Early Religions

What was the starting point of Christianity? Was it in a little town in Bethlehem, just as the lyrics of our favorite Christmas songs contend? In truth, in the earliest days of Christianity, when Peter and Paul first set out to preach the gospel, the belief systems of early Christians were viewed as merely a new sect of Judaism.

This book is about Paul, the apostle who had an amazing revelation of the love of God the Father expressed through Jesus Christ, his beloved Son. The revelation of the God who was in Christ. How did Paul receive such an incredible revelation? How was this legalistic Jewish pharisee who persecuted the early church transform into the man who has this profound revelation? Who was the man behind the words? What was the back story? Paul’s story unfolds in the pages of the New Testament.

Carpocrates, Marcellina, and Epiphanes is the definitive study of the early Christian theologian Carpocrates, his son Epiphanes, and the leader of the Carpocratian movement in Rome, Marcellina. It contains the first full-length study of and commentary on the fragments of Epiphanes, the earliest reports on Carpocrates and Marcellina, as well as the Epistle to Theodore (containing the so-called Secret Gospel of Mark). Listeners also encounter an up-to-date history of research on the Carpocratian movement, and three full profiles of all we can know from the earliest Carpocratian leaders.

Athanasius rightly knew that upon one’s view of Christ hung one’s eternal destiny. As he wrote to the bishops of Egypt in 356: “as therefore the struggle that is now set before us concerns all that we are, either to reject or to keep the faith, let us be zealous and resolve to guard what we have received, bearing in mind the confession that was written down at Nicaea.” And, by God’s grace, his victory in that struggle has been of enormous blessing to the church ever since.

Many years ago, in a lecture on the creation of the Mishnah, the Orthodox Jewish historian, Rabbi Berel Wein discussed the rise of early Christianity as a historical and theological backdrop. He mentioned that this era is of particular importance to Jews because of the complicated and tragic relationship between Jews and Christians over the centuries. He referred to Joseph Klausner, the famed Jewish professor of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem who in the earlier part of the 20th century, had authored several works on early Christianity from a Jewish standpoint.

In Firstlight, best-selling author Sue Monk Kidd offers readers an intimate glimpse into the early years of her journey as both writer and spiritual seeker. Drawn from the author's early writings for Guideposts and, to a lesser extent, other publications, this selection of personal reflections and essays is organized around 13 spiritual motifs and interwoven to create a compelling narrative about the author's spiritual awakening.

Perhaps no declaration incites more theological and moral outrage than a human's claim to be divine. Those who make this claim in ancient Jewish and Christian mythology are typically represented as the most hubristic and dangerous tyrants. Their horrible punishments are predictable and still serve as morality tales in religious communities today. But not all self-deifiers are saddled with pride and fated to fall.

India has “philosophy” in the Western sense of the term, and it began early. This book deals with the roots of that philosophical thought. Included here are plain English translations (with notes) of selections of the Rig Veda, Atharva Veda, and especially the classic Upanishads. Also included are five essays to help understand this philosophical reflections. These essays are on the sources of Indian philosophy, knowledge, metaphysics, and ethics, with a specialized essay on “unknowing” in the Isha Upanishad.

For more than three decades, Dr. Thomas Horn was a proficient Bible scholar and pioneer who addressed with perceptive wisdom and discernment serious and controversial questions most religious scholars wouldn’t touch. Now back in circulation for the first time since 1998, this book is a republication of two of Tom's earliest works. In Spiritual Warfare: The Invisible Invasion and Gods Who Walk Among Us, Horn brings insight to our troubling times and assurance of God's eventual victory over darkness.

This book welcomes listeners to appreciate the origins of Christianity within the Roman world in which early Christianity got its first foothold. It does that by immersing listeners in the life and culture of two thriving first-century towns—Pompeii and Herculaneum. Those towns (destroyed in the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 CE) act as showpieces of the world into which the early Christian movement was spreading.

A detailed look into ancient advanced technology, science, and medicine - some of which has yet to be reproduced today.

Decades ago, we systematically removed religious education from the public school day. LifeWise Academy is bringing it back. During School Hours is the two-part (true) story of how it's happening right now. Part 1 investigates WHY religious education was removed from public schools, the unintended consequences of its removal, and why reinstalling it is a game-changer for future generations. Part 2 shows exactly HOW LifeWise Academy is doing it now - bringing Bible education to public school students During School Hours.

A rip roaring, hair raising, edge-of-your-chair saga of the first-century believers. From the day of Pentecost, on through the first seventeen years, every historical figure of that age is there: alive, vivid, believable.

In this fifth volume of a multi-year translation project by the Davenant Institute, we present key sections from Book V of Hooker’s "Laws," in which Hooker thoroughly yet succinctly lays out the Reformed yet catholic perspective on both Christology and the sacraments. Long regarded as both the theological and rhetorical high point of the "Laws," these chapters provide a survey of the church’s historic teaching on the person of Christ and our union with him, as well as an irenic defense of Reformed distinctives over against the Catholic, Lutheran, and anti-sacramental alternatives.

Pascal illuminates the substantial differences between the early church and the Church of today. Formerly, it was necessary to forsake the world in order to be received into the Church, while people now enter the Church at the same time as they enter the world. There was thus an essential distinction between the world and the Church, the two being considered as two opposites.

An excellent, comprehensive introduction to Early Buddhism. It covers both theory and practice. This is a great audiobook for anyone - from beginner to teacher - who wants to learn or teach Early Buddhism.

A look at many different aspects of how Martin Luther became the Father of the Reformation.

Moses’ encounter with God on the summit of Mount Sinai, as told in the biblical book of Exodus, contains a number of peculiarities and paradoxes. Early Christian mystics seized on these as clues to the spiritual understanding of Moses’ experiences, and as guides to the practice of contemplation. In this course, we will examine five moments in Moses’ ascent of Mount Sinai

The Jewish sect which ascribed Jesus the title of Messiah was eventually transformed into a non-Jewish movement wholly separated from its Jewish context. The transformation was not instantaneous, and there were deviating or at the least parallel streams of Jesus supporters early on. A critical mistake which has been made, in my opinion, is the assumption that the Jesus movement was uniform even among its early Jewish followers. Analyzing the original movement(s) in the first centuries of the Common Era can reveal how the schism between Judaism and Christianity evolved.

Early Scenes in Church History, is the eighth in a series of 17 books called The Faith-Promoting Series. Published between 1879 and 1915, this series of books was published by the Juvenile Instructors Office for the Instruction and Encouragement of Young Latter-day Saints. It was George Q. Cannon's inspiration that produced the series, however. In 1866, Cannon, then a member of the Quorum of the 12, began publication of a magazine for youth and young adults called The Juvenile Instructor, which he owned and published until his death in 1901, when his family sold the magazine to the LDS Church's Sunday School organization. Thus, in 1882 when the present work, Early Scenes in Church History, was published, it was a work undertaken under the direction of Cannon, with the blessing of the Church's governing leadership.