New Spiritual Homes

New Spiritual Homes investigates how the religious traditions, movements, and institutions have been vital for Asian Americans, past and present. Through essays, expressive works, and resource materials, it reframes the religious landscape and brings into view the experiences of Asian Americans. The essay covers an impressive range of topics, including Chinese American Protestant nationalism, the development of Filipino American folk religion, law, and religion among American Sikhs.

Essays describe the role religion has played in the lives of Asian Americans as they struggle to adjust to a new country and as they forge new identities

The Jewish community has lost some of the most sensitive spiritual souls of this generation. They are Jews who were looking for God and found spiritual homes outside of Judaism. Their journeys traversed the Jewish community, but nothing there beckoned them. The creation of synagogue-communities in which the voices of seekers can be heard and their questions can be asked will challenge many loyalist Jews. It will upset and enrage them. But it would also enrich them. —from Chapter 18 In this fresh look at the spiritual possibilities of American Jewish life, Rabbi Sidney Schwarz presents the framework for a new synagogue model—the synagogue community—and its promise to transform our understanding of the synagogue and its potential for modern Judaism. Schwarz profiles four innovative synagogues—one from each of the major movements of Judaism—that have had extraordinary success with their approach to congregational life and presents practical ways to replicate their success. Includes a discussion guide for study groups and book clubs as well as a new afterword by the author describing developments in synagogue change projects since the book was first published.

A new kind of Christianity is emerging at the grass roots. Full of heart-felt expression, artistic creativity, and liberal social values, progressive churches and small Christian communities have established themselves across the denominational spectrum. Reporting on a national research study that undercuts the impression that right-wing Christianity is the only new development on the contemporary American religious landscape, Hal Taussig identifies thousands of progressive churches and para-churches and describes five characteristics of this new movement. He then proceeds to analyze its blind spots, project its future, and suggest how to start a progressive church. Book jacket.

Everyone wants a home that is beautiful and clutter free. But most of us are unsure how to get there without breaking the bank. Popular interior designer Shannon Acheson takes the guesswork out of creating a lovely home. Home Made Lovely is a mind-set: decorating should be about those who live there, rather than making your home into a magazine-worthy spread. Shannon walks you through how to · decorate in a way that suits your family's real life · declutter in seven simple steps · perform a house blessing to dedicate your home to God · be thankful for your current home and what you already have · brush up on hospitality with more than 20 actionable ideas that will make anyone feel welcome and loved in your home In Home Made Lovely, Shannon meets you right where you are on your home-decorating journey, helping you share the peace of Christ with family members and guests.

A Spiritual Home explores congregational life inside British and American Reformed churches between 1830 and 1915. At a time when scholars have become interested in the day-to-day experience of local congregations, this book reaches back into the nineteenth century, a critically formative period in Anglo-American religious life, to examine the historical roots of congregational life.Taking the perspective of the laity, Cashdollar ranges widely from worship and music to fund-raising and administration, from pastoral care to social work, from prayer meetings to strawberry festivals, from the sanctuary to the kitchen. Firmly rooted in broader currents of gender, class, notions of middle-class respectability, increasing expectations for personal privacy, and patterns of professionalization, he finds that there was a gradual shift in emphasis during these years from piety to fellowship. Based on records, publications, and memorabilia from about 150 congregations representing eight denominations, A Spiritual Home gives us a comprehensive, composite portrait of religious life in Victorian Britain and America.

In this time of ecological crisis, all that is holy calls us into a more intimate partnership with the diverse and beautiful beings of this earth. In Finding Our Way Home, Myke Johnson reflects on her personal journey into such a partnership and offers a guide for others to begin this path. Lyrically expressed, it weaves together lessons from a chamomile flower, a small bird, a copper beech tree, a garden slug, and a forest fern, along with insights from Indigenous philosophy, environmental science, fractal geometry, childhood Catholic mysticism, the prophet Elijah, fairy tales, and permaculture design. This eco-spiritual journey also wrestles with the history of our society's destruction of the natural world, and its roots in the original theft of the land from Indigenous peoples. Exploring the spiritual dimensions of our brokenness, it offers tools to create healing. Finding Our Way Home is a ceremony to remember our essential unity with all of life.

For the millions of Americans combining the spiritual and the decorative in their homes, this beautifully rendered book of interior design depicts how the serene touch of religious design elements can be effortlessly incorporated with a modern sensibility.