Rhizomatic Reflections

Rhizomatic Reflections
Author: Baiju Markose
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 118
Release: 2018-01-11
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1532630859

Fecund philosophical reflections on the conceptual metaphor "rhizome" invite us to reformulate the theological engagements today with a renewed spirit. Notably, the subaltern theological engagements make use of this new move in gleaning the fruits of heterogeneity, multiple origins, horizontality, interconnections, and intersectionality. This conscious rhizomatic move is exemplified as a constructive post-colonial move and a useful tool for meaningful subaltern resistance. This move takes us beyond the entrapment of western binary opposites to the challenging cultural and political spaces of hybridity and liminality. Uncovering the underrated cultural and political spaces of subaltern religious experience is an apocalyptic/eschatological activity. Such an apocalyptic activity demands deep theological meditation and committed attention toward the multiple and heterogeneous themes like Casteism, Vedic taxonomy, Dalit spatial discourses, sacred grove, ecological crisis, racism, globalization, neoliberalism, infinite debt, resistance, etc. Such trans-disciplinary reflections contribute to the larger body of subaltern theopoetics. As a rhizome connects any point to any other point, these themes are interconnected, and intertwined rhizomatically!

Theological Reflection across Religious Traditions

Theological Reflection across Religious Traditions
Author: Edward Foley
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 181
Release: 2015-02-12
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1442247207

Theological reflection — connecting real life, ministry, and religious traditions — is a core component of most pastoral training. It is also a hallmark of practical theology and a common spiritual exercise among ordinary Christians trying to discern how their beliefs might influence daily living. Yet, our society is increasingly pluralistic, with growing numbers of people from varying belief systems — from Islam to Buddhism — as well as an increasing number of atheists. In this book, Edward Foley reimagines theological reflection in interfaith contexts and with those of no faith tradition. The book addresses and celebrates diverse beliefs, and envisions the practice of theological reflection in such contexts. Theological Reflection Across Religious Traditions introduces readers to the basics of traditional forms of theological reflection, then considers how it might be reconceived in different contexts — from interfaith ministers working together to reduce poverty and homelessness to people of diverse or no faith traditions strategizing to secure the dignity of undocumented immigrants. Beyond suggestions for collaborative social action, the book offers tools for productive interfaith conversation through a process Foley calls “reflective believing.” This is a groundbreaking rethinking of theological reflection for today’s world, proposing that people across the religious landscape can participate in reflective believing for personal and communal benefit without sacrificing their own integrity.

Narratives and Reflections in Music Education

Narratives and Reflections in Music Education
Author: Tawnya D. Smith
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 314
Release: 2020-02-03
Genre: Education
ISBN: 3030287076

This volume offers chapters written by some of the most respected narrative and qualitative inquiry writers in the field of music education. The authorship and scope are international, and the chapters advance the philosophical, theoretical, and methodological bases of narrative inquiry in music education and the arts. The book contains two sections, each with a specific aim. The first is to continue and expand upon dialogue regarding narrative inquiry in music education, emphasizing how narrative involves the art of listening to and hearing others whose voices are often unheard. The chapters invite music teachers and scholars to experience and confront music education stories from multiple perspectives and worldviews, inviting an international readership to engage in critical dialogue with and about marginalized voices in music. The second section focuses on ways in which narrative might be represented beyond the printed page, such as with music, film, photography, and performative pieces. This section includes philosophical discussions about arts-based and aesthetic inquiry, as well as examples of such work.

EPZ Thousand Plateaus

EPZ Thousand Plateaus
Author: Gilles Deleuze
Publisher: A&C Black
Total Pages: 716
Release: 2004-09-01
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780826476944

‘A rare and remarkable book.' Times Literary Supplement Gilles Deleuze (1925-1995) was Professor of Philosophy at the University of Paris VIII. He is a key figure in poststructuralism, and one of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century. Félix Guattari (1930-1992) was a psychoanalyst at the la Borde Clinic, as well as being a major social theorist and radical activist. A Thousand Plateaus is part of Deleuze and Guattari's landmark philosophical project, Capitalism and Schizophrenia - a project that still sets the terms of contemporary philosophical debate. A Thousand Plateaus provides a compelling analysis of social phenomena and offers fresh alternatives for thinking about philosophy and culture. Its radical perspective provides a toolbox for ‘nomadic thought' and has had a galvanizing influence on today's anti-capitalist movement. Translated by Brian Massumi>

Subaltern Public Theology

Subaltern Public Theology
Author: Raj Bharat Patta
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 263
Release: 2023-02-22
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 3031238982

This book delves into the public character of public theology from the sites of subalternity, the excluded Dalit (non) public in the Indian public sphere. Raj Bharat Patta employs a decolonial methodology and explores the topic in three parts: First, he engages with ‘theological contexts,’ by mapping global and Indian public theologies and critically analysing them. Next, he discusses ‘theological companions,’ and explains ‘theological subalternity’ and ‘subaltern public’ as companions for a subaltern public theology for India. Finally, Patta explains ‘theological contours’ by discussing subaltern liturgy as a theological account of the subaltern public and explores a subaltern public theology for India.

The Aesthetics of Ugliness in Contemporary Malayalam Cinema

The Aesthetics of Ugliness in Contemporary Malayalam Cinema
Author: Sunitha Srinivas C
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 309
Release: 2024-09-27
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1036409376

Cinema as an aesthetic construct exists in a specific historical and political context, reflecting the society and its aesthetic values. Visual representation of the Ugly, its politics and aestheticization, are deeply rooted in the screen space. Featuring unconventional characters, unembellished visuals, raw and gritty storytelling, the unaesthetic challenges conventional notions of beauty on screen. The physical, psychological, and social manifestations of the ugly are incorporated into the cinematic space through content, theme, physical representations, symbols, setting, dialogue, as well as the camera. Exploring the intricate connection between ugliness and the cinematic medium, the book focuses on identity, gender, and other manifestations of Ugly in contemporary Malayalam cinema. It meticulously analyses the portrayal of ugliness in characters, narratives, and visual aesthetics, thus highlighting societal norms and realities of life. The book is a must-read for film scholars, enthusiasts, and anyone interested in the intersection of aesthetics and storytelling.

Spiritual Citizenship

Spiritual Citizenship
Author: N. Fadeke Castor
Publisher: Duke University Press
Total Pages: 251
Release: 2017-11-09
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0822372584

In Spiritual Citizenship N. Fadeke Castor employs the titular concept to illuminate how Ifá/Orisha practices informed by Yoruba cosmology shape local, national, and transnational belonging in African diasporic communities in Trinidad and beyond. Drawing on almost two decades of fieldwork in Trinidad, Castor outlines how the political activism and social upheaval of the 1970s set the stage for African diasporic religions to enter mainstream Trinidadian society. She establishes how the postcolonial performance of Ifá/Orisha practices in Trinidad fosters a sense of belonging that invigorates its practitioners to work toward freedom, equality, and social justice. Demonstrating how spirituality is inextricable from the political project of black liberation, Castor illustrates the ways in which Ifá/Orisha beliefs and practices offer Trinidadians the means to strengthen belonging throughout the diaspora, access past generations, heal historical wounds, and envision a decolonial future.

New Materialist Explorations into Language Education

New Materialist Explorations into Language Education
Author: Johanna Ennser-Kananen
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 191
Release: 2022-10-10
Genre: Education
ISBN: 3031138473

This open access book analyzes language education through a socio-material framework. The authors revisit their position as researchers by decentering themselves and humans in general from the main focus of research activities and giving way to the materialities that are agentive but often overlooked parts of our research contexts and processes. Through this critical posthumanist realism, they are able to engage in research that sees society as an ethical interrelationship between humans and the material world and explore the socio-materialities of language education from the perspectives of material agency, spatial and embodied materiality, and human and non-human assemblages. Each chapter explores language educational contexts through a unique lens of (socio)materiality. Based on how the authors conceptualize (socio)materiality, the book is organized in three sections that seek answers to the following overarching questions: In what ways do material agencies emerge in language educational contexts? How are educational choices and experiences intertwined with materialities of spaces and bodies? What assemblages of human and non-human may occur in language education contexts? Each chapter questions, in its own way, the notion of the human subject as rational, enlightened being and sole possessor of agency, and offers examples of allowing for other-than-human agency to enter the picture. Together, the contributors exemplify how researchers who have been committed to social constructionist thinking for most of their careers learn to make space for new theories, thus inspiring and encouraging readers to remain open for new intellectual and embodied endeavors.