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"The Varieties of Religious Experience is a generous and endlessly insightful book about human nature." - The New York Times
"The most notable of all books in the field of the psychology of religion and probably destined to be the most influential book written on religion in the 20th century." - Psychology today
Published in 1902 and quickly established itself as a classic, this book is a work that opens a new era of thinking. The study made by...
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James George Frazer attempted to define the shared elements of religious belief and scientific thought, discussing fertility rites, human sacrifice, the dying god, the scapegoat, and many other symbols and practices whose influences had extended into 20th-century culture. His thesis is that old religions were fertility cults that revolved around the worship and periodic sacrifice of a sacred king. Frazer proposed that mankind progresses from magic...
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From Shirley MacLaine's spiritual biography Out on a Limb to the teenage witches in the film The Craft, New Age and Neopagan beliefs have made sensationalistic headlines. In the mid- to late 1990's, several important scholarly studies of the New Age and Neopagan movements were published, attesting to academic as well as popular recognition that these religions are a significant presence on the contemporary North American religious landscape. Self-help...
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A preeminent scientist—and the world's most prominent atheist—asserts the irrationality of belief in God and the grievous harm religion has inflicted on society, from the Crusades to 9/11.
With rigor and wit, Dawkins examines God in all his forms, from the sex-obsessed tyrant of the Old Testament to the more benign (but still illogical) Celestial Watchmaker favored by some Enlightenment thinkers. He eviscerates the major arguments...
With rigor and wit, Dawkins examines God in all his forms, from the sex-obsessed tyrant of the Old Testament to the more benign (but still illogical) Celestial Watchmaker favored by some Enlightenment thinkers. He eviscerates the major arguments...
6) Siddhartha
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Siddhartha (first published in 1922) is a novel based on the early life of Buddha, inspired by the author's visit to India before the First World War. The novel is about the young Brahmin Siddhartha's search for self-realization. Disturbed by the contradictions between his comfortable life and the harsh reality around him, he takes to the life of a wanderer. But the shunning of all temptation in an ascetic life does not give him a sense of fulfillment...
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"Black Elk Speaks is widely hailed as a religious classic, one of the best spiritual books of the modern era and the bestselling book of all time by an American Indian. This inspirational and unfailingly powerful story reveals the life and visions of the Lakota healer Nicholas Black Elk (1863?1950) and the tragic history of his Sioux people during the epic closing decades of the Old West. In 1930, the aging Black Elk met a kindred spirit, the famed...
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Boethius was an eminent public figure under the Gothic emperor Theodoric, and an exceptional Greek scholar. When he became involved in a conspiracy and was imprisoned in Pavia, it was to the Greek philosophers that he turned. The Consolation was written in the period leading up to his brutal execution. It is a dialogue of alternating prose and verse between the ailing prisoner and his 'nurse' Philosophy. Her instruction on the nature of fortune and...
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"At the heart of the nation's spiritual history are audacious and often violent scenes. But the Puritans and the shining city on the hill give us just one way to understand the United States. Rather than recite American history from a Christian vantage point, Peter Manseau proves that what really happened is worth a close, fresh look. Thomas Jefferson himself collected books on all religions and required that the brand new Library of Congress take...
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In this book G.K. Chesterton explains how religion-a blend of philosophy and mythology-satisfies both the human intellect and the spirit, and sets man starkly apart from any other living creature. Addressing evolution, feminism, and cultural relativism within the context of religion, the book also examines religious skepticism. According to Chesterton, the shape of the key is not important. What matters is that it fits the lock and opens the door....
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D.H. Lawrence considered 'The Plumed Serpent' his best novel, while some critics considered it blasphemous and misogynistic.Controversy followed the author around, but this is a thrilling and original tale set in post-revolutionary Mexico.Irish tourist Kate Leslie meets Don Cipriano and Don Ramon Carrasco, founders of the religious movement The Men of Quetzalcoatl.They believe themselves to be reincarnated Aztec gods and aim to wipe from the face...
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The author compares Celtic mythology and religion with the beliefs of early Scandinavian society. Vikings and Norsemen who raided British shores ruled parts of Britain for centuries. The religion of the Scandinavians was the same as the religious beliefs and practices of their fellow Teutonic and Germanic tribes, and their chief deities and religious rituals were like those of Teutonic people anywhere.
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In this pioneering 1902 work of historical-religious scholarship, the author sifts through ancient artifacts and texts to trace the rise of the Eastern religion of Mithra-the Zoroastrian divinity of oath and covenant-throughout the Roman Empire and its spread among the Roman legions. He compares and contrasts Mithraism with the competitor that eclipsed it: Christianity.
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An exploration into why and how Jamaicans become Rastafari in spite of increasing incrimination of the religion
So much has been written about the Rastafari, yet we know so little about why and how people join the Rastafari movement. Although popular understandings evoke images of dreadlocks, reggae, and marijuana, Rastafarians were persecuted in their country, becoming a people seeking social justice. Yet new adherents continued to convert to Rastafari...
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Did God create man? Or did man create God? Famed German philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach explores the answer in this, his most influential work, published in German in 1841 and translated by celebrated English novelist George Eliot. Using Biblical references, dialectics, and ideas from some of the world's greatest thinkers, he confronts believers with his cogent explanation. Approaching religion from a humanistic perspective, Feuerbach explores the idea...
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Despite its reputation for religious intolerance, the Middle East has long sheltered many distinctive and strange faiths: one regards the Greek prophets as incarnations of God, another reveres Lucifer in the form of a peacock, and yet another believes that their followers are reincarnated beings who have existed in various forms for thousands of years. These religions represent the last vestiges of the magnificent civilizations in ancient history:...
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Ian Buruma is the Henry R. Luce Professor of Democracy, Human Rights, and Journalism at Bard College. His many books include Anglomania (Random House), Inventing Japan (Modern Library), and Murder in Amsterdam (Penguin), which won a Los Angeles Times Book Award. He is a regular contributor to many publications, including the New York Review of Books, the New Yorker, the Guardian, and the Financial Times.
Why religion must be separated from politics...
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With great wit and stunning intellect-drawing on a diverse array of faiths, including Zen Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Christian mysticism, and Islam-Huxley examines the spiritual beliefs of various religious traditions and explains how they are united by a common human yearning to experience the divine. The Perennial Philosophy includes selections from Meister Eckhart, Rumi, and Lao Tzu, as well as the Bhagavad Gita, Tibetan Book of the Dead, Diamond...