Believing and the Practice of Religion

Annotated draft manuscript of Believing and the Practice of Religion in which the author sought to spur a discussion about belief, a phenomenon that few religious scholars had addressed but that Bell held was central to the study of religion. This is a digital copy of the original manuscript located in the Catherine Bell Papers held by Archives & Special Collections at Santa Clara University

Funerary artefacts, cemetery souvenirs and final resting places

This photo essay discusses artworks that explore the commemorative dimensions of death through socially-engaged artistic processes, and the use of Oasis® floral foam—an ephemeral material that is integral to making flower arrangements that venerate the cycles of life and the celebratory milestones between birth and death. It examines the material’s uncanny corporeal associations when it is formed into vessels, and the ways in which the foam may be seen to transform meaning into materiality. It reflects on how the exhibition of cremated remains of Roman Londoners with associated funerary vessels, titled Roman Dead, at the Museum of London Docklands, informed a series of miniature foam gravestones adorned with custom-designed vessels created on site at East London’s Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park, and a series of art workshops in hospice settings with palliative care staff, which were designed to promote meaningful reflection and healthy discussion about death and dying

U.S. households' access to and use of electronic banking. 1989-2007

Nationwide surveys show that consumers are increasingly embracing technology to make payments and manage their personal finances. However, only about one in two consumers could be considered a heavy user of electronic banking. This article examines changes over time in consumers’ access to, adoption of, and attitudes toward various e-banking products and services and looks at several emerging technologies.Consumers' preferences ; Electronic funds transfers

Ritualization of Texts and Textualization of Ritual in the Codification of Taoist Liturgy

Early in the fifth century in China, the Taoist master began to edit a set of scriptures that had been revealed years earlier. These were the Ling-pao or Spiritual tures, considered to be the second major scriptural development of medieval Taoism. 1 In reconstructing corpus of Ling-pao scriptures from among a multitude and forgeries, Lu worked to present these texts as revelation of the Tao in history, thereby inhibiting further and securing some closure on an early canon. At however, Lu began to codify the ritual material contained scriptures to fashion the liturgical directives that for much of the subsequent Taoist tradition

Moment-Curvature Relationship of Concrete Columns Exposed to Fire from Two, Three, and Four Sides

Designing structures so they have adequate structural integrity in the event of a fire is extremely important. Therefore, it is important to facilitate achieving the optimal designs, which achieve fire safety while allowing for innovative solutions. Such designs are expected to follow the performance-based design criteria, which replaced the prescriptive-based design criteria in several design standards. Engineers are in dire need for tools that allow utilization of this design approach. This research addresses this need. Simplified tools that evaluate the effect of the number of column surfaces exposed to fire on its structural behavior have been examined. A column exposed to fire on its tension and compression sides was found to have lower capacity than a column exposed to fire on one of these surfaces. Also, a column exposed to fire only on the tension side will have a lower capacity than a column exposed to fire only on the compression side

Religion through Ritual

This chapter addresses the ramifications of, as well as strategies for, teaching ritual as a central feature of religion. This marks an important change in the approach to teaching both religion and ritual, and one of the functions of this book is to address specific issues that this change poses to teachers and scholars. It is a continual challenge to imagine how to teach religion, using ritual, in introductory courses, in courses on specific traditions, and in advanced classes that include more of the theory of the field and extended individual projects. Teaching religion with a significant focus on ritual does not merely challenge the tradition of thinking about religion; it challenges every religion major to try to make sense of discrepancies in views about religion that they learn from other faculties