This book provides a biographical account of the remarkable Benedictine monk, Henri Le Saux (1910-1973), who spent the last two-and-a-half decades of his life in India where he immersed himself in Hindu spirituality. It traces the central themes of his prolific writings on religious and mystical topics.

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In 1935, at the height of his powers, Howard Thurman, one of the most influential African American religious thinkers of the twentieth century, took a pivotal trip to India that would forever change him—and that would ultimately shape the course of the civil rights movement in the United States. When Thurman (1899–1981) became the first African American to meet with Mahatma Gandhi, he found himself called upon to create a new version of American Christianity, one that eschewed self-imposed racial and religious boundaries, and equipped itself to confront the enormous social injustices that plagued the United States during this period. Gandhi’s philosophy and practice of satyagraha, or “soul force,” would have a momentous impact on Thurman, showing him the effectiveness of nonviolent resistance. After the journey to India, Thurman’s distinctly American translation of satyagraha into a Black Christian context became one of the key inspirations for the civil rights movement, fulfilling Gandhi’s prescient words that “it may be through the Negroes that the unadulterated message of nonviolence will be delivered to the world.” Thurman went on to found one of the first explicitly interracial congregations in the United States and to deeply influence an entire generation of black ministers—among them Martin Luther King Jr. Visions of a Better World depicts a visionary leader at a transformative moment in his life. Drawing from previously untapped archival material and obscurely published works, Quinton Dixie and Peter Eisenstadt explore, for the first time, Thurman’s development into a towering theologian who would profoundly affect American Christianity—and American history.

This work proposes a theological investigation of the community of the Church as outlined by liberation theology and a possible conversation with liberation from suffering in Tibetan Buddhism. What unites both is the human process of sublimation for others, whereby liberation theologians as well as enlightened lamas give the best of themselves for the liberation of others. At this stage of discussions between inclusivists and exclusivists this work proposes that dialogue with world religions and therefore with Buddhism is not about finding possible dogmatic similarities but a common place, a common purpose through a common humanity.

Documents the lifelong journey of faith—full of challenges along the way—that made Gandhi the enlightened spiritual leader we revere.

People in general and pilgrims in particular go on pilgrimages to temples, mosques, churches, gurudwaras for worshipping their religious gods and goddesses. But, tourism and pilgrimage are intertwined with little differences. Religious tourism is based on time involved and distance travelled namely short- and long-term religious tourism. The short-term type involves travel to nearby pilgrimage centres or religious conferences, or religious discourses while the long-term religious tourism involves travel to religious sites and religious conferences around the world. Pilgrimage is “the result of a vow”. India is a land of temples, mosques and churches. They play significant role in the development of any economy. Temples in India, particularly in Tamil Nadu play different roles such as redistributors of income, producer, consumer, land-owner, employer, trustee, tourist centre, religious, cultural, social and economic institution. Pilgrimage is aimed to attain moksha - the ultimate aim of individual. Moreover, pilgrimage tourism is considered as an instrument of stress relief, and it is one of the most understudied and least researched areas in tourism and leisure economics. With this backdrop, the book “Pilgrimage Tourism in India” is initiated with the following objectives viz: to examine socio-economic, cultural and environmental profiles of pilgrim tourists and local residents of Palani town and temple environs; to identify factors determining pilgrimage tourism and to examine perceptions of pilgrims on the socio-economic overheads, facilities and services exist at Palani town and temple environs; to gauge the perceptions of local residents on social, economic, cultural and environmental impacts of pilgrimage tourism to Palani town and temple environs; and to identify problems emerging from pilgrimage tourism and economic changes to local residents and to make suggestions for policy for pilgrimage tourism, benefiting both the pilgrims and the local residents of Palani town and temple environs.Contents : Introduction, Role of Tourism in Economic Development, Realities of Pilgrimage Tourism, Pilgrimage Tourism in Tamil Nadu—A Case Study, Socio-Economic Analysis of Pilgrimage Tourism, Conclusion.