When Near Becomes Far explores the representations and depictions of old age in the rabbinic Jewish literature of late antiquity (150-600 CE). Through close literary readings and cultural analysis, the book reveals the gaps and tensions between idealized images of old age on the one hand, and the psychologically, physiologically, and socially complicated realities of aging on the other hand. The authors argue that while rabbinic literature presents a number of prescriptions related to qualities and activities that make for good old age, the respect and reverence that the elderly should be awarded, and harmonious intergenerational relationship, it also includes multiple anecdotes and narratives that portray aging in much more nuanced and poignant ways. These anecdotes and narratives relate, alongside fantasies about blissful or unnoticeable aging, a host of fears associated with old age: from the loss of physical capability and beauty to the loss of memory and mental acuity, and from marginalization in the community to being experienced as a burden by one's children. Each chapter of the book focuses on a different aspect of aging in the rabbinic world: bodily appearance and sexuality, family relations, intellectual and cognitive prowess, honor and shame, and social roles and identity. As the book shows, in their powerful and sensitive treatments of aging, rabbinic texts offer some of the richest and most audacious observations on aging in ancient world literature, many of which still resonate today.

Can there be genuine 'sympathy' between the Bible and the Qur'an? Their 'peoples' have been at odds so long, disputing their texts and discounting their credentials. Scholars from both faiths have contrived intriguing comparison of narratives about Abraham, Joseph or Moses but with little relevance to the contemporary scene and its demand for religious converse and sanity. "A Certain Sympathy of Scriptures" attempts something more central to the essential 'interest' of both Scriptures, more cogent in this 21st century (the 15th Islam). It is a concern with three shared dimension: The divine will for this cosmos of created order; its entrustment into human hands as creaturely heirs to its order and responsive 'sciences'; and the discipline of their tenancy and privilege by 'messengers' and prophethoods disclosing the intention of divine Lordship in the fact of human vocation. These three dimensions are the supreme theme of both Scriptures. This 'caliphate' of humankind belongs in a now global situation as the abiding reality of Semitic humanism.;We are not 'on our own', but trustees in a sacramental order, neither playthings nor puppets of a bland omnipotence but 'associates' of the God who willed to create and cared to inform, inspire and invite as such to be. Deep disparities remain between our Scriptures. They have to do with what goes beyond our 'education', as more than prophethood. They enlarge into all that Jesus fulfilled in Christhood. They involve a truer measure of human perversity and, in turn, a larger expectation concerning the 'greatness' of God. Yet what divides need not alienate. The mutual ground - this certain sympathy - gives hope of wiser recognition of the divine stake in our humanity.

Islam is frequently characterized as a "religion of the book," and yet Muslims take an almost entirely oral approach to their scripture. Qur'an means "recitation" and refers to the actual words Muslims believe were revealed to Muhammad by God. Many recite the entire sacred text from memory, and it was some years after the Prophet's death that it was first put in book form. Physical books play no part in Islamic ritual. What does the Qur'an mean, then, when it so often calls itself "kitab," a term usually taken both by Muslims and by Western scholars to mean "book"? To answer this question, Daniel Madigan reevaluates this key term "kitab" in close readings of the Qur'an's own declarations about itself.

More than any other canon of scripture the Qur'an is self-aware. It observes and discusses the process of its own revelation and reception; it asserts its own authority and claims its place within the history of revelation. Here Madigan presents a compelling semantic analysis of its self-awareness, arguing that the Qur'an understands itself not so much as a completed book, but as an ongoing process of divine "writing" and "re-writing," as God's authoritative response to actual people and circumstances.

Grasping this dynamic, responsive dimension of the Qur'an is central to understanding Islamic religion and identity. Madigan's book will be invaluable not only to Islamicists but also to scholars who study revelation across religious boundaries."

This book explores the story of the Israelites' worship of the Golden Calf in its Jewish, Christian, and Muslim contexts, from ancient Israel to the emergence of Islam. It focuses in particular on the Qur'an's presentation of the narrative and its background in Jewish and Christian retellings of the episode from Late Antiquity. Across the centuries, the interpretation of the Calf episode underwent major changes reflecting the varying cultural, religious, and ideological contexts in which various communities used the story to legitimate their own tradition, challenge the claims of others, and delineate the boundaries between self and other. The book contributes to the ongoing reevaluation of the relationship between Bible and Qur'an, arguing for the necessity of understanding the Qur'an and Islamic interpretations of the history and narratives of ancient Israel as part of the broader biblical tradition. The Calf narrative in the Qur'an, central to the qur'anic conception of the legacy of Israel and the status of the Jews of its own time, reflects a profound engagement with the biblical account in Exodus, as well as being informed by exegetical and parascriptural traditions in circulation in the Qur'an's milieu in Late Antiquity. The book also addresses the issue of Western approaches to the Qur'an, arguing that the historical reliance of scholars and translators on classical Muslim exegesis of scripture has led to misleading conclusions about the meaning of qur'anic episodes.

"Tradition and the Formation of the Talmud" offers a new perspective on perhaps the most important religious text of the Jewish tradition. It is widely recognized that the creators of the Talmud innovatively interpreted and changed the older traditions on which they drew. Nevertheless, it has been assumed that the ancient rabbis were committed to maintaining continuity with the past. Moulie Vidas argues on the contrary that structural features of the Talmud were designed to produce a discontinuity with tradition, and that this discontinuity was part and parcel of the rabbis' self-conception. Both this self-conception and these structural features were part of a debate within and beyond the Jewish community about the transmission of tradition.

Focusing on the Babylonian Talmud, produced in the rabbinic academies of late ancient Mesopotamia, Vidas analyzes key passages to show how the Talmud's creators contrasted their own voice with that of their predecessors. He also examines Zoroastrian, Christian, and mystical Jewish sources to reconstruct the debates and wide-ranging conversations that shaped the Talmud's literary and intellectual character.

This anthology of essays focuses on the renewed interest in the interrelationships between myth, religion and theatre. Each chapter examines different interactions between the Holy Scriptures not only of Islam, Christianity and Judaism, but also of other sacred traditions.

Contents include:
-- Re-enactment/celebration in ritual and theatre
-- Sacred icons and theatricality
-- Theatre as Holy Space/the divine on stage
-- Hieratic gesture in theatre
-- Interculturality and Holiness in theatre
-- Liturgical rites in the theatre
-- Religious theatre and the audience

In 1993, an astonishing discovery was made at a tomb in Guodian in Hubei province (east central China). Written on strips of bamboo that have miraculously survived intact since 300 B.C., the "Guodian Laozi," is by far the earliest version of the "Tao Te Ching" ever unearthed. Students of ancient Chinese civilization proclaimed the text a decisive breakthrough in the understanding of this famous text: it provides the most conclusive evidence to date that the text was the work of multiple authors and editors over hundreds of years, rather than the achievement of a single individual writing during the time of Confucius.

Robert Henricks now presents the first English translation of the "bamboo slip Laozi." Differing substantially from other versions we have of the text, the Guodian Laozi provides us with clues on how and when the text came into being. As Henricks's translation shows, many chapters are missing in this form of the text, and some chapters remain incomplete. All of this seems to suggest that the "Tao Te Ching" was not yet "complete" when these slips were copied.

In his translation, Henricks focuses attention on lines in each of the chapters that vary from readings in other editions. In addition, he shows how the sequence of chapters in this form of the text is totally unrelated to the sequence readers commonly see in the "standard" form of the text, i.e., in other translations.

Here are just a few of the noteworthy features of this new "Tao Te Ching: "

- A lucid introduction to the Guodian Laozi, offering background on the archaeological interpretation of the discovery

- Line-by-line comparisons of the Guodian Laozi against the Mawangdui and Wang Bi editions

- Extensive notes on each chapter describing the unique elements of the Guodian Laozi in comparison with other versions

- Transcriptions for each chapter, noting both the ancient and modern form of the characters in the chapter

- An appendix featuring the official biography of Laozi written by Sima Qian, the Grand Historian of China, as well as Henricks's commentary and notes on this biography

This groundbreaking work will lead to a reassessment of the history and significance of this well-known and critical work as well as a reevaluation of the role it played in the development of Taoism in early China.

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.

The Koran, literally meaning 'The Recitation' it is the central religious text for Muslims. Muslims believe the Koran was verbally revealed by God to the Prophet Muhammad in Arabic through the angel Gabriel over a period of approximately 23 years Muslims regard koranic revelations as the sacred word of God, intended to correct any errors in previous holy books such as the Old and New Testaments. The Koran is accepted as the foundation of Islamic law, religion, culture and politics. Some Koranic fragments have been dated as far back as the eighth, and possibly even the seventh, century. The oldest existing copy of the full text is from the ninth century. Although early variants of the Koran are known to have existed, Muslims believe that the text we have today was established shortly after the death of the Prophet by the Caliph Uthman. This superb translation by E.H.Palmer brings an appealing clarity to this ancient and revered text.

David Ben-Gurion, (who was later the first Prime Minister of the State of Israel), when testifying before the British Royal (Peel) Commission in 1936, whose agenda was to decide on the future of the Land of Israel, declared "The Bible is our Mandate." Indeed, throughout the Bible right back to the time of the Patriarch Abraham, one can see that the Almighty promised the Land of Israel to the Jewish people. This is one of the points I stressed when giving my weekly sermons to my Synagogue over the course of over twenty years. The first section of the Bible is the Torah (Pentateuch), which is the Five Books of Moses. In addition to giving an early history of the Jewish people and the various commandments incumbent on a Jew, the Torah contains many lessons which can be applied to today's living. It was many of these lessons which constituted the contents of my sermons. These include the Jewish rights to the Land of Israel and the strict prohibition on foregoing any of these rights, and furthermore the imperative that the State of Israel be governed in accordance with the principle "The Land of Israel is for the Jewish people and must be governed according to the Torah." Unfortunately, these principles are not implemented in practice, and these points were often stressed in my sermons. Needless to add, there were many other lessons to be learned which I spoke about. One of them was the relationship which should pertain between man and his fellow man. Included in this is taking responsibility for one's actions and not passing the blame on to others. We find a number of occasions in the Torah where this was not done. As an example, Adam blamed Eve who in turn blamed the serpent for eating from the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. A further example is Aaron blaming the Jewish people when he made the Golden Calf, instead of taking the responsibility himself. Hospitality is another important quality which must be extended to all people without distinction. Abraham, already a very old man hurried to give hospitality to people even though he thought that they were idol-worshippers, and furthermore he made the members of his family participate in this hospitality. Kindness to animals is another lesson to be learned from the Torah. Rebekah gave the camels to drink after they came in from a long journey. In fact, it is forbidden to eat a meal until after one has fed one's animals. All this is not limited to physical actions, but also to not hurting the feelings of animals, such as not muzzling an ox when it is working in a field, nor ploughing with an ox and an ass together, since they are of different strengths. One is commanded to repay good by good, and a favour which has been given should never be forgotten however long a time may have passed. An example is the actions of Miriam in endangering her life by guarding Moses in the bulrushes. This was remembered as much as eighty years later. The above are just a few examples of the lessons I gave during the course of my sermons. In addition to my weekly Sabbath sermons, I would give sermons on the various Festivals which occurred throughout the year. I also delivered yearly a special sermon on the Sabbath before the Festival of Passover and on the Sabbath between the Jewish New Year and the Day of Atonement. All these sermons are to be found in this book.

The Dhammapada - the Path of Truth - is a beautiful anthology of proverbs and aphorisms, which are considered to be as close to the Buddha's own words as we can ever reach. The work outlines the Buddha's Four Noble Truths: that life is full of suffering, which all of us must accept; that the removal of desire removes suffering; and finally that deliverance might be obtained by following the Noble Eightfold Path. 'If man's faith is unsteady,if he does not know the true law, if his peace of mind is troubled, his knowledge will never be perfect'

We think of the Hebrew Bible as the Book--and yet it was produced by a largely nonliterate culture in which writing, editing, copying, interpretation, and public reading were the work of a professional elite. The scribes of ancient Israel are indeed the main figures behind the Hebrew Bible, and in this book Karel van der Toorn tells their story for the first time. His book considers the Bible in very specific historical terms, as the output of the scribal workshop of the Second Temple active in the period 500-200 BCE. Drawing comparisons with the scribal practices of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, van der Toorn clearly details the methods, the assumptions, and the material means of production that gave rise to biblical texts; then he brings his observations to bear on two important texts, Deuteronomy and Jeremiah.

Traditionally seen as the copycats of antiquity, the scribes emerge here as the literate elite who held the key to the production as well as the transmission of texts. Van der Toorn's account of scribal culture opens a new perspective on the origins of the Hebrew Bible, revealing how the individual books of the Bible and the authors associated with them were products of the social and intellectual world of the scribes. By taking us inside that world, this book yields a new and arresting appreciation of the Hebrew Scriptures.