Religion

This hardcover is designed for regular use and has a sturdy binding and a cover that lies flat. 5 x 7 with a 9 point font size.
This is the standard Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church together with The Psalter or Psalms of David according to use in the Episcopal Church in the United States as authorized in 1979.

"The book is a highly personal and readable account of a profound change in the author's outlook: one that grew gradually over the course of decades but has lately blossomed..."

—The Wall Street Journal

“Millions are like me when it comes to religion: well-educated and successful people for whom religion has been irrelevant,” Charles Murray writes. “For them, I think I have a story worth telling.” 

Taking Religion Seriously is Murray’s autobiographical account of the decades-long evolution in his stance toward the idea of God in general and Christianity in particular. He argues that religion is something that can be approached as an intellectual exercise. His account moves from the improbable physics of the Big Bang to recent discoveries about the nature of consciousness, from evolutionary psychology to hypotheses about a universal Moral Law. His exploration of Christianity delves into the authorship of the Gospels, the reliability of biblical texts, and the scholarship surrounding the resurrection story. 

Murray, the author of Coming Apart and coauthor of The Bell Curve, does not write as an expert. He acknowledges that those taking religion seriously for the first time, like himself, must grapple with topics and ideas that defy intellectual mastery. In this book, Murray offers his personal example of intellectual struggle toward religion. 

 “Maybe God needs a way to reach overeducated agnostics and that’s what I stumbled into,” he writes. “It’s a more arid process than divine revelation but it has been rewarding. And, if you’re like me, it’s the only game in town.”

“Remarkable . . . a vision for the future that is decidedly not the way we’ve always done it but instead shaped by the way of Jesus and his love.” –from the foreword by Michael B. Curry, former Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church

The Nones, Dones, Unchurched, spiritual-but-not-religious (SBNRs). Call them what you will, they're a dominant force in American religion and the majority among Millennials and Gen Zers. In Church Tomorrow? Stephanie Spellers presents hard truths about declining religious affiliation in America, paired with stories and wisdom from her interviews with dozens of young people who either grew up with no faith or gave up formal religion. Along the way, she joins hundreds in a yoga circle at San Francisco's Grace Cathedral; in in Atlanta, Georgia, she attends Sunday Assembly, a secular congregation that caters to agnostics and atheists; just outside the Twin Cities, she interviews college students exploring crystals and tarot decks; and in New York City she comes home to meet spiritual-but-not-religious young adults who once attended her own church. And that's only the beginning.

As she listens and learns, Spellers asks: Why are younger generations passing on church? What spiritual pathways and communities are they creating? And how could their insights help to shape the future of Christian community? Listen up – today’s young Nones and Dones have a prophecy for the church of tomorrow.


 

The indispensable guide to curating resources for worship in the Episcopal Church.

Newly revised and reorganized, Planning for Rites and Rituals is a guide to liturgical planning in the Episcopal Church, organized around the seasons of the church year and the cycle of Sunday readings in the revised common lectionary. Structured as a series of three volumes—one for each year in the lectionary cycle—Planning for Rites and Rituals includes guidance for making seasonal choices among the church’s authorized worship resources, brief commentary on each Sunday’s readings, guidance is approaching the Prayers of the People, and suggestions for observing commemorations from the church’s calendar. New relections on the readings by Deirdre Good offer fresh insghts to preachers. New introductory material suggests approaches to curating liturgical resources.

New editor Andrew Wright has applied his years of experience in planning liturgy at parishes across the Episcopal Church and mentoring clergy to this revision. Including contributions from throughout the church, this volume offers clergy and lay liturgical planners a framework for planning throughout the church year.

Newly updated Episcopal liturgies for every season.

The Book of Occasional Services 2022 contains authorized liturgies for numerous occasions, including seasonal blessings, lessons and carols for Christmas and Advent, tenebrae, blessing of animals, preparation for baptism, planting of churches, setting apart for a religious vocation, and more. This new edition features additional liturgical materials authorized by the General Convention of the Episcopal Church in 2022, such as a liturgy for quinceañeras and revised liturgies for the founding of a church and reaffirmation of ordination vows.

The indispensable guide to curating resources for worship in the Episcopal Church.

Newly revised and reorganized, Planning for Rites and Rituals is a guide to liturgical planning in the Episcopal Church, organized around the seasons of the church year and the cycle of Sunday readings in the revised common lectionary. Structured as a series of three volumes—one for each year in the lectionary cycle—Planning for Rites and Rituals includes guidance for making seasonal choices among the church’s authorized worship resources, brief commentary on each Sunday’s readings, guidance in approaching the Prayers of the People, and suggestions for observing commemorations from the church’s calendar. New introductory material suggests approaches to curating liturgical resources.

New editor Andrew Wright has applied his years of experience in planning liturgy at parishes across the Episcopal Church and mentoring clergy to this revision. Including contributions from throughout the church, this volume offers clergy and lay liturgical planners a framework for planning throughout the church year.

The Book of Common Prayer with The Hymnal 1982 containing all hymns and service music for all who sing—choir and congregation alike.

Our combination editions make great gifts for personal use or church settings. Genuine leather, gold edges, ribbon markers, gift box. Available in Red or Black. This contains the standard Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church together with The Psalter or Psalms of David according to use in the Episcopal Church in the United States as authorized in 1979.

The gospel readings for all Sundays in Years A, B, and C according to the Revised Common Lectionary, together with the gospels for all major Holy Days, in the New Revised Standard Version translation. Beautifully bound in genuine leather with gold stamping and ribbon marker, this book has been designed for ceremonial use in the Eucharist.

• Handsome binding and stamping designed for carrying in procession.
• Large, easy-to-read page design.
• Excellent memorial or thanksgiving gift for congregations

The indispensable guide to curating resources for worship in the Episcopal Church.

Newly revised and reorganized, this guide to liturgical planning in the Episcopal Church is organized around the seasons of the church year and the cycle of Sunday readings in the revised common lectionary. Structured as a series of three volumes—one for each year in the lectionary cycle—Planning for Rites and Rituals includes guidance for making seasonal choices among the church’s authorized worship resources, brief commentary on each Sunday’s readings, guidance in approaching the Prayers of the People, and suggestions for observing commemorations from the church’s calendar. New introductory material suggests approaches to curating liturgical resources.

New editor Andrew Wright has applied his years of experience in planning liturgy at parishes across the Episcopal Church and mentoring clergy to this revision. Including contributions from throughout the church, this volume offers clergy and lay liturgical planners a framework for planning throughout the church year.

2025 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title

How white psychiatrists pathologized African American religions

In the decades after the end of slavery, African Americans were committed to southern state mental hospitals at higher rates as white psychiatrists listed “religious excitement” among the most frequent causes of insanity for Black patients. At the same time, American popular culture and political discourse framed African American modes of spiritual power as fetishism and superstition, cast embodied worship as excessive or fanatical, and labeled new religious movements “cults,” unworthy of respect.

As Judith Weisenfeld argues in Black Religion in the Madhouse, psychiatrists’ notions of race and religion became inextricably intertwined in the decades after the end of slavery and into the twentieth century, and had profound impacts on the diagnosis, care, and treatment of Black patients. This book charts how racialized medical understandings of mental normalcy pathologized a range of Black religious beliefs, spiritual sensibilities, practices, and social organizations and framed them as manifestations of innate racial traits. Importantly, these characterizations were marshaled to help to limit the possibilities for Black self-determination, with white psychiatrists’ theories about African American religion and mental health being used to promote claims of Black people’s unfitness for freedom.

Drawing on extensive archival research, Black Religion in the Madhouse is the first book to expose how racist views of Black religion in slavery’s wake shaped the rise of psychiatry as an established and powerful profession.

The Book of Common Prayer with The Hymnal 1982 containing all hymns and service music for all who sing—choir and congregation alike.

Our combination editions make great gifts for personal use or church settings. Genuine leather, gold edges, ribbon markers, gift box. Available in Red or Black. This contains the standard Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church together with The Psalter or Psalms of David according to use in the Episcopal Church in the United States as authorized in 1979.

This beautifully constructed and reasonably priced edition is a perfect choice for wide distribution in schools and for use as a pew prayer book.

Embossed with an elegant gold cross, the imitation leather cover comes in black or burgundy. Includes one satin ribbon marker. This is the standard Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church together with The Psalter or Psalms of David according to use in the Episcopal Church in the United States as authorized in 1979.

Newly revised commemorations for saints and occasions throughout the church year.

Lesser Feasts and Fasts supplements the Book of Common Prayer with material to commemorate numerous saints and occasions. This 2022 version of Lesser Feasts and Fasts includes new commemorations authorized by the General Convention of the Episcopal Church in 2022 including the consecration of Bishop Barbara Clementine Harris, Simeon Bachos (the Ethiopian eunuch), Episcopal deaconesses, and Frederick Howden, Jr..

“An openhearted testament to the power of religious belief in a chaotic world.” –Publishers Weekly

From a beloved pastor, a collection of powerful conversations on faith and meaning with twelve public figures who explore the impact of faith in their lives and their success.

Through interviews with twelve remarkable and renowned individuals from various Christian denominations, author Russell J. Levenson, Jr. explores different ways people come to faith and sustain it in their daily lives. The result is a collection of fascinating, moving, and unique stories, rarely shared with the public. For instance, Secretary Rice notes that she knelt down to pray every night when she worked in Washington, but often was so tired she fell asleep during prayer time; Denzel Washington asked to begin and end the interview for this book in prayer with Levenson; and Amy Grant shared that because of a brain injury she now has trouble reciting scripture, so she sings it instead. 

Each interview delves into the private, spiritual side of public figures and reveals that behind success and fame there is often a vibrant, personal belief in God that nourishes them. Jim Nantz and Brit Hume reflect on the role of their faith as they pursued careers in broadcasting; Sam Waterston and Gary Sinise share thoughts on faith as they navigated fame in the entertainment industry; James A. Baker III, Admiral William McRaven, and Ambassador Nikki Haley consider how faith helped them make tough political decisions, and Dr. Francis Collins and Jane Goodall ponder the bridge between God and science. You will come away contemplating the role of religious belief in your own life and consider what truly matters at the end of the day.

 

This leather-bound edition of the Altar Book is used for worship in conjunction with the 1979 Book of Common Prayer.

It includes Eucharistic material, Collects, Prayers of the People, Proper Liturgies for Special Days, musical notation, and a musical appendix. Special features include gold page edges, ribbon markers, and a gift box.

Slightly smaller than the Pew version, the Chapel Edition is ideal for personal use and especially suitable for travel. The red hardcover measures 4 x 6, and text is a 9 point font size.

This is the standard Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church together with The Psalter or Psalms of David according to use in the Episcopal Church in the United States as authorized in 1979.

The long-awaited new translation of the Book of Common Prayer.

Based on modern translation principles, this newly authorized translation of the Book of Common Prayer contains Spanish-language liturgical materials for use in the Episcopal Church. A monumental liturgical and literary work is available in an accessible Spanish translation. Created using dynamic equivalence, with an eye toward inclusive language throughout, the translation supports the liturgical and pastoral needs of Spanish-speaking Episcopalians. This hardcover edition is designed for use in churches, with a sturdy binding and cover.

La nueva y tan anhelada traducción del Libro de Oración Común.

Esta traducción recientemente autorizada del Libro de Oración Común, que se basa en principios de traducción modernos, contiene materiales litúrgicos en español para usar en la Iglesia Episcopal. Una obra litúrgica y literaria monumental se encuentra disponible en una accesible traducción al español. Al crearse mediante el uso de equivalencias dinámicas y la consideración del lenguaje inclusivo en todo el documento, la traducción respalda las necesidades litúrgicas y pastorales de los episcopalianos de habla hispana. Esta edición de tapa dura y encuadernado resistente se diseñó para usar en iglesias.

Reveals how medieval Jews developed religious law through contact with their Muslim neighbors

After Revelation offers a dynamic new perspective on medieval Jewish legal thought and its integration in the wider Islamic world. Here, Marc D. Herman demonstrates that Jews were fully conversant in their contemporaries’ ideas about revelation, law, and legal interpretation. Bookended by the two luminaries of medieval Judaism—Saadia Gaon and Moses Maimonides—After Revelation analyzes the legal theory that medieval Jews produced in Islamic lands, mostly in Arabic, and reveals previously unrecognized commonalities between Jewish and Islamic constructions of religious law.

Herman tackles one of the central doctrines of post-biblical Judaism: that God had supplemented the written Hebrew Bible with an Oral Torah. Tracing this idea from Baghdad to Córdoba to Cairo, he shows that the Oral Torah took many new forms in the medieval Islamic world. After Revelation makes plain that medieval Judaism took the shapes that it did largely because of contact with Islam.

The leading source of information on the Episcopal Church

With origins dating back to 1830, The Episcopal Church Annual – aka “The Red Book” – is an indispensable reference tool, trusted year-after-year by churches, diocesan offices, libraries, and many others. You will find the following between the covers of the 2023 edition of “The Red Book”, and more:

• A comprehensive directory of provinces, dioceses, and churches, including contact information and listings of active clergy
• The canonical structure and organization of the Episcopal Church, including complete directories for the Office of The General Convention, The House of Bishops, The House of Deputies, standing committees and commissions, and more
• Listings and contact information for seminaries; Episcopal schools; centers for camps, conferences, and retreats; Episcopal Church Women; and more
• Up-to-date church-wide statistical data and chronological tables
• A classified buyer’s guide of vendors and organizations offering valued services to the church

Give the gift of a beautiful and durable Book of Common Prayer!

A gold cross is stamped on the bonded leather cover in your choice of five colors, with gilt edges, a presentation page, and two satin ribbon markers. Certificates of Baptism, Confirmation, and Marriage are included. 9-point font size.

This is the standard Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church together with The Psalter or Psalms of David according to use in the Episcopal Church in the United States as authorized in 1979.

This beautifully constructed and reasonably priced edition is a perfect choice for wide distribution in schools and for use as a pew prayer book.

Embossed with an elegant gold cross, the imitation leather cover comes in black or burgundy. Includes one satin ribbon marker. This is the standard Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church together with The Psalter or Psalms of David according to use in the Episcopal Church in the United States as authorized in 1979.

Traces the history of the Claretian Missionaries and their far-reaching influence on Latino Catholics

Pioneers of Latino Ministry tells the story of the Claretian Missionaries, a male Catholic congregation, dedicated to Latin American immigrants and their families on the margins of US society since 1902. The Claretians’ accompaniment of Latinos makes them distinct in American Catholic history. When the first Claretians arrived from Mexico, Spanish speakers were a small, often unrecognized part of Catholic America. Today Latinos constitute half of US Catholics.

The Claretians inaugurated parishes and schools in over fifteen states. Their outreach was felt in wider Catholic America as they published popular magazines, created missions in Central America, and fostered a now wide-spread devotion to St. Jude. They cultivated respect and dignity for Latino people in regions where wider society marginalized the newcomers. Because they encouraged education and leadership within their parishes, many Latinos emerged to lead and enhance US Catholic life as priests, female religious, and lay leaders. Today, the Claretians have circled back to their original mission in the US: committed to new generations of immigrants and their children.

Pioneers of Latino Ministry charts the history of the Claretians and their influence on Latino Catholics in the US, as well as on broader American Catholicism. Filled with compelling stories, the volume offers a vital portrait of unexplored Catholic American history.

• learn how to recognize and resist the subtle influences of technology, propaganda, and consumerism;
• discover the power of spiritual disciplines like prayer, meditation, and scripture-reading to stay grounded in faith and connected to God;
• appreciate the importance of a supportive faith community;
• gain the confidence to speak out against injustice and idolatry and advocate for justice and compassion;
• stand against societal trends that dehumanize individuals, and champion the intrinsic value of every person;
• equip themselves to thoughtfully and critically engage with contemporary culture. 

A Sufi scholar’s philosophical interpretation of the names of God

The Divine Names is a philosophically sophisticated commentary on the names of God. Penned by the seventh-/thirteenth-century North African scholar and Sufi poet ʿAfīf al-Dīn al-Tilimsānī, The Divine Names expounds upon the one hundred and forty-six names of God that appear in the Qurʾan, including The All-Merciful, The Powerful, The First, and The Last. In his treatment of each divine name, al-Tilimsānī synthesizes and compares the views of three influential earlier authors, al-Bayhaqī, al-Ghazālī, and Ibn Barrajān.

Al-Tilimsānī famously described his two teachers Ibn al-ʿArabī and al-Qūnawī as a “philosophizing mystic” and a “mysticizing philosopher,” respectively. Picking up their mantle, al-Tilimsānī merges mysticism and philosophy, combining the tenets of Akbarī Sufism with the technical language of Aristotelian, Neoplatonic, and Avicennan philosophy as he explains his logic in a rigorous and concise way. Unlike Ibn al-ʿArabī, his overarching concern is not to examine the names as correspondences between God and creation, but to demonstrate how the names overlap at every level of cosmic existence. The Divine Names shows how a broad range of competing theological and philosophical interpretations can all contain elements of the truth.

A bilingual Arabic-English edition.

An essential volume spanning the theology, tradition, and practical considerations of altar guild ministry

This necessary and practical guide is designed to function as a theological, formational, and spiritual resource for any altar guild member. Peppered with Scripture and prayers, it examines the history and tradition of the noble office and elevates the altar guild role as a vocation in the life of our church. Offering definitions, instructions, and illustrations, this volume has what you need to prepare for every liturgical season, as well as a guide for special services, including weddings, funerals, ordinations, and visits from the bishop. The volume will address modern challenges for this ministry arising from the Covid-19 pandemic, including health and safety and the rise of virtual worship services, as well as unique opportunities for leadership in a changing ecclesial landscape.

The congregations of The Episcopal Church are richly varied in architecture, custom, tradition, style of worship, and practice. The Manual for Altar Guilds will serve as a foundational resource and guide for this essential ministry, providing practical yet flexible guidance that can be easily adapted to meet the unique needs of your congregation and the changing times.

El Libro de Oracion Comun. The complete Book of Common Prayer, Spanish language edition. Blue hardcover.
This is the standard Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church together with The Psalter or Psalms of David according to use in the Episcopal Church in the United States as authorized in 1979.

El libro de oración común completo, edición en español. Tapa dura (color azul). Este es el Libro de oración común y administración de los sacramentos y otros ritos y ceremonias de la Iglesia estándar junto con el Salterio o Salmos de David según el uso en la Iglesia Episcopal en los Estados Unidos como fue autorizado en 1979.

This hardcover is designed for regular use and has a sturdy binding and a cover that lies flat. Choice of black or red. 5 x 7 with a 9 point font size.

This is the standard Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church together with The Psalter or Psalms of David according to use in the Episcopal Church in the United States as authorized in 1979.

Give the gift of a beautiful and durable Book of Common Prayer! A gold cross is stamped on the bonded leather cover in your choice of five colors, with gilt edges, a presentation page, and two satin ribbon markers. Certificates of Baptism, Confirmation, and Marriage are included. 9-point font size.

This is the standard Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church together with The Psalter or Psalms of David according to use in the Episcopal Church in the United States as authorized in 1979.

With a soft, supple genuine leather cover in your choice of black or red, gold edges, and five ribbon markers, this deluxe edition of the Book of Common Prayer arrives gift boxed.

This is the standard Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church together with The Psalter or Psalms of David according to use in the Episcopal Church in the United States as authorized in 1979.

The Chancel Edition features an attractive blue hardcover with a 10 point font size.

This is the standard Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church together with The Psalter or Psalms of David according to use in the Episcopal Church in the United States as authorized in 1979.

How Henry Ford institutionalized a social gospel

Henry Ford did not just mass produce cars. As a member of the Episcopal Church, reader of New Thought texts, believer in the “gospel of reincarnation,” mass marketer of antisemitic material, and employer who institutionalized a social gospel, Henry Ford’s contributions to American models of business were informed by and produced for an America he understood to be broadly Christian. Though Ford’s efforts at the head of the Ford Motor Company have commonly been understood as secular, Ford himself was explicit that his work in engineering and auto production was prophetic and meant to remake the world.

This religious history of Henry Ford and the Ford Motor Company repositions them within critical studies of religion, examining how Ford transformed American religious practice in the twentieth century. Drawing directly on documents from Ford’s archive, it examines Ford’s mass production methods and bureaucratic reforms as examples of prosperity gospel traditions, illuminating the ways manufacturing and technology intersect with American religious practice. Bridging American religious and industrial history, Assembling Religion offers a new and surprising way to understand Ford’s impact on culture, commerce, and the technology of labor.

Pulling from the riches of The Prayer Book Office and the Contemporary Office Book, Prayer Book Offices includes both Rite I and Rite II versions of the round of offices from the Book of Common Prayer. Additionally, the volume includes canticles, the Psalter, Collects, and the full cycle of readings for Years One and Two and Holy Days in the Daily Office Lectionary. The book is Smyth Sewn Case Bound Flex Case, Bonded Leather with gold foil stamped, and includes four ribbons.

A beautiful and durable gift edition of the Book of Common Prayer.

A gold cross is stamped on the bonded leather cover in your choice of five colors, with gilt edges, a presentation page, and two satin ribbon markers. Certificates of Baptism, Confirmation, and Marriage are included. 9-point font size. This is the standard Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church together with The Psalter or Psalms of David according to use in the Episcopal Church in the United States as authorized in 1979.

The complete readings for the Revised Common Lectionary Years A, B, and C as authorized by the 2006 General Convention of the Episcopal Church, together with readings for the major Holy Days of the church year, in the NRSV translation.

• The RCL goes into official use in the Episcopal Church on the First Sunday of Advent 2007 and will replace the three-year lectionary currently in the Book of Common Prayer.
• Many congregations have already begun to use the RCL, and all congregations must be using it by 2010.

This handsome, well-made cloth edition with two ribbon markers and a lay-flat binding is ideal for use in a pulpit or lectern.

The leading source of information on the Episcopal Church

With origins dating back to 1830, The Episcopal Church Annual – aka “The Red Book” – is an indispensable reference tool, trusted year-after-year by churches, diocesan offices, libraries, and many others. You will find the following between the covers of the 2024 edition of “The Red Book”, and more:

• A comprehensive directory of provinces, dioceses, and churches, including contact information and listings of active clergy
• The canonical structure and organization of the Episcopal Church, including complete directories for the Office of The General Convention, The House of Bishops, The House of Deputies, standing committees and commissions, and more
• Listings and contact information for seminaries; Episcopal schools; centers for camps, conferences, and retreats; Episcopal Church Women; and more
• Up-to-date church-wide statistical data and chronological tables
• A classified buyer’s guide of vendors and organizations offering valued services to the church

The Bible shaped nearly every aspect of Jewish life in the ancient world, from activities as obvious as attending synagogue to those which have lost their scriptural resonance in modernity, such as drinking water and uttering one’s last words. And within a scriptural universe, no work exerted more force than the Psalter, the most cherished text among all the books of the Hebrew Bible.

A Life of Psalms in Jewish Late Antiquity clarifies the world of late ancient Judaism through the versatile and powerful lens of the Psalter. It asks a simple set of questions: Where did late ancient Jews encounter the Psalms? How did they engage with the work? And what meanings did they produce? A. J. Berkovitz answers these queries by reconstructing and contextualizing a diverse set of religious practices performed with and on the Psalter, such as handling a physical copy, reading from it, interpreting it exegetically, singing it as liturgy, invoking it as magic and reciting it as an act of piety. His book draws from and contributes to the fields of ancient Judaism, biblical reception, book history and the history of reading.

Ideal as a pew book or gift, this prayer book features luxurious imitation leather binding with a soft, matte finish in your choice of four colors.

A textured cross is embossed on the cover. The prayer book is sturdily assembled, with Smyth-sewn pages and a spine that won't crack under heavy use. A presentation page and certificates for the rites of Baptism, Confirmation, and Marriage are included. 9-point font.

This is the standard Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church together with The Psalter or Psalms of David according to use in the Episcopal Church in the United States as authorized in 1979.

When Jesus was five he killed a boy, or so reports the Infancy Gospel of Thomas. A little boy had run into Jesus by accident, bumping him on the shoulder, and Jesus took offense: "Jesus was angry and said to him, 'You shall go no further on your way,' and instantly the boy fell down and died." A second story recounts how Jesus transformed mud into living birds, while yet another has Joseph telling Mary to keep Jesus in the house so that no one else gets hurt. What was life really like in the household of Joseph, Mary, and little Jesus? The canon of the New Testament provides few details, but ancient Christians, wanting to know more, would turn to the texts we know as the "Infancy Gospels."

The Infancy Gospel of Thomas is a collection of stories from the mid-second century C.E. describing events in the life of Jesus between the ages of five and twelve. The Proto-gospel of James, also dating from the second century, focuses on Mary and likewise includes episodes from her childhood. These gospels are often cast aside as marginal character sketches, designed to assure the faithful that signs of divine grace cropped up in the early years of both Mary and Jesus. Christopher A. Frilingos contends instead that the accounts are best viewed as meditations on family. Both gospels offer rich portrayals of household relationships at a time when ancient Christians were locked in a fierce debate about family—not only on the question of what a Christian family ought to look like but also on whether Christians should pursue family life at all.

Describing the conflicts of family life, the gospels present Jesus, Mary, and Joseph in moments of weakness and strength, reminding early Christians of the canyon separating human ignorance and divine knowledge. According to Frilingos, the depicted acts of love and courage performed in the face of great uncertainty taught early Christian readers the worth of human relationships.

Ideal as a pew book or gift, this exclusive prayer book features luxurious imitation leather binding with a soft, matte finish in your choice of four colors.

A textured cross is embossed on the cover. The prayer book is sturdily assembled, with Smyth-sewn pages and a spine that won't crack under heavy use. A presentation page and certificates for the rites of Baptism, Confirmation, and Marriage are included. 9-point font.

This is the standard Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church together with The Psalter or Psalms of David according to use in the Episcopal Church in the United States as authorized in 1979.

The Book of Common Prayer (BCP) and the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible are an excellent, logical combination for daily devotion and study, as well as on Sundays during the liturgy. This combined volume eliminates the need to carry two books.

The NRSV translation of the Bible is accurate, elegant, highly acclaimed by scholars, and enjoys wide use in congregations of the Episcopal Church. This edition contains the Apocrypha.

The Book of Common Prayer and lectionary titles have been updated to include the Revised Common Lectionary, according to Resolution A077 of the 75th General Convention.

Arriving to you in a sturdy, attractive box, this compact volume has five ribbon markers and a leather cover in red or black. Print size is 9-point.

73rd National Jewish Book Awards Finalist


Charts how changes to Jewish education in the nineteenth century served as a site for the wholescale reimagining of Judaism itself

The earliest Jewish Sunday schools were female-led, growing from one school in Philadelphia established by Rebecca Gratz in 1838 to an entire system that educated vast numbers of Jewish youth across the country. These schools were modeled on Christian approaches to religious education and aimed to protect Jewish children from Protestant missionaries. But debates soon swirled around the so-called sorry state of “feminized” American Jewish supplemental learning, and the schools were taken over by men within one generation of their creation. It is commonly assumed that the critiques were accurate and that the early Jewish Sunday school was too feminized, saccharine, and dependent on Christian paradigms. Tracing the development of these schools from their inception through the first decade of the twentieth century, this book shows this was not the reality.

Jewish Sunday Schools argues that the work of the women who shepherded Jewish education in the early Jewish Sunday school had ramifications far outside the classroom. Indeed, we cannot understand the nineteenth-century American Jewish experience, and how American Judaism sought to sustain itself in an overwhelmingly Protestant context, without looking closely at the development of these precursors to Hebrew School.

Jewish Sunday Schools provides an in-depth portrait of a massively understudied movement that acted as a vital means by which American Jews explored and reconciled their religious and national identities.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

FOREWORD BY CHARLIE KIRK

“A fearless warrior for Christ. Lucas is a man built to stand for the truth in a time of great apostasy. Don’t just read PAGAN THREAT—internalize what it has to say. Then, share its message with your Christian friends, before they are seduced by Paganism themselves. We have a faith and a country to save.”

—CHARLIE KIRK, FOUNDER TURNING POINT USA

“If ever there was a prophetic book for this hour. 'Godless uprising.' 'Pagan threat.' The young man...who murdered Charlie is right at the center of the kind of thing [Lucas Miles is] talking about here.”

—ERIC METAXAS

THERE IS A RISING PAGAN THREAT TO THE CHURCH AND AMERICAN WAY OF LIFE.

"The world does not need a Christianity of convenience or cultural compliance; it needs a Christianity that is fervent, passionate, and unapologetically true. For only when we believe, with all our hearts, that Christ is the way, the truth, and the life—only when we are convinced that the Gospel is not just a set of doctrines but the living, breathing power of God—will we have the courage to stand against the forces of Paganism.”—PASTOR LUCAS MILES, SENIOR DIRECTOR TURNING POINT USA FAITH

Pastor Lucas Miles, bestselling author of Woke Jesus: The False Messiah Destroying Christianity, delves into the alarming resurgence of pagan ideologies within the United States, posing significant threats to the church, the nation, and the world.

Unveiling the complex interplay between ancient beliefs and modern society, PAGAN THREAT: CONFRONTING AMERICA'S GODLESS UPRISING meticulously exposes the inherent dangers that challenge the core fabric of our faith and civic unity. From exposing an evolving techno paganism to blatant idol worship, Pastor Miles navigates the intricate terrain of safeguarding the nation and the pulpit against the rising tide of paganism.

PAGAN THREAT serves as an insightful guide, a warning and a call-to-action, urging readers to understand, confront, and ultimately fortify the foundations of their faith and the principles that define our great nation, and is a necessary work to prepare God’s people for what comes next in a society experiencing moral and spiritual decline.

PAGAN THREAT aims to shed light on how the ancient and the modern have converged in ways that threaten both the church and the broader fabric of our society. The connection between Woke ideology and Paganism is not merely a coincidence but a natural progression. Behind the emphasis on identity politics, intersectionality, and radical inclusivity within Wokeism lies centuries-old ancient Pagan ideologies. 

Pastor Lucas Miles does more than diagnose the threats we face; he aims to equip and inspire us to rise to the challenge and invites readers to embark on an adventure of spiritual awakening; To seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit, embrace the transformative power of revival, and stand resolute against the encroaching darkness. The future of the church and our great nation depends on our collective faithfulness to the truth and our unwavering commitment to the Kingdom of God.

THE FINAL BATTLE PLAN TO RESIST PAGANISM

• Deepen Discipleship Rooted in Primary Christian Doctrine.
• Develop a Roadmap for Christian Engagement in Politics and the Public Square.
• Leverage Technology for the Advancement of the Gospel.
• Redouble Efforts to Reach Today’s Youth.
• Implement a Practical Strategy for Evangelism.
• Directly Combat False Doctrines and Pagan Ideologies.
• Renew Interest in Spiritual Gifts.

PAGAN THREAT shows we must focus on these essential steps needed to combat the rise of Paganism so we can fortify believers’ faith, strategically spread the Gospel, and reclaim the public square for God’s glory.

“To win the battle against Paganism, we must do more than merely resist the rise of its idols; we must believe in Christianity in a way that shapes our lives, our actions, and our very hearts. It is not enough to claim the name of Christ or to oppose the darkness with moral outrage; we embrace the light, letting it pierce the deepest corners of our souls.”—Pastor Lucas Miles

What can we know about the everyday experiences of Christians during the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries? How did non-elite men and women, enslaved, freed, and free persons, who did not renounce sex or choose voluntary poverty become Christian? They neither led a religious community nor did they live in entirely Christian settings. In this period, an age marked by “extraordinary” Christians—wonderworking saints, household ascetics, hermits, monks, nuns, pious aristocrats, pilgrims, and bishops—ordinary Christians went about their daily lives, in various occupations, raising families, sharing households, kitchens, and baths in religiously diverse cities. Occasionally they attended church liturgies, sought out local healers, and visited martyrs’ shrines. Barely and rarely mentioned in ancient texts, common Christians remain nameless and undifferentiated.

Unfinished Christians explores the sensory and affective dimensions of ordinary Christians who assembled for rituals. With precious few first-person accounts by common Christians, it relies on written sources not typically associated with lived religion: sermons, liturgical instruction books, and festal hymns. All three genres of writing are composed by clergy for use in ritual settings. Yet they may also provide glimpses of everyday Christians’ lives and experiences. This book investigates the habits, objects, behaviors, and movements of ordinary Christians by mining festal preaching by John Chrysostom, Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory of Nyssa, and Romanos the Melodist, among others. It also mines liturgical instructions to explore the psalms and other songs performed on various feast days. “Unfinished,” then, connotes the creativity and agency of unremarkable Christians who engaged in making religious experiences: the “Christian-in-progress” who learns to work with material and bring something into being; the artisans who attended sermons; and, more widely, the bearers of embodied knowing.

In Biblical Women and Jewish Daily Life in the Middle Ages, Elisheva Baumgarten seeks a point of entry into the everyday existence of people who did not belong to the learned elite, and who therefore left no written records of their lives. She does so by turning to the Bible as it was read, reinterpreted, and seen by the Jews of medieval Ashkenaz. In the tellings, retellings, and illustrations of biblical stories, and especially of those centered around women, Baumgarten writes, we can find explanations and validations for the practices that structured birth, marriage, and death; women's inclusion in the liturgy and synagogue; and the roles of women as community leaders, givers of charity, and keepers of the household.

Each of the book's chapters concentrates on a single figure or a cluster of biblical women—Eve, the Matriarchs, Deborah, Yael, Abigail, and Jephthah's daughter—to explore aspects of the domestic and communal lives of Northern French and German Jews living among Christians in urban settings. Throughout the book more than forty vivid medieval illuminations, most reproduced in color, help convey to modern readers what medieval people could have known visually about these biblical stories. "I do not claim that the genres I analyze here—literature, art, exegesis—mirror social practice," Baumgarten writes. "Rather, my goal is to examine how medieval Jewish engagement with the Bible offers a window onto aspects of the daily lives and cultural mentalités of Ashkenazic Jews in the High Middle Ages."

In a final chapter, Baumgarten turns to the historical figure of Dulcia, a late twelfth-century woman, to ponder how our understanding of those people about whom we know relatively more can be enriched by considering the lives of those who have remained anonymous. The biblical stories through which Baumgarten reads contributed to shaping a world that is largely lost to us, and can help us, in turn, to gain access to lives of people of the past who left no written accounts of their beliefs and practices.

Offers the provocative argument that Jews had long celebrated Christmas in the “Old World"

This book seeks to answer a perplexing question: Why were Christmas traditions once transmitted in Yiddish, a language exclusive to non-Christians?

Back in Europe, Yiddish-speaking Jews traditionally let loose on Christmas Eve with feasting, drinking, dancing, and gambling. Scholars have previously assumed this Christmas Eve vacation from Torah study to have been some sort of antagonistic counterculture to Christians celebrating Christmas. But Christmas in Yiddish Tradition reveals that the Christmas traditions transmitted in Yiddish were very similar to those transmitted in other European languages. Drawing on a wealth of documents, Jordan Chad argues that rather than European Jews being antagonistic towards Christmas, their Christmas Eve celebrations were exactly what they looked like: Jews celebrating Christmas.

The volume offers the surprising argument that while Jews never celebrated the birth of Jesus, Christmas did not actually become the strictly Christian holiday that it is today until the period when Jews migrated to the New World. Prior to that time, Jewish midwinter traditions developed as variants of midwinter traditions that were widespread across neighboring European communities. Christmas in Yiddish Tradition recounts how Jews and Christians over the past millennium each awaited supernatural visits from diverse versions of Santa Claus. They only came to fully Christianize their concept of midwinter in modern times, at which point the place of "Christmas" in the Jewish collective memory evolved from the year's jolliest vacation to its most dangerous disturbance.

The volume uncovers the story of how Christmas once flourished in a language exclusive to non-Christians—and how modern Jews and Christians ultimately came to forget about the time when they celebrated Christmas in tandem.

Church Publishing is pleased to offer this exclusive edition of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer (BCP). Ideal as a pew book or gift, this prayer book features luxurious imitation leather binding with a soft, matte finish in your choice of four colors. A textured cross is embossed on the cover. The prayer book is sturdily assembled, with Smyth-sewn pages and a spine that won't crack under heavy use. A presentation page and certificates for the rites of Baptism, Confirmation, and Marriage are included. 9-point font.

This is the standard Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church together with The Psalter or Psalms of David according to use in the Episcopal Church in the United States as authorized in 1979.

An entire psalter of one hundred fifty psalms in The Book of Common Prayer translation set to Anglican chant in the time-honored "speech rhythm" pointing of The Parish Psalter from England as refined by Ray Francis Brown during his thirty-year tenure as Director of Music at The General Theological Seminary in New York City. The Standing Commission on Church Music followed Brown's principles in pointing the psalms of this book.

A brief introduction gives a description of chanting and the performance notes are helpful with the specifics of reading pointing.

Sufism through the eyes of a legal scholar

In The Requirements of the Sufi Path, the renowned North African historian and jurist Ibn Khaldūn applies his analytical powers to Sufism, which he deems a bona fide form of Islamic piety. Ibn Khaldūn is widely known for his groundbreaking work as a sociologist and historian, in particular for the Muqaddimah, the introduction to his massive universal history. In The Requirements of the Sufi Path, he writes from the perspective of an Islamic jurist and legal scholar. He characterizes Sufism and the stages along the Sufi path and takes up the question of the need for a guide along that path. In doing so, he relies on the works of influential Sufi scholars, including al-Qushayrī, al-Ghazālī, and Ibn al-Khaṭīb. Even as Ibn Khaldūn warns of the extremes to which some Sufis go—including practicing magic—his work is essentially a legal opinion, a fatwa, asserting the inherent validity of the Sufi path.

The Requirements of the Sufi Path incorporates the wisdom of three of Sufism’s greatest voices as well as Ibn Khaldūn’s own insights, acquired through his intellectual encounters with Sufism and his broad legal expertise. All this he brings to bear on the debate over Sufi practices in a remarkable work of synthesis and analysis.

A bilingual Arabic-English edition.

The Book of Common Prayer (BCP) and the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible (NRSV) are an excellent, logical combination for daily devotion and study, as well as on Sundays during the liturgy.

The NRSV translation of the Bible is accurate, elegant, highly acclaimed by scholars, and enjoys wide use in congregations of the Episcopal Church. This edition contains the Apocrypha. The Book of Common Prayer and lectionary titles have been updated to include the Revised Common Lectionary, according to Resolution A077 of the 75th General Convention. Arriving in a sturdy, attractive box, this compact volume has five ribbon markers and a leather cover in red or black. Font size is 9-point.

The long-awaited new translation of the Book of Common Prayer.

Based on modern translation principles, this newly authorized translation of the Book of Common Prayer contains French-language liturgical materials for use in the Episcopal Church. A monumental liturgical and literary work is available in an accessible French translation. Created using dynamic equivalence, with an eye toward inclusive language throughout, the translation supports the liturgical and pastoral needs of French-speaking Episcopalians. This hardcover edition is designed for use in churches, with a sturdy binding and cover.

La nouvelle traduction tant attendue du Livre de prière commune.

Basée sur des principes de traduction modernes, cette traduction nouvellement autorisée du Livre de prière commune contient des documents liturgiques en français à utiliser dans l’Église épiscopale. Une œuvre liturgique et littéraire monumentale est disponible dans une traduction française accessible. Créée en utilisant l’équivalence dynamique, avec le regard tourné vers le langage inclusif tout au long du texte, la traduction répond aux besoins liturgiques et pastoraux des épiscopaliens francophones. Cette édition à couverture rigide est conçue pour être utilisée dans les églises, avec une reliure et une couverture robustes.

An encyclopedic survey of the Jewish body as it has existed and as it has been imagined from biblical times to the present

That the human body can be the object not only of biological study but also of historical consideration and cultural criticism is now widely accepted. But why, Robert Jütte asks, should a historian bother with the Jewish body in particular? And is the "Jewish body" as much a concept constructed over the course of centuries by Jews and non-Jews alike as it is a physical reality? To comprehend the notion and existence of a Jewish body, he contends, one needs to look both at the images and traits that have been ascribed to Jews by themselves and others, and to the specific bodily practices that have played an important role in creating the identity of a religious and cultural community.

Jütte has written an encyclopedic survey of the Jewish body as it has existed and as it has been imagined from biblical times to the present, often for anti-Jewish purposes. He examines the techniques for caring for the body that Jews acquire in childhood from parents and authority figures and how these have changed over the course of a more than 2000-year history, most of it spent in exile. From consideration of traditional body stereotypes, such as the so-called Jewish nose, to matters of gender and sexuality, sickness and health, and the inevitable end of the body in death, The Jewish Body explores the historical foundations of the human physis in all its aspects.

Born in Slutzk, Russia, in 1805, Elijah Zvi Soloveitchik is a largely forgotten member of the prestigious Soloveitchik rabbinic dynasty. Before Hayyim Soloveitchik developed the standard Brisker method of Talmudic study, or Joseph Dov Soloveitchik helped to found American Modern Orthodox Judaism, Elijah Soloveitchik wrote Qol Qore, a rabbinic commentary on the Gospels of Matthew and Mark. Qol Qore drew on classic rabbinic literature, and particularly on the works of Moses Maimonides, to argue for the compatibility of Christianity with Judaism. To this day, it remains the only rabbinic work to embrace the compatibility of Orthodox Judaism and the Christian Bible.

In The Bible, the Talmud, and the New Testament, Shaul Magid presents the first-ever English translation of Qol Qore. In his contextualizing introduction, Magid explains that Qol Qore offers a window onto the turbulent historical context of nineteenth-century European Jewry. With violent anti-Semitic activity on the rise in Europe, Elijah Soloveitchik was unique in believing that the roots of anti-Semitism were theological, based on a misunderstanding of the New Testament by both Jews and Christians. His hope was that the Qol Qore, written in Hebrew and translated into French, German, and Polish, would reach Jewish and Christian audiences, urging each to consider the validity of the other's religious principles. In an era characterized by fractious debates between Jewish communities, Elijah Soloveitchik represents a voice that called for radical unity amongst Jews and Christians alike.

The complete readings for the Revised Common Lectionary Years A, B, and C, as authorized by the 2006 General Convention of the Episcopal Church, together with readings for the major Holy Days of the church year, in the NRSV translation.

• The RCL goes into official use in ECUSA on Advent Sunday 2007 and will replace the A, B, C lectionary currently in the Prayer Book.
• Many congregations have already begun to use the RCL, and all congregations must be using it by 2010.
• This convenient edition is suitable for placement in pews or for use in chapels for weekday celebrations.

Give the gift of a beautiful and durable Book of Common Prayer! A gold cross is stamped on the bonded leather cover in your choice of five colors, with gilt edges, a presentation page, and two satin ribbon markers. Certificates of Baptism, Confirmation, and Marriage are included. 9-point font size.

This is the standard Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church together with The Psalter or Psalms of David according to use in the Episcopal Church in the United States as authorized in 1979.

A gift edition of Daily Prayer For All Seasons, withabonded leather cover, two ribbon bookmarks, gilded edges, a presentation page, and shrink-wrapped in gift box.

People in all kinds of religious traditions, including Judaism and Christianity, have been marking time with prayer for almost as long as we’ve divided the day into hours. “Praying the hours,” as it’s called, has always reminded us that God walks with us throughout each day; “praying the hours” is also a way that the community of faith comes together, whether we’re united all in one place or scattered like raindrops.

In the Episcopal Church, the Book of Common Prayer offers beautiful services for morning, noon, evening, and nighttime in a section called “The Daily Office” (pp 35-146). Daily Prayer for All Seasons offers a variation on that theme, where a complete service covers one or two pages, thereby eliminating the need to shuffle prayer books and hymnals. Daily Prayer for All Seasons works for individuals, small groups, and/or congregations. This prayer book presents a variety of images of God, uses inclusive and expansive language for and about God, and presents a rich variety of language, including poetry, meditation, and prayers from the broader community of faith.

The rise of moderate Orthodox Judaism in Israel and the key role of Americans in its emergence

The conservative ultra-Orthodox and redemptive "Kook" camps hold sway over religious matters in Israel. Yet from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s, a small cadre of American immigrants arrived in Israel and established or led a range of educational institutions that trained thousands of advanced students and laid the ideological foundations for an Israeli moderate religious stream. In Agents of Change, Adam S. Ferziger highlights the parts played by these Americans in promoting the rise of a transnational community of moderate Jewish Orthodoxy.

Analyzing the novel outlooks that have found expression in central areas of debates, from women’s engagements in religious and public life and approaches to the gay and lesbian community to interactions with non-Orthodox denominations and attitudes toward academic Jewish studies, Ferziger illuminates both shifting religious dynamics in Israel as a result of this rise in moderate Orthodoxy, as well as the changing relationship between Israeli and American Judaisms, challenging current understandings which see the Jewish co­mmunities of the two nations as drifting apart. Though a minority in Israel, this vocal Orthodox community with a more moderate take on key issues is significant in potentially paving the way for social change. Increasingly, their influence is being felt. Shedding light on the impact of American migration in forming a burgeoning moderate religious direction in Israeli life that has challenged the hegemony of the long dominant direction within Religious Zionism, Agents of Change offers a fresh perspective on the multifaceted collaboration of ideas and practices that exists between Israel and America.

Bestselling biblical historian Jean-Pierre Isbouts weaves the origin stories of Christianity and the Lord's Prayer into a reinvigorating and urgent rallying cry for unity in the modern church.

Modern Christianity is in the midst of a veritable schism along the fault lines of society's culture wars. Only if we understand the origins of this split can we find our way to unity. Though few may realize it today, Jesus’s ministry unfolded in a crisis very similar to the one society is now battling. In fact, were it not for the truly catastrophic conditions in early 1st century Galilee, his reimagining of the three quintessential virtues of the Torah – social justice; compassion toward one another; and an abiding love of God – would have likely failed to attract a wide following.

Brilliantly tracing Jesus’s vision for the “Kingdom of God” from its origin up through modern times, Dr. Isbouts leads us to a possible antidote for the fiercely partisan moment in which we find ourselves: the Our Father. Then taking readers on a historically exhilarating tour of the Lord’s Prayer, The Fractured Kingdom shows us why the only doctrine Christians agree on might be our last hope for forging a more equal, compassionate, and loving society. What results is an eminently readable and undeniably essential work that addresses some of the most pressing issues now confronting communities of faith around the world.

The first two volumes of The Zohar: Pritzker Edition, translated with commentary by Daniel C. Matt, cover more than half of the Zohar's commentary on the Book of Genesis (through Genesis 32:3). This is the first translation ever made from a critical Aramaic text of the Zohar, which has been established by Professor Matt based on a wide range of original manuscripts. The extensive commentary, appearing at the bottom of each page, clarifies the kabbalistic symbolism and terminology, and cites sources and parallels from biblical, rabbinic, and kabbalistic texts. The translator's introduction is accompanied by a second introduction written by Arthur Green, discussing the origin and significance of the Zohar.

For ancillary materials, including the Aramaic text, please visit SUP's Zohar Home Page www.sup.org/zohar/.

Further information on the Zohar:

Sefer ha-Zohar, "The Book of Radiance," has amazed and overwhelmed readers ever since it emerged mysteriously in medieval Spain toward the end of the thirteenth century. Written in a unique Aramaic, this masterpiece of Kabbalah exceeds the dimensions of a normal book; it is virtually a body of literature, comprising over twenty discrete sections. The bulk of the Zohar consists of a running commentary on the Torah, from Genesis through Deuteronomy. This translation begins and focuses here in what are projected to be ten volumes. Two subsequent volumes will cover other, shorter sections.

The Zohar's commentary is composed in the form of a mystical novel. The hero is Rabbi Shim'on son of Yohai, a saintly disciple of Rabbi Akiva who lived in the second century in the land of Israel. In the Zohar, Rabbi Shim'on and his companions wander through the hills of Galilee, discovering and sharing secrets of Torah.

On one level, biblical figures such as Abraham and Sarah are the main characters, and the mystical companions interpret their words, actions, and personalities. On a deeper level, the text of the Bible is simply the starting point, a springboard for the imagination. For example, when God commands Abraham, Lekh lekha, Go forth... to the land that I will show you (Genesis 12:1), Rabbi El'azar ignores idiomatic usage and insists on reading the words more literally than they were intended, hyperliterally: Lekh lekha, Go to yourself! Search deep within to discover your true self.

At times, the companions themselves become the main characters, and we read about their dramatic mystical sessions with Rabbi Shim'on or their adventures on the road, for example, an encounter with a cantankerous old donkey driver who turns out to be a master of wisdom in disguise.

Ultimately, the plot of the Zohar focuses on the ten sefirot, the various stages of God's inner life, aspects of divine personality, both feminine and masculine. By penetrating the literal surface of the Torah, the mystical commentators transform the biblical narrative into a biography of God. The entire Torah is read as one continuous divine name, expressing divine being. Even a seemingly insignificant verse can reveal the inner dynamics of the sefirot—how God feels, responds and acts, how She and He (the divine feminine and masculine) relate intimately with each other and with the world.

A magisterial, modern reading of the deepest mysteries in the Kabbalistic tradition.

Seekers of the Face opens the profound treasure house at the heart of Judaism's most important mystical work: the Idra Rabba (Great Gathering) of the Zohar. This is the story of the Great Assembly of mystics called to order by the master teacher and hero of the Zohar, Rabbi Shim'on bar Yochai, to align the divine faces and to heal Jewish religion. The Idra Rabba demands a radical expansion of the religious worldview, as it reveals God's faces and bodies in daring, anthropomorphic language.

For the first time, Melila Hellner-Eshed makes this challenging, esoteric masterpiece meaningful for everyday readers. Hellner-Eshed expertly unpacks the Idra Rabba's rich grounding in tradition, its probing of hidden layers of consciousness and the psyche, and its striking, sacred images of the divine face. Leading readers of the Zohar on a transformative adventure in mystical experience, Seekers of the Face allows us to hear anew the Idra Rabba's bold call to heal and align the living faces of God.

A brilliant cross-cultural Arabic interpretation of a key text of yoga philosophy

The Yoga Sutras of Patañjali is the foundational text of yoga philosophy to this day and is still used by millions of yoga practitioners and students worldwide. Written in a question-and-answer format, The Yoga Sutras of Patañjali deals with the theory and practice of yoga and the psychological question of the liberation of the soul from attachments.

This book is a new edition and translation into English of the Arabic translation and commentary on this text by the brilliant eleventh-century polymath al-Bīrūnī. Given the many historical variants of the Yoga Sutras, his Kitāb Bātanjali is important for yoga studies as the earliest translation of the Sanskrit text. It is also of unique value as an Arabic text within Islamic studies, given the intellectual and philosophical challenges that faced the medieval Muslim reader when presented with the intricacy of composition, interpretation, and allusion that permeates this translation.

A bilingual Arabic-English edition.

An Immigration and labor history of the Russian Orthodox Church in the US

At the turn of the twentieth century, thousands of immigrants from the borderlands of the Russian and Austro-Hungarian Empires built a transnational church in North America. The community that church leaders called American Orthodox Rus’ was created by and for working people, and transformed believers’ identities as Eastern European migrants, as Orthodox Christians, and as American workers.

Given how strongly the Russian Orthodox Christian community was tied to working class industrial life, this book makes the case that we cannot understand the scope of working class and immigrant religion in the United States without understanding American Orthodox Rus’. The work Russian Orthodox immigrants did in the Progressive Era United States occurred in factories, foundries, and mines; they lived mainly in industrial cities and mining towns; and they almost immediately got caught up in the most pivotal—and sometimes violent—political and social crises of their times, both nationally and internationally. To address their needs in these contexts, the Russian Orthodox Church expanded its missionary efforts in North America, forming a network of social and material aid for working-class believers. This book traces the rapid growth of this transnational religious world, then explores its unexpected collapse under the weight of the First World War, a global pandemic, and the transnational reach of revolutionary political change in Russia. A story of challenge and resilience, Orthodoxy on the Line complicates dominant paradigms in the study of labor and North American Religions.

Kabbalah and the Rupture of Modernity provides a comprehensive intellectual and institutional history of Chabad Hasidism through the Kabbalistic concept of ṣimṣum. The onset of modernity, Eli Rubin argues, was heralded by this startling idea: existence itself is predicated on a self-inflicted "rupture" in the infinite assertion of divinity. Centuries of theoretical disputations concerning ṣimṣum ultimately morphed into religious and social schism. These debates confronted the meaning of being and forged the animating ethos of Chabad, the most dynamic movement in modern Judaism.

  Chabad's distinctive character and self-image, Rubin shows, emerged from its spirited defense of Hasidism's interpretation of ṣimṣum as an act of love leading to rapturous reunion. This interpretation ignited a literal conflagration, complete with book burnings, denunciations, investigations, and arrests. Chabad's subsequent preoccupation with ṣimṣum was equally significant for questions of legitimacy, authority, and succession, as for existential questions of being and meaning.

  Unfolding the story of Chabad from the early modern period to the twentieth century, this book provides fresh portraits of the successive leaders of the movement. Innovatively integrating history, philosophy, and literature, Rubin shows how Kabbalistic ideas are crucially entangled in the experience of modernity and in the response to its ruptures.

2025 Nautilus Book Awards Silver Winner, Journalism & Investigative Reporting

From an international correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter's Global Sisters Report comes a powerful investigative work into the poignant acts of humanitarianism he witnessed during the Ukrainian war. 

In this touching, eye-opening book, award-winning journalist Chris Herlinger spotlights the Catholic sisters, clerics, and humanitarian workers who came together to assist those affected by the war in Ukraine. Drawing from his remarkable field reports and comprehensive research into the history of the crisis, Chris recounts how people of different backgrounds joined forces to help Ukrainian survivors and refugees get to safety and survive the war.

Complemented by evocative photos taken on Ukrainian soil, Solidarity and Mercy: The Power of Christian Humanitarian Efforts in Ukraine explores the limitless bounds of compassion, the indomitable power of faith, and the central role coming together plays in alleviating human suffering. As readers will come to discover, standing in solidarity with the oppressed and forsaken is foundational to the faith and key to changing the world. 

An authoritative priestly guidebook of the hows and whys of the Episcopal liturgy.

The definitive reference work that simplifies liturgical officiating and celebrating of the rites of the Episcopal Church. A Priest's Handbook explains the appropriate use of vestments, color, altar preparation, as well as gestures and movements during the various services. It also explores the particular prayer and liturgical options for the Holy Eucharist, Holy Week, Baptism, and other events in the Church's calendar. Sections on the use of the lectionary and the Daily Offices make this handbook truly comprehensive.

Ideal as a pew book or gift, this exclusive prayer book features luxurious imitation leather binding with a soft, matte finish in your choice of four colors.

A textured cross is embossed on the cover. The prayer book is sturdily assembled, with Smyth-sewn pages and a spine that won't crack under heavy use. A presentation page and certificates for the rites of Baptism, Confirmation, and Marriage are included. 9-point font.

This is the standard Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church together with The Psalter or Psalms of David according to use in the Episcopal Church in the United States as authorized in 1979.

Interiority and Law presents a groundbreaking reassessment of a medieval Jewish classic, Baḥya ibn Paquda's Guide to the Duties of the Hearts. Michaelis reads this work anew as a revolutionary intervention in Jewish law, or halakha.

Overturning perceptions of Baḥya as the shaper of an ethical-religious form of life that exceeds halakha, Michaelis offers a pioneering historical and conceptual analysis of the category of "inner commandments" developed by Baḥya. Interiority and Law reveals that Baḥya's main effort revolved around establishing a new legal formation—namely, the "duties of the hearts"—which would deal entirely with human interiority. Michaelis takes up the implications of Baḥya's radical innovation, examining his unique mystical model of proximity to God, which he based on an increasingly growing fulfillment of the inner commandments. With an integrative approach that puts Baḥya in dialogue with other medieval Muslim and Jewish religious thinkers, this work offers a fresh perspective on our understanding of the interconnectedness of the dynamic, neighboring religious traditions of Judaism and Islam.

Contributing to conversations in the history of religion, Jewish studies, and medieval studies on interiority and mysticism, this book reveals Baḥya as a revolutionary and demanding thinker of Jewish law.

Hasidism is an influential spiritual revival movement within Judaism that began in the eighteenth century and continues to thrive today. One of the great classics of early Hasidism, The Light of the Eyes is a collection of homilies on the Torah, reading the entire Five Books of Moses as a guide to spiritual awareness and cultivation of the inner life. This is the first English translation of any major work from Hasidism's earliest and most creative period. Arthur Green's introduction and annotations survey the history of Hasidism and outline the essential religious and moral teachings of this mystical movement. The Light of the Eyes, by Rabbi Menahem Nahum of Chernobyl, offers insights that remain as fresh and relevant for the contemporary reader as they were when first published in 1798.

This book explores the question: How did the rabbis of the first two centuries CE approach bodies that are born with variant genitals—bodies that they could not identify as definitely male or female? The rabbis had constructed a system in which every behavior was governed by one’s sex/gender, posing a conundrum both for people who did not fit into that model and for the rabbinic enterprise itself. Despite this, their texts contain dozens of references to intersex.

And the Sages Did Not Know examines the rabbis’ legal texts and concludes that they had multiple approaches to intersex people. Sarra Lev analyzes seven different rabbinic responses to this conflict of their own making. Through their rulings on how intersex people should conduct themselves in multiple circumstances, the early rabbis treat intersex people as unidentifiable males or females, as indeterminate, as male, as non-gendered, as sui generis, as part-male/part-female, as a sustainable paradox, and, finally, as a way for them to think about gender, having nothing to do with intersex people themselves.

This is the first such work that concentrates primarily on the potential effects of these rabbinic texts on intersex persons themselves rather than focusing on what the texts offer readers whose interest is rabbinic approaches to sex and gender or gender diversity. Although the rabbinic texts do not include the voices of known intersex people, these materials do offer us a window into how one small group of people approached intersex bodies, and how those approaches were both similar to and different from those we recognize today.

Give the gift of a beautiful and durable Book of Common Prayer!

A gold cross is stamped on the bonded leather cover in your choice of five colors, with gilt edges, a presentation page, and two satin ribbon markers. Certificates of Baptism, Confirmation, and Marriage are included. 9-point font size. This is the standard Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church together with The Psalter or Psalms of David according to use in the Episcopal Church in the United States as authorized in 1979.

Living with the Law explores the marital disputes of Jews in medieval Islamic Egypt (1000–1250), relating medieval gossip, marital woes, and the voices of men and women of a world long gone. Probing the rich documents of the Cairo Geniza, a unique repository of discarded paper discovered in a Cairo synagogue, the book recovers the life stories of Jewish women and men working through their marital problems at home, with their families, in the streets of old Cairo, and in Jewish and Muslim courts. Despite a voluminous literature on Jewish law, the everyday practice of Jewish courts has only recently begun to be investigated systematically. The experiences of those at a legal, social, and cultural disadvantage allow us to go beyond the image propagated by legal institutions and offer a view “from below” of Jewish communal life and Jewish law as it was lived.

Examining the interactions between gender and law in medieval Jewish communities under Islamic rule, Oded Zinger considers how women experienced Jewish courts and the pressure they faced to relinquish their monetary rights. The tactics with which women countered this pressure—ranging from exploiting family ties to appealing to Muslim courts—expose the complex relationship between individual agency, gendered expectations, and communal authority. Zinger concludes that, more than money, education, or lineage, it was the maintenance of a supportive network of social relations with men that protected women at different stages of their lives.

Designed for use in many congregations and musical traditions, this supplemental volume includes new hymns and songs.

The Anglican Church of Canada's new supplemental hymnal is specifically designed to be of use throughout the Anglican Communion. It includes many hymns and service music settings that do not appear in Common Praise, nor in any of the Episcopal Church's hymnals. The ecumenical task force that created the hymnal also chose to include music that will be of interest to other denominations and faith groups.

Contains new settings of liturgical texts found in the Book of Alternative Services, including prayer responses, gospel acclamations, Amens, and canticles, and features guitar chords where appropriate.

The complete Book of Common Prayer, French language edition. Red hardcover.

This is the standard Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church together with The Psalter or Psalms of David according to use in the Episcopal Church in the United States as authorized in 1979.

Sefer ha-Zohar (The Book of Radiance) has amazed and overwhelmed readers ever since it emerged mysteriously in medieval Spain toward the end of the thirteenth century. Written in a unique, lyrical Aramaic, this masterpiece of Kabbalah exceeds the dimensions of a normal book; it is virtually a body of literature, comprising over twenty discrete sections. The bulk of the Zohar consists of a running commentary on the Torah, from Genesis through Deuteronomy.

This fourth volume of The Zohar: Pritzker Edition covers the first half of Exodus. Here we find mystical explorations of Pharaoh's enslavement of the Israelites, the birth of Moses, the deliverance from Egypt, the crossing of the Red Sea, and the Revelation at Mount Sinai. Throughout, the Zohar probes the biblical text and seeks deeper meaning—for example, the nature of evil and its relation to the divine realm, the romance of Moses and Shekhinah, and the inner meaning of the Ten Commandments. In the context of the miraculous splitting of the Red Sea, Rabbi Shim'on reveals the mysterious Name of 72, a complex divine name consisting of 216 letters (72 triads), formed out of three verses in Exodus 14.

These mystical interpretations are interwoven with tales of the Companions—rabbis wandering through the hills of Galilee, sharing their insights, coming upon wisdom in the most astonishing ways from a colorful cast of characters they meet on the road.

Sefer ha-Zohar, "The Book of Radiance," has amazed and overwhelmed readers ever since it emerged mysteriously in medieval Spain toward the end of the thirteenth century. Written in a unique Aramaic, this masterpiece of Kabbalah exceeds the dimensions of a normal book; it is virtually a body of literature, comprising over twenty discrete sections. The bulk of the Zohar consists of a running commentary on the Torah, from Genesis through Deuteronomy. This translation begins and focuses here in what are projected to be ten volumes. Two subsequent volumes will cover other, shorter sections.

The Zohar's commentary is composed in the form of a mystical novel. The hero is Rabbi Shim'on son of Yohai, a saintly disciple of Rabbi Akiva who lived in the second century in the land of Israel. In the Zohar, Rabbi Shim'on and his companions wander through the hills of Galilee, discovering and sharing secrets of Torah.

On one level, biblical figures such as Abraham and Sarah are the main characters, and the mystical companions interpret their words, actions, and personalities. On a deeper level, the text of the Bible is simply the starting point, a springboard for the imagination. For example, when God commands Abraham, Lekh lekha, Go forth... to the land that I will show you (Genesis 12:1), Rabbi El'azar ignores idiomatic usage and insists on reading the words more literally than they were intended, hyperliterally: Lekh lekha, Go to yourself! Search deep within to discover your true self.

At times, the companions themselves become the main characters, and we read about their dramatic mystical sessions with Rabbi Shim'on or their adventures on the road, for example, an encounter with a cantankerous old donkey driver who turns out to be a master of wisdom in disguise.

Ultimately, the plot of the Zohar focuses on the ten sefirot, the various stages of God's inner life, aspects of divine personality, both feminine and masculine. By penetrating the literal surface of the Torah, the mystical commentators transform the biblical narrative into a biography of God. The entire Torah is read as one continuous divine name, expressing divine being. Even a seemingly insignificant verse can reveal the inner dynamics of the sefirot—how God feels, responds and acts, how She and He (the divine feminine and masculine) relate intimately with each other and with the world.

Secrecy and Esoteric Writing in Kabbalistic Literature examines the strategies of esoteric writing that Kabbalists have used to conceal secrets in their writings, such that casual readers will only understand the surface meaning of their texts while those with greater insight will grasp the internal meaning. In addition to a broad description of esoteric writing throughout the long literary history of Kabbalah, this work analyzes kabbalistic secrecy in light of contemporary theories of secrecy. It also presents case studies of esoteric writing in the work of four of the first kabbalistic authors—Abraham ben David, Isaac the Blind, Ezra ben Solomon, and Asher ben David—and thereby helps recast our understanding of the earliest stages of kabbalistic literary history.

The book will interest scholars in Jewish mysticism and Jewish philosophy, as well as those working in medieval Jewish history. Throughout, Jonathan V. Dauber has endeavored to write an accessible work that does not require extensive prior knowledge of kabbalistic thought. Accordingly, it finds points of contact between scholars of various religious traditions.

In the Gospel of Truth, a second-century text associated with the Christian Platonist Valentinus, a crucified Jesus is depicted as wrapped in a scroll and reading aloud the contents of his heart as he dies. This is just one of many strange appearances of the physical book in this text and in the surviving fragments of Valentinus. Through its representations of the written word, Anne Kreps argues, the Gospel of Truth promoted a living document perspective on the holy book, encouraging the generation of religious books as new sources of revelatory authority.

The Crucified Book locates the Gospel of Truth in a broader ancient debate about books and their attendant authority. Roman and Jewish texts exhibit similar efforts to equate holy persons with holy texts, while Christian heresiologists exhibit awareness of the phenomenon even as they condemn it. Although the Gospel of Truth is often set apart from mainstream Christianity in scholarship, its ideas about the nature of authoritative writing engaged with Greco-Roman culture and cohered with Jewish and Christian ideas about books in antiquity. Valentinus' views about the relationship between the oral and the written dovetailed with thinking on the nature of the sacred book that gradually became the trademark of Rabbinic Judaism, Kreps contends. Ultimately, because the Gospel of Truth reflects a mind that was at the center of the discursive debates that formed Judaism and Christianity, her book demonstrates the usefulness of so-called heretical texts for discussions on the parting of the ways between the two traditions.

The untold story of the federal government’s Depression-era effort to redeem Dust Bowl refugees in rural California through religion

In the midst of the Great Depression, punished by crippling drought and deepening poverty, hundreds of thousands of families left the Great Plains and the Southwest to look for work in California’s rich agricultural valleys. In response to the scene of destitute white families living in filthy shelters built of cardboard, twigs, and refuse, reform-minded New Deal officials built a series of camps to provide them with shelter and community.

Using the extensive archives of the federal migratory camp system, From Dust They Came tells the story of the religious dynamics in and around migratory farm labor camps in agricultural California established and operated by the Resettlement Administration and the Farm Security Administration. Jonathan H. Ebel makes the case that the camps served as mission sites for the conversion of migrants to more modern ways of living and believing. Though the ideas of virtuous citizenship put forward by the camp administrators were framed as secular, they rested on a foundation of Protestantism. At the same time, many of the migrants were themselves conservative or charismatic Protestants who had other ideas for how their religion intended them to be.

By looking at the camps as missionary spaces, Ebel shows that this New Deal program was animated both by humanitarian concern and by the belief that these poor, white migrants and their religious practices were unfit for life in a modernized, secular world. Innovative and compelling, From Dust They Came is the first book to reveal the braiding of secularism, religion, and modernity through and around the lives of Dust Bowl migrants and New Deal reformers.

 "Brandon Ambrosino offers a compelling conversation about God's role in human affairs, and our response to God's sometimes mysterious activity." ― James Martin, SJ, New York Times bestselling author of Learning to Pray

From an acclaimed journalist and a rising star in theological academia, a provocative book about human and divine agency in an era of political extremism, climate catastrophe, and rising violence.

In the wake of two foiled assassination attempts while Donald Trump was campaigning for President, many of his supporters claimed Trump's survival was an act of Divine intervention, and a sign that Trump was favored by God. In his victory speech, Trump alluded to this. But his survival prompts other questions: Why did God spare Trump, but not the retiree sitting behind him? Why couldn’t God have spared everyone that day? And if God is truly omnipotent, why do so many children die in gun violence every year?

To award-winning journalist and theologian Brandon Ambrosino, these mortal questions provide us with an opportunity to explore the great questions about Divine and human agency, especially in relation to human tragedy and a world that seems to be slipping into chaos. In this powerful and searching enquiry—in the vein of N.T. Wright and C.S. Lewis— Ambrosino argues that theologians have been poorly equipped to confront these questions, because many hang on to an omnipotent model of God. Exploring the daily tragedies that so many of us must contend—as well as a provocative and challenging reading of Christ’s death and resurrection—Ambrosino provides us with the tools to understand and process grief but also presents a refreshing portrait of less a God of power, and more of one of persuasion, who can still provide a residue of hope in a world gone wrong.

Diseño elegante, encuadernado con lomo duradero, páginas con orillas en oro, puede ser utilizado sin cubierta adicional, para ser llevado en la procesión.

Contiene las lecturas del Evangelio para cada domingo de los años A, B y C según el Leccionario Común Revisado, también incluye lecturas del Evangelio para los Días Santos principales del año eclesiástico; versión Dios Habla Hoy. Encuadernado en tela con embozado dorado, marcador, páginas cosidas. Este libro ha sido diseñado para uso ceremonial Eucarístico. Este Leccionario Común Revisado en español ha sido creado para el uso de La Iglesia Episcopal y para otras denominaciones como la Iglesia Evangélica Luterana en América, Iglesia Metodista Unida y la Iglesia Presbiteriana (Estados Unidos de América). Punto tipográfico 16 pt., letra grande.

Another Modernity is a rich study of the life and thought of Elia Benamozegh, a nineteenth-century rabbi and philosopher whose work profoundly influenced Christian-Jewish dialogue in twentieth-century Europe. Benamozegh, a Livornese rabbi of Moroccan descent, was a prolific writer and transnational thinker who corresponded widely with religious and intellectual figures in France, the Maghreb, and the Middle East. This idiosyncratic figure, who argued for the universalism of Judaism and for interreligious engagement, came to influence a spectrum of religious thinkers so varied that it includes proponents of the ecumenical Second Vatican Council, American evangelists, and right-wing Zionists in Israel.

What Benamozegh proposed was unprecedented: that the Jewish tradition presented a solution to the religious crisis of modernity. According to Benamozegh, the defining features of Judaism were universalism, a capacity to foster interreligious engagement, and the political power and mythical allure of its theosophical tradition, Kabbalah—all of which made the Jewish tradition uniquely equipped to assuage the post-Enlightenment tensions between religion and reason. In this book, Clémence Boulouque presents a wide-ranging and nuanced investigation of Benamozegh's published and unpublished work and his continuing legacy, considering his impact on Christian-Jewish dialogue as well as on far-right Christians and right-wing religious Zionists.

Uncovers the often overlooked participation of African Americans and Native Americans in early Protestant churches

Phillis Wheatley was stolen from her family in Senegambia, and, in 1761, slave traders transported her to Boston, Massachusetts, to be sold. She was purchased by the Wheatley family who treated Phillis far better than most eighteenth-century slaves could hope, and she received a thorough education while still, of course, longing for her freedom. After four years, Wheatley began writing religious poetry. She was baptized and became a member of a predominantly white Congregational church in Boston. More than ten years after her enslavement began, some of her poetry was published in London, England, as a book titled Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral. This book is evidence that her experience of enslavement was exceptional.

Wheatley remains the most famous black Christian of the colonial era. Though her experiences and accomplishments were unique, her religious affiliation with a predominantly white church was quite ordinary. Dividing the Faith argues that, contrary to the traditional scholarly consensus, a significant portion of northern Protestants worshipped in interracial contexts during the eighteenth century. Yet in another fifty years, such an affiliation would become increasingly rare as churches were by-and-large segregated.

Richard Boles draws from the records of over four hundred congregations to scrutinize the factors that made different Christian traditions either accessible or inaccessible to African American and American Indian peoples. By including Indians, Afro-Indians, and black people in the study of race and religion in the North, this research breaks new ground and uses patterns of church participation to illuminate broader social histories. Overall, it explains the dynamic history of racial integration and segregation in northern colonies and states.

A masterful overview of Islamic law and its diversity

Al-Qadi al-Nu'man was the chief legal theorist and ideologue of the North African Fatimid dynasty in the tenth century. This translation makes available in English for the first time his major work on Islamic legal theory, which presents a legal model in support of the Fatimids’ principle of legitimate rule over the Islamic community. Composed as part of a grand project to establish the theoretical bases of the official Fatimid legal school, Disagreements of the Jurists expounds a distinctly Shi'i system of hermeneutics, which refutes the methods of legal interpretation adopted by Sunni jurists.

The work begins with a discussion of the historical causes of jurisprudential divergence in the first Islamic centuries, and goes on to address, point by point, the specific interpretive methods of Sunni legal theory, arguing that they are both illegitimate and ineffective. While its immediate mission is to pave the foundation of the legal Isma'ili tradition, the text also preserves several Islamic legal theoretical works no longer extant—including Ibn Dawud’s manual, al-Wusul ila ma'rifat al-usul—and thus throws light on a critical stage in the historical development of Islamic legal theory (usul al-fiqh) that would otherwise be lost to history.

A bilingual Arabic-English edition.

In this groundbreaking book, Tehseen Thaver offers a fundamental reevaluation of how one should think about the relationship between the Qur’an, Shi‘ism, and religious identity. Beyond Sectarianism focuses on the literary Arabic Qur’an exegesis of the highly influential yet less studied poet, historian, and exegete al-Sharif al-Radi (d. 1015). Al-Radi’s fascinating interpretations sought to resolve Qur’anic ambiguities or mutashabihat. Through a philologically layered and historically attuned analysis, Thaver argues that al-Radi’s efforts at resolving Qur’anic ambiguities were interlocked with the project of the canonization of the Arabic language.

Although he was marked as a Shi‘i scholar, the interpretive and political horizons that informed al-Radi’s scholarly endeavors could not be reduced to predetermined templates of sectarian identity. Rather, Thaver argues, al-Radi was an active participant and beneficiary of critical intellectual currents and debates that animated the wider Muslim humanities during his life, especially on questions of language, poetry, and theology. Thaver thus leads her readers to reconsider their assumptions about the interaction of sectarian identity and scriptural interpretation in the study of Islam and religion.

Though centered on the context of late tenth- and eleventh-century Baghdad under the Buyid dynasty, Beyond Sectarianism raises and addresses crucial questions of religious thought and identity with major ramifications for how we imagine the narrative of Islam and the place of sectarianism in it today.

Sefer ha-Zohar (The Book of Radiance) has amazed readers ever since it emerged in medieval Spain over seven hundred years ago. Written in lyrical Aramaic, this masterpiece of Kabbalah exceeds the dimensions of a normal book; it is virtually a body of mystical literature, comprising over twenty sections. The bulk of the Zohar consists of mystical interpretation of the Torah, from Genesis through Deuteronomy.

The ninth volume of The Zohar: Pritzker Edition completes this running commentary on the Torah. Rabbi Shim'on and his Companions explore passages from the middle of the book of Numbers through the end of Deuteronomy. Among the remarkable sections is Rav Metivta, an account of a visionary journey by Rabbi Shim'on and some of the Companions to the Garden of Eden, where they discover secrets of the afterlife. Later in the volume appears the story of the Yanuqa (Child)—a wunderkind-and-enfant-terrible who amazes and teases, challenges and stumps the rabbis.

Near the very end of the Zohar on the Torah comes the remarkable section known as Idra Zuta (The Small Assembly). This dramatic narrative describes the last gathering of Rabbi Shim'on and the Companions before his death. Here the master reveals profound mysteries of divine being, and then departs from this world to unite ecstatically with the Divine Feminine, Shekhinah. Before departing, Rabbi Shim'on invites all of the Companions to his wedding celebration above.

From Eusebius of Caesarea, who first compiled a collection of martyr narratives around 300, to Thierry Ruinart, whose Acta primorum martyrum sincera et selecta was published in 1689, the selection and study of early hagiographic narratives has been founded on an assumption that there existed documents written at the time of martyrdom, or very close to it. As a result, a search for authenticity has been and continues to be central, even in the context of today's secular scholarship. But, as Éric Rebillard contends, the alternative approach, to set aside entirely the question of the historical reliability of martyr narratives, is not satisfactory either. Instead, he argues that martyr narratives should be consider as fluid "living texts," written anonymously and received by audiences not as precise historical reports but as versions of the story. In other words, the form these texts took, between fact and fiction, made it possible for audiences to readily accept the historicity of the martyr while at the same time not expect to hear or read a truthful account.

In The Early Martyr Narratives, Rebillard considers only accounts of Christian martyrs supposed to have been executed before 260, and only those whose existence is attested in sources that can be dated to before 300. The resulting small corpus contains no texts in the form of legal protocols, traditionally viewed as the earliest, most official and authentic records, nor does it include any that can be dated to a period during which persecution of Christians is known to have taken place. Rather than deduce from this that they are forgeries written for the sake of polemic or apologetic, Rebillard demonstrates how the literariness of the narratives creates a fictional complicity that challenges and complicates any claims of these narratives to be truthful.

From the late nineteenth century through the post-Holocaust
era, the world was divided between countries that tried to expel their Jewish
populations and those that refused to let them in. The plight of these
traumatized refugees inspired numerous proposals for Jewish states. Jews and
Christians, authors and adventurers, politicians and playwrights, and rabbis
and revolutionaries all worked to carve out autonomous Jewish territories in
remote and often hostile locations across the globe. The would-be founding
fathers of these imaginary Zions dispatched scientific expeditions to far-flung
regions and filed reports on the dream states they planned to create. But only
Israel emerged from dream to reality. Israel’s successful foundation has long
obscured the fact that eminent Jewish figures, including Zionism’s prophet,
Theodor Herzl, seriously considered establishing enclaves beyond the Middle
East.






In the Shadow of Zion brings to life the amazing true
stories of six exotic visions of a Jewish national home outside of the biblical
land of Israel. It is the only book to detail the connections between these
schemes, which in turn explain the trajectory of modern Zionism. A gripping
narrative drawn from archives the world over, In the Shadow of Zion
recovers the mostly forgotten history of the Jewish territorialist movement,
and the stories of the fascinating but now obscure figures who championed it.










Provocative, thoroughly researched, and written to appeal to
a broad audience, In the Shadow of Zion
offers a timely perspective on Jewish power and powerlessness.





Visit the author's website: http://www.adamrovner.com/.

The leading source of information on the Episcopal Church

With origins dating back to 1830, The Episcopal Church Annual – aka “The Red Book” – is an indispensable reference tool, trusted year-after-year by churches, diocesan offices, libraries, and many others. You will find the following between the covers of the 2025 edition of “The Red Book”, and more:

• A comprehensive directory of provinces, dioceses, and churches, including contact information and listings of active clergy
• The canonical structure and organization of the Episcopal Church, including complete directories for the Office of The General Convention, The House of Bishops, The House of Deputies, standing committees and commissions, and more
• Listings and contact information for seminaries; Episcopal schools; centers for camps, conferences, and retreats; Episcopal Church Women; and more
• Up-to-date church-wide statistical data and chronological tables
• A classified buyer’s guide of vendors and organizations offering valued services to the church

"Muggeridge's masterpiece, the greatest achievement of his life as a writer."—The London Times

One of the most arrestingly insightful reflections ever written on the life, person, and teachings of Christ. 

In Jesus, the Man Who Lives, the celebrated British author Malcolm Muggeridge offers a meditation that was deemed by The London Times to be his “masterpiece, the greatest achievement of his life as a writer.” Muggeridge's portrait of Christ is at once deeply personal and universally accessible.

Beginning with the assertion that the “coming of Jesus into the world is the most stupendous event in human history,” Muggeridge provides astute commentary on the events of Christ’s life, his teachings, his parables, his prophecies, and his relationships. Along the way, he happily punctures many of the cherished myths held about Jesus—and about itself—by the modern, self-satisfied, largely post-Christian world. With his trademark honesty and wit, Muggeridge concludes that “either Jesus never was or he still is. I assert that he still is." 

This new, fiftieth-anniversary edition proudly reintroduces Malcolm Muggeridge’s profound spiritual meditation to a new generation of readers.

This is what happened at the famous Zen monastery south of San Francisco.

From the award-winning and best-selling author of the biography of Shunryu Suzuki (Crooked Cucumber), comes a memoir and oral history of Tassajara—a monastery founded by the San Franciscan Zen Center in 1967. Peopled like a Sixties film of Buddhism invasion, with hippies, dreamers, lovers, and the first serious practitioners in the US. Nyogen Senzaki, D.T. Suzuki, Alan Watts, Gary Snyder, Allen Ginsberg, and of course Shunryu Suzuki and Richard Baker are all here. This is the story of what happened at the founding of the first Zen monastery in the West.