Christianity and the mass media in America

Sample

Bettina L. Knapp

The book begins by probing the "Divine Feminine" in Tibet's Gesar of Ling, one of the most fascinating myths of all time. Especially intriguing is the hero's seemingly continuous dependency on the feminine principle for guidance. The heroine in Kalidasa's Sanskrit drama, Sakuntala focuses on the obstacles set in Sakuntala's earthly trajectory, and how these were instrumental in her evolution from the stage of passive, unconscious, and withdrawn archetypal Maiden to that of the conscious, decisive, strong spiritual Mother. To explore the highly complex personalities of Kriemhild and Brunhild in the High German Nibelungenlied is to enter the realm of sun and shadow, the lightened regions of consciousness and the deep interiors of primal darkness. Quiche Mayas's Popul Vuh introduces a primordial couple as active participants in the creation of humankind while Racine's Phaedra projects the dramatist's own gnawing religious conflicts onto his mythical heroine: questions of guilt, remorse, anguish, and fatality/predestination. Yeats's Irish/Celtic feminist and heroine, Deirdre, underscores her inner strength, fortitude, and courage in the face of death while I.B. Singer's "Yentl the Yeshivah Boy" depicts the struggle confronting a young girl from an orthodox Polish Jewish family as she attempts to break out of an ultrapatriarchal society.

Sample

Robert S. Ellwood

For many people, the 1960s was a period of reawakening. The political and cultural upheavals of the time had a tremendous effect on the spiritual lives of Americans, and American religion in its various forms and incarnations has not been the same since. In this epic survey, Robert Ellwood pulls together the changes that occurred in organized and disorganized religious life during this turbulent decade and sets out to show where those changes came from, following in a chronological manner the religious news and events of the day. The author recalls the unusual role religion played in the 1960 and 1964 presidential elections, the stunning results of the Second Vatican Council, the place of religion in the civil rights and antiwar movements, the emergence of Death of God theology, and the impact of religion on the counterculture. He also interprets what happened in the country spiritually as an important and perhaps permanent shift in the character of American religion, from an institutionally determined to a more subjective experience of the divine.

Sample

John C. Wathey

An essential feature of religious experience across many cultures is the intuitive feeling of God's presence. More than any rituals or doctrines, it is this experience that anchors religious faith, yet it has been largely ignored in the scientific literature on religion. Biologist John Wathey takes the reader on a scientific journey to find the sources of religious feeling and the illusion of God's presence. His book delves into the biological origins of this compelling feeling, attributing it to innate neural circuitry that evolved to promote the mother-child bond. Dr. Wathey, a veteran neuroscientist, argues that evolution has programmed the infant brain to expect the presence of a loving being who responds to the child's needs. As the infant grows into adulthood, this innate feeling is eventually transferred to the realm of religion, where it is reactivated through the symbols, imagery, and rituals of worship. The author interprets our various conceptions of God in biological terms as illusory supernormal stimuli that fill an emotional and cognitive vacuum left over from infancy.

Sample

Stephen Ellis

"The Liberian civil war generated some of the most frightening news images of the recent past: camera crews and photographers recorded striking pictures of teenage boys, high on drugs, firing machine guns while dressed in masks or women's clothes. Men of the infamous "Butt Naked Brigade" fought street battles without the benefit of clothing. There were so many cases of gunmen eating their victims' hearts and other body parts that the Catholic Church had to issue a formal denunciation of the practice."--BOOK JACKET. "The Mask of Anarchy tells the story of the war, and explains why it unfolded in such dramatic fashion. The keys to understanding the fighters' behavior are to be found among the religious and cultural repertoires that once formed the core of rural Liberian life but which became deformed and abused in over a century of foreign settlement."--BOOK JACKET.