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      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        April 2017

        Tracing the cultural legacy of Irish Catholicism

        From Galway to Cloyne and beyond

        by Eamon Maher, Eugene O'Brien

        This book traces the steady decline in Irish Catholicism from the visit of Pope John Paul II in 1979 up to the Cloyne report into clerical sex abuse in that diocese in 2011. The young people awaiting the Pope's address in Galway were entertained by two of Ireland's most charismatic clerics, Bishop Eamon Casey and Fr Michael Cleary, both of whom were subsequently revealed to have been engaged in romantic liaisons at the time. The decades that followed the Pope's visit were characterised by the increasing secularisation of Irish society. Boasting an impressive array of contributors from various backgrounds and expertise, the essays in the book attempt to trace the exact reasons for the progressive dismantling of the cultural legacy of Catholicism and the consequences this has had on Irish society.

      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        January 2013

        Joan of Arc

        La pucelle

        by Craig Taylor

        This sourcebook collects together for the first time in English the major documents relating to the life and contemporary reputation of Joan of Arc. Also known as La Pucelle, she led a French Army against the English in 1429, arguably turning the course of the war in favour of the French king Charles VII. The fact that she achieved all of this when just a seventeen-year-old peasant girl highlights the magnitude of her achievements and also opens up other ways of looking at her story. For many, Joan represents the voice of ordinary people in the fifteenth century; the victims of high politics and warfare that devastated France. Her story ended tragically in 1431 when she was put on trial for heresy and sorcery by an ecclesiastical court and was burned at the stake. This book shows how the trial, which was organised by her enemies, provides an important window into late medieval attitudes towards religion and gender, as Joan was effectively persecuted by the established Church for her supposedly non-conformist views on spirituality and the role of women. Presented within a contextual and critical framework, this book encourages scholars and students to rethink this remarkable story. It will be invaluable reading for those working in the fields of medieval society and heresy, as well as the Hundred Years' War.

      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        January 2013

        The lives of Thomas Becket

        by Michael Staunton

        This collection tells the story of Thomas Becket's turbulent life, violent death and extraordinary posthumous acclaim in the words of his contemporaries. The only modern collection from the twelfth-century Lives of Thomas Becket in English and features all his major biographers, including many previously untranslated extracts. Providing both a valuable glimpse of the late twelfth-century world, and an insight into the minds of those who witnessed the events. By using contemporary sources, this book is the most accessible way to study this central episode in medieval history. Thomas Becket features prominently in most medieval core courses. This book allows the subject to be taught as never before, and is highly suitable as a set text.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        December 2020

        Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 96/2

        by Stephen Mossman, Cordelia Warr

        The John Rylands Library houses one of the finest collections of rare books, manuscripts and archives in the world. The collections span five millennia and cover a wide range of subjects, including art and archaeology; economic, social, political, religious and military history; literature, drama and music; science and medicine; theology and philosophy; travel and exploration. For over a century, the Bulletin of the John Rylands Library has published research that complements the Library's special collections. The editors invite the submission of articles in these fields and welcome discussion of in-progress projects.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        June 2018

        Tracing the cultural legacy of Irish Catholicism

        From Galway to Cloyne and beyond

        by Eamon Maher, Eugene O'Brien

        This book traces the steady decline in Irish Catholicism from the visit of Pope John Paul II in 1979 up to the Cloyne report into clerical sex abuse in that diocese in 2011. The young people awaiting the Pope's address in Galway were entertained by two of Ireland's most charismatic clerics, Bishop Eamon Casey and Fr Michael Cleary, both of whom were subsequently revealed to have been engaged in romantic liaisons at the time. The decades that followed the Pope's visit were characterised by the increasing secularisation of Irish society. Boasting an impressive array of contributors from various backgrounds and expertise, the essays in the book attempt to trace the exact reasons for the progressive dismantling of the cultural legacy of Catholicism and the consequences this has had on Irish society.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        April 2022

        Voices from the Underworld

        Chinese Hell deity worship in contemporary Singapore and Malaysia

        by Fabian Graham, Yangwen Zheng, Richard Madsen

        In Singapore and Malaysia, the inversion of Chinese Underworld traditions has meant that Underworld demons are now amongst the most commonly venerated deities in statue form, channelled through their spirit mediums, tang-ki. The Chinese Underworld and its sub-hells are populated by a bureaucracy drawn from the Buddhist, Taoist and vernacular pantheons. Voices from the Underworld offers an ethnography of contemporary Chinese Underworld traditions, where night-time cemetery rituals assist the souls of the dead, exorcised spirits are imprisoned in Guinness bottles, and malicious foetus ghosts are enlisted to strengthen a temple's spirit army. Understanding the religious divergences between Singapore and Malaysia through an analysis of socio-political and historical events, Graham challenges common assumptions on the nature and scope of Chinese vernacular religious practices.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        February 2020

        Voices from the underworld

        Chinese hell deity worship in contemporary Singapore and Malaysia

        by Fabian Graham, Yangwen Zheng, Richard Madsen

        Voices from the Underworld focuses on Singapore and Malaysia's contemporary Chinese Underworld traditions where Hell deities are now amongst the most commonly venerated deities on altars and when channelled through spirit mediums. Intended for academics, lecturers, students, and those intrigued with Chinese culture, while highlighting the Taoist and Buddhist cosmologies upon which present-day beliefs and practices are based, the ethnography provides readers with unique insights into the lived tradition.Embracing ontological and dialogic approaches to religious phenomena, alterity is taken seriously, and practitioner's beliefs interpreted without bias. The emic voice is literally heard through first-person dialogues between the author and channelled Underworld deities throughout the ethnography. This alternative approach challenges wider present-day discourse concerning the interrelationships between sociocultural and spiritual worlds.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        February 2020

        Voices from the underworld

        Chinese hell deity worship in contemporary Singapore and Malaysia

        by Fabian Graham, Yangwen Zheng, Richard Madsen

        Voices from the Underworld focuses on Singapore and Malaysia's contemporary Chinese Underworld traditions where Hell deities are now amongst the most commonly venerated deities on altars and when channelled through spirit mediums. Intended for academics, lecturers, students, and those intrigued with Chinese culture, while highlighting the Taoist and Buddhist cosmologies upon which present-day beliefs and practices are based, the ethnography provides readers with unique insights into the lived tradition.Embracing ontological and dialogic approaches to religious phenomena, alterity is taken seriously, and practitioner's beliefs interpreted without bias. The emic voice is literally heard through first-person dialogues between the author and channelled Underworld deities throughout the ethnography. This alternative approach challenges wider present-day discourse concerning the interrelationships between sociocultural and spiritual worlds.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        August 2021

        Rules and ethics

        Perspectives from anthropology and history

        by Morgan Clarke, Emily Corran

        This book investigates the pronounced enthusiasm that many traditions display for codes of ethics characterised by a multitude of rules. Recent anthropological interest in ethics and historical explorations of 'self-fashioning' have led to extensive study of the virtuous self, but existing scholarship tends to pass over the kind of morality that involves legalistic reasoning. Rules and ethics corrects that omission by demonstrating the importance of rules in everyday moral life in a variety of contexts. In a nutshell, it argues that legalistic moral rules are not necessarily an obstruction to a rounded ethical self, but can be an integral part of it. An extended introduction first sets out the theoretical basis for studies of ethical systems that are characterised by detailed rules. This is followed by a series of empirical studies of rule-oriented moral traditions in a comparative perspective.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        February 2020

        Voices from the underworld

        Chinese hell deity worship in contemporary Singapore and Malaysia

        by Fabian Graham, Yangwen Zheng, Richard Madsen

        Voices from the Underworld focuses on Singapore and Malaysia's contemporary Chinese Underworld traditions where Hell deities are now amongst the most commonly venerated deities on altars and when channelled through spirit mediums. Intended for academics, lecturers, students, and those intrigued with Chinese culture, while highlighting the Taoist and Buddhist cosmologies upon which present-day beliefs and practices are based, the ethnography provides readers with unique insights into the lived tradition.Embracing ontological and dialogic approaches to religious phenomena, alterity is taken seriously, and practitioner's beliefs interpreted without bias. The emic voice is literally heard through first-person dialogues between the author and channelled Underworld deities throughout the ethnography. This alternative approach challenges wider present-day discourse concerning the interrelationships between sociocultural and spiritual worlds.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        December 2021

        Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 97/2

        by Stephen Mossman, Cordelia Warr

        The John Rylands Library houses one of the finest collections of rare books, manuscripts and archives in the world. The collections span five millennia and cover a wide range of subjects, including art and archaeology; economic, social, political, religious and military history; literature, drama and music; science and medicine; theology and philosophy; travel and exploration. For over a century, the Bulletin of the John Rylands Library has published research that complements the Library's special collections. The editors invite the submission of articles in these fields and welcome discussion of in-progress projects.

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