Representative Native American religions and rituals are introduced to readers in a way that respects the individual traditions as more than local curiosities or exotic rituals, capturing the flavor of the living, modern traditions, even as commonalities between and among traditions are explored and explained. This general introduction offers wide-ranging coverage of the major factors―geography, history, religious behavior, and religious ideology (theology)―analyzing select traditions that can be dealt with, to varying degrees, on a contemporary basis.
As current interest surrounding Native American studies continues to grow, attention has often been given to the various religious beliefs, rituals, and customs of the diverse traditions across the country. But most treatments of the subject are cursory and encyclopedic and do not provide readers with the flavor of the living, modern traditions. Here, representative Native American religions and rituals are introduced to readers in a way that respects the individual traditions as more than local curiosities or exotic rituals, even as commonalities between and among traditions are explored and explained. This general introduction offers wide-ranging coverage of the major factors―geography, history, religious behavior, and religious ideology (theology)―analyzing select traditions that can be dealt with, to varying degrees, on a contemporary basis.
Covering such diverse ceremonies as the Muskogee (Creek) Busk, the Northwest Coast Potlatch, the Navajo and Apache menarche rituals, and the Anishnabe (Great Lakes area) Midewiwin seasonal gatherings, Paper takes a comparative approach, based on the study of human religion in general, and the special place of Native American religions within it. His book is informed by perspective gained through nearly fifty years of formal study and several decades of personal involvement, treating readers to a glimpse of the living religious traditions of Native American communities across the country.

Native North American Religious Traditions: Dancing for Life

Politics & Social Sciences

Paper, Jordan

Social Sciences

Praeger

This is a comparative treatment of the religious beliefs and practices of Chinese traditional culture. The Spirits are Drunk presents Chinese religion as a complex, singular construct that is the basis of Chinese culture and civilization from its inception to the present. It focuses on the development and role of ecstatic religious experience and on the importance of the feminine in religious perceptions. Topics include the underlying structure of Chinese religion through the analysis of ritual; interpretations of the ritual decor of protohistoric sacrificial vessels in relation to ecstatic experience; the comparative study of myths and symbols; the development and interrelationships of shamanism, mediumism, and the mystic experience; the role of ecstatic religious experience in the arts and aesthetics; the importance of female deities; female roles in ritual; and the understanding of Christianity and Christian scriptures in China.

The Spirits are Drunk: Comparative Approaches to Chinese Religion (Chinese Philosophy Culture)

History

Asia

State University of New York Press

The Mystic Experience: A Descriptive and Comparative Analysis (Religious Studies)

Explores the human experience of mysticism and looks at it within the spiritual traditions around the world. The mystic, zero, or void experience―the ecstatic disappearance of self along with everything else―is considered by those who have had it to be the most beautiful, blissful, positive, profound, and significant experience of their lives. Offering both a descriptive and a comparative perspective, this book explores the mystic experience across cultures as both a human and cultural event. The book begins and ends with descriptions of the author’s own mystical experiences, and looks at self-reported experiences by individuals who do not link their experiences to a religious tradition, to determine characteristics of this universal human experience. These characteristics are compared to statements of acknowledged mystics in diverse religious traditions. The mystic experience is also situated within other ecstatic religious experiences to distinguish it from similar, but distinct, experiences such as lucid dreams, shamanism, and mediumism. Jordan Paper goes on to look at how the mystic experience has been considered in various fields, such as sociology, psychology, anthropology, biology, and comparative religious studies.

Religion & Spirituality

Other Religions, Practices & Sacred Texts

Provides a theology of polytheism―the belief in many deities―using examples from a wide range of world religions. The Deities Are Many is a lively and learned introduction to polytheism. Drawing from both his scholarly research and his personal experience, author Jordan Paper is the ideal guide into this milieu. Paper was drawn to polytheism through his love of nature, seeing it as a source of the divine. In this book he focuses on Chinese and Native American religious traditions, as well as West African, African-Brazilian, Hindu, Polynesian, and circum-Polar traditions, to describe the theology of polytheism. The book provides a topology of polytheistic deities, focusing on the cosmic couple, Father Sky and Mother Earth; animal, plant, and mineral deities; ancestral spirits; divine ghosts; and culture heroes and tricksters. Paper also shows how monotheists misunderstand polytheism and provides a polytheist perspective on what it means to be human when the “deities are many.” This is a fascinating, illuminating book, especially for those raised in monotheistic societies.

The Deities Are Many: A Polytheistic Theology (Religious Studies)

Provides a theology of polytheism―the belief in many deities―using examples from a wide range of world religions. The Deities Are Many is a lively and learned introduction to polytheism. Drawing from both his scholarly research and his personal experience, author Jordan Paper is the ideal guide into this milieu. Paper was drawn to polytheism through his love of nature, seeing it as a source of the divine. In this book he focuses on Chinese and Native American religious traditions, as well as West African, African-Brazilian, Hindu, Polynesian, and circum-Polar traditions, to describe the theology of polytheism. The book provides a topology of polytheistic deities, focusing on the cosmic couple, Father Sky and Mother Earth; animal, plant, and mineral deities; ancestral spirits; divine ghosts; and culture heroes and tricksters. Paper also shows how monotheists misunderstand polytheism and provides a polytheist perspective on what it means to be human when the “deities are many.” This is a fascinating, illuminating book, especially for those raised in monotheistic societies.

Book by Paper, Jordan, Aijin-Tettey, Elizabeth, Backman, Louise, Lavalley, Jacqui, Nefsky, Marilyn, Paper, Li Chuang, Stuckey, Johanna

Through the Earth Darkly: Female Spirituality in Comparative Perspective

Aijin-Tettey, Elizabeth

Backman, Louise

Lavalley, Jacqui

Nefsky, Marilyn

Paper, Li Chuang

Stuckey, Johanna

Worship & Devotion

Continuum Intl Pub Group

Distributed by the University of Nebraska Press for the University of Idaho Press In this brilliant exploration of the history, mythology, ritual and symbolism of the sacred pipe, author Jordan Paper breaks new ground in assessing the importance of the pipe in Native American religion. Offering Smoke provides a dazzling introduction to an aspect of Native American culture heretofore never explored in such depth or with such careful regard for the religious and cultural sensitivities so vital for genuine understanding.

Offering Smoke: The Sacred Pipe and Native American Religion

Americas

Univ of Idaho Pr

Chinese Religion and Familism: The Basis of Chinese Culture, Society, and Government

Reflecting on over half a century of study on Chinese culture, Jordan Paper explores new ways of approaching religion in China. Moving away from using Christianity as a model for examination, which has led to considerable misunderstandings between China and the West, Paper instead applies the paradigm of Familism to Chinese religion. By looking through the lens of Familism, which emphasises the importance of the family unit, Paper argues that we can understand the basis of Chinese culture, society, government, and religion. In the book, Paper explains how, when and why Familism appears in the development of human culture in the Neolithic period, as well as its ramifications in more complex societies, using the imperial Chinese state as an example. The discussion in the book includes how the Chinese state can be understood as a religious institution; the role of spirit possession; the relationship of other religions in China to Chinese Religion, including Buddhism, Daoism and Judaism; and the issue of freedom of religion in contemporary China. Chinese Religion and Familism not only challenges the discipline's perception of Chinese religion, but all of the religions of East Asia, indigenous sub-Saharan African religions, Polynesian Religion, and elsewhere.

Bloomsbury Academic

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Paper, Jordan. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Paper, Jordan

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Paper, Jordan. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Native North American Religious Traditions: Dancing for Life

The Spirits are Drunk: Comparative Approaches to Chinese Religion (Chinese Philosophy Culture)

The Mystic Experience: A Descriptive and Comparative Analysis (Religious Studies)

The Mystic Experience: A Descriptive and Comparative Analysis (Religious Studies)

The Deities Are Many: A Polytheistic Theology (Religious Studies)

The Deities Are Many: A Polytheistic Theology (Religious Studies)

Through the Earth Darkly: Female Spirituality in Comparative Perspective

Offering Smoke: The Sacred Pipe and Native American Religion

Chinese Religion and Familism: The Basis of Chinese Culture, Society, and Government

Chinese Religion and Familism: The Basis of Chinese Culture, Society, and Government