You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
Every culture makes the distinction between "true religion" and magic, regarding one action and its result as "miraculous," while rejecting another as the work of the devil. Surveying such topics as Babylonian witchcraft, Jesus the magician, magic in Hasidism and Kabbalah, and magic in Anglo-Saxon England, these ten essays provide a rigrous examination of the history of this distinction in Christianity and Judaism. Written by such distinguished scholars as Jacob Neusner, Hans Penner, Howard Kee, Tzvi Abusch, Susan R. Garrett, and Moshe Idel, the essays explore a broad range of topics, including how certain social groups sort out approved practices and beliefs from those that are disapproved--providing fresh insight into how groups define themselves; "magic" as an insider's term for the outsider's religion; and the tendency of religious traditions to exclude the magical. In addition the collection provides illuminating social, cultural, and anthropological explanations for the prominence of the magical in certain periods and literature.
The Bible has had an immeasurable influence on Western culture, touching on virtually every aspect of our lives. It is one of the great wellsprings of Western religious, ethical, and philosophical traditions. It has been an endless source of inspiration to artists, from classic works such as Michaelangelo's Last Judgment, Handel's Messiah, or Milton's Paradise Lost, to modern works such as Thomas Mann's Joseph and His Brothers or Martin Scorsese's controversial Last Temptation of Christ. For countless generations, it has been a comfort in suffering, a place to reflect on the mysteries of birth, death, and immortality. Its stories and characters are an integral part of the repertoire of every...
None
In this informative volume, dozens of eminent scholars explore how the Bible has influenced religious, ethical, artistic and philosophical traditions in more than 200 entries.
Among the millions of Jews who immigrated to America in the early twentieth century, there were the few for whom Hebrew culture was an important ideal. Reaching a critical mass around World War I, these American Hebraists attempted to establish a vital Hebrew culture in America. They founded journals and wrote Hebrew poetry, fiction, and essays, largely about the American Jewish experience, and they succeeded in putting a Hebraist stamp upon most of the Jewish education that took place between the two world wars. Hebrew in America is the first book to fully explore the Jewish attachment to Hebrew in twentieth-century North America. Fifteen leading scholars in Judaic studies write about the l...
This volume assembles for the first time a representative statement of Judaic learning on the Old Testament as it is studied today by many of the most important Jewish Bible scholars of the age. A host of internationally known scholars - American, European, and Israeli - here present a variety of rich perspectives on the study and interpretation of the Scriptures revered by both Judaism and Christianity. These studies make clear that no single Jewish school of biblical scholarship exists. Rather there is a Jewish approach, involving appreciation for Hebrew as a living language; the reality of Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel; the continuity of Scripture in the life of Israel, the Jewish people, and the state of Israel; and a complete and healthy adaptation of the critical perspectives of contemporary scholarship. This unique and stimulating volume vividly demonstrates the importance and value of critical scholarly discourse on the Hebrew Scripture (Old Testament) by Jewish scholars for both Christian and Jewish communities.