Eclectic and esoteric religions and belief systems

Magic and conjuring inhabit the boundaries and the borderlands of performance.

The Gnostic World is an outstanding guide to Gnosticism, written by a distinguished international team of experts to explore Gnostic movements from the distant past until today.

Das Herzstück dieses Buches ist eine existenzielle Frage.

This book brings together ethnographic field research on four permacultural ecovillages in Brazil to highlight the importance of spirituality and ecological epistemologies as key analytical tools.

Winner of the 2023 CSBS' Frank W.

Purity, Community, and Ritual in Early Christian Literature investigates the meaning of purity, purification, defilement, and disgust for Christian writers, readers, and listeners from the first to third centuries.

Can you be an atheist and still believe in God?

The seventeenth-century poet and divine Thomas Traherne finds innocence in every stage of existence.

Mummies, Cannibals and Vampires charts in vivid detail the largely forgotten history of European corpse medicine, which saw kings, ladies, gentlemen, priests and scientists prescribe, swallow or wear human blood, flesh, bone, fat, brains and skin in an attempt to heal themselves of epilepsy, bruising, wounds, sores, plague, cancer, gout and depression.

This book provides a new sociological account of contemporary religious phenomena such as channelling, holistic healing, meditation and divination, which are usually classed as part of a New Age Movement.

Christian Science is one of the most unique and controversial of American religions, but there has never been a history of this influential metaphysical group, best known for its healing through prayer.

Exploring what does and what does not constitute pilgrimage, Redefining Pilgrimage draws together a wide variety of disciplines including politics, anthropology, history, religion and sociology.

Critical attention to the Victorian supernatural has flourished over the last twenty-five years.

This book offers a detailed analysis of the Gospel of Thomas in its historic and literary context, providing a new understanding of the genesis of the Jesus tradition.

This book brings the emerging fields of practical theology and theology of the arts into a dialogue beyond the bias of modern systematic and constructive theology.

Spirituality is, too often, subsumed under the heading of religion and treated as much the same kind of thing.

This book approaches witchcraft and demonology through literary records.

Religion and Outer Space examines religion in and on the final frontier.

Joining insights from social science and philosophy, this book offers a nuanced view on the discourse of evil, which has been on the rise in the West in recent years.

How fin-de-sicle Paris became the locus for the most intense revival of magical practices and doctrines since the Renaissance *; Examines the remarkable lives of occult practitioners Josphin Peladan, Papus, Stanislas de Guata, Saint-Yves d'Alveydre, Jules Doinel, and others *; Reveals how occult activity deeply influenced many well-known cultural movements, such as Symbolism, the Decadents, modern music, and the ';psychedelic 60s' During Paris's Belle poque (1871-1914), many cultural movements and artistic styles flourished--Symbolism, Impressionism, Art Nouveau, the Decadents--all of which profoundly shaped modern culture.

Esotericism is the search for an absolute but hidden knowledge accessed through mystical vision, the mediation of higher beings, or personal experience.

Witchcraft violence is a feature of many contemporary African societies.

Baron Rosen's Babi/Baha'i archives presents private letters and diplomatic correspondence from the nineteenth century, preserved among the prominent Russian scholar Baron Victor Rosen's materials in the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences, St.

Take a dark descent into a world of supernatural evil!

Using Spirituality in Psychotherapy: The Heart Led Approach to Clinical Practice offers a means for therapists to integrate a spiritual perspective into their clinical practice.

This was originally a two volume set which is now bound as one.

This book brings together case studies dealing with historical as well as recent phenomena in former socialist nations, which testify the transfer of knowledge about religion and atheism.

The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, and certain other works of fantasy and science fiction have inspired some of their readers and viewers to believe that the superhuman powers of the story-worlds, such as Gandalf and the Force, exist also in the real world.

Vegan Witchcraft is the first book to blend theories of animal rights, feminism, and modern witchcraft in pursuit of total liberation.

Comparing and evaluating modern theories of myth, this book offers an overview of explanations of myth from the social sciences and the humanities.

Learn the secrets of The Witch of the Forest in this stunning follow-up to Natural Magick, and channelthe elemental forces which are all around you to master the practice of earth magick.

In these talks, written and presented to a variety of audiences between 2001 and 2010, John Michael Greer explores the forgotten history of occultism and its unexpected possibilities in our time.

In 1901 a rich collection of extracts from documents relating to witch beliefs and witch trials in the Middle Ages - Hexenwahns und der Hexenverfolgung in Mittelalter - was published in Bonn.

The authoritative cultural history of Virginia's most famous accused witch In 1706, Grace Sherwood was ';ducked' after her neighbors in Princess Anne County accused her of witchcraft.

The search for an adequate understanding of the New Age phenomenon is fraught with difficulties when examined within the perspectives of sociology of religion which have shed light on religion in modernity.

Why did ancient philosophers consult oracles, write about them, and consider them to be an important part of philosophical thought and practice?

Die geheimnisvolle Welt des Golden Dawn, durchzogen von mächtigen Symbolen, rituellen Zeremonien und intensiven Initiationsverfahren, hat seit jeher die Fantasie von Suchenden, Mystikern und Historikern gleichermaßen ergriffen.

'The fables of witchcraft have taken so fast hold and deepe root in the heart of man, that few or none can indure with patience the hand and correction of God.

Invented religions have been described as modern religions which advertise their invented status and reject traditional strategies of authorisation.

Is religion dying out in Western societies?

Critical attention to the Victorian supernatural has flourished over the last twenty-five years.

Exploring the unity of the practice of prayer and the practice of theology, this book draws together insights from world-class theologians including Rowan Williams, Andrew Louth, Frances Young, Margaret R.

Birth, death and the rituals that take us from one to the other tell us a lot about humanity and our quest to understand ourselves.

This book provides a new sociological account of contemporary religious phenomena such as channelling, holistic healing, meditation and divination, which are usually classed as part of a New Age Movement.

Witchcraft in Early Modern England provides a fascinating introduction to the history of witches and witchcraft in England from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century.