To what extent can semiotics illuminate key problems in religious studies, given the centrality of symbols, language, and other modes of signification in religion and theology? The volume explores semiotic methodologies for the study of religion, with an emphasis on their critical and creative reconfigurations. The contributors come from different specialties, such as cognitive science, ethnography, linguistics, communication studies, art studies, religious studies, philosophy of religion, and theology. Part One consists of chapters focusing on theoretical perspectives. Part two focuses on applications in texts and case studies while still considering methodological issues. Many specific traditions and perspectives are taken up, such as C. S. Peirce, A. J. Greimas and the Paris School, Juri Lotman’s semiotics of culture, Bruno Latour and material semiotics, linguistic anthropology, social semiotics, cognitive semiotics, embodied and enactive perspectives on language and mind, semiotics of the image and iconicity, multimodality, intertextuality, and semiotics of colors. The book provides readers with a succinct overview of how contemporary semiotics can be useful in understanding a broad array of topics in the study of religion.

To what extent can semiotics illuminate key problems in religious studies, given the centrality of symbols, language, and other modes of signification in religion and theology? The volume explores semiotic methodologies for the study of religion, with an emphasis on their critical and creative reconfigurations. The contributors come from different specialties, such as cognitive science, ethnography, linguistics, communication studies, art studies, religious studies, philosophy of religion, and theology. Part One consists of chapters focusing on theoretical perspectives. Part two focuses on applications in texts and case studies while still considering methodological issues. Many specific traditions and perspectives are taken up, such as C. S. Peirce, A. J. Greimas and the Paris School, Juri Lotman’s semiotics of culture, Bruno Latour and material semiotics, linguistic anthropology, social semiotics, cognitive semiotics, embodied and enactive perspectives on language and mind, semiotics of the image and iconicity, multimodality, intertextuality, and semiotics of colors. The book provides readers with a succinct overview of how contemporary semiotics can be useful in understanding a broad array of topics in the study of religion.

Sacred Signs in Reformation Scotland is the first study of how public worship was interpreted in Renaissance Scotland and offers a radically new way of understanding the Scottish Reformation. It first defines the history and method of 'liturgical interpretation' (using the methods of medieval Biblical exegesis to explain worship), then shows why it was central to medieval and early modern Western European religious culture. The rest of the book uses Scotland as a case study for a multidisciplinary investigation of the place of liturgical interpretation in this culture. Stephen Mark Holmes uses the methods of 'book history' to discover the place of liturgical interpretation in education, sermons and pastoral practice and also investigates its impact on material culture, especially church buildings and furnishings. A study of books and their owners reveals networks of clergy in Scotland committed to the liturgy and Catholic reform, especially the 'Aberdeen liturgists'. Holmes corrects current scholarship by showing that their influence lasted beyond 1560 and suggests that they created the distinctive religious culture of North-East Scotland (later a centre of Catholic recusancy, Episcopalianism and Jacobitism). The final two chapters investigate what happened to liturgical interpretation in Scottish religious culture after the Protestant Reformation of 1559-60, showing that while it declined in importance in Catholic circles, a Reformed Protestant version of liturgical interpretation was created and flourished which used exactly the same method to produce both an interpretation of the Reformed sacramental rites and an 'anti-commentary' on Catholic liturgy. The book demonstrates an important continuity across the Reformation divide arguing that the 'Scottish Reformation' is best seen as both Catholic and Protestant, with the reformers on both sides having more in common than they or subsequent historians have allowed.

Improve your life by embracing the guidance that Spirit sends you each day. Everyone receives sacred signs, messages, and synchronicities, but we don't always notice or know how to interpret them. With Sacred Signs & Symbols, you'll develop the ability to recognize, understand, and be guided by the signs all around you. Featuring a glossary of hundreds of signs and their meanings, this comprehensive guide helps you build a personal oracle system for invoking messages in your daily life. Explore a variety of methods for increasing your awareness, including exercises and divination techniques that you can personalize to your needs. You'll also discover ways to connect with loved ones in the spirit realm and expand your perception of the world. No matter where you are or what you're doing, a loving, wise, spiritual presence is offering you advice and comfort through divine messages. Praise: "Sacred Signs & Symbols is a wonderfully grounded and inspiring guide to connecting with the divine in your daily life. With helpful background information, numerous examples, an extensive signs glossary, and Sherrie's beautiful personal insights, this book is a true treasure for your spiritual journey."—Laurie Bonser, author of The Law of Attraction Meets Financial Stewardship "Sherrie Dillard has managed to translate the language of the Universe to everyone in such a simple yet powerful way, so that we can all understand it...[Sacred Signs & Symbols is] an amazing translation of the vibrational language of the Universe."—Nianell, multi-award winning singer-songwriter and author of Knowing Who I Am

These two volumes consist of forty nine papers from two international archaeological meetings in Bulgaria in 2001 and 2002, including recent research and trends in analysing symbolic systems in southeast Europe. Examining material from the Neolithic to Iron Age, contributors discuss and analyse evidence relating to settlement patterns, ceramics, metal objects and burial practices, and how these reflect different symbolic systems and forms of cultural interaction and continuity. Eight of the papers look in particular at the first millennium BC Starosel temple-tomb found in 2000 and its significance for the nature and development of Thracian culture.