Being Hindu by
There are more than one billion Hindus in the world, but for those who don't practice the faith, very little seems to be understood about it. Followers have not only built and sustained the world's largest democracy but have also sustained one of the greatest philosophical streams in the world for more than three thousand years. Being Hindu is a practitioner's guide that takes the reader on a journey to very simply understand what the Hindu message is, where it stands in the clash of civilizations between Islam and Christianity, and why the Hindu way could yet be the path for plurality and progress in the twenty-first century.
Bhagavad Gita by
The Bhagavad Gita ("Song of the Lord") is considered the most influential of all the Hindu scriptures and is one of the greatest spiritual classics of the world. Comprised of eighteen chapters taken from the great Sanskrit epic Mahabharata, the Gita presents a conversation that takes place on a battlefield just as two groups of relatives are about to wage war against one another. This Hindu scripture teaches all of us how we can face bravely the unavoidable challenges and conflicts of life--and win the greatest of all battles, against the tumultuous emotions within our own hearts. This eloquent translation and insightful chapter introductions, which summarize major religious concepts, make this edition especially accessible for modern readers of any religion.
The Emergence of Modern Hinduism by
This work argues for the importance of regional, vernacular innovation in processes of Hindu modernization. In this study, the author considers religious change on the margins of colonialism by looking at an important local figure, the Tamil Shaiva poet and mystic Ramalinga Swami. The author narrates a history of Hindu modernization that demonstrates the transformative role of Hindu ideas, models, and institutions, making this text essential for scholarly audiences of South Asian history, religious studies, Hindu studies, and South Asian studies.
Everyday Hinduism by
This innovative introductory textbook explores the central practices and beliefs of Hinduism through contemporary, everyday practice. It introduces and contextualizes the rituals, festivals and everyday lived experiences of Hinduism in text and images. The book features coverage of Hindu diasporas, including a study of the Hindu community in Atlanta, Georgia Each chapter includes case study examples of specific topics related to the practice of Hinduism framed by introductory and contextual material
The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Hinduism by
The title examines the historical trajectories that have led to the modern religion of Hinduism. Covering main themes such as philosophy, practice, society, and science, this comprehensive volume brings together a variety of approaches and perspectives in Hindu Studies to help readers better appreciate the richness, complexity, and diversity of Hinduism. Essays by acknowledged experts in the field present historical accounts of all major traditions, analyze key texts, engage with Hindu theology and philosophy, address contemporary questions of colonialism and identity, and more. Throughout the text, the authors highlight the links, common threads, and issues that reoccur in the history of Hinduism. This edition places further emphasis on the importance of region-specific studies in analyzing Hinduism, discusses important theoretical issues, and offers fresh perspectives on current discourse in Hindu society and politics.
Islam in South Asia by
Islamic South Asia has become a focal point in academia. Where did Muslims come from? How did they fare in interacting with Hindu cultures? How did they negotiate identity as ruling and ruled minorities and majorities? Part I covers early Muslim expansion and the formative phase in context of initial cultural encounter (app. 700-1300). Part II views the establishment of Muslim empire, cultures oscillating between Islamic and Islamicate, centralised and regionalised power (app. 1300-1700). Part III is composed in the backdrop of regional centralisation, territoriality and colonial rule, displaying processes of integration and differentiation of Muslim cultures in colonial setting (app. 1700-1930). Tensions between Muslim pluralism and singularity evolving in public sphere make up the fourth cluster (app. 1930-2002).
The Oxford Dictionary of Islam by
This work provides more than 2,000 vividly written, up-to-date, and authoritative entries stressing topics of most interest to Westerners. It presents a highly informative look at the religious, political, and social spheres of the modern Islamic world. There are biographical profiles, including political leaders, influential thinkers, poets, scientists, and writers. Other entries cover major political movements, militant groups, and religious sects as well as terms from Islamic law, culture, and religion, key historical events, and important landmarks (such as Mecca and Medina).
The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World by
This unique reference is a comprehensive encyclopedia dedicated to the institutions, religion, politics, and culture in Muslim societies throughout the world. The encyclopedia offers extensive comparative and systematic analyses of Islamic beliefs, institutions, movements, practices, and peoples on an international scale. The book provides major interpretive and synthetic treatment of topics such as the Islamic state, pilgrimage, law, marriage, and foreign relations. Additional topics covered include social and political movements, women, Muslim minorities, human rights, Islam in the West, and interreligious affairs. Truly multidisciplinary, this work reflects the breadth and depth of contemporary scholarship in Islamic studies. Combining the tools of the humanities and social sciences to examine the interrelationship of religion, politics, and culture in Muslim societies, it explains the changing realities of Muslim life.
The Routledge Handbook of Islam and Gender by
Given the intense political scrutiny of Islam and Muslims, which often centers on gendered concerns, The Routledge Handbook of Islam and Gender is an outstanding reference source to key topics, problems, and debates on this subject.
The Buddha and His Dhamma by
The Buddha and his Dhamma offers a perspective on the Buddha's life and teachings. Dr. Ambedkar, the architect of the Indian Constitution, founder of Navayāna Buddhism, and Dalit anti-caste reformer, emphasized that the Buddha's teachings advocated rationality, equality, and compassion. This text is treated as scripture for those who follow Navayāna Buddhism, the modern reinterpretation of Buddhism as one concerned with caste abolition, social equality, class struggle, and the right to education.
Buddhist and Islamic Orders in Southern Asia by
Historians and other scholars have identified diverse patterns of connection linking religious communities across Asia and beyond. Scholars in the subfields of Islamic and Buddhist studies, however, have rarely engaged with each other to share investigative approaches and methods of interpretation. This volume was conceived to open up new spaces of creative interaction between scholars in both fields that will increase our understanding of the circulation and localization of religious texts, institutional models, ritual practices, and literary specialists. The book's approach is to scrutinize one major dimension of the history of religion in Southern Asia: religious orders. Orders established means by which far-flung local communities could come to be recognized and engaged as part of a broader world of co-religionists, while presenting their particular religious traditions and their human representatives as attractive and authoritative to potential new communities of devotees. Buddhist and Islamic Orders in Southern Asia brings cutting-edge research to bear on conversations about how "orders" have functioned within these two traditions to expand and sustain transregional religious networks. It will help to develop a better understanding of the complex roles played by religious networks in the history of Southern Asia.
Challenging Paradigms by
Buddhism is often portrayed as a universalizing religion that transcends the local and directs attention toward a transcendent dharma. Yet, wherever Buddhism spreads, it also sparks local identity discourses that, directly or indirectly, root the dharma in native soil and history, and, in doing so, frame 'the local' in Buddhist discourse. In Challenging Paradigms: Buddhism and Nativism Teeuwen and Blezer offer a comparative study of localizing responses to Buddhism in different Buddhist environments in Japan, Korea, Tibet, India and Bali.
The Dhammapada by
Easwaran's best-selling translation of this classic Buddhist text The Dhammapada is reliable, readable, and profound. Dhammapada means "the path of dharma," the path of harmony and righteousness that anyone can follow to reach the highest good. The Dhammapada is a collection of verses, gathered probably from direct disciples who wanted to preserve what they had heard from the Buddha himself. Easwaran's comprehensive introduction to the Dhammapada gives an overview of the Buddha's teachings that is penetrating, and clear - accessible for readers new to Buddhism, but also with fresh insights and practical applications for readers familiar with this text. His translation is based on the original Pali. Chapter introductions, notes and a Sanskrit glossary place individual verses into the context of the broader Buddhist canon. Easwaran is a master storyteller, and the introduction includes many stories that make moving, memorable reading, bringing young Siddhartha and his heroic spiritual quest vividly to life. This faithful interpretation brings us closer to the compassionate heart of the Buddha. ---
Figures of Buddhist Modernity in Asia by
This book introduces contemporary Buddhists from across Asia and from various walks of life. the editors have collected sixty-six profiles of individuals, such as monks and nuns, artists, psychologists, social workers, part-time priests, healers, and librarians as well as charlatans, hucksters, profiteers, and rabble-rousers--all whose lives reflect changes in modern Buddhism even as they themselves shape the course of these changes. All of these individuals are fundamentally concerned with how individual Buddhists make meaning and display this understanding to others. Arranging the profiles according to these themes--looking backward, forward, inward, and outward--reveals the value of studying individual Buddhists and their idiosyncratic religious backgrounds and attitudes, thus highlighting the diversity of approaches to the practice and study of Buddhism in Asia today.
Sacred Biography in the Buddhist Traditions of South and Southeast Asia by
This work develops significant insights into the role of biography in the Buddhist traditions.
Theravada Buddhism by
Theravada Buddhism provides a comprehensive introductory overview of the history, teachings, and current practice of an often misunderstood form of one of the world's oldest religious traditions. Explores Theravada Buddhism's origins, evolution, teachings, and practices Considers the practice of Theravada beyond Sri Lanka and Thailand, by exploring a wealth of material from countries including Bangladesh, Cambodia, and Vietnam Reveals its rich and varied traditions, and corrects common misunderstandings about links to other practices,
Christianity in South and Central Asia by 
Catholic Vietnam by
This title explores the complex position of the Catholic Church in modern Vietnamese history. By demonstrating how French colonial rule allowed for the transformation of Catholic missions in Vietnam into broad and powerful economic and institutional structures, the author discovers the ways race defined ecclesiastical and cultural prestige and control of resources and institutional authority. This, along with colonial rule itself, created a culture of religious life in which relationships between Vietnamese Catholics and European missionaries were less equal and more fractious than ever before.
Christianity and Islam in Southeast Asia: Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World: Digital Collection by
The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World offers extensive comparative and systematic analyses of Islamic beliefs, institutions, movements, practices, and peoples on an international scale.
Christianity and Islam in Southeast Asia: Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World: Digital Collection by
This text deals with the magic in and of modernity and asks about its current significance for the dynamics of religion in Southeast Asia. The contributors to this wide-ranging volume demonstrate how religious concepts contribute to meeting the challenges of modernity. Against this background, religion and modernity are no longer perceived as in contradiction; rather, it is argued that a revision of the western notion of religion is required to understand the complexity of 'multiple modernities' in a globalized world.
Popular Religion in Southeast Asia by
In this overview of popular religion in Southeast Asia, Robert L. This work offers an interpretative look at the nature of today's indigenous religious traditions as well as Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity and conversion. He focuses on how religion exists in the lives, beliefs, and practices of ordinary people. He takes a broad view of religion as involving not just the usual Western notions of faith but also supernatural belief in general, magic, sorcery, and practical concerns such as healing, personal protection, and success in business. Case studies and concrete examples flesh out the discussion, demonstrating how popular religion relates to historical and contemporary social, cultural, political, and economic developments in the region.
Religion and Politics: New Developments Worldwide by
This title features articles about recent developments in the interaction of Religion and Politics in various countries of Asia, Africa, Europe, and both North and South America. Most articles focus on one country; others address issues across regions such as Latin America, Southeast Asia, or the Middle East.
Religious Transformation in Modern Asia by
This volume explores the religious transformation of each nation in modern Asia. When the Asian people, experienced a socio-political change under the wave of Western colonialism, the religious climate was also altered from a transnational perspective. Part One explores the nationals of China (Taiwan), Hong Kong, Korea, and Japan. Part Two approaches South Asia through the topics of astrology, the works of a Gujarātī saint, and Himalayan Buddhism. The third part is focused on the conflicts between 'indigenous religions and colonialism, ' 'Buddhism and Christianity, ' 'Islam and imperialism, ' and 'Hinduism and Christianity' in Southeast Asia.
Confucianism and Vietnamese Culture (Chapter 3 in Print and Power) by
In this work, the author challenges long held views that define modern Vietnamese history in terms of anticolonial nationalism and revolution. He argues instead for a historiography that does not overstress either the role of politics in general or Communism in particular. Using a wide range of sources from Vietnam, France, and the United States, he shows how the use of printed matter soared between 1920 and 1945 and in the process transformed Vietnamese public life and shaped the modern Vietnamese consciousness. The work goes on to contest the impact of Confucianism on premodern and modern Vietnam. This title makes a significant contribution to Vietnamese and Asian studies, as well as the fields of comparative religion and European colonialism.
Confucianism in Context: Classic Philosophy and Contemporary Issues, East Asia and Beyond by
A wide-ranging consideration of Confucianism for Western readers.
The East Asian Region: Confucian Heritage and Its Modern Adaptation by
The contributors to this volume cover over 2,000 years of history as they show how Confucian values spread throughout the region in premodern times and how these values were transformed in an age of modernization.