The violent partitioning of British India along religious lines and ongoing communalist aggression have compelled Indian citizens to contend with the notion that an exclusive, fixed religious identity is fundamental to selfhood. Even so, Muslim saint shrines known as dargahs attract a religiously diverse range of pilgrims. In this accessible and groundbreaking ethnography, Carla Bellamy traces the long-term healing processes of Muslim and Hindu devotees of a complex of dargahs in northwestern India. Drawing on pilgrims’ narratives, ritual and everyday practices, archival documents, and popular publications in Hindi and Urdu, Bellamy considers questions about the nature of religion in general and Indian religion in particular. Grounded in stories from individual lives and experiences, The Powerful Ephemeral offers not only a humane, highly readable portrait of dargah culture, but also new insight into notions of selfhood and religious difference in contemporary India.

""[I]t is extremely salubrious to see the ways Islam works in the lives of ordinary people who are not politicized in their religious lives.... No other book on South Asia has material like this."" --Ann Grodzins Gold In Amma's Healing Room is a compelling study of the life and thought of a female Muslim spiritual healer in Hyderabad, South India. Joyce Burkhalter Flueckiger describes Amma's practice as a form of vernacular Islam arising in a particular locality, one in which the boundaries between Islam, Hinduism, and Christianity are fluid. In the ""healing room,"" Amma meets a diverse clientele that includes men and women, Muslim, Hindu, and Christian, of varied social backgrounds, who bring a wide range of physical, social, and psychological afflictions. Flueckiger collaborated closely with Amma and relates to her at different moments as daughter, disciple, and researcher. The result is a work of insight and compassion that challenges widely held views of religion and gender in India and reveals the creativity of a tradition often portrayed by Muslims and non-Muslims alike as singular and monolithic.

Originally presented as the author's dissertation (Ph. D.--University of Chicago, 2010).

Majhno mesto, velika skrivnost. Nekako tako bi lahko opisali Wind Gap, mestece na ameriškem srednjem vzhodu, rojstno mesto novinarke Camille. Po dolgem času se vrne, da bi za svoj časopis raziskala nenavaden umor in izginotje dveh deklic. Camille ve, da pod na videz idealistično krinko malega mesteca, kjer se vsi poznajo, brbotajo zamere in deviacije, zato se z odporom odpravi domov. Njena mama, bogata dedinja ogromne prašičje farme, je do nje hladna, medtem ko se do njene mlajše pol sestre Amme vede čudaško. Bolj ko Camille brska po odnosih v mestu, bolj se ji razkriva zamolčana, temačna družinska zgodovina, hkrati pa tudi osrčje teme, ki prepreda neraziskana umora.

Father John's inspiring introduction to the spirituality of the Desert Fathers and Mothers brings their words to life for the modern reader. These key figures of the early church chose lives of hardship and solitude, where they could point their hearts away from the outward world and toward an introspective path of God's calling in a deliberate and individual way. Contains a Foreword by Metropolitan Kallistos Ware, the second highest ranking Orthodox Bishop in England.

A Guide to Navigate Evangelical Feminism In a society where gender roles are a hot-button topic, the church is not immune to the controversy. In fact, the church has wrestled with varying degrees of evangelical feminism for decades. As evangelical feminism has crept into the church, time-trusted resources like Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood help remind Christians of what the Bible has to say. In this edition of the award-winning best seller, more than 20 influential men and women such as John Piper, Wayne Grudem, D. A. Carson, and Elisabeth Elliot offer thought-provoking essays responding to the challenge egalitarianism poses to life in the church and in the home. Covering topics like role distinctions in the church, how biblical manhood and womanhood should work out in practice, and women in the history of the church, this helpful resource will help readers learn to orient their beliefs with God's unchanging word in an ever-changing culture.

Introduction: Thinking with Islamic Things / Anna Bigelow -- Part I. Tracing Images: 1. Clothes of Righteousness: The MGT Uniform in the Twentieth Century / Kayla Renée Wheeler -- 2. The Masonic Muhammad: Modern Franco-Iranian Visual Encounters in Prophetic Iconography / Christiane Gruber -- 3. Repetition and Relics: Tracing the Lives of Muhammad's Sandal / Richard McGregor -- Part II. Identifying Objects: 4. "The Greatest and Only Flag Known": The Lapel Pin in American Islam / Michael Muhammad Knight -- 5. Tasbih in West African Islamic history: spirituality, aesthetic, politics, and identity / Ousman Murzik Kobo -- 6. Caps, Heads, and Hearts / Scott Kugle -- Part III. Objects in Practice: 7. What Comes to Light When a Lamp is Lit in Bektashi Tradition / Mark Soileau -- 8. The Agency of the Material Taviz (Amulet) in a South Indian Healing Room / Joyce Burkhalter Flueckiger -- 9. The Life of a Tablet / Aomar Bou -- Part IV. Circulatory Systems: 10. Coins and Fish: Sovereignty, Economy, and Religion in the Islamicate Indian Ocean / Roxani Eleni Margariti -- 11. The Aljibe del Rey in Granada / D. Fairchild Ruggles -- 12. Zamzam Water: Environmentality and Decolonizing Material Islam / Anna M. Gade -- List of Contributors -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index.