WILLIAM JAMES AND THE VARIETIES OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE: A CENTENARY CELEBRATION; ED. BY JEREMY CARRETTE

Sample

John Lofland

In the years since Doomsday Cult was first published, much has happened to the movement. This enlarged edition brings us up to the present. Doomsday Cult analyzes the first five years in America (1959-1964) of an obscure end-of-the-world religion that went on to become nationally and internationally famous in the 1970s. The movement went from identification as a small and laughable bunch of kooks to public definition as a powerful and nefarious social force that had to be countered. Such a truly dramatic change in the status of a movement (and the activities of the movement itself) demands the question: Why and how did it happen? The change provides an important opportunity, moreover, to increase our understanding of the dynamics of social movements more generally: their resource mobilization, internal organization, strategies, citizen responses to them and the like. These topics are discussed in the Epilogue to the Enlarged Edition, added since the original edition was published. - Preface to the enlarged edition.

Sample

Gary Collins

Many Christians, including Jimmy Swaggart and Dave Hunt, claim psychology is seductive, destructive, and dangerous. These concerns have left many people confused and questioning. If I'm in counseling, should I get out? Are non-Christian counselors always to be avoided? Should pastors do counseling themselves? Should they refer church members to psychologists? Gary R. Collins is one of the most widely read and well-respected authors of our day. He provides a reasoned voice in a sometimes loud and heated debate that threatens the spiritual and emotional vitality of millions. He answers the questions you are asking and gives clear direction in plain language. Here is a book for anyone who questions psychology. - Back cover.

Sample

Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi and Michael Argyle

"The Psychology of Religious Behaviour, Belief and Experience is the most comprehensive survey available of theories and research on religion from the perspective of psychology. Religious belief is never evenly distributed, and is correlated with such variables as social background, gender and personality characteristics. Beit-Hallahmi and Argyle use findings in these areas to test numerous explanations of the origins and functions of religion in human culture. They also consider social consequences of religiosity, religious experience, religious attitudes, the effect of religion on health, the acquisition of beliefs, conversion, and the benefits or otherwise of religion. Their main conclusion is that religiosity is first and foremost social, and is learned like other kinds of social acts." "Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi and Michael Argyle are renowned for their clear, analytical approach, and this new state-of-the-art study of psychology and religion is no exception. It will be welcomed as an update to their previous work in the area by social psychologists, sociologists and theologians worldwide."--BOOK JACKET.

Sample

Jean-Paul Sartre

First published in 1940, Sartre's The Imaginary is a cornerstone of his philosophy. Sartre had become acquainted with the philosophy of Edmund Husserl in Berlin and was fascinated by his idea of the "intentionality of consciousness" as a key to the puzzle of existence. Against this background, The Imaginary crystallized Sartre's worldview and artistic vision. Here he presented the first extended examination of the concepts of nothingness and freedom, both of which are derived from the ability of consciousness to imagine objects both as they are and as they are not. These ideas would drive Sartre's existentialism and his entire theory of human freedom, laying the foundation for his masterwork Being and Nothingness three years later. This new translation by Jonathan Webber rectifies flaws in the terminology of the first translation and recaptures the essence of Sartre's phenomenology. Webber's perceptive new introduction helps to decipher this challenging, seminal work, placing it in the context of the author's work and the history of philosophy.