This comprehensive introduction to the nature and variety of religious phenomena, belief, and practice (1) explores the issues in religious studies, (2) examines the universal forms of religious experience, (3) offers a cross-cultural study of a broad range of classic types of religious belief and practice in terms of the seven basic concepts of a religious world view, and (4) surveys the challenges faced by religions today.
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Anatomy of the Sacred: An Introduction to Religion, 6th Edition
PART I) THE STUDY OF RELIGION:
1) What is Religion?
Defining Religion
Why Are Humans Religious?
Why Study Religion?
2) Ways of Studying Religion
The Ways Religion is Studied
Interpreting and Explaining Religion
PART II) UNIVERSAL FORMS OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE AND EXPRESSION
3) The Sacred and the Holy
The Concept of Sacred Power
The Ambivalence of Sacred Power
The Holy as Mysterium Tremendum and Fascinana
Sacred Space
Sacred Time
4)Sacred Symbol, Myth, and Doctrine
Symbolic Communication
Religious Symbols
Metaphor, Parable, and Story
Religious Myth
Models and Doctrines
5) Sacred Ritual
Ritual Action
Types of Sacred Ritual
Ritual and Sacrifice
Rituals as Sacraments
6) Sacred Scripture
The Pervasive Role of Sacred Scripture
Some Distinctive Features of Sacred Scripture
The Authority and Canonicity of Scripture
The Uses of Scripture
The Interpretation of Scripture
7) Society and the Sacred: The Social Formations and Transformations of Religion
The Reciprocal Relationship Between Religion and Society
Types of Religious Communities
Voluntary Religious Communities
Protest and Change in Voluntary Religious Communities
The Sect
The Cult and the New Religious Movements
PART III) UNIVERSAL COMPONENTS OF A RELIGIOUS WORLDVIEW
8) Deity: Concepts of the Divine and Ultimate Reality
Polytheism and the Worship of Nature
Dualism
Pantheism and Monism
Monotheism
Panentheism
9) Cosmogony: Origins of the Natural and Social Order
The Practical Basis of Cosmogony
Emergence or Procreation from a Primal Substance or Being
The Sexual Union of a Primal Male and Female
Creation by Conflict and the Ordering of Chaos
Creation by a Divine Craftsman
Creation by Decree or from Nothing
The Rejection of Cosmogonic Speculation
Cosmogony Today
10) Views of the Human Problem
Views of Human Plight
Stoicism
Christianity
Theravada Buddhism
Confucianism
11) Theodicy: Encountering Evil
The Persistent Demand for Theodicy
Theodicy of \"Mystical Participation\"
A Future, This-Wordly Theodicy
Other-Wordly Theodicy
Dualism
The Karma-Samsara Theodicy
Monotheistic Theodicies
12) Ethics: Patterns of Moral Action
Philosophical Ethics
The Sources and Norms of Moral Authority
13) Soteriology: Ways and Goals of Salvation and Liberation
Ways of Salvation and Liberation
The Way of Grace through Faith
The Way of Devotion
The Way of Action and Obligation
The Way of Meditation and Philosophical Insight
Overview of Goals of Salvation and Liberation
Psychic Wholeness and a Healthy Social order
Resurrection, Immortality, and Eternal Life
Samadhi and Nirvana
PART IV) THE SACRED AND THE SECULAR IN MODERNITY
14) Secularization - New Religious Revitalization Movements - COntemporary Religious Fundamentalism
Secularization, Pluralism, and Revitalization Movements
The Reactions of Religious Fundamentalisms Today
The Characterisitcs of Contemporary Religious Fundamentalism
15)Contemporary Challenges to Traditional Religion: The Status and the Roles of Women - Relations Between Religion and the State
The Status and Roles of Women
Relations Between Religion and the State
The \"Culture Wars\" in the United States: Discord over Relations Between Church and State\n
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