Book picks similar to
Genesis: A New Translation of the Classic Bible Stories by Stephen Mitchell
religion
spirituality
old-testament
genesis
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.
God: A Human History
Reza Aslan - 2017
In his new book, Aslan takes on a subject even more immense: God, writ large. In layered prose and with thoughtful, accessible scholarship, Aslan narrates the history of religion as a remarkably cohesive attempt to understand the divine by giving it human traits and emotions. According to Aslan, this innate desire to humanize God is hardwired in our brains, making it a central feature of nearly every religious tradition. As Aslan writes, “Whether we are aware of it or not, and regardless of whether we’re believers or not, what the vast majority of us think about when we think about God is a divine version of ourselves.” But this projection is not without consequences. We bestow upon God not just all that is good in human nature—our compassion, our thirst for justice—but all that is bad in it: our greed, our bigotry, our penchant for violence. All these qualities inform our religions, cultures, and governments. More than just a history of our understanding of God, this book is an attempt to get to the root of this humanizing impulse in order to develop a more universal spirituality. Whether you believe in one God, many gods, or no god at all, God: A Human History will challenge the way you think about the divine and its role in our everyday lives.Praise for God “Breathtaking in its scope and controversial in its claims, God: A Human History shows how humans from time immemorial have made God in their own image, and argues that they should now stop. Writing with all the verve and brilliance we have come to expect from his pen, Reza Aslan has once more produced a book that will prompt reflection and shatter assumptions.”—Bart D. Ehrman, author of How Jesus Became God “Reza Aslan offers so much to relish in his excellent ‘human history’ of God. In tracing the commonalities that unite religions, Aslan makes truly challenging arguments that believers in many traditions will want to mull over, and to explore further. This rewarding book is very ambitious in its scope, and it is thoroughly grounded in an impressive body of reading and research.”—Philip Jenkins, author of Crucible of Faith
Heaven and Hell: A History of the Afterlife
Bart D. Ehrman - 2020
Most people who hold these beliefs are Christian and assume they are the age-old teachings of the Bible. But eternal rewards and punishments are found nowhere in the Old Testament and are not what Jesus or his disciples taught. So where did the ideas come from? In clear and compelling terms, Bart Ehrman recounts the long history of the afterlife, ranging from The Epic of Gilgamesh up to the writings of Augustine, focusing especially on the teachings of Jesus and his early followers. He discusses ancient guided tours of heaven and hell, in which a living person observes the sublime blessings of heaven for those who are saved and the horrifying torments of hell for the damned. Some of these accounts take the form of near death experiences, the oldest on record, with intriguing similarities to those reported today. One of Ehrman’s startling conclusions is that there never was a single Greek, Jewish, or Christian understanding of the afterlife, but numerous competing views. Moreover, these views did not come from nowhere; they were intimately connected with the social, cultural, and historical worlds out of which they emerged. Only later, in the early Christian centuries, did they develop into the notions of eternal bliss or damnation widely accepted today. As a historian, Ehrman obviously cannot provide a definitive answer to the question of what happens after death. In Heaven and Hell, he does the next best thing: by helping us reflect on where our ideas of the afterlife come from, he assures us that even if there may be something to hope for when we die, there is certainly nothing to fear.
A History of the Bible: The Book and Its Faiths
John Barton - 2019
This exceptional work, by one of the world's leading Biblical scholars, provides a full account of how the different parts of the Bible came to be written; how some writings which were regarded as holy became canonical and were included in the Bible, and others were not; what the relationship is of the different parts of the Bible to each other; and how, once it became a stable text, the Bible has been disseminated and interpreted around the world. It gives full weight to discussion of the importance of the Tanakh (Old Testament) in Judaism as in Christianity. It also demonstrates the degree to which, contrary to widespread belief, both Judaism and Christianity are not faiths drawn from the Bible texts but from other sources and traditions. It shows that if we are to regard the Bible as 'authoritative' it cannot be as believers have so often done in the past.
The Prophetic Imagination
Walter Brueggemann - 1978
Here he traces the broad sweep from Exodus to Kings to Jeremiah to Jesus. He highlights that the prophetic vision and not only embraces the pain of the people but creates an energy and amazement based on the new thing that God is doing.
The Songs of Jesus: A Year of Daily Devotions in the Psalms
Timothy J. Keller - 2015
The Book of Psalms is known as the Bible’s songbook—Jesus knew all 150 psalms intimately, and relied on them to face every situation, including his death. Two decades ago, Tim Keller began reading the entire Book of Psalms every month. The Songs of Jesus is based on his accumulated years of study, insight, and inspiration recorded in his prayer journals. Kathy Keller came to reading the psalms as a support during an extended illness. Together they have distilled the meaning of each verse, inviting readers into the vast wisdom of the psalms.If you have no devotional life yet, this book is a wonderful way to start. If you already spend time in study and prayer, understanding every verse of the psalms will bring you a new level of intimacy with God, unlocking your purpose within God’s kingdom.
The New Testament and the People of God
N.T. Wright - 1991
Part of a five-volume project on the theological questions surrounding the origins of Christianity, this book offers a reappraisal of literary, historical and theological readings of the New Testament, arguing for a form of "critical realism" that facilitates different readings of the text.Provides a historical, theological and literary study of first-century Judaism and Christianity, offering a preliminary discussion of the meaning of the word ‘god’ within those cultures.
The Message Remix (Bible in Contemporary Language)
Eugene H. Peterson - 1997
Peterson. It features expanded introductions to each book of the Bible that explain the purpose of the book, who wrote it, and for whom it was written. The introductions help set the stage for the book and help you understand each book's unique message. A reading Bible in contemporary language, The Message//REMIX also has a unique verse-numbering system, charts and maps, and a topical guide for students. Trim size: 5 3/16 x 7 1/8
Wesley Study Bible-NRSV
Joel B. Green - 2009
Serve God with active hands.As God transforms readers through study, they will be inspired to transform the world. Contributors from across the Wesleyan family join together to help one experience God in fresh ways. The Wesley Study Bible offers easy-to-understand explanations of core terms that cover eternal life, forgiveness, grace, heaven, holiness, justice, and mission. The Bible has extended references to works by John Wesley.
Way of Mastery
Shanti Christo Foundation - 2004
Contains CD "A Meditation into the Heart of Christ"
The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus
Amy-Jill Levine - 2006
In fact, her career is dedicated to helping Christians and Jews understand the Jewishness of Jesus, thereby deepening the understanding of him, and facilitating greater interfaith dialogue. In this book, she shows how liberal Christians misunderstand Judaism, misunderstand the New Testament, and thus yank Jesus out of his Jewish context and wind up promoting hatred of Jews. Only with the deeper understanding this top Jewish, Southern–born New Testament scholar provides can we hope to respect each other's beliefs, as well as enrich our own.Through a extremely busy teaching and speaking schedule, Levine has honed her message at synagogues, Catholic conferences, Jewish Community Centers, denominational meetings, in the classroom and in her highly successful Teaching Company audios and videos. Levine is brilliant, charming, funny and forceful, and uses these traits to give a completely fresh perspective on Jesus and the New Testament. In addition to offering new insights with great skill, she has the remarkable ability to be tough, pointing out how even liberal Christians can be unwittingly anti–Semitic in their understanding of what Jesus stood for.Her truth–telling here will provoke honest dialogue on how Christians and Jews should understand Jesus and our New Testament heritage.
Singing the Living Tradition
Unitarian Universalist Association - 1993
Pew Edition: 415 hymns and songs and 317 readings. Hardcover.
The White Goddess: A Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth
Robert Graves - 1948
In this tapestry of poetic and religious scholarship, Graves explores the stories behind the earliest of European deities—the White Goddess of Birth, Love, and Death—who was worshipped under countless titles. He also uncovers the obscure and mysterious power of "pure poetry" and its peculiar and mythic language.
God Has a Name
John Mark Comer - 2017
This one shift has the potential to radically alter how you relate to God, not as a doctrine, but as a relational being who responds to you in an elastic, back-and-forth way. In God Has a Name, John Mark Comer takes you line by line through Exodus 34:6-8--Yahweh's self-revelation on Mount Sinai, one of the most quoted passages in the Bible. Along the way, Comer addresses some of the most profound questions he came across as he studied these noted lines in Exodus, including:Why do we feel this gap between us and God?Could it be that a lot of what we think about God is wrong? Not all wrong, but wrong enough to mess up how we relate to him?What if our "God" is really a projection of our own identity, ideas, and desires?What if the real God is different, but far better than we could ever imagine?No matter where you are in your spiritual journey, the act of learning who God is just might surprise you--and change everything.
The Great Partnership: God, Science and the Search for Meaning
Jonathan Sacks - 2011
Ranging around the world to draw comparisons from different cultures, and delving deep into the history of language and of western civilisation, Jonathan Sacks shows how the predominance of science-oriented thinking is embedded deeply even in our religious understanding, and calls on us to recognise the centrality of relationship to true religion, and thus to see how this core value of relationship is essential if we are to avoid the natural tendency for science to rule our lives rather than fulfilling its promise to set us free.