Showing titles in History

The Bible picks up the story of Abraham when he is in his seventies, but there is so much more in Jewish historical documents like the Midrash, the writings of Flavius Josephus, and the Book of Jasher. This novella uses those resources to bring to life Abraham's birth, the signs in the sky that led King Nimrod to order his death as a baby, his youth with Noah and Shem, and how God spared Abraham from the Chaldean furnace. This is a novel view of how those and other events may have played out, while exploring the intimate relationship between Abraham and his family, as well as his faith and ...

“Among the most lucid, authoritative accounts of Jewish culture in the English language. A work of impressive breadth, great intelligence and clarity.” —Steven J. Zipperstein, Daniel E. Koshland Professor in Jewish Culture and History, Stanford University "Jess Olson guides his readers through four thousand years of Jewish experience, his eye set firmly on the life of the Jewish people today. An “incisive insider” and master teacher, Olson’s A Quick Immersion in Jewish Culture? is a delightful entry point to all things Jewish." —Steven Fine, Churgin Professor of Jewish History...

From the best-selling author of the biography of Shunryu Suzuki (Crooked Cucumber), comes a memoir and oral history of Tassajara—a monastery founded in 1967 by Shunryu Suzuki, abbot of the San Francisco Zen Center. Peopled like a Sixties film of Buddhist invasion, with hippies, dreamers, lovers, a wave of serious practitioners. Nyogen Senzaki, D.T. Suzuki, Alan Watts, Ruth Fuller Sasaki, Gary Snyder, Allen Ginsberg, and of course Shunryu Suzuki and Richard Baker are all here. This is the story of what happened at and surrounding the founding of the first Zen monastery in the West.

As much biblical evidence as there is to believe our goal is to die and go to Heaven, there’s even more evidence that reveals Christ’s resurrection and the Day of Pentecost inaugurated a new era of human existence on Earth. With this new era, the Earth can, in anticipation of the emancipation of God’s children, begin to experience a new creation of its own, one person at a time, just as the saints are becoming new creations in Christ, on Earth as it is on Heaven.

What does Islam truly say about tyranny? And how can Muslims resist the rise of authoritarianism in a world increasingly ruled by fear, force, and falsehood? Against the Iron Fist is a bold and timely exploration of how Islam stands in radical opposition to fascism, dictatorship, and the abuse of power. In this groundbreaking work, Muhammad Abdelwahid uncovers the spiritual, moral, and political tools embedded in the Qur’an and Sunnah that empower believers to confront oppression—not just endure it. Far from being a religion of submission to worldly rulers, Islam emerges here as a ...

Historians have extensively studied the Old and New Testaments and used the scriptures to trace the rise of one of the world's earliest civilisations. Although it's difficult to confirm the stories in the Bible from a historical perspective, it's possible that myths originated from real events. This is why geologists are investigating the truth about the Flood and Noah's Ark, meteorologists and biologists are trying to understand the ten plagues that affected Egypt, and biblical scholars are searching for evidence of catastrophes that might have destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.

The following is a brief summary of the prophecies which have lead many people to believe that the British and the Anglo-Saxon race are the descendants of the Ten Tribes of Israel which were carried away captive in the years 743 and 721 B.C. Importance of the Subject. It has often been asked – Of what value to the Christian, even if true, is the identity of the British with Israel? It has this importance, that whereas the apparent non-fulfilment of the promises to Israel is one of the strongest arguments of the infidel against the inspiration of the Bible, the evidence of their exact ...

Los caballeros templarios se han consolidado como la organización militar más popular de la época medieval. Todo el mundo ha oído hablar de la orden, y todo el mundo está familiarizado con la imagen de un caballero cruzado medieval con una cruz roja en su uniforme blanco. Pero, ¿quiénes eran exactamente los templarios? ¿Cuál era su objetivo? ¿Y son ciertos los rumores sobre su naturaleza secreta?

We hear the voices of the early Church Fathers even today. Their teachings, their guidance, their insights, and their sacrifice shaped the Catholic Church. They defined the canon of Scripture. They developed our creeds and forms of worship. They defined Christianity's distinctive moral sense. But who were they? What can we learn from their ancient teachings? What can the Fathers teach the twenty-first century—about holiness, culture, faith, and the Gospel.

Sometimes, the various ways we interpret the written Word can cloud our view of the Living Word. In Re-Examining Our Lenses, Jeanie Shaw asks us to consider how a selective-literal, Western, and scientific hermeneutic, especially common to those from Restoration church backgrounds, profoundly influences the ways we view discipleship and spiritual growth. Offering revised lens options for greater clarity and an increased spirit of unity, she invites us to deepen our intimacy with God. As you read these pages and gain increased clarity, you will be both challenged and thrilled to discover new...

Judaism is not Zionism. It never was. For over a century, a dangerous myth has dominated global politics, religious discourse, and mainstream media: that the modern State of Israel is the natural fulfillment of the Jewish faith. That to be Jewish is to be Zionist. That to question the Israeli regime is to betray one’s people—or worse, to be antisemitic. Judaism vs Zionism: The Hijacking of Faith and the Politics of Empire tears through this myth with piercing clarity and moral urgency. In this bold, uncompromising work, author Muhammad Abdelwahid unpacks the difference between an ...

Our Crime Was Being Jewish contains 576 vivid memories of 358 Holocaust survivors. These are the true, insider stories of victims, told in their own words. They include the experiences of teenagers who saw their parents and siblings sent to the gas chambers; of starving children beaten for trying to steal a morsel of food; of people who saw their friends commit suicide to save themselves from the daily agony they endured.

In 1765, 11 years before composing the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson bought a Qur'an. This marked only the beginning of his lifelong interest in Islam, and he would go on to acquire numerous books on Middle Eastern languages, history, and travel, taking extensive notes on Islam as it relates to English common law. Jefferson sought to understand Islam notwithstanding his personal disdain for the faith, a sentiment prevalent among his Protestant contemporaries in England and America.

Speak of the Devil is the first book-length study of The Satanic Temple. Joseph Laycock, a scholar of new religious movements, contends that the emergence of "political Satanism" marks a significant moment in American religious history that will have a lasting impact on how Americans frame debates about religious freedom.

Judaism is one of the oldest religions in the world, and it has preserved its distinctive identity despite the extraordinarily diverse forms and beliefs it has embodied over the course of more than three millennia. A History of Judaism provides the first truly comprehensive look in one volume at how this great religion came to be, how it has evolved from one age to the next, and how its various strains, sects, and traditions have related to each other.

Church history is important because it shows us how God's faithful dealings with his people in the Bible continue in the ongoing life and work of Christ in our world. If you have ever wished for a short book highlighting church history's most important events that will enlighten your mind and pique your interest, this is the one you've been waiting for. Three prolific church historians collaborate their efforts in Church History 101 to present you with a quick listen of church history's high points.

For more than 1,000 years, Christians and Muslims lived side by side, sometimes at peace and sometimes at war. When Christian armies seized Jerusalem in 1099, they began the most notorious period of conflict between the two religions. Depending on who you ask, the fall of the holy city was either an inspiring legend or the greatest of horrors. In Crusaders, Dan Jones interrogates the many sides of the larger story, charting a deeply human and avowedly pluralist path through the crusading era.

There was a time when being an "Arab" didn't mean you were necessarily Muslim. It was a time when Oscar Hayoun, a Jewish Arab, strode along the Nile in a fashionable suit, long before he and his father arrived at the port of Haifa to join the Zionist state only to find themselves hosed down with DDT and then left unemployed on the margins of society. In that time, Arabness was a mark of cosmopolitanism, of intellectualism.

Huston Smith, the man who brought the world's religions to the West, was born almost a century ago to missionary parents in China during the perilous rise of the Communist Party. Smith's lifelong spiritual journey brought him face-to-face with many of the people who shaped the 20th century. His extraordinary travels around the globe have taken him to the world's holiest places, where he has practiced religion with many of the great spiritual leaders of our time.

Evangelical Christianity is a paradox. Evangelicals are radically individualist, but devoted to community and family. They believe in the transformative power of a personal relationship with God, but are wary of religious enthusiasm. They are deeply skeptical of secular reason, but eager to find scientific proof that the Bible is true. In this groundbreaking history of modern American evangelicalism, Molly Worthen argues that these contradictions are the products of a crisis of authority that lies at the heart of the faith.