The development and preservation of folk customs is extremely important in sustaining a community and promoting the welfare of the individual within it. These customs fulfil many social and personal needs, strengthening the family, educating and celebrating. In this descriptive study Mercia McDermott provides a wealth of information previously ......
The definition of humanism has been a subject of diverse interpretation almost since the movement began. Some people have been called or call themselves humanists without any clear understanding of what it means. Different factions have arisen such as religious humanists and secular humanists, groups that have often disagreed over matters of ......
The Old and the New in Religion from Alexander the Great to Augustine of Hippo
Originally published in 1933, Conversion is a seminal study of the psychology and circumstances of conversion from about 500 B.C. E. to about 400 A.D. A.D. Nock not only discusses early Christianity and its converts, but also examines non-Christian religions and philosophy, the means by which they attracted adherents, and the factors influencing ......
What should be the Christian attitude toward money and possessions? Have our own possessions left us blind to the utopian vision of the first Christians? Is anything short of a complete renunciation of possessions a compromise with Christian teaching? In this brief and lucid study, esteemed New Testament scholar and historian Martin Hengel ......
Brilliant and charismatic, David Hyrum Smith was a poet, painter, singer, philosopher, naturalist, and highly effective missionary for the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. In this richly detailed biography, Valeen Tippetts Avery chronicles the life of the last son of Joseph Smith and his first wife, Emma.Avery draws on a ......
This exciting volume uses closeup looks at nineteen Mormon dissenters to focus on the variety of religious sentiment within the Mormon church and to explore how it has encouraged divergent ideas from the early 1800s through modern times.''An absolute necessity for anyone interested in the history/direction of the Latter Day Saint Movement.'' -- ......
This encyclopedic volume is the most comprehensive collection of original studies on animals and theology ever published. Contributors from both sides of the Atlantic tackle fundamental questions about theology and how it is put into practice. Do animals have immortal souls? Does Christ's reconciling work include animals? Contributors address ......
Health and Medicine in the Western Religious Traditions
Most religious traditions have a rich, if largely forgotten, heritage of involvement in medical issues of life, death, and health. Religious values influence our behavior and attitudes toward sickness, sexuality, and lifestyle, to say nothing of more controversial subjects such as abortion and euthanasia. The essays in this important book ......
''Of hundreds of recorded attempts to establish communal societies in North America, the Hutterites are the only group that has managed not only to survive but to expand and prosper. Yet the members work without the incentive of private gain, and privileged positions are few. There are no extremely poor or wealthy persons among them, and ......
