What distinguishes humans from nonhumans? Two common answers—free will and religion—are in some ways fundamentally opposed. Whereas free will enjoys a central place in our ideas of spontaneity, authorship, and deliberation, religious practices seem to involve a suspension of or relief from the exercise of our will. What, then, is agency, and why has it occupied such a central place in theories of the human?Automatic Religion explores an unlikely series of episodes from the ...

What if you are far more powerful than you’ve ever imagined?Beyond Safety is a work of dazzling simplicity and soul-stirring wisdom—a book that will remind you who you really are.Eight strangers take shelter in a Manhattan café as a storm breaks over the city. What begins as refuge becomes revelation — a night of conversation that transforms how each of them understands fear, safety, and what it means to trust them...

First published in 1991. In this volume, the author states that is not an economic history or 'an economic analysis, although it draws upon both disciplines. However, it is an attempt at political economy. It surveys the economic policies of the Thatcher Conservatives, from their intellectual origins in Opposition to their formulation in government papers and their implementation through three terms of office. It seeks to judge the appropriateness of the policies, the competence of their e...

No Reflection encourages those who seek spiritual growth and understanding perception vs perspective.No Reflection shows the cause and effects that help readers see that the end preexists in the means.Self-evaluation must be encouraged if we hope to obtain a higher level of understanding about what we do and why we do it. We have to be honest with ourselves regarding our true motivations which lead directly to our actions. No Reflection encourages readers to see the cause a...

The long history of tiny matter(s) in the sciences, thought, and cultureWinner of the Modern Language Association Prize for an Edited CollectionFrom catastrophic weather and steady warming caused by the accumulation of carbon particles in the Earth’s atmosphere to societies brought to a standstill by microscopic viruses, the new millennium has reminded us of how the minutest of phenomena can have outsized effects. This notion is one that ha...

Ekklesia: Three Inquiries in Church and State offers a New World rejoinder to the largely Europe-centered academic discourse on church and state. In contrast to what is often assumed, in the Americas the relationship between church and state has not been one of freedom or separation but one of unstable and adaptable collusion. Ekklesia sees in the settler states of North and South America alternative patterns of conjoined religious and political power, patterns resulting ...

Craved from our first breath until the last, love's splendor guides us toward our salvation. Challenging anyone who dares to take on the gauntlet called life. From a womb's darkness to the light of day, along the end of each, we're rocked by love's lullabies beneath stars and dreams. Why our circled beginnings starts out as the purest form of having nothing. As our tiny hands holds small change, growing in the wealth of each embrace. Of being overwhelmed by love's warmth and stunned by its...

God is capable of creating such perfection and splendor and must have a great plan and a purpose for us. Well, he does; he wants to reveal that purpose to us and to show us the way out of the pain, the sorrow we have brought on ourselves (self-inflected wounds) from rejecting his ways. Perception is what determines how we believe; if our perception is wrong, we believe in error because perception is not always reality. Love is the cause that effectively affects people, but sometimes, we go...

Coproduction is dedicated specifically to the study of an emerging field in music production musicology. It explores the limits of what this field might be, from the workings of a few individuals producing music together in the studio, to vast contributions of whole societies producing popular music.Taking a wide-ranging approach to examining the field, Coproduction looks through multiple formats including essays, interviews, and case studies, with analysis and co...

Secrecy is a central and integral component of all religious traditions. Not limited simply to religious groups that engage in clandestine activities such as hidden rites of initiation or terrorism, secrecy is inherent in the very fabric of religion itself. Its importance has perhaps never been more acutely relevant than in our own historical moment. In the wake of 9/11 and other acts of religious violence, we see the rise of invasive national security states that target religious minoriti...

The word “possession” is anything but transparent, especially as it developed in the context of the African Americas. There it referred variously to spirits, material goods, and people. It served as a watershed term marking both transactions in which people were made into things—via slavery—and ritual events by which the thingification of people was revised. In Spirited Things, Paul Christopher Johnson gathers together essays by leading anthropologists in the Americas that reopen ...

Musicians’ Migratory Patterns: The African Drum as Symbol in Early America questions the ban that was placed on the African drum in early America. It shows the functional use of the drum for celebrations, weddings, funerals, religious ceremonies, and nonviolent communication. The assumption that "drums and horns" were used to communicate in slave revolts is undone in this study. Rather, this volume seeks to consider the "social place" of the drum for both blacks and whites of the time, usi...