|
Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > Non-Christian sacred works & liturgy > Sacred texts > General
'Human Rights and Reformist Islam' critiques traditional Islamic
approaches to the question of compatibility between human rights
and Islam, and argues instead for their reconciliation from the
perspective of a reformist Islam. The book focuses on six
controversial case studies: religious discrimination; gender
discrimination; slavery; freedom of religion; punishment of
apostasy; and arbitrary or harsh punishments. Explaining the
strengths of structural ijtihad, Mohsen Kadivar's draws on the
rational classification of Islamic teachings as temporal or
permanent on the one hand, and four criteria of being Islamic on
the other: reasonableness, justice, morality and efficiency. He
rejects all of the problematic verses and Hadith according to these
criteria. The result is a powerful, solutions-based argument based
on reformist Islam - providing a scholarly bridge between modernity
and Islamic tradition in relation to human rights.
The Old Testament is integrally bound to the history and culture of
Ancient Israeland the Ancient Middle East. This collection of
essays primarily employs approaches from the fields of literary
history andarcheology. It makes an important contribution to
cultural and religious historical aspects of kingship and prophecy.
It also casts a new light on questions regarding institutional
education and worship practices, on the possibilities and
limitations of religious historical comparison, and on Biblical
interpretation in a Judeo-Christian context.
This book examines culture, religion and polity in the context of
Buddhism. Gananath Obeyesekere, one of the foremost analytical
voices from South Asia develops Freud's notion of 'dream work', the
'work of culture' and ideas of no-self (anatta) to understand
Buddhism in contemporary Sri Lanka. This work offers a restorative
interpretation of Buddhist myths in contrast to the perspective
involving deconstruction. The book deals with a range of themes
connected with Buddhism, including oral traditions and stories, the
religious pantheon, philosophy, emotions, reform movements,
questions of identity and culture, and issues of modernity. This
fascinating volume will greatly interest students, teachers and
researchers of religion and philosophy, especially Buddhism,
ethics, cultural studies, social and cultural anthropology, Sri
Lanka and modern South Asian history.
The Upanisads are among the most sacred foundational scriptures in
the Hindu religion. Composed from 800 BCE onwards and making up
part of the larger Vedic corpus, they offer the reader "knowledge
lessons" on life, death, and immortality. While they are essential
to understanding Hinduism and Asian religions more generally, their
complexities make them almost impenetrable to anyone but serious
scholars of Sanskrit and ancient Indian culture. This book is
divided into five parts: Composition, authorship, and transmission
of the Upanisads; The historical, cultural, and religious
background of the Upanisads; Religion and philosophy in the
Upanisads; The classical Upanisads; The later Upanisads. The
chapters cover critical issues such as the origins of the
Upanisads, authorship, and redaction, as well as exploring the
broad religious and philosophical themes within the texts. The
guide analyzes each of the Upanisads separately, unpacking their
contextual relevance and explaining difficult terms and concepts.
The Upanisads: A Complete Guide is a unique and valuable reference
source for undergraduate religious studies, history, and philosophy
students and researchers who want to learn more about these
foundational sacred texts and the religious lessons in the Hindu
tradition.
One of the most influential books in the history of literature,
recognized as the greatest literary masterpiece in Arabic, the
Qur'an is the supreme authority and living source of all Islamic
teaching, the sacred text that sets out the creed, rituals, ethics,
and laws of Islam. First published in 2004, M. A. S. Abdel Haleem's
superb English translation has been acclaimed for both its
faithfulness to the original and its supreme clarity. Now Haleem's
translation is published side-by-side with the original Arabic
text, to give readers a greater appreciation and understanding of
the holy book.
Revised for the new edition, this translation is written in
contemporary language that remains true to the meaning and spirit
of the original, making the text crystal clear while retaining all
of this great work's eloquence. It is now set page-for-page against
the most widespread traditional calligraphic Arabic text, for the
benefit of Muslims who wish to make the connection between the
translation and the Arabic text, as well as Arabic readers and
non-Arabs learning to read the Qur'an in Arabic. As in the original
volume, the translation is completely free from the archaisms,
incoherence, and alien structures that mar other translations.
Furthermore, Haleem includes notes that explain geographical,
historical, and personal allusions as well as an index in which
Qur'anic material is arranged into topics for easy reference. His
introduction traces the history of the Qur'an, examines its
structure and stylistic features, and considers issues related to
militancy, intolerance, and the subjection of women.
This brilliant bilingual edition of the Qur'an is the best
available English-language translation. It has been approved by
Al-Azhar University, the oldest Muslim university and the world's
leading institution for the study of Arabic and Islam.
The concept of scripture as written religious text is re-examined
in this close analysis of the traditions of oral use of the sacred
writings of religions around the world. Pointing out the central
importance of the oral and aural experience of religious texts in
the life of religious communities of both Eastern and Western
cultures, William Graham asserts the need for a different
perspective on how scripture has been appropriated and used by the
vast majority of all people who have been religious, most of whom
could neither read nor write. Graham first probes the history of
literacy, focusing on the prominent role of the written word in
modern Western culture and its history in Western civilization. He
then considers the unique case of scripture, examining the problems
of communication of texts to illiterate or semi-literate religious
communities, the various oral uses of scripture, and affective
impact of the spoken holy word vis- a-vis the silently written
page.
 |
Haggadah
(Hardcover)
Jonathan Safran Foer
|
R782
R593
Discovery Miles 5 930
Save R189 (24%)
|
Ships in 12 - 19 working days
|
|
From the bestselling author of Here I Am, Extremely Loud and
Incredibly Close and We are the Weather - Jonathan Safran Foer
presents a new edition of the sacred Jewish Haggadah Read each year
around the Seder table, the Haggadah recounts through prayer and
song the extraordinary story of Exodus, when Moses led the ancient
Israelites out of slavery in Egypt to wander through the desert for
forty years before reaching the Promised Land. In this new version
of the traditional Haggadah text, Jonathan Safran Foer brings
together some of the most preeminent voices of our time. Nathan
Englander's new translation, beautifully designed and illustrated
in full colour by the Israeli artist and typographer Oded Ezer, is
accompanied by thought-provoking commentaries by four major Jewish
writers and thinkers: Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, Lemony Snicket,
Jeffrey Goldberg and Nathaniel Deutsch; plus a timeline by Mia Sara
Bruch.
 |
Yoma
(Hardcover)
Adin Even Israel Steinsaltz
|
R1,208
Discovery Miles 12 080
|
Ships in 12 - 19 working days
|
|
The Koren Talmud Bavli is a groundbreaking edition of the Talmud
that fuses the innovative design of Koren Publishers Jerusalem with
the incomparable scholarship of Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz. The Koren
Talmud Bavli Standard Edition is a full-size, full-color edition
that presents an enhanced Vilna page, a side-by-side English
translation, photographs and illustrations, a brilliant commentary,
and a multitude of learning aids to help the beginning and advanced
student alike actively participate in the dynamic process of Talmud
study.
Jews have sometimes been reluctant to claim Jesus as one of their
own; Christians have often been reluctant to acknowledge the degree
to which Jesus' message and mission were at home amidst, and shaped
by, the Judaism(s) of the Second Temple Period. In The Jewish
Teachers of Jesus, James, and Jude David deSilva introduces readers
to the ancient Jewish writings known as the Apocrypha and
Pseudepigrapha and examines their formative impact on the teachings
and mission of Jesus and his half-brothers, James and Jude.
Knowledge of this literature, deSilva argues, helps to bridge the
perceived gap between Jesus and Judaism when Judaism is understood
only in terms of the Hebrew Bible (or ''Old Testament''), and not
as a living, growing body of faith and practice. Where our
understanding of early Judaism is limited to the religion reflected
in the Hebrew Bible, Jesus will appear more as an outsider speaking
''against'' Judaism and introducing more that is novel. Where our
understanding of early Judaism is also informed by the Apocrypha
and Pseudepigrapha, Jesus and his half-brothers appear more fully
at home within Judaism, and giving us a more precise understanding
of what is essential, as well as distinctive, in their
proclamation. This comparative study engages several critical
issues. How can we recover the voices of Jesus, James, and Jude
from the material purporting to preserve their speech? How can we
assess a particular text's influence on Jews in early first-century
Palestine? How can we be sufficiently sensitive to the meanings and
nuances in both the text presumed to influence and the text
presumed to be influenced so as not to distort the meaning of
either? The result is a portrait of Jesus that is fully at home in
Roman Judea and Galilee, and perhaps an explanation for why these
extra-biblical Jewish texts continued to be preserved in Christian
circles.
This collection of ten essays and five book reviews draws on three
years of work, from late 2005 through mid-2008. It begins with two
Halakhic essays, one on the category-formations of the Halakhah and
how to account for the ones that we do not have but ought to have
anticipated. The argument proceeds to another way of formulating
the historical problem of the Talmud, its roots in Scripture. This
is followed by an account of how the Halakhah actualizes the
Torah's narrative. Also included are four essays on Classical
Judaism and two literary studies, which show both old and new
engagements. Five book reviews conclude the collection, one of them
a review essay, covering Edward Kaplan's two volumes on Abraham J.
Heschel.
This multidisciplinary collective volume advances the scholarly
discussion on the origins of Islam. It simultaneously focuses on
three domains: texts, social contexts, and ideological developments
relevant for the study of Islam's beginnings -- taking the latter
expression in its broadest possible sense. The intersections of
these domains need to be examined afresh in order to obtain a clear
picture of the concurrent phenomena that collectively enabled both
the gradual emergence of a new religious identity and the
progressive delimitation of its initially fuzzy boundaries.
Building on the success of the Jewish Annotated New Testament
(JANT) and the Jewish Study Bible (JSB), Oxford University Press
now proceeds to complete the trilogy with the Jewish Annotated
Apocrypha (JAA). The books of the Apocrypha were virtually all
composed by Jewish writers in the Second Temple period. Excluded
from the Hebrew Bible, these works were preserved by Christians.
Yet no complete, standalone edition of these works has been
produced in English with an emphasis on Jewish tradition or with an
educated Jewish audience in mind. The JAA meets this need. The JAA
differs from prior editions of the Apocrypha in a number of ways.
First, as befits a Jewish Annotated Apocrypha, the volume excludes
certain texts that are widely agreed to be of Christian origin.
Second, it expands the scope of the volume to include Jubilees, an
essential text for understanding ancient Judaism, and a book that
merits inclusion in the volume by virtue of the fact that it was
long considered part of the canon of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church
(the text is also revered by Ethiopian Jews). Third, it has
restructured the order of the books so that the sequencing follows
the logic that governs the order of the books in the Jewish canon
(Law, History, Prophecy, Wisdom and Poetry). Each book of the
Apocrypha is annotated by a recognized expert in the study of
ancient Judaism. An Introduction by the editors guides readers
though the making of the volume and its contents. Thematic essays
by an impressive array of scholars provide helpful contexts,
backgrounds and elaborations on key themes.
The influence of Buddhism on the Chinese language, on Chinese
literature and on Chinese culture in general cannot be overstated,
and the language of most Chinese Buddhist texts differs
considerably from both Classical and Modern Chinese. This reader
aims to help students develop familiarity with features of Buddhist
texts in Chinese, including patterns of organization, grammatical
features and specialized vocabulary. It also aims to familiarize
students with the use of a range of resources necessary for
becoming independent readers of such texts. Chinese Buddhist Texts
is suitable for students who have completed the equivalent of at
least one year's college level study of Modern Chinese and are
familiar with roughly one thousand of the commonest Chinese
characters. Previous study of Classical Chinese would be an
advantage, but is not assumed. It is an ideal textbook for students
taking relevant courses in Chinese studies programs and in Buddhist
studies programs. However, it is also possible for a student to
work through the reader on his or her own. Further online resources
are available at: lockgraham.com
The Mahabharata, one of the major epics of India, is a sourcebook
complete by itself as well as an open text constantly under
construction. This volume looks at transactions between its modern
discourses and ancient vocabulary. Located amid conversations
between these two conceptual worlds, the volume grapples with the
epic's problematisation of dharma or righteousness, and
consequently, of the ideal person and the good life through a
cluster of issues surrounding the concept of agency and action.
Drawing on several interdisciplinary approaches, the essays reflect
on a range of issues in the Mahabharata, including those of duty,
motivation, freedom, selfhood, choice, autonomy, and justice, both
in the context of philosophical debates and their ethical and
political ramifications for contemporary times. This book will be
of interest to scholars and researchers engaged with philosophy,
literature, religion, history, politics, culture, gender, South
Asian studies, and Indology. It will also appeal to the general
reader interested in South Asian epics and the Mahabharata.
The influence of Buddhism on the Chinese language, on Chinese
literature and on Chinese culture in general cannot be overstated,
and the language of most Chinese Buddhist texts differs
considerably from both Classical and Modern Chinese. This reader
aims to help students develop familiarity with features of Buddhist
texts in Chinese, including patterns of organization, grammatical
features and specialized vocabulary. It also aims to familiarize
students with the use of a range of resources necessary for
becoming independent readers of such texts. Chinese Buddhist Texts
is suitable for students who have completed the equivalent of at
least one year's college level study of Modern Chinese and are
familiar with roughly one thousand of the commonest Chinese
characters. Previous study of Classical Chinese would be an
advantage, but is not assumed. It is an ideal textbook for students
taking relevant courses in Chinese studies programs and in Buddhist
studies programs. However, it is also possible for a student to
work through the reader on his or her own. Further online resources
are available at: lockgraham.com
The first volume of a world-renowned scholar's long-awaited Qur'an
commentary, now available in English Angelika Neuwirth's six-volume
commentary, published originally in Germany, offers a historical
and philological analysis of the form, structure, and semantic
message of each of the 114 Qur'anic suras. It brings together the
fruits of the past hundred years of modern scholarship and provides
access to the aesthetic, theological, linguistic, and semantic
background required to appreciate the unique novelty, force, and
historical position of the Qur'an. Contextualizing the Qur'anic
message in the broader world of late antiquity, it bridges the gaps
between the inner-Islamic scholarly world and the academy.
Skillfully translated by Samuel Wilder, this first volume focuses
on the Meccan suras, the earliest and often the most aesthetically
striking and compelling part of the corpus of Qur'anic
proclamations.
This second half of Bhishma describes the events from the
beginning of the fifth day till the end of the tenth of the great
battle between the Káuravas and the Pándavas.
Despite grandfather Bhishma's appeal to conclude peace with the
Pándavas, Duryódhana continues the bloody battle.
The key strategist is general Bhishma, commander of the
Káurava forces. Even though he is compelled to fight on the
side of the Káuravas, Bhishma's sympathies are with the
Pándavas. After the ninth day of war, when Bhishma has
wreaked havoc with their troops, the Pándavas realise that
they will be unable to win as long as invincible Bhishma is alive.
Bhishma willingly reveals to them how he can be destroyed. Strictly
observing the warrior code, he will never fight with
Shikhándin, because he was originally born a woman. Bhishma
advises the Pándava brothers that Árjuna should
strike him from behind Shikhándin's back, and they follow
the grandfather's advice.
The Mishnah is the foundational document of rabbinic law and, one
could say, of rabbinic Judaism itself. It is overwhelmingly
technical and focused on matters of practice, custom, and law. The
Oxford Annotated Mishnah is the first annotated translation of this
work, making the text accessible to all. With explanations of all
technical terms and expressions, The Oxford Annotated Mishnah
brings together an expert group of translators and annotators to
assemble a version of the Mishnah that requires no specialist
knowledge.
A feminist project that privileges the Babylonian Talmudic tractate
as culturally significant. While the use of feminist analysis as a
methodological lens is not new to the study of Talmudic literature
or to the study of individual tractates, this book demonstrates
that such an intervention with the Babylonian Talmud reveals new
perspectives on the rabbis' relationship with the temple and its
priesthood. More specifically, through the relationships most
commonly associated with home, such as those of husband-wife,
father-son, mother-son, and brother-brother, the rabbis destabilize
the temple bayit (or temple house). Moving beyond the view that the
temple was replaced by the rabbinic home, and that rabbinic rites
reappropriate temple practices, a feminist approach highlights the
inextricable link between kinship, gender, and the body, calling
attention to the ways the rabbis deconstruct the priesthood so as
to reconstruct themselves.
New Horizons in Qur'anic Linguistics provides a panoramic insight
into the Qur'anic landscape fenced by innate syntactic, semantic
and stylistic landmarks where context and meaning have closed ranks
to impact morphological form in order to achieve variegated
illocutionary forces. It provides a comprehensive account of the
recurrent syntactic, stylistic, morphological, lexical, cultural,
and phonological voids that are an iceberg looming in the horizon
of Qur'anic genre. It is an invaluable resource for contrastive
linguistics, translation studies, and corpus linguistics. Among the
linguistic topics are: syntactic structures, ellipsis, synonymy,
polysemy, semantic redundancy, incongruity, and contrastiveness,
selection restriction rule, componential features, collocation,
cyclical modification, foregrounding, backgrounding, pragmatic
functions and categories of shift, pragmatic distinction between
verbal and nominal sentences, morpho-semantic features of lexical
items, context-sensitive word and phrase order, vowel points and
phonetic variation. The value of European theoretical linguistics
to the analysis of the Qur'anic text at a macro level has been
overlooked in the academic literature to date and this book
addresses this research gap, providing a key resource for students
and scholars of linguistics and specifically working in Arabic or
Qur'anic Studies.
|
|