Who were the Twelve Tribes? What actually happened at the LastSupper? Many people are familiar with the Bible, but few have readit in depth let alone in its entirety. Reverend Doctor MichaelHinton bridges the gap with this pocket-sized, modern summary,distilling the essential elements from Creation to Revelation intoan accessible page-turner for today's time-pressed reader. Aninstant best-seller in Great Britain and translated into manylanguages, this 100-minute read covers all of the decisive momentsand influential characters in short, straightforward chapters. Thisnew way of looking at the Bible and the story of Christianity isthe perfect companion for the airplane, bedtime, or the dailycommute.

"The Koran" is universally accepted by Muslims to be theinfallible Word of God as first revealed to the Prophet Muhammad bythe Angel Gabriel nearly fourteen hundred years ago. Its 114chapters, or surahs, recount the narratives central to Muslimbelief, and together they form one of the world's most influentialprophetic works and a literary masterpiece in its own right. Butabove all, the "Koran" provides the rules of conduct that remainfundamental to the Muslim faith today: prayer, fasting, pilgrimageto Mecca and absolute faith in God.

This wide-ranging account of the history and theology of one ofthe world's most dynamic religions tells the story of Islamicbeliefs and practices as they developed from the earliest timesdown to the present day. For this revised and updated SecondEdition, David Waines has added a long section tackling head-on theissues arising from Islam's place in the changing world order atthe turn of the new millennium. The wars in Bosnia, Afghanistan andIsrael, and the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, haveraised global awareness of Islam at a superficial level - butlittle has been written which considers Islamic political andmilitary extremism in relation to mainstream Muslim history andtheology. Coming at the end of a book which has explored the ideasand traditions of Islam in depth, this new section offersthought-provoking reflections on the place of religion in thecurrent conflicts.

This remarkable book takes as its subject one of the most outstanding men that ever lived. The ultimate prodigy, Leonardo da Vinci was an artist of great originality and power, a scientist, and a powerful thinker. According to Sigmund Freud, he was also a flawed, repressed homosexual. The first psychosexual history to be published, Leonardo da Vinci was the only biography the great psychoanalyst wrote. When Jung first saw it, he told Freud it was 'wonderful', and it remained Freud's favourite composition. The text includes the first full emergence of the concept of narcissism and develops Freud's theories of homosexuality. While based upon controversial research, the book offers a fascinating insight into two men - the subject and the author. If you've ever wondered just what lies behind the Mona Lisa's enigmatic smile, read Freud on Leonardo. It's genius on genius.

Live a life of peace, love, and happiness through spiritualawakening In Wake Up Now , author Stephan Bodian--nationallyrecognized expert on meditation and spirituality and formereditor-in-chief of Yoga Journal --reveals that spiritualawakening is not some faraway dream, or overly complicated toachieve, but an ever-present reality that is always available hereand now. Based on his own experience and over 30 years of teaching thedirect approach to spiritual awakening, Bodian has broken down theawakening process into five overlapping, loosely sequential stages:seeking, awakening, deepening and clarifying, embodying, and livingthe awakened life. Wake Up Now guides you through everystage of the journey, from the process of seeking through the oftenprolonged and challenging process of integrating the awakening intoeveryday life. "This book is one of the most concise guides to spiritualawakening I have read. Both profound and practical, it guides thereader through the intricacies of awakening as only someo

Different styles of martial arts offer contradictoryinformation, philosophies, and techniques for the body in combat. Apractitioner of Judo might advocate grappling, reasoning that mostfights converge into close range after a short time, when anadvocate of Tae Kwon Do would argue that one should strive tomaintain one's distance in an encounter that would allow one to usethe legs, the most powerful weapon on the human body. As a lifelong student and teacher of multiple styles of martialarts, Steven Pearlman has sought to distill from these disciplinesnot a fusion of techniques, but rather a compilation of fundamentalprinciples that can guide the individual martial artist to theideal action. Through his exploration of a set of basic principlesthat range from the physical (spinal alignment, the triangularguard, breathing) to the spiritual (the void, the body-mind, thecharacter), Pearlman arrives at a system open to all martialartists without bastardizing the techniques of the originaldisciplines.

In Carroll's provocative reading of the deep past, the Bible'sbrutality responded to the violence that threatened Jerusalem fromthe start. Centuries later, the mounting European fixation on aheavenly Jerusalem sparked both anti-Semitism and racist colonialcontempt. The holy wars of the Knights Templar burned apocalypticmayhem into the Western mind. Carroll's brilliant and original leapis to show how, as Christopher Columbus carried his own Jerusalemcentric worldview to the West, America too was powerfully shaped bythe dream of the City on a Hill - from Governor Winthrop to AbrahamLincoln to Woodrow Wilson to Ronald Reagan. The nuclearbrinksmanship of the 1973 Yom Kippur War helps prove his point:religion and violence fuel each other, with Jerusalem the groundzero of the heat.

Archaeological evidence shows there was contact between Muslimsand the British Isles from the 8th century. Beginning with thesehistorical roots, Sophie Gilliat-Ray traces the major points ofencounter between Muslims and the British in subsequent centuries,and explores Muslim migration to Britain in recent times. Drawingupon sociology, anthropology, politics, and geography, thiscomprehensive survey provides an informed understanding of thedaily lives of British Muslims. It portrays the dynamic ofinstitutions such as families, mosques and religious leadership,and analyses their social and political significance in today'sBritain. Through the study of the historical origins of majorIslamic reform movements, it draws attention to the religiousdiversity within different Muslim communities, and sheds freshlight on contemporary issues such as the nature of religiousauthority and representation. It also considers British Muslimcivic engagement and cultural life, particularly the work ofjournalists, artists, sports p

Offers a fascinating snapshot of magic throughout various cultures as well as deep sociological and religious insights still very much relevant today.

These are passages that inform and transform: enjoy theirpoetry, study their wisdom, or use them for Easwaran's "PassageMeditation"."Timeless Wisdom", the companion volume to Easwaran's"Passage Meditation", is a rich collection of spiritual texts fromall the world's great traditions, selected by Easwaran for studyand for his method of meditation.Here are flashes of insight fromthe Hindu Upanishads; prayers of comfort from the Christian saints;psalms from the Old Testament; songs of praise from the Sufis; and,deep wisdom from the Buddhist and Taoist traditions. Some of thesepassages, such as the Prayer of St. Francis, the Buddha's "TwinVerses", and the Twenty-third Psalm, are familiar and well loved,others may be fresh discoveries - all are beautiful. Short texts,easy to read and memorize, are interspersed with longer ones, whichthe reader can study in depth." Passage Meditation", together withits companion volume, "Timeless Wisdom", are the first two books inNilgiri Press' "Essential Easwaran Library",

Reproduced in historical sequence, these signs, seals, and symbols range from the simplest drawings of Egyptian gods to the intricate images of Greek and Roman deities. Adapted from ancient and primitive sources, the illustrations depict Assyrian, Babylonian, Nordic, Incan, and Aztec gods; as well as figures from cultures of the American Indian, Japanese, and Chinese. Included in the set are: One CD-ROM containing 142 high-quality, permission-free images scanned at 600 dpi and saved in six different formats (TIFF, PICT, EPS, BMP, as well as Internet-ready JPEG and GIF) A large-format 64-page book with every image on the CD-ROM printed large and clearly on one side of the page only and numbered for easy reference Of immense value to commercial artists and designers, this authoritative collection will serve as a practical, visual guide for students and teachers in the graphic arts. Anyone interested in religious emblems and divinity symbols will also be fascinated by this unique CD-ROM and book set.

The history of Bible translation within the Catholic Church is characterized by a rich tradition of rendering the Scriptures into the language of the faith community. The CCNT features eight complete Catholic New Testaments that show the full range of expression for this central text of study, worship, prayer, and contemplation. A wide spectrum of people - including new and experienced Bible readers, homilists, and teachers - will gain from having this resource on their bookshelves. The Douay-Rheims, RSVCB, NRSVCB, and NAB are called formal equivalent translations (popularly referred to as "word-for-word" translations). This means that scholars rendered the New Testament's original language into English that is as close as possible to its original wording. The result is a translation that is particularly valuable for careful analysis of the text. Meanwhile, the JB, GNB, NJB, and Christian Community Bible represent the "thought-for-thought" school of Bible translation (technically described as dynamic or funct

Upanishads are mankind's oldest works of philosophy, predating the earliest Greek philosophy. They are the concluding part of the Vedas, the ancient Indian sacred literature, and mark the culmination of a tradition of speculative thought first expressed in the Rig-Veda more than 4000 years ago. Remarkable for their meditative depth, spirit of doubt and intellectual honesty, the Upanishads are concerned with the knowledge of the Brahman, the Ultimate Reality, and Man's relationship with it. The name Upanishad is derived from the face-to-face mode of imparting knowledge - in the utmost sanctity and secrecy, to prevent its trivialisation or perversion. Composed in Sanskrit between 900 and 600 BC, the Upanishads presented here are by far the oldest and most important of those that exist. Twelve were first translated more than a hundred years ago, and have been extensively revised and edited. The thirteenth is an entirely new translation by Suren Navlakha.