Ancient Religion

In the services of the Orthodox Church, we pray for a good death—a “Christian end.” Yet many people approach the end of life unprepared and fearful. In Painless, Blameless & Peaceful: Orthodox Christian Reflections on Death, Dying & Eternal Life, author and longtime parish priest Fr. Stavros Akrotirianakis shares some of his pastoral experiences, both good and bad, with families of the dying and with those who are facing death. He discusses ways we can understand and accept death, help prepare our loved ones, and find hope when that final day arrives for each of us.

Many Christians today divide ancient Jewish and Christian literature into two categories: what is in the Bible and what is not. The Christian East, however, has traditionally described a third category considered beneficial for Christians to listen to in the home: “apocrypha.” These texts, from the centuries before and after the Incarnation of Jesus Christ—beyond even the larger canons of the Orthodox and Roman Catholic Old Testaments—reveal to us the religious world and theological framework of the apostles and early Church Fathers.

Following up on the first volume, The Atheist Handbook to the Old Testament: Volume 2 takes up the challenge of providing a clear and useful guide to those wanting a better understanding of the Old Testament, including its cultural and historical background, as well as discussions on contentious topics like violence and genocide, and whether the Exodus was a real historical event. Volume two also covers the narrative of the Old Testament, from the conquest to the divided monarchy, and a brief history of Egypt to help situate the biblical text within agreed historical events.

Each year after Pascha, the Orthodox Church celebrates the Holy Myrrhbearers, who cared for Jesus’s body after He was crucified. But myrrhbearing has a broader definition; it can serve as a metaphor for the practical, incarnate love to which Christ calls His followers. In The Art of Myrrhbearing, author Elissa Bjeletich Davis explores the lives of myrrhbearing saints in Scripture and throughout the life of the Church, offering questions for reflection. By following the lead of saints, we can learn to embrace a simple and profound way of life in communion with Christ and with others.

The I Ching, or Book of Change, has been consulted through the ages, in both China and the West, for answers to fundamental questions about the world and our place in it. The oldest extant book of divination, it dates back 3,000 years to ancient shamanistic practices involving the ritual preparation of the shoulder bones of oxen. From this early form of communication with the other world, it has become the Chinese spiritual book par excellence.

This kaleidoscopic book covers almost 3,000 years of Arab history and shines a light on the footloose Arab peoples and tribes who conquered lands and disseminated their language and culture over vast distances. Tracing this process to the origins of the Arabic language, rather than the advent of Islam, Tim Mackintosh-Smith begins his narrative more than a thousand years before Muhammad and focuses on how Arabic, both spoken and written, has functioned as a vital source of shared cultural identity over the millennia.

Sitchin shows that the end is anchored in the events of the beginning, and once you learn of this beginning, it is possible to foretell the future. In The End of Days, a masterwork that required 30 years of additional research, Sitchin presents compelling new evidence that the past is the future - that mankind and its planet Earth are subject to a predetermined cyclical celestial time.

Enhance and strengthen your corporate leadership skills with this guide to spirituality in business from a bestselling Christian consultant and speaker. Bestselling author Laurie Beth Jones brings you the ultimate guide to transforming your team and sparking inspiration in your business. In...

For us to perceive any of the worlds that exist beside our own, not only do we have to covet them but we need to have sufficient energy to seize them. In this revolutionary book, Carlos Castaneda offers listeners the key to this energetic conditioning for the first time, revealing a series of body positions and physical movements that enabled various sorcerers to navigate their own sorceric journeys. By sharing this wisdom, Carlos Castaneda makes it possible for listeners to travel to some of these other realms, which are as real, unique, absolute, and engulfing as our own world.

The “marvelous” (Reza Aslan, bestselling author of Zealot), New York Times bestselling story of how Christianity became the dominant religion in the West. How did a religion whose first believers were twenty or so illiterate day laborers in a remote part of the empire became the official...

Written between A.D. 413 and 426, The City of God is one of the great cornerstones in the history of Christian thought, a book which is vital to the understanding of modern Western society. Augustine originally intended it to be an apology for Christianity against the accusation that the Church was responsible for the decline of the Roman Empire, which had occurred just three years earlier. Indeed, Augustine produced a great amount of evidence to prove that paganism was responsible for this event. However, by the time the work was finished, the book had taken on a larger theme.

In the earliest centuries of faith, Christians in the deserts of Palestine and Africa sought a short prayer that could be easily repeated, in order to acquire the habit of "prayer without ceasing." The result was The Jesus Prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me." This jewel of Eastern Christianity aims at enabling a person to be in God's presence, rather than to focus on feelings or thoughts about God.

Today's view of history cannot account for ancient anomalies, such as the Pyramids and advanced knowledge contained in India's Vedas. But in 1894, an Indian sage gave us an explanation not only for our hidden past but for the trends of today and for our future enlightenment - the 24,000-year yuga cycle.

In the classic Ancient Aliens and Other Unsolved Mysteries of the Past, Otto Binder takes us inside the world of ancient astronauts, using real science to make the case for their existence. Binder describes a cavalcade of astounding discoveries and superhuman accomplishments, such as: the 12,000-year-old stone disks discovered in China that describe the landing of spaceships; and the disappearance of the planet Vulcan, once familiar to 19th-century astronomers but now vanished without a trace.

A New York Times bestselling historian of early Christianity takes on two of the most gripping questions of human existence: where did the ideas of heaven and hell come from and why do they endure? What happens when we die? A recent Pew Research poll showed that 72% of Americans believe in a...

In The Whole Counsel of God, popular writer and podcaster Fr. Stephen de Young gives an overview of what the Bible is and what is its place in the life of an Orthodox Christian, correcting many Protestant misconceptions along the way. Issues covered include inspiration, inerrancy, the formation of the biblical canon, the various texts and their provenance, the place of Scripture within Orthodox Tradition, and how an Orthodox Christian should read, study, and interpret the Bible.

Over the past hundred years, scholars have attacked the historical truth of the Gospels and argued that they were originally anonymous and filled with contradictions. In The Case for Jesus, Brant Pitre taps into the wells of Christian scripture, history, and tradition to ask and answer a number...

Written by Gad, seer of King David, about 1000 BC, this book of prophecy is recommended reading by the Bible, but was never included in the Canon. It was thought to have been lost over three millennia ago. The books of Gad, Nathan, Ahijah, Shemaiah and Iddo are referred to as “The Lost Five.” This long-lost book includes two revealing sermons given by King David. We have a prophecy that outlines the end times beginning with the Rapture, the seven-year tribulation and the establishment of Christ’s millennial reign.

Master Sha's Soul Healing Miracles teaches and empowers humanity to create soul healing miracles. Listeners will learn sacred wisdom and apply practical techniques. Everyone can create his or her own soul healing miracles.

In this iconoclastic and provocative work, leading scholars Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman draw on recent archaeological research to present a dramatically revised portrait of ancient Israel and its neighbors. They argue that crucial evidence (or a telling lack of evidence) at digs in Israel, Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon suggests that many of the most famous stories in the Bible - the wanderings of the patriarchs, the Exodus from Egypt, Joshua’s conquest of Canaan, and David and Solomon’s vast empire - reflect the world of the later authors.