The World Religions Anthology: Faith, Worldview, Spirituality provides students with a thoughtful and insightful overview of some of the religions of the world and helps them identify both the differences between them and the underlying themes and values that connect them. The anthology is organized into nine chapters, the first of which gives students a foundational understanding of what constitutes religion and how to approach the study of sacred texts. Additional chapters explore what are often referred to as Eastern religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, and Jainism. Students also learn about the Abrahamic religions, studying in turn Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Each chapter includes an introduction and post-reading questions to provide context and facilitate learning, reflection, and discussion. The World Religions Anthology is an exemplary anthology for foundational courses in world religions and the study of religious texts.

How it is possible that the story about Elisha's succession in 2 Kings 2:1-18 is now remembered as the story about Elijah's ascent? The intertextual answer is provided by the contrast between the number of references about the human heavenly ascension in the Hebrew Bible, and the popularity of this theme in the Ancient Near East. However, in this dissertation we focus on the more direct intratextual approach. We analyze the construction of the narrative in order to discern the features of style, structure, and symbolism which emphasize Elijah's ascent, rather than Elisha's succession. As a result, we can identify the proto-symbol of the narrative (Gilgal) which is interpreted by three elements (whirlwind, chariotry, and rolled mantle) referring to Elijah's ascent.

Through extensive textual analysis, this open access book reveals how various passages of the Qur'an define death and resurrection spiritually or metaphorically. While the Day of Resurrection is a major theme of the Qur'an, resurrection has largely been interpreted as physical, which is defined as bones leaving their graves. However, this book shows that the Qur'an sometimes alludes to death and resurrection in a metaphoric manner - for example, rebuilding a desolate town, typically identified as Jerusalem, and bringing the Israelite exiles back; thus, suggesting awareness and engagement with Jewish liturgy. Many times, the Qur'an even speaks of non-believers as spiritually dead, those who live in this world, but are otherwise zombies. The author presents an innovative theory of interpretation, contextualizing the Qur'an within Late Antiquity and traces the Qur'anic passages back to their Biblical, extra-biblical and rabbinic subtexts and traditions. The eBook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com.

A trial lawyer by trade, a Christian by heart - author Mark Lanier has trained in biblical languages and devoted his life to studying and living the Bible. Living daily with the demands of his career and the desire for a godly life, Lanier recognizes the importance and challenge of finding daily time to spend in God's Word. His study of the first five books of the Bible - the Torah, the Law - has brought Life to his life. In Torah for Living, Lanier shares a year's worth of devotionals - one for each day of the year. In each devotional, Lanier reflects on the biblical text, relates the text to the struggles facing faithful readers of the Bible, and concludes with a prayer for the day.