Download or read book The Garden of Eden and the Hope of Immortality written by James Barr and published by . This book was released on 1992 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book, Professor Barr presents a reading of the story of the Garden of Eden, not as a tale of the origins of sin and death, but as a tale of a chance of immortality, briefly accessible to humanity but quickly lost. Old Testament scholars have long been aware that the traditional reading of the story of Adam and Eve as the 'Fall of Man', though hallowed by St Paul's use of it, cannot stand up to close examination of the text. However, they have not succeeded in formulating an alternative interpretation which rivals the force of this traditional reading or is relevant to such a wide range of biblical and theological issues. Professor Barr's new interpretation has such force, and with its challenges to many conventional views it is likely to cause a considerable stir among traditionalists and to excite those dissatisfied with aspects of traditional thought. Central to the book is its stress on the role and prevalence of the idea of immortality, commonly thought to be a later Greek and un-biblical import into Christian thinking. Reflection on immortality also leads to a reconsideration of ideas about death in the Hebrew Bible; about Sheol. the Hebrew underworld; and about the soul. Professor Barr brings out the importance of time for the Hebrew Bible and the concept of length of days, showing that the threat is not so much death as such, but the manner and time of death. His study of chronology leads to a reconsideration of the story of Noah's ark, and the book ends by seeing resurrection and immortality as complementary, rather than conflicting, ideas.

Download or read book The Garden of Eden and the Hope of Immortality written by James Barr and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Dictionary of Major Biblical Interpreters written by Donald K. McKim and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2007-11-12 with total page 1133 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Featuring more than two hundred in-depth articles, a comprehensive resource introduces the principal players in the history of biblical interpretation and explores their historical and intellectual contexts, their primary works, their interpretive principles, and their broader historical significance.

Download or read book Biblical Poetry Through Medieval Jewish Eyes written by Adele Berlin and published by Bloomington : Indiana University Press. This book was released on 1991 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Translated excerpts from 17 Judeo-Arabic and Hebrew commentaries on biblical poetry, written between the 9th and the 17th centuries. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Download or read book The Tree of Life written by Douglas Estes and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2020-03-17 with total page 489 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The tree of life is an iconic visual symbol at the edge of religious thought over the last several millennia. As a show of its significance, the tree bookends the Christian canon; yet scholarship has paid it minimal attention in the modern era. In The Tree of Life a team of scholars explore the origin, development, meaning, reception, and theology of this consequential yet obscure symbol. The fourteen essays trek from the origins of the tree in the texts and material culture of the ancient Near East, to its notable roles in biblical literature, to its expansion by early church fathers and Gnostics, to its rebirth in medieval art and culture, and to its place in modern theological thought.

Download or read book Resurrection of the Dead in Early Judaism 200 BCE CE 200 written by C. D. Elledge and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017-05-05 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Resurrection of the dead represents one of the more enigmatic beliefs of Western religions to many modern readers. In this volume, C. D. Elledge offers an interpretation of some of the earliest literature within Judaism that exhibits a confident hope in resurrection. He not only aids the study of early Jewish literature itself, but expands contemporary knowledge of some of the earliest expressions of a hope that would become increasingly meaningful in later Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Elledge focuses on resurrection in the latest writings of the Hebrew Bible, the Apocrypha, Pseudepigrapha, Dead Sea Scrolls, as well as the writings of other Hellenistic Jewish authors. He also incorporates later rabbinic writings, early Christian sources, and inscriptions, as they shed additional light upon select features of the evidence in question. This allows for a deeper look into how particular literary works utilized the discourse of resurrection, while also retaining larger comparative insights into what these materials may teach us about the gradual flourishing of resurrection within its early Jewish environment. Individual chapters balance a more categorical/comparative approach to the problems raised by resurrection (definitions, diverse conceptions, historical origins, strategies of legitimation) with a more specific focus on particular pieces of the early Jewish evidence (1 Enoch, Dead Sea Scrolls, Josephus). Resurrection of the Dead in Early Judaism, 200 BCE-CE 200 provides a treatment of resurrection that informs the study of early Jewish theologies, as well as their later reinterpretations within Rabbinic Judaism and Christianity.

Download or read book On Being Someone written by Helen Oppenheimer and published by Andrews UK Limited. This book was released on 2016-08-01 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book continues the discussions in "What a piece of work: on being human" (Imprint Academic 2006) and may be considered its sequel. Among all the creatures in the physical universe, humans seem to be more than simply physical, because they are aware of being creatures in the universe. Human beings essentially belong to the world of nature, yet stand out as the most complex and fascinating of all living beings. Like and also unlike other animals, they respond to what happens to them; they make plans and carry them out; they recognize one another, sometimes lovingly; they make friends and enjoy their company; they shape the world around them for convenience and for delight; they ask questions both practical and theoretical; and many of them try to praise God. In What a Piece of Work, Helen Oppenheimer considered humankind as part of the natural universe which Christians believe God set in motion, asking how human beings stand among other creatures and how they are to be valued. In this volume she leaves aside comparisons with our fellow creatures in order to attend to our own experience. It makes a good start to think of oneself as a human animal, but then we need to go further and ask what does it mean to be a person, to be counted as someone?

Download or read book Discovering the Word of Wisdom written by Jane Birch and published by Fresh Awakenings. This book was released on 2013-11-26 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a lively exploration of the amazing revelation known to Mormons as the “Word of Wisdom.” It counsels us how and what we should eat to reach our highest potential, both physically and spiritually. New and surprising insights are presented through the perspective of what has been proven to be the healthiest human diet, a way of eating supported both by history and by science: a whole food, plant-based (WFPB) diet. WFPB vegetarian diets have been scientifically proven to both prevent and cure chronic disease, help you achieve your maximum physical potential, and make it easy to reach and maintain your ideal weight. In this book, you’ll find the stories of dozens of people who are enjoying the blessings of following a Word of Wisdom diet, and you’ll get concrete advice on how to get started! You will discover: What we should and should not eat to enjoy maximum physical health. How food is intimately connected to our spiritual well being. Why Latter-day Saints are succumbing to the same chronic diseases as the rest of the population, despite not smoking, drinking, or doing drugs. How the Word of Wisdom was designed specifically for our day. How you can receive the “hidden treasures” and other blessings promised in the Word of Wisdom. Why eating the foods God has ordained for our use is better not just for our bodies, but for the animals and for the earth. You may think you know what the Word of Wisdom says, but you’ll be amazed at what you have missed. Learn why Mormons all over the world are “waking up” to the Word of Wisdom!

Download or read book The Beginning of Wisdom written by Leon Kass and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2003-05-20 with total page 722 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Imagine that you could really understand the Bible...that you could read, analyze, and discuss the book of Genesis not as a compositional mystery, a cultural relic, or a linguistic puzzle palace, or even as religious doctrine, but as a philosophical classic, precisely in the same way that a truth-seeking reader would study Plato or Nietzsche. Imagine that you could be led in your study by one of America's preeminent intellectuals and that he would help you to an understanding of the book that is deeper than you'd ever dreamed possible, that he would reveal line by line, verse by verse the incredible riches of this illuminating text -- one of the very few that actually deserve to be called seminal. Imagine that you could get, from Genesis, the beginning of wisdom. The Beginning of Wisdom is a hugely learned book that, like Genesis itself, falls naturally into two sections. The first shows how the universal history described in the first eleven chapters of Genesis, from creation to the tower of Babel, conveys, in the words of Leon Kass, "a coherent anthropology" -- a general teaching about human nature -- that "rivals anything produced by the great philosophers." Serving also as a mirror for the reader's self-discovery, these stories offer profound insights into the problematic character of human reason, speech, freedom, sexual desire, the love of the beautiful, pride, shame, anger, guilt, and death. Something as seemingly innocuous as the monotonous recounting of the ten generations from Adam to Noah yields a powerful lesson in the way in which humanity encounters its own mortality. In the story of the tower of Babel are deep understandings of the ambiguous power of speech, reason, and the arts; the hazards of unity and aloneness; the meaning of the city and its quest for self-sufficiency; and man's desire for fame, immortality, and apotheosis -- and the disasters these necessarily cause. Against this background of human failure, Part Two of The Beginning of Wisdom explores the struggles to launch a new human way, informed by the special Abrahamic covenant with the divine, that might address the problems and avoid the disasters of humankind's natural propensities. Close, eloquent, and brilliant readings of the lives and educations of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Jacob's sons reveal eternal wisdom about marriage, parenting, brotherhood, education, justice, political and moral leadership, and of course the ultimate question: How to live a good life? Connecting the two "parts" is the book's overarching philosophical and pedagogical structure: how understanding the dangers and accepting the limits of human powers can open the door to a superior way of life, not only for a solitary man of virtue but for an entire community -- a life devoted to righteousness and holiness. This extraordinary book finally shows Genesis as a coherent whole, beginning with the creation of the natural world and ending with the creation of a nation that hearkens to the awe-inspiring summons to godliness. A unique and ambitious commentary, a remarkably readable literary exegesis and philosophical companion, The Beginning of Wisdom is one of the most important books in decades on perhaps the most important -- and surely the most frequently read -- book of all time.

Download or read book Healthy Human Life written by James K. Bruckner and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2012-06-18 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Health is God's original created intent: whole persons, healthy relationships, a thriving environment, and ongoing interaction with himself. In the Bible, human health is body-based, community-based, and deeply integrated in a relationship with God's creating Spirit. The Pentateuch, prophets, writings, Gospels, and epistles all are deeply, if not primarily, concerned with the ongoing and ultimate health of God's good creation. Scripture also has a wide perspective on the disruption of human health. It deals with the human tendency to violence, corruption, and self-destructive behaviors. The recently renewed interest in health, vitality, and spirituality of all kinds has led to this articulation of a biblical spirituality in relation to human health. Surprisingly, when we look for spirituality in the Bible, we find real and embodied relationships. Everyone is for health and for the restoration of health. But what are health and healing? How does the Bible describe or define them? Here is the result of ten years of conversations with health care professionals in a master's course on biblical perspectives on health and healing. The biblical witness can transform the way we practice the healing arts. This book provides a biblical foundation for health and its restoration.

Download or read book The End of the World and the Ends of God written by John Polkinghorne and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2000-02-01 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this provocative collection of essays, scientists, theologians, ethicists, and biblical scholars look at eschatology through their various lenses.

Download or read book Paul and His Mortality written by R. Gregory Jenks and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2015-11-09 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While many books are written on Jesus’ death, a gap exists in writings about the theological significance of a believer’s death, particularly in imitation of Jesus’. Paul, as a first apostolic witness who talked frequently about his own death, serves as a foundational model for how believers perceive their own death. While many have commented about Paul’s stance on topics such as forensic righteousness and substitutionary atonement, less is written about Paul’s personal experience and anticipation of his own death and the merit he assigned to it. Paul and His Mortality: Imitating Christ in the Face of Death explores how Paul faced his death in light of a ministry philosophy of imitation: as he sought to imitate Christ in his life, so he would imitate Christ as he faced his death. In his writings, Paul acknowledged his vulnerability to passive death as a mortal, that at any moment he might die or come near death. He gave us some of the most mournful and vitriolic words about how death is God’s and our enemy. But he also spoke openly about choosing death: “My aim is to know him . . . to be like him in his death.” This study seeks to show that Paul embraced death as a follower and imitator of Christ because the benefits of a good death supersede attempts at self-preservation. For him, embracing death is gain because it is honorable, because it reflects ultimate obedience to God, and because it is the reasonable response for those who understand that only Jesus’ death provides atonement. Studying mortality is paradoxically a study of life. Peering at the prospect of life’s end energizes life in the present. This urgency focuses on living with mission in step with God, the Creator and Sustainer of life, who is rightly referred to as Life itself. By focusing on mortality, we focus on Paul’s theology of life in its practical aspects, in particular, living life qualitatively, aware of God’s kingdom and mission and our limited quantity of days.

Download or read book Heaven Ain t Goin There written by John A. Davies and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2019-09-30 with total page 138 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book issues a provocative challenge to the notion, prevalent in Christian circles, that people (or their "souls") go to heaven when they die. Though deeply entrenched in Christian and Western culture, there is little or no biblical warrant for such a belief. John Davies presents a biblical theology of heaven, informed by mainstream biblical scholarship, and in the process sweeps away popular misconceptions. Be prepared to have your understanding of such cherished passages as John 14:2 ("In my Father's house . . .") challenged. But as well, this book seeks to show the more glorious dimensions of the Christian hope, our renewal as whole persons in the context of a cosmic restoration, the outcome of the victory of Jesus. Though much of the language of the Bible regarding our eternal destiny is in the form of imagery, we should continue to use such imagery, understanding it against its cultural background, rather than construct our own more impoverished mythology based more on dubious logic and sentiment.

Download or read book The Zondervan Encyclopedia of the Bible Volume 3 written by Merrill C. Tenney and published by Zondervan Academic. This book was released on 2010-08-10 with total page 1876 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Revised edition. Volume 3 of 5. The Zondervan Encyclopedia of the Bible has been a classic Bible study resource for more than thirty years. Now thoroughly revised, this new five-volume edition provides up-to-date entries based on the latest scholarship. Beautiful full-color pictures supplement the text, which includes new articles in addition to thorough updates and improvements of existing topics. Different viewpoints of scholarship permit a wellrounded perspective on significant issues relating to doctrines, themes, and biblical interpretation. The goal remains the same: to provide pastors, teachers, students, and devoted Bible readers a comprehensive and reliable library of information. • More than 5,000 pages of vital information on Bible lands and people • More than 7,500 articles alphabetically arranged for easy reference • Hundreds of full-color and black-and-white illustrations, charts, and graphs • 32 pages of full-color maps and hundreds of black-and-white outline maps for ready reference • Scholarly articles ranging across the entire spectrum of theological and biblical topics, backed by the most current body of archaeological research • 238 contributors from around the world

Download or read book Body Soul and Human Life Studies in Theological Interpretation written by Joel B. Green and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 2008-07-01 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Are humans composed of a material body and an immaterial soul? This view is commonly held by Christians, yet it has been undermined by recent developments in neuroscience. Exploring what Scripture and theology teach about issues such as being in the divine image, the importance of community, sin, free will, salvation, and the afterlife, Joel Green argues that a dualistic view of the human person is inconsistent with both science and Scripture. This wide-ranging discussion is sure to provoke much thought and debate. Bestselling books have explored the relationship between body, mind, and soul. Now Joel Green provides us with a biblical perspective on these issues.

Download or read book The Sacred Cosmos written by Terence L. Nichols and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2009-01-07 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In this careful and closely argued book, Terence Nichols presents a vigorous challenge to naturalistic thinking. We are offered the persuasive vision of a world of many-leveled richness, whose Creator is continually active within its unfolding history." --John Polkinghorne, University of Cambridge "This is a uniquely valuable work for our time. The Sacred Cosmos takes on the ambitious task of a synthesis of the contributions of contemporary science, basic Thomistic philosophy of being and the human person, and basic themes of Christian theology on God, creation, and the relations between God and the world. The author, a theologian, brings to his task an amazing background and range of competence both in contemporary science and . . . Christian theology. . . . The most valuable part of the book is the author's powerful and cogent critique of the widely influencial 'scientific naturalism' of our day, which claims the only reliable way of knowing is that of modern science, and all that exists can be explained by the evolving interaction of material elements, leaving no place for anything of the spiritual order, like the human soul, moral values, or God." --W. Norris Clarke, S.J., Fordham University "In this sensible and solid reply to scientific atheism (or 'naturalism'), Nichols charts the way for a new harmony between science and spirituality. I recommend it to anyone interested in the interaction of religion and science." --Alan Padgett, author of Science and the Study of God: A Mutuality Model for Theology and Science

Download or read book Garden of Eden Found written by William C. Chappell and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2004-08-26 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book entitled, Garden of Eden Found, is divided into three almost equal parts. Part I of the book is exactly what the title says. It reveals and explains the exact geographical location of the ancient site of the Garden of Eden. This is an absolutely new and a previously undiscovered site. People suppose that we must yet wait on a prophet of God to reveal its location, but this book explains that God through the prophet Moses said everything he could to explain the location of the Garden of Eden in the second chapter of Genesis. It is just that the names of the lands and rivers have changed. The original thing in this work, however, is that the ancient site of the Garden of Eden was located upon the North American continent. Note that according to Genesis 1:10 each land was called earth. Thus, it could have been on any continent. There has never been one fact of evidence to show that the Garden of Eden was located in the Middle East anyway. This has only been a supposition of the so-called learned; even those who write the text books; and most of whom do not believe in God or in revelation. The author has simply put together the Genesis account of Eden with the latter-day revelations concerning Adam-ondi-Ahman in America. Part II of this book reveals the ultimate meaning of the six days and the six nights and Sabbath of the creation account in Genesis chapter one. No one has ever discovered nor understood their ultimate meaning before this work. The author submits that this concept is the greatest concept that can be conceived by the mind of man concerning ultimate reality. This concept ties together the law of eternal progression, the order of the universes of the cosmos, and the days and nights of creation as one and the same thing. So the author begins Part II of his book with the following paragraph. If I were a scientist and was speaking before my other colleagues, then, I would name my address, "The Number and Order of the Universes of the Cosmos." If I was a philosopher and was presenting this topic before my fellow philosophers, I would entitle my presentation, "The Law of Eternal Progression to Ultimate Continuum." But if I happened to be a theologian, and was preaching a sermon to my parishioners, I would call my message, "The Meaning of the Six Days and Six Nights and a Sabbath of Creation." This is because these three subjects concern the same ultimate reality. The first is scientific, the second is philosophical, and the third is religious. Often the terms for universe and the cosmos are used interchangeably. Actually, this is the concept of mankind at the present time. Most people, including scientists, the philosophers, and the theologians, consider that the universe is the cosmos and that the cosmos is the universe. However, this is simply not the true case of the matter, for the cosmos is the sum total of the series of the twelve universes of the cosmos. However, would anyone have ever entertained the idea that the answer is to be found in the first chapter of the Book of Genesis in the Bible? Who would have thought that God had hidden it in the simple account of the six days and the six nights and Sabbath of creation? I will attempt to show, in plainness and simplicity, that this is the true interpretation. SPAN style="mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt"Part III of this book explains the historic meaning of the symbolism in the Book of Revelation. The new truth to understand is that they represent only natural things and historical events of the past two-thousand years of Christian history. There are three general principles that we must accept in order to understand the symbolism of t