Showing titles in History

With a rich history stretching back over 2,500 years, Buddhism has been described both as a system of psychology and a philosophy for living. Yet most of us think of it as a religion. What is Buddhism? How is it practiced? Can it help you today? On The Beginner's Guide to Buddhism, author and...

The Sikh religion was founded by Guru Nanak (1469–1539), who drew upon the teachings of Muslim, Sufis and Hindu Bhaktas. In its purest form Sikhism is about unity, simplicity, equality and surrender (to God) and the verses of the Sikh Gurus—most of them included in the Granth...

The enduring influence of the Catholic Church has many sources, but in the first half of the 19th century, the foundations upon which the church had rested were shaken. For many people, liberalism in the guise of liberty, equality, and fraternity was the quintessence of the evils that shook those foundations. At the Vatican Council of 1869-1870, the church made an effort to set things right by defining the doctrine of papal infallibility. Author John W. O'Malley draws us into the bitter controversies over papal infallibility that at one point seemed destined to rend the church in two.

An intelligent, strong-willed woman, Susanna Wesley suffered much in a male-dominated world while she prepared her children to succeed in it. Her fiery, independent spirit is evident as Arnold Dallimore sets the mother of Methodism within her culture and time in England. Though Samuel Wesley figures prominently in his wife's story, as do John, Charles, and the other children, the story remains fixed on Susanna. Excerpts from Susanna Wesley's letters and writings of her husband and children are included.

Luther’s 95 Theses, written in Latin, were famously posted by Martin Luther on the door of the Castle Church, Wittenberg, on October 31, 1517, an event that came to be considered as the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. The Theses focus on three main issues: selling forgiveness through indulgences, the pope’s claimed power of forgiveness, and the damage indulgences caused to sinners. The first thesis states, "When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, "Repent," he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance."

Martin Luther's Bondage of the Will (1525) is a response to Desiderius Erasmus's "Diatribe on Free Will.’ The work is considered as one of the great masterpieces of the Reformation. Luther writes powerfully about man's depravity and God's sovereignty in his direct style, which combines spirituality and humor. For Luther, the crucial issue was the ability of free will, and the extent to which it is subject to God's sovereignty.

The success of books such as Elaine Pagels's Gnostic Gospels and Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code proves beyond a doubt that there is a tremendous thirst today for finding the hidden truths of Christianity - truths that may have been lost or buried by institutional religion over the last two millennia. In Forbidden Faith, Richard Smoley narrates a popular history of one such truth, the ancient esoteric religion of gnosticism, which flourished between the first and fourth centuries AD, but whose legacy remains even today, having survived secretly throughout the ages. 

Many who have read the New York Times bestseller The Da Vinci Code have questions that arise from seven codes-expressed or implied-in Dan Brown's book. In Breaking the Da Vinci Code: Answers to the Questions Everyone's Asking, Darrell Bock, Ph.D., responds to the novelist's claims using central...

In this provocative book one of the most brilliant scholars of religion today dismantles distorted religious "histories" offered up by Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, and other contemporary critics of religion and advocates of atheism. David Bentley Hart provides a bold correction of the New Atheists’s misrepresentations of the Christian past, countering their polemics with a brilliant account of Christianity and its message of human charity as the most revolutionary movement in all of Western history.

The Book of Margery Kempe is the extraordinary account of a medieval wife, mother, and mystic from Norfolk. Having married in c. 1393, given birth to 14 children, and pursued unsuccessful ventures in brewing and milling, Kempe made a vow of chastity and embarked on a life of prayer, penance, and pilgrimage.

Among the many important historical documents from the Classical world of Greece and Rome The Antiquities of the Jews by Flavius Josephus is one of the most distinctive and characterful. Josephus (37-c100 CE) set out with the clear purpose of telling the history of the Jews from the creation in...

Tulsi Chalisa contains a beautiful hymn to Mother Tulsi. In Hinduism, Tulsi Mata is revered and considered sacred. Tulsi Mata is regarded as the embodiment of Goddess Lakshmi. It is said that in the home where Tulsi Mata resides, there is always prosperity and happiness. Those who live in such homes never encounter difficulties or troubles.

Join Amma and her boys as they travel to Shirdi, home to one of India's most celebrated saints-Sai Baba. Hear the story of one of the most loved and revered mystics. Walk around the neem tree that gave him shelter. Relish a few moments in Dwarka Mai, the dilapidated mosque that became his home...

Zgłęb konflikt między wiarą a polityką, badając narodziny amerykańskiego porządku konstytucyjnego. To analityczna podróż, idealna do słuchania w skupieniu lub podczas dojazdów, zaspokajająca głód rzetelnej wiedzy historycznej. Przeniesiesz się prosto w sam środek burzliwych...

Ontrafel de verborgen geschiedenis van het vroege christendom via verloren evangeliën uit de woestijn. Perfect voor een reflectieve luistersessie tijdens je dagelijkse woon-werkverkeer, neemt dit sfeervolle verhaal je mee naar een antieke wereld vol theologische strijd. Laat je fascineren door...

تتبع كيف تحول الشغف البشري بالمقدس إلى قوة عظمى شكلت مسار التاريخ وبنت أسس الحضارة عبر العصور. تقدم هذه التجربة الصوتية سردية تاريخية عميقة، مثالية لترافقك خلال...

在信仰冲突与民族觉醒的夹击下，长达千年的权力博弈与饥荒创伤如何塑造了一个不屈的国家？这部两小时的欧洲历史微缩景观将带你直击动荡现场。无论你是在每日通勤途中，还是渴望在碎片时间里快速充电，这段浓缩的非...

Beleef de epische geschiedenis van een vervolgde sekte die de machtigste religie van het Romeinse Rijk werd. Tijdens je dagelijkse reis of ontspannen wandeling word je direct meegesleept in een sfeervol, waargebeurd verhaal over absolute macht, meedogenloze strijd en miraculeuze overleving in de...

穿越两千年的流散岁月与地缘政治炮火，一段交织着信仰、苦难与权力博弈的建国史诗，将带你洞穿复杂中东局势背后的历史脉络。无论你是通勤途中的历史爱好者，还是渴望在碎片化新闻中寻找理性坐标的求知者，这段客观...

Reis terug naar het oude India en ontdek hoe één spirituele zoektocht naar innerlijke rust een wereldreligie vormde. Terwijl je ontspant na een drukke werkdag of in alle rust luistert tijdens het forenzen, word je volledig ondergedompeld in het meeslepende historische levensverhaal van...