This is a challenging and provocative but, above all, reassuring book for those who are seeking spritual meaning today.

A therapist and childbirth educator shows expectant mothers how to reconnect with the natural and spiritual worlds to make the birth experience unique and to build a spiritual connection with their children.

Examines the role of the sacred in art and makes a compelling case for its continued contemporary relevance.

From black holes to holograms, from relativity theory to the discovery of quarks, an original exposition of quantum theory tht unravels profound theological questions

Asia is the birthplace of many great religions and spiritualities--spiritualities that draw wealth and meaning from the ancient past yet still address contemporary reality. Asian Christian Spirituality explores popular religious traditions in Korea, Hong Kong, Indonesia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and India, emphasizing how these traditions foster a liberative Christian spirituality. From the commercial bustle of Seoul and Hong Kong to the forests of Indonesia and the Philippines, culture and context are the two most important factors in searching for a liberating spirituality. As Samuel Rayan points out, Asian spirituality can be mined not only from traditional sources (such as shamanism, animism, and folk Catholicism) but also from the stories of women, peasants, and other victims of oppression and domination. Christianity in Asia must concern itself with the economic and political conditions that dehumanize people, and must create new patterns of relationships that make life worth living. Asian Christian Spirituality shows how a spirituality faithful to a common Christian heritage, simultaneously rooted in particular cultures and traditions, can animate Christianity in Asia, and help Asian Christians address contemporary problems.

A sweeping history of Indigenous traditions of gender, sexuality, and resistance that reveals how, despite centuries of colonialism, Two-Spirit people are reclaiming their place in Native nations. Reclaiming Two-Spirits decolonizes the history of gender and sexuality in Native North America. It honors the generations of Indigenous people who had the foresight to take essential aspects of their cultural life and spiritual beliefs underground in order to save them. Before 1492, hundreds of Indigenous communities across North America included people who identified as neither male nor female, but both. They went by aakíí’skassi, miati, okitcitakwe or one of hundreds of other tribally specific identities. After European colonizers invaded Indian Country, centuries of violence and systematic persecution followed, imperiling the existence of people who today call themselves Two-Spirits, an umbrella term denoting feminine and masculine qualities in one person. Drawing on written sources, archaeological evidence, art, and oral storytelling, Reclaiming Two-Spirits spans the centuries from Spanish invasion to the present, tracing massacres and inquisitions and revealing how the authors of colonialism’s written archives used language to both denigrate and erase Two-Spirit people from history. But as Gregory Smithers shows, the colonizers failed—and Indigenous resistance is core to this story. Reclaiming Two-Spirits amplifies their voices, reconnecting their history to Native nations in the 21st century.

This edited volume explores the intersection of spirituality with childbirth from 1800 to the present day from a comparative perspective. It illustrates how over this time period in much of the world, traditional practices, home births, and midwives have been overshadowed and undermined by male dominated obstetrics, hospitalization, and ultimately the medicalization of the birthing process itself.