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Books > Religion & Spirituality > Non-Christian sacred works & liturgy > Sacred texts > General
Jeffrey L. Rubenstein offers a translation from the Hebrew of The
Formation of the Babylonian Talmud by David Weiss Halivni.
Halivni's work is widely regarded as the most comprehensive
scholarly examination of the processes of composition and editing
of the Babylonian Talmud. Halivni presents the summation of a
lifetime of scholarship and the conclusions of his multivolume
Talmudic commentary, Sources and Traditions (Meqorot umesorot).
Arguing against the traditional view that the Talmud was composed
c. 450 CE by the last of the named sages in the Talmud, the
Amoraim, Halivni proposes that its formation took place over a much
longer period of time, not reaching its final form until about 750
CE. The Talmud consists of many literary strata or layers, with
later layers constantly commenting upon and reinterpreting earlier
layers. The later layers differ qualitatively from the earlier
layers, and were composed by anonymous sages whom Halivni calls
Stammaim. These sages were the true author-editors of the Talmud,
who reconstructed the reasons underpinning earlier rulings, created
the dialectical argumentation characteristic of the Talmud, and
formulated the literary units that make up the Talmudic text.
Halivni also discusses the history and development of rabbinic
tradition from the Mishnah through the post-Talmud legal codes, the
types of dialectical analysis found in the different rabbinic
works, and the roles of reciters, transmitters, compilers, and
editors in the composition of the Talmud. This volume contains an
introduction and annotations by Jeffrey Rubenstein.
Drawing on the great progress in Talmudic scholarship over the last
century, The Stabilization of Rabbinic Culture is both an
introduction to a close reading of rabbinic literature and a
demonstration of the development of rabbinic thought on education
in the first centuries of the Common Era. In Roman Palestine and
Sasanid Persia, a small group of approximately two thousand Jewish
scholars and rabbis sustained a thriving national and educational
culture. They procured loyalty to the national language and oversaw
the retention of a national identity. This accomplishment was
unique in the Roman Near East, and few physical artifacts remain.
The scope of oral teaching, however, was vast and was committed to
writing only in the high Middle Ages. The content of this oral
tradition remains the staple of Jewish learning through modern
times.
Though oral learning was common in many ancient cultures, the
Jewish approach has a different theoretical basis and different
aims. Marc Hirshman explores the evolution and institutionalization
of Jewish culture in both Babylonian and Palestinian sources. At
its core, he argues, the Jewish cultural thrust in the first
centuries of the Common Era was a sustained effort to preserve the
language of its culture in its most pristine form. Hirshman traces
and outlines the ideals and practices of rabbinic learning as
presented in the relatively few extensive discussions of the
subject in late antique rabbinic sources. The Stabilization of
Rabbinic Culture is a pioneering attempt to characterize the unique
approach to learning developed by the rabbinic leadership in late
antiquity.
Though considered one of the most important informants about
Judaism in the first century CE, the Jewish historian Flavius
Josephus's testimony is often overlooked or downplayed. Jonathan
Klawans's Josephus and the Theologies of Ancient Judaism reexamines
Josephus's descriptions of sectarian disagreements concerning
determinism and free will, the afterlife, and scriptural authority.
In each case, Josephus's testimony is analyzed in light of his
works' general concerns as well as relevant biblical, rabbinic, and
Dead Sea texts.
Many scholars today argue that ancient Jewish sectarian disputes
revolved primarily or even exclusively around matters of ritual
law, such as calendar, cultic practices, or priestly succession.
Josephus, however, indicates that the Pharisees, Sadducees, and
Essenes disagreed about matters of theology, such as afterlife and
determinism. Similarly, many scholars today argue that ancient
Judaism was thrust into a theological crisis in the wake of the
destruction of the second temple in 70 CE, yet Josephus's works
indicate that Jews were readily able to make sense of the
catastrophe in light of biblical precedents and contemporary
beliefs.
Without denying the importance of Jewish law-and recognizing
Josephus's embellishments and exaggerations-Josephus and the
Theologies of Ancient Judaism calls for a renewed focus on
Josephus's testimony, and models an approach to ancient Judaism
that gives theological questions a deserved place alongside matters
of legal concern. Ancient Jewish theology was indeed significant,
diverse, and sufficiently robust to respond to the crisis of its
day.
Neelima Shukla-Bhatt offers an illuminating study of Narsinha
Mehta, one of the most renowned saint-poets of medieval India and
the most celebrated bhakti (devotion) poet from Gujarat, whose
songs and sacred biography formed a vital source of moral
inspiration for Gandhi. Exploring manuscripts, medieval texts,
Gandhi's more obscure writings, and performances in multiple
religious and non-religious contexts, including modern popular
media, Shukla-Bhatt shows that the songs and sacred narratives
associated with the saint-poet have been sculpted by performers and
audiences into a popular source of moral inspiration.
Drawing on the Indian concept of bhakti-rasa (devotion as nectar),
Narasinha Mehta of Gujarat reveals that the sustained popularity of
the songs and narratives over five centuries, often across
religious boundaries and now beyond devotional contexts in modern
media, is the result of their combination of inclusive religious
messages and aesthetic appeal in performance. Taking as an example
Gandhi's perception of the songs and stories as vital cultural
resources for social reconstruction, the book suggests that when
religion acquires the form of popular culture, it becomes a widely
accessible platform for communication among diverse groups.
Shukla-Bhatt expands upon the scholarship on the embodied and
public dimension of bhakti through detailed analysis of multiple
public venues of performance and commentary, including YouTube
videos.
This study provides a vivid picture of the Narasinha tradition, and
will be a crucial resource for anyone seeking to understand the
power of religious performative traditions in popular media.
MisReading America presents original research on and conversation
about reading formations in American communities of color, using
the phenomenon of the reading of scriptures-''scripturalizing''-as
an analytical wedge. Scriptures here are understood as shorthand
for complex social phenomena, practices, and dynamics. The authors
take up scripturalizing as a window onto the self-understandings,
politics, practices, and orientations of marginalized communities.
These communities have in common the context that is the United
States, with the challenges it holds for all regarding: pressure to
conform to conventional-canonical forms of communication,
representation, and embodiment (mimicry); opportunities to speak
back to and confront and overturn conventionality (interruptions);
and the need to experience ongoing meaningful and complex
relationships (reorientation) to the centering politics, practices,
and myths that define ''America.''
The Linjilu (Record of Linji or LJL) is one of the foundational
texts of Chan/Zen Buddhist literature, and an accomplished work of
baihua (vernacular) literature. Its indelibly memorable title
character, the Master Linji-infamous for the shout, the whack of
the rattan stick, and the declaration that sutras are toilet
paper-is himself an embodiment of the very teachings he propounds
to his students: he is a "true person," free of dithering; he
exhibits the non-verbal, unconstrained spontaneity of the
buddha-nature; he is always active, never passive; and he is aware
that nothing is lacking at all, at any time, in his round of daily
activities. This bracing new translation transmits the LJL's living
expression of Zen's "personal realization of the meaning beyond
words," as interpreted by ten commentaries produced by Japanese Zen
monks, over a span of over four centuries, ranging from the late
1300s, when Five-Mountains Zen flourished in Kyoto and Kamakura,
through the early 1700s, an age of thriving interest in the LJL.
These Zen commentaries form a body of vital, in-house interpretive
literature never before given full credit or center stage in
previous translations of the LJL. Here, their insights are fully
incorporated into the translation itself, allowing the reader
unimpeded access throughout, with more extensive excerpts available
in the notes. Also provided is a translation of the earliest extant
material on Linji, including a neglected transmission-record entry
relating to his associate Puhua, which indicate that the LJL is a
fully-fledged work of literature that has undergone editorial
changes over time to become the compelling work we know today.
The promise of land and progeny to the patriarchs-Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob-is a central, recurring feature of the Pentateuch. From
the beginning of the story of Abraham to the last moment of Moses's
life, this promise forms the guiding theological statement for each
narrative. Yet literary and historical inquiries ascribe the
promise texts to a variety of sources, layers, and redactions,
raising questions about how the promise functioned in its original
manifestations and how it can be used to understand the formation
of the Pentateuch as a whole. Joel S. Baden reexamines the
patriarchal promise in its historical and contemporaneous contexts,
evaluating the benefits and drawbacks of both final-form and
literary-historical approaches to the promise. He pays close
attention to the methodologies employed in both documentary and
non-documentary analyses and aims to bring source-critical analysis
of the promise to bear on the understanding of the canonical text
for contemporary readers. The Promise to the Patriarchs addresses
the question of how the literary-historical perspective can
illuminate and even deepen the theological meaning of the
Pentateuch, particularly of the promise at the heart of this
central biblical corpus.
The Tenacity of Unreasonable Beliefs is a passionate yet analytical
critique of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim scriptural
fundamentalists. Schimmel examines the ways in which otherwise
intelligent and bright Jews, Christians, and Muslims defend their
belief in the divine authorship of the Bible or of the Koran, and
other religious beliefs derived from those claims, against
overwhelming evidence and argument to the contrary from science,
scholarship, common sense, and rational analysis. He also examines
the motives, fears, and anxieties of scriptural fundamentalists
that induce them to cling so tenaciously to their unreasonable
beliefs.
Schimmel begins with reflections on his own journey from
commitment to Orthodox Judaism, through doubts about its
theological dogmas and doctrines, to eventual denial of their
truth. He follows this with an examination of theological and
philosophical debates about the proper relationships between faith,
reason, and revelation. Schimmel then devotes separate chapters to
Jewish, Christian, and Muslim scriptural fundamentalism, noting
their similarities and differences. He analyzes in depth the
psychological and social reasons why people acquire, maintain, and
protect unreasonable religious beliefs, and how they do so.
Schimmel also discusses unethical and immoral consequences of
scriptural fundamentalism, such as gender inequality, homophobia,
lack of intellectual honesty, self-righteousness, intolerance,
propagation of falsehood, and in some instances, the advocacy of
violence and terrorism. He concludes with a discussion of why,
when, and where it is appropriate to critique, challenge, and
combat scriptural fundamentalists. The Tenacity ofUnreasonable
Beliefs is thoughtful and provocative, written to encourage
self-reflection and self-criticism, and to stimulate and to
enlighten all who are interested in the psychology of religion and
in religious fundamentalism.
Chapters 22 and 23 of 2 Kings tell the story of the religious
reforms of the Judean King Josiah, who systematically destroyed the
cult places and installations where his own people worshipped in
order to purify Israelite religion and consolidate religious
authority in the hands of the Jerusalem temple priests. This
violent assertion of Israelite identity is portrayed as a pivotal
moment in the development of monotheistic Judaism. Monroe argues
that the use of cultic and ritual language in the account of the
reform is key to understanding the history of the text's
composition, and illuminates the essential, interrelated processes
of textual growth and identity construction in ancient Israel.
Until now, however, none of the scholarship on 2 Kings 22-23 has
explicitly addressed the ritual dimensions of the text. By
attending to the specific acts of defilement attributed to Josiah
as they resonate within the larger framework of Israelite ritual,
Monroe's work illuminates aspects of the text's language and
fundamental interests that have their closest parallels in the
priestly legal corpus known as the Holiness Code (Leviticus 17-26),
as well as in other priestly texts that describe methods of
eliminating contamination. She argues that these priestly-holiness
elements reflect an early literary substratum that was generated
close in time to the reign of Josiah, from within the same priestly
circles that produced the Holiness Code. The priestly composition
was reshaped in the hands of a post-Josianic, exilic or post-exilic
Deuteronomistic historian who transformed his source material to
suit his own ideological interests. The account of Josiah's reform
is thus imprinted with the cultural and religious attitudes of two
different sets of authors. Teasing these apart reveals a dialogue
on sacred space, sanctified violence and the nature of Israelite
religion that was formative in the development not only of 2 Kings
23, but of the historical books of the Bible more broadly.
An ancient conversation for a modern audience - anyone who has ever
asked 'what is the purpose of life? or 'who am I?' will find
something in this book. The Bhagavad Gita has been around a long
time, but remains little known outside India. This edition sets out
to change that. The ancient Gita is a world text dealing with the
mysteries of life. At its heart is a conversation between the soul
and God. Ranchor Prime's version adopts a non-sectarian approach,
making the Gita relevant to those of all religions or none, and
emphasising the link between religion and self-development. It is
distinguished by its easy accessibility. His section-by-section
commentary opens the text to the spiritual seeker. He never loses
sight of the audience for his book, and that he wants his readers
to understand the Gita in a personal way.
Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not
used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad
quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are
images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to
keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the
original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain
imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made
available for future generations to enjoy.
The Talmudic exegesis is constructed on special hermeneutic rules
which have the logical meaning in fact. On the basis of this
circumstance it is possible to speak about a special logical
culture of the Talmud and to call the logic used there.
The writer has logically and in a beautiful manner proved that
Quran Majeed is a balanced book, it is a miracle and proof of its
being a book of God. In this book, Shah Al-Abidi has given common
knowledge examples-of Urdu and Persian couplets, Bhagat Kabeers
dohas, Mian Muhammed Bakhsh's and Hazrat Shah Sultan Bahoos
philosophical poems and references from Maulana Roam, and put them
in relevant manner thus enhancing the beauty, interest and value. I
believe that lovers of Quran Kareem will find this book as a
beautiful and invaluable presentation. This represents an aspect of
Quran Majeed and the readers will find aiding strength to their
faith. I hope, this book will become known and ever lasting. I pray
to Almighty God that the writer, Mr. Akhter Moeed Shah Al-Abidi,
had ongoing service to Quran Majeed, its readers and humanity.
Abdul Khaliq Aawan Retired Director General, Pakistan Broadcasting
Corporation
This book offers a novel approach for the study of law in the
Judean Desert Scrolls, using the prism of legal theory. Following a
couple of decades of scholarly consensus withdrawing from the
"Essene hypothesis," it proposes to revive the term, and suggests
employing it for the sectarian movement as a whole, while
considering the group that lived in Qumran as the Yahad. It further
proposes a new suggestion for the emergence of the Yahad, based on
the roles of the Examiner and the Instructor in the two major legal
codes, the Damascus Document and the Community Rule. The
understanding of Essene law is divided into concepts and practices,
in order to emphasize the discrepancy between creed, rhetoric, and
practices. The abstract exploration of notions such as time, space,
obligation, intention, and retribution, is then compared against
the realities of social practices, including admission, initiation,
covenant, leadership, reproof, and punishment. The legal analysis
yields several new suggestions for the study of the scrolls: first,
Amihay proposes to rename the two strands of thought of Jewish law,
formerly referred to as "nominalism" and "realism," with the terms
"legal essentialism" and "legal formalism." The two laws of
admission in the Community Rule are distinguished as two different
laws, one of an association for a group as a whole, the other as an
admission of an individual. The law of reproof is proven to be an
independent legal procedure, rather than a preliminary stage of
prosecution. The methodological division in this study of thought
and practice provides a nuanced approach for the study of law in
general, and religious law in particular.
This collection of insights about The Book of Mormon adds to and
complements the author's legal publications about freedom of
conscience, evidence and comparative constitutional law. The book
includes insights distilled from contemporary anthropology, careful
analysis of the doctrine of resurrection taught in The Book of
Mormon, philosophical questions about the rule of law which inform
life in contemporary society, and how reflection on the pervasive
New Testament intertexuality in The Book of Mormon should increase
the knowledge of modern readers. Important reading for scholars of
religion and faith, and particularly those interested in
understanding the beliefs and practices of members of The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints around the world.
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