The ancient Mediterranean teemed with gods. For centuries, a practical religious pluralism prevailed. How, then, did one particular god come to dominate the politics and piety of the late Roman Empire? In Ancient Christianities, Paula Fredriksen traces the evolution of early Christianity—or rather, of early Christianities—through five centuries of Empire, mapping its pathways from the hills of Judea to the halls of Rome and Constantinople.

In this provocative audio course, you will explore Greek philosophy in its historical context, in which philosophy was not just an intellectual pursuit but a way of life integrating the mind, body, and cosmos. By delving into the works of Greece’s greatest thinkers, including Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, you’ll gain powerful tools for self-discovery.

Explore the transformative power of Buddhist philosophy with Dr. Douglas Gentile, renowned psychologist, celebrated professor, and Zen Buddhist monk.

How, Dr. Kuhn asks his interlocutors, can consciousness be explained? How do the microscopic particles that make up our brains cause us to experience the tranquil beauty of a setting sun, the haunting strains of Mozart’s "Requiem", or the flush of romantic love? These interviews - with cosmologists, computer scientists, philosophers, paranormal researchers, and more - explore key questions such as these about the nature and mystery of consciousness.

Do you ever wish you better understood why people do what they do? What governs our thoughts and actions? How can we influence others? This course introduces you to the science of human social psychology and offers surprising answers to these questions. Our social situations can lead us to act in unexpected ways. Depending on the context, we can soar with dramatic joy or get lost in frustration and aggression. Sometimes we demonstrate deep compassion toward others, sometimes prejudice.

The Gospel of Luke and Acts of the Apostles are two parts of a single triumphant work. Each an epic work in its own right, together they proclaim the gospel message and narrate the gripping story of the Church’s early days. Using the metaphor of a double helix, Fr. William Burton asks you to imagine Luke’s gospel and Acts as a single account with many parallels or rungs connecting the two sides of the twisted ladder.

With a goal of expanding the minds of lifelong learners, celebrated philosophy professor Kevin Corcoran engages thinkers from Descartes to David Foster Wallace to help you discover truth and tackle the big questions of our existence. Through this compelling 15-lecture course, you’ll develop critical thinking skills that will bring clarity and focus to your daily life. Prof. Corcoran begins with Aristotle’s maxim that “philosophy begins in wonder.”

Across the nation, Americans are undergoing an intense period of self-examination. How are our identities and behaviors shaped by the groups to which we belong? How can we reach past our own biases to better understand others? The study of sociology can help us answer these questions, making us better citizens in the process.

The American Revolutionary War has inspired best-selling books, iconic paintings, and hit Broadway musicals. More than 250 years after the “shot heard around the world” was fired in Concord, we remain fascinated by the causes and legacy of the Revolution. In 18 dynamic audio lectures, West Point history professor Robert McDonald leads you past the politics and battle tactics to explore the underlying ideas that sparked the Revolution.

Barry Schwartz is back! The best-selling author of The Paradox of Choice and Why We Work, this eminent psychologist and leadership guru returns to help you tackle the biggest decisions of your life. His life-changing course weaves vivid case examples, research-based psychological insights, and deep wisdom. You’ll find vital takeaways you can use every day. Not just another business book, this is a thoughtful audio course delivered by Professor Schwartz himself.

Explore the great minds who tackled the universe's big questions with Fr. Harry J. Gensler, SJ (PhD, University of Michigan), a leading authority on Catholic philosophy and an award-winning professor of Philosophy at Loyola University Chicago. From antiquity to the Information Age, humankind has grappled with the reality of God, the existence of the soul, and the nature of creation. To ponder these questions is what makes us human. Explore how the greatest thinkers of the Catholic tradition approached these questions.

This wide-ranging course reveals the method to our madness in everything from finances to Friday the 13th. An expert on irrational behavior, Prof. Stuart Vyse discusses what it means to be rational before delving into the many reasoning errors and psychological challenges that lead us astray. In 15 lectures, you will learn to identify the logical fallacies and quirks of our psychology that tempt us to make unwise decisions. While the course is based in theory, it’s also teeming with practical advice.

In this Very Short Introduction audiobook, the renowned philosopher Roger Scruton explores the concept of beauty, asking what makes an object - either in art, in nature, or the human form - beautiful and examining how we can compare differing judgments of beauty when it is evident all around us that our tastes vary so widely.

Is time travel possible? What does it mean to say the universe is fine-tuned? Could our universe be fake? Or, if it is real, is it part of a multiverse? In an attempt to solve such mysteries, leading experts attempt to break the world down to its smallest particles and build it back up - to understand the universe by understanding the atom. In this compelling audio course, Dr. Robert Lawrence Kuhn, creator and host of the PBS series Closer to Truth, examines the riddles of the universe with 13 luminaries in physics, cosmology, astronomy, philosophy, mathematics, and chemistry.

This tenth anniversary revised edition of the authoritative text on Christianity's first thousand years of history features a new preface and an updated bibliography. The essential general survey of medieval European Christendom, Brown's vivid prose charts the compelling and tumultuous rise of an institution that came to wield enormous religious and secular power.