History

Here, you will meet the fascinating, ancient polytheistic peoples of the Mediterranean and beyond, their many gods and goddesses, and their public and private worship practices, as you come to appreciate the foundational role religion played in their lives....

How did the shift from matriarchy to patriarchy come about? In fascinating detail, Merlin Stone tells us the story of the Goddess who reigned supreme in the Near and Middle East.

A "marvelous" (Economist) account of how the Christian Revolution forged the Western imagination....

This extraordinary document represents a new form of historical research and straightens out many open questions and misinterpretations. It takes the form of direct dialogues between a modern researcher and a member of the Qumran Essene community....

A major new history of the Crusades with an unprecedented wide scope, told in a tableau of portraits of people on all sides of the wars, from the New York Times best-selling author of The Templars....

This amazing analysis of family and religious life among the ancient Greeks and Romans is the key to understanding ancient Mediterranean civilizations....

The most accessible and informative version of the Buddhist classic available in English, with instruction in meditation, illuminating commentary, and guidance in the practical use of the prayers....

At last, the world will discover what happens to the greatest salesman when he finally emerges from his lonely retirement to commence a new career. At first, he finds failure - until he receives a special gift from someone he has not seen in half a century....

In an era of hardening religious attitudes and explosive religious violence, this book offers a welcome antidote....

Discover the beguiling history of witchcraft, magic, and superstition through the centuries and across the world in this stunning audiobook....

Neither a whitewash nor an expose, Massacre at Mountain Meadows provides the clearest and most accurate account of a key event in American religious history....

Paradise: that elusive place where the anxieties, struggles, and burdens of life fall away. Most of us dream of it, but each of us has very different ideas about where it is to be found. For some it can be enjoyed only after death; for others, it’s in our midst—or just across the ocean....

Whenever we worry about what to eat, how to love, or simply how to be happy, we are worrying about how to lead a good life....

Everything needed to understand and appreciate the traditional Latin mass! Extremely informative, yet very easy to listen to! This book explains prayer by prayer, what happens at the Latin Mass and why....

Would you like to improve your thoughts and feelings about the world around you? If so, then you will find Zoroastrianism and the Teachings of Zarathustra richly rewarding....

Vengeance Is Mine documents southern Utah leaders’ attempts to cover up their crime by silencing witnesses and spreading lies....

Historians know virtually nothing about the two decades following the crucifixion of Jesus, when his followers regrouped and began to spread his message....

Alex DiPrima paints a fresh portrait of Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the most well-known gospel minister of the nineteenth century.

Tim Reiterman's Raven provides the seminal history of the Rev. Jim Jones, the Peoples Temple, and the murderous ordeal at Jonestown in 1978....

This volume presents a comprehensive and accessible insight into Origen's life and writings, written and compiled by Joseph W. Trigg, a leading Origen authority....

Legal scholar and columnist Noah Feldman draws on a lifelong engagement with his religion to offer a wide-ranging interpretation of Judaism in its current varieties....

The Middle Ages was a time of major historical shifts and transformations. This amazing era reverberates with discoveries, events, and processes integral to the world we know now. In these 24 lectures, Professor Salisbury leads you on a sumptuous tour of this incredible historical epoch....

The Essential Talmud is a masterful introduction by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz to the great repository of Jewish wisdom, the Talmud....

Moving from the Paleolithic age to the present, Karen Armstrong details the great lengths to which humankind has gone in order to experience a sacred reality that it called by many names, such as God, Brahman, Nirvana, Allah, or Dao....

In this electrifying social and intellectual history, Paula Fredriksen answers the question of how Jewish missionaries ended up inaugurating a movement that would grow into the gentile church by reconstructing the life of the earliest Jerusalem community....

What if the search for truth didn’t require choosing sides? What if the wisdom of the world’s religions—Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and beyond—wasn’t a competition, but a conversation? Spirituality doesn’t have to be exclusive. It can be expansive, embracing multiple perspectives without contradiction. Religions have shaped civilizations, guided morals, and answered humanity’s biggest questions for centuries. But beneath the doctrines and rituals, there are shared ideas—universal principles of compassion, purpose, and understanding. This book isn’t ...

In December 1967, my life was in more trouble than I could realistically handle. While in the midst of those struggles, I asked the Lord to forgive me for all the wrong that I had done and to put my life on a path that would lead me out of my difficulties. More than fifty years later, I can now say that He was faithful to do exactly that. He changed me from the inside out. Then He changed the dreadful circumstances of my entire life. Since that night in 1967, I have experienced the joy of knowing the God of the universe and the one and only Creator of everything. Through the years, I have ...

This text was not written to show how much better the godly kings were than the ungodly kings. It was not written to try to show that God had loved the children of Israel more than the people of all of the other nations. To the contrary, this text was written to show that, in some instances, the godly kings did some things that were just as bad as any of the ungodly kings of Israel. It was written to show that the Lord loved the people who opposed the children of Israel just like He loved the children of Israel. The notion that He had showed special favor to one type of people over another ...

The seven churches to whom the seven letters of Revelation chapters two and three were written are shown in the below diagram. They are from top to bottom Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Smyrna, Philadelphia, Ephesus, and Laodicea. The Apostle John was exiled to the isle of Patmos because of his stand for Christ. So on the Lord's Day, Jesus came to him and told him to write the words that appear in the book of Revelation. Revelation 1:10-11 says, "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice…Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest...

This book discusses most of the key events in Abraham's life as they have been recorded in the Bible. Part I will begin by discussing his life in Ur of the Chaldees when he was first told by God to go to the land where he would be led. Analysis of that instruction, along with some other Bible passages, will show that God had probably told him twice to go to a new land. It will also be pointed out that those multiple calls were not because of his disobedience. Following that discussion, when and how he probably got saved will be presented. He was not just automatically saved. He had to ...