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  Textual Authority in Classical Indian Thought: Ramanuja and the Vishnu Purana

  Sucharita Adluri

  Theistic Vedānta originated with Rāmānuja (1077-1157), who was one of the foremost theologians of Viśistādvaita Vedānta and also an initiate of the Śrīvaisnava sectarian tradition in South India. As devotees of the God Visnu and his consort Śrī, the Śrīvaisnavas established themselves through various processes of legitimation as a powerful sectarian tradition. One of the processes by which the authority of the Śrīvaisnavas was consolidated was Rāmānuja’s synthesis of popular Hindu devotionalism with the philosophy of Vedānta.

  This book demonstrates that by incorporating a text often thought to be of secondary importance - the Visnu Purāna (1st-4th CE) - into his reading of the Upanisads, which were the standard of orthodoxy for Vedānta philosophy, Rāmānuja was able to interpret Vedānta within the theistic context of Śrīvaisnavism. Rāmānuja was the first Brahmin thinker to incorporate devotional purānas into Vedānta philosophy. His synthetic theology called Viśistādvaita (unity-of-the-differenced) wielded tremendous influence over the expansion of Visnu devotionalism in South India and beyond. In this book, the exploration of the exegetical function of this purana in arguments salient to Rāmānuja’s Vedānta facilitates our understanding of the processes of textual accommodation and reformulation that allow the incorporation of divergent doctrinal claims.

  Expanding on and reassessing current views on Rāmānuja’s theology, the book contributes new insights to broader issues in religious studies such as canon expansion, commentarial interpretation, tradition-building, and the comparative study of scripture. It will be of interest to students and scholars of Indian philosophy and Religious Studies.

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  Beyond the Body: An Antitheology of the Eucharist

  James J. Heaney

  The Eucharist has become the central act of Christian life and worship. Unresolved disagreements about it, however, remain as obstacles to religious unity, and to developing a eucharistic spirituality adapted to the unpredictable standards of a deconstructed, critically driven, postmodern age. Beginning with a reassessment of medieval "realist" doctrines of the Eucharist, Beyond the Body argues that the real meaning of the Words of Institution is their use in fulfilling the Last Supper command of Jesus to be remembered. Where traditional doctrines of the Eucharist and their corresponding forms of piety dead-end in intellectual conundrum or disembodied symbolism, that command evokes a world of transformative events with the historical Jesus of the Last Supper as real and constant partner. As an "antitheology" the task of this book is to sketch the intellectual footprint of a nonmetaphysical eucharistic faith. Setting aside traditional approaches, however, will have been worth it only if this enables a eucharistic belief that meets the needs of and is fruitful for religious life in general. Its ultimate goal is to refocus eucharistic piety on the liturgical act itself as a transformative event united in time with the person of Jesus in both remembrance and thanksgiving.

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  Dimensions of Faith: A Mormon Studies Reader

  Stephen Taysom

  In the brief time between when the alarm clock rings and the start of the day, we usually cherish those few extra moments of warmth in the sheets. However, soon enough we’re happy to be up and about, exploring the world around us. Similarly with religious studies, we may cling to the comforts of the past—what we find familiar in our faith—but then curiosity and conscience pull us to new revelations and sources of knowledge.

  In these seventeen articles on things Mormon—prominent people, religious experience, memory, media, literature, and investigative theory—there is an obvious respect for the past and simultaneous desire to get to the bottom of things, to test the boundaries of knowledge. For instance, Jonathan Stapley and Kristine Wright look at the history of ritual healing within Mormonism, including the use of magic handkerchiefs and blessings performed by women. Matthew Bowman’s essay on “A Mormon Bigfoot” looks at the story retold in Sunday school and elsewhere about an early Church apostle who saw the biblical Cain. Brian Stuy examines Church President Wilford Woodruff’s account of the American founding fathers reaching from beyond the grave—a summons the prophet responded favorably to—requesting temple baptisms on their behalf. Unknown to Woodruff, this ordinance had been performed the year before. And Kathleen Flake looks at how the First Vision and other founding narratives were not emphasized in the Church until the twentieth century.

  Other contributors include Gary James Bergera, Martha Bradley, Newell Bringhurst, Samuel Brown, Claudia Bushman, Brian Cannon, Douglas Davies, Rebecca de Schweinitz, Lawrence Foster, Reinhold Hill, and Jacob Olmstead.

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  Shakers, Mormons, and Religious Worlds: Conflicting Visions, Contested Boundaries

  Stephen Taysom

  Among America's more interesting new religious movements, the Shakers and the Mormons came to be thought of as separate and distinct from mainstream Protestantism. Using archives and historical materials from the 19th century, Stephen C. Taysom shows how these groups actively maintained boundaries and created their own thriving, but insular communities. Taysom discovers a core of innovation deployed by both the Shakers and the Mormons through which they embraced their status as outsiders. Their marginalization was critical to their initial success. As he skillfully negotiates the differences between Shakers and Mormons, Taysom illuminates the characteristics which set these groups apart and helped them to become true religious dissenters.

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  Objectivity in the Feminist Philosophy of Science

  Karen Haely

  Scientific knowledge is widely considered to be the most certain kind of knowledge, free from social or cultural bias. This freedom from bias or values, the objectivity of science, is a key reason why scientific knowledge holds its privileged position in society. Karen Cordrick Haely argues that feminist critics of science present compelling reasons to eschew the idea that science is, or should be, purely objective in the sense commonly understood to mean 'value-free'. This book examines the most prominent feminist ideas regarding how to revise and enrich the concept of objectivity such that we can understand, though not necessarily eliminate, the role of cultural and social interests as they play a role in science. Haely argues that these views of objectivity ought to be treated as a network of ideas, rather than as stand-alone solutions to the complexities of forming a cohesive philosophical view of scientific objectivity. The book also presents a landscape of several issues that are crucial for understanding the intersection of feminism and science.

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  Jewish Christianity Reconsidered : Rethinking Ancient Groups and Texts

  Matt A. Jackson-McCabe

  For decades, scholars have used the phrase "Jewish Christianity" and, more recently, "Christian Judaism." But just what do those terms mean? Who were the first Jewish Christians? What counts as Jewish Christianity? Those questions receive current and definitive treatment in essays drawn together by Matt Jackson- McCabe, founder of the consultation on Jewish Christianity at the Society of Biblical Literature.

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  Rescher on Rationality, Values, and Social Responsibility: A Philosophical Portrait

  Nicholas Moutafakis

  Nicholas Rescher, University Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh, stands as a major figure in American philosophy today. His philosophical contribution, ranging over fifty years, is marked by a profound respect for the fate of the human condition in a world of unparalleled scientific and technological innovation. This work brings under the centrally unifying theme of "rationality" some of the issues on values and personal responsibility he has addressed during his long and distinguished career.

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  New Philosophy of Human Nature

  Oliva Sabuco, Mary Ellen Waithe, Maria Colomer Vintro, and C. Angel Zorita

  This volume is a critical edition of the 1587 treatise by Oliva Sabuco, "New Philosophy of Human Nature", written during the Spanish Inquisition. Puzzled by medicine's abject failure to find a cure for the plague, Sabuco developed a new theory of human nature as the foundation for her remarkably modern holistic philosophy of medicine. Fifty years before Descartes, Sabuco posited a dualism that accounted for mind/body interaction. She was first among the moderns to argue that the brain - not the heart - controls the body. Her account also anticipates the role of cerebrospinal fluid, the relationship between mental and physical health, and the absorption of nutrients through digestion. This extensively annotated translation features an ample introduction demonstrating the work's importance to the history of science, philosophy of medicine, and women's studies.

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  Logos and Law in the Letter of James : the Law of Nature, the Law of Moses, and the Law of Freedom

  Matt A. Jackson-McCabe

  This study examines the association of "implanted logos" and the "perfect law of freedom" in the Letter of James. It argues that James understands the Torah to be a written expression of the divine law the Stoics correlated with human reason. After showing how past interpretation of James's logos has been guided by a problematic essentialist approach to Christian origins, the Stoic theory of law is reconstructed with special attention to Cicero's concept of "implanted reason." Adaptations of the Stoic theory in ancient Jewish and Christian literature are examined, and the Letter of James is analyzed in detail. The work makes original contributions to the study of James and of Stoicism. It also highlights the importance of broad reconstructions of Christian origins for the interpretation of the early Christian literature.

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  The Radical Reform of Christianity: A Focus on Catholicism

  Edward Brennan