Prophets, Poets and Philosopher-Kings


Book Description

Ancient India - where Vishvaamitra through Vedic austerities and Yaajnavalkya through Vedantic insight, explored the soaring levels of human consciousness; where Valmiki and Kalidasa created sublime poetry; where Rama and Yudhishthira ruled with an exquisite composite of wisdom, welfare and justice as the stuff of their royal sceptres; and where Lord Krishna spoke the wondrously universal philosophy of the Bhagavad Gita - theses gems from the treasures of India's spiritual and literary heritage, form the themes that link this volume of modern essays. While these stories have been told and retold, interpreted and re-interpreted through millennia, this fluent and enjoyable narrative, presents a journey of exploration and analysis to find new meanings in the ancient words - looking at them through the prism of a modern, liberal and humanistic world-view.




The Pan-African Pantheon


Book Description

With forty accessible essays on the key intellectual contributions to Pan-Africanism, this volume offers readers a fascinating insight into the intellectual thinking and contributions to Pan-Africanism. The book explores the history of Pan-Africanism and quest for reparations, early pioneers of Pan-Africanism as well as key activists and politicians, and Pan-African philosophy and literati. Diverse and key figures of Pan-Africanism from Africa, the Caribbean, and America are covered by these chapters, including: Edward Blyden, W.E.B. Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, Amy Ashwood Garvey, George Padmore, Kwame Nkrumah, Franz Fanon, Amilcar Cabral, Arthur Lewis, Maya Angelou, C.L.R. James, Ruth First, Ali Mazrui, Wangari Maathai, Thabo Mbeki, Wole Soyinka, Derek Walcott, and Chimamanda Adichie. While acknowledging the contributions of these figures to Pan-Africanism, these essays are not just celebratory, offering valuable criticism in areas where their subjects may have fallen short of their ideals.







Philosopher and Prophet


Book Description

This book is the first to describe the development of Halevi's thought with a view to reaching a better understanding of its inherent systematic difficulties, as well as enabling identification of the various strata of the book belonging to different periods in his philosophical development. The first part describes a kind of Aristotelian philosophy which seems to be espoused by Halevi himself before writing the Kuzari. The second part concerns itself with his early thought as expressed in certain parts of the Book of Kuzari. At this stage his thought is still faithful to the essentials of the Aristotelian philosophy and its primary function is to combat Karaism. Intra-systematic and extra-systematic difficulties peculiar to this thought give rise to the next stage in the development of his philosophy, which is described in the third part. This later thought is also distinguished by its strong emphasis on concrete human experience. During this period, Halevi retreats from many principles of Aristotelianism, and his major intention is to justify his new position. The fourth part deals with the dialectical unity of the Kuzari which is also reflected by the literary genre of this book as story and dialogue.




Poets of the Bible: From Solomon's Song of Songs to John's Revelation


Book Description

“The vividness and beauty of the language emerge in a fresh way . . . with evocative simplicity.” —Robert Alter, professor emeritus of Hebrew and comparative literature, University of California, Berkeley The world’s greatest poetry resides in the Bible, yet these major poets are traditionally rendered into prose. In this pioneering volume of biblical poets translated in English, Willis Barnstone restores the lyricism and power of the poets’ voices in both the New and Old Testaments. In the Hebrew Bible we hear Solomon rhapsodize in Song of Songs, David chant in Psalms, God and Job debate in grand rhetoric, and prophet poet Isaiah plead for peace. Jesus speaks in wisdom verse in the Gospel, Paul is a philosopher of love, and John of Patmos roars majestically in Revelation, the Bible’s epic poem. This groundbreaking volume includes every major biblical poem from Genesis and Adam and Eve in the Garden to the last pages of Alpha and Omega in Paradise.




VOLTAIRE: 60+ Works in One Volume - Philosophical Writings, Novels, Historical Works, Poetry, Plays & Letters


Book Description

Musaicum Books presents to you this carefully created collection of Voltaire's philosophical writings, novels, historical works, poetry, plays & letters. This ebook has been designed and formatted to the highest digital standards and adjusted for readability on all devices. François-Marie Arouet (1694-1778), known by his nom de plume Voltaire, was a French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher famous for his wit, his attacks on the established Catholic Church, and his advocacy of freedom of religion, freedom of expression, and separation of church and state. Table of Contents: Novels Candide Zadig Micromegas The Huron The White Bull The Man of Forty Crowns The Princess of Babylon The Sage and the Atheist Stories Memnon the Philosopher The Black and the White The World as it Goes Andre des Touches at Siam Bababec Jeannot and Colin The Travels of Scarmentado A Conversation with a Chinese Plato's Dream Pleasure in Having no Pleasure An Adventure in India The Good Brahmin The Two Comforters Ancient Faith and Fable The Study of Nature Dialogues Plays Mahomet Merope Olympia The Orphan of China Brutus Amelia Oedipus Mariamne Socrates Zaire Caesar The Prodigal Alzire Orestes Semiramis Catilina Pandora The Scotch Woman Nanine The Prude The Tatler Poems Henriade (Canto IX) The Lisbon Earthquake and Other Poems Philosophical Works A Philosophical Dictionary Letters on England Treatise on Tolerance Historical Works Age of Louis XIV The History of Peter the Great, Emperor of Russia Letters Letters to Jonathan Swift Letter from Voltaire to Charles Jean-Baptiste Fleuriau Literary Criticism Voltaire and England by Lytton Strachey Voltaire's Tragedies by Lytton Strachey Voltaire and Frederick the Great by Lytton Strachey Lectures on Voltaire by Robert Green Ingersoll Biographies Voltaire: A Sketch of His Life and Works by G. W. Foote and J. M.




The Prophet


Book Description




Early Christian and Jewish Monotheism


Book Description

Early Christology must focus not simply on "historical" but also on theological ideas found in contemporary Jewish thought and practice. In this book, a range of distinguished contributors considers the context and formation of early Jewish and Christian devotion to God alone—the emergence of "monotheism". The idea of monotheism is critically examined from various perspectives, including the history of ideas, Graeco-Roman religions, early Jewish mediator figures, scripture exegesis, and the history of its use as a theological category. The studies explore different ways of conceiving of early Christian monotheism today, asking whether monotheism is a conceptually useful category, whether it may be applied cautiously and with qualifications, or whether it is to be questioned in favor of different approaches to understanding the origins of Jewish and Christian beliefs and worship. This is volume 1 in the Early Christianity in Context series and volume 263 in the Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement Series>




Christianity and Imperial Culture


Book Description

This book is a study of the writings of a group of Chinese Christian apologists in the seventeenth century, focussing on Xu Guangqi. Eleven of his shorter writings are included in Chinese and in translation. The first part of the book is devoted to a study of Latin Christian apologists within the Roman Empire to provide a comparison for the analysis of Xu Guangqi's work. Minucius Felix, Tertullian and Lactantius are shown to have faced, in regard to imperial power and Graeco-Roman culture, a situation comparable to that of Xu Guangqi, Li Zhizao and Yang Tinqyun in regard to imperial power and culture in the late Ming period. The final chapters of the book reconsider general issues of confrontation and adaptation in the inculturation of Christianity.







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