Ritual

Author: Barry Stephenson
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199943524
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 143

Book Description
Alongside description of a number of specific rites, this volume explores ritual from both theoretical and historical perspectives. Barry Stephenson focuses on the places where ritual touches everyday life: in politics and power; moments of transformation in the life cycle; as performance and embodiment. He also discusses the boundaries of ritual, and how and why certain behaviours have been studied as ritual while others have not.

Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice

Author: Catherine Bell
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780199760381
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 292

Book Description
Ritual studies today figures as a central element of religious discourse for many scholars around the world. Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice, Catherine Bell's sweeping and seminal work on the subject, helped legitimize the field. In this volume, Bell re-examines the issues, methods, and ramifications of our interest in ritual by concentrating on anthropology, sociology, and the history of religions. Now with a new foreword by Diane Jonte-Pace, Bell's work is a must-read for understanding the evolution of the field of ritual studies and its current state.

Beginnings in Ritual Studies

Author: Ronald L. Grimes
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781453752623
Category : Performing arts
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
Beginnings in Ritual Studies lays the groundwork for the interdisciplinary study of ritual by broadening the conception of it and articulating its connections to a wide range of cultural activities. Accessible to scholars and students, Beginnings addresses such fundamental issues as definitions, types, and theories of ritual. The volume integrates field research and theory in considering ritual's relation to religious, civil, medical, and theatrical dimensions of culture. The first and second editions garnered widespread praise from the scholarly community and became a standard work in the burgeoning field of ritual studies. In this third edition, Grimes adds a new preface and revises the descriptive and theoretical essays that form the core of the volume.

The Devil: A Very Short Introduction

Author: Darren Oldridge
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199580995
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 145

Book Description
The Devil has fascinated writers and theologians since the time of the New Testament, and inspired many dramatic and haunting works of art. Today he remains a potent image in popular culture. The Devil: A Very Short Introduction presents an introduction to the Christian Devil through the history of ideas and the lives of real people.

African Religions

Author: Jacob K. Olupona
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199790582
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 177

Book Description
This book connects traditional religions to the thriving religious activity in Africa today.

Myth

Author: Robert Alan Segal
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0198724705
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 161

Book Description
This Very Short Introduction explores different approaches to myth from several disciplines, including science, religion, philosophy, literature, and psychology. In this new edition, Robert Segal considers both the future study of myth as well as the impact of areas such as cognitive science and the latest approaches to narrative theory.

Confucianism

Author: Daniel K. Gardner
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0195398912
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 153

Book Description
This volume shows the influence of the Sage's teachings over the course of Chinese history--on state ideology, the civil service examination system, imperial government, the family, and social relations--and the fate of Confucianism in China in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as China developed alongside a modernizing West and Japan. Some Chinese intellectuals attempted to reform the Confucian tradition to address new needs; others argued for jettisoning it altogether in favor of Western ideas and technology; still others condemned it angrily, arguing that Confucius and his legacy were responsible for China's feudal, ''backward'' conditions in the twentieth century and launching campaigns to eradicate its influences. Yet Chinese continue to turn to the teachings of Confucianism for guidance in their daily lives.

Ritual and Religion in the Making of Humanity

Author: Roy A. Rappaport
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521296908
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 566

Book Description
Roy Rappaport argues that religion is central to the continuing evolution of life, although it has been been displaced from its original position of intellectual authority by the rise of modern science. His book, which could be construed as in some degree religious as well as about religion, insists that religion can and must be reconciled with science. Combining adaptive and cognitive approaches to the study of humankind, he mounts a comprehensive analysis of religion's evolutionary significance, seeing it as co-extensive with the invention of language and hence of culture as we know it. At the same time he assembles the fullest study yet of religion's main component, ritual, which constructs the conceptions which we take to be religious and has been central in the making of humanity's adaptation. The text amounts to a manual for effective ritual, illustrated by examples drawn from anthropology, history, philosophy, comparative religion, and elsewhere.

Horror

Author: Darryl Jones
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198755562
Category : Gothic fiction (Literary genre)
Languages : en
Pages : 169

Book Description
Fear is one of the most primal emotions, and one of the hardest to reason with and dispel. So why do we scare ourselves? Delving into the darkest corners of horror literature, films, and plays, Darryl Jones explores its monsters and its psychological chills, discussing why horror stories disturb us, and how they reflect society's taboos.

Modern War: A Very Short Introduction

Author: Richard English
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199607893
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 153

Book Description
Warfare is one of the most dangerous threat faced by modern humanity. It is also one of the key influences that has shaped the politics, economics, and culture of the modern world. This book explores the assumptions we make about modern warfare and considers what we can learn from the historical reality.