Books in the Studies in Religion & Culture series

Why do we travel? Ostensibly an act of leisure, travel finds us thrusting ourselves into jets flying miles above the earth, only to endure dislocations of time and space, foods and languages foreign to our body and mind, and encounters with strangers on whom we must suddenly depend. Travel is not merely a break from routine; it is its antithesis, a voluntary trading in of the security one feels at home for unpredictability and confusion. In Bewildered Travel Frederick Ruf argues that this confusion, which we might think of simply as a necessary evil, is in fact the very thing we are seeking when we leave home.Ruf relates this quest for confusion to our religious behavior. Citing William James, who defined the religious as what enables us to "e;front life,"e; Ruf contends that the search for bewilderment allows us to point our craft into the wind and sail headlong into the storm rather than flee from it. This view challenges the Eliadean tradition that stresses religious ritual as a shield against the world's chaos. Ruf sees our departures from the familiar as a crucial component in a spiritual life, reminding us of the central role of pilgrimage in religion. In addition to his own revealing experiences as a traveler, Ruf presents the reader with the journeys of a large and diverse assortment of notable Americans, including Henry Miller, Paul Bowles, Mark Twain, Mary Oliver, and Walt Whitman. These accounts take us from the Middle East to the Philippines, India to Nicaragua, Mexico to Morocco--and, in one threatening instance, simply to the edge of the author's own neighborhood. "e;What gives value to travel is fear,"e; wrote Camus. This book illustrates the truth of that statement.

Assessing of the state of the study of myth, this text explores the possibilities for charting a methodological middle course that takes into account both the comparative and the contextual issues raised since 1985.

The ten essays assembled in this volume represent, in an interdisciplinary way, the work of scholars attempting to understand the decline of mourning practices and their associated rituals. The text is arranged in sections on cultural studies, architecture, history and psychology.

A chronicle of the emergence and development of religion as a field of intellectual inquiry, this volume is an extensive survey of world's fairs from the inaugural Great Exhibition in London to the Chicago Columbian Exposition and World's Parliament of Religions.

This book provides an approach to understanding the connection between martial arts and spirituality in such diverse disciplines as Japanese aikido, Chinese tai chi chuan, Hindu yoga, Christian asceticism, Zen Buddhism and Islamic Jihad.