2349 products were found matching your search for secular in 2 shops:

This volume traces the secular influences of first-century Roman Corinth on the local church leadership. It then shows how Paul modifies the Corinthian understanding of church leadership. Using 1 Corinthians 1-6 together with other first-century literary and non-literary sources, it is argued that one of Paul's major concerns with the church in Corinth is the extent to which significant members in the church were employing secular categories and perceptions of leadership in the Christian community. this updated edition also seeks to reflect on recent developments in 1 Corinthians scholarship.

Secular Works Extra Life - LP 874626001211

SHM-CD

Northrop Frye’s thinking has had a pervasive impact on contemporary interpretations of our literary and cultural heritage. In his Anatomy of Criticism, a landmark in the history of modern critical theory, he demonstrated his genius for mapping out the realm of imaginative creation. In The Secular Scripture he turns again to the task of establishing a broad theoretical framework, bringing to bear his extraordinary command of the whole range of literature from antiquity to the present.Romance, a mode of literature trafficking in such plot elements as mistaken identity, shipwrecks, magic potions, the rescue of maidens in distress, has tended to be regarded as hardly deserving of serious consideration; critics praise other aspects of the Odyssey, The Faerie Queene, Shakespeare’s last plays, and Scott’s Waverley novels, for example, while forgiving the authors’ indulgence in childishly romantic plots. Frye, however, discerns in the innumerable romantic narratives of the Western tradition an imaginative universe stretching from an idyllic world to a demonic one, and a pattern of action taking the form of a cyclical descent into and ascent out of the demonic realm. Romance as a whole is thus seen as forming an integrated vision of the world, a “secular scripture” whose hero is man, paralleling the sacred scripture whose hero is God.The clarity of Northrop Frye’s perception, the scope and suggestiveness of his conceptualizing, the wit and grace of his style, have won him universal admiration.

The archaeology of everyday life is a relatively under-explored aspect of the Byzantine world, and often takes a back-seat to the more visible aspects of Byzantine history, such as works of art and ecclesiastical architecture. This book seeks to redress the imbalance by focusing on some of the available evidence for the 'everyday' in Byzantine houses and towns: the archaeology of secular domestic structures. Several papers bring together and reinterpret much of what is known of Byzantine housing, from Italy and Greece to North Africa and the East Mediterranean rim, in the fifth to fifteenth centuries. Other topics include a review of the rich archaeological data for domestic and commercial activities from the Byzantine shops at Sardis; a re-examination of the of the relationship between domestic artefacts and religious identity in Early Byzantine Israel; and a reinterpretation of the most extensively studied (and grandest) of all Byzantine houses: the Great Palace of the Byzantine Emperors at Constantinople. (Oxbow Books forthcoming 2004)

Can a skeptic reap the benefits of a religious practice? When you can't abide ideas of the supernatural, when no religious account of the world satisfies, how can you satisfy the need for depth, engagement, serenity in life? Davd Cortesi, well-known as a writer on technical subjects, brings a programmer's bent for logic and scholar's research skills to the search for secular ways to: * Gain existential validity, the sense we have a right to exist. * Weave a richly connected, suppportive community. * Gain the psychological benefits of meditation and prayer. * Enjoy the stability and comfort of meaningful ritual. * Formulate and justify a personal ethical code. * Prepare for deaths: our own, and those of people we love. The book also includes wide-ranging essays on: * The pursuit of the mysic experience: How common is it? What is it like? What does it signify? How hard is it to reach? * How do we identify heroes and role models? Whata does that imply for us and our children? * What does science know about happiness? What are practical strategies for becoming happier? The book draws as freely from recent papers in refereed journals as it does from the teachings of the Buddha, Solon, and Epicurus. Optimistic, sometimes lyrical, but always grounded firmly in reason, Secular Wholeness is for anyone trying to live a deeper, more intentional life.

An essential collection of Stephen Batchelor’s most probing and important work on secular Buddhism As the practice of mindfulness permeates mainstream Western culture, more and more people are engaging in a traditional form of Buddhist meditation. However, many of these people have little interest in the religious aspects of Buddhism, and the practice occurs within secular contexts such as hospitals, schools, and the workplace. Is it possible to recover from the Buddhist teachings a vision of human flourishing that is secular rather than religious without compromising the integrity of the tradition? Is there an ethical framework that can underpin and contextualize these practices in a rapidly changing world?   In this collected volume of Stephen Batchelor’s writings on these themes, the author explores the complex implications of Buddhism’s secularization. Ranging widely—from reincarnation, religious belief, and agnosticism to the role of the arts in Buddhist practice—he offers a detailed picture of contemporary Buddhism and its attempt to find a voice in the modern world.

An essential collection of Stephen Batchelor’s most probing and important work on secular Buddhism As the practice of mindfulness permeates mainstream Western culture, more and more people are engaging in a traditional form of Buddhist meditation. However, many of these people have little interest in the religious aspects of Buddhism, and the practice occurs within secular contexts such as hospitals, schools, and the workplace. Is it possible to recover from the Buddhist teachings a vision of human flourishing that is secular rather than religious without compromising the integrity of the tradition? Is there an ethical framework that can underpin and contextualize these practices in a rapidly changing world?   In this collected volume of Stephen Batchelor’s writings on these themes, the author explores the complex implications of Buddhism’s secularization. Ranging widely—from reincarnation, religious belief, and agnosticism to the role of the arts in Buddhist practice—he offers a detailed picture of contemporary Buddhism and its attempt to find a voice in the modern world.

Buy with confidence! Book is in acceptable condition with wear to the pages, binding, and some marks within 1.06

Victorian architect-designer E. W. Godwin (1833–1886), tying himself neither morally nor aesthetically to a single style, approached design with what he called "judicious eclecticism." Seeking to design furniture appropriate to the needs of modern living, he grappled with the problems of affordability, utility, and function and experimented with modular and fitted furniture decades before it became popular in the mid-twentieth century. This book is the first comprehensive study of Godwin’s furniture designs. Taking the form of a catalogue raisonné, the book documents and reproduces all known examples of his secular furniture and related furniture designs. Susan Weber Soros traces the development of Godwin’s style, examines its sources, and assesses the historical importance of his work. She discusses how Godwin combined antiquarian interests with the study of more recent design traditions from different parts of the world, including Japan. Godwin worked in six major styles: Gothic revival, Anglo-Japanese, Anglo-Greek, Anglo-Egyptian, Queen Anne or Cottage style, and Old English or Jacobean. Soros also describes his work for leading art manufacturers; the work he exhibited at great international exhibits in Vienna, Philadelphia, and Paris; and his role as designer of choice for such leading artists of his generation as James McNeill Whistler and Oscar Wilde.

Today's secularists too often have very little accurate knowledge about religion, and even less desire to learn. This is problematic insofar as their sense of self is constructed in opposition to religion. Above all, the secularist is not a Jew, is not a Christian, not a Muslim, and so on. But is it intellectually responsible to define one's identity against something that one does not understand? And what happens when these secularists weigh in on contentious political issues, blind to the religious back-story or concerns that inevitably inform these debates? In The Secular Bible: Why Nonbelievers Must Take Religion Seriously Jacques Berlinerblau suggests that atheists and agnostics must take stock of that which they so adamantly oppose. Defiantly maintaining a shallow understanding of religion, he argues, is not a politically prudent strategy in this day and age. But this book is no less critical of many believers, who--Berlinerblau contends--need to emancipate themselves from ways of thinking about their faith that are dangerously simplistic, irrational and outdated. Exploring the Hebrew Bible, or Old Testament, from the perspective of a specialist, nonbeliever, and critic of the academic religious studies establishment, Berlinerblau begins by offering a provocative answer to the question of "who wrote the Bible?" The very peculiar way in which this text was composed provides a key to understanding its unique power (and vulnerability) in the modern public sphere. In separate chapters, he looks at how the sparse and contradictory words of Scripture are invoked in contemporary disputes about Jewish intermarriage and homosexuality in the Christian world. Finally, he examines ways in which the Qur'an might be subject to the types of secular interpretation advocated throughout this book. Cumulatively, this book is a first attempt to reinvigorate an estimable secular, intellectual tradition, albeit one that is currently experiencing a moment of crisis.

Sociologists, historians, and other social observers have long considered the secularization of American public life over the past hundred and thirty years to be an inevitable and natural outcome of modernization. This groundbreaking work rejects this view and fundamentally rethinks the historical and theoretical causes of the secularization of American public life between 1870 and 1930. Christian Smith and his team of contributors boldly argue that the declining authority of religion was not the by-product of modernization, but rather the intentional achievement of cultural and intellectual elites, including scientists, academics, and literary intellectuals, seeking to gain control of social institutions and increase their own cultural authority. Writing with vigor and a broad intellectual grasp, the contributors examine power struggles and ideological shifts in various social sectors where the public authority of religion has diminished, in particular education, science, law, and journalism. Together the essays depict a cultural and institutional revolution that is best understood in terms of individual agency, conflicts of interest, resource mobilization, and struggles for authority. Engaging both sociological and historical literature, The Secular Revolution offers a new theoretical framework and original empirical research that will inform our understanding of American society from the nineteenth to the twenty-first centuries. The ramifications of its provocative and cogent thesis will be felt throughout sociology, religious studies, and our general thinking about society for years to come.

Popular music in the Americas, from jazz, Cuban and Latin salsa to disco and rap, is overwhelmingly neo-African. Created in the midst of war and military invasion, and filtered through a Western worldview, these musical forms are completely modern in their sensibilities: they are in fact the very sound of modern life. But the African religious philosophy at their core involved a longing for earlier eras—ones that pre-dated the technological discipline of labor forced on captive populations by the European occupiers. In this groundbreaking new book, Timothy Brennan shows how the popular music of the Americas—the music of entertainment, nightlife, and leisure—is involved in a devotion to an African religious worldview that survived the ravages of slavery and found its way into the rituals of everyday listening. In doing so he explores the challenge posed by Afro-Latin music to a world music system dominated by a few wealthy countries and the processes by which Afro-Latin music has been absorbed into the imperial imagination.

This book presents a philosophical position examined philosophically. Although it does not go beyond the confines ofFicino's perspective and is governed by standards of historical accuracy, it makes explicit in its explanation ofFicino's text the enduring philosophical questions which are at issue there. True, the book examines in some detail Ficino's relation to his Platonic and Scholastic sources, and this is an issue of primary interest to those who study the history of culture or the his­ torical development of philosophy. However, in Ficino's thought, this issue is also a philosophical issue. Ficino chooses Platonism as his guide because this philosophy retains an explicit and essential orientation to religion. When he takes Platonism as the primary instance of philoso­ phy, he is taking a stand on the nature of philosophy itself. Philosophy necessarily points toward the divinity and hence is necessarily related to the veneration and worship of its object. Christian theology joins Platonic philosophy in this movement toward God, developing more completely the implications of its fundamental insights. And the 1 "splendor of Christian theology" is Thomas Aquinas. Therefore, to examine the relationship between Platonism and Thomism in Ficino's thought is to examine Ficino's position on the unity of philosophy and theology. Scholars writing about Ficino have pointed to three major influences on his thought. The influence of Plato and the neo-Platonists, of course, is readily recognized.

New Book. Shipped from UK. Established seller since 2000.

Buy with confidence! Book is in new, never-used condition 1.06

This book includes a short history of the Secular Franciscan Order, the Rule of the Secular Franciscan, Daily Prayers which includes prayers to various saints and for various purposes, prayers to Franciscan saints, meditations, liturgical prayers and offices, devotions, litanies, and a calendar of Franciscan saints.

The secular clergy - priests and other clerics outside of monastic orders - were among the most influential and powerful groups in European society during the central Middle Ages. The secular clergy got their title from the Latin word for world, saeculum, and secular clerics kept the Church running in the world beyond the cloister wall, with responsibility for the bulk of pastoral care and ecclesiastical administration. This gave them enormous religious influence, although they were considered too worldly by many contemporary moralists - trying, for instance, to oppose the elimination of clerical marriage and concubinage. Although their worldliness created many tensions, it also gave the secular clergy much worldly influence. Contemporaries treated elite secular clerics as equivalent to knights, and some were as wealthy as minor barons. Secular clerics had a huge role in the rise of royal bureaucracy, one of the key historical developments of the period. They were instrumental to the intellectual and cultural flowering of the twelfth century, the rise of the schools, the creation of the book trade, and the invention of universities. They performed music, produced literature in a variety of genres and languages, and patronized art and architecture. Indeed, this volume argues that they contributed more than any other group to the Twelfth-Century Renaissance. Yet the secular clergy as a group have received almost no attention from scholars, unlike monks, nuns, or secular nobles. In The Secular Clergy in England, 1066-1216, Hugh Thomas aims to correct this deficiency through a major study of the secular clergy below the level of bishop in England from 1066 to 1216.

Will be shipped from US. Used books may not include companion materials, may have some shelf wear, may contain highlighting/notes, may not include CDs or access codes. 100% money back guarantee.

This volume collects recent essays and reviews by Thomas Nagel in three subject areas. The first section, including the title essay, is concerned with religious belief and some of the philosophical questions connected with it, such as the relation between religion and evolutionary theory, the question of why there is something rather than nothing, and the significance for human life of our place in the cosmos. It includes a defense of the relevance of religion to science education. The second section concerns the interpretation of liberal political theory, especially in an international context. A substantial essay argues that the principles of distributive justice that apply within individual nation-states do not apply to the world as a whole. The third section discusses the distinctive contributions of four philosophers to our understanding of what it is to be human--the form of human consciousness and the source of human values.