New Religious

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.

Scientists are beginning to discover what believers have known for a long time: the rewards that a religious life can provide. For millennia, people have turned to priests, rabbis, imams, shamans, and others to help them deal with issues of grief and loss, birth and death, morality and meaning. In this absorbing work, DeSteno reveals how numerous religious practices from around the world improve emotional and physical well-being.

Exploring the relationship between Christianity and Zen, especially through his dialogue with the great Zen teacher D.T. Suzuki, the book makes an excellent introduction to a comparative study of these two traditions, as well as giving the listener a strong taste of the mature Merton. Never does one feel him losing his own faith; rather, one feels that faith getting deeply clarified and affirmed. Just as the body of "Zen" cannot be found by the scavengers, so too, Merton suggests, with the eternal truth of Christ.

This book delves into the life and mysteries surrounding Rajneesh, later known as Osho, exploring questions that have long intrigued followers and critics alike. Why did he go to America, and who was the woman who followed him like a shadow? How did he encounter his past-life mother and lover in this life? Why did he declare himself "Bhagwan," only to renounce the title later?

Large numbers of atheists, humanists, and conspiracy theorists are raising one of the most pressing questions in the history of religion: "Did Jesus exist at all?" Was he invented out of whole cloth for nefarious purposes by those seeking to control the masses? Or was Jesus such a shadowy figure - far removed from any credible historical evidence - that he bears no meaningful resemblance to the person described in the Bible?

Jesus: A New Vision is at once a magisterial work of scholarship and a completely new approach to the meaning and message of Jesus. It comes at a time when the Western world is divided between a declining number of believers in Christian doctrine and an ever-increasing number of people who feel that Jesus was nothing more than a religious zealot who was executed for the crime of sedition.

With equal parts wit and wisdom, New York Times best-selling author Donald Miller invites you to reconnect with your faith. Miller shares what he's learned firsthand - that our relationship with God is designed to teach us about redemption, grace, healing, and so much more. Searching for God Knows What weaves together timeless stories and fresh perspectives on the Bible to capture one man's journey to discover an authentic faith that's worth believing.

Jonathan T. Pennington's New Testament Greek Vocabulary has helped thousands of Greek students build a strong working vocabulary. Now Readings in the Greek New Testament helps you develop fluency in biblical Greek as a spoken language. The vocabulary and grammar will become second nature as you listen to Greek in its working context, articulated with clarity and inflection.

In this original and groundbreaking book, Andrew Newberg, M.D., and Mark Robert Waldman turn their attention to the pinnacle of the human experience: enlightenment. Through his brain-scan studies on Brazilian psychic mediums, Sufi mystics, Buddhist meditators, Franciscan nuns, Pentecostals, and participants in secular spirituality rituals, Newberg has discovered the specific neurological mechanisms associated with the enlightenment experience - and how we might activate those circuits in our own brains.

The Wisdom of the Desert was one of Thomas Merton's favorites among his own books, surely because he had hoped to spend his last years as a hermit. The personal tones of the translations and the blend of reverence and humor so characteristic of him show how deeply Merton identified with the legendary authors of these sayings and parables, the fourth-century Christian fathers who sought solitude and contemplation in the deserts of the Near East.

What you have here is Elijah Muhammad’s New World Nation of Islam. In this audiobook, you will find the divine keys to knowledge, wisdom, understanding, heaven, and hell, taken from vintage essays by the most honorable Mr. Elijah Muhammad. The information in this audiobook is being revealed for the first time, and its timeliness cannot be denied.

"In the Light of Truth: The Grail Message" is a classic work that offers clear and perceptive answers to questions which challenge every human being. Written between the years 1923-1937, it is a collection of 168 essays addressing all spheres of life ranging from God and the Universe to the Laws in Creation, the meaning of life, responsibility, free will, intuition and the intellect, the ethereal world and the beyond, justice and love. It answers eternal questions such as what does it mean to be human, what is the purpose of life on Earth, and what happens to "me" when I die.

Leading Bible scholar John Dominic Crossan, the author of the pioneering work The Historical Jesus, provides new insight into the Christian culture wars which began in the New Testament and persist strongly today. For decades, Americans have been divided on how Christians should relate to government and lawmakers, a dispute that has impacted every area of society and grown more rancorous over the past forty years. But as Crossan makes clear, this debate isn’t new; it can be found in the New Testament itself, most notably in the tensions between Luke-Acts and Revelations.

Judah Smith digs deep to answer the most common and the most difficult questions about Jesus, a man so few understand and so many desperately need. In Jesus Is, Judah Smith explores a number of topics that reveal Jesus’ purpose for coming, what he accomplished while he was here, and what that means for those of us who came after. Jesus is greatly revered, harshly criticized, and sorely misunderstood.

In a world of chaos, uncertainty, and malaise, we can no longer depend on the institutions we counted on to offer security and hope. With increasing anxiety and a sickening fear of the future, can we reverse the downward spiral of turmoil and frustration? Instant Healing provides a powerfully positive solution. By using simple prayers and affirmations, you can experience immediate healing, comfort, and solace. Instant Healing provides 243 healing affirmations and prayers, along with instructions on how to use them.

Scientology is one of the wealthiest and most powerful new religions to emerge in the past century. To its detractors, L. Ron Hubbard's space-age mysticism is a moneymaking scam and sinister brainwashing cult. But to its adherents, it is humanity's brightest hope. Few religious movements have been subject to public scrutiny like Scientology, yet much of what is written about the church is sensationalist and inaccurate.

What happens when ancient scrolls whisper a different truth about love? Embark on a spiritual detective story that shatters the stained-glass ceiling of traditional religious interpretation. In "God's Law or Man's Interpretation?", Alvaro Roberson unravels the golden threads of divine love woven through sacred texts, only to find them tangled in human hands across centuries. Journey from moonlit Tibetan monasteries to hidden Jerusalem archives, where forgotten manuscripts tell tales of acceptance that history tried to erase.

Osho responds here to a question relating to meditation, a space of "no-mind": "...meditation covers a very long pilgrimage. When I say 'meditation is witnessing', it is the beginning of meditation. And when I say 'meditation is no-mind', it is the completion of the pilgrimage. Witnessing is the beginning, and no-mind is the fulfillment. Witnessing is the method to reach the no-mind. Naturally you will feel witnessing is easier. It is close to you. But witnessing is only like seeds, and then is the long waiting period."

From the divine messengers of Western traditions to the devas of Eastern traditions to the meleks and spirit beings found along the Silk Road, angels are one of the unifying themes of theology worldwide. But what is an angel, and why do they contact us, believers and nonbelievers alike? In this in-depth study into the mystery and purpose of angels, Normandi Ellis looks at the angelic dimensions of spiritual traditions around the world—from the ancient past to present day.

Spanning almost four decades, Dionne Brand’s poetry has given rise to whole new grammars and vocabularies. With a profound alertness that is attuned to this world and open to some other, possibly future, time and place, Brand’s ongoing labours of witness and imagination speak directly to where and how we live and reach beyond those worlds, their enclosures, and their violences.