Overview

Socio-Anthropological Approaches to Religion: Environmental Hope interprets the fundamental functions of spirituality through the theories and practices of hope and understanding the futuristic aspiration of new religious movements. The book portrays a neutral notion of hope that can be either religious or humanistic in the face of the suffering or despair of present reality. The concept of hope (or hopelessness) is demonstrated in each chapter under the global circumstance of health risk. Part One represents the various theories of hope in Christian history, ecology and climate, the Sabbath and surveillance, and the triune God. The insecure situation that creates the expectation of hope is demonstrated in Part Two, where the case studies of terrorist attacks, immigration, volunteering behavior, religious education, and medieval Islamic tradition indicate social unbalance. The last section illustrates the cultural anthropology of hope through the activities of different native new religious movements including the Moonies’ Unification movement, Yoruba Nigerian indigenous spirituality, and Cosmovisions of Sepik New Guinea. This book examines hope as a crucial element of human’s internal healing beyond medical technology.

Full Product Details

9781666956054

Table of Contents

Reviews

A fascinating and enlightening contribution to the literature, this book opens up a whole new awareness of a variety of ways in which the concept of hope can be utilized as a productive tool in describing and explaining a wide range of social, religious and political situations. The contributors, mostly scholars in Australian universities, employ qualitative, quantitative and hermeneutic methods to expose new insights and a sensitivity to how hope - and hopelessness - has operated and continues to operate at individual, communal, societal and global levels. --Eileen Barker, London School of Economics

A fascinating and enlightening contribution to the literature, this book opens up a whole new awareness of a variety of ways in which the concept of hope can be utilized as a productive tool in describing and explaining a wide range of social, religious and political situations. The contributors, mostly scholars in Australian universities, employ qualitative, quantitative and hermeneutic methods to expose new insights and a sensitivity to how hope – and hopelessness – has operated and continues to operate at individual, communal, societal and global levels. -- Eileen Barker, London School of Economics

Author Information

David W. Kim is honorary lecturer at the Australian National University, Canberra and associate professor at Kookmin University, South Korea. Duncan Wright is associate professor at the Australian National University.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available