Patterns in Philosophy and Sociology of Religions

Contents: Foreword. Preface. Introduction – Religion: From the theory to action/Mihaela Gligor. 1. Religion and Violenlce in the contemporary world: is religion more of the problems or the solution?/Douglas Allen. 2. Changing interpretations of religion and secularism/Sherry Sabbarwal. 3. Globalization and religious identities in India: Understanding the subaltern context of contestations/Santosh Kumar Singh. 4. Illud tempus in Greek Myth and Ritual/Radek Chlup. 5. Eliade’s History of Religions: A reaction against historicity and historicism/Sanjukta Bhattacharyya. 6. Rationality, Relativism and religion: A reinterpretation of Peter Winch/Kevin Schilbraack. 7. Buddhist Images of the Body: A study of different patterns of human embodiment and performance/Carl Olson. 8. Bringing Peace in the World: The Buddhist way/Madhumita Chattopadhyay. Index.

Lived religion is not simply a matter of believing; it is something that is done, and felt, expressed out in words and gestures of what ultimately matters. The essays united in the present volume by eminent scholars from India, the United States and Europe, insist on multi-facetted expressions of religiosity in the contemporary global context, appropriately grounded in a historical perspective. They explore various socio-cultural, political, economic processes, as they are today, or as they were in antiquity, or as they were theorized by important historians and sociologists of religion. (Jacket)