Contemplative Practices in Action

Contemplative Practices in Action PDF Author: Thomas G. Plante Ph.D.
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0313382573
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 273

Book Description
This groundbreaking primer illuminates contemplative methods that can improve mental and physical health. Contemplative practices, from meditation to Zen, are growing in popularity as methods to inspire physical and mental health. Contemplative Practices in Action: Spirituality, Meditation, and Health offers readers an introduction to these practices and the ways they can be used in the service of well being, wisdom, healing, and stress reduction. Bringing together various traditions from the East and West, this thought-provoking work summarizes the history of each practice, highlights classic and emerging research proving its power, and details how each practice is performed. Expert authors offer step-by-step approaches to practice methods including the 8-Point Program of Passage Meditation, Centering Prayer, mindful stress management, mantram meditation, energizing meditation, yoga, and Zen. Beneficial practices from Christian, Buddhist, Jewish, Hindu, and Islamic religions are also featured. Vignettes illustrate each of the practices, while the contributors explain how and why they are effective in facing challenges as varied as the loss of a partner or child, job loss, chronic pain or disease, or psychological disorders.

Born Believers

Born Believers PDF Author: Justin L. Barrett
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1439196540
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 322

Book Description
A provocative report on the universal nature of divine beliefs; explains how the roots of religious perception begin in infancy and evolve into complex beliefs that share instinctive commonalities.

Religion in Personality Theory

Religion in Personality Theory PDF Author: Frederick Walborn
Publisher: Academic Press
ISBN: 0124079431
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 456

Book Description
Religion in Personality Theory makes clear the link between theory and research and personality and religion. Presently, most personality texts have a limited discussion of religion and reference few theorists other than Freud and Maslow in relation to the subject. This book reviews the theory and the empirical literature on the writings of 14 theorists. Every chapter concludes with a summation of the current research on the theorist’s proposals. Reviews: "Frederick Walborn has written an excellent text that explores the degree to which classical personality theorists were personally influenced by and focused upon religion in developing their personality theories. Each theorist is presented in sufficient detail so that their personal views of religion are seen to influence the theories they developed. In addition, the current status of the empirical evidence in the psychology of religion is explored in the context of the theorist and theory to which the data is most relevant. Current and up to date, this text is appropriate for either a course in Personality or as an introduction to the Psychology of Religion. The author's own comprehensive theory of religion and spirituality creatively integrates the positive contributions of the classical personality theorist to the contemporary psychology of religion." -Ralph W. Hood Jr., Professor of Psychology, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga "In this interesting and accessible book, Frederick Walborn thoughtfully probes the place of religion and spirituality in the writings of a broad range of classical psychological thinkers and offers an insightful critique of current empirical research on the complex relation of religion and spirituality to individual well-being." -Michele Dillon, Ph.D., Professor and Chair, Department of Sociology, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire Identifies what major personality theorists say about religion Investigates whether evidence supports or refutes predictions made by different theories Concludes with a comprehensive integrative theory on religion and spirituality

Evidence and Religious Belief

Evidence and Religious Belief PDF Author: Kelly James Clark
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199603715
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 225

Book Description
Evidence and Religious Belief features eleven new essays on the question of whether religious belief must be based on evidence in order to be rational. Leading philosophers in the field discuss the demand for evidence, the ways in which available evidence differs from person to person, and the current arguments for and against religious belief.

Challenges to Moral and Religious Belief

Challenges to Moral and Religious Belief PDF Author: Michael Bergmann
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199669775
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 321

Book Description
Fourteen original essays by philosophers, theologians, and social scientists explore the challenges to moral and religious belief posed by disagreement and evolution. The collection represents both sceptical and non-skeptical positions about morality and religion, cultivates new insights, and moves the discussion forward in illuminating ways.

Why Tolerate Religion?

Why Tolerate Religion? PDF Author: Brian Leiter
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 140085234X
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 216

Book Description
Why it's wrong to single out religious liberty for special legal protections This provocative book addresses one of the most enduring puzzles in political philosophy and constitutional theory—why is religion singled out for preferential treatment in both law and public discourse? Why are religious obligations that conflict with the law accorded special toleration while other obligations of conscience are not? In Why Tolerate Religion?, Brian Leiter shows why our reasons for tolerating religion are not specific to religion but apply to all claims of conscience, and why a government committed to liberty of conscience is not required by the principle of toleration to grant exemptions to laws that promote the general welfare.

Religion in Mind

Religion in Mind PDF Author: Jensine Andresen
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521801524
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 310

Book Description
Religion in Mind is a 2001 text which summarizes and extends the advances in the cognitive study of religion throughout the 1990s. It uses empirical research from psychology and anthropology to illuminate various components of religious belief, ritual, and experience. The book examines cognitive dimensions of religion within a naturalistic view of culture, while respecting the phenomenology of religion and drawing together teachers of religion, psychologists of religion, and cognitive scientists. Expert contributors focus on phenomena such as belief-fixation and transmission; attributions of agency; anthropomorphizing; counterintuitive religious representations; the well-formedness of religious rituals; links between religious representations and emotions; and the development of god concepts. The work encourages greater interdisciplinary linkages between scholars from different fields and will be of interest to researchers in anthropology, psychology, sociology, history, philosophy, and cognitive science. It also will interest more general readers in religion and science.

Attachment, Evolution, and the Psychology of Religion

Attachment, Evolution, and the Psychology of Religion PDF Author: Lee A. Kirkpatrick
Publisher: Guilford Press
ISBN: 9781593850883
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 428

Book Description
In this provocative and engaging book, Lee Kirkpatrick establishes a broad, comprehensive framework for approaching the psychology of religion from an evolutionary perspective. Kirkpatrick argues that religion is a collection of byproducts of numerous psychological mechanisms and systems that evolved for other functions.

Religious Disagreement

Religious Disagreement PDF Author: Helen De Cruz
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108566731
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 144

Book Description
This Element examines what we can learn from religious disagreement, focusing on disagreement with possible selves and former selves, the epistemic significance of religious agreement, the problem of disagreements between religious experts, and the significance of philosophy of religion. Helen De Cruz shows how religious beliefs of others constitute significant higher-order evidence. At the same time, she advises that we should not necessarily become agnostic about all religious matters, because our cognitive background colors the way we evaluate evidence. This allows us to maintain religious beliefs in many cases, while nevertheless taking the religious beliefs of others seriously.

Believing by Faith

Believing by Faith PDF Author: John Bishop
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019920554X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 263

Book Description
Does our available evidence show that some particular religion is correct? It seems unlikely, given the great diversity of religious - and non-religious - views of the world. But if no religious beliefs can be shown true on the evidence, can it be right to make a religious commitment? Should people make 'leaps of faith'? Or would we all be better off avoiding commitments that outrun our evidence? And, if leaps of faith can be acceptable, how do we tell the difference between goodand bad ones - between sound religion and dogmatic ideology or fundamentalist fanaticism? Believing by Faith offers answers to these questions, inspired by a famous attempt to justify faith made by William James in 1896. In doing so, it engages critically with much recent discussion in the philosophyof religion, and, especially, the epistemology of religious belief.