"A trusted historian shows that "biblical womanhood" isn't biblical, but was born in a clearly definable historical moment, and presents a better way forward for the contemporary church"-- Biblical womanhood--the belief that God designed women to be submissive wives, virtuous mothers, and joyful homemakers--pervades North American Christianity. From choices about careers to roles in local churches to relationship dynamics, this belief shapes the...

In this sweeping narrative that takes us from the Stone Age to the Information Age, Robert Wright unveils a hidden pattern that the great monotheistic faiths have followed as they have evolved. Through the prisms of archaeology, theology, and evolutionary psychology, Wright's findings overturn basic assumptions about Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and are sure to cause controversy. He explains why spirituality has a role today, and why science,...

"A New York Times bestselling historian of early Christianity takes on two of the most gripping questions of human existence: where did the ideas of heaven and hell come from, and why do they endure?" --

"An astonishing and revelatory history that re-presents God as he was originally envisioned by ancient worshippers--with a distinctly male body, and with superhuman powers, earthly passions, and a penchant for the fantastic and monstrous. The scholarship of theology and religion teaches us that the God of the Bible was without a body, only revealing himself in the Old Testament in words mysteriously uttered through his prophets, and in the New Testament...

Looks at Jesus through the many portraits the Gospels provide. The course examines not only the familiar canonical Gospels of Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John from the New Testament, but also the many other, apocryphal narratives and literary works that have also contributed to our perceptions of Jesus, Mary, and Christianity. All of these works are encompassed by the word "Gospel."

Looks at Jesus through the many portraits the Gospels provide. The course examines not only the familiar canonical Gospels of Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John from the New Testament, but also the many other, apocryphal narratives and literary works that have also contributed to our perceptions of Jesus, Mary, and Christianity. All of these works are encompassed by the word "Gospel."

The Messiah Confrontation casts new and fascinating light on why Jesus was killed. Grounded in meticulous research on the messianism debates in the Bible and during the Second Temple period, biblical scholar Israel Knohl argues that Jesus's trial was in reality a dramatic clash between two Jewish groups holding opposing ideologies of messianism and anti-messianism, with both ideologies running through the Bible. The Pharisees (forefathers of the rabbinic...