TY  - BOOK
AU  - Renard, John
AU  - Renard,John
TI  - Friends of God:  Islamic Images of Piety, Commitment, and Servanthood
SN  - 9780520251984
U1  - SS81 
PY  - 2008///
CY  - Berkeley, Los Angeles
PB  - University of California Press
N1  - includes index and biblioraphy; PART I.      STAGES IN THE LIVES OF GOD`S FRIENDS	11  1.    Beginnings Both Humble and Spectacular	13  Nativity Narratives	14  Infancy Narratives: Prodigies and Signs	22  Youthful Prophets and Friends	30  2.    Conversion and Asceticism on the Road to Sanctity	43  Conversion Stories	44  Conversion and the Greater Struggle	50  Asceticism in the Lives of Prophets and Friends	53  Epilogue: River of Gold	64  3.    Dreams and Visions, Visitors and Voices: God in Touch with His Friends	67  Friends of God, Heirs of the Prophets	68  A Little Birdie Told Me: Informants from Another Realm	83  4.    Miracles and Marvels: God Working through His Friends    91  Prophets and Saints, Power and Blessing	92  Marvels of Divine Power and Protection	98  Sustaining and Healing  Marvels of Power over Nature  Marvels of Knowledge  Epilogue: More Marvelous Than Thou  5.    Mere Mortals: Friends and the Human Condition When God Chides Prophets and Friends Holiness and Ordinariness  Beneath the Surface: Friends, Feelings, and Religious Experience  Confrontations with Illness and Death   PART II.      FRIENDS OF GOD IN CONTEXT  Friends and Their People: Society and Service to Communities  Public Virtue, Moral Example, and Service to Others Friends Engaged Friends on the Fringes  Founding Friends: Authority, Institutions, and the Economics of Intentional Community  Knowledge, Authority, and the Religious Establishment Founding Intentional Communities of Seekers Authority, Shrines, and the "Cult" of God`s Friends Cultic Centers and Hagiographical Sources  Where God`s Friends Walked: Revered Sites and Ritual Settings  The Pivotal Holy Places Beyond the Central Holy Places Marking Sacred Times at the Sacred Places  Friends in Our World  Popular Friends from Morocco to Malaysia Contemporary Hagiographic Communication Functions of Friends and Sainthood in Contemporary Muslim Societies  Creating New Friends Epilogue: Literary Friends Today  PART III.      FRIENDS IN THEORY: UNDERSTANDING THE STORIES	235  Literary Dimensions: Genre, Function, and Hermeneutics	237  Storytelling in Islamicate Societies	237  Hagiography`s Principal Literary Genres	240  Hermeneutical Issues: Levels of Interpretation	246  Discerning the Larger Functions of the Stories	255  Epilogue: Historicity, Imagination, and Humor	256  11.    Theological Dimensions: Hagiography, Faith, and Controversy	259  Theories of Sainthood	260  Friendship with God in the Sufi Manuals	263  Themes in Theory: Major Theological Issues	267
ER  -