Sacred Texts of the World - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Sacred Texts of the World write by Ninian Smart. This book was released on 2007. Sacred Texts of the World available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. For a contemporary world in which religious belief exercises a more potent - some might say more dangerous - influence on global events than many would have thought possible a generation ago, the nature and interpretation of the core tenets of religious faith has become a matter of compelling and widespread interest, both within and outside practising religious communities.Each of the 14 chapters of Sacred Texts is devoted to one of the principal religious and other belief systems of humanity, both defunct and extant. The chapters follow a consistent pattern: a short and accessible introduction to the faith in question, followed by extracts that clearly illustrate its mythic narratives, its spiritual and theological doctrines, its central moral teachings, its rituals and modes of worship, and its mystical traditions. Accompanying notes make clear the meanings of all the quoted passages. Taken together, the extracts provide a rounded and coherent picture of each religious tradition.Sacred Texts covers not only Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Taoism, Confucianism, Shintoism and Sikhism, but also small-scale traditional religions, new religions, and secular worldviews such as humanism. It is an essential reference for those who wish to understand the nature - and continuing appeal - of religious belief in a globalised, multi-faith world.
World Scripture
World Scripture - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook World Scripture write by Andrew Wilson. This book was released on 1993-12-31. World Scripture available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. World Scripture: A Comparative Anthology of Sacred Texts is a topical journey through the sacred writings of the world`s great religions. Comparing religious beliefs on similar themes demonstrates the existence of a vast sphere of spiritual common ground.
The World's Wisdom
The World's Wisdom - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook The World's Wisdom write by Philip Novak. This book was released on 2011-10-11. The World's Wisdom available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. A world Bible for our time from Buddhist, Hindu, Confucian, Taoist, Jewish, Christian, Islamic, and primal religion sources! In this perfect companion to Huston Smith's bestselling The World's Wisdom, Philip Novak distills the most powerful and elegant expressions of the wisdom of humankind. Authentic, poetic translations of key texts are coupled with insightful introductions and "grace notes."
The Death of Sacred Texts
The Death of Sacred Texts - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook The Death of Sacred Texts write by Kristina Myrvold. This book was released on 2016-03-09. The Death of Sacred Texts available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. The Death of Sacred Texts draws attention to a much neglected topic in the study of sacred texts: the religious and ritual attitudes towards texts which have become old and damaged and can no longer be used for reading practices or in religious worship. This book approaches religious texts and scriptures by focusing on their physical properties and the dynamic interactions of devices and habits that lie beneath and within a given text. In the last decades a growing body of research studies has directed attention to the multiple uses and ways people encounter written texts and how they make them alive, even as social actors, in different times and cultures. Considering religious people seem to have all the motives for giving their sacred texts a respectful symbolic treatment, scholars have paid surprisingly little attention to the ritual procedures of disposing and renovating old texts. This book fills this gap, providing empirical data and theoretical analyses of historical and contemporary religious attitudes towards, and practices of text disposals within, seven world religions: Judaism, Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. Exploring the cultural and historical variations of rituals for religious scriptures and texts (such as burials, cremations and immersion into rivers) and the underlying beliefs within the religious traditions, this book investigates how these religious practices and stances respond to modernization and globalization processes when new technologies have made it possible to mass-produce and publish religious texts on the Internet.
The Message and the Book
The Message and the Book - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook The Message and the Book write by John Bowker. This book was released on 2012-03-27. The Message and the Book available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Grand in its sweep, this survey of the sacred writings of the major religions of the world offers a thoughtful introduction to the ideas and beliefs upon which great faiths are built. Under the expert guidance of John Bowker, a religious scholar and author of international stature, readers explore the key texts of Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Jain, Sikh, Buddhist, Parsi, Confucian, Daoist, and Shinto traditions. The author discusses some 400 books, among them such well-known sacred texts as the Bible and the Quran, but also spiritual writings by theologians, philosophers, poets, and others. Bowker provides clear and illuminating commentary on each text, describing the content and core tenets of the work and quoting pertinent passages. He also sets the writings in religious and historical contexts, showing how they have influenced—and in many cases continue to influence—artistic, musical, literary, and political traditions. The Message and the Book is essential reading for anyone who wishes to understand the meaning and the deep significance of primary religious texts of civilizations around the globe.
