The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (1126 page)

BOOK: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions
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Jacobson, Israel
(1768–1828).
Pioneer of
Reform Judaism
. Jacobson worked for the emancipation of the Jews of the German states and was an enthusiastic supporter of Napoleon's Assembly of Jewish Notables. Jacobson himself summoned a similar assembly in Westphalia in 1808 and was instrumental in the founding of the first Reform
synagogues
both in Westphalia and Berlin.
Jacopone da Todi
(
c.
1230–1306).
Franciscan
poet. A lawyer of a somewhat worldly life, he was converted after the death of his wife. He became a Franciscan laybrother in 1278, joining the ‘Spirituals’ who sought to live according to the original rigour of the rule. He is famed for his deeply emotional devotional poems (
Laude
), in Latin and the Umbrian dialect, which became very popular (amongst them, probably, the
Stabat Mater
).
Ja
a-sam
dhi
(Skt., ‘insentient’ + ‘sam
dhi’). A defective condition in Hinduism, parasitic on two important goals: ja
a, the highest state of yogin concentration, and
sam
dhi
, the highest state of contemplation. But the two together refer to something more like ‘dreamless sleep’, a state of suspended consciousness.
Jade Emperor
(Deity in Chinese folk religion)
:

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