Christianity

Blending history, sociology and spirituality, Armstrong offers a compelling and compassionate study of a radical form of religious expression that is critically shaping the course of world history. Says The New York Times, "One of the most penetrating, readable, and prescient accounts of the fundamentalist movements in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam."

This single volume is comprised of a rich and diverse collection of gnostic texts in a translation allowing the spirit of the original texts to shine forth. Says the Library Journal, "The selection of texts ranges across two millennia and various cultures." Says Publishers Weekly, "This book may well be the most comprehensive collection of gnostic texts ever gathered in one volume."
Remaindered copies; good condition, with no underlining.

Burton traces the evolution of Christian serpent handling from its beginnings in East Tennessee. Through first-person interviews and photos, he gives a unique picture of the people who are often distorted by the media as members of a "snake religion" or a "snake cult" because of their unorthodox beliefs and practices. The handling of serpents and fire, healing through laying-on-of-hands, speaking in tongues and drinking poison are seen as acts of Christian obedience that demonstrate the power of the Holy Spirit.

Discovered in the late 1940s, this prodigious collection of long-hidden Gnostic texts (including the famous The Gospel According to Thomas) is the first complete survey of these sacred documents and their contents and the first full-scale appraisal of their significance. Jean Doresse, the only surviving witness of events leading to the find, is a scholar of the classics, Egyptology and Greek Papyrology, who led expeditions into Egypt and Ethiopia.

Addressing the role of sacred languages and the principle of initiation in the Christian tradition, Guénon then examines esoteric themes and organizations such as the Holy Grail, Guardians of the Holy Land, the Sacred Heart, Fedeli d'Amore and 'Courts of Love,' and the secret language of Dante. He closes with a lengthy study on St. Bernard of Clairvaux.

A major doctrinal study of the central symbol of Christianity from the standpoint of the metaphysical tradition. The cross is one of the most universal of all symbols and is far from belonging to Christianity alone.

Based upon a careful reading of the gospels, various apocryphal texts and the Coptic codex known as the Gospel of Judas, Leloup offers an alternative explanation of Judas' 'betrayal.' Jesus persuades Judas to act as he does to fulfill God's plan and which will set Judas by Jesus' side in eternity." There where I am," Jesus tells him, "is where I wish you, too, to be."

In this new translation of the gospel from the Coptic, Leloup, an Orthodox theologian and professor of theology, philosophy and psychology, shows that this text—long condemned by the Church as "the works of the flesh"—is really the sacred initiatic union between male and female principles that once was the heart of Christianity's sacred mystery.

In this new translation of a collection of Jesus' teachings in 114 logia, or sayings, scholar-mystic Leloup shows that they have much in common with Gnostics of nondualistic schools. In preaching of the coming of a new man, the genesis of the man of knowledge, Jesus describes a journey from limited to unlimited consciousness.

A constant theme in Biblical prophecy is that one day the long-lost Temple at Jerusalem, founded by King Solomon in the 10th century B.C.E., will be seen once more, greater and more splendid than before. This will inaugurate the Millennial process, leading to the reunion at Jerusalem of all the twelve tribes of Israel and finally to the reappearance of divine order upon Earth. With the recent discovery of the site of the Temple, this prophecy seems to some ripe for fulfillment. Through studies of the dimensions and street patterns of old Jerusalem, the noted author and scholar John Michell reveals the once and future Temple stamped with a clear message.

Discovering the writings of René Guénon, the writer became a Cistercian monk and, studying Dionysius the Areopagite, Eriugena, Eckhart, and even Dante, found there was no incompatibility between Christianity and Advaita Vedanta (non-dualism).

A further elucidation of the themes explored in his The New Man, Nicoll examines the idea of sin which he takes in its original Greek meaning of missing the mark, as in a spear thrown at some object and failing to hit it. Subjects dealt with include the Parable of the Sower, the Grain of Mustard Seed, Metanoia, War in Heaven and Esoteric Schools.

Employing a rare example of intellectual intuition and erudition, Nicoll sifts the New Testament Gospels to reveal the esoteric teaching beneath their surface interpretation. Subjects include the idea of temptation, the Marriage at Cana, the Good Samaritan, Laborers in the Vineyard, Judas Iscariot, Sermon on the Mount, Necessity of Prayer, and the Kingdom of Heaven.

Hidden deep in the hills of central Appalachia, thousands of tiny one-room churches, many built to hold no more than a dozen people, have quietly carried on their worship services in an unbroken chain for two centuries. The interviews and photographs that the authors spent five years collecting, give expression to the river baptisms, homecomings, serpent handling, tent evangelism, and radio preaching of this heritage.