Tag: Religious

Free Download Susan Keating, Alexander Mikhnushev, "Jesus Christ: Influential Religious Leader"
English | 2014 | pages: 34 | ISBN: 1422228479 | PDF | 4,1 mb
Jesus Christ: Influential Spiritual Leader During his lifetime, Jesus Christ worked hard to teach the world about love and the meaning of life. More than 2,000 years later, his teachings and ideas still form the foundation of one of the world’s largest religions, helping and guiding hundreds of millions of people around the world. Jesus’ life was marked by his sacrifices for others, and it can still be an example to people everywhere, no matter their religious beliefs. Learn the story of one of history’s most important religious teachers in Jesus Christ: Influential Spiritual Leader.

Free Download The Buddha for Modern Minds: a non-religious guide to the Buddha and his teachings by Lenorë Lambert
English | March 6, 2021 | ISBN: 0645065021 | 247 pages | PDF | 2.25 Mb
How can the Buddha’s teachings help me? Here? Now? In MY life?A practical, feet-on-the-ground book answering all the questions and misconceptions that arise for people curious about the Buddha’s teachings and what they offer in this modern life of ours. For those with little or no knowledge this is a secular introduction. For those already practicing it’s a secular reference book for key concepts and several of the Buddha’s important lists. Clear explanations of often-confusing concepts are brought alive with personal examples of the powerful impact of practicing the Buddha’s wisdom – the dropping away of stress, angst and upset and the arrival of calm, clarity, energy, joy and open-heartedness. The Buddha’s core teachings are made clear using Western cultural terms to understand and apply them, including characters from Sesame Street, the Pirates of the Caribbean, Lord of the Rings, and Star Trek demonstrating ideas. Cutting through the array of orthodox Buddhisms that often confuse beginners, this book strips away the trappings of the cultures through which they came to us, helping us know the Buddha, his core teachings, how meditation and mindfulness fit in, what happened to the teachings after his death, and how to practice them now. It also answers many of the questions that often arise for newcomers like: Who was the Buddha? What is the dharma about? Is Buddhism a religion? What are the different ‘schools’ of Buddhism? Do I have to believe in rebirth? Is the dharma anti-pleasure? Is the dharma just meditation or mindfulness? Does the dharma teach passivity? Is the dharma anti-passion? Do I need to find a teacher or go to an Asian country to learn the dharma? Is the Dalai Lama a Buddha? Why are some Buddha statues fat? How do I start my own practice?….and more.It integrates several concepts from modern psychology – the author’s background – and shares many stories from her home life, work life, and her experience as a World Champion Masters hurdler to demonstrate how the impacts show up.As the Buddha did, this book puts aside unknowable issues like rebirth which are unnecessary for fully practicing the teachings. Worse, they’re a distraction from the very real and practical project at the heart of his wisdom – flourishing in this life. Here. Now.From Stephen Batchelor, author of After Buddhism -"This lucid and practical guide to the Buddha’s teaching will be of value to anyone who seeks to lead a flourishing life in today’s challenging and uncertain world. Lenorë Lambert unpacks with great skill and wit the core ethical vision and meditation practices of Buddhism, revealing them as an art of living that is as relevant today as it ever has been."

Free Download Religious Culture and Violence in Traditional China By Barend ter Haar
2019 | 75 Pages | ISBN: 1108706231 | PDF | 2 MB
The basis of Chinese religious culture, and with that many aspects of daily life, was the threat and fear of demonic attacks. These were inherently violent and could only be counteracted by violence as well – even if this reactive violence was masked by euphemisms such as execution, expulsion, exorcisms and so on. At the same time, violence was a crucial dimension of the maintenance of norms and values, for instance in sworn agreements or in beliefs about underworld punishment. Violence was also an essential aspect of expressing respect through sacrificial gifts of meat (and in an earlier stage of Chinese culture also human flesh) and through a culture of auto-mutilation and ritual suicide. At the same time, conventional indigenous terms for violence such as bao 暴 were not used for most of these practices since they were not experienced as such, but rather justified as positive uses of physical force.

Free Download Julian Stern, "Teaching Religious Education: Researchers in the Classroom"
English | ISBN: 1350037109 | 2018 | 208 pages | PDF | 5 MB
An updated, expanded, edition of the popular textbook for student and practising teachers of religious education. It is a book for and about teaching and learning religious education in schools, which is a lively and open-ended subject, ideal for those wanting to explore how people understand the world, and how they live their lives. A wide range of religious and non-religious ways of life are explored.

Free Download E. R. O’connell, "Egypt and Empire: The Formation of Religious Identity After Rome "
English | ISBN: 904294031X | 2022 | 380 pages | PDF | 191 MB
Across Eurasia and North Africa in the First Millennium AD, empires rose and fell, each adopting a universalizing faith which distinguished it broadly from its neighbours. In Egypt, our sources are particularly rich, owing to the land’s arid climate and the unparalleled survival not only of stone, ceramic and metalwork, but also of organic material such as textiles, wood and manuscripts found on papyrus, parchment and paper. This volume brings together over a dozen of the world’s leading specialists to explore the dialectical interplay between empire and religious identity through a series of case studies from Egypt. Evidence from Egypt suggests that it was precisely in the context of empire that ‘religious identity’ emerged as a distinctive marker. Using the unrivalled abundance and variety of surviving material culture, this volume explores the formation, renegotiation and reconstitution of religious identities from the Roman period forward. Whereas Egypt’s ‘pharaonic’ millennia (c. 3000-30 BC) have been studied as a coherent whole, later eras are often studied as fragments.

Free Download Undergraduate Research in Religious Studies: A Guide for Students and Faculty
English | 2023 | ISBN: 1032004258 | 168 Pages | PDF (True) | 3 MB
Undergraduate Research in Religious Studies provides students and faculty with an invaluable guide to conducting research projects across all areas in the study of religion. With an emphasis on student-faculty collaboration, this concise book addresses the key areas, methods, and practical issues to inform the practice of original undergraduate research across a wide range of subdisciplines.

Free Download Kuah-Pearce Khun Eng, "State, Society and Religious Engineering: Towards a Reformist Buddhism in Singapore"
English | 2009 | ISBN: 9812308652 | PDF | pages: 351 | 9.2 mb
The book looks at how religion in Singapore is being subjected to the processes of modernisation and change. The Singapore State has consciously brought religion under its guidance. It has exercised strong bureaucratic and legal control over the functioning of all religions in Singapore. The Chinese community and the Buddhist Sangha have responded to this by restructuring their temple institutions into large multi-functional temple complexes. There has been quite a few books written on the role of the Singapore State but, so far, none has been written on the topic – the relationship between state, society and religion. It will help to fill the missing gap in the scholarly literature on this area. This is also a topic of great significance in many Asian, particularly Southeast Asian, countries and it will serve as an important book for future reference in this area of research and comparative studies.

Free Download Geoffrey Herman, "Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians: Religious Dynamics in a Sasanian Context"
English | 2014 | ISBN: 1463202504 | PDF | pages: 325 | 3.2 mb
The Sasanian Empire was home to many religious communities. It was also a place of meeting and transformation. It was where old religions met more recent arrivals, and where both new and old were transformed as a result of this contact. While some religious communities shared more than others, and this for historical or geographical reasons, some form of contact and exchange with Zoroastrianism, the religion of the ruling dynasty and of many of the inhabitants of the empire was undoubtedly the rule for all.

Free Download Religious Vocation: An Unnecessary Mystery By Richard Butler
2005 | 192 Pages | ISBN: 0895558238 | EPUB | 1 MB
The question of discerning a vocation is agonized over by many generous young Catholics today. A solid Thomist, who wrote this book in 1961, Father Butler shows that this type of question shows a totally wrong approach to a religious vocation – an approach that began with misguided theology in the 20th century, which then trickled down to the popular level, confusing both aspirants and spiritual directors. Though Fr. Butler deals primarily with vocations to the religious life, he also gives the classic guidelines on priestly vocations. The author states, based on the tradition of the Church, that religious vocation is not uncommon, rare or extraordinary and that it does not require an introspective search for some special voice or attraction. This book provides welcome, intelligent guidance both for spiritual directors and for those considering the religious life or that of the priesthood!

Free Download The Liberty Threat: The Attack on Religious Freedom in America Today By James Tonkowich
2014 | 136 Pages | ISBN: 1618906410 | EPUB | 1 MB
What happened to liberty and justice for all?Americans are losing what are supposed to be constitutionally promised rights at an alarming pace. The Founding Fathers understood the overriding essentiality of religious practice unimpeded by governmental authority, but time and vast cultural change has eroded this from the consciences of modern politicians.The struggle for the right to worship freely has been present since the time of the Roman Empire. By looking at how the Ancient Christian world relates to the failures of our own Supreme Court, it is possible to see what has led to so much government interference in personal religious beliefs in the name of "equality." As we watch America teeter ever closer to the brink of moral collapse and prejudice against religion becomes even more institutionalized, one question always surfaces: How can we stop this?InThe Liberty ThreatJames Tonkowich explores the history of Christian philosophy from the Church’s infancy through the birth of America and how it influenced religious liberty. With powerful examples fresh from today’s courts, Tonkowich illustrates just how the rigid separation of Church and state has created a world that is hostile to true faith.The Liberty Threatis both a chilling wake-up and a clear call to action for Christians everywhere.