Early Religions

Who would have thought that from its humble beginnings as a small group of followers of a Jewish man called Jesus that Christianity would become, less than 2,000 years later, the most widespread religion on Earth? Christianity’s birth and development is a vast, complex story filled with setbacks and contradictions but also with triumphs.

Much of the contemporary discussion of the Jesus tradition has focused on aspects of oral performance, storytelling, and social memory, on the premise that the practice of communal reading of written texts was a phenomenon documented no earlier than the second century CE. Brian J. Wright overturns that premise by examining evidence that demonstrates communal reading events in the first century.

This volume offers an accessible investigation of the Naassene discourse embedded in the anonymous Refutation of All Heresies (completed about 222 CE), in order to understand the theology and ritual life of the Naassene Christian movement in the late second and early third centuries CE. The work provides basic data on the date, genre, and provenance of the Naassene discourse as summarized by the author of the Refutation (or Refutator).

The Protestant conviction that believers would rise again, in bodily form, after death, shaped their attitudes towards personal and religious identity, community, empire, progress, race, and the environment. In To Walk the Earth Again, Christopher Trigg explores the political dimension of Anglo-American Protestant writing about the future resurrection of the dead, examining texts written between the seventeenth and mid-nineteenth centuries.

Every missionary matters to our heavenly father. After becoming ill with a life-threatening parasite and being sent home after serving for only six months, Kristen Danner Reber has experienced firsthand the struggles that come with being released from a mission early. Perfect for returned missionaries, their family, and their leaders, this audiobook will help you navigate through the mixed emotions of an early release for any reason and press forward with faith.

The messages are short, and can easily be read in a few minutes. Try one each day and see if the Holy Spirit doesn't take the information and improve your life.

In Detestable and Wicked Arts, Paul B. Moyer places early New England's battle against black magic in a transatlantic perspective. Moyer provides an accessible and comprehensive examination of witch prosecutions in the Puritan colonies that discusses how their English inhabitants understood the crime of witchcraft, why some people ran a greater risk of being accused of occult misdeeds, and how gender intersected with witch-hunting.

Early Christians were called "heretics" and "atheists" when they denied the gods of Rome, in particular the divinity of the emperor and the statism he embodied in his personality cult. These Christians knew that Jesus Christ, not the state, was their Lord and that this faith required a different kind of relationship to the state than the state demanded. Because Jesus Christ was their acknowledged sovereign, they consciously denied such esteem to all other claimants. Today, the church must take a similar stand before the modern state.

This audiobook is the first audiobook in the new academic book series, Hermit Kingdom Studies in Christianity and Judaism, which seeks to encourage advancement of knowledge in the area of Hebrew language studies, Jewish historical studies, and Early Christianity/New Testament studies. The academic series particularly encourages the use of interdisciplinary approaches and creative thinking.

Church has become boring, religious, and/or irrelevant for many people; while God is none of the above. Why is there such a difference between the perceived church and the real God that the church proclaims? The early church was unscripted, alive, powerful, unpredictable, life-changing, and world-shaking. Our church services today are usually scripted, predictable, polished performances that seem to be making little impact in our society. Why? The answer may surprise you.

How did Muslims across time and place define the line between themselves and their neighbors? Youshaa Patel explores why the Prophet Muhammad first advised his followers to emulate Christians and Jews, but then allegedly reversed course, urging them to "be different!" He details how subsequent generations of Muslim scholars canonized the Prophet's admonition into an influential doctrine against imitation that enjoined ordinary believers to embody and display their religious difference in public life.

Moms, get ready to reclaim your grace with this tender collection of stories, vibrantly recounted by two women working to embrace God's presence during their own parenting journeys. Each narrative reflection opens with scripture and concludes with a practice or questions to ponder, followed by a prayer. Spanning infancy to early childhood, The Beauty of Motherhood encourages mothers and caregivers to take a deep breath and find the holy in those everyday moments that inspire laughter, frustration, and awe.

In the latest book from her Stress Less Live Better series, Dr. Sanford and Megan Demsky teach you how to best meet the challenges of pregnancy, postpartum, and early motherhood. With over 30 years expertise in motherhood and emotional health, Dr. Sanford presents her Five Simple Skills to reduce stress, anxiety, and parenting guilt by learning to calm your mind and body. Based on her Stress Less Live Better program developed for moms and busy people, these skill sets are practical and can easily fit into your daily life without needing extra time.

In vivid detail, author Jay Lampart lays out several reasons why the Internet pornography crisis Christian males are facing today is so unique and dire. He then presents five very simple but highly effective weapons that are available to us as Christians to combat it.

María Magdalena es probablemente la figura más célebre del cristianismo popular, una mujer de nuestro tiempo, la que los medios de comunicación y las sensibilidades modernas pueden abrazar con mayor convicción.

When people think about unidentified flying objects (UFOs), they tend to think of flying discs piloted by gray beings with large heads and enormous eyes. They also might believe that these sightings only started relatively recently and that belief in UFOs is some sort of modern phenomenon brought on, perhaps, by the very justifiable fears of a nuclear age. But a study of UFOs quickly reveals that people have been reporting the existence of unidentified flying objects since the beginning of recorded history, and perhaps a lot longer than that.

"S.P. Somtow doesn't write like anyone else" — Dean R. Koontz Virgin. Mother. Goddess. Miriam of Nazareth was all three. S.P. Somtow's deconstructive retelling of the life of the most famous woman in history is set in a richly pagan world, where hellenism coexisted with monotheism, where Roman-occupied Judaea was not all sand and zealots but a richly-layered territory of a polyglot, multiethnic world. It's a world where women still practice their ancient mysteries alongside the rigidly structured society of patriarchs. Perhaps controversial, "Miriam" lay in a drawer for two decades ...

Dive into the fascinating world of Sahabah companions in business who broke barriers and set unprecedented examples of leadership and entrepreneurship. This book sheds light on the inspiring lives of these trailblazers, offering valuable lessons and insights for modern listeners.

‘In the beginning was the Word,’ says the Gospel of John. This sentence – and the words of all four gospels – is central to the teachings of the Christian church and has shaped Western art, literature and language, and the Western mind. Yet in the years after the death of Christ there was not merely one word, nor any consensus as to who Jesus was or why he had mattered.

John lays out the 10 key bits of wisdom that were instrumental in reconciling and rebuilding broken relationships. His road on this journey is paved with knowing your purpose, character, attitude, goals, teamwork, trust, respect, courage, regrets, reconciliation, and grace. This book shows all of us, no matter our circumstances or how dark our days may seem, that God is brighter still. Let God start to transform your life.