Sacred Words

This book examines the scholarly genre of 'geographia sacra' in early modern Europe, tracing its contours, the outlooks and concerns of its practitioners, as well as the intersections of religion and geography in an age that saw dramatic revolutions in both fields.

This book examines the scholarly genre of 'geographia sacra' in early modern Europe, tracing its contours, the outlooks and concerns of its practitioners, as well as the intersections of religion and geography in an age that saw dramatic revolutions in both fields.

In a rapidly changing culture, many of us struggle to talk about faith. We can no longer assume our friends understand words such as grace or gospel. Others, like lost and sin, have become so negative they are nearly conversation-enders. Jonathan Merritt knows this frustration well. After moving from the Bible Belt to New York City, he discovered that the sacred terms he used to describe his spiritual life didn’t connect as they had in the past. This launched him into an exploration of an increasing American reluctance to talk about faith—and the data he uncovered revealed a quiet crisis of affecting millions. In this groundbreaking book, Jonathan revives ancient expressions through incisive cultural commentary, vulnerable personal narratives, and surprising biblical insights. Both provocative and liberating, Learning to Speak God from Scratch will breathe new life into your spiritual conversations and invite you into the embrace of the God who inhabits them.

This book is a treasure in the hands of anyone required to use oratory skill in their role. It is known in most countries of the world that lawyers are good orators, perhaps due to the nature of their profession, Barristers are known to address the court. Some of our world leaders past and present are great orators; it is, however, important to note that while not all of them were lawyers, they have delivered remarkable and memorable speeches to their respective nations. One of the qualities of a good leader is the ability to address the nation with good oratory skills. This book therefore explores the power and effect that words have on all of us.

Surveying the variety of ways in which written texts and oral discourse were involved in ancient religions, the contributions to this volume show that oral and written forms were intricately connected in both Greek and Roman state and private religions.

The result of a dialogue between poets and scholars on the meaning and making of the sacred, this book endeavours to determine how the sacred emerges in sacred script as well as in poetic discourse. It ranges through scholarship in areas as apparently disparate as postmodernism and Buddhism. The perspectives developed are various and without closure, locating the sacred in modes as diverse as patristic traditions, feminist retranslations of biblical texts, and oral and written versions of documents from the world’s religions. The essays cohere in their preoccupation with the crucial role language plays in the creation of the sacred, particularly in the relation that language bears to silence. In their interplay, language does not silence silence by, rather, calls the other as sacred into articulate existence.

Sacred Words is a clear and comprehensive guided introduction to the writings and teachings of the world's major religions. It provides the perfect teaching tool for a global comparative study of the written and oral sources of the world's religions, their systems of belief, and their histories. Dedicating a chapter to each religious tradition, the text methodically describes each religious system within the same set of theological features, inviting students to explore areas of comparison and contrast. Providing this starting point for a clear, comparative understanding of the world's religions, the text also details the history and cultural background of each religion and the religious sources on which they are based using the same set of categories as it guides students to selections of original sources for students to explore. Sacred Words provides an overview of the central teachings contained in the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, the Qur'an, the Upanishads, the Buddhist Pali Canon, the Confucian Five Classics, the Dao-de-jing, and other classic texts that have shaped the courses of Western and Eastern Civilizations. Importantly, Sacred Words also introduces students to non-written, oral sources of religious systems of indigenous Americans, Africans, and the peoples of Oceana. Sacred Words is approachable and flexible; its unique, adaptable organization makes it the best way for students to experience for themselves the ancient blueprints for each of the major world religions.

The Bible is a religious masterpiece. Its authors cast a profound vision for the healing of humanity through the power of divine love, grace and forgiveness. But the Bible also contains "dark texts" that challenge our ethical imagination. How can one book teach us to love our enemies and also teach us to slaughter Canaanites? Why does a book that preaches the equality of all people -- male and female, slave and free, Greek and Jew -- also include laws that permit God's people to trade in slaves and to persecute those of a different faiths or ethnicities? In Sacred Word, Broken Word Kenton Sparks argues that the "dark side" of Scripture is not an illusion. Rather, these dark texts remind us that all human beings, including the biblical authors, stand in need of God's redemptive solution in Jesus Christ.