From the Publisher: What does it mean when a band is judged by how hard they pray rather than how hard they rock? Would Jesus buy "Jesus junk" or wear "witness wear"? What do Christian skate parks, raves, and romance novels say about evangelicalism-and America? Daniel Radosh went searching for the answers and reached some surprising conclusions. Written with the perfect blend of amusement and respect, Rapture Ready! is an insightful, entertaining, and deeply weird journey through the often hidden world of Christian pop culture. This vast and influential subculture-a $7 billion industry and growing-can no longer be ignored by those who want to understand the social, spiritual, and political aspirations of evangelical Christians. In eighteen cities and towns throughout thirteen states-from the Bible Belt to the outskirts of Hollywood-Radosh encounters a fascinating cast of characters, including Bibleman, the Caped Christian; Rob Adonis, the founder and star of Ultimate Christian Wrestling; Ken Ham, the nation's leading prophet of creationism; and Jay Bakker, the son of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, and pastor of his own liberal, punk rock church. From Christian music festivals and theme parks to Passion plays and comedy nights, Radosh combines gonzo reporting with a keen eye for detail and just the right touch of wit. Rapture Ready! is a revealing survey of a parallel universe and a unique perspective on one of America's most important social movements.

In You Never Call, You Never Write, Joyce Antler provides an illuminating and often amusing history of one of the best-known figures in popular culture--the Jewish Mother. Whether drawn as self-sacrificing or manipulative, in countless films, novels, radio and television programs, stand-up comedy, and psychological and historical studies, she appears as a colossal figure, intensely involved in the lives of her children. Antler traces the odyssey of this compelling personality through decades of American culture. She reminds us of a time when Jewish mothers were admired for their tenacity and nurturance, as in the early twentieth-century image of the "Yiddishe Mama," a sentimental figure popularized by entertainers such as George Jessel, Al Jolson, and Sophie Tucker, and especially by Gertrude Berg, whose amazingly successful "Molly Goldberg" ruled American radio and television for over 25 years. Antler explains the transformation of this Jewish Mother into a "brassy-voiced, smothering, and shrewish" scourge (in Irving Howe's words), detailing many variations on this negative theme, from Philip Roth's Portnoy's Complaint and Woody Allen's Oedipus Wrecks to television shows such as "The Nanny," "Seinfeld," and "Will and Grace." But she also uncovers a new counter-narrative, leading feminist scholars and stand-up comediennes to see the Jewish Mother in positive terms. Continually revised and reinvented, the Jewish Mother becomes in Antler's expert hands a unique lens with which to examine vital concerns of American Jews and the culture at large. A joy to read, You Never Call, You Never Write will delight anyone who has ever known or been nurtured by a "Jewish Mother," and it will be a special source of insight for modern parents. As Antler suggests, in many ways "we are all Jewish Mothers" today.

"In The Kingdom of Cain, crime novelist, screenwriter, and cultural critic Andrew Klavan explores how artists' imaginative engagement with the evil of murder in film and literature can point us to ways of living honestly, beautifully, and even joyfully in a dark world"--

Tzippy Goldman's mother has been planning her wedding since before she was born. Her four younger sisters want her to marry the fairy tale Jewish prince of their mother's stories. But Tzippy, approaching spinsterhood at the age of twenty-two, has other ideas. She is hungry for experience and longs to escape the suffocating expectations of religious stricture and romantic obligation. But when she falls in love with Bryan Miller she surprises everyone. Bryan comes from a different kind of family. Like Orthodox Jews anywhere in the world, they spend Saturdays in synagogue, and the rest of the week like suburbanites everywhere. But to Bryan, this middle road looks more and more like hypocrisy. He longs for conviction, for the relief of absolutes. To his parents' bewilderment, Bryan decides to embrace a very different kind of lifestyle, swapping his beloved Yankees cap for something else entirely. In the courtship and marriage of Bryan and Tzippy, Tova Mirvis illuminates an insular world, where ancient and modern collide in a warm and hilarious novel about two very different families brought together by the marriage of their children.

"Judaism and Jewish law are eternal and immutable. But the world changes and presents novel challenges. Modern science and developing technology create facts on the ground that raise relevant contemporary questions of which Halakhah must take cognizance. Fingerprint examination, blood typing and DNA matching were all unknown until recent decades. Jewish law posits strict laws of evidence and generally excludes circumstantial evidence for most purposes. Rabbi Bleich's comprehensive work explores the nature of DNA evidence in establishing paternity, the relief of agunot, mamzerut, inheritance, identity as a Jew and as a kohen, the so-called "Jewish" gene and the kohen gene." -- Publisher's description.

The real story behind “ex-gay” ministries and reparative therapy! Nationally known activist Wayne Besen spent four years examining the phenomenon of “ex-gay” ministries and reparative therapies—interviewing leaders, attending conferences, and visiting ministries undercover as he accumulated hundreds of hours of research. The result is Anything but Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth, a groundbreaking exposé of the controversial movement that's revered by independent religious groups and reviled by gay and lesbian organizations. The book presents a historical perspective on the dispute, examining “ex-gay” groups such as Love In Action, Exodus International, Homosexuals Anonymous, and profiling a cast of characters that includes Pat Robertson, the Rev. Jerry Falwell, “ex-gay” poster boy John Paulk, National Association of Research and Therapy of Homosexuality activist Richard Cohen, and psychiatrist Dr. Robert Spitzer. An in-depth, well-researched, and historically significant account, Anything but Straight is full of startling facts and alarming surprises. The original content and novel material in the book includes: a first-ever comprehensive history of the “ex-gay” ministries and “reparative therapy” the inside story of the night the author photographed “ex-gay” poster boy John Paulk inside a gay bar the author's discovery that Anne Paulk lied about being a lesbian and has admitted to having a strong attraction to men BEFORE she became “ex-gay” previously undisclosed bizarre techniques used by the “ex-gay” ministries and “reparative therapists” the author's exclusive in-depth interviews with leading “ex-gay” leaders—they disclose their deepest secrets, hidden desires, and true motivations an extraordinary new study that shows that most “ex-gay” leaders have suffered from substance abuse or severe emotional problems—while many “ex-gay” leaders claim they were “unhappy being gay,” this report helps prove that their dissatisfactions came not from their homosexuality, but from poor life choices and irresponsible behavior new revelations that one of the nation's leading “reparative therapists” hailed from a secretive cult that was scandalized for practicing nude therapy From the author: Through my extensive experience, I have learned that the extraordinary claims made by the “ex-gay” groups are without merit and the efficacy of their programs is dubious at best and harmful at worst . . . One frequent question I get is, “Why can't gay activists simply leave 'ex-gay' groups alone and let them go about their business?” This is exactly what happened for nearly three decades while “ex-gay” groups labored in near anonymity. But all this recently changed when the “ex-gay” groups intricately aligned themselves with the anti-gay political agenda of the Religious Right. With “ex-gays” added to their arsenal, the Right could disingenuously claim to love gay people and offer them “hope for change,” while simultaneously fighting for punitive legislation. Their insidious message: Since gays and lesbians can change, there is no need for laws that protect them against arbitrary prejudice. Anything but Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth is an essential read for activists on both sides of the “ex-gay” fence, family members of gays and lesbians, Gay, Bisexual, Lesbian, and Transgender church members, psychiatric and social science professionals, and anyone who has dealt with “coming out” issues. An appendix of resources and a helpful bibliography make it easy to find additional information on this fascinating topic.

Discusses Jewish identity in America as reflected in the culture of immigrants and descendants of immigrants. Self-hatred or, at least, ambivalence about oneself in the face of native American values is one theme. Ch. 5 (pp. 98-125), "To Make 'a Jew': Projecting Antisemitism in Post-War America", analyzes two novels - Arthur Miller's "Focus" and Saul Bellow's "The Victim" - that explore the psychosocial dimensions of postwar antisemitism. They raise the question whether possibilities of Jewish-Gentile relations might lead to personal and social renovation. In "Focus", a crypto-fascist antisemite who has internalized racist stereotypes finally identifies symbolically as a Jew. In "The Victim", both Jew and Gentile partially overcome their mutual stereotyping. The main Jewish protagonist also overcomes some negative aspects of his self-image.

We think of modern liberalism as the novel product of a world reinvented on a secular basis after 1945. In The Theology of Liberalism, one of the country's most important political theorists argues that we could hardly be more wrong. Eric Nelson contends that the tradition of liberal political philosophy founded by John Rawls is, however unwittingly, the product of ancient theological debates about justice and evil. Once we understand this, he suggests, we can recognize the deep incoherence of various forms of liberal political philosophy that have emerged in Rawls's wake.--

This book presents a series of studies that cover a wide range of issues relating to Maimonides' political thought, including the basis for political and ethical knowledge; the notion of the "good"; imitatio Dei; apparent contradictions in his position on ethics; the conception of God that he attempts to inculcate to Jewish society at large; and his novel approach to the love and fear of God. Taking into account his medieval Aristotelian and Jewish sources, these explorations also deal with some of the opposing considerations that Maimonides had to balance in developing and presenting his positions on such subjects as the nature of divine law, the static vs. dynamic dimensions of Mosaic law, prophetic and rabbinic authority within Judaism, the reasons for the commandments, and martyrdom. A close reading of the manner in which he formulates his views, in light of their literary and intellectual-historical contexts, allows us a better glimpse of how profound and subtle Maimonides is as a thinker and an educator.

"In Fragile Finitude, the long-awaited follow-up to Sacred Attunement(2008), Fishbane clears new ground for theological experience and its expressions through a novel reinterpretation of the Book of Job. His reinterpretation is based on the traditional four types of Jewish Scriptural exegesis: the contextual plain sense; the rabbinic legal and theological sense; the figural philosophical and spiritual sense; and the symbolic mystical sense. The first focuses on worldly experience; the second on communal forms of life and thought in the rabbinic tradition; the third on personal development; and the fourth on transcendent and cosmic orientations. Through these four modes, Fishbane manages to transform Jewish theology from within, at once reinvigorating a long tradition and moving beyond it. What he offers is nothing short of a way to reorient our lives in relation to the Divine and our fellow humans"--

Calvinism s influence and reputation have received ample scholarly attention. But how John Calvin himself his person, character, and deeds was remembered, commemorated, and memorialized, is a question few historians have addressed. Focussing on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, this volume aims to open up the subject with chapters on Calvin s monumentalization in statues and museums, his appearance in novels, children s books, and travel writing, his iconic function for Hungarian nationalists and Presbyterian missionaries to China, his reputation among Mormons and freethinkers, and his rivalry with Michael Servetus in French Protestant memory. The result is a fresh contribution to the field of religious memory studies and an invitation to further comparative research.Contributors include: R. Bryan Bademan, Patrick Cabanel, R. Scott Clark, Thomas J. Davis, Stephen S. Francis, Joe B. Fulton, Botond Gaál, Stefan Laube, Johan de Niet, Herman Paul, James Rigney, Michèle Sacquin, Jonathan Seitz, Robert Vosloo, Bart Wallet, and Valentine Zuber.