. This very short introduction looks at the importance accorded to the Bible by different communities and cultures and attempts to explain why it has generated such a rich variety of uses and interpretations. It is sometimes said that the bible is one of the most unread books in the world, yet has been a major force in the development of Western culture and continues to exert an enormous influence over many people's lives.
Written by experts for the newcomer, from philosophy to Freud, they demonstrate the finest contemporary thinking about the central problems and issues in hundreds of key topics, quantum theory to Islam.
The Koran: A Very Short Introduction
Oxford university Press, USA. The koran has constituted a remarkably resilient core of identity and continuity for a religious tradition that is now in its fifteenth century. He gives vivid accounts of its role in muslim civilization, illustrates the diversity of interpretations championed by traditional and modern commentators, discusses the processes by which the book took shape, and compares it to other scriptures and classics of the historic cultures of Eurasia.
About the series: combining authority with wit, accessibility, and style, Very Short Introductions offer an introduction to some of life's most interesting topics.
Judaism: A Very Short Introduction Very Short Introductions
This very short introduction starts by outlining the basics of practical Judaism, a number of key issues and debates, including: festivals, and various sects - and goes on to consider how Judaism has responded to, prayers, customs, and dealt with, including the impact of the Holocaust and the establishment of the State of Israel.
Normon solomon's succinct book is an ideal introduction to Judaism as a religion and way of life. In this new edition, solomon considers issues of contemporary Judaism in the 21st century, incorporating new material on the relationship between the Muslim faith and Judaism, the rise of Zohar and Kabala, and considers how the faith deals with issues such as homosexuality and gay marriage.
About the series: the very short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. Oxford university Press, USA. Oxford University Press. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly.
Christianity: A Very Short Introduction Very Short Introductions
About the series: the very short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. Exploring the cultural and institutional dimensions of Christianity, Linda Woodhead provides a fresh, lively, and tracing its course over two millennia, and candid portrait of Christianity's past and present.
Oxford university Press, USA. Addressing topics including the competition for power between different forms of Christianity, the churches' use of power, this new edition includes up to date information on the growth and geographical spread of Eastern Christianity, and its struggles with modernity, reflecting the global nature of Christianity in our ever-shifting contemporary culture.
Oxford University Press. Oxford University Press.
The New Testament: A Very Short Introduction
As ancient literature and a cornerstone of the Christian faith, the New Testament has exerted a powerful religious and cultural impact. But how much do we really know about its origins? who were the people who actually wrote the sacred texts that became part of the Christian Bible? The New Testament: A Very Short Introduction authoritatively addresses these questions, offering a fresh perspective on the underpinnings of this profoundly influential collection of writings.
. The author explains how the gospels, acts of the apostles, and Revelation evolved into the canon of sacred writings for the Christian religion, and how they reflect a reinterpretation of the symbolic world and societal forces of first-century Greco-Roman and Jewish life. Oxford university Press USA. This one-of-a-kind introduction engages four distinct dimensions of the earliest Christian writings--anthropological, religious, historical, and literary--to provide readers with a broad conceptual and factual framework.
Ideal for general readers and students alike, this fascinating resource characterizes the writing of the New Testament not as an unknowable abstraction or the product of divine intervention, convictions, but as an act of human creativity by people whose real experiences, and narratives shaped modern Christianity.
Oxford university Press, USA.
Islam: A Very Short Introduction
. He also provides fresh perspectives on contemporary questions: why is the greatest jihad holy war now against the enemies of islam, ruthven brings the text up-to-date, rather than the struggle against evil? Can women find fulfillment in Islamic societies? How must Islam adapt as it confronts the modern world? For the new edition, shedding light on some of the most significant changes in the Muslim world in recent years; from the emergence of al-Qaeda and the attacks on New York and Washington on 9/11 and the ensuing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, to the uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa.
In this thoroughly revised new edition, compact, Malise Ruthven offers a balance, and reliable overview of Islam. Oxford university Press USA. Oxford University Press. Islam dominates the news, often in stories filled with images of violence. Ruthven includes a new chapter on "globalized islam, the questions surrounding Islam and democracy, the impact of international events in Middle Eastern countries, " which examines the effects of economic globalization, and the reception and perception of Islam in the West.
Indeed, the word islam in Arabic means "self-surrender" and is closely related to salaam, the word for peace.
The Old Testament: A Very Short Introduction
Oxford University Press. Whatever the area of study, whatever the topic that fascinates the reader, the series has a handy and affordable guide that will likely prove indispensable. Oxford university Press USA. Oxford university Press, USA. Not simply a textbook of definitions, each volume provides trenchant and provocative--yet always balanced and complete--discussions of the central issues in a given topic.
Coogan offers here a wide-ranging and stimulating exploration of the Old Testament, illuminating its importance as history, literature, and sacred text. Coogan explains the differences between the bible of jewish tradition the "Hebrew Bible" and the Old Testament of Christianity, Eastern Orthodox Christians, and also examines the different contents of the Bibles used by Roman Catholics, and Protestants.
Oxford University Press. The book also discusses law and ritual in the Bible as well as the biblical understandings of prophecy. Here then is a marvelous overview of one of the great pillars of Western religion and culture, Christians, a book whose significance has endured for thousands of years and which remains vitally important today for Jews, and Muslims worldwide.
The Bible in American Life
At the same time, surveys have revealed gaps in these same Americans' biblical literacy. Oxford University Press. Oxford University Press. Oxford university Press USA. Oxford university Press, USA. It also considers how other influences, including religious communities and the Internet, shape individuals' comprehension of scripture.
Oxford University Press. It will be useful and informative for scholars seeking to understand changes in American Christianity as well as clergy seeking more effective ways to preach and teach about scripture in a changing environment. Oxford university Press USA. According to gallup, nearly eight in ten Americans regard the Bible as either the literal word of God or inspired by God.
Employing both quantitative methods the general social survey and the National Congregations Study and qualitative research historical studies for context, The Bible in American Life provides an unprecedented perspective on the Bible's role outside of worship, in the lived religion of a broad cross-section of Americans both now and in the past.
The bible has been central to christian practice, and has functioned as a cultural touchstoneFrom the broadest scale imaginable, national survey data about all Americans, down to the smallest details, such as the portrayal of Noah and his ark in children's Bibles, this book offers insight and illumination from scholars across the intellectual spectrum.
Catholicism: A Very Short Introduction Very Short Introductions
In this very short introduction, gerald o'collins covers the history of the Catholic Church, and considers some of the key issues facing Catholicism today, the impact of the growth of Islam, such as the catastrophic revelations about clerical child abuse, and the destruction in the Middle East of ancient Christian church communities.
Oxford University Press. Oxford university Press, USA. Oxford University Press. Oxford university Press USA. He also shows how catholics are being increasingly challenged by an opposition between their traditional Christian values and rights which are endorsed by the secular world, such as the right to physician assisted suicide or same-sex marriage, and considers the future for the largest and oldest institution in the world.
. Oxford University Press. Oxford university Press USA.
Fundamentalism: A Very Short Introduction
Oxford university Press USA. Oxford University Press. Fundamentalism could now mean both militant Israeli settlers as well as the Islamist radicals who oppose them, it can mean Christians, animal liberationists, Hindus, and even Buddhist nationalists. But what does "fundamentalism" really mean? since it was coined by American Protestant evangelicals in the 1920s, the use of the term "fundamentalist" has expanded to include a diverse range of radical conservatives and ideological purists, not all religious.
Oxford University Press. Oxford university Press USA. Oxford University Press. Oxford university Press USA. Oxford university Press, USA. Fundamentalism is seen as the major threat to world peace today, a conclusion impossible to ignore since the events in New York on September 11, 2001.
Adam, Eve, and the Serpent: Sex and Politics in Early Christianity
And she shows how what was once heresy came to shape our own attitudes toward the body and the soul. Oxford University Press. Oxford university Press USA. Oxford university Press, USA. Oxford University Press. Oxford university Press USA. Oxford university Press USA.