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Books > Religion & Spirituality > Non-Christian sacred works & liturgy > Sacred texts > General
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali is widely regarded as the most
authoritative text on yoga. It comprises a collection of 196 Indian
sutras ("threads" - as sutra translates from Sanskrit) written
1,700 years ago. These threads or aphorisms were compiled by the
Indian sage Patanjali and offer guidelines for living a meaningful
and purposeful life. The book is organized into four parts and
provides descriptions of the eight limbs of yoga, such as pranayama
and asana. The translated text is presented alongside a clear and
insightful commentary by Swami Vivekananda, which makes them more
accessible to the modern reader and yoga practitioner. His message
of universal brotherhood and self-awakening remains relevant today,
especially in the current backdrop of widespread political turmoil
around the world.
Two major events occurred in the early centuries of Islam that
determined its historical and spiritual development in the
centuries that followed: the formation of the sacred scriptures,
namely the Qur'an and the Hadith, and the chronic violence that
surrounded the succession of the Prophet, manifesting in
repression, revolution, massacre, and civil war. This is the first
book to evaluate the writing of Islam's major scriptural sources
within the context of these bloody, brutal conflicts. Conducting a
philological and historical study of little-known though
significant ancient texts, Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi rebuilds a
Shi'ite understanding of Islam's early history and the genesis of
its holy scriptures. At the same time, he proposes a fresh
interpretative framework and a new data set for theorizing the
early history of Islam, isolating the contradictions between
Shi'ite and Sunni sources and their contribution to the tensions
that rile these groups today.
Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav (1772-1810) is widely considered to be
one of the foremost visionary storytellers of the Hasidic movement.
The great-grandson of the Ba'al Shem Tov, founder of the movement,
Rabbi Nachman came to be regarded as a great figure and leader in
his own right, guiding his followers on a spiritual path inspired
by Kabbalah. In the last four years of his life he turned to
storytelling, crafting highly imaginative, allegorical tales for
his Hasidim. Three-time National Jewish Book Award winner Howard
Schwartz has masterfully compiled the most extensive collection of
Nachman's stories available in English. In addition to the
well-known Thirteen Tales, including "The Lost Princess" and "The
Seven Beggars," Schwartz has included over one hundred narratives
in the various genres of fairy tales, fables, parables, dreams, and
folktales, many of them previously unknown or believed lost. One
such story is the carefully guarded "Tale of the Bread," which was
never intended to be written down and was only to be shared with
those Bratslavers who could be trusted not to reveal it. Eventually
recorded by Rabbi Nachman's scribe, the tale has maintained its
mythical status as a "hidden story." With utmost reverence and
unfettered delight, Schwartz has carefully curated A Palace of
Pearls alongside masterful commentary that guides the reader
through the Rabbi's spiritual mysticism and uniquely Kabbalistic
approach, ultimately revealing Rabbi Nachman to be a literary
heavyweight in the vein of Gogol and Kafka. Vibrant, wise, and
provocative, this book is a must-read for any lover of fairy tales
and fables.
Die Arbeit behandelt die Problematik der Politisierung bzw.
Sakralisierung arabischer Begriffe sowie das Verhaltnis von
Religion und Politik im Islam. Die Geschichte des Islam zeigt, dass
die Bereiche des Religioesen und des Politischen nicht eins sein
koennen, allerdings werden sie fur bestimmte Ziele miteinander
verwoben. Der Islam unterscheidet zwischen beiden Bereichen und
wendet sich demnach prinzipiell nicht gegen die Sakularisierung des
politischen Bereichs. Eine Vereinbarung der Scharia mit dem
Sakularismus koennte anhand des maslaha-Prinzips (Gemeinwohl)
erreicht werden, da der Gesetzgeber (Gott) auf das Wohl der
Menschen abzielt. Dient der Sakularismus im oeffentlichen Bereich
dem Menschenwohl, so lasst er sich mit der Intention Gottes
vereinbaren und islamisch begrunden.
In der historisch islamischen Welt gibt es seit langerem ein
Bewusstsein fur problematische Vorstellungen uber
Geschlechterverhaltnisse auch gerade in Zusammenhang mit Deutungen
bestimmter Koranpassagen. Der Tafsir (Koranexegese) ist ein
historisch gewachsenes und immer noch ausserst populares Genre
innerhalb der gelehrsamen islamischen Literatur und als solches
auch Ort fur die religioese Verhandlung von Geschlechterrollen. Die
vorliegende Studie untersucht 21 dieser Tafsirwerke auf ihren
Umgang mit Geschlechterrollenvorstellungen in Bezug auf die Familie
und bei der Zeugenschaft.
A finalist for the 2020 National Jewish Book Award for
scholarship--a broad, systematic account of one of the most
original and creative kabbalists, biblical interpreters, and
Talmudic scholars the Jewish tradition has ever produced
"Beautifully written, Moshe Halbertal's groundbreaking book is
exceptional in its capability to penetrate to the heart of
Nahmanides's thinking and worldview. An admirable
achievement."-Adam Afterman, Tel Aviv University "Magisterial. . .
. Halbertal displays here his well-established talent for making
abstruse ideas accessible to a non-specialist readership."-Los
Angeles Review of Books' Marginalia Rabbi Moses b. Nahman
(1194-1270), known in English as Nahmanides, was the greatest
Talmudic scholar of the thirteenth century and one of the deepest
and most original biblical interpreters. Beyond his monumental
scholastic achievements, Nahmanides was a distinguished kabbalist
and mystic, and in his commentary on the Torah he dispensed
esoteric kabbalistic teachings that he termed "By Way of Truth."
This broad, systematic account of Nahmanides's thought explores his
conception of halakhah and his approach to the central concerns of
medieval Jewish thought, including notions of God, history,
revelation, and the reasons for the commandments. The relationship
between Nahmanides's kabbalah and mysticism and the existential
religious drive that nourishes them, as well as the legal and
exoteric aspects of his thinking, are at the center of Moshe
Halbertal's portrayal of Nahmanides as a complex and transformative
thinker.
The ancient rabbis believed that the Torah was divinely revealed
and therefore contained eternal truths and multitudinous hidden
meanings. Not a single word was considered haphazard or
inconsequential. This understanding of how Scripture mystically
relates to all of life is the fertile ground from which the Midrash
emerged. Here Rabbi Sandy Eisenberg Sasso explores how Midrash
originated and how it is still practiced today, and offers new
translations and interpretations of twenty essential, classic
midrashic texts. You will never read the Bible the same way again!
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.
This book explores the relationship between ethics, aesthetics, and
religion in classical Indian literature and literary theory by
focusing on one of the most celebrated and enigmatic texts to
emerge from the Sanskrit epic tradition, the Mahabharata. This
text, which is widely acknowledged to be one of the most important
sources for the study of South Asian religious, social, and
political thought, is a foundational text of the Hindu tradition(s)
and considered to be a major transmitter of dharma (moral, social,
and religious duty), perhaps the single most important concept in
the history of Indian religions. However, in spite of two centuries
of Euro-American scholarship on the epic, basic questions
concerning precisely how the epic is communicating its ideas about
dharma and precisely what it is saying about it are still being
explored. Disorienting Dharma brings to bear a variety of
interpretive lenses (Sanskrit literary theory, reader-response
theory, and narrative ethics) to examine these issues. One of the
first book-length studies to explore the subject from the lens of
Indian aesthetics, it argues that such a perspective yields
startling new insights into the nature of the depiction of dharma
in the epic through bringing to light one of the principle
narrative tensions of the epic: the vexed relationship between
dharma and suffering. In addition, it seeks to make the Mahabharata
interesting and accessible to a wider audience by demonstrating how
reading the Mahabharata, perhaps the most harrowing story in world
literature, is a fascinating, disorienting, and ultimately
transformative experience.
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 educated 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 of Unreasonable
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.
Consideration of children in the academic field of Religious
Studies is taking root, but Buddhist Studies has yet to take
notice. This collection is intended to open the question of
children in Buddhism. It brings together a wide range of
scholarship and expertise to address the question of what role
children have played in the literature, in particular historical
contexts, and what role they continue to play in specific Buddhist
contexts today. Because the material is, in most cases, uncharted,
all nineteen contributors involved in the project have exchanged
chapters among themselves and thereby engaged in a kind of internal
cohesion difficult to achieve in an edited project. The volume is
divided into two parts. Part One addresses the representation of
children in Buddhist texts and Part Two looks at children and
childhoods in Buddhist cultures around the world. Little Buddhas
will be an indispensable resource for students and scholars of
Buddhism and Childhood Studies, and a catalyst for further research
on the topic.
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.
In 1946 the first of the Dead Sea Scroll discoveries was made near
the site of Qumran, at the northern end of the Dead Sea. Despite
the much publicized delays in the publication and editing of the
Scrolls, practically all of them had been made public by the time
of the fiftieth anniversary of the first discovery. That occasion
was marked by a spate of major publications that attempted to sum
up the state of scholarship at the end of the twentieth century,
including The Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls (OUP 2000).
These publications produced an authoritative synthesis to which the
majority of scholars in the field subscribed, granted disagreements
in detail.
A decade or so later, The Oxford Handbook of the Dead Sea Scrolls
has a different objective and character. It seeks to probe the main
disputed issues in the study of the Scrolls. Lively debate
continues over the archaeology and history of the site, the nature
and identity of the sect, and its relation to the broader world of
Second Temple Judaism and to later Jewish and Christian tradition.
It is the Handbook's intention here to reflect on diverse opinions
and viewpoints, highlight the points of disagreement, and point to
promising directions for future research.
For centuries, the ancient Chinese philosophical text the
"Daodejing (Tao Te Ching)" has fascinated and frustrated its
readers. While it offers a wealth of rich philosophical insights
concerning the cultivation of one's body and attaining one's proper
place within nature and the cosmos, its teachings and structure can
be enigmatic and obscure.
Hans-Georg Moeller presents a clear and coherent description and
analysis of this vaguely understood Chinese classic. He explores
the recurring images and ideas that shape the work and offers a
variety of useful approaches to understanding and appreciating this
canonical text. Moeller expounds on the core philosophical issues
addressed in the "Daodejing," clarifying such crucial concepts as
Yin and Yang and Dao and De. He explains its teachings on a variety
of subjects, including sexuality, ethics, desire, cosmology, human
nature, the emotions, time, death, and the death penalty. The
"Daodejing" also offers a distinctive ideal of social order and
political leadership and presents a philosophy of war and
peace.
An illuminating exploration, The "Daodejing" is an interesting
foil to the philosophical outlook of Western humanism and contains
surprising parallels between its teachings and nontraditional
contemporary philosophies.
This book is a study of the making of collective memory within
early Judaism in a seminal text of the Western canon. The book of
Ecclesiastes and its speaker Qohelet are famous for saying that
there is 'nothing new under the sun'. In the literary tradition of
the modern West this has been taken as the motto of a book that is
universal in scope, Greek in its patterns of thought, and floating
free from the particularism and historical concerns of the rest of
the Bible. Jennie Barbour argues that reading the book as a general
compendium in this way causes the reader to miss a strong
undercurrent in the text.
'Nothing new under the sun' is, in fact, a historical deduction
made by Qohelet on the basis of long-range observation, conducted
through his study of his nation's traditions: the first sage to
turn from the window to the Book is not Ben Sira, but Qohelet
himself. While Ecclesiastes says nothing about the great founding
events of Israel's story, it is haunted by the decline and fall of
the nation and the Babylonian exile, as the trauma of the loss of
the kingdom of Solomon persists through a spectrum of intertextual
relationships. The view of Qohelet from the throne in Jerusalem
takes in the whole sweep of Israel's remembered historical
experiences; Ecclesiastes is revealed as not simply as a piece of
marketplace philosophy, but as a learned essay in processing a
community's memory, with strong ties to the rest of Jewish and
Christian scripture.
Let the wisdom of Colossians transform relationships in every area
of your life -- home, church, and even the world -- with this study
guide from renowned Bible teacher Joyce Meyer. Paul's letter to the
Colossians reminds us that as we have died with Christ, we also
need to die to our sins. It encourages us that because we have also
been raised in Him, we must submit to Jesus and adopt qualities
motivated by Christian love. In this comprehensive study tool,
Joyce Meyer's commentary on Colossians affirms the Lordship of
Christ and offers practical advice on family, relationships, and
faith.
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