Ancient prophecy was not confined to Israel, yet the phenomenon of prophetic poetry as it developed there was unique. The impact of this poetry on civilization is incalculable, though its origins and motives largely remain mysterious. This book shows that this poetry is inseparable from the empires which determined the history of the ancient Near East and the fate of Israel and Judah from the late-8th century to the end of the 6th century BC - first Assyria, then Babylonia, and finally Persia. Each empire had its own characters and motives, and stimulated a distinct wave of prophecy, led in turn by Isaiah Ben Amos, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, and the second Isaiah. The book is an historical interpretation and an anthology of prophetic poetry which uses recent research on imperialism and creativity to produce a radically new interpretation of the biblical prophets. More than three dozen outstanding poems and fragments in new translation from the Hebrew Bible are arranged in a running narrative, from the late-8th century BC until the late-6th century BC.

Based on lectures delivered in Chichester Cathedral, this book mirrors typical nineteenth century English attitudes toward the non-European space. This needed Christianity and European political oversight, or its people would remain backward and spiritually lost. The book shows how someone whose inclinations were liberal could look at Islam and dislike what he saw. On the other hand, the book also shows that a non-specialist scholar in the second half of the nineteenth century could write seriously if not impartially about Islam using material available in European languages. This suggests that Islam was a subject of increasing interest in Victorian England.

The study of Islam's origins from a rigorous historical and social science perspective is still wanting. At the same time, a renewed attention is being paid to the very plausible pre-canonical redactional and editorial stages of the Qur'an, a book whose core many contemporary scholars agree to be formed by various independent writings in which encrypted passages from the OT Pseudepigrapha, the NT Apocrypha, and other ancient writings of Jewish, Christian, and Manichaean provenance may be found. Likewise, the earliest Islamic community is presently regarded by many scholars as a somewhat undetermined monotheistic group that evolved from an original Jewish-Christian milieu into a distinct Muslim group perhaps much later than commonly assumed and in a rather unclear way. The following volume gathers select studies that were originally shared at the Early Islamic Studies Seminar. These studies aim at exploring afresh the dawn and early history of Islam with the tools of biblical criticism as well as the approaches set forth in the study of Second Temple Judaism, Christian, and Rabbinic origins, thereby contributing to the renewed, interdisciplinary study of formative Islam as part and parcel of the complex processes of religious identity formation during Late Antiquity.

First Order: Zeraim / Tractates Kilaim and eviit ist der dritte Band in der Edition des Jerusalemer Talmuds und ein grundlegendes Werk der Judischen Patristik. Der Band prasentiert grundlegende judische Texte aus dem Bereich der Landwirtschaft: verbotene Mischungen von Saaten, Tieren und Geweben (Kilaim) sowie das Verbot landwirtschaftlicher Tatigkeit im Sabbatjahr, in dem auch alle Schulden zu erlassen sind ( eviit). Dieser Teil des Jerusalemer Talmuds hat so gut wie keine Entsprechung im Babylonischen Talmud. Ohne seine Kenntnis bleiben die diesbezuglichen Regeln der judischen Tradition unverstandlich."

This extraordinary treatise explores parallel passages from the Bible and the Hindu scriptures to reveal the essential unity of all religions. Swami Sri Yukteswar is renowned as the revered guru of the great pioneer of yoga in the West, Paramahansa Yogananda (author of Autobiography of a Yogi). In this remarkable work - composed in the year 1894 at the request of the great Indian sage, Mahavatar Babaji - Sri Yukteswar outlines the universal path that every human being must travel to enlightenment.

This extraordinary treatise explores parallel passages from the Bible and the Hindu scriptures to reveal the essential unity of all religions. Swami Sri Yukteswar is renowned as the revered guru of the great pioneer of yoga in the West, Paramahansa Yogananda (author of Autobiography of a Yogi). In this remarkable work - composed in the year 1894 at the request of the great Indian sage, Mahavatar Babaji - Sri Yukteswar outlines the universal path that every human being must travel to enlightenment.

Since its discovery and the initial efforts toward its critical edition, the Paippaladasamhita of the Atharvaveda (PS) has attracted the attention of Vedic scholars and Indologists for several reasons. It constitutes a precious source for the study of the development of the earliest language. The text contains important information about various rites and magical practices, and hints about the oldest Indo-Iranian and Indo-European myths. All of this makes the PS a text of inestimable value for the study of Indian language and culture.

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.

These ancient stories whisper truth to your soul.

Great stories have the power to draw the heart. But certain stories have the power to draw the heart to God and awaken the better angels of our nature. Such are the tales of the rabbis of the Talmud, colorful, quirky yarns that tug at our heartstrings and test our values, ethics, morality and our imaginations.

In this collection for people of all faiths and backgrounds, Rabbi Burton Visotzky draws on four decades of telling and teaching these legends in order to unlock their wisdom for the contemporary heart. He introduces you to the cast of characters, explains their motivations, and provides the historical background needed to penetrate the wise lessons often hidden within these unusual narratives.

In learning how and why these oft-told tales were spun, you discover how they continue to hold value for our lives."

The Islamic prophet Muhammad initiated a theological program in theocratic form. The Qur'an challenges Christians and Jews in many ways and invites them to take a stance. This is why an explicitly theological response is legitimate and necessary. This book draws on current scholarly research on Islam and discusses the sources of the Qur'an, the fundamental features of its relationship with Judaism, and its perception of Jesus. This leads to a realistic assessment of Islam and stimulates a renewed Christian self-understanding. The fourth chapter presents the largely unknown insights of the German-Jewish philosopher Franz Rosenzweig and the theologian Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI on Islam. They provide an important perspective - beyond submission.

Fitzroy Morrissey's brilliant guide to Islamic thought - from its foundation in the seventh century to the present day. 'A magisterial accomplishment' Professor Eugene Rogan 'The best guide to Islamic thinking that I've read' James Barr 'I greatly enjoyed [it]' Peter Frankopan, Spectator, Books of the Year Day after day we read of the caliphate and the Qur'an, of Sunni and Shi'a, Salafis and Sufis. Almost a quarter of the world's populate is Muslim. Understanding the modern world requires knowing something about Islam. Tracing fourteen centuries of Islamic history - from the foundation of Islam in the seventh century and the life of Muhammad, through the growth of great Islamic empires, to the often fraught modern period - Fitzroy Morrissey considers questions of interpretation and legacy, of God and His relationship with His followers, of the lives of Muslims and how they relate to others. He presents the key teachings of the Qur'an and Hadith, analyzes the great works of Islamic theology, philosophy, and law, and delves into the mystical writings of the Sufis. He considers the impact of foreign cultures - Greek and Persian, Jewish and Christian - on early Islam, accounts for the crystallization of the Sunni and Shi'i forms of the faith, and explains the rise of intellectual trends like Islamic modernism and Islamism in recent times. In this way, Morrissey presents not a monolithic creed, but a nuanced faith made up of several often competing - and always fascinating - intellectual tendencies. This concise and engaging volume will appeal to readers looking to better understand the world's second largest religion and to those interested in the intellectual history of the last millennium and a half.

In Twelver Shi'a Islam, the wait for the return of the Twelfth Imam, Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Mahdi, at the end of time, overshadowed the value of actively seeking martyrdom. However, what is the place of martyrdom in Twelver Shi'ism today? This book shows that the Islamic revolution in Iran resulted in the marriage of Shi'i messianism and extreme political activism, changing the mindset of the Shi'a worldwide. Suddenly, each drop of martyrs' blood brought the return of al-Mahdi one step closer, and the Islamic Republic of Iran supposedly became the prelude to the foretold world revolution of al-Mahdi. Adel Hashemi traces the unexplored area of Shi'i discourse on martyrdom from the 1979 revolution-when the Islamic Republic's leaders cultivated the culture of martyrdom to topple the Shah's regime-to the dramatic shift in the understanding of martyrdom today. Also included are the reaction to the Syrian crisis, the region's war with ISIS and other Salafi groups, and the renewed commitment to the defense of shrines. This book shows the striking shifts in the meaning of martyrdom in Shi'ism, revealing the real relevance of the concept to the present-day Muslim world.

Stories about gendered social relations permeate the Qur'an, and nearly three hundred verses involve specific women or girls. The Qur'an features these figures in accounts of human origins, in stories of the founding and destruction of nations, in narratives of conquest, in episodes of romantic attraction, and in incidents of family devotion and strife. Overall, stories involving women and girls weave together theology and ethics to reinforce central Qur'anic ideas regarding submission to God and moral accountability. Celene Ibrahim explores the complex cast of female figures in the Qur'an, probing themes related to biological sex, female sexuality, female speech, and women in sacred history. Ibrahim considers major and minor figures referenced in the Qur'an, including those who appear in narratives of sacred history, in parables, in descriptions of the eternal abode, and in verses that allude to events contemporaneous with the advent of the Qur'an in Arabia. Ibrahim finds that the Qur'an regularly celebrates the aptitudes of women in the realms of spirituality and piety, in political maneuvering, and in safeguarding their own wellbeing; yet, women figures also occasionally falter and use their agency toward nefarious ends. Women and Gender in the Qur'an outlines how women and girls - old, young, barren, fertile, chaste, profligate, reproachable, and saintly - enter Qur'anic sacred history and advance the Qur'an's overarching didactic aims.

The term desire in the Hebrew Bible covers a wide range of human longings, emotions, and cravings. The direct and explicit term of desire is nevertheless limited to only two roots found in the Decalogue-the verb forms of the lexical roots and , which reflect not only the dynamics of desire occurring in human beings, but also in God. With an comprehensive semantic analysis and an overview of the synonyms and antonyms, the author shows that the verb form of the lexical root denotes a variety of needs related to human existence including aspiration for God while the verb form of the lexical root denotes the desire to acquire material wealth and possessions beyond basic needs. All the findings are compared on two levels-in relation to human beings (objects and people) and in relation to God-and ultimately serve for the interpretation of the roots in both versions of the Decalogue (Exod 20:17 and Deut 5:21) to resolve questions concerning the meaning of the desire in Tenth Commandment and substantiate whether the answers to life's questions provided by the Bible correspond to modern society.