Moses, Muhammad and Nature’s God in Early American Religious-Legal History, 1640-1830


Book Description

This is the first comparative study of Mosaic and Islamic law in American history to be published. Constructing a complex picture in trans-Atlantic, trans-European and world historical perspectives, this book elucidates the intersections that lie beneath and behind the rise of the debates in the 1990s and 2000s over the promotion of the Ten Commandments and Mosaic Law as alleged sources of American Constitutional law and symbols of American national identity. These debates have taken shape in close connection with resurgent anti-Semitism, anti-Sharia protests and anti-Sharia legislation throughout the United States and other Western societies.




Before Religion


Book Description

Examining a wide array of ancient writings, Brent Nongbri dispels the commonly held idea that there is such a thing as ancient religion. Nongbri shows how misleading it is to speak as though religion was a concept native to pre-modern cultures.




World History as the History of Foundations, 3000 BCE to 1500 CE


Book Description

In World History as the History of Foundations, 3000 BCE to 1500 CE, Michael Borgolte investigates the origins and development of foundations from Antiquity to the end of the Middle Ages. In his survey foundations emerge not as mere legal institutions, but rather as “total social phenomena” which touch upon manifold aspects, including politics, the economy, art and religion of the cultures in which they emerged. Cross-cultural in its approach and the result of decades of research, this work represents by far the most comprehensive account of the history of foundations that has hitherto been published.




A Little History of the World


Book Description

E. H. Gombrich's Little History of the World, though written in 1935, has become one of the treasures of historical writing since its first publication in English in 2005. The Yale edition alone has now sold over half a million copies, and the book is available worldwide in almost thirty languages. Gombrich was of course the best-known art historian of his time, and his text suggests illustrations on every page. This illustrated edition of the Little History brings together the pellucid humanity of his narrative with the images that may well have been in his mind's eye as he wrote the book. The two hundred illustrations—most of them in full color—are not simple embellishments, though they are beautiful. They emerge from the text, enrich the author's intention, and deepen the pleasure of reading this remarkable work. For this edition the text is reset in a spacious format, flowing around illustrations that range from paintings to line drawings, emblems, motifs, and symbols. The book incorporates freshly drawn maps, a revised preface, and a new index. Blending high-grade design, fine paper, and classic binding, this is both a sumptuous gift book and an enhanced edition of a timeless account of human history.




The Mandaean Book of John


Book Description

Given the degree of popular fascination with Gnostic religions, it is surprising how few pay attention to the one such religion that has survived from antiquity until the present day: Mandaism. Mandaeans, who esteem John the Baptist as the most famous adherent to their religion, have in our time found themselves driven from their historic homelands by war and oppression. Today, they are a community in crisis, but they provide us with unparalleled access to a library of ancient Gnostic scriptures, as part of the living tradition that has sustained them across the centuries. Gnostic texts such as these have caught popular interest in recent times, as traditional assumptions about the original forms and cultural contexts of related religious traditions, such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, have been called into question. However, we can learn only so much from texts in isolation from their own contexts. Mandaean literature uniquely allows us not only to increase our knowledge about Gnosticism, and by extension all these other religions, but also to observe the relationship between Gnostic texts, rituals, beliefs, and living practices, both historically and in the present day.




The Rise of the Antichrist


Book Description

Does the idea of Biblical Prophecy seem ... well, laughingly absurd, galactically improbable? Good! It's supposed to seem that way. In fact, for Biblical prophecy to work properly, its readers have to be highly skeptical. Biblical prophecy requires, even promotes uber-skepticism at times to evoke the intended response in its readers. The credibility of its message, that its words were authored by God, gains increased potency as the highly improbable happens again and again. When the absurdly improbable actually occurs, over and over, in documented, historically verifiable situations, our fundamental assumptions are challenged. We are confronted with the possibility that, on a truly foundational level, everything we thought we knew may really be wrong or radically incomplete. That's what Biblical prophecy is about on a macro level. That's its big idea. Biblical prophecies also seek to warn about particularly important slices of future history. Not because that future can be changed, but so it can be met with integrity and intact faith. This book is obviously focused on those Biblical prophecies involving the Antichrist's rise to power. By using careful time honored traditional methods of Biblical investigation, we'll have a serious and sober look at what the Scriptures really say about this future world ruler. There are also some new discoveries that many would find surprising, even shocking. Now, that's a lot to swallow all at once. That the future is knowable on some level, and that it's going to be so horrible. Why would anyone want to believe this could happen? Deep down, I don't want to believe it. It's so much easier to reject it, than to allow it to threaten your whole frame of reference. That tug of war, that vague unease, that's supposed to happen too. It's Biblical prophecy doing its thing. It takes a lot of guts to consider ideas that have the power to explode your comfortable world view. If you decide to read this book, remember, it's ok to be skeptical. It's absolutely required for a healthy mind. But resist the awful temptation to reject out-of-hand. Aside from being an addictive and lazy habit, it just may deprive you someday of knowing that wonderful excruciating panic of having your mind blown open.




History and Religion


Book Description

History is one of the most important cultural tools to make sense of one’s situation, to establish identity, define otherness, and explain change. This is the first systematic scholarly study that analyses the complex relationship between history and religion, taking into account religious groups both as producers of historical narratives as well as distinct topics of historiography. Coming from different disciplines, the authors of this volume ask under which conditions and with what consequences religions are historicised. How do religious groups employ historical narratives in the construction of their identities? What are the biases and elisions of current analytical and descriptive frames in the History of Religion? The volume aims at initiating a comparative historiography of religion and combines disciplinary competences of Religious Studies and the History of Religion, Confessional Theologies, History, History of Science, and Literary Studies. By applying literary comparison and historical contextualization to those texts that have been used as central documents for histories of individual religions, their historiographic themes, tools and strategies are analysed. The comparative approach addresses circum-Mediterranean and European as well as Asian religious traditions from the first millennium BCE to the present and deals with topics such as the origins of religious historiography, the practices of writing and the transformation of narratives.




An Introduction to Islam in the 21st Century


Book Description

This engaging introduction to Islam examines its lived reality, its worldwide presence, and the variety of beliefs and practices encompassed by the religion. The global perspective uniquely captures the diversity of Islam expressed throughout different countries in the present day. A comprehensive, multi-disciplinary, and global introduction to Islam, covering its history as well as current issues, experiences, and challenges Incorporates key new research on Muslims from a variety of countries across Europe, Latin America, Indonesia, and Malaysia Central Asia Directly addresses controversial issues, including political violence and ‘terrorism’, anti-western sentiments, and Islamophobia Explores different responses from various Islamic communities to globalizing trends Highlights key patterns within Islamic history that shed light upon the origins and evolution of current movements and thought




Slavery and Social Death


Book Description

In a work of prodigious scholarship and enormous breadth, which draws on the tribal, ancient, premodern, and modern worlds, Orlando Patterson discusses the internal dynamics of slavery in sixty-six societies over time. These include Greece and Rome, medieval Europe, China, Korea, the Islamic kingdoms, Africa, the Caribbean islands, and the American South.