These papers on the medieval manuscripts of the Cairo Genizah are in honour of Stefan Reif, Professor of Medieval Hebrew at Cambridge University, on the occasion of his retirement after thirty-three years as director of the Genizah Research Unit.

This book develops a theory of existential security. It demonstrates that the publics of virtually all advanced industrial societies have been moving toward more secular orientations during the past half century, but also that the world as a whole now has more people with traditional religious views than ever before. This second edition expands the theory and provides new and updated evidence from a broad perspective and in a wide range of countries. This confirms that religiosity persists most strongly among vulnerable populations, especially in poorer nations and in failed states. Conversely, a systematic erosion of religious practices, values and beliefs has occurred among the more prosperous strata in rich nations.

Drawing from a variety of religious teachings, anthropological evidence and myths and legends from around the world, this book examines how the essential element water plays a vital role in all aspects of our spiritual lives.

From the moment of God's covenant with Abraham in the Old Testament, the idea that a people are chosen by God has had a central role in shaping national identity. This text argues that sacred belief remains central to national identity, even in an increasingly secular, globalized modern world.

The art of the three Abrahamic religions—Christianity, Judaism, and Islam—has a tangled, interwoven history. Symbols cross back and forth among the three faiths, adapted to reflect that faith's specific spiritual needs. And much of this symbolic language predates any of the Abrahamic faiths entirely.In Our Sacred Signs, Ori Soltes traces the interconnectedness of religious symbols such as the Star of David, which isn't, it turns out, exclusive to Judaism at all. He shows that the various ways that Jesus is portrayed on the cross recall an artistic tradition that is in no way unique to Christianity. And he shows that religious architectural conventions as simple as the dome represent early “pagan” traditions.The narrative—essentially a series of overlapping stories—moves through the halls of museums and off to the holy sites of the three religions, tracing the millennia-long artistic trail that has endured even as the West moved toward secularization in the last three hundred years.Soltes shows us how art has long been used as an instrument to take us where words cannot follow. Our Sacred Signs is a breathtaking and revelatory journey through human history, its gods, and its art.

Life is not a cakewalk for any of us. We each have our individual sufferings and challenges in life, and we each must endure vital questions that have no certain answers. Why are we here? Where is God when we need him? How do our lives matter in the long run? Our science cannot help us with such questions, but theology can. And that's what this book has to offer. This book's theology is based on an arresting theory about God. Turning to modern physics, it finds God in the origin of the universe and in the innermost foundations of the natural world. The universe flowed from his nature, but his nature was not perfect, which is why we have an imperfect world where bad things happen to good people. And yet we also find this God deep within us, enabling us to confront our suffering with resilience and grace. The evil in the world has power, but we have power too, the power from our inner God to hold steady against the slings and arrows of our misfortunes. The theology presented here builds on the discoveries of particle physics and quantum mechanics about the foundational building blocks and forces in all of creation. These reveal the abounding spirit and purposes of the Creator--a spirit that empowers us and instills in us purposes we can embrace and foster. It may seem we are essentially on our own as we navigate through life, but in this book's theology, God is always and everywhere with us and in us.

Famed historian of religion Mircea Eliade observes that even moderns who proclaim themselves residents of a completely profane world are still unconsciously nourished by the memory of the sacred. Eliade traces manifestations of the sacred from primitive to modern times in terms of space, time, nature, and the cosmos. In doing so he shows how the total human experience of the religious man compares with that of the nonreligious. This book serves as an excellent introduction to the history of religion, but its perspective also emcompasses philosophical anthropology, phenomenology, and psychology. It will appeal to anyone seeking to discover the potential dimensions of human existence. -- P. [4] of cover.

This volume is rooted in two convictions: first, sexuality is far more comprehensive and more fundamental to our existence than simply genital sex, and, second, sexuality is intended by God to be neither incidental nor detrimintal to our spirituality but a fully integrated and basic dimension of that spirituality. The authors address what our sexual experience reveals about God, the ways we understand the gospel, and the ways we read scripture and tradition and attempt to live faithfully.

Focusing on the important relationship between the 'sacred' and the 'secular', this book demonstrates that it is not paradoxical to think in terms of both secular and sacred or neither, in different times and places. International experts from a range of disciplinary perspectives draw on local, national, and international contexts to provide a fresh analytical approach to understanding these two contested poles. Exploring such phenomena at an individual, institutional, or theoretical level, each chapter contributes to the central message of the book - that the ‘in between’ is real, embodied and experienced every day and informs, and is informed by, intersecting social identities. Social Identities between the Sacred and the Secular provides an essential resource for continued research into these concepts, challenging us to re-think where the boundaries of sacred and secular lie and what may lie between.