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Spirituality and Religion January 2019
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| A Call for Revolution: A Vision for the Future by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Sofia Stril-Rever What it is: a thoughtful, impassioned appeal from His Holiness the Dalai Lama XIV, urging readers to improve the world around them through compassion and an understanding of the ways in which all living things are interconnected.
Why you might like it: The writing is persuasive but concise, making for an approachable introduction to the Dalai Lama's teachings.
Who it's for: Although readers of all ages will find wisdom here, this book is primarily targeted at the young people who will inherit the consequences of climate change and increasing inequality. |
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| God in the Qur'an by Jack MilesWhat it is: an accessible introduction to the Qur'an, discussing the shared God of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as depicted in the Muslim holy text.
Who it's for: non-Muslims will probably get the most out of this book, since it focuses on figures that the Bible and the Qur'an have in common but covers few that are exclusive to Islam.
Don't miss: the appendix, which details concepts like the afterlife and Satan as they are portrayed in the Qur'an. |
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| Living With the Gods: On Beliefs and Peoples by Neil MacGregorWhat it's about: the ways that religion and society shape one another, from the primal origins of religious belief to the effects of spiritual practice on things like architecture and perceptions of time.
Read it for: its sweeping scale, relevance to contemporary issues of religion and society, and engaging, accessible writing style.
Author alert: Neil MacGregor is the author of other expansive histories, most notably A History of the World in 100 Objects. |
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| Why Religion? A Personal Story by Elaine PagelsWhat it's about: religion scholar Elaine Pagels' story of her relationship with spirituality over the course of her life and career, with insights from neurologists and social scientists about the purpose faith serves for humanity.
Don't miss: the parallels between parts of the author's life story and the Book of Job, and the lessons she took from these difficult experiences.
What sets it apart: the artful balance between Pagels' respect for faith as a concept and her curiosity about why it manages to endure in the modern era. |
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Why We Need Religion
by Stephen T Asma
What it is: Stephen T. Asma argues that religion, like art, has direct access to our emotional lives in ways that science does not. Science can cause curiosity and wonder, but much emotional suffering and vulnerability is beyond the reach of scientific help. Unlike secular authors who praise religion's ethical and civilizing function, Asma argues that its core value lies in its emotionally therapeutic power ... The book goes on to describe the way in which religion manages those emotional systems--rage, play, lust, care, grief, and so on. Finally, it argues that religion is still the best cultural apparatus for doing this adaptive work
About the author: Asma (The Evolution of Imagination) is a professor of philosophy and founding fellow of the Research Group in Mind, Science, and Culture at Columbia College, Chicago
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The Closing of The Western Mind : The Rise of Faith and The Fall of Reason
by Charles Freeman
What it is: Describes the first alliance of church and state in the fourth century, marked by the Roman emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity, and how this decision irrevocably compromised the Roman empire's intellectual tradition of rationalism, paved the way toward a narrow religious orthodoxy, and aided the development of Christian anti-Semitism.
About the author: Charles Freeman is the author of The Greek Achievement (1999) and Egypt, Greece, Rome(1997).
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| The Darkening Age: the Christian Destruction of the Classical World by Catherine NixeyWhat it is: a history of Christianity's rise and the author's assertion that militant elements of the faith wiped out much of the Classical world; a thought-provoking survey of diverse parts of Roman society immediately before the ascent of Christianity.
Is it for you? Although the author concedes that early Christians were the objects of persecution too, there are no holds barred in this exploration of what the world lost in order to make room for Christianity. |
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| The Islamic Jesus: How the King of the Jews Became a Prophet of the Muslims by Mustafa AkyolWhat it is: a thought-provoking exploration of the influences of Christian and Jewish thinkers on early Islamic conceptions of Jesus and his nature.
Topics include: depictions of Jesus's mother Mary as she appears in Islamic writings; discussions = of the lessons that believers of all three Abrahamic faiths can take away from the Qur'an.
Read it for: its conversational, accessible evaluation of holy texts and evidence from the archaeological record. |
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| Jesus Before the Gospels: How the Earliest Christians Remembered, Changed, and... by Bart D. EhrmanWhat it is: an exploration of the historicity of the Gospels and the possible effects that the tradition of oral transmission may have had before they were written down.
Don't miss: the differing stories of Jesus that were circulating before and after his death, with special attention paid to the historical context in which they developed.
Author alert: Noted Bible scholar Bart D. Ehrman is the author of numerous books about early Christianity, including Misquoting Jesus and How Jesus Became God. |
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Contact the Reference Dept at 847-720-3230 for more great books! |
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