Comparing paradise imagery in two Persian religions, early Syriac Christianity and the Baha'i Faith, this work contributes to religious studies methodology by introducing "symbolic paradigm analysis."

This book presents a study of twelfth-century humanism seen as an all-embracing discourse in which the human and the divine interact on equal terms. The book focuses on a number of twelfth-century intellectuals, especially Thierry of Chartres, Peter Abelard, William of Conches, Bernard Silvestris, and Alan of Lille. Defining characteristic of their texts is the fact that God, nature and humanity enter into a trialogue of sorts involving many disparate subjects and aiming to bring out the archetypal relatedness of all kinds of knowledge with respect to human nature. As the authors studied here engage the divine and the universe in a joint conversation, the book ultimately concentrates on trying both to understand its appeal and to explain its subsequent demise.

A charge to people who believe that you must believe in a young earth to be a Christian.

This study on the representations of Paradise in the Hebrew Bible (Genesis 2-3 and Ezekiel 28) also deals with the reception of the biblical accounts in early Jewish writings (Enochic texts, the Book of Jubilees, Qumran texts) in Rabbinics and Kabbalah, early mainstream Christianity and in early Christian apocryphal and Gnostic literature. Two further chapters are devoted to views of Paradise in the Christian Middle Ages. The volume concludes with the interpretation of Paradise in John Milton's epic poem "Paradise Lost,"

When you're doing something that's out of the ordinary, your mental programing, your paradigm, will try and stop you. If you want to win, you must keep going. Your paradigms may be masked in complacency, fear, worry, anxiety, insecurities, self-doubt, mental hurry and self-loathing—the result is keeping you STUCK....locked in a box and starved of your dreams and ambitions. To change your life—you MUST change your paradigm. The change is not easy, but it's worth it, and the results are lasting. Bob Proctor will show you his proven methods for doing so. This book will synthesize his decades of study, application, and teaching to: • Explain what paradigms are and how they guide every move you make • Teach you how to identify your paradigms • Show you how to make your own Paradigm Shift • Help you transform your finances, health and lifestyle when you change your paradigm • Guide you on how to replace a paradigm that doesn't serve you well with a new one that frees you to create the life you really want Bob will break through the myth many people have about success—that long hours and hard work are sufficient to achieve lasting success. Because without changing your paradigm, no amount of hard work and long work hours will make a measurable, lasting difference in your success. Once you go through Bob Proctor's Paradigm Shift Process, you will expose yourself to a brand new world of power, possibility and promise.

A finalist for World Magazine's Book of the Year! Scholars, journalists, and even politicians uphold Muslim-ruled medieval Spain—"al-Andalus"—as a multicultural paradise, a place where Muslims, Christians, and Jews lived in harmony. There is only one problem with this widely accepted account: it is a myth. In this groundbreaking book, Northwestern University scholar Darío Fernández-Morera tells the full story of Islamic Spain. The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise shines light on hidden history by drawing on an abundance of primary sources that scholars have ignored, as well as archaeological evidence only recently unearthed. This supposed beacon of peaceful coexistence began, of course, with the Islamic Caliphate's conquest of Spain. Far from a land of religious tolerance, Islamic Spain was marked by religious and therefore cultural repression in all areas of life and the marginalization of Christians and other groups—all this in the service of social control by autocratic rulers and a class of religious authorities. The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise provides a desperately needed reassessment of medieval Spain. As professors, politicians, and pundits continue to celebrate Islamic Spain for its "multiculturalism" and "diversity," Fernández-Morera sets the historical record straight—showing that a politically useful myth is a myth nonetheless.