RELIGIONS, ECOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENT
The present work titled “Religions, Ecology, and Environment” is helpful to those who believe that their religion has relevance in moulding human minds and hearts regarding the question of our habitat, the living and the non-living. As Prof. Sullivan points out, we cannot ignore religion because religion explores the “essential wellsprings of human motivation and concern that shape the world as we know it. No understanding of the environment is adequate without a grasp of the religious life that constitutes the human societies which saturate the natural environment.
RELIGIOUS DEMOGRAPHY OF INDIA: Myths and Realities
Edited by Lancy Lobo and Jayesh Shah
Much of public life in India is characterized by the forces of its religious demography. This volume aims at unravelling its complexity. Each of these essays reflect the truism that religion unites as well as divides peoples. Religious demography not only decided partition of India and Pakistan, but also continues to play a major role in India’s democratic politics.
The subject has become more emotional especially in the context of electoral politics. A great anxiety about the Hindus being outnumbered has been kept alive in India, especially before the elections. The differential growth rates of religious communities have therefore become a sensitive issue. It is an established fact that there is an illicit dramatization of misrepresented statistics of the Census. Data on population has been especially ‘used’ to generate ‘nationalism’. Newspapers, magazines, television and even caste journals have propounded myths, with catchy titles. This volume tries to probe into these myths and realities.
RETHINKING RELIGION
Edited by Soumyajit Patra
Contemporary discourses on religion generally centre either on its ideological dimensions or on its practical implications, though there is always an implicit tension between these two. This book tries to bridge the gap and explore this complex phenomenon in the context of rising popularity of rationalist outlook in social life, and of ‘secularization and de-divinization’ perspective in sociological and philosophical literatures.
The Globalization of Pentecostalism : A Religion Made to Travel
Edited by Murray Dempster, Byron D. Klaus and Douglas Petersen
“This book, comprising a sweeping range of well-documented articles on Pentecostal theology, hermeneutics, missiology, and the social sciences, provides for the student of Pentecostals a window on contemporary Pentecostal scholarship that discloses vigorous engagement with critical issues. The editors have provided a resource that promises to stimulate further research and reflection.” William Menzies, Chancellor, Asia Pacific Theological Seminary, Baguio City, Philippines. Excerpts from Respondents Jose Miguez Bonino on Changing Paradigms: “An updating of Pentecostal thinking on a whole spectrum of theological disciplines: systematics, missiology, biblical studies, history, and praxis . . . a wealth of information and reflection.” Vinay Samuel on Global Culture: “Global Pentecostalism can bring a new impetus to the movement for Christian unity . . . it has much to contribute to the shaping of a new 21st century definition for Christian unity.” Harvey Cox on A Postmodern World: “There was a time when Pentecostals warned themselves and anyone else who would listen not to become entangled with and dependent on the ‘things of the world.’ Pentecostals were suspicious of the passing fads of stylish clothing, the latest hairdo, and glitzy new consumer products. They were also, as it turns out rightly, suspicious that the powerful new mass media could be a seductive lure, tricking people into the empty values of the consumer market culture. Perhaps it is time for a rebirth of that ethic of simplicity, that suspicion for ‘the things for the world’ for which the early Pentecostals were so famous.”