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55 books match the query 'New Perspectives' and 3 start with a

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American Congregations, Volume 2

New Perspectives in the Study of Congregations

Edited by James P. Wind and James W. Lewis

University of Chicago Press, 1994

American Congregations, Volume 2: New Perspectives in the Study of Congregations builds upon the empirical foundation provided by the historical studies in volume 1 of the Congregational History Project. Volume 2 addresses three crucial questions: Where is the congregation located on the broader map of American cultural and religious life? What are the distinctive qualities, tasks, and roles of the congregation or parish in American culture? And, what patterns of leadership characterize American congregations?

Published simultaneously, these two volumes combine engaging historical studies with incisive scholarsly analysis to focus attention on the central role of congregational studies in research and teaching of American religion.

"This two volume study of American congregations is of compelling importance to anyone interested in civil society, community, and belief in contemporary America. . . . Extraordinarily rich in detail."—Association for Research on Non-profit Organizations and Voluntary Action News

"[An] informative and stimulating study."—John A. Saliba, Journal of Contemporary Religion

"These congregational histories are important pieces of both social and religious history. They tell us much about the convictions and experience of a great variety of people, different styles of leadership and of how these distinctive local cultures both bear and shape the larger traditions they represent."—Gordon Harland, Studies in Religion

"Both volumes of American Congregations resulted from pioneering efforts, and they are timely and useful. They should force American religious historians to ask new questions. . . . Any American religious historian who fails to take this two-volume work seriously in the future will find his or her own scholarship terribly deficient."—Lewis V. Baldwin, Journal of American History

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Ancient Complexities

New Perspectives in Pre-Columbian North America

Susan Alt

University of Utah Press, 2010

Edited by Susan M. Alt

Foundations of Archaeological Inquiry

Jim Skibo, Series Editor

Anthropology and Archaeology

Many archaeologists have long been frustrated with the traditional, reductionist representation of complexity. Yet, even after years of debate, there seem to be never ending disagreements over the complexity of places like Chaco Canyon, Cahokia, and Poverty Point. This matters, because there are political and scholarly implications to calling any place or people more or less complex. In North America especially, given historical biases and the mound-builder myth, archaeologists need to rethink complexity as they seek to explain the past.

Based on a Society of American Archaeology symposium, Ancient Complexities offers a current overview of what is meant by cultural complexity and how archaeologists study the development of complex societies in North America. Taking a critical look at how accepted definitions of complexity have bounded our thinking about ancient societies, this volume presents new theoretical perspectives and states a case for the need for different definitions in order to move this discussion ahead.

This collection by scholars of North American archaeology is a must read for anyone wishing to be abreast of the most current dialogue on complexity taking place in modern archaeology.