Sacred Mundane Profane

The ideal of religious liberty enshrined in the Constitution of the United States stands in vivid contrast to today’s idea of a living constitution. Here the author compares the two. In the book’s centerpiece he points out the religious decisions and policies incorporated by the American founders into the text of 1787, and into subsequent Amendments. The Constitution is examined as a secular scripture, so to speak: as an expression of its framers’ convictions about the sacred and the profane — and, about the various topics of public policy which straddle that spiritual dichotomy, or perhaps escape it. The entire discussion is framed and illustrated by analyses of selected Supreme Court decisions of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The Justices of the Supreme Court necessarily appear in this context as the principal constitutional actors: a role not intended for them, a judicial role not even envisioned by the Constitution-makers of the late eighteenth century. For nearly a century now the Justices have been dismantling — sometime piecemeal, sometimes wholesale — the religious policies prescribed for the nation by its founding statesmen. Their ambitions now seem so vast, and their jurisdiction so comprehensive, that the appointment of each new Justice is an occasion for nationwide alarm and struggle. What is going on when the Court issues constitutional decisions not plausibly grounded in any provision of the constitutional text? Decisions which frequently ignore limitations plainly expressed in other provisions of that text? What are the presuppositions and biases implicit in the Justices’ lawyerly rhetoric? When are those presuppositions and biases fairly said to be religious in character? The reader will find these fundamental and controversial questions addressed in an original manner. The author brought to his legal career a background in mathematics and logical studies. Those studies have given him an unusual perspective on the vitally important topic of religious liberty.

"The Supreme Court's political power rivals that of Congress and the Presidency, and the Justices' ambitions often seem vast. The author argues that the Court has handed down decisions which are essentially religious in character, while speaking the language of constitutional interpretation, and in effect usurping the legislative power of Congress"--

The Sacred is the Profane collects nine essays by William Arnal and Russell McCutcheon that advance current scholarly debates on secularism-debates. The essays return, again and again, to the question of what "religion"—word and concept—accomplishes, now, for those who employ it, whether at the popular, political, or scholarly level. The focus here is on the efficacy, costs, and the tactical work carried out by dividing the world between religious and political, church and state, sacred and profane.

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.

Based on a doctoral dissertation, "Nursing rituals in an adult acute care hospital : and ethnography"--Preface.

Premodern and early modern yoga comprise techniques with a wide range of aims, from turning inward in quest of the true self, to turning outward for divine union, to channeling bodily energy in pursuit of sexual pleasure. Early modern yoga also encompassed countercultural beliefs and practices. In contrast, today, modern yoga aims at the enhancement of the mind-body complex but does so according to contemporary dominant metaphysical, health, and fitness paradigms. Consequently, yoga is now a part of popular culture. In Selling Yoga, Andrea R. Jain explores the popularization of yoga in the context of late-twentieth-century consumer culture. She departs from conventional approaches by undermining essentialist definitions of yoga as well as assumptions that yoga underwent a linear trajectory of increasing popularization. While some studies trivialize popularized yoga systems by reducing them to the mere commodification or corruption of what is perceived as an otherwise fixed, authentic system, Jain suggests that this dichotomy oversimplifies the history of yoga as well as its meanings for contemporary practitioners. By discussing a wide array of modern yoga types, from Iyengar Yoga to Bikram Yoga, Jain argues that popularized yoga cannot be dismissed--that it has a variety of religious meanings and functions. Yoga brands destabilize the basic utility of yoga commodities and assign to them new meanings that represent the fulfillment of self-developmental needs often deemed sacred in contemporary consumer culture.

Body and Sacred Place in Medieval Europe investigates the medieval understanding of sacred place, arguing for the centrality of bodies and bodily metaphors to the establishment, function, use, and power of medieval churches. Questioning the traditional division of sacred and profane jurisdictions, this book identifies the need to consider non-devotional uses of churches in the Middle Ages. Dawn Marie Hayes examines idealized visions of medieval sacred places in contrast with the mundane and profane uses of these buildings. She argues that by the later Middle Ages-as loyalties were torn by emerging political, economic, and social groups-the Church suffered a loss of security that was reflected in the uses of sacred spaces, which became more restricted as identities shifted and Europeans ordered the ambiguity of the medieval world.

The present volume is part of a series entitled World Spirituality: An Encyclopedic History of the Religious Quest, which seeks to present the spiritual wisdom of the human race in its historical unfolding. The volume presents the richness of the spiritual heritage of the human race and designed to reflect the autonomy of the traditional in its historical development.