Böcker av John Bowker

A magisterial single-volume guide to the great faiths of the world through their most important writings

Why do religions matter so much to so many people? Why do some believe that their faith requires them to terrorise and kill others? Do religions do more harm than good?

What are religions? Why is it important to understand them? One answer is that religions and religious believers are extremely bad news: they are deeply involved in conflicts around the globe; they harm people of whom they disapprove; and they often seem irrational. Another answer claims that they are in fact extremely good news: religious beliefs and practices are universal and so fundamental in human nature that they have led us to great discoveries in our explorations of the cosmos and of who we are. The sciences began as part of that religious exploration. John Bowker demonstrates that there is truth in both answers and that we need both to understand what religion is and why it matters. He draws on many disciplines - from physics, genetics and the neurosciences to art, anthropology and the history of religions - to show how they shed entirely new light on religion in the modern world.

A history of the great religions, told through their core beliefs.

A study of the Pharisees, in particular as they appear in the New Testament and in relation to Jesus. The main part of the book brings together the most important Greek and Semitic source material in translation. This facilitates reference, and it makes possible group and seminar discussion of documents which have hitherto been difficult to study in English. As in his book The Targums and Rabbinic Literature Mr Bowker makes available and accessible to students material which tends to be removed from them by language and technicality. In his introduction he explains the many problems and uncertainties which surround this apparently well-known but actually little-understood group. He shows that they were far from constituting a static, uniform sect, and that they had an important history of their own. He finally suggests an approach to understanding Jesus' relations with them, which in turn suggests an understanding of Jesus' conception of his own relation to God, and also of his 'trial'.

Bearing in mind that Jewish and rabbinic material is being increasingly applied to problems of Christian origins, he provides a comprehensive introduction to the subject (referring to the texts and translations most readily available) with emphasis on recent work and discoveries.

Oxford Scholarly Classics is a new series that makes available again great academic works from the archives of Oxford University Press. Reissued in uniform series design, the reissues will enable libraries, scholars, and students to gain fresh access to some of the finest scholarship of the last century.

In The Meanings of Death, John Bowker offers a major contribution to debates about the value of death and its place in both Western and Eastern religions.

A comparative general study of the problems of suffering as treated by Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Marxism, Hinduism and Buddhism.