Columbia Press: 2357 books
When a Woman Becomes a Religious Dynasty
The Samding Dorje Phagmo of Tibet
Language: English
Release Date: December 10, 2007
In the fifteenth century, the princess Chokyi Dronma was told by the leading spiritual masters of her time that she was the embodiment of the ancient Indian tantric deity Vajravarahi, known in Tibetan as Dorje Phagmo, the Thunderbolt Female Pig. After suffering a great personal tragedy, Chokyi Dronma...
Wild Kids
Two Novels About Growing Up
Language: English
Release Date: August 31, 2000
These two searingly funny and unsettling portraits of teenagers beyond the control and largely beneath the notice of adults in 1980s Taiwan are the first English translations of works by Taiwan's most famous and best-selling literary cult figure. Chang Ta-chun's intricate narrative and keen, ironic...
by Julia Kristeva
Language: English
Release Date: October 19, 2009
Language: English
Release Date: October 19, 2009
"Unlike Freud, I do not claim that religion is just an illusion and a source of neurosis. The time has come to recognize, without being afraid of 'frightening' either the faithful or the agnostics, that the history of Christianity prepared the world for humanism."
So writes Julia...
Understanding Through Fiction
A Selection from Teresa, My Love: An Imagined Life of the Saint of Avila
Language: English
Release Date: September 2, 2014
Born in 1515, Teresa of Avila survived the Spanish Inquisition and was a key reformer of the Carmelite Order. Her experience of ecstasy, which she intimately described in her writings, released her from her body and led to a complete realization of her consciousness, a state Julia Kristeva explores...
Edo Kabuki in Transition
From the Worlds of the Samurai to the Vengeful Female Ghost
Language: English
Release Date: April 26, 2016
Satoko Shimazaki revisits three centuries of kabuki theater, reframing it as a key player in the formation of an early modern urban identity in Edo Japan and exploring the process that resulted in its re-creation in Tokyo as a national theatrical tradition. Challenging the prevailing understanding...
The Land of the Five Flavors
A Cultural History of Chinese Cuisine
Language: English
Release Date: November 26, 2013
Renowned sinologist Thomas O. Höllmann tracks the growth of food culture in China from its earliest burial rituals to today's Western fast food restaurants, mapping Chinese cuisine's geographical variations and local customs, indigenous factors and foreign influences, trade routes, and ethnic associations....
The Birth of Conservative Judaism
Solomon Schechter's Disciples and the Creation of an American Religious Movement
Language: English
Release Date: May 22, 2012
Solomon Schechter (1847–1915), the charismatic leader of New York's Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS), came to America in 1902 intent on revitalizing traditional Judaism. While he advocated a return to traditional practices, Schechter articulated no clear position on divisive issues, instead preferring...
by
Language: English
Release Date: March 29, 2016
Language: English
Release Date: March 29, 2016
Modern Chinese history told from a Buddhist perspective restores the vibrant, creative role of religion in postimperial China. It shows how urban Buddhist elites jockeyed for cultural dominance in the early Republican era, how Buddhist intellectuals reckoned with science, and how Buddhist media contributed...
Sources of Indian Traditions
Modern India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh
Language: English
Release Date: April 8, 2014
For more than fifty years, students and teachers have made the two-volume resource Sources of Indian Traditions their top pick for an accessible yet thorough introduction to Indian and South Asian civilizations. Volume 2 contains an essential selection of primary readings on the social, intellectual,...
by Caroline Walker Bynum
Language: English
Release Date: November 21, 2017
Language: English
Release Date: November 21, 2017
A classic of medieval studies, The Resurrection of the Body in Western Christianity, 200–1336 traces ideas of death and resurrection in early and medieval Christianity. Caroline Walker Bynum explores problems of the body and identity in devotional and theological literature, suggesting that medieval...
Sufi Bodies
Religion and Society in Medieval Islam
Language: English
Release Date: August 23, 2011
Between 1300 and 1500 C.E. a new form of Sufi Islam took hold among central Islamic peoples, joining individuals through widespread networks resembling today's prominent paths and orders. Understanding contemporary Sufism requires a sophisticated analysis of these formative years. Moving beyond a...
by
Language: English
Release Date: July 29, 2009
Language: English
Release Date: July 29, 2009
The Lotus Sutra proclaims that a unitary intent underlies the diversity of Buddhist teachings and promises that all people without exception can achieve supreme awakening. Establishing the definitive guide to this profound text, specialists in Buddhist philosophy, art, and history of religion address...
Love Letters from Golok
A Tantric Couple in Modern Tibet
Language: English
Release Date: December 6, 2016
Love Letters from Golok chronicles the courtship between two Buddhist tantric masters, Tāre Lhamo (1938–2002) and Namtrul Rinpoche (1944–2011), and their passion for reinvigorating Buddhism in eastern Tibet during the post-Mao era. In fifty-six letters exchanged from 1978 to 1980, Tāre Lhamo...
by Kurtis Schaeffer
Language: English
Release Date: July 6, 2009
Language: English
Release Date: July 6, 2009
The history of the book in Tibet involves more than literary trends and trade routes. Functioning as material, intellectual, and symbolic object, the book has been an instrumental tool in the construction of Tibetan power and authority, and its history opens a crucial window onto the cultural, intellectual,...