

Angels, as mythical beings, appear and disappear suddenly throughout Biblical Texts, without any clear explanation of their origins or metaphysical ranks. Whether they are considered circumstantial theophanies or entities with granted self-existence and specific divine functions; such metaphysical entities have a vital presence in the religious…[Read more]

I contend that the modern discipline of Sociology, as understood in the West, has evolved into a socio-philosophy from within an existential system of theology. Two systems of philosophy confront one another in the contemporary world, i.e., classical philosophy based on the authority of Hellenistic philosophy and an existential philosophy based on…[Read more]

I contend that the modern discipline of Sociology, as understood in the West, has evolved into a socio-philosophy from within an existential system of theology. Two systems of philosophy confront one another in the contemporary world, i.e., classical philosophy based on the authority of Hellenistic philosophy and an existential philosophy based on…[Read more]

मध्यप्रदेश हाईकोर्ट ने 27 जनवरी, 2012 के अपने फैसले में राज्य की भाजपा सरकार द्वारा स्कूलों में ‘गीता सार’ पढ़ाए जाने को उचित ठहराते हुए कहा था कि गीता हिंदू धर्म ग्रंथ नहीं, बल्कि भारतीय दर्शन है। यह टिप्पणी उसी संदर्भ में है।

प्रमोद रंजन इस लेख के माध्यम से सामाजिक कार्यकर्ता राणा बैनर्जी के बहुमुखी प्रतिभा को सामने लाते हैं। पटना के संस्कृतिकर्मी राणा बैनर्जी ने वर्ष 2008 में गंगा में कूदकर आत्महत्या कर लिया था। जब कवि और लेखक आत्महत्या करने लगे तो यह समझ लेना चाहिए कि देश पर, समाज पर गहरा संकट आनेवाला है। आत्महत्या स्वजनित नहीं होती अपितु परिस्थितिजन्य होती है…[Read more]

This chapter is from the *The Rowman & Littlefield Handbook of Christianity in the middle East* (2021).

This chapter is from section five, The Story of Middle Eastern Christianity by Country and in the World Context.

In this chapter, the author argues that Christianity has a lengthy and deep history in that region of Arabia known today as…[Read more]

This chapter is part of a book that explores the theology, anthropology and sociology of so-called Insider Movements (IM). In this chapter the author gives an account of his field research in Asia Minor among Muslim-background believers (MBBs). The chapter also explores the original context of Christians in Antakya (Antioch) in the first century,…[Read more]