Ancient Religion History

In Flee from Heresy, Bishop Athanasius Schneider — raised among persecuted Catholics in the Soviet Union — offers a systematic treatment of more than 130 doctrinal errors, from ancient times down to our own day, along with English translations of the Church’s major anti-heresy documents of the past two centuries.

Around 13,000 years ago, three things happened at once: (1) Global temperature suddenly stopped rising and plunged back to ice age-frigidity. (2) The Western Hemisphere’s largest mammals, including the horse, camel, woolly mammoth, saber-toothed cat, and dozens more, went extinct. And (3) the uniquely beautiful stonework of the early American Clovis people disappeared from the archeological record. For the past half-century, scientists have struggled to explain the three events. Were they independent of each other, or could they have had a common cause?

This in-depth discussion of New Testament scholarship and the challenges of history as a whole proposes Bayes's Theorem, which deals with probabilities under conditions of uncertainty, as a solution to the problem of establishing reliable historical criteria. The author demonstrates that valid historical methods - not only in the study of Christian origins but in any historical study - can be described by, and reduced to, the logic of Bayes's Theorem. Conversely, he argues that any method that cannot be reduced to this theorem is invalid and should be abandoned.

William Stukeley's study of Stonehenge from 1740 is a classic in the field. Stukeley, a fellow of the Royal Society, was a conservationist who complained about the way Stonehenge was treated by landowners and tourists. The book includes his accurate drawings that are still being used by scholars today.

A profound and moving journey into the heart of Christianity that explores the mysterious and often paradoxical lives and legacies of the Twelve Apostles—a book both for those of the faith and for others who seek to understand Christianity from the outside in.

The history of the Emerald Tablets is strange and beyond the belief of modern scientists. Their antiquity is stupendous, dating back some 36,000 years B.C. The author is Thoth, an Atlantean Priest-King who founded a colony in ancient Egypt, wrote the Emerald Tablets in his native Atlantean language which was translated by Dr. Michael Doreal.

In Jesus on Trial, New York Times bestselling author David Limbaugh applies his lifetime of legal experience to a unique new undertaking: making a case for the gospels as hard evidence of the life and work of Jesus Christ. Limbaugh, a practicing attorney and former professor of law, approaches the canonical gospels with the same level of scrutiny he would apply to any legal document and asks all the necessary questions about the story of Jesus....

In Central America, doctors of different colors came down out of the sky, mated with humans and begat 1,200 children. Nearby lived the Magic Wallas, a tribe of unusual Indians whom bullets could not touch. They flew through the sky, controlled the weather, and spoke the language of today’s Nordic extraterrestrials. In North America, a supernatural race befriended the Cherokee Indians and transported an entire village to another world. Flying machines empowered whichever Medicine Man possessed one, while giants produced children with humans.

Mary is the flower of femininity to some, a woman of power to others. She has been seen as a paragon of obedience as well as an instrument of liberation. Some have piled her status so high that it rivals that of her Son. Other do their best to ignore her. Behind all of those images is a girl who grew up to be the mother of Christ.

The fascinating, true account of the quest for one of the Old Testament’s most infamous cities. Like many modern-day Christians, Dr. Steven Collins struggled with what seemed to be a clash between his belief in the Bible and the research regarding ancient history - a crisis of faith that inspired him to put both his education and the Bible to the test by embarking on an expedition that has led to one of the most exciting finds in recent archaeology.

In this fascinating book, David Barash highlights an intriguing patch of common ground between scientific and religious thought, illuminating the many parallels between biology and Buddhism, allowing listeners to see both in a new way. Indeed, he shows that there are numerous places where the Buddhist and biological perspectives coincide. For instance, the cornerstone ecological concept - the interconnectedness and interdependence of all things - is remarkably similar to the fundamental insight of Buddhism.

One of the most influential Roman perspectives on religion came from a nonreligious belief system that is finding new adherents even today: Stoicism. How did the Stoics think about religion? In How to Think About God, Philip Freeman presents vivid new translations of Cicero's On the Nature of the Gods and The Dream of Scipio. In these brief works, Cicero offers a Stoic view of belief, divinity, and human immortality, giving eloquent expression to the religious ideas of one of the most popular schools of Roman and Greek philosophy.

Until his death in 4 BCE, Herod the Great's monarchy included territories that once made up the kingdoms of Judah and Israel. Although he ruled over a rich, strategically crucial land, his royal title did not derive from heredity. His family came from the people of Idumea, ancient antagonists of the Israelites.

The Religions of Ancient Egypt and Babylonia (1903) consists of Egyptian religion in part one, including discussions of the sun god, the ennead, Osiris, and the journey of the soul. Part two deals with animism and the beliefs of Sumeria, Babylonia, and Assyria. The book comprises the Gifford Lectures on the Ancient Egyptian and Babylonian Conception of the Divine.

The ancient Israelites emerged from Mount Sinai onto the hilly plains of Canaan and established a civilization that endured for hundreds of years. Even when the Israelites fell to incursions from foreign invaders and were subjected to torture and exile, they held fast to their belief system. They emerged from the Babylonian captivity as the people of Yehud. With the aid of Cyrus the Great and the Achaemenid Empire, they rebuilt their sacred temple and got back on their feet.

The Minoan-Mycenaean Empire is one of the most compelling of the lost civilizations, so how does an advanced civilization vanish as if into thin air? This kingdom wasn’t limited to Greece and its Mediterranean tributaries, the Mycenaean Empire of Greek gods extended around the world, even into the Americas. Their technology included analog computers, humanoid robots, talking oracles, flying machines, transparent windows, hot and cold running water, flushing toilets, sewer systems, loose-stone pyramids that pulled water out of the air, and transcontinental ships with voice navigation.

Apart from Jesus, there is no character more vividly presented in the gospels than Peter. To talk of Saint Peter is to talk about a man of action. There is a good reason why he is the apostle with the most mentions in the Gospels, and the most referred to in the New Testament (a total of 195 times). In comparison, John, the next most popular disciple, barely reaches 29 references. It is at decisive moments which require a categorical reaction where the leader of the Twelve shines.

When we look at the incredible feats of engineering that our ancestors were able to achieve, it leaves us in awe. Not just because these structures are beautiful and shrouded in mystery, but because they were constructed on a scale we can't comprehend, thousands of years ago.

Stonehenge is just one of thousands of stone circles erected throughout Britain and Ireland for over three millennia from 3,000 BC on. How did this building tradition survive for so long, over such a large area and with such complexity and uniformity, when the people of the British Isles lived in separate, isolated communities? Graham Phillips argues that these stone circles are evidence of an astonishing system of healthcare and preservation of ancient medical knowledge that held together a society scattered across the British Isles.

History's most intriguing detective story may have been solved - recently unearthed evidence points towards the real location of the ancient, lost city of Atlantis. More than 2,000 years ago Plato laid down around a hundred cryptic clues about the location of the lost world of Atlantis. Since then countless experts have tried to crack Plato's code. Some claim Atlantis lies under the volcanic rocks of Santorini. Others place it in the Bermuda Triangle, off the coast of Africa or say it is lost forever beneath the waves of the Atlantic Ocean. But what if Atlantis is far closer than we think?