This interdisciplinary collection of essays addresses idolatry, a contested issue that has given rise to both religious accusations and heated scholarly disputes. Idol Anxiety brings together insightful new statements from scholars in religious studies, art history, philosophy, and musicology to show that idolatry is a concept that can be helpful in articulating the ways in which human beings interact with and conceive of the things around them. It includes both case studies that provide examples of how the concept of idolatry can be used to study material objects and more theoretical interventions. Among the book's highlights are a foundational treatment of the second commandment by Jan Assmann; an essay by W.J.T. Mitchell on Nicolas Poussin that will be a model for future discussions of art objects; a groundbreaking consideration of the Islamic ban on images by Mika Natif; and a lucid description by Jean-Luc Marion of his cutting-edge phenomenology of the visible.

You Can Learn to Handle the Onslaught of Internal and External Pressures Does anxiety get in the way of your ability to be an effective leader? Is your inability to notice when you and those around you are anxious keeping you "stuck" in chronic unhealthy patterns? In Managing Leadership Anxiety, pastor and spiritual growth expert Steve Cuss offers powerful tools to help you move from being managed by anxiety to managing anxiety. You'll develop the capacity to notice your anxiety and your group's anxiety. You will increase your sensitivity to the way groups develop systemic anxiety that keeps them trapped. Your personal self-awareness will increase as you learn how self gets in the way of identifying and addressing issues. Managing Leadership Anxiety offers valuable principles to those who are hungry to understand the source of the anxiety in themselves and in the people with whom they relate. Readers will be empowered to take back control of their lives and lead in mature and vibrant ways.

When an idol and fan stand face to face and the idol's mask comes off, is it simply the fan staring into a mirror, admiring their own reflection? Idol Limerence explores the mass phenomena of the Korean idol, in particular, BTS and how it intersects with the psychological experience of limerence, as originated by Dorothy Tennov. Further phenomena will be introduced with an exploration of persona as a link to a fantasy realm accessed by both idol and fan. Culminating in the exploration of the revolutionary capacity of BTS and their fan base, ARMY, who were created in their image. Echo's narrative spans from her first love as a child to falling in love with BTS as an adult, an experience she feels is largely out of her control. Idol Limerence is a love story wrapped in social theory that spans this universe and the next. Insperence is the space where the revolution can begin to take hold; insperence is where we can all become revolutionaries. In many ways, we already are.Idol Limerence: The Art of Loving BTS as Phenomena by Wallea Eaglehawk is a scholarly and literary work on the phenomenon that is BTS, the most popular and influential music group of our generation. Idol Limerence is a cognitive and emotional state of loving adoration and attachment to an Idol or celebrity. Echo, a young millennial woman, finds herself falling deeply in love with a group of blouse-wearing Korean men who sing, dance and dish out uncommon potent eye contact like it's a period drama. This book joins Echo on her journey from first love as a child to falling in love with K-pop group BTS as an adult. Echo learns just how and why she can't control her feelings towards BTS, not that she really wants to; and this is not an isolated experience, she is not alone but part of BTS' fan base, ARMY. The theory of Idol Limerence is developed from the psychological idea of limerence and linked to sociological concepts of identity, persona, parasocial relationships, love and celebrity. The theory development is interwoven with the love narrative of Echo which shows how Idol Limerence can be a 'safe-love' alternative for millennials overwhelmed by loving and dating in a world on the brink of collapse. If the question is 'Why can't I stop thinking about what my life with BTS would look like?' Idol Limerence is the answer and becoming a revolutionary to save the world is the result.

What if instead of battling anxiety, you saw your worries as a doorway to spiritual transformation? Challenging the assumption that anxiety is the enemy, theologian, popular podcaster, and fellow sufferer of chronic anxiety Curtis Chang gives you a different framework for approaching fears. You will discover profound new ways of relating to Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and those you love. Curtis Chang knows what it's like to view anxiety as a sin to overcome. He also knows how trying to get rid of anxiety through sheer faith or willpower usually leads to feelings of shame and frustration. After losing his job as a pastor due to debilitating anxiety, Curtis began the process of healing his heart. Combining years of personal experience, spiritual practice, and biblical study, Curtis discovered an alternative approach--one that sees anxiety as the path to our best selves in Christ. For all of us who feel stuck in a never-ending war with worry, The Anxiety Opportunity offers: Biblical wisdom about how anxiety can lead to rich spiritual growth An invitation to examine our fears as a way of pursuing our calling Simple practices for converting nervous energy into fruitful energy Insights into why trying to avoid loss generates more anxiety A renewed sense of peace as we realize what God can do through our fears It's time to think differently about the relationship between anxiety and spiritual growth. This unique and profound exploration of one of the greatest epidemics of our time shows us how anxiety can be the very place we meet Jesus--and how channeling our anxiety can help us become more like him.

Offered a spot at the Star Academy, one of the biggest K-pop companies, seventeen-year-old singer Alice Choy must navigate culture clashes, egos and extreme training practices to come out on top, despite the efforts of an influential blogger trying to tear her down.

The issue of idolatry has been with the human race for thousands of years; the subtle temptation is always to take what is good and turn it into the ultimate good, elevating it above all other things in the search for security and meaning. In this timely and challenging book, New York pastor Timothy Keller looks at the issue of idolatry throughout the Bible -- from the worship of actual idols in the Old Testament, to the idolatry of money by the rich young ruler when he was challenged by Jesus to give up all his wealth. Using classic stories from the Bible Keller cuts through our dependence on the glittering false idols of money, sex and power to uncover the path towards trust in the real ultimate -- God. Today's idols may look different from those of the Old Testament, but Keller argues that they are no less damaging. Culturally transforming as well as biblically based, COUNTERFEIT GODS is a powerful look at the temptation to worship what can only disappoint, and is a vital message in today's current climate of financial and social difficulty.

An alternate approach to Islamic art emphasizing literary over historical contexts and reception over production in visual arts and music.

Rising from nomadic origins as Turkish tribesmen, the powerful and culturally prolific Seljuqs and their successor states dominated vast lands extending from Central Asia to the eastern Mediterranean from the eleventh to the fourteenth century. Supported by colour images, charts, and maps, this volume examines how under Seljuq rule, migrations of people and the exchange and synthesis of diverse traditions-including Turkmen, Perso-Arabo-Islamic, Byzantine, Armenian, Crusader and other Christian cultures-accompanied architectural patronage, advances in science and technology and a great flowering of culture within the realm. It also explores how shifting religious beliefs, ideologies of authority, and lifestyle in Seljuq times influenced cultural and artistic production, urban and rural architecture, monumental inscriptions and royal titulature, and practices of religion and magic. It also presents today's challenges and new approaches to preserving the material heritage of this vastly accomplished and influential civilization.

Through its material remains, Perspectives on Early Islamic Art in Jerusalem analyzes several overlooked aspects of the earliest decades of Islamic presence in Jerusalem, during the seventh century CE. Focusing on the Haram al-Sharif, also known as the Temple Mount, Lawrence Nees provides the first sustained study of the Dome of the Chain, a remarkable eleven-sided building standing beside the slightly later Dome of the Rock, and the first study of the meaning of the columns and column capitals with figures of eagles in the Dome of the Rock. He also provides a new interpretation of the earliest mosque in Jerusalem, the Haram as a whole, with the sacred Rock at its center.

The art of the object reached unparalleled heights in the medieval Islamic world, yet the intellectual dimensions of ceramics, metalwares, and other plastic arts in this milieu have not always been acknowledged. Arts of Allusion reveals the object as a crucial site where pre-modern craftsmen of the eastern Mediterranean and Persianate realms engaged in fertile dialogue with poetry, literature, painting, and, perhaps most strikingly, architecture. Lanterns fashioned after miniature shrines, incense burners in the form of domed monuments, earthenware jars articulated with arches and windows, inkwells that allude to tents: through close studies of objects from the ninth to the thirteenth centuries, this book reveals that allusions to architecture abound across media in the portable arts of the medieval Islamic world. Arts of Allusion draws upon a broad range of material evidence as well as medieval texts to locate its subjects in a cultural landscape where the material, visual, and verbal realms were intertwined. Moving far beyond the initial identification of architectural types with their miniature counterparts in the plastic arts, Margaret Graves develops a series of new frameworks for exploring the intelligent art of the allusive object. These address materiality, representation, and perception, and examine contemporary literary and poetic paradigms of metaphor, description, and indirect reference as tools for approaching the plastic arts. Arguing for the role of the intellect in the applied arts and for the communicative potential of ornament, Arts of Allusion asserts the reinstatement of craftsmanship into Islamic intellectual history.