The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 1 Books 1, 2 and 3


Kisari Mohan Ganguli
    You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

The World's Religions


Huston Smith - 1958
    He convincingly conveys the unique appeal and gifts of each of the traditions and reveals their hold on the human heart and imagination.

Zen Judaism: For You, A Little Enlightenment


David M. Bader - 2002
    Bader in the foreword to Zen Judaism. “This growing movement offers a unique way to follow in the footsteps of the Buddha, ideally without gaining quite so much weight.” These nearly 100 sacred teachings are capable “of bringing about an enlightenment experience so pure, so elevating, and so intense, you could plotz.” For you, some samples:To know the Buddha is the highest attainment. Second highest is to go to the same doctor as the Buddha.Be here now. Be someplace else later. Is that so complicated? There is no escaping Karma. In a previous life, you never called, you never wrote, you never visited. And whose fault was that?If there is no self, whose arthritis is this? Be patient and achieve all things. Be impatient and achieve all things faster.

The Jewish Study Bible: Featuring the Jewish Publication Society Tanakh Translation


Adele Berlin - 2003
    Nearly forty scholars worldwide contributed to the translation and interpretation of the Jewish Study Bible, representing the best of Jewish biblical scholarship available today. A committee of highly-respected biblical scholars and rabbis from the Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform Judaism movements produced this modern translation.No knowledge of Hebrew is required for one to make use of this unique volume. The Jewish Study Bible uses The Jewish Publication Society TANAKH Translation.Since its publication, the Jewish Study Bible has become one of the most popular volumes in Oxford's celebrated line of bibles. The quality of scholarship, easy-to-navigate format, and vibrant supplementary features bring the ancient text to life.* Informative essays that address a wide variety of topics relating to Judaism's use and interpretation of the Bible through the ages. * In-text tables, maps, and charts. * Tables of weights and measures. * Verse and chapter differences. * Table of Scriptural Readings. * Glossary of technical terms. * An index to all the study materials. * Full color New Oxford Bible Maps, with index.

The Aleppo Codex: The True Story of Obsession, Faith, and the International Pursuit of an Ancient Bible


Matti Friedman - 2012
    Using his research, including documents which have been secret for 50 years and interviews with key players, AP correspondent Friedman tells a story of political upheaval, international intrigue, charged courtroom battles, obsession, and subterfuge.

The Puppet and the Dwarf: The Perverse Core of Christianity


Slavoj Žižek - 2003
    In The Puppet and the Dwarf he offers a close reading of today's religious constellation from the viewpoint of Lacanian psychoanalysis. He critically confronts both predominant versions of today's spirituality -- New Age gnosticism and deconstructionist-Levinasian Judaism -- and then tries to redeem the "materialist" kernel of Christianity. His reading of Christianity is explicitly political, discerning in the Pauline community of believers the first version of a revolutionary collective. Since today even advocates of Enlightenment like Jurgen Habermas acknowledge that a religious vision is needed to ground our ethical and political stance in a "postsecular" age, this book -- with a stance that is clearly materialist and at the same time indebted to the core of the Christian legacy -- is certain to stir controversy.

The Two Sources of Morality and Religion


Henri Bergson - 1932
    And while "humanity groaning, half crushed under the weight of the progress it has made," he reminds us that the future depends on it. Cover illustration: © Flammarion Virginia Berthemet

Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal


Christopher Moore - 2002
    But no one knows about the early life of the Son of God, the missing years—except Biff, the Messiah's best bud, who has been resurrected to tell the story in the divinely hilarious yet heartfelt work "reminiscent of Vonnegut and Douglas Adams" (Philadelphia Inquirer).Verily, the story Biff has to tell is a miraculous one, filled with remarkable journeys, magic, healings, kung fu, corpse reanimations, demons, and hot babes. Even the considerable wiles and devotion of the Savior's pal may not be enough to divert Joshua from his tragic destiny. But there's no one who loves Josh more—except maybe "Maggie," Mary of Magdala—and Biff isn't about to let his extraordinary pal suffer and ascend without a fight.

The Christian Philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas


Étienne Gilson - 1994
    Thomas Aquinas, Etienne Gilson presents the sweeping range and organic unity of Thomistic philosophical thought. Gilson demonstrates that Aquinas drew from a wide spectrum of sources in the development of his thought—from Aristotle to the Arabic and Jewish philosophers of his time, as well as from Christian writers. What results is an insightful introduction to the thought of Aquinas and the Scholastic philosophy of the Middle Ages.

Seeing the Form


Hans Urs von Balthasar - 1982
    From here, von Balthasar turns to the central theme of the volume: the question of theological knowledge. He re-examines the nature of Christian believing (here he quickly draws widely on such theological figures as Anselm, Pascal and Newman) which gives due place to the particular kind of 'knowing' which develops within the personal relationship to the believer to the God mediated through the revelation-form of Jesus Christ

Sarah


Marek Halter - 2003
    The daughter of a powerful lord, Sarah balks at the marriage her father has planned for her. On her wedding day, she impulsively flees to the vast, empty marshes outside the city walls, where she meets a young man named Abram, son of a tribe of outsiders. Drawn to this exotic stranger, Sarah spends one night with him and reluctantly returns to her father’s house. But on her return, she secretly drinks a poisonous potion that will make her barren and thus unfit for marriage.Many years later, Abram returns to Ur and discovers that the lost, rebellious girl from the marsh has been transformed into a splendid woman—the high priestess of the goddess Ishtar. But Sarah gives up her exalted life to join Abram’s tribe and follow the one true God, an invisible deity who speaks only to Abram. It is then that her journey truly begins.From the great ziggurat of Ishtar to the fertile valleys of Canaan to the bedchamber of the mighty Pharaoh himself, Sarah’s story reveals an ancient world full of beauty, intrigue, and miracles.

The Story: The Bible as One Continuing Story of God and His People, NIV


Randy Frazee - 1996
    There are no verse references, and Scripture segments are seamlessly woven together with transition text into a single grand narrative. For those intimidated or overwhelmed by the unabridged Bible, The Story helps people understand God’s Word more fully and engage with it more easily.Simple, accessible, and easy to use, churches are finding The Story a powerful way to engage their people in Bible reading like never before. As The Story brings the Bible to life, the broad scope of God’s message will penetrate hearts. People of all ages will be swept up in the story of God’s love and God’s plan for their lives.God goes to great lengths to rescue lost and hurting people. That is what The Story is all about: the story of the Bible, God’s great love affair with humanity. Condensed into 31 accessible chapters, The Story sweeps you into the unfolding progression of Bible characters and events from Genesis to Revelation. Using the clear, accessible text of the NIV Bible, it allows the stories, poems, and teachings of the Bible to read like a novel. And like any good story, The Story is filled with intrigue, drama, conflict, romance, and redemption; and this story’s true! “This book tells the grandest, most compelling story of all time: the story of a true God who loves his children, who established for them a way of salvation and provided a route to eternity. Each story in these 31 chapters reveals the God of grace---the God who speaks; the God who acts; the God who listens; the God whose love for his people culminated in his sacrifice of Jesus, his only Son, to atone for the sins of humanity.”

In the Wake of the Goddesses: Women, Culture, and the Biblical Transformation of Pagan Myth


Tikva Frymer-Kensky - 1992
    Traces the development of conceptions of nature, gender and sexuality from the goddesses of ancient Mesopotamian civilizations to the one God of biblical monotheism.

Testament: Memoir of the Thoughts and Sentiments of Jean Meslier


Jean Meslier - 1729
    All the laws and orders that are issued in the name and authority of God or the gods are really only human inventions…." "And what I say here in general about the vanity and falsity of the religions of the world, I don’t say only about the foreign and pagan religions, which you already regard as false, but I say it as well about your Christian religion because, as a matter of fact, it is no less vain or less false than any other."These are not the words of Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, or any other outspoken contemporary atheist. In fact, they are the words of a quiet, modest parish priest named Jean Meslier, who died in early 18th-century France and left behind his copious Testament as a legacy for his parishioners. This obviously controversial work, which influenced such noted thinkers as Baron d’Holbach and Voltaire, and is viewed by some historians as anticipating both the French Revolution and Karl Marx, is now available in English for the first time. In impassioned tones but with analytical precision, Meslier presents a methodical deconstruction of Christianity and the governments that support it, along with a thoughtful defense of the fundamental human rights of liberty, equality, and the pursuit of happiness. He reveals himself not only as a materialist and unbeliever but also as a man of revolutionary sentiments who firmly opposes the governments of his day, which he maintains keep the common people in ignorance, fear, and poverty through religion. Moreover, he urges his former parishioners to wake up and inform themselves about the truth of their governments and religion. This fascinating document, which is an early forerunner of many later critiques of religion, is must reading for freethinkers, skeptics, and anyone interested in the history of religion and dissent.

Radical Judaism: Rethinking God and Tradition


Arthur Green - 2010
    As featured on the cover of Tikkun magazine How do we articulate a religious vision that embraces evolution and human authorship of Scripture?  Drawing on the Jewish mystical traditions of Kabbalah and Hasidism, path-breaking Jewish scholar Arthur Green argues that a neomystical perspective can help us to reframe these realities, so they may yet be viewed as dwelling places of the sacred.  In doing so, he rethinks such concepts as God, the origins and meaning of existence, human nature, and revelation to construct a new Judaism for the twenty-first century.