bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Conclusion
Authors: Kane Robert 
Published: October 2003

AbstractThis chapter considers the broader philosophical and cultural implications of the ideas and theory of free will presented in this book. Topics discussed include: social and political freedoms, value pluralism, free will and the moral law (with comparisons to Kant's views), utopias and totalitarianism, behavioral engineering and control, the theories of American pragmatism, value empiricism, John Stuart Mill on liberty and happiness, the influence of birth and upbringing on freedom and responsibility, criminal responsibility, modernity and its discontents.
The Lord's Day
Authors: Tucker Karen B. Westerfield 
Published: October 2003

Abstract
From the earliest days, Methodists debated the virtues of freedom of liturgical expression versus uniformity in worship achieved by adherence to standard patterns. The issue never resolved; rather, Methodists chose to live with the tension. Worship for morning, afternoon, and evening on the Lord's Day could therefore be a simple and informal service of the word, or it could have fuller content with a more complex and formal shape. Over the generations, denominationally approved orders of worship became increasingly elaborate. Such was the case even for Sunday School worship, which often imitated the shape of the morning worship service.
The Lord's Supper
Authors: Tucker Karen B. Westerfield 
Published: October 2003

Abstract
Methodism arguably became a separate denomination in response to the desire for the “constant communion” advocated by John Wesley. Yet, the frequency of reception varied over the years because of theological, social, and geographical factors. Even though the eucharistic rite inherited from Wesley was left largely unaltered until the twentieth century, Methodists debated other matters related to the Lord's Supper. These included the presence of Christ in the sacrament, admission to the table (“open” versus “close” communion), the composition of the communion elements (e.g., wine or grape juice), and the method of reception.
The Music of Methodist Worship
Authors: Tucker Karen B. Westerfield 
Published: October 2003

Abstract
Singing and meditating upon hymns has been a characteristic of Methodism since its beginning. Hymnals functioned both as prayer books and as theological primers; changing patterns and emphases in the organization of the official hymnals testify to shifts in perspectives, piety, and practices. The evolution of the hymn books, tune books, and music practices also reveal a tendency to adapt to the broader culture, though these changes did not come without controversy. Prohibitions against the use of choirs (in favor of congregational singing) and musical instruments were soon relaxed, and various popular musical styles were adopted.
A House for Worship
Authors: Tucker Karen B. Westerfield 
Published: October 2003

Abstract
The space where praise and prayer are offered not only signifies shelter from the elements but also represents an integral aspect of the worship itself. Methodist liturgical spaces evolved as denominations grew in membership and liturgies developed; attention to architecture and aesthetics coincided with interest in “enriched” worship. Stone and wood edifices designed according to popular architectural styles soon replaced plain preaching houses and log chapels. Pew rentals were sometimes – albeit controversially – established to cover the expense. The interior disposition might be longitudinally oriented and pulpit‐centered or designed according to an auditorium plan or divided chancel arrangement. Rites for the laying of a cornerstone and for the consecration or dedication of buildings were formulated. These had a practical function, yet they also identified Methodist understandings of the purpose of a house for worship.
Singing the Body of God
Authors: Hopkins Steven Paul 
Published: October 2003

Abstract
This is the first full‐length study of the devotional poetry and poetics of the fourteenth‐century poet–philosopher Vedåntadeóika, one of the most outstanding and influential figures in the Hindu tradition of àrâ‐Vaióïavism (the cult of Lord Vishnu and his consort Lakómâ or àrâ), a tradition that affirms both vernacular Tamil poems of ninth‐ and tenth‐century saint‐poets (the Çôvårs) and the Sanskrit Vedas as an Ubhaya or “dual” Vedånta. Long after his death, Vedåntadeóika was claimed as the founding Çcårya (sectarian preceptor) of the Vaìakalai or “Northern School” of àrâvaióïavism, associated with the holy city of Kåñcâpuram.
Singing the Body of God is a comparative study of the Sanskrit, Prakãit, and Tamil poems composed by Vedåntadeóika in praise of important Vaióïava shrines and their icons – poems that are considered to be the apogee of South Indian devotional literature. This book examines the varied ways in which Vedåntadeóika, the philosopher and logician, works his thought through the distinctive – at times antithetical – medium of the poem. It also gives particular attention to the poems’ emotional and visionary center of gravity: the different temple images of Lord Vishnu, referred to by the poet simply as the various “lovely bodies” of God. Singing the Body of God brings to light a unique example of the creative synthesis of the Sanskrit and Tamil traditions in Medieval Tamil Nadu, and makes an important contribution to our understanding of intellectual and religious vernacularism and “cosmopolitanism” in pre‐modern South Asia.
Between Two Dynasties
Authors: Hopkins Steven Paul 
Published: October 2003

Abstract
After an account of a typical popular narrative about Vedåntadeóika told around the precincts of a temple, Chapter Two discusses the traditional sacred biographies (prabhåvams), temple chronicles, narrative stotras, the drama (nåìya) of Kalidasa, Bhavabhäti, and Vedåntadeóika, and important inscriptional sources that give us a sense of the poet‐philosopher's place in history between two of the most important South Indian dynasties of the “late medieval” period, that of the Cêöas and Vijayanagar. The analysis uses various methodological sources, from Robert Alter and Hayden White, to the work of D.C. Sircar and V.N. Hari Rao, to speak about the importance of inscriptions, “sacred biography,” and the theme of “history” in pre‐modern South Asian sectarian traditions
This chapter relates how Vedåntadeóika was a politically transitional figure. Though he is emphatically seen by his tradition as a sacred “temple” and not a secular “court” poet, we see, at least in two àrâraígam inscriptions attributed to him as well as in his relationship with a young Telugu prince, that he put some of the weight of his religious authority behind the emerging Vijayanagar empire. His praise of a victorious brahman general of Vijayanagar at àrâraígam after the Muslim raids of the South anticipates alliances of secular and religious power commonplace among Çcåryas of his own community a generation later..
The Tears of Brahmā
Authors: Hopkins Steven Paul 
Published: October 2003

Abstract
After a brief survey of the history of vernacular bhakti literature in South India, Hindus, Jains, and Buddhists and the Tamil “cosmopolitan vernacular,” this chapter attempts to assess the riches of Vedåntadeóika's Tamil writing by looking at a long prabandham, the Meyviratamåúmiyam (“The Splendor of the City of True Vows”), a narrative account of the creator god Brahmå's building of the shrine at Kåñcâ and his grand sacrificial ritual performed for the sake of a vision of “Kaïïaú,” Vishnu‐Krishna, the Lord Varadaråja Perumåö at Kåñcâpuram. Chapter also includes analysis of Vedåntadeóika's maïipravåöa auto‐commentary on this poem (the Attikiri Måhåtmyam), which sheds light on the intimate relationship between poetry and commentary in the work of Vedåntadeóika. In this and in the following chapter, the study attempts to locate Deóika's poetics of devotion by using traditional Dravidian categories of feeling: the puõam, or “external,” “public” realm of heroic discourse, and the akam, or “interior,” “private” realm of love.
Creative but careful use of these traditional categories reveals in a way no other mode of analysis can the richness of Vedåntadeóika's devotional vocabulary in Tamil — a richness that also pervades his work in other genres and other languages. A close thematic and philological reading and poetic translation of the Meyviratamåúmiyam reveals this poem as dominated by motifs of the puõam genre, one that emphasizes the royal, “external”/heroic/public, historical, and “majestic” aspects of this form of Vishnu. Vishnu not as lover, but as King.
A God from Toe to Crown
Authors: Hopkins Steven Paul 
Published: October 2003

Abstract
Chapter Five considers an example of Vedåntadeóika's Sanskrit style by way of his dhyåna‐stotra modelled after the Tamil poem of the Untouchable saint‐poet Tiruppåïåôvår. It focuses on a particular type of poetic writing in Tamil and in Sanskrit, the pådådikeóa anubhava or “limb‐by‐limb” “enjoyment” of the body of God, with related examples from Kålidåsa, the gadyas of Råmånuja and Tantra texts. This focus on the anubhava reveals another facet of Deóika's devotional poetics, from the Sanskrit side, and shows more concretely how his poetic voice compares with that of an Çôvår. The anubhava also reveals the cultic context of so many of Vedåntadeóika's poems: here you have a supreme example of the temple icon viewed devotionally as the living “body of god,” and the successive descriptive form of the poem as a kind of “icon of an icon.” Along with an analysis of these poems, exploration of the themes of bhakti as kåma (desire, passion) and the erotics of “double‐entendre” (óleóålaõkåra), the chapter takes a close look at some commentarial texts, both on Vedåntadeóika and by Vedåntadeóika himself on Tiruppåï's poem.
The Dark Blue Flame of the Sacrifice
Authors: Hopkins Steven Paul 
Published: October 2003

Abstract
After a discussion of the place of the Tamil Çôvårs in his Sanskrit stotras, Chapter Six is a close thematic reading of selections from Vedåntadeóika's Varadaråjapañcåóat in Sanskrit to Varadaråjaperumåö in Kåñcâpuram. The reading treats the stotra as a “theology in miniature,” treating various themes, from self‐effort, the experience of helplessness or worthlessness (akiñcanatvam), “tender love without pretext” (avyåja vatsalyam) and the “rival” theology of the Teúkalai Çcåryas, tensions between poetry and philosophy, the temple icon as the “body of god,” the uses of double‐entendre, and a theology of “beauty untouched by thought.” The chapter also contains a reading of images from the esoteric ritual texts, the Påñcaråtra Çgamas, and how they operate within the semantic registers of the poem. Ultimately, this praise of Varadaråja in Sanskrit follows closely the vision of the Tamil “Splendor,” studied in Chapter Three: Varadaråja emerges as a God‐King, with royal imagery, to be venerated from a distance, and not like Devanåyaka, the intimate Beloved who Himself draws the poet into a love drama.
An Ornament for Jewels
Authors: Hopkins Steven Paul 
Published: October 2003

Abstract
After recalling themes of “emotional” bhakti in the Tamil poems for Devanåyaka at Tiruvahândrapuram, Chapter Seven is a close reading of selected passages from Vedåntadeóika's Sanskrit and Måhåråóìrâ Pråkrit poems to Devanåyaka, the Devanåyakapañcåóat and the Acyutaóatakam, respectively. We see in these Sanskrit and Pråkrit poems for Devanåyaka what we saw in his Tamil poems for the same god: how creatively Deóika transforms the resources of a secular poetics of love — in this case, the many valences of óãígåra rasa, or the aesthetic experience of the erotic — into hymns praising the beautiful body of god. This chapter's close reading also provides a recapitulation of the main themes of the book, including the theology of place and the “real presence” of Vishnu in the shrine and icon, the anubhava as “verbal icon” of the body of the god, the erotics of bathing, surrender (prapatti) and “worthlessness” (akiñcanatvam), salvific beauty, and the linking of the “emotional” and “intellectual” in Vedåntadeóika's bhakti poetics.
Conclusion
Authors: Hopkins Steven Paul 
Published: October 2003

Abstract
The Conclusion takes note, in a discursive way, with an eye to methodological issues, of some of the most important themes the book has touched upon, summarizing what might be termed the patterns of Deóika's devotional poetics in Tamil, Sanskrit, and Pråkrit, and placing his work within south Indian bhakti literatures. Themes include Sanskrit and the “cosmopolitan vernacular” (Tamil and Pråkrit), the “philosopher as poet,” bhakti themes of the shrine and its sacred locale, icon, temple and päjå (temple ritual veneration), anubhavas, a theology of beauty, divine absence and “emotionalism,” Vedåntadeóika's creative synthesis of philosophy and poetry, and his affirmation of the distinct powers of his three working languages.
God's Hiddenness, Freedom to Believe, and Attitude Problems
Authors: McKim Robert 
Published: October 2003

Abstract
Some propose that God must be hidden if we are to exercise control over whether we believe that God exists and that our ability to exercise such control is an important good of mystery. All versions of this proposal assume volitionalism, the view that we are able to exercise some control over whether we believe. The more plausible versions assume indirect volitionalism, the view that this control is indirect. Some versions say that it is especially valuable for people to believe that God exists in conditions in which there is religious ambiguity – conditions in which both belief and unbelief are rational. The most plausible versions of this proposal add that there are certain attitudes that inhibit theistic belief, whereas other attitudes facilitate it.
Trust and Other Goods of Mystery
Authors: McKim Robert 
Published: October 2003

Abstract
It is unlikely that trust in God is an important good of mystery. Various other putative goods of mystery also are unpromising. These include the alleged good of our engaging in a search for the truth about the existence of God and the alleged good of religious diversity – the point in the latter case being that if the facts of the matter with respect to religion were plain for all to see, there would not be the current rich variety of traditions. The same goes for the claim that God is worthy of worship only if God is hidden. More promising is the possibility that there are “unknown goods of mystery” – goods of mystery that we do not know of, perhaps because we are unable to comprehend them.
Religious Diversity
Authors: McKim Robert 
Published: October 2003

Abstract
Religious traditions disagree deeply about religious matters. And in many religious traditions there are to be found wise people who think carefully and judiciously, who are intelligent, clever, honest, reflective, serious, and so on. This is a fact of religious disagreement. This disagreement is in fact part of the evidence for the religious ambiguity of the world. In addition, disagreement about an issue or area of inquiry provides reason to think that each side has an obligation to adopt the “Critical Stance” with respect to that issue or area of enquiry. The Critical Stance has two main components: the “E‐principle,” which states that each side has an obligation to examine their beliefs, and the “T‐principle,” which states that, given disagreement, each side should hold its beliefs tentatively.
Alston on Religious Experience
Authors: McKim Robert 
Published: October 2003

Abstract
The analysis of perceptual religious experience proposed by William Alston does not undermine the case for the Critical Stance. On the contrary, religious diversity is a more serious problem for his doxastic practice epistemology than he recognizes. In general, the outputs of doxastic practices that are functioning in conditions of ambiguity, and in conditions in which there is disagreement, ought to be viewed with some suspicion, even by those who engage in the practices in question.
Revenge & Justice
Authors: Schimmel Solomon 
Published: October 2003

AbstractExamines the emotion of revenge from biological, psychological, biblical, Jewish, Christian, and philosophical perspectives, and the relationship between revenge, retribution, and justice. The author explores the dual ethic, which condemns vengeance against members of one's own group but not against “the other”, and discusses the relationship between the desire for vengeance and the Christian concept of Hell. The chapter concludes with a discussion of “grudge theory” – why we maintain grudges, and the benefits and liabilities of doing so for the grudge holder.
Forgiving Oneself & Forgiving God
Authors: Schimmel Solomon 
Published: October 2003

Abstract
This chapter analyzes two special cases of forgiveness, forgiving oneself and forgiving God, from logical, moral, and psychological perspectives. The author presents arguments that have been put forward in favor of and in opposition to encouraging people who have wronged others, and who experience guilt for having done so, to forgive themselves. The author finds the arguments against self‐forgiveness to be more compelling than those in favor of it, except where the wrongdoer's sense of guilt is out of proportion to the injuries he caused, or when he has sincerely repented and done what is within his capacity to make reparation for or rectify the harm he caused, and is hence entitled to be forgiven.
With respect to forgiving God, when an individual is angry at God for what appears to be unjustified suffering he or she has experienced, the author distinguishes between abstract conceptions of God, as transcendent, just, benevolent, omnipotent, and often inscrutable, which would make anger at God and forgiving him conceptually meaningless, and the phenomenology of experiencing God as immanent, and as a personality with emotions and with whom one can have a personal relationship, in which case anger at God and forgiving him are psychologically understandable and meaningful emotional reactions, even though they are not necessarily logically tenable.
The Essence of Repentance
Authors: Schimmel Solomon 
Published: October 2003

Abstract
This chapter traces the development of the concept and religious value of repentance in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) as applied to human‐divine and to human–human relationships. The chapter then focuses on repentance in interpersonal relationships, analyzing the psychological aspects of repentance, including acknowledgment of wrongdoing, remorse, and guilt, and its behavioral requirements, such as apology and reparation. It compares and contrasts the understandings of repentance in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and uses Shakespeares's Macbeth and other literary works to help illuminate its emotional and psychological dimensions. Other topics discussed are repentance as a transformation of one's character and value system, why it is so difficult to repent, how to get oneself to repent, and the role that repentance, as a religious or as a secular value, can play in psychotherapy.
Knowing People
Authors: Dalmiya Vrinda 
Published: October 2003

Abstract
Makes a case for redirecting epistemology by basing it on a virtue approach and the method of care. According to virtue epistemology, what confers epistemic value are properties of the epistemic subject: his or her epistemic character, belief‐forming habits, and cognitive dispositions. The method of care is a complex, interactive process of acquiring justified beliefs or knowledge, a process that integrates the subject into a social and ethical context. Starting out with a discussion of knowledge of other minds, the writer moves on to an examination of the role the knowing self plays within the kind of epistemology she wishes to advocate. One important element of that kind of epistemology is epistemic responsibility, understood not as epistemic duty fulfillment but instead as the endeavor to cultivate and reinforce attitudes that are deemed admirable in the epistemic community.
Shenoute and the Women of the White Monastery
Authors: Krawiec Rebecca 
Published: October 2003

AbstractAnalyzes the evidence for the lives of women living in the White Monastery, located in upper Egypt, under its third abbot, Shenoute, who served from 385–464 c.e. Several of Shenoute's letters, which were written in Coptic and survive in fragmentary form, address periods of conflict either between female monks or between the female community and Shenoute. As a result, they differ in genre from any other evidence of female monasticism in late antiquity and so present a unique corpus of material for investigation. A key issue pertains to Shenoute's efforts to establish his monastic authority over the women's community, which was physically separate from the men's, and the evidence for the women's acceptance and resistance to that expansion. I then argue that gender analysis reveals that Shenoute regarded his efforts as part of the creation of a universal monasticism, which had uniform requirements for male and female monks, including the controversial subject of corporal punishment. It simultaneously reveals, however, points of gender asymmetry, and so inequity, within monastic authority and practices, some promoted by Shenoute and some by the women themselves. Finally, Shenoute's use of the family as a model for the monastery helped him create kinship bonds among all monks, both those who had left their families and those who brought their relatives with them. Like gender, with which the family is intimately connected, this model also allows Shenoute to negotiate tensions and contradictions using egalitarian language while simultaneously constructing patriarchal authority.
Gender and Monasticism in Late Antiquity
Authors: Krawiec Rebecca 
Published: October 2003

AbstractThe coexistence of two apparently contradictory attitudes towards gender in Shenoute's monasticism engage the variety of literature describing female monastic experiences in late antiquity. This chapter describes the evidence for Egyptian monasticism, including virgins living in the cities, the desert mothers of Upper Egypt, and the female community under Pachomius; the dual monasteries of Jerome and Paula in Palestine; and a letter by Augustine written to a female monastery undergoing conflicts of leadership similar to Shenoute's. I conclude that the different nature of the various sources make a one‐to‐one comparison difficult but that, in general, Shenoute seems to have been more willing than his male counterparts to be intimately involved in the female community. I then examine another gender issue of late antique Christianity, namely, the role of eunuchs, especially those who voluntarily castrate themselves. Here I argue that Shenoute was unable to tolerate the presence of these individuals because their sexual ambiguity called into question the essentialism of gender in the construction of the self, as well as the gendered foundations of the monastery.
Women's Role in the Monastic Family
Authors: Krawiec Rebecca 
Published: October 2003

AbstractI argue that in terms of both language and function, the White Monastery becomes a monastic family that replaces, in an idealized form, the families the monks are to have renounced. The use of kinship language allows Shenoute to stress egalitarian relationships, where all monks including Shenoute are “brethren,” even as he also uses particularly female metaphors of childbirth and infertility to define the proper monastic life. In addition, Shenoute's use of familial imagery allows him to create a genealogy that traces the monks’ “ancestry” to past biblical figures. I then move to an investigation of points of comparison between the Egyptian family and the monastery – that both provide food, clothing, shelter, and emotional support – to show how the family was a model for the monastery. Of particular importance is the shared expectation that the women's role in both was to provide clothing, thus allowing gendered, indeed patriarchal, aspects of the nonmonastic family to affect the monastery.