The Samaritan Pentateuch

An Introduction to Its Origin, History, and Significance for Biblical Studi

Robert T. Anderson

SBL Press, 2012

The Samaritan Pentateuch (SP) is the sacred scripture of the Samaritans, a tenacious religious community made famous by Jesus’ Good Samaritan story that persists to this day. Not so widely known is the impact of the SP outside the Samaritan community. Recently there has been a resurgence of interest in this scripture, as evidenced by several translations of the SP as well as reference in Qumran scroll studies to the SP or an SP-like tradition in an effort to describe some of the textual evidence present in the scrolls. This volume presents a general introduction to and overview of the SP, suitable for a course text and as a reference tool for the professional scholar.

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The SBL Commentary on the Septuagint

An Introduction

Dirk Büchner

SBL Press, 2017

Explore the groundwork for a new commentary series from SBL Press

This book contains verse by verse commentary on selections from the Greek text of the Hebrew Bible known as the Septuagint. Each chapter is from a different bible book, for which there will eventually be a full commentary published in the Society of Biblical Literature Commentary on the Septuagint. The commentary series focuses on the actual process of translation, so its authors try to describe and explain the kinds of decisions the ancient Alexandrian translators made about how to render Hebrew into Greek.

Features

Translations from and commentary on Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Esther, Job, and Psalms
Guidelines and procedures used in the production of the translations in the series

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Seat of Wisdom

An Introduction to Philosophy in the Catholic Tradition

James M. Jacobs

Catholic University of America Press, 2021

The Catholic Church has always recognized that philosophy is necessary both to understand the faith as well as to defend it. The need for a philosophically informed faith has become more acute with the rise of secularism. Seat of Wisdom demonstrates that the philosophical principles developed in the Catholic tradition, especially as articulated in Thomism, provide the intellectual foundation for belief in God and are also the only reliable basis for a fully coherent vision of man’s place in the world. Seat of Wisdom begins with an exploration of the relationship between faith and reason. Philosophy’s essential role is to discover the rational principles underlying the intelligible order of reality. These principles act as a bridge connecting science and religious faith, enabling the believer to integrate all facets of human experience. Each of those first principles, as expressed in the transcendental properties, are then analyzed as the basis of the major philosophical disciplines. Starting with metaphysics’ study of being, the argument proceeds to consider the true, the good, and the beautiful in terms of epistemology, anthropology, ethics, aesthetics, and political philosophy. Lastly, these principles are shown to point to God as creator. The strength of the Catholic philosophical tradition is evident when contrasted with reductive theories which fail to account for the breadth of human experience. Consequently, each chapter will introduce influential philosophers whose inadequate theories inform contemporary assumptions. Against this, the Thomistic argument is elucidated as being inclusive of the insights of the reductive position. It will be seen that this “both/and” approach is the only way to do justice to the glory of God and the gift of creation. Religion is prey to skepticism when it is isolated from the rest of knowledge. This integrative argument, uniting discussions of nature, politics, and theology according to common principles, enables the reader to grasp the unity of wisdom. Moreover, by engaging alternative positions, it provides the reader with tools to defend the Catholic worldview against those reductive philosophies which only deprive life of its full meaning.

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The Secret of the Three Cities

An Introduction to Hindu Sakta Tantrism

Douglas Renfrew Brooks

University of Chicago Press, 1990

The esoteric Hindu traditions of Tantrism have profoundly influenced the development of Indian thought and civilization. Emerging from elements of yoga and wisdom traditions, shamanism, alchemy, eroticism, and folklore, Tantrism began to affect brahmanical Hinduism in the ninth century. Nevertheless, Tantrism and its key historical figures have been ignored by scholars. This accessible work introduces the concepts and practices of Hindu Sakta Tantrism to all those interested in Hinduism and the comparative study of religion.

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Self-Consciousness and Objectivity

An Introduction to Absolute Idealism

Sebastian Rödl

Harvard University Press, 2018

Self-Consciousness and Objectivity undermines a foundational dogma of contemporary philosophy: that knowledge, in order to be objective, must be knowledge of something that is as it is, independent of being known to be so. Sebastian Rödl revives the thought—as ancient as philosophy but largely forgotten today—that knowledge, precisely on account of being objective, is self-knowledge: knowledge knowing itself. Thus he intervenes in a discussion that runs through the work of Bernard Williams, Thomas Nagel, Adrian Moore, and others, who seek to comprehend the claim to objectivity we raise in making judgments. While these authors think that the quest for objectivity demands that we transcend the first person, Rödl argues that it is through the first-person thought contained in every judgment that our judgments possess the objectivity that defines knowledge.

Self-Consciousness and Objectivity can be read as an introduction to absolute idealism, for it dismantles a stubborn obstacle to absolute idealism’s reception: the notion that it is a species of idealism, which is understood to be the assertion that the world depends upon the mind. As Rödl brings out, absolute idealism is the resolute rejection of that idea.

The implications of this work are profound. It undercuts a number of contemporary presumptions, such as that judgment is a propositional attitude, that inference is a mental process, and that there is an empirical science of the capacity for objective knowledge. All of these presumptions flow from the erroneous notion that the objectivity of knowledge stands opposed to its first-person character.

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Settler Colonialism

An Introduction

Sai

Pluto Press, 2022

Sai Englert offers readers an accessible and global account of settler colonialism, taking in its history, some of its main characteristics, and its continued relevance today.

From the Palestinian struggle against Israel occupation to the First Nations' mass opposition to pipeline construction in North America, indigenous peoples are at the forefront of some of the most important struggles of our age. Rich with their own unique histories, characteristics, and social relations, these different struggles are connected by the enemy they face: settler colonialism.

While settler-colonial regimes differ, Englert explains how they are all defined by a fundamental conflict between themselves and the indigenous people they aim to dispossess, exploit and/or eliminate.

To understand settler colonialism as a distinct, structural, and contemporary process, is also to start engaging with a number of international social movements, political struggles, and solidarity campaigns differently. It is to start asking how decolonization – as a material struggle for freedom – might be possible.

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Seven American Poets from MacLeish to Nemerov

An Introduction

Denis Donoghue

University of Minnesota Press, 1975

Seven American Poets from MacLeish to Nemerov was first published in 1975. Volume 9, Minnesota Library on American Writers. Leonard Unger and George T. Wright, series editorsThe Minnesota Library on American Writers, of which this is the ninth volume, is based on collections of pamphlets from the series of University of Minnesota Pamphlets on American Writers. This book focuses on seven important contemporary American poets. The subject poets and the respective authors are Archibald MacLeish by Grover Smith, Richard Eberhart by Ralph J. Mills, Jr., Theodore Roethke, also by Mr. Mills, Randall Jarrell by M.L. Rosenthal, John Berryman by William J. Martz, Robert Lowell by Jay Martin, and Howard Nemerov by Peter Meinke.Mr. Donoghue writes an introduction in which he notes that “seven modern American poets demonstrate seven different ways of being an American.” He continues: “It is not my business, nor would it give me any pleasure, to comment on the difficulty of being an American poet: I am neither American nor a poet. But it is my impression that American poets have become more skillful in the art of being themselves; poets born in 1920 or later have had the advantage of seeing a thousand ways in which the job has been done, and the encouragement of such examples. Each poet must still do the work for himself, but he has before him the pioneers from Poe and Whitman to Williams, and he knows by their example what it means to work in the American grain.”In addition to the critical introductions there are selected bibliographies for each of the seven poets.

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Sex and Death

An Introduction to Philosophy of Biology

Kim Sterelny and Paul E. Griffiths

University of Chicago Press, 1999

Is the history of life a series of accidents or a drama scripted by selfish genes? Is there an "essential" human nature, determined at birth or in a distant evolutionary past? What should we conserve—species, ecosystems, or something else?

Informed answers to questions like these, critical to our understanding of ourselves and the world around us, require both a knowledge of biology and a philosophical framework within which to make sense of its findings. In this accessible introduction to philosophy of biology, Kim Sterelny and Paul E. Griffiths present both the science and the philosophical context necessary for a critical understanding of the most exciting debates shaping biology today. The authors, both of whom have published extensively in this field, describe the range of competing views—including their own—on these fascinating topics.

With its clear explanations of both biological and philosophical concepts, Sex and Death will appeal not only to undergraduates, but also to the many general readers eager to think critically about the science of life.

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Sex and Virtue

An Introduction to Sexual Ethics (Catholic Moral Thought, Volume 2)

John S. Grabowski

Catholic University of America Press, 2003

This book provides a theological foundation for consideration of the moral dimensions of human sexuality from a Roman Catholic perspective.

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Six American Novelists of the Nineteenth Century

An Introduction

Richard Foster

University of Minnesota Press, 1968

Six American Novelists of the Nineteenth Century was first published in 1968.This volume, based on material from the University of Minnesota Pamphlets on American Writers, provides concise critical introductions to six nineteenth-century American novelists of major importance. The novelists discussed and the contributing authors are “James Fenimore Cooper” by Robert E. Spiller, “Nathaniel Hawthorne” by Hyatt H. Waggoner, “Herman Melville” by Leon Howard, “Mark Twain” by Lewis Leary, “William D. Howells” by William M. Gibson, and “Henry James” by Leon Edel. Biographical information about the writers is included with the critical discussions of their work. A selected bibliography for each novelists lists his works and critical and biographical writing about him.In his introduction to the volume Professor Foster offers a perspective view of the genius of nineteenth century American literature, a literature of innovative vision which he calls unique in its time. “Only one other national literature of the nineteenth century was so marked by intensity, idiosyncrasy, and the spirit of discovery as America’s - that of Russia,” Professor Foster writes. “If their typical postures in relation to ‘Europe’ were different, American and Russian writers of the nineteenth century nevertheless had in common something far more significant: the uniquely dramatic subject matter, bequeathed them by history, of a nation’s self-discovery and self-creation. This was epic material; and fiction, especially the novel, was the aptest means of imaginatively encompassing it.”

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Six American Poets from Emily Dickinson to the Present

An Introduction

Allen Tate

University of Minnesota Press, 1969

Six American Poets from Emily Dickinson to the Present was first published in 1969. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions.This volume provides critical introductions to the work of Emily Dickinson, Hart Crane, Edwin Arlington Robinson, Conrad Aiken, Marianne Moore, and E.E. Cummings, six American poets all of whom were born in the nineteenth century and whose various life spans overlap to cover a period of nearly a century and a half, reaching into the present. In his introduction, Allen Tate discusses the significance of this group of poets and their influence on contemporary poetry. He points out that the overlap in their ages gives a somewhat longer perspective to modern American poetry than the rise of modernism around 1912 has led us to look for. “The impressive variety and versatility of contemporary American poetry, including its ‘modernist’ development,” he writes, “has been the achievement of men and women born before 1901.”In discussing the six poets introduced in this volume, Mr. Tate offers interesting comments on the place in literary history of a number of other poets including Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, Wallace Stevens, Robert Frost, Phelps Putnam, Mark Van Doren, John Hall Wheelock, and John Crowe Ransom.The introductions to the six poets are based on the material of six of the pamphlets in the series of University of Minnesota Pamphlets on American Writers: Emily Dickinson by Denis Donoghue, Hart Crane by Monroe K. Spears, Edwin Arlington Robinson by Louis Coxe, Conrad Aiken by Reuel Denney, Marianne Moore by Jean Garrigue, and E.E. Cummings by Eve Triem.

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Small Places, Large Issues

An Introduction to Social and Cultural Anthropology

Thomas Hylland Eriksen

Pluto Press, 2015

This concise introduction to social and cultural anthropology has become a modern classic, introducing countless students to the field and the tools it offers for exploring some of the most complicated questions of human life and interaction. This fourth edition is fully updated, incorporating recent debates and controversies in the field, ranging from globalization and migration research to problems of cultural translation and the challenges of interdisciplinarity. Effortlessly bridging the gap between classic and contemporary anthropology, Small Places, Large Issues remains an essential text for undergraduates embarking on the study of this field.

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Student Workbook for Discover Romanian

An Introduction to the Language and Culture

RODICA BOTOMAN

The Ohio State University Press, 1995

Student Workbook for Discover Romanian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture by Rodica Boțoman

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SuperVision

An Introduction to the Surveillance Society

John Gilliom and Torin Monahan

University of Chicago Press, 2012

We live in a surveillance society. Anyone who uses a credit card, cell phone, or even search engines to navigate the Web is being monitored and assessed—and often in ways that are imperceptible to us. The first general introduction to the growing field of surveillance studies, SuperVision uses examples drawn from everyday technologies to show how surveillance is used, who is using it, and how it affects our world.

Beginning with a look at the activities and technologies that connect most people to the surveillance matrix, from identification cards to GPS devices in our cars to Facebook, John Gilliom and Torin Monahan invite readers to critically explore surveillance as it relates to issues of law, power, freedom, and inequality. Even if you avoid using credit cards and stay off Facebook, they show, going to work or school inevitably embeds you in surveillance relationships. Finally, they discuss the more obvious forms of surveillance, including the security systems used at airports and on city streets, which both epitomize contemporary surveillance and make impossibly grand promises of safety and security.

Gilliom and Monahan are among the foremost experts on surveillance and society, and, with SuperVision, they offer an immensely accessible and engaging guide, giving readers the tools to understand and to question how deeply surveillance has been woven into the fabric of our everyday lives.

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The Surest Path

The Political Treatise of a Nineteenth-Century Muslim Statesman—A Translation of the Introduction to The Surest Path to Knowledge Concerning the Condidtion of Countries, Translated from the original Arabic with introduction and notes by Leon Carl B

Khayr al-Din al-Tunisi

Harvard University Press

Swedenborg's Garden of Theology

An Introduction to Emanuel Swedenborg's Published Theological Works

Jonathan S. Rose

Swedenborg Foundation Publishers, 2010

When he entered the visionary phase of his life, Swedish theologian Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772) set out on a journey to document all that he had seen, heard, and learned while in contact with the spirits of heaven and hell. Before his death, he wrote eighteen different works published in twenty-five volumes, totaling about three and a half million words.

Navigating that rich garden of thought has been a challenge even for scholars of Swedenborg, let alone those new to his work. In this compact guide, Jonathan S. Rose introduces readers to the basic concepts of Swedenborg’s thought, including Swedenborg’s view of God and the afterlife and his description of humanity’s spiritual history. Rose also examines how Swedenborg’s theology relates to other Christian denominations, both in his time and ours, and takes a side trip into some of Swedenborg’s more unusual ideas.

Swedenborg’s Garden of Theology provides an ideal introduction for anyone seeking a starting point to delve into Swedenborg’s religious thought.

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