Resisting Spirits


Book Description

Resisting Spirits is a reconsideration of the significance and periodization of literary production in the high socialist era, roughly 1953 through 1966, specifically focused on Mao-era culture workers’ experiments with ghosts and ghost plays. Maggie Greene combines rare manuscript materials—such as theatre troupes’ annotated practice scripts—with archival documents, memoirs, newspapers, and films to track key debates over the direction of socialist aesthetics. Through arguments over the role of ghosts in literature, Greene illuminates the ways in which culture workers were able to make space for aesthetic innovation and contestation both despite and because of the constantly shifting political demands of the Mao era. Ghosts were caught up in the broader discourse of superstition, modernization, and China’s social and cultural future. Yet, as Greene demonstrates, the ramifications of those concerns as manifested in the actual craft of writing and performing plays led to further debates in the realm of literature itself: If we remove the ghost from a ghost play, does it remain a ghost play? Does it lose its artistic value, its didactic value, or both? At the heart of Greene’s intervention is “just reading”: the book regards literature first as literature, rather than searching immediately for its political subtext, and the voices of dramatists themselves finally upstage those of Mao’s inner circle. Ironically, this surface reading reveals layers of history that scholars of the Mao era have often ignored, including the ways in which social relations and artistic commitments continued to inform the world of art. Resisting Spirits thus illuminates the origins of more famous literary inquisitions, showing how the arguments surrounding ghost plays and the fates of their authors place the origins of the Cultural Revolution several years earlier, with a radical new shift in the discourse of theatre.




Spirits of Resistance and Capitalist Discipline, Second Edition


Book Description

New edition of the classic ethnographic study of Malay women factory workers. In the two decades since its original publication, Spirits of Resistance and Capitalist Discipline has become a classic in the fields of anthropology, labor, gender and globalization studies. Based on intensive fieldwork, the book captures a moment of profound transformation for rural Muslim women even as their labor helped launch Malaysia’s rise as a tiger economy. Aihwa Ong’s analysis of the disruptions, conflicts, and ambivalences that roiled the lives of working women has inspired later generations of feminist ethnographers in their study of power, resistance, religious upheavals, and subject formation in the industrial periphery. With a critical introduction by anthropologist Carla Freeman, this new edition upholds an exemplary model of anthropological inquiry into cultural modes of resistance to the ideology, discipline, and workings of global capitalism. “This work remains powerful for its refusal to over-simplify the complexities of export industrialization as a model for economic development, and for its demonstration of the intimate dialectics of culture, economy, gender, religion, and class, and the meaningfulness of place amid the swirling forces of global capitalism [It] opened up many of the questions that should continue to inspire our analyses of globalization today. Indeed, these questions are equally compelling for the reader returning to this work after twenty years and for the reader new to this text and to the intriguing and complex puzzles of globalization.” — from the Introduction by Carla Freeman




Kindred Spirits


Book Description

Kindred Spirits takes us inside a remarkable network of Catholic historians, theologians, poets, and activists who pushed against both the far-right surge in interwar Europe and the secularizing tendencies of the leftist movements active in the early to mid-twentieth century. With meticulous attention to the complexity of real lives, Brenna Moore explores how this group sought a middle way anchored in “spiritual friendship”—religiously meaningful friendship understood as uniquely capable of facing social and political challenges. For this group, spiritual friendship was inseparable from resistance to European xenophobia and nationalism, anti-racist activism in the United States, and solidarity with Muslims during the Algerian War. Friendship, they believed, was a key to both divine and human realms, a means of accessing the transcendent while also engaging with our social and political existence. Some of the figures are still well known—philosopher Jacques Maritain, Nobel Prize laureate Gabriela Mistral, influential Islamicist Louis Massignon, poet of the Harlem renaissance Claude McKay—while others have unjustly faded from memory. Much more than an idealized portrait of a remarkable group of Catholic intellectuals from the past, Kindred Spirits is a compelling exploration of both the beauty and flaws of a vibrant social network worth remembering.




Prayers Against Marine Spirits


Book Description

"The time has come to put a final stop on the activities of Marine Spirits. In recent times Marine Spirits has caused a lot of damages to the human race including Churches by influencing their behavioral pattern. Marine Spirits conduct their operation inside waters and made the oceans, rivers, seas, streams, and lakes their stronghold. However, it is extremely difficult to detect Marine Spirits than any other Spirits including witchcraft spirit. Unlike Witchcraft spirits who are aggressive and impatient in their operation, Marine Spirit is different, they are patient, well mannered and cultured in their operation. Are you finding solutions to any or all of the problems below but you find it difficult? Then this book is for you Uncontrollable sex Uncontrollable masturbation Watching of pornographic videos The time has come to put a final stop on the activities of Marine Spirits. In recent times Marine Spirits has caused a lot of damages to the human race including Churches by influencing their behavioral pattern. Marine Spirits conduct their operation inside waters and made the oceans, rivers, seas, streams, and lakes their stronghold. However, it is extremely difficult to detect Marine Spirits than any other Spirits including witchcraft spirit. Unlike Witchcraft spirits who are aggressive and impatient in their operation, Marine Spirit is different, they are patient, well mannered and cultured in their operation. Are you finding solutions to any or all of the problems below but you find it difficult? Then this book is for you Uncontrollable sex Uncontrollable masturbation Watching of pornographic videos Chronic Anger in You 1. Dead in everything in a man's life, eg, dead brain, dead organs, dead spiritual life. 2. The weakening of pastors power to perform a miracle or cast out demons 3. Inability to get married on time 4. Frequent divorce 5. Bankruptcy 6. Spirit wife 7. Spirit husband 8. Sex in the dream Please find below the characteristics of Marine Spirits Marine Spirits are wicked as witchcraft spirits Marine spirits can wait for years to destroy their victims Marine Spirits come in the form of beautiful ladies and they work with a purpose in mind Marine Spirits are always materialistic Marine Spirits can make victim wealthy temporarily but later deal with them ruthlessly. Marine spirits have their agents everywhere especially in Churches, who hide under the cover of church and lead people into immorality, fornication, lesbianism, homosexuals and so on. In some cases, Marine Spirit agents could be pastors, general overseer, and church leader and so on. Such pastors engage in various forms of an immoral act with Church members. You have to be careful about which church you attend. Marine Spirit executes their plans by possessing either a man or a woman. The marine kingdom is headed by the queen of the coast. Marine Spirits possess female than male There are two types of Marine Spirits. They are conscious and unconscious. The formal know they are possessed, while the latter doesn't. Marine spirits use sex to oppress men and scatter homes through the power of sex. Marine Spirits are extremely fashion-crazy, they dress to attract on purpose, they walk to attract on purpose. Most ladies that date married men without remorse are Marine Spirits. They enjoy breaking the hearts of their victims so as to render them emotionally unstable. They make their victims take wrong decisions that will render their life useless. Marine Spirits agents are very unstable in relationships and they cannot keep a relationship for too long. Marine Spirits agents are good pretenders. The worse thing that can happen to a man is to fall in love with a lady possessed with Marine Spirit. If a man decides to end the relationship, the lady possessed with Marine spirit begins to behave well and the moment the man changes his mind, she starts tormenting the emotion of the man, constantly frustrating the man. Lesbianism, homosexuality, and pornography are marine initiations Marine Spirit agents are partygoers "




The Spirit of Resistance in Music and Spoken Word of South Africa's Eastern Cape


Book Description

From an array of prominent activists including Nelson Mandela and Steve Biko to renowned performers and oral poets such as Johnny Dyani and Samuel Mqhayi, the Eastern Cape region plays a unique role in the history of South African protest politics and creativity. The Spirit of Resistance in Music and Spoken Word of South Africa's Eastern Cape concentrates on the Eastern Cape's contribution to the larger narrative of the connection between creativity, mass movements, and the forging of a modern African identity and focuses largely on the amaXhosa population. Lindsay Michie explores Eastern Cape performance artists, activists, organizations, and movements that used inventive and historical means to raise awareness of their plight and brought pressure to bear on the authorities and systems that caused it, all the while exhibiting the depth, originality, and inspiration of their culture.




Pure Lands in Asian Texts and Contexts


Book Description

This diverse anthology of original Buddhist texts in translation provides a historical and conceptual framework that will transform contemporary scholarship on Pure Land Buddhism and instigate its recognition as an essential field of Buddhist studies. Traditional and contemporary primary sources carefully selected from Buddhist cultures across historical, geopolitical, and literary boundaries are organized by genre rather than chronologically, geographically, or by religious lineage—a novel juxtaposition that reveals their wider importance in fresh contexts. Together these fundamental texts from different Asian traditions, expertly translated by eminent and up-and-coming scholars, illustrate that the Buddhism of pure lands is not just an East Asian cult or a marginal type of Buddhism, but a pan-Asian and deeply entrenched religious phenomenon. The volume is organized into six parts: Ritual Practices, Contemplative Visualizations, Doctrinal Expositions, Life Writing and Poetry, Ethical and Aesthetic Explications, and Worlds beyond Sukhāvatī. Each part is introduced and summarized, and each translated piece is prefaced by its translator to supply historical and sectarian context as well as insight into the significance of the work. Common and less-common issues of practice, doctrine, and intra-religious transfer are explored, and deeper understandings of the meaning of “pure lands” are gained through the study of the celestial, cosmological, internal, and earthly pure lands associated with various buddhas, bodhisattvas, and devotional figures. The introduction by the volume editors ties the diverse themes of the book together and provides a historical background to Pure Land Buddhist studies. Scholars of Buddhism and Asian religion, including graduate and post-graduate students, as well as Buddhist practitioners, will appreciate the range of translated materials and accompanied discussions made accessible in one essential collection, the first of its kind to center on the formerly-neglected topic of Buddhist pure lands.




How to Resist the Devil


Book Description

"Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: Whom resist stedfast in the faith." Life is a battlefield. The foe we face is not flesh and blood, but Satan himself, the spiritual arch-enemy of God and man. He has had six thousand years of practice is taking souls captive, and now he is stalking you. Thank God, the devil is a defeated foe. Christ conquered him at Calvary, and has paved the way for every Christian to be an overcomer as well. The Scriptures are full of warning, exhortation, and encouragement for the soldier of the Lord. In this book, a veteran of many battles offers you insight and inspiration to "Put on the whole armour of God," and learn how to resist the devil.




The Spiritual Man (3)


Book Description

For more than seventy years, The Spiritual Man, Watchman Nee's classic on spiritual growth, has helped believers advance in their pursuit of gaining Christ by showing them the way to let the Lord fully gain them. According to Nee, "The most frustrating experience of believers today is that in seeking for progress in the spiritual path, they do not find the proper way. As a result, they grope in darkness, being at times high or low, lingering around the crossroads year in and year out, and having no one to consult for direction. The author of this book was such a one. For this reason, the book emphasizes clear guidance on the proper path. Every chapter of this book is for the purpose of directing the believers on the right course. Therefore, all those who seek after God with an honest heart can go step by step accordingly. Almost every chapter begins from the position of the sinner and goes on step by step toward the peak of spiritual life." This electronic book is the third of three volumes.




African Women Legends and the Spirituality of Resistance


Book Description

This volume focuses on African indigenous women legends and their potential to serve as midwives for gender empowerment and for contributing towards African feminist theories. It considers the intersection of gender and spirituality in subverting patriarchy, colonialism, anthropocentricism, and capitalism as well as elevating African women to the social space of speaking as empowered subjects with public influence. The chapters examine historical, cultural, and religious African women legends who became champions of liberation and their approach to social justice. The authors suggest that their stories of resistance hold great potential for building justice-loving Earth Communities. This book will be of interest to scholars of religion, gender studies, indigenous studies, African studies, African-indigenous knowledges, postcolonial studies, among others.




Discerning the Spirit(s)


Book Description

Efforts to construct a Christian theology of religions have inevitably stumbled on the Christian scandal of particularity—the historical Jesus of Nazareth. What, however, if we began by focusing on the universal presence and activity of God in the world as symbolized by the Holy Spirit? Yong develops just such a pneumatological approach to religions, drawing, by way of resource, on the Pentecostal-charismatic experience of the Spirit. This book thus invites Pentecostals, charismatics, and other Christians to conceive of how a pneumatological approach to religions can invigorate the wider ecumenical conversation. At the same time, it also brings recent Pentecostal-charismatic scholarship into dialogue with a broader audience, including those interested in philosophical theology, world religions, global spiritualities, and comparative religion and theology.