In this collection, continental and diasporan African women interrogate the concept "sacred text" and analyze ways oral and written religious "texts" intersect with violence against African-descended women and girls. While the sanctioned idea of a sacred text is written literature, this project interrupts that conception by drawing attention to speech and other embodied practices that have sacral authority within the social imaginary. As a volume focused on religion and violence, essays in this collection analyze religions' authorization of violence against women and girls; contest the legitimacy of some religious "texts"; and affirm other writing, especially memoir, as redemptive. Unraveling and Reweaving Sacred Canon in Africana Womanhood arises from three years of conversation of continental and diasporan women, most recently continued in the July 6-10, 2014 Consultation of African and African Disaporan Women in Religion and Theology and privileges experiences and contexts of continental and diasporan African women and girls. Interlocutors include African traditionalists, Christian Protestants and Catholics, Muslims, and women embodying hybrid practices of these and other traditions.

Islam is often seen as a religious tradition in which hell does not play a particularly prominent role. This volume challenges this hackneyed view. Locating Hell in Islamic Traditions is the first book-length analytic study of the Muslim hell. It maps out a broad spectrum of Islamic attitudes toward hell, from the Quranic vision(s) of hell to the pious cultivation of the fear of the afterlife, theological speculations, metaphorical and psychological understandings, and the modern transformations of hell. Contributors: Frederick Colby, Daniel de Smet, Christiane Gruber, Jon Hoover, Mohammad Hassan Khalil, Christian Lange, Christopher Melchert, Simon O'Meara, Samuela Pagani, Tommaso Tesei, Roberto Tottoli, Wim Raven, and Richard van Leeuwen.

This volume presents a critical edition of the Judaeo-Arabic translation and commentary on the book of Esther by Saadia Gaon (882-942). This edition, accompanied by an introduction and extensively annotated English translation, affords access to the first-known personalized, rationalistic Jewish commentary on this biblical book. Saadia innovatively organizes the biblical narrative-and his commentary thereon-according to seven "guidelines" that provide a practical blueprint by which Israel can live as an abased people under Gentile dominion. Saadia's prodigious acumen and sense of communal solicitude find vivid expression throughout his commentary in his carefully-defined structural and linguistic analyses, his elucidative references to a broad range of contemporary socio-religious and vocational realia, his anti-Karaite polemics, and his attention to various issues, both psychological and practical, attending Jewish-Gentile conviviality in a 10th-century Islamicate milieu.

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth in the United Kingdom offers a refreshing and insightful commentary to the Koren Haggada, together with illuminating essays on the themes and motifs of the Festival of Freedom. Sensitively translated, the traditional texts are carefully balanced alongside the Chief Rabbi's contemporary ideas, in a modern and user-friendly design. With new interpretations and in-depth analyses of the Passover liturgy and ritual, Rabbi Sacks' style is engaging, intelligent at times daring in its innovation and always inspiring. With essay titles as diverse as Pesah, Freud and Jewish Identity and Pesah and the Rebirth of Israel, as well as explorations of the role of women in the exodus, and the philosophy of leadership and nation-building, the Chief Rabbi's Haggada is a thought-provoking and essential companion at the Seder table.

In 1896, Rabbi Solomon Schechter of Cambridge University stepped into the attic of the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Cairo and there found the largest treasure trove of mediaeval and early manuscripts ever discovered. He had entered the synagogue's genizah - its repository for damaged and destroyed Jewish texts - which held nearly 300,000 individual documents, many of which were over 1,000 years old.

F. F. Bruce re-examines the biblical evidence for who Jesus was, what his ministry was like and how he related to his disciples and other Jews. In fascinating detail he also considers Jesus' last meals, his arrests and trial, and his resurrection. Throughout the book Bruce looks at the implications for us in recognizing Jesus as Son of God, the incarnate Word, our Lord and Savior. We find him to be our eternal contemporary, as available to us as he was to his disciples to thousand years ago.

Patriarchal religion was distinct from both ancient Near Eastern and Israelite religions, and compatible only with the patriarchal lifestyle portrayed in Genesis. Since Wellhausen, the study of patriarchal religion has been chiefly confined either to the divine names or to the social and legal practices attested in Genesis and has neglected the patriarchal cultic practices-altars, pillars, tithes, vows and purifications-frequently attested there. In this study, Pagolu investigates such aspects in the light of second-millennium ancient Near Eastern and Israelite parallels, concluding that the patriarchal practices bore no comparison to those of the ancient Near East or of Israel, in that the patriarchs themselves offered sacrifices, conducted prayer, raised pillars and offered worship, all without the aid of an established cult. Thus patriarchal religion was distinct both from ancient Near Eastern religions and from the religion of Israel itself. It is peculiar to the world of Genesis.

This volume discusses various conceptions of family and kinship in the context of deuterocanonical literature. After analyzing the topic family in a narrow sense of the term, the articles investigate general ideas of morality, respect, or love and take a critical look at representations of gender, power, and social norms in Judaism and Early Christianity.

This is the full edition of the early Upanisads, the central scriptures of Hinduism. Featuring Patrick Olivelle's acclaimed new English translation (Oxford, 1996), it also includes the complete Sanskrit text, as well as variant readings, scholarly emendations, and explanations of Olivelle's choices of particular readings. The volume also contains a concordance of the two recensions of the Brhadaranyaka Upanisad, and an extensive bibliography.

Fifty years after the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls there have been many advances in the field of Qumran Studies. Yet much work remains undone. In particular the study of the scrolls has continued to follow long established historical critical methods while largely falling to incorporate recent advances in literary, ideological and sociological approaches. The essays collected here are the result of the Bristol Colloquium on the Dead Sea Scrolls held in September 2003. Here, ten scholars working in a diversity of areas demonstrate how these recent advances in scholarship increase our knowledge of the scrolls, their historical context, and their impact on modern critical scholarship. The contributors consider a wide range of approaches, ranging across discussions in sociology, anthropology, literary studies, post-colonialism and ideological criticism. These essays will help to take Qumran Studies forward in new and creative ways. This is volume 52 in the Library of Second Temple Studies series (formerly the Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha Supplement series).

What accounts for the seemingly atypical pattern of scriptural exegesis that Paul uses to interpret Exodus 34 in 2 Cor 3:7-18? While previous scholars have approached this question from a variety of angles, in this monograph, Michael Cover grapples particularly with the evidence of contemporaneous Jewish and Greco-Roman commentary traditions. Through comparison with Philo of Alexandria's Allegorical Commentary, the Pseudo-Philonic homilies De Jona and De Sampsone, the Anonymous Theaetetus Commentary, the Dead Sea Scrolls, Seneca's Epistulae morales, and other New Testament texts, Paul's interpretation of Exodus emerges as part of a wider commentary practice that Cover terms "secondary-level exegesis." This study also provides new analysis of the way ancient authors, including Paul, interwove commentary forms and epistolary rhetoric and offers a reconstruction of the context of Paul's conflict with rival apostles in Corinth. At root was the legacy of Moses and of the Pentateuch itself, how the scriptures ought to be read, and how Platonizing theological and anthropological traditions might be interwoven with Paul's messianic gospel.

Patajali's Yogasutra is an ancient canonic Indian text composed in Sanskrit in the 3rd or 4th century. Belonging to a very different cultural milieu, this multi-layered text is philosophical, psychological and practical in nature. Offering a philosophical reading of Pata jali's Yogasutra, this book discusses themes such as freedom, self-identity, time and transcendence, and translation between languages, cultures and eras. Drawing substantially upon contemporary Indian materials, it discusses for the first time classical yoga as reflected upon by Daya Krishna (1924-2007) with constant reference to Krishna Chandra Bhattacharyya's (1875-1949) studies in yoga philosophy. The genuine attempt on behalf of these two original thinkers to engage philosophically with Patajala-yoga sets the tone of the textual exploration provided here. This book features a new annotated translation of the Yogasutra, and the author provides a useful background to the extensive Samkhya terminology employed by Patajali. Daniel Raveh also offers a close reflection of the very act of translation, and the book concludes with suggestions for further reading and a glossary of central notions.

In Tafsir as Mystical Experience, Todd Lawson shows how the Quran may be engaged with for meaning and understanding, the usual goal of mystical exegesis, and also how it may be engaged with through tafsir in a quest for spiritual or mystical experience. In this earliest of the Bab's extended works, written before his public claim to be the return of the hidden Imam, the act of reading is shown to be something akin to holy communion in which the sacred text is both entrance upon and destination of the mystic quest. The Quran here is a door to an "abode of glory" and an abiding spiritual encounter with the divine through the prophet, his daughter Fatima and the twelve Imams of Ithna-'ashari Shi'ism who inhabit the letters, words, verses and suras of the Book. Cover calligraphy by Burhan Zahrai of Quran 53:11

Reconnect with the power and promise of engagement with Torah from a modern men's perspective.

This major contribution to modern biblical commentary addresses the most important concerns of modern men issues like relationships, sexuality, ambition, work and career, body image, aging, and life passages by opening them up to the messages of the Torah. It includes commentaries by some of the most creative and influential rabbis, cantors, journalists, media figures, educators, professors, authors, communal leaders, and musicians in contemporary Jewish life, and represents all denominations in Judaism. Featuring poignant and probing reflections on the weekly Torah portions, this collection shows men how the messages of the Torah intersect with their own lives by focusing on modern men s issues.

Ideal for anyone wanting a new, exciting view of Torah, this rich resource offers perspectives to inspire all of us to gain deeper meaning from the Torah as well as a heightened appreciation of Judaism and its relevance to our lives.

Contributors Rabbi Howard A. Addison Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson Doug Barden Rabbi Tony Bayfield, DD Ariel Beery Rabbi Joseph Black Rabbi Mitchell Chefitz Dr. Norman J. Cohen Rabbi Mike Comins Rabbi Elliot N. Dorff, PhD Rabbi Dan Ehrenkrantz Rabbi Dov Peretz Elkins Rabbi Edward Feinstein Rabbi Mordecai Finley, PhD Wayne L. Firestone Rabbi David J. Gelfand Dr. Sander L. Gilman Ari L. Goldman Rabbi Daniel Gordis, PhD Rabbi Arthur Green Rabbi Steven Greenberg Joel Lurie Grishaver Rabbi Donniel Hartman, PhD Rabbi Hayim Herring, PhD Peter Himmelman Rabbi Walter Homolka, PhD Rabbi Reuven Kimelman Rabbi Elliott Kleinman Cantor Jeff Klepper Rabbi Peter S. Knobel Rabbi Harold S. Kushner Rabbi Daniel Landes Rabbi Steven Z. Leder Prof. Julius Lester Rabbi Robert N. Levine, DD Rabbi Joseph B. Meszler Rabbi John Moscowitz Rabbi Perry Netter Rabbi Kerry M. Olitzky Rabbi Stephen S. Pearce, PhD Rabbi Daniel F. Polish Dennis Prager Rabbi Jack Riemer Rabbi Stephen B. Roberts Rabbi David B. Rosen Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin Rabbi Sidney Schwarz, PhD Rabbi Rami Shapiro Rabbi Charles Simon Rabbi Elie Kaplan Spitz Craig Taubman Rabbi Levi Weiman-Kelman Rabbi Simkha Y. Weintraub Rabbi Avraham (Avi) Weiss Dr. Ron Wolfson Rabbi David J. Wolpe Rabbi David Woznica Rabbi Sheldon Zimmerman Rabbi Daniel G. Zemel"

This volume suggests that reading and writing about literature are ways to gain an ethical understanding of how we live in the world. Postmodern narrative is an important way to reveal and discuss who are society's victims, inviting the reader to become one with them. A close reading of fiction by Toni Morrison, Patrick Suskind, D.M. Thomas, Ian McEwan and J.M. Coetzee reveals a violence imposed on gender, race and the body-politic. Such violence is not new to the postmodern world, but reflects Western culture's religious traditions, as this book demonstrates through a reading of stories from the Hebrew Bible and the Christian New Testament.