bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Introduction: Contemporary Jewish Perspectives on Homosexuality
Authors: Saul M Olyan 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
As in the case of many other major religious groups in the United States, the last fifteen years have witnessed a great deal of conflict and change in the American Jewish community with respect to issues of sexual orientation. Gays, lesbians, and bisexuals, invisible a generation ago in the major institutions of Jewish life, have come out in number in recent years, many demanding a place for themselves in the Jewish mainstream, often with the implicit or explicit support of heterosexual family members, friends, and other community members. Few walks of American Jewish life have been immune to these developments; in certain contexts, divisive struggles and often revolutionary transformations have occurred. Conflict and change can be seen in individual congregations, the national synagogue organizations, and the rabbinate of the major non-Orthodox branches of American Judaism; it is evident in Jewish Centers, youth organizations, Zionist groups, and summer camps. Some Jewish institutions have made radical changes in their positions on homosexuality and homosexuals; others, many with Orthodox affiliations or a strong Orthodox presence, have resisted any such change. Conflict among Jews over how to view homosexuality, and the place of gays and lesbians in the Jewish community, mirrors in many respects the struggles over these issues that currently divide other American religious communities, and American society as a whole.
Sexual Orientation And Human Society, And Rights: A Progressive Jewish Perspective
Authors: Plaskow Judith 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
This essay begins from the premise that the religious and public policy dimensions of sexual orientation are so thoroughly intertwined that it is almost impossible to disentangle them. Religious injunctions against homosexuality have shaped negative public attitudes toward bisexuals, gays, and lesbians and have been used to justify repressive civil legislation. The contemporary gay rights movement emerged in reaction to the pervasive homophobia of American culture, a homophobia formed and fueled by religion.1 As the movement encouraged the visibility and activism of lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals, including those religiously involved, many religious denominations have found themselves deep in debate about both the legitimacy of homosexuality and gay religious participation and leadership. The parallel civil debate about gay and lesbian rights has been charged with religious emotion, and similar types of arguments have been advanced in secular and religious contexts. The question, then, is not so much whether religious arguments should have a bearing on public discussion as what the content of those arguments should be. For progressives, serious discussion
Response To Max Stackhouse And Eugene Rogers
Authors: Tanner Kathryn 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
The essays by Stackhouse and Rogers exemplify the distinctive character of reasoning on moral matters in the mainline Protestant churches.1 Moral reasoning is fully embedded in a theological context. Theological claims with a bearing on the character of human moral agency—claims, for example, about the order of human affairs that God created, the nature of covenant, the character of sanctification, and the relation between nature and grace—are the primary focus of the two essays. These theological interests set the terms for evaluating the moral status of homosexual relationships, for determining, more specifically, whether the moral standing of homosexual relations warrants their official sanction by marriage rites in Protestant churches.
Introduction: Three Perspective On Gays In African-American Ecclesiology And Religious Thought
Authors: Gordon Lewis R 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
W: E. B. Du Bois, the dean of African-American scholarship, made a valuable contribution to the study of humankind in 1903, when he counseled his fellow researchers and curious-minded folk to be wary of problematizing the people they study instead of studying the people’s problems.1 We need not here rehearse the many violations of this counsel throughout our century. Du Bois also reminded us in the same text, with perhaps an eye for irony, that the trope through which this admonition was conditioned—the infamous problem of the color line—would be fortified and take on new dimensions in spite of his warning’s signaling his hope to be contradicted. The color line has received many commentaries, and it continues to transform and meet the challenge of each generation as it increasingly becomes clear that the color line stands also as a metaphor for our age. Our age is marked, after all, by two dominating motifs that, at the century’s end, seem to gain more relevance as their significance continues to be denied by many of us who, perhaps, find responsibility for effecting social transformation too daunting a demand on any age. These motifs are identity and liberation—in other words, questions of who we are and what we should be doing to realize a world in which our identities need not be our liabilities. The color line addresses the identity question, and in that regard, it extends into the realm of excluded humanity. It cries out for social transformation, making liberation its intimate ally: liberation from forces that militate against identity recognition; liberation toward a world in which difference is not a problem but a celebration, where the problem becomes the failure to appreciate such possibilities.
The Thrall of Utopian Illusions
Authors: Rubin Julius H 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
The utopian ideals of creating a Christian primordium, of building the Kingdom of God, and implementing an absolute ethic of brotherliness within a harmonious, organic Gemeinde served as the foundation of the Bruderhof movement. In this chapter, we retrace the decisive turning points in the formation of Eberhard Arnold’s utopianism.
Introduction
Authors: Janz Denis R 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
The Christian religion, from the time of its birth in the ancient world until today, has repeatedly struggled through monumental encounters with alien worlds of thought and action. In every case, the final outcome has been a significantly transformed Christianity. One thinks, for instance, of the earliest Christians’ encounter with rabbinic Judaism-a process in which the very self-definition of this religion was hammered out. Then, too, Christianity’s engagement with the Hellenistic worldview made it in important ways what it had not been before. In the thirteenth century, the strange world of Aristotelian thought challenged and eventually deepened the Christian self-understanding.
The Marxist Assault on Religion: Intellectual Foundations
Authors: Janz Denis R 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
If we ask of the Marxist tradition why this is the case, we will be immediately deluged with literally hundreds of answers. The fact is, there are many Marxist critiques of religion, and some of them differ from one another in important ways. Different factions, schools, parties, and so on have come to various positions on how religion is to be understood and handled (and some of these will be examined in subsequent chapters). In the end, however, what unifies all Marxists is at least some sort of allegiance to the thought of the founder. All types of Marxism and all Marxist critiques of religion are ultimately interpretations of Marx and attempts to apply Marx’s ideas to different contexts. All owe something to Marx: this is what in the end provides unity amid a confusing pluralism. If we inquire, therefore, into the foundation of the Marxist critique of religion, we do well to turn to Marx himself.
Nicaragua
Authors: Janz Denis R 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
When one thinks of the worldwide encounter between Christianity and Marxism in our century, the first image that generally comes to mind is that of a collision. The case of Nicaragua, however, is different. Here the meeting can more accurately be described as an embrace that gave birth to a distinctly new, though perhaps short-lived, social reality. Here significant numbers of people came to understand themselves as “Christian Marxists” and helped to bring about a revolution that marked a turning point in Nicaragua’s history.
Albania
Authors: Janz Denis R 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
Albania’s importance for our subject is not immediately obvious. With a population of3.3 million people, it is one of Europe’s tiniest nations, squeezed between Yugoslavia and Greece on the Adriatic coast. It is also one of the least-known. From 1944 till 1991 it was among the most isolated societies in the world. Very few Western visitors were allowed in. Only a handful of experts and escapees had an inkling of what was happening here. Since the country opened itself to the West in 1991, the full picture is gradually becoming clearer. And it is, historically speaking, an astonishing one.
Theory, Method, Tools
Authors: Hendel Ronald S 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
The textual critic of the Hebrew Bible is helped immensely by the recent production of comprehensive introductions to the field, particularly the works by Tov (1981 and 1992a) and McCarter (1986). Most of the theoretical and methodological issues relevant to the task are handled splendidly by these scholars. In a time of rebirth for textual criticism in the post-Qumran era (see GoshenGottstein 1983), a number of issues require further thought and refinement. None is more important than clarifying the theoretical and practical necessity of textual criticism. Many biblical scholars currently eschew the practice of textual criticism, for the most part because of a misconception of the grounds for the task. Careful reflection on the nature of the biblical text will clarify the necessity of the task. To recall Housman’s barb on the text-critical obtuseness of his time: “Three minutes’ thought would suffice to find it out; but thought is irksome and three minutes is a long time” (1961a: 56). A few minutes may not be too much to ask for the possibility of textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible.
Mand G in Genesis 1:1 - 2:4
Authors: Hendel Ronald S 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
A new era in the modem study of G began with the publication of “A New Qumran Biblical Fragment related to the Original Hebrew underlying the Septuagint” (Cross 1953). This fragment, consisting of two columns from 4QSama, demonstrated (in Cross’s words) “the seriousness with which the LXX dealt with the Hebrew text in their hands, and confirms most emphatically the usefulness of the LXX for the establishment of a more nearly original Hebrew text” (1953: 25). Orlinsky clarified this newly gained perspective in a subsequent review of the field of textual criticism: The LXX translation, no less than the MT itself, will have gained very considerable respect as a result of the Qumran discoveries in those circles where it has longoverlong-been necessary. And the LXX translators will no longer be blamed for dealing promiscuously with their Hebrew Vorlagen; it is to their Vorlagen that we shall have to go, and it is their Vorlagen that will have to be compared with the preserved MT. (1961: 121) In recent years, other Qumran texts have been published that have clear affinities to G, including (in the Pentateuch) 4QExodh, 4QLevd, and 4QDeutq (published in DJD 12 and 14; see Tov 1992b). Numerous important studies have refined our understanding of the history and text-critical value of G (see esp. Tov 1981, 1988; and the recent reviews of the field in Tov 1992b; Hanhart 1992; Aejmelaeus 1987).
Harmonizing Tendencies in S and G
Authors: Hendel Ronald S 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
The harmonization of inconsistencies in the Bible has a long history in biblical exegesis and pedagogy. Philipp Melanchthon, in his inaugural lecture of 1518, expressed forcefully the modem distaste for such reader’s aids: “Now away with so many frigid petty glosses, these harmonizings and ‘disharmonies’ and other hindrances to intelligence” (apud Hall 1963: 40). Yet, it is arguable that the practice of harmonization has been necessary in maintaining the vitality of the Bible in Judaism and Christianity for more than two millennia. Without the possibility of making sense of the innumerable inconsistencies or contradictions in the Bible, a coherent sense of the Bible’s religious authority is perhaps impossible. Hence, we find that the study of the Bible itself is hedged about with restrictions in many periods of Jewish and Christian history, as illustrated by the Talmudic dictum: “Keep your sons from Scripture” (B. Berakot 28b; see Talmage 1987).
Toward the Textual History of Genesis
Authors: Hendel Ronald S 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
The first systematic attempt to construct a textual history of the Hebrew Bible, that of J. G. Eichhorn, states the nature of the task succinctly: A complete history of the Hebrew text would enumerate, with reference to causes and consequences, all the essential and accidental changes, whether for good or evil, which it has undergone in the process of thousands of years and in its passage through men’s hands, from the time of its first composition down to the latest periods. (1888: 114 = German 3d ed., 1803) If a textual history maps “all the essential and accidental changes” through time, then what we require first is a collection and analysis of the secondary readings. In this formulation, textual history is (to oversimplify only slightly) a history of error. Modern methods for constructing textual histories have refined this view but generally affirm the significance of textual error in historical inquiry. In this area, “error” is used as a shorthand for “readings of secondary origin,” including intentional changes as well as accidental (West 1973: 32). One difference between the procedures of textual history (historia textus) and textual criticism per se (critica textus) is that in the former errors are of primary importance and in the latter they are to be removed (see Chiesa 1992a: 264-67).
Introduction
Authors: Huber Toni 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
In 1812 a Tibetan yogin named Shabkar sang his reflections upon a grueling mountain pilgrimage procession he had just performed and the vicissitudes of life in cyclic existence according to the Tibetan Buddhist world view: When progressing with difficult passage on the Narrow paths, rivers, and bridges of the Land of Savages, It occurred to me that it must be like this When treading the perilous paths leading between one ’s death and rebirth. When I saw the cheerful progress Of all those who were able-bodied and well equipped, It occurred to me that it must be like this When going to the next life possessing the Buddha ’s teachings. When I saw the painful progress Of all those who were feeble and ill-equipped, It occurred to me that it must be like this When going to the next life without the Buddha ’s teachings. When I saw the progress of those Leaving their ailing friends behind, It occurred to me this is just what one means When talking of friends who lack a sense of shame. When I saw the progress of those Carrying their ailing friends upon their backs, It occurred to me this is just what one means When talking of friends who have a keen sense of shame. When I saw some giving food and supporting Those bereft of everything, It occurred to me that this is just what one means By those one talks of as aspiring to Buddhahood.
Tibetan Pilgrimage: Concepts and Practice
Authors: Huber Toni 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
The practice of pilgrimage by Tibetans has to be viewed as a part of the whole field of their ritual life and the worldview that informs the actions that constitute it. Both historical records and contemporary observations reveal an extraordinarily rich range of Tibetan practices that can be classed as “rituals” or “rites” of one form or another. Research on Tibetan ritual has to recognize this great diversity and the fact that Tibetan religious life has long been characterized by a high degree of syncretism, with processes of mutual assimilation and influence resulting in a complex historical and social field.
The Cult of Pilgrimage Mountains 1n Tibet
Authors: Huber Toni 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
Mountains have, without a doubt, been the most venerated and culturally significant feature of the Tibetan landscape throughout space and time. Tibetans have considered various mountains to possess a special status or to be powerful or sacred in different ways for the entire period of their recorded history. Yet this has never been a static phenomenon. It can be demonstrated that the sacred mountains Tibetans themselves came to take for granted are the cultural products of long and particular processes of social construction. Certain ancient forms of Tibetan mountain worship have long been extinct, declining and dying out along with the defunct social orders with which they were associated. Some have persisted over the long duree while still others have come into being and risen to popularity more recently. Despite this variety and change, mountains have remained symbolically and ritually important for successive Tibetan societies, for whom they have come to function as one significant form of organizing principle. Common cultural understandings of the mountain have been shared by, and perhaps at times served to unite, an otherwise quite diverse set of peoples separated by geography, dialect, forms of production and social organization, customs, and so on.
Cosmodrama and Architectonics of Landscape
Authors: Huber Toni 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
This short prayer forms the opening lines of an early-nineteenth century Tibetan pilgrim ’s guidebook to the famous neri of Tsari,a guidebook still in use today. To non-Tibetans it may appear to be simply another devotional verse. Yet these four lines contain the essence of an entire complex representational system. It is a system that Tibetans have applied for centuries to a mountain topos that modern observers have more recently described in essence as the 5,735-meter Himlayan peak Takpa Shiri at latitude 28° 37 ‘ and longitude 93° 15 ‘, using their own alternative representational system. Anyone who reads or hears this short verse is given the cues, line by line, that the place encompasses sublime human knowledge and happiness, that it is all-pervasive in its effects, and that it has two architectonic forms, the palace and the offering shrine, which constitute at once an abode of many classes of beings and a hierarchized ordering of space and the physical environment.
The Organization of the Orders
Authors: Trimingham J Spencer 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
The first stage of Sufi organization was the circle of pupils and adepts around a master. In Khurasan the location of such a group was a centre called a khanaqah. This was not a building designed specially for the purpose but simply a dwelling taken over to house a shaikh and his dervishes. Such a centre was still a circle even though it occupied a building in which rooms were set aside for assembly (jama’at-or samii’at-khana) and for prayer (m allii), and frequently the whole circle went on tour for a year or longer. Many such centres are recorded in the eleventh century in the life of Abu Sa’id ibn Abi ‘-Khair (A.D. 967-1049),1 among them Khanaqah-i Sarawi, founded in Nishapur by Abu ‘Ali ad-Daqqaq (d. A.D. 1016), who was the master of both Abu Sa’id and al-Qushairi. Another in the same city, that of Abu ‘Ali at-Tarsiisi (d. 364/974), survived until 548/n 54 when it was destroyed by the Ghuzz.
The People
Authors: Bennion Janet 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
This chapter provides a historical, ideological, and structural framework for understanding the more specific processes of individual choice and consequence. It shows that men and women differ in their progression toward achieving satisfaction and successful integration in the Allred group. This difference is shaped by an ideology that justifies large numbers of women succeeding in kingdom building versus a few men doing so and a social structure that provides women with swifter and greater access to valued economic and symbolic resources. I believe that men and women progress in the system in stages or phases, much like the phases described by Lofland in his study of conversion and integration (1977). Lofland wrote that individuals who have certain socioeconomic and emotional stressors are driven toward nontraditional religious movements. Taking his study as a guide, I am convinced that certain mainstream Mormons have predisposing characteristics for joining the Allred group, and, when they do, certain structural and ideological elements convince them to stay or promote alienation and discontentment.
Ideological Blueprints
Authors: Bennion Janet 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
Women create their own ideological framework in the Allred group. The narratives in this chapter provide examples of how women gain autonomy and empowerment through certain unique religious codes and principles, centered in their own experience. These narratives are presented in a re alistic fashion that protects the identities of informants. Throughout these narratives, convert women have an advantage over convert men in gaining access to valued rituals and spiritual powers and in finding justification through scriptures and folklore for their empowerment.
Courtship, Marriage, and Sexuality
Authors: Bennion Janet 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
Most Allred women are able to use polygyny to their advantage. The following stories generally confirm that female converts are upwardly mobile in their progression to marry well and find a relatively comfortable home for themselves and their children. This chapter describes the socialization, courtship, and marriage rules and norms not already mentioned in chapter 2. It then provides several narratives of women’s experience in marriage that illustrate the broad range of experiences of both convert and established wives. Finally, drawing upon community demographic statistics on marriage and family, it shows how convert women and elite established men have advantages over convert males in the kingdom building process.
Conclusion
Authors: Bennion Janet 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
I have sought to explain why women are attracted to Mormon fundamentalist society, why they remain in the polygynous group in such high numbers, and whether they fare better than men in the kingdom-building process. My findings indicate that women tum to fundamentalism to alleviate their deprivations experienced in the larger culture. I predict that the number of women in fundamentalist Mormon groups will soar because the structure accommodates deprived women from the mainsteam who are so discouraged that they are willing to share and scrounge and be formally dominated by elite polygynous men, a situation seemingly of more appeal to them than life in orthodox Mormon society.