David Chidester, one of the world's foremost scholars of religion, traces Christianity's growth and development from the time of Jesus to the dawn of the third millennium, revealing its rich diversity through the deeds and beliefs of heretics and saints, witches and healers, preachers and inquisitors. Chidester explores the emergence of the major streams of Christian thought and practice, distilling the cultural history of the Church and its impact on the world into this superbly readable book. Alongside this broad panorama is a richly human story that the author brilliantly encapsulates...
David Chidester, one of the world's foremost scholars of religion, traces Christianity's growth and development from the time of Jesus to the dawn ...
In a series of pioneering studies, this book examines the creation--and the conflict behind the creation--of sacred space in America. The essays in this volume visit places in America where economic, political, and social forces clash over the sacred and the profane, from wilderness areas in the American West to the Mall in Washington, D.C., and they investigate visions of America as sacred space at home and abroad. Here are the beginnings of a new American religious history--told as the story of the contested spaces it has inhabited.
The contributors are David Chidester, Matthew...
In a series of pioneering studies, this book examines the creation--and the conflict behind the creation--of sacred space in America. The essays in...
Praise for the first edition: " This] ambitious and courageous book is a] benchmark of theology by which questions about the meaningful history of the Peoples Temple may be measured." --Journal of the American Academy of Religion
Re-issued in recognition of the 25th anniversary of the mass suicides at Jonestown, this revised edition of David Chidester's pathbreaking book features a new prologue that considers the meaning of the tragedy for a post-Waco, post-9/11 world. For Chidester, Jonestown recalls the American religious commitment to redemptive sacrifice, which for Jim Jones...
Praise for the first edition: " This] ambitious and courageous book is a] benchmark of theology by which questions about the meaningful histor...
Authentic Fakes explores the religious dimensions of American popular culture in unexpected places: baseball, the Human Genome Project, Coca-Cola, rock 'n' roll, the rhetoric of Ronald Reagan, the charisma of Jim Jones, Tupperware, and the free market, to name a few. Chidester travels through the cultural landscape and discovers the role that fakery--in the guise of frauds, charlatans, inventions, and simulations--plays in creating religious experience. His book is at once an incisive analysis of the relationship between religion and popular culture and a celebration of the myriad ways...
Authentic Fakes explores the religious dimensions of American popular culture in unexpected places: baseball, the Human Genome Project, Coca-Co...
Savage Systems examines the emergence of the concepts of -religion-and -religions- on colonial frontiers. The book offers a detailed analysis of the ways in which European travelers, missionaries, settlers, and government agents, as well as indigenous Africans, engaged in the comparison of alternative religious ways of life as one dimension of intercultural contact. Focusing primarily on ninteenth-century frontier relations, David Chidester demonstrates that the terms and conditions for comparison--including a discrouse about -otherness- that were established during this period...
Savage Systems examines the emergence of the concepts of -religion-and -religions- on colonial frontiers. The book offers a detailed analys...
When Columbus sailed to the New World in 1492, Christianity was almost entirely European, Since that time, missionary work and colonial activities have completely altered the religious face of Russia, Africa, Asia and the Pacific, and today almost one-third of the world's population claims to be Christian.
When Columbus sailed to the New World in 1492, Christianity was almost entirely European, Since that time, missionary work and colonial activities hav...
A comprehensive guide to three global religions that have established strong local communities in South Africa, this work is a valuable resource for scholars, students in religious studies, African studies, anthropology, and history. Beginning with a general introduction to the immigrant origins, minority status, and global connections of each tradition, the book proceeds to organize and generously annotate the literature according to religion. This volume, combined with two other annotated bibliographies, "African Traditional Religion in South Africa" and "Christianity in South Africa"...
A comprehensive guide to three global religions that have established strong local communities in South Africa, this work is a valuable resource fo...
In all its diversity, Christianity has been a powerful force in South African life. From the history of colonial missions, through the development of denominations, to the emergence of African initiated churches, Christianity has assumed a variety of distinctively South African forms. This comprehensive guide offers detailed reviews of over 600 works that have established the importance of Christianity in South African history, society, and religious experience. Of interest to scholars and students of religious studies, cultural anthropology, African Studies, and history, this volume,...
In all its diversity, Christianity has been a powerful force in South African life. From the history of colonial missions, through the development ...
How is knowledge about religion and religions produced, and how is that knowledge authenticated and circulated? David Chidester seeks to answer these questions in Empire of Religion, documenting and analyzing the emergence of a science of comparative religion in Great Britain during the second half of the nineteenth century and its complex relations to the colonial situation in southern Africa. In the process, Chidester provides a counterhistory of the academic study of religion, an alternative to standard accounts that have failed to link the field of comparative religion with either...
How is knowledge about religion and religions produced, and how is that knowledge authenticated and circulated? David Chidester seeks to answer these ...
How is knowledge about religion and religions produced, and how is that knowledge authenticated and circulated? David Chidester seeks to answer these questions in Empire of Religion, documenting and analyzing the emergence of a science of comparative religion in Great Britain during the second half of the nineteenth century and its complex relations to the colonial situation in southern Africa. In the process, Chidester provides a counterhistory of the academic study of religion, an alternative to standard accounts that have failed to link the field of comparative religion with either...
How is knowledge about religion and religions produced, and how is that knowledge authenticated and circulated? David Chidester seeks to answer these ...
