The Mystic Way In Postmodernity

This book challenges experiential, esoteric and colloquial understandings of mysticism by bringing a fresh relevance to the term through an interdisciplinary dialogue between literature, mysticism and theology in the context of postmodernity. In order to achieve this, the author takes selected writings of Iris Murdoch, Denise Levertov and Annie Dillard, and incorporates them into various stages of a redesigned mystic way. The fourteenth-century mystic Julian of Norwich is invoked throughout as a role model whom these three writers seek to emulate as popular writers, contemplatives and theologians. As theologians who are concerned with the pressing issues of our age, Grace Jantzen, Dorothee Soelle and Sallie McFague are drawn on as conversation partners to complete the three-way discussion. The author maintains that understanding the writing and reading of creative texts in the context of practical mysticism facilitates an integrated approach to the use of literature for theological expression.

Elaine Heath brings a fresh perspective to the theory and practice of evangelism by approaching it through contemplative spirituality. This thoroughly revised edition includes a new study guide. Praise for the First Edition Outreach Resource of the Year Award Winner "[Heath's] biographies of the mystics are inspiring, and her emphases on suffering and spiritual depth as the antidote to a prepackaged, method-obsessed, consumer-oriented evangelistic approach are refreshing."--Outreach

For the duration of her writing career, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annie Dillard has unflinchingly asked and kept on asking enormous and difficult questions: What is the relation of Creator to creation? Why is there evil and unjust suffering? How do we make meaning of our experiences? Who is responsible for redeeming the world's brokenness? Moreover, she has done so in every genre within the impressive range of her canon: her poetry, literary nonfiction, novels, autobiography, literary criticism, and memoirs. Two enduring influences have shaped Dillard's cosmos-spanning questions and their metanarratives--Christianity and Jewish mysticism, particularly Hasidism and Isaac Luria's Kabbalism. Though much scholarly attention has been paid to the influence of Christian mysticism in Dillard's work, none has yet explored the role of her lifelong interest in Jewish mystical traditions. This book seeks to fill that scholarly gap and demonstrate how Dillard's theological vision and voice both reflect and enact central features of Hasidic and Kabbalistic thought, resulting in what could be called Dillard's literary shema.

Revealing, in an original and provocative study, the mystical contents of the works of famous atheists Virginia Woolf and Iris Murdoch, Donna Lazenby shows how these thinkers' refusal to construe worldviews on available reductive models brought them to offer radically alternative pictures of life which maintain its mysteriousness, and promote a mystical way of knowing. A Mystical Philosophy contributes to the contemporary resurgence of interest in Spirituality, but from an entirely new direction. This book provides a warning against reductive scientific and philosophical models that impoverish our understanding of ourselves and the world, and a powerful endorsement of ways of knowing that give art, and a restored concept of contemplation, their consummative place.

It is becoming clear that the church of the modern world is losing (or has already lost) its perceived value among the general populace. There have been many theories proposed that try to explain the reason for this decline in value, ranging from the church's need to be more relevant, to the necessity of return to authentic community. If the church is to become valuable again then we must return to a more substantive theology, one that helps people, both individually and collectively, to better understand Christian spiritual growth by explaining what the process of growing toward spiritual maturity has historically looked like. What the world needs is a church that is irrelevant...one that breaks the worldly cycles of selfishness, selfism, and entitlement and offers an alternative to the meaningless quest for self-deification. If we are to make a difference in the world again, then we must stop trying to make disciples who follow Christ, and begin making disciples who know Christ.

St Francis of Assisi, one of the most acclaimed and enduring of saints, is particularly significant when reflecting upon the COVID pandemic. Francis lived, and ministered, amid a leprosy pandemic. How he lived in relation to that pandemic makes him a source of insight to as well as a potential critic of contemporary responses to COVID. In turn, one can use COVID to question Francis. Did he exhibit a harmful form of religious devotion, perhaps fanaticism, by exposing himself and others to a lethal pathogen? This edited collection examines a highly visible and impactful religious figure with the intent of bringing him into conversation with one of the defining issues of the early 21st Century.

This book contains well-researched (literature review/field surveys) and personal experience on the origin and adaptation of Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris tigris), the only large carnivore species inhabiting the mangrove forests across the world. The Bengal tiger population in this mangrove habitat is isolated from other mainland populations and exhibits certain distinctive morphological adaptations. Unlike the mainlanders, these islanders are much smaller (suggesting insular dwarfism), more muscular with leaner frame and lesser body mass (±100 kg). The stress factor associated with changes in their natural habitat and the availability of the smaller prey species is often related to such phenomenon. Apart from the long-stretch swimming, the tiger has adapted to changed food habits and become omnivore. Loss and degradation of the mangrove habitat has caused severe decline of the tiger population. Tiger conservation within and beyond the protected areas is based on the ethical issues- “biodiversity, aesthetic values and integrity” as well as management of the mangrove ecosystem challenged by development works and anthropogenic activities. A published book highlighting the updated information on the migratory behaviour, morphological and behavioural adaptations of the Bengal tiger in the mangrove eco-system is not readily available. This monograph is ideal for researchers, postgraduate and graduate students in zoology, botany, ecology and conservation. This comprehensive treatise will also serve professionals, such as foresters, environmentalists, conservationists, resource managers, planners, government agencies, academic institutions, NGOs and naturalists.

The current renewed interest in Medieval culture, literature and society is evident in recent fictional works such as Game of Thrones or the cinematographic adaptions of Tolkien’s pseudo-medieval universe. From a more academic viewpoint, there are a number of excellent journals and book series devoted to scholarly analysis of English Medieval language and literature. While “traditional” Medieval scholars use several valid vehicles for communication, those researchers who favour more innovative or eclectic approaches are not often given the same opportunities. New Medievalisms is unique in that it offers such scholars a platform to showcase their academic prestige and the quality and originality of their investigations. This multidisciplinary collection of essays includes six chapters and nineteen articles in which twenty-one renowned scholars analyse a wide range of issues related to Medieval England, from the Beowulf saga to echoes of Medieval literature in contemporary fiction, translation or didactics. As a result, the book is both kaleidoscopic and daring, as well as rigorous and accurate.