Some religious books in English

Під катом підбірка наукових релігійний та навколорелігійних книжок написаних англійською мовою. Не обовязково православних, про те, цікавих в першу чергу для богословів та науковців. Складено в першу чергу для себе, а якщо комусь ще пригодиться - буду радий.

• Gavin Flood, “The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism” (Blackwell Companions to Religion)Blackwell Publishing | New edition (2003) | English | ISBN 0631215352 | 608 pages | PDF | 2.98 MB

This volume presents the most recent scholarly thinking about Hinduism in an accessible way. It provides a forum for the best scholars in the world to make their views and research available to a wider audience. While comprehensively covering the textual traditions of Hinduism, the volume also includes material on Hindu folk religions and stresses the importance of region in analyzing Hinduism.

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• Jörg Rüpke, “A Companion to Roman Religion” (Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World)Blackwell Publishing (2007) | English | ISBN 1405129433 | 565 pages | PDF | 3.14 MB

This Companion provides a comprehensive treatment of Roman religion within its cultural, social, and historical contexts.Written by international experts, this volume offers a new approach, directing its focus away from the gods and concentrating on the human-figures of Roman religion. The book addresses the media through which religion was experienced and shared, including epigraphy, mosaics, wall-paintings, drama, and poetry, and provides, for example, the first ever history of religious motifs on coins. Placing the various discourses and practices into a larger geographical and cultural framework, this volume also considers the cults, gods, iconography, rituals, and texts that were exported widely throughout the empire, revealing the sprawling landscape of Roman religion. Judaism and Christianity are firmly placed within a strongly historical approach, covering the period from the eighth century BC to the fourth century AD.

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• Dorothea Frede & André Laks, “Traditions of Theology: Studies in Hellenistic Theology, Its Background and Aftermath” (Philosophia Antiqu)Brill (2002) | English | ISBN 9004122648 | 363 pages | PDF | 1.76 MB

The nine articles in this volume were orginally presented at the VIII. Symposium Hellenisticum in Lille in August 1998. The authors discuss a set of theological questions that were central to the doctrines of the dominant schools in the Hellenistic age, such as the existence of the gods, their nature, and their concern for humankind. While the philosophers of the Classical age had kept their distance from conventional religion, the Stoics and Epicureans saw the need to come to terms with the religious tradition both in a critical and in a supportive sense. Especially the challenge by the Sceptics forced the followers of the dogmatic schools (Stoics, Epicureans) to clarify the basis of their theological tenets.

Many of the texts that are accessible to us only in a fragmentary state were still highly influential in the early Christian era, so that the reconstruction of the theological views of the Hellenistic philosophers form an important part not only of the history of philosophy, but also of Christian theology and the history of religion in general. One distinctive feature of the volume is that it mirrors the changes of perspective that took place over the many centuries in this area, thus presenting the Hellenistic contribution within the larger framework of Greek philosophical theology.

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• Bart D. Ehrman, “The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings”Oxford University Press (1997) | English | ISBN 0195084810 | 460 pages | DjVu | 13.7 MB

This lucid introduction approaches the New Testament from a consistently historical and comparative perspective, emphasizing the rich diversity of the earliest Christian literature. Rather than shying away from the critical problems presented by these books, Ehrman addresses the historical and literary challenges they pose and shows why scholars continue to argue over such significant issues as how the books of the New Testament came into being, who produced them, what they mean, how they relate to contemporary Christian and non-Christian literature, and how they came to be collected into a canon of Scripture.

Distinctive to this study is its emphasis on the historical, literary, and religious milieu of the Greco-Roman world, including early Judaism. As part of its historical orientation, this text also discusses works by other Christian writers who were roughly contemporary with the New Testament, such as the Gospel of Thomas, the Apocalypse of Peter, and the letters of Ignatius. Instead of simply setting forth scholarly views without explanations, Ehrman includes the evidence that scholars have found persuasive for their views, engaging students and demonstrating why scholars have taken the positions they have. Ideal for undergraduate and seminary classes in the New Testament, biblical studies, and Christian origins, The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings is an accessible, clearly written introduction that encourages students to consider the historical issues surrounding these writings. Ehrman’s The New Testament and Other Early Christian Writings: A Reader serves as an ideal companion to this text. [Cover (above) from the 4th edition]

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• William Lane Craig & Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, “God?: A Debate between a Christian and an Atheist” (Point/Counterpoint)Oxford University Press (2004) | English | ISBN 0195165993 | 174 pages | PDF | 6.40 MB

The question of whether or not God exists is endlessly fascinating and profoundly important. Now two articulate spokesmen–one a Christian, the other an atheist–duel over God’s existence in a lively and illuminating battle of ideas. In God?, William Lane Craig and Walter Sinnott-Armstrong bring to the printed page two debates they held before live audiences, preserving all the wit, clarity, and immediacy of their public exchanges. With none of the opaque discourse of academic logicians and divinity-school theologians, the authors make claims and comebacks that cut with precision.

Their arguments are sharp and humorous, as each philosopher strikes quickly to the heart of his opponent’s case. For example, Craig claims that we must believe in God to explain objective moral values, such as why rape is wrong. Sinnott-Armstrong responds that what makes rape wrong is the harm to victims of rape, so rape is immoral even if there is no God. From arguments about the nature of infinity and the Big Bang, to religious experience and divine action, to the resurrection of Jesus and the problem of evil, the authors treat us to a remarkable display of intelligence and insight–a truly thought-provoking exploration of a classic issue that

remains relevant to contemporary life.

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• Michele Dillon, “Handbook of the Sociology of Religion”Cambridge University Press (2003) | English | ISBN: 051106375X | 500 pages | PDF | 1.79 MB

Religion is a critical construct for understanding contemporary social life. It illuminates the everyday experiences and practices of many individuals, is a significant component of diverse institutional processes including politics, gender relations, and socioeconomic inequality, and plays a vital role in public culture and social change. This handbook showcases current research and thinking in the sociology of religion. The contributors, all active writers and researchers in the area, provide original chapters focusing on select aspects of their own engagement with the field. Aimed at students and scholars who want to know more about the sociology of religion, this handbook also provides a resource for sociologists in general by integrating broader questions of sociology (e.g. demography, ethnicity, life course, inequality, political sociology) into the analysis of religion. Broadly inclusive of traditional research topics (modernity, secularization, politics) as well as newer interests (feminism, spirituality, faith-based community action), this handbook illustrates the validity of diverse theoretical perspectives and research designs to understanding the multilayered nature of religion as a sociological phenomenon.

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• Moshe Idel, “Absorbing Perfections: Kabbalah and Interpretation”Yale University Press (2002) | English | ISBN: 0300083793 | 690 pages | PDF | 1.60 MB

In this wide-ranging discussion of Kabbalah - from the mystical trends of medieval Judaism to modern Hasidism - one of the world’s foremost scholars considers different visions of the nature of the sacred text and of the methods to interpret it. Moshe Idel takes as a starting point the fact that the postbiblical Jewish world lost its geographical centre with the destruction of the temple and so was left with a textual centre, the Holy Book. Idel argues that a text-oriented religion produced language-centered forms of mysticism.

Against this background, the author demonstrates how various Jewish mystics amplified the content of the Scriptures so as to include everything: the world, or God, for example. Thus the text becomes a major realm for contemplation, and the interpretation of the text frequently becomes an encounter with the deepest realms of reality. Idel delineates the particular hermeneutics belonging to Jewish mysticism, investigates the progressive filling of the text with secrets and hidden levels of meaning, and considers in detail the various interpretive strategies needed to decodify the arcane dimensions of the text.

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• Geoffrey Cantor, “Quakers, Jews, and Science: Religious Responses to Modernity and the Sciences in Britain, 1650-1900″Oxford University Press (2005) | English | ISBN: 0199276684 | 438 pages | PDF | 4.37 MB

How do science and religion interact? This study examines the ways in which two minorities in Britain - the Quaker and Anglo-Jewish communities - engaged with science. Drawing on a wealth of documentary material, much of which has not been analysed by previous historians, Geoffrey Cantor charts the participation of Quakers and Jews in many different aspects of science: scientific research, science education, science-related careers, and scientific institutions. The responses of both communities to the challenge of modernity posed by innovative scientific theories, such as the Newtonian worldview and Darwin’s theory of evolution, are of central interest.

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• Laurel C. Schneider, “Beyond Monotheism: A Theology of Multiplicity”Routledge (2007) | English | ISBN: 0203944712 | 266 pages | PDF | 4.33 MB

Beyond Monotheism is an absorbing and lyrical exploration of the possibility of a new, living theology of multiplicity that is grounded in fluidity, change, and incarnation. In this groundbreaking work of contemporary theology, Schneider shows that the One is not lost in divine multiplicity, and that in spite of its abstractions, divine multiplicity is realistic and worldly, impossible ultimately to abstract.

In Part I, Schneider traces a trajectory from the ancient history of monotheism and multiplicity in Greece, Israel, and Africa through the Constantinian valorization of the logic of the One, to medieval and modern challenges to that logic in poetry and science. She pursues an alternative and constructive approach in Part II: a “logic of multiplicity” already resident in Christian traditions in which the complexity of life and the presence of God may be better articulated. Part III takes up the open-ended question of ethics from within that multiplicity, exploring the implications of this radical and realistic new theology for the questions that lie underneath theological construction: questions of belonging and nationalism, of the possibility of love, and of unity. In this groundbreaking work of contemporary theology, Schneider shows that the One is not lost in divine multiplicity, and that in spite of its abstractions, divine multiplicity is realistic and worldly, impossible ultimately to abstract.

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• Rudolf Steiner, “Christianity as Mystical Fact” (Classics in Anthroposophy)Anthroposophic Press (1997) | English | ISBN: 0880104368 | 276 pages | PDF | 2.57 MB

In the fall and winter of 1901-02, Rudolf Steiner gave a series of lectures on “Christianity as Mystical Fact” in the library belonging to Count and Countess Brockdorff, patrons of the German Theosophical Society. These lectures were then rewritten and issued in book form in the summer of 1902. They mark a watershed in the development of Western esotericism. As Steiner writes in his Autobiography. “My intention was not simply to present the mystical content of Christianity. Rather, my aim was to describe evolution from the ancient Mysteries to the Mystery of Golgotha in such a way as to reveal forces at work in this evolution that were not just earthy, historical forces, but spiritual, extra-earthly impulses. I wanted to show that the content presented in the ancient Mysteries took the form of ritualistic pictures of events occurring within the cosmos, events that were then transferred from the cosmos to the earth in the Mystery of Golgotha as a sense-perceptible fact accomplished on the plane of history”.

Christianity as Mystical Fact is a fundamental book, both in Steiner’s own development and in the development of Western esotericism and our understanding of the Christ event. Here readers will find the evolutionary development from the ancient Mysteries through the great Greek philosophers to the events portrayed in the Gospels. This new edition, therefore, newly translated, edited, and introduced by Andrew Welburn, is a welcome addition to the “Classics in Anthroposophy” series.

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• Ronald Cole-Turner, “Design and Destiny: Jewish and Christian Perspectives on Human Germline Modification” (Basic Bioethics)The MIT Press (2008) | English | ISBN: 0262533014 | 254 pages | PDF | 2.96 MB

We are approaching the day when advances in biotechnology will allow parents to “design” a baby with the traits they want. The continuing debate over the possibilities of genetic engineering has been spirited, but so far largely confined to the realms of bioethics and public policy. Design and Destiny approaches the question in religious terms, discussing human germline modification (the genetic modification of the embryonic cells that become the eggs or sperm of a developing organism) from the viewpoints of traditional Christian and Jewish teaching. The contributors, leading religious scholars and writers, call our attention not to technology but to humanity, reflecting upon the meaning and destiny of human life in a technological age.

Many of these scholars argue that religious teaching can support human germline modification implemented for therapeutic reasons, although they offer certain moral conditions that must be met. The essays offer a surprising variety of opinions, including a discussion of Judaism’s traditional presumption in favor of medicine, an argument that Catholic doctrine could accept germline modification if it is therapeutic for the embryo, an argument implying that “traditional” Christian teaching permits germline modification whether for therapy or enhancement, and a “classical” Protestant view that germline modification should be categorically opposed.

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• J. Harold Ellens, “Understanding Religious Experiences: What the Bible Says about Spirituality” (Psychology, Religion, and Spirituality)Praeger Publishers (2008) | English | ISBN: 027599547X | 205 pages | PDF | 2.40 MB

Today most people feel less interested in religion and more interested in spirituality. If you ask what they mean, they will tell you that organized religion tends to turn them off, but, nonetheless, they feel a hunger in the heart that they cannot seem to fill. They do not mean that they would rather have disorganized religion; they mean that institutional religion does not seem to satisfy their spirits and feel there must be something more, some better way of experiencing whatever that is for which they are hungry. Much new experimentation is going on as a result. Some of it is a search for the meaning to fill the soul and satisfy the spirit. Much of it is a search for meaning on the spiritual level itself. Spirituality reaches always toward questions about the meaning of God, the meaning of relationships with others, the meaning of intimacy, and the meaning of soul gratifying insights into truth.

Here, Ellens carefully and sensitively explores the full range of our spiritual natures and the variety of spiritual experiences of which we are capable, describing the way our souls and psyches work in our hunger and thirst for meaning. He explains in an enlightening and unconventional way why and how every human desires to reflect upon, learn, and share a heartfelt experience of God and of others. Readers will find in this book a description of the meaning of the biblical stories about spiritual experiences in addition to descriptions of the kinds of spiritual experiences that ordinary people are having, how they are achieving them, and the ways in which they are filling their lives with meaning that goes beyond the horizons of material life. The author paints this picture in such a way as to let us in on what biblically based authentic spirituality and spiritual experience really is, and why it may or may not necessarily have anything to do with traditional institutionalized religion. He carefully and vividly explains the notion of spirituality as it is illustrated in the Bible and discusses spiritual experiences such as prayer, epiphany, visions, and other experiences. He considers whether spirituality is mainly a connection with God, with others, or with both. Readers hoping to get a better sense of what it means to be spiritual will have many of their questions answered in these pages.

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• Anthony Bash, “Forgiveness and Christian Ethics” (New Studies in Christian Ethics)Cambridge University Press (2007) | English | ISBN: 0511342594 | 224 pages | PDF | 1.16 MB

What does it mean to forgive? The answer is widely assumed to be self-evident but critical analysis quickly reveals the complexities of the subject. Forgiveness has traditionally been the preserve of Christian theology, though in the last half century - and at an accelerating pace - psychologists, lawyers, politicians and moral philosophers have all been making an important contribution to questions about and our understanding of the subject. Anthony Bash offers a vigorous restatement of the Christian view of forgiveness in critical dialogue with those both within and without the Christian tradition. Forgiveness is a much more complicated subject than many theologians recognize. Bash explores the relevance of the theoretical discussion of the topic to recent events such as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa, post-Holocaust trials, the aftermath of 9/11 and July 7 and various high-profile criminal cases.

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• Saho Matsumoto-Best, “Britain and the Papacy in the Age of Revolution, 1846-1851″ (Royal Historical Society Studies in History New Series)Royal Historical Society (2003) | English | ISBN 086193265X | 214 pages | PDF | 1.32 MB

From the time of the Reformation Anglo-Vatican relations have typically been seen as a long history of unending antagonism and mutual suspicion, but this has not always been the case. This book sheds light on one of the most curious episodes in early Victorian history when, around the time of the 1848 revolutions in Europe, a rapprochement almost developed between Britain and the papacy, and British politicians and writers referred to the new head of the Catholic Church, Pius IX, as ‘the good pope’.

Integrating diplomatic, political, ecclesiastical and social history, Saho Matsumoto-Best traces the factors that brought these two traditionally hostile powers together and the reasons why this rapprochement was doomed to failure. She demonstrates how the desire to support constitutional government in Italy and to curb the activities of the Irish Catholic church led the government of Lord John Russell to build a close relationship with Pius IX, and how failure to understand the Vatican’s priorities and anti-papal and anti-Catholic feeling in Britain, particularly in the context of the restoration of the Catholic hierarchy in 1850, eventually destroyed this policy. This study is an important and original contribution to the current debate about the nature of mid nineteenth century-Britain and sheds new light on the British role in Italian unification. It will also be of great interest to students of nineteenth-century European international and ecclesiastical history, and of the 1848 revolutions.

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• St Augustine”The Confessions”PDF | ISBN not applicable | Year 401 AD | 266 pages | English | 2.5MB

The works outline Augustine’s sinful youth and his conversion to Christianity. It is widely seen as the first Western autobiography ever written, and was an influential model for Christian writers throughout the following 1000 years of the Middle Ages. It is not a complete autobiography, as it was written in his early 40s, and he lived long afterwards, producing another important work (City of God); it does, nonetheless, provide an unbroken record of his development of thought and is the most complete record of any single individual from the 4th and 5th centuries. It is a significant theological work. In the work St. Augustine writes about how much he regrets having led a sinful and immoral life.

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• Carol A. Newsom, “The Self As Symbolic Space: Constructing Identity and Community at Qumran”Brill Academic Publishers (2004) | English | ISBN: 900413803X | 390 pages | PDF | 1.31 MB

This volume investigates critical practices by which the Qumran community constituted itself as a sectarian society. Key to the formation of the community was the reconstruction of the identity of individual members. In this way the “self” became an important symbolic space for the development of the ideology of the sect. Persons who came to experience themselves in light of the narratives and symbolic structures embedded in the community practices would have developed the dispositions of affinity and estrangement necessary for the constitution of a sectarian society. Drawing on various theories of discourse and practice in rhetoric, philosophy, and anthropology, the book examines the construction of the self in two central documents: the Serek ha-Yahad and the Hodayot.

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• Shani L. Berrin, “The Pesher Nahum Scroll from Qumran: An Exegetical Study of 4Q169″Brill Academic Publishers (2004) | English | ISBN: 9004124845 | 373 pages | PDF | 1.54 MB

This volume investigates the layers of meaning of the Qumran community’s liturgical practice as prayer (communication with the divine), ritual (actions that establish and reinforce the social and ideological structures of the community), and speech (containing both verbal and non-verbal communication).

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• Gary Stern, “Can God Intervene?: How Religion Explains Natural Disasters”Praeger Publishers ( 2007) | English | ISBN: 0275989585 | 245 pages | PDF | 1.29 MB

The death and devastation wrought by the tsunami in South Asia, Hurricane Katrina, the earthquake in Pakistan, the mudslides in the Philippines, the tornadoes in the American Midwest, another earthquake in Indonesia - these are only the most recent “acts of God” to cause people of faith to question God’s role in the physical universe. To explore various religious explanations of the tragedies inflicted by nature, the author of this book interviewed 43 prominent religious leaders across the religious spectrum: rabbis, priests, imams, monks, storefront ministers, itinerant holy people, professors, and chaplains; Jews, Roman Catholics, mainline Protestants, evangelical Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and Atheists. The author asked each of them probing questions about what their religion teaches and what their faith professes about the presence of tragedy. Some feel that the forces of nature are simply impersonal, and some believe that God is omniscient but not omnipotent.

Some claim that nature is ultimately destructive because of Original Sin, some assert that the victims of natural disasters are sinners who deserve to die, and some explain that natural disasters are the result of individual and collective karma. Still others profess that God causes suffering in order to test and purify the victims. The author, an award-winning religion journalist, has extensive experience in this type of analytical journalism, and the result is a work that probes and challenges real people’s beliefs about a subject that, unfortunately, touches everyone’s life.

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