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Books > Religion & Spirituality > Non-Christian sacred works & liturgy > Sacred texts
As you walk Genesis, your spiritual journey takes you from Eden,
through the flood, into the Promised Land, and down to Egypt. But
the journey isn't just about days gone by. It continues today for
all those who choose to walk with God. Following the weekly Torah
(Pentateuch) readings from the synagogue, along with the related
Haftarah (Prophets, Writings) readings, Jeff Feinberg helps us to
relate the ancient Scriptures to our daily walk, reminding us that
"it is a Tree of Life to those who take hold of it."
In this book Vincent Wimbush seeks to problematize what we call
"scriptures," a word first used to refer simply to "things
written," the registration of basic information. In the modern
world the word came to be associated almost exclusively with the
center- and power-defining "sacred" texts of "world religions."
Wimbush argues that this narrowing of the valence of the term was a
decisive development for western culture. His purpose is to
reconsider the initially broad and politically charged use of the
term: "scriptures" are excavated not merely as texts to be read but
understood as discourse: as mimetic rituals and practices; as
ideologically-charged orientations to and prescribed behaviors in
the world; as structures of relationships and social formations; as
forms of communication. Wimbush is naming and constructing a new
transdisciplinary critical project, which uses the historical and
modern experiences of the Black Atlantic as resources for framing,
categorization, and analysis. Using Chinua Achebe's novel Things
Fall Apart as a touchstone, each chapter offers a close reading and
analysis of a representative moment in the formation of the Black
Atlantic, regarded as part of a history of modern human
consciousness and conscientization. Such a history, he says, is
reflected in the major turns in what he calls scripturalectics,
part of the construction of the modern world, defined as efforts to
manage or control knowledge and meaning.
This commentary demonstrates that the Gospel of Mark is a result of
a consistent, strictly sequential, hypertextual reworking of the
contents of three of Paul's letters: Galatians, First Corinthians
and Philippians. Consequently, it shows that the Marcan Jesus
narratively embodies the features of God's Son who was revealed in
the person, teaching, and course of life of Paul the Apostle. The
analysis of the topographic and historical details of the Marcan
Gospel reveals that they were mainly borrowed from the Septuagint
and from the writings of Flavius Josephus. Other literary motifs
were taken from various Jewish and Greek writings, including the
works of Homer, Herodotus, and Plato. The Gospel of Mark should
therefore be regarded as a strictly theological-ethopoeic work,
rather than a biographic one.
The love of books in the Jewish tradition extends back over many
centuries, and the ways of interpreting those books are as myriad
as the traditions themselves. Skies of Parchment, Seas of Ink
offers the first full survey of Jewish illuminated manuscripts,
ranging from their origins in the Middle Ages to the present day.
Featuring some of the most beautiful examples of Jewish art of all
time--including hand-illustrated versions of the Bible, the
Haggadah, the prayer book, marriage documents, and other beloved
Jewish texts--the book introduces readers to the history of these
manuscripts and their interpretation. Edited by Marc Michael
Epstein with contributions from leading experts, this sumptuous
volume features a lively and informative text, showing how Jewish
aesthetic tastes and iconography overlapped with and diverged from
those of Christianity, Islam, and other traditions. Featured
manuscripts were commissioned by Jews and produced by Jews and
non-Jews over many centuries, and represent Eastern and Western
perspectives and the views of both pietistic and liberal
communities across the Diaspora, including Europe, Israel, the
Middle East, and Africa. Magnificently illustrated with pages from
hundreds of manuscripts, many previously unpublished or rarely
seen, Skies of Parchment, Seas of Ink offers surprising new
perspectives on Jewish life, presenting the books of the People of
the Book as never before.
Thumbing through the Tanakh is a pleasure with the new Ma'alot
edition of the Classic Hebrew Koren Tanakh. New typesetting
sharpens the text, and a thumb index available for the first time
makes finding your way quick and easy.
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The ninth volume of this edition, translation, and commentary of
the Jerusalem Talmud contains two Tractates. The first Tractate,
"Documents", treats divorce law and principles of agency when
written documents are required. Collateral topics are the rules for
documents of manumission, those for sealed documents whose contents
may be hidden from witnesses, the rules by which the divorced wife
can collect the moneys due her, the requirement that both divorcer
and divorcee be of sound mind, and the rules of conditional
divorce. The second Tractate, "Nazirites", describes the Nasirean
vow and is the main rabbinic source about the impurity of the dead.
As in all volumes of this edition, a (Sephardic rabbinic) vocalized
text is presented, with parallel texts used as source of variant
readings. A new translation is accompanied by an extensive
commentary explaining the rabbinic background of all statements and
noting Talmudic and related parallels. Attention is drawn to the
extensive Babylonization of the Gittin text compared to genizah
texts.
Be Equipped to Interact More Fruitfully and Thoughtfully with
Muslims The Quran with Christian Commentary offers a unique
introduction to the primary religious text of Islam. Alongside a
precise modern English translation of the Quran, author Gordon D.
Nickel provides in-text notes to explain the meaning of various
surahs (chapters) and ayat (verses), their interpretive history and
significance in Muslim thought, and similarities and differences
when compared to biblical passages. Additional articles on
important topics are written by an international team of today's
leading experts including: Abraham in the Quran by George Bristow
Early Christian Exegesis of the Quran by J. Scott Bridger Tampering
with the Pre-Islamic Scriptures by Gordon Nickel Salvation in the
Quran by Peter Riddell Fighting and Killing in the Quran by Ayman
S. Ibrahim Creation in the Quran by Jon Hoover Calling to Islam
(da'wa) by Matthew Kuiper Apocryphal Details in Quranic Stories by
Mateen Elass The Death of Jesus in the Quran by Gordon Nickel Son
of God in the Quran by Gordon Nickel Jihad in the Quran by David
Cook Moses in the Quran by Gordon Nickel Manuscripts of the Quran
by Daniel A. Brubaker Women in the Quran by Linda Darwish The Place
of the Scale(s) in the Reckoning by Daniel A. Brubaker Divine
Punishment of Unbelievers in This World by David Marshall Shi'ite
Interpretation of the Quran by Linda Darwish The Language of Love
in the Quran by Gordon Nickel Allah in the Quran by Mark Anderson
Eschatology in the Quran by David Cook Factual, respectful of
Muslims, and insightful on issues about which Muslims and
Christians disagree, The Quran with Christian Commentary equips
Christians to interact more fruitfully with Muslim believers.
Professors and students in courses on Islam and the Quran will find
this to be an invaluable resource, as will pastors and missionaries
who minister among Muslims. Written at a readable level, any
Christian who wants to learn more about Islam and the Quran will
find it to be a rich and informative introduction.
One of India's greatest epics, the Ramayana pervades the country's
moral and cultural consciousness. For generations it has served as
a bedtime story for Indian children, while at the same time
engaging the interest of philosophers and theologians. Believed to
have been composed by Valmiki sometime between the eighth and sixth
centuries BC, the Ramayana tells the tragic and magical story of
Rama, the prince of Ayodhya, an incarnation of Lord Visnu, born to
rid the earth of the terrible demon Ravana. An idealized heroic
tale ending with the inevitable triumph of good over evil, the
Ramayana is also an intensely personal story of family
relationships, love and loss, duty and honor, of harem intrigue,
petty jealousies, and destructive ambitions. All this played out in
a universe populated by larger-than-life humans, gods and celestial
beings, wondrous animals and terrifying demons. With her
magnificent translation and superb introduction, Arshia Sattar has
successfully bridged both time and space to bring this ancient
classic to modern English readers.
This book is open access and available on
www.bloomsburycollections.com. Qur'anic Hermeneutics argues for the
importance of understanding the polysemous nature of the words in
the Qur'an and outlines a new method of Qur'anic exegesis called
intertextual polysemy. By interweaving science, history and
religious studies, Abdulla Galadari introduces a linguistic
approach which draws on neuropsychology. This book features
examples of intertextual polysemy within the Qur'an, as well as
between the Qur'an and the Bible. It provides examples that
intimately engage with Christological concepts of the Gospels, in
addition to examples of allegorical interpretation through
inner-Qur'anic allusions. Galadari reveals how new creative
insights are possible, and argues that the Qur'an did not come to
denounce the Gospel-which is one of the stumbling blocks between
Islam and Christianity-but only to interpret it in its own words.
A concise and illuminating portrait of Allah from one of the
world's leading Qur'anic scholars The central figure of the Qur'an
is not Muhammad but Allah. The Qur'an, Islam's sacred scripture, is
marked above all by its call to worship Allah, and Allah alone. Yet
who is the God of the Qur'an? What distinguishes the qur'anic
presentation of God from that of the Bible? In this illuminating
study, Gabriel Said Reynolds depicts a god of both mercy and
vengeance, one who transcends simple classification. He is personal
and mysterious; no limits can be placed on his mercy. Remarkably,
the Qur'an is open to God's salvation of both sinners and
unbelievers. At the same time, Allah can lead humans astray, so all
are called to a disposition of piety and fear. Allah, in other
words, is a dynamic and personal God. This eye-opening book
provides a unique portrait of the God of the Qur'an.
How the rabbis of the Talmud transformed Jewish law into a way of
thinking and talking about everything Typically translated as
"Jewish law," halakhah is not an easy match for what is usually
thought of as law. This is because the rabbinic legal system has
rarely wielded the political power to enforce its rules, nor has it
ever been the law of any state. Even more idiosyncratically, the
talmudic rabbis claim the study of halakhah is a holy endeavor that
brings a person closer to God-a claim no country makes of its law.
Chaim Saiman traces how generations of rabbis have used concepts
forged in talmudic disputation to do the work that other societies
assign not only to philosophy, political theory, theology, and
ethics but also to art, drama, and literature. Guiding readers
across two millennia of richly illuminating perspectives, this
panoramic book shows how halakhah is not just "law" but an entire
way of thinking, being, and knowing.
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.
What is justice? How can it be realised within society? These are
universal concerns and are central to the primary scripture of
Islam, the Qur'an. Utilising a pioneering theological and
hermeneutic framework adapted from both classical Muslim literature
and contemporary academic studies of the Qur'an, Ramon Harvey
explores the underlying principles of its system of social justice.
Dividing his book into four parts, he covers Qur'anic Ethics,
Political Justice (politics, peace, war), Distributive Justice
(fair trade, alms, marriage, inheritance) and Corrective Justice
(public and private crimes). His reading of the Qur'an reconstructs
the text as normatively engaging these spheres of justice in their
socio-historical context and lays the foundations for future
contemporary articulations of Qur'anic ethics.
Dead Sea: New Discoveries in the Cave of Letters is a
multidisciplinary study of the Cave of Letters in the Nahal Hever
of the Judean desert, a site reputed for having contained the most
important finds evidencing the Bar Kokhba revolt, including the
cache of bronzes found buried there and the papers of Babatha, one
of the few direct accounts of the context of the Bar Kokhba revolt
in the second century CE. Chapters by diverse scholars report on
and discuss the ramifications of the 1999-2001 expedition to the
site, the first organized archaeological activity there since the
expeditions at Nahal Hever by Yigal Yadin in 1960-1961. Using
advanced technological methodologies alongside more "traditional"
archaeological techniques, the team explored several research
hypotheses. The expedition sought to determine whether the material
collected in the cave could substantiate the hypothesis that the
cave was a place of refuge during both the Bar Kokhba revolt and
the earlier Great Revolt against the Roman Empire. The expedition
also researched the viability of a relatively long-term occupation
of the cave while under siege by Roman forces, questioning whether
occupants would have been able to cook, sleep, etc., without
severely degrading the cave environment as a viable place for human
habitation. The individual chapters represent the result of
analysis by scholars and scientists on different aspects of the
material culture that the expedition uncovered.
In "Conceiving Israel," Gwynn Kessler examines the peculiar
fascination of the rabbis of late antiquity with fetuses--their
generation, development, nurturance, and even prenatal study
habits--as expressed in narrative texts preserved in the
Palestinian Talmud and those portions of the Babylonian Talmud
attributed to Palestinian sages. For Kessler, this rabbinic
speculation on the fetus served to articulate new understandings of
Jewishness, gender, and God. Drawing on biblical, Christian, and
Greco-Roman traditions, she argues, the rabbis developed views
distinctive to late ancient Judaism.Kessler shows how the rabbis of
the third through sixth centuries turned to non-Jewish writings on
embryology and procreation to explicate the biblical insistence on
the primacy of God's role in procreation at the expense of the
biological parents (and of the mother in particular). She examines
rabbinic views regarding God's care of the fetus, as well as God's
part in determining fetal sex. Turning to the fetus as a site for
the construction of Jewish identity, she explicates the rabbis'
reading of "famous fetuses," or biblical heroes-to-be. If, as they
argue, these males were born already circumcised, Jewishness and
the covenantal relation of Israel to its God begin in the womb, and
the womb becomes the site of the ongoing reenactment of divine
creation, exodus, and deliverance. Rabbinic Jewish identity is thus
vividly internalized by an emphasis on the prenatal inscription of
Jewishness; it is not, and can never be, merely a matter of
external practice.
Part 1 is a comprehensive study of the Qur'anic data about each
prophet, with a full portrait of every figure and dealing also with
all the major scholarly literature on the subject and with the
Qur'anic concept of prophetology. Part 2 is a history and study of
the general Muslim literature dealing with the prophets.
Traditionally, the Talmud was read as law, that is, as the
authoritative source for Jewish practice and obligations. To this
end, it was studied at the level of its most minute details, with
readers often ignoring the composite whole. Methods of reading have
shifted as more readers have turned to the Talmud for evidence of
rabbinic history, religion, rhetoric, or anthropology; still, few
have employed a genuinely literary approach. In Reading the Rabbis,
Kraemer attempts to fill this gap by developing a method for
reading the Talmud as literature. He draws on the tools developed
in the study of other literatures, particularly rhetorical and
reader-response criticisms, to unearth previously unnoticed levels
of meaning. The result is that readers will gain a new
understanding of the complexity of Rabbinic Judaism, and a new
model of rabbinic piety.
Auf der Grundlage neu entdeckter Dokumente wird die Biographie des
aus einer Converso-Familie stammenden Kabbalisten Abraham Cohen de
Herrera alias Alonso Nunez de Herrera (gest. 1635 in Amsterdam) im
Kontext seiner spanisch verfassten Neuinterpretation der
lurianischen Kabbala rekonstruiert. Im Mittelpunkt stehen seine
wichtigsten Lebensstationen und die Adaption italienischer
Renaissance-Philosophie, die Herrera in ein eigenes Konzept
humanistischer Bildung integriert, zu der auch die judische
Tradition mit lurianischen Vorstellungen aus der Schule von Israel
Saruq gehoert. Insbesondere wird Herreras Einfuhrung in Logik bzw.
Dialektik berucksichtigt und die These aufgestellt, dass er nicht
nur als Begrunder der metaphorischen Interpretation lurianischer
Symbole gelten, sondern sein spezifischer Zugang auf dem
Hintergrund seiner Lebenserfahrung und Ausbildung als
"humanistische Kabbala" auf den Begriff gebracht werden kann. In
der Geschichte der judischen Mystik ist diese Verhaltnisbestimmung
von Philosophie und Kabbala mit humanistisch-padagogischer
Intention singular. Erstmals wird auch Herreras Einfluss auf die
christliche Geistesgeschichte durch Christian Knorr von Rosenroths
Kabbala denudata in vollem Umfang gewurdigt.
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