Showing titles in Religious Studies

'Bold, dazzling and provocative' – Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk Roads 'This book uncovers what was lost when Christianity won' – The Times In The Darkening Age, historian Catherine Nixey tells the little-known – and deeply shocking – story of how a militant religion deliberately...

The Qur'an, recited daily by over 2 billion Muslims, is the final revelation sent by God (Allah) to mankind, conveyed over 23 years to the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) through the Angel Gabriel. It speaks directly in the first person as the verbatim word of God, addressing: the nature of God, mankind's responsibilities, and the afterlife. Additionally, it features the Islamic stories of Jesus, Moses, Abraham, Joseph and many other prophets!

For all the thousands of books that have been written about religion, few until this one have attempted to examine it scientifically: to ask why - and how - it has shaped so many lives so strongly. Is religion a product of blind evolutionary instinct or rational choice? Is it truly the best way to live a moral life? Ranging through biology, history, and psychology, Daniel C. Dennett charts religion’s evolution from “wild” folk belief to “domesticated” dogma.

Islam has been one of the most powerful religious, social, and political forces in history. Over the last 1,400 years, from origins in Arabia, a succession of Muslim polities, and later empires expanded to control territories and peoples that ultimately stretched from southern France to East Africa and South East Asia. Yet many of the contributions of Muslim thinkers, scientists, and theologians, not to mention rulers, statesmen, and soldiers, have been occluded. This book rescues from oblivion and neglect some of these personalities and institutions. 

The great tragedy of the human race is that sin has fallen headlong from the mighty purpose that God had created us for. In his mercy, God has provided his followers with a helper, the Holy Spirit. The role of the Spirit is abysmally overlooked in our churches today. In Relying on the Holy Spirit, Tozer argues for the need for every Christian everywhere to desire earnestly for the filling of the Holy Spirit.

Martin Buber’s I and Thou has long been acclaimed as a classic. Many prominent writers have acknowledged its influence on their work; students of intellectual history consider it a landmark; and the generation born after World War II considers Buber one of its prophets. Buber’s main proposition is that we may address existence in two ways: (1) that of the “I” toward an “It,” toward an object that is separate in itself, which we either use or experience; (2) that of the “I” toward “Thou,” in which we move into existence in a relationship without bounds.

Saint Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) is one of the most inspiring figures in Christianity: a Doctor of the Church, visionary mystic, powerful composer of hymns, artist, and philosopher. Now, you have the opportunity to know Hildegard intimately in this program on her life and spirituality.

An insider’s look into the decades of research behind Zecharia Sitchin’s books as well as an in-depth overview of his theories and discoveries Includes carefully selected chapters from the Earth Chronicles series as well as never-before-published letters, articles, and lectures Each...

BBC Middle East Editor Jeremy Bowen presents a personal history of the Middle East. Over these 25 programmes, Jeremy reflects on the present and the past of the Middle East, after reporting from the region for more than a quarter of a century. He combines first-hand accounts from the front line...

The Wisdom of the Desert was one of Thomas Merton's favorites among his own books, surely because he had hoped to spend his last years as a hermit. The personal tones of the translations and the blend of reverence and humor so characteristic of him show how deeply Merton identified with the legendary authors of these sayings and parables, the fourth-century Christian fathers who sought solitude and contemplation in the deserts of the Near East.

It happened more than 450,000 years ago. Beings from outer space came to planet Earth in search of resources: fuel for a distant planet. It all began in Sumer, in ancient Mesopotamia. You may think this is an outlandish story by someone who has not slept for some days, but everything you will read is well-documented in the most ancient writings known to mankind: the Enuma Elish, Atrahasis, the Epic of Gilgamesh, and many more.

Brought to you by Penguin. A must-have journal to guide you through Ramadan and deepen your individual connection to Allah for the year ahead. With inspiring reflections, practical exercises, powerful quotes and drawing from the spiritual wisdom of the Holy Qur'an and Sunnah, it offers an...

Sparked by an Internal Family Systems (IFS) client’s lifelong affliction with an unattached burden— something in her mind that was not part of her—Bob Falconer began a decade-long study of the others within us and how they are treated worldwide. This study is important to all of us because what it reveals about the nature of mind holds a key to healing our underlying alienation and isolation.

James Baldwin's impassioned plea to 'end the racial nightmare' in America was a bestseller when it appeared in 1963, galvanising a nation and giving voice to the emerging civil rights movement. Told in the form of two intensely personal 'letters', The Fire Next Time is at once a powerful evocation of Baldwin's early life in Harlem and an excoriating condemnation of the terrible legacy of racial injustice.

These are masterly readings, by renowned thespian Paul Schofield, of two substantial works of poetry by T.S. Eliot...

C.S. Lewis’s dazzling allegory about heaven and hell – and the chasm fixed between them – is one of his most brilliantly imaginative tales, as he takes issue with the ideas in William Blake’s ‘The Marriage of Heaven and Hell’. In a dream, the narrator boards a bus on a drizzly...

A rigorously researched biography of the founder of modern magick, as well as a study of the occult, sexuality, Eastern religion, and more The name “Aleister Crowley” instantly conjures visions of diabolic ceremonies and orgiastic indulgences—and while the sardonic Crowley would perhaps be...

One hot, humid day in July 1944, the Gestapo abducted 15-year-old Henry and his mother, forcing them onto cramped cattle cars in the Łódź Polish Ghetto. Like so many Jews before them, they had been selected to disappear–they were being sent to Auschwitz.

This tenth anniversary revised edition of the authoritative text on Christianity's first thousand years of history features a new preface and an updated bibliography. The essential general survey of medieval European Christendom, Brown's vivid prose charts the compelling and tumultuous rise of an institution that came to wield enormous religious and secular power.

Dive into the timeless tales of gods and heroes in this bestselling A-to-Z encyclopedia detailing classic myths and legends—perfect for curious readers and academics alike. Edith Hamilton's mythology succeeds like no other book in bringing to life for the modern reader the Greek, Roman and...