A sweeping history of Judaism over more than three millenniaJudaism is one of the oldest religions in the world, and it has preserved its distinctive identity despite the extraordinarily diverse forms and beliefs it has embodied over the course of more than three millennia.
A groundbreaking new theory of religionReligion remains an important influence in the world today, yet the social sciences are still not adequately equipped to understand and explain it.
Much of what we know about life in the medieval Islamic Middle East comes from texts written to impart religious ideals or to chronicle the movements of great men.
A unique history of the Hebrew language from biblical times to the modern Jewish stateThis book explores the extraordinary hold that Hebrew has had on Jews and Christians, who have invested it with a symbolic power far beyond that of any other language in history.
The 'Alawis, or Alawites, are a prominent religious minority in northern Syria, Lebanon, and southern Turkey, best known today for enjoying disproportionate political power in war-torn Syria.
An incisive account of the foreign policy beliefs of American Jews from the nineteenth century to the presentHow do American Jews envision their role in the world?
A deeply personal look at death, mourning, and the afterlife in Jewish traditionAfter One-Hundred-and-Twenty provides a richly nuanced and deeply personal look at Jewish attitudes and practices regarding death, mourning, and the afterlife as they have existed and evolved from biblical times to today.
How secular governance in the Middle East is making life worse-not better-for religious minoritiesThe plight of religious minorities in the Middle East is often attributed to the failure of secularism to take root in the region.
Hasidism, a controversial, mystical-religious movement of Eastern European origin, has posed a serious challenge to mainstream Judaism from its earliest beginnings in the middle of the eighteenth century.
Biblical in origin, the expression "e;eclipse of God"e; refers to the Jewish concept of hester panim, the act of God concealing his face as a way of punishing his disobedient subjects.
A comparative look at female political activism in today's most influential Israeli and Palestinian religious movementsHow do women in conservative religious movements expand spaces for political activism in ways that go beyond their movements' strict ideas about male and female roles?
How the Muslim Brotherhood rose to power in Egypt, and what it means for the Islamic worldFollowing the Arab Spring, the Muslim Brotherhood achieved a level of influence previously unimaginable.
What Jewish tradition can teach us about human dignity in a scientific ageThis book explores one of the great questions of our time: How can we preserve our sense of what it means to be a person while at the same time accepting what science tells us to be true-namely, that human nature is continuous with the rest of nature?
This landmark book probes Muslims' attitudes toward Jews and Judaism as a special case of their view of other religious minorities in predominantly Muslim societies.
Turkey has leapt to international prominence as an economic and political powerhouse under its elected Muslim government, and is looked on by many as a model for other Muslim countries in the wake of the Arab Spring.
A groundbreaking account of how religion made society possibleHow did human societies scale up from tight-knit groups of hunter-gatherers to the large, anonymous, cooperative societies of today-even though anonymity is the enemy of cooperation?
Through moving interviews with five ordinary people who rescued Jews during the Holocaust, Kristen Monroe casts new light on a question at the heart of ethics: Why do people risk their lives for strangers and what drives such moral choice?
How the Jewish people went from farmers to merchantsIn 70 CE, the Jews were an agrarian and illiterate people living mostly in the Land of Israel and Mesopotamia.
How the rise of Christianity profoundly influenced the development of Judaism in late antiquityIn late antiquity, as Christianity emerged from Judaism, it was not only the new religion that was being influenced by the old.
A new intellectual history that looks at "e;Jewish self-hatred"e;Today, the term "e;Jewish self-hatred"e; often denotes a treasonous brand of Jewish self-loathing, and is frequently used as a smear, such as when it is applied to politically moderate Jews who are critical of Israel.
Based on two years of ethnographic research in the southern suburbs of Beirut, An Enchanted Modern demonstrates that Islam and modernity are not merely compatible, but actually go hand-in-hand.
A new approach to understanding Jewish thought since the eighteenth centuryIs Judaism a religion, a culture, a nationality-or a mixture of all of these?
The story of the origins and development of a Jewish form of secularismNot in the Heavens traces the rise of Jewish secularism through the visionary writers and thinkers who led its development.
How religious barriers stalled capitalism in the Middle EastIn the year 1000, the economy of the Middle East was at least as advanced as that of Europe.
The most authoritative anthology of Islamist textsThis anthology of key primary texts provides an unmatched introduction to Islamist political thought from the early twentieth century to the present, and serves as an invaluable guide through the storm of polemic, fear, and confusion that swirls around Islamism today.
A new approach to understanding Jewish thought since the eighteenth centuryIs Judaism a religion, a culture, a nationality-or a mixture of all of these?
