Who is Allah? What makes Him unique? And what does He ask of those who submit to His teachings? The God of the Qur'an revises and perfects: His purpose is to make whole what had been corrupted or lost from the practices and scriptures of the earlier Abrahamic religions. Setting passages from the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, and the Qur'an side by side, Miles illuminates what is unique about Allah, His teachings and His temperament, and in doing...

"Food retains a place at the heart of Jewish life and culture, which is based around the Torah. In From Forbidden Fruit to Milk and Honey, Diana Lipton combines these two central aspects of Judaism. Based on the Leket Israel Food & Torah project, From Forbidden Fruit to Milk and Honey includes short essays by 52 internationally acclaimed scholars and Jewish educators. Lipton then provides an even more in-depth commentary and analyzes references to...

In this vivid new interpretation of Genesis, former Episcopal priest John R. Coats looks at the ancient text and its characters in a new light, as stories about people whose day-to-day concerns, triumphs, and failures are not unlike our own. In fact, understanding the people and stories of Genesis can help you understand your own life, family, and colleagues. In the relationships of Cain and Abel, Jacob and Esau, Rachel and Leah, you can see an all...

As the living scriptural heritage of more than a billion people, the Qur'an speaks with a powerful voice. Nevertheless, efforts to introduce the Qur'an to English-speaking audiences have been hampered by the lack of resources. Jane McAuliffe brings together an international team of scholars to explain its complexities.

The discovering of the Gospel of Judas Iscariot was major news, but what was its practical effect? How does it change our understanding of Judas? Does its content confirm or contradict other Christian texts? Does it change what we know about Jesus and about the beginnings of Christianity? The leading authority on this gospel, early church historian Bart Ehrman, offers the first complete account of the discovery it and illuminates the significance...

Rescuing John's Gospel from Its Creedal Captivity John Shelby Spong, bestselling author and popular proponent of a modern, scholarly, and authentic Christianity, argues that this last gospel to be written was misinterpreted by the framers of the fourth-century creeds to be a literal account of the life of Jesus when in fact it is a literary, interpretive retelling of the events in Jesus' life through the medium of fictional characters, from Nicodemus...