One of the major ambitions of medieval alchemists was to discover the elixir of life, a sovereign remedy capable not only of healing the body but of transforming it. Given the widespread belief that care for the body came at the cost of care for the...

"In this book intellectual historian Paul Goldin presents a history and interpretation of the eight most important classical Chinese philosophical texts and schools of thought associated with them: the Analects, Mencius, Mozi, Zhuangzi, Sunzi, Xunzi and...

An exploration of how ordinary U.S. Christians create global connections through the multibillion-dollar child sponsorship industryChild sponsorship emerged from nineteenth-century Protestant missions to become one of today’s most profitable private...

A photograph, map, or diagram illustrates the text for every site described in this pilgrimage to Palestine, beginning with places connected with John the Baptist and proceeding to Bethlehem and Nazareth, Samaria and Galilee, Jerash, Caesarea, Jericho,...

How the kibbutz movement thrived despite its inherent economic contradictions and why it eventually declinedThe kibbutz is a social experiment in collective living that challenges traditional economic theory. By sharing all income and resources equally...

In a pluralistic society such as ours, tolerance is a virtue―but it doesn't always seem so. Some suspect that it entangles us in unacceptable moral compromises and inequalities of power, while others dismiss it as mere political correctness or doubt that...

F. E. Peters, a scholar without peer in the comparative study of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, revisits his pioneering work. Peters has rethought and thoroughly rewritten his classic The Children of Abraham for a new generation of readers-at a time...

Zen and Japanese Culture is a classic that has influenced generations of readers and played a major role in shaping conceptions of Zen’s influence on Japanese traditional arts. In simple and poetic language, Daisetz Suzuki describes Zen and its...

A revealing look at the Jewish American encounter with BuddhismToday, many Jewish Americans are embracing a dual religious identity, practicing Buddhism while also staying connected to their Jewish roots. This book tells the story of Judaism's encounter...

For decades, scholars and public intellectuals have been predicting the demise of religion in the face of secularization. Yet religion is undergoing an unprecedented resurgence in modern life—and secularization no longer appears so inevitable. Formations...

How does a culture become Christian, especially one that is heir to such ancient traditions and spectacular monuments as Egypt? This book offers a new model for envisioning the process of Christianization by looking at the construction of Christianity in...

The remarkable excavation of a previously unidentified city in Israel from the time of King David, shedding new light on the link between the bible and historyKing David is a pivotal figure in the Bible, which tells his life story in detail and gives...

How the billionaire owners of Hobby Lobby are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to make America a “Bible nation”Like many evangelical Christians, the Green family of Oklahoma City believes that America was founded on a “biblical worldview as a...

The life and times of an enduring work of Jewish spiritualityThe Babylonian Talmud, a postbiblical Jewish text that is part scripture and part commentary, is an unlikely bestseller. Written in a hybrid of Hebrew and Aramaic, it is often ambiguous to the...