The Knew York Times

by Geshe Tashi Tsering

The first step toward a solid foundation in Buddhist thought! The Foundation of Buddhist Thought series is an excellent introduction to Tibetan Buddhism. These unique books, based on the curriculum of a popular course of the same name, were developed by Geshe Tashi Tsering, a Tibetan scholar renowned for his ability to render Buddhist teachings accessible and relevant to everyday life. Geshe Tashi Tsering's Foundation of Buddhist Thought courses are systematic introductions to Buddhist philosophy and practice. With this series of books drawn from his highly successful courses, his insights can now be enjoyed by a wide audience of both specialists and newcomers to the Buddhist tradition. Geshe Tashi's presentations combine rigor and comprehensiveness with lucidity and accessibility, never divorced from the basic humanity and warmth of his personality. In Geshe Tashi, we encounter the new generation of Tibetan monk-scholars teaching in the West who are following in the eminent footsteps of Geshe Wangyal and Geshe Sopa. This volume, the first of six, provides a complete presentation the Buddha's seminal Four Noble Truths, which summarize the fundamentals of the Buddhist worldview. Indeed, they are an essential framework for understanding all of the other teachings of the Buddha.

by Rosalyn Schanzer

Tells the story of the victims, the accused witches, and the scheming officials that turned a mysterious illness into a witch hunt.

by Mark U. Edwards

"One of the most important works ever written on the reception of Luther through print."--Thomas Brady, University of California, Berkeley "One of the most important works ever written on the reception of Luther through print."--Thomas Brady, University of California, Berkeley

by Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad

For several decades, the Muslim world has experienced a religious resurgence. The reassertion of Islam in personal and political life has taken many forms, from greater attention to religious practice to the emergence of Islamic organizations, movements, and institutions. One of the most controversial and emotionally charged aspects of this revival has been its effect on women in Muslim societies. The essays collected in this book place this issue in its historical context and offer case studies of Muslim societies from North Africa to Southeast Asia. These fascinating studies shed light on the impact of the Islamic resurgence on gender issues in Iran, Egypt, Jordan, Pakistan, Oman, Bahrain, the Philippines, and Kuwait. Taken together, the essays reveal the wide variety that exists among Muslim societies and believers, and the complexity of the issues under consideration. They show that new things are happening for women across the Islamic world, and are in many cases being initiated by women themselves. The volume as a whole militates against the stereotype of Muslim women as repressed, passive, and without initiative, while acknowledging the very real obstacles to women's initiatives in most of these societies.

by Lisa Lassell Hallstrom

1. Introduction. 2. The Life Story of Anandamayi Ma. 3. Woman. 4. Saint. 5. Guru. 6. Avatara and Divine Mother. 7. Anandamayi Ma and Gender. Bibliography. Index.

by J. Armitage Robinson

Overview The early church leaders were prolific in their writing and historical documentation. While some of this work has been canonized, much has been forgotten. The Text and Studies: Contributions to Biblical and Patristic Literature collection resurrects these documents in a renewed and focused study, attempting to glean the wisdom and insight of the ancients. These volumes dig deep into apocryphal literature with critical analyses, close readings, and examinations of the original manuscripts.

by Thomas Hobbes

The work concerns the structure of society and legitimate government, and is regarded as one of the earliest and most influential examples of social contract theory. Leviathan ranks as a classic western work on statecraft comparable to Machiavelli's The Prince. Written during the English Civil War (1642-1651), Leviathan argues for a social contract and rule by an absolute sovereign. Hobbes wrote that civil war and the brute situation of a state of nature ("the war of all against all") could only be avoided by strong, undivided government. Hobbes begins his treatise on politics with an account of human nature. He presents an image of man as matter in motion, attempting to show through example how everything about humanity can be explained materialistically, that is, without recourse to an incorporeal, immaterial soul or a faculty for understanding ideas that are external to the human mind. Hobbes proceeds by defining terms clearly and unsentimentally. Good and evil are nothing more than terms used to denote an individual's appetites and desires, while these appetites and desires are nothing more than the tendency to move toward or away from an object. Hope is nothing more than an appetite for a thing combined with opinion that it can be had. He suggests the dominant political theology of the time, Scholasticism, thrives on confused definitions of everyday words, such as incorporeal substance, which for Hobbes is a contradiction in terms. Leviathan or The Matter, Forme and Powe

by Ronald Herbert Sack

Images of Nebuchadnezzar attempts to probe the diversity of cultural attitudes reflected in the characterizations of this famous king through an examination of both the original cuneiform sources as well as the accounts of chronographers written in Greek, Roman, and medieval times. Included in this revised and expanded second edition are two new chapters that examine both Nebuchadnezzar's administrative policies and the impact that his death had on both contemporary and later cultures. Both the positive and negative images of the king are explored, with conclusions being developed as to what the authors of the various surviving accounts actually thought the king really was. In the process, the whole nature of historiography in the ancient world is analyzed, and a number of broad conclusions are developed. Anyone who has ever read Second Kings or the books of Daniel and Jeremiah of the Old Testament is familiar with the name of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon who conquered the kingdom of Judah and destroyed Solomon's temple. As the second member of the Chaldean dynasty of Mesopotamia (626-539 B.C.), he ruled for forty-three years (605-562 B.C.), during which time he also led military campaigns into Syria and Lebanon. He also organized a number of building projects that were to transform Babylon into one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Among his noteworthy achievements were the construction of massive fortification walls around Babylon, the refurbishing of Marduk

by Ernst Cassirer

This provocative volume, one of the most important interpretive works on the philosophical thought of the Renaissance, has long been regarded as a classic in its field. Ernst Cassirer here examines the changes brewing in the early stages of the Renaissance, tracing the interdependence of philosophy, language, art, and science; the newfound recognition of individual consciousness; and the great thinkers of the period—from da Vinci and Galileo to Pico della Mirandola and Giordano Bruno. The Individual and the Cosmos in Renaissance Philosophy discusses the importance of fifteenth-century philosopher Nicholas Cusanus, the concepts of freedom and necessity, and the subject-object problem in Renaissance thought. “This fluent translation of a scholarly and penetrating original leaves little impression of an attempt to show that a ‘spirit of the age’ or ‘spiritual essence of the time’ unifies and expresses itself in all aspects of society or culture.”—Philosophy

by Carolyne Larrington

This collection of Norse-Icelandic mythological and heroic poetry contains the greater narratives of the creation of the world and the coming of Ragnarok, the Doom of the Gods.

by Lisa Kemmerer

Despite increasing public attention to animal suffering, little seems to have changed: human beings continue to exploit billions of animals in factory farms, medical laboratories, and elsewhere. In this wide-ranging and perceptive study, Lisa Kemmerer shows how spiritual writings and teachings in seven major religious traditions can help people to consider their ethical obligations towards other creatures.

by Jorunn Jacobsen Buckley

The Mandaeans were a gnostic sect that arose in the Middle East around the same time as Christianity. This text examines the lives and religion of contemporary Mandaeans and provides an introduction to the religion, showing how its ancient texts inform the living religion, and vice versa.

by Cardinal Christoph Schönborn

Cardinal Schönborn, the editor of the monumental Catechism of the Catholic Church, a worldwide best seller, provides a brief and profound commentary on the first part of the Catechism, the Creed. Schönborn gives an incisive, detailed analysis of the Creed, providing a specific meditation for each week of the year on how to better live the Catholic faith as expressed in the Creed and explained in the Catechism. Through these 52 meditations, Schönborn's hope is for the reader to not just have a better grasp of Catholic doctrine and belief, but especially to grow in a greater love of and devotion to the person of Jesus Christ. "Faith is whole. It has only one heart, one center: Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God. Christ must therefore also be the center of catechesis whose object is 'putting people...in communion...with Jesus Christ: only he can lead us to the love of the Father in the Spirit and make us share in the life of the Holy Trinity' (CCC 426), for 'in him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge' (Col 2:3). In a certain sense, the 'essential elements of the faith' have their origin in a treasury of the heart of Jesus." -Cardinal Christoph Schönborn