Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism: A Bishop Rethinks the Meaning of Scripture
10 best books like Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism: A Bishop Rethinks the Meaning of Scripture (John Shelby Spong): Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why, The Gnostic Gospels, A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, Who Wrote the Bible?, The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts, Constantine's Sword: The Church and the Jews, The Historical Jesus: The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant, Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew, Reading the Bible Again for the First Time: Taking the Bible Seriously but Not Literally, Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas
Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why
| Author | Bart D. Ehrman |
| ISBN | 0060859512 |
For almost 1,500 years, the New Testament manuscripts were copied by hand––and mistakes and intentional changes abound in the competing manuscript versions. Religious and biblical scholar Bart Ehrman makes the provocative case that many of our widely held beliefs concerning the divinity...
| Author | Elaine Pagels |
| ISBN | 0679724532 |
The Gnostic Gospels is a landmark study of the long-buried roots of Christianity, a work of luminous scholarship and wide popular appeal. First published in 1979 to critical acclaim, winning the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award, The Gnostic Gospels has continued to grow...
A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
| Author | Karen Armstrong |
| ISBN | 0517223120 |
Over 700,000 copies of the original hardcover and paperback editions of this stunningly popular book have been sold. Karen Armstrong's superbly readable exploration of how the three dominant monotheistic religions of the world - Judaism, Christianity, and Islam - have shaped and altered the conception...
| Author | Richard Elliott Friedman |
| ISBN | 0060630353 |
The contemporary classic the New York Times Book Review called “a thought-provoking [and] perceptive guide,” Who Wrote the Bible? by Richard E. Friedman is a fascinating, intellectual, yet highly readable analysis and investigation into the authorship of the Old Testament. The author of Commentary...
The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts
| Author | Israel Finkelstein |
| ISBN | 0684869136 |
In this groundbreaking work that sets apart fact and legend, authors Finkelstein and Silberman use significant archeological discoveries to provide historical information about biblical Israel and its neighbors.
In this iconoclastic and provocative work, leading scholars Israel...
| Author | James Carroll |
| ISBN | 0618219080 |
“A rare book that combines searing passion with a subject that has affected all of our lives.”
—Chicago Tribune
Novelist, cultural critic & former priest James Carroll marries history with memoir as he maps the 2000-year course of the Church’s battle against Judaism &...
| Author | John Dominic Crossan |
| ISBN | 0060616296 |
"He comes as yet unknown into a hamlet of Lower Galilee. He is watched by the cold, hard eyes of peasants living long enough at a subsistence level to know exactly where the line is drawn between poverty and destitution. He looks like a beggar yet his eyes lack the proper cringe, his voice the proper whine,...
Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew
| Author | Bart D. Ehrman |
| ISBN | 0195182499 |
The early Christian Church was a chaos of contending beliefs. Some groups of Christians claimed that there was not one God but two or twelve or thirty. Some believed that the world had not been created by God but by a lesser, ignorant deity. Certain sects maintained that Jesus was human but not divine,...
Reading the Bible Again for the First Time: Taking the Bible Seriously but Not Literally
| Author | Marcus J. Borg |
| ISBN | 0060609192 |
Many Christians mistakenly believe that their only choice is either to reconcile themselves to a fundamentalist reading of scripture (a "literal-factual" approach) or to simply reject the Bible as something that could bring meaning and value into their lives. In Reading the Bible Again for the First...
Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas
| Author | Elaine Pagels |
| ISBN | 0375501568 |
Pagels, a writer and thinker on religion and history, winner of the National Book Award for The Gnostic Gospels, reflects on what matters most about spiritual and religious exploration in the 21st century. This book explores how Christianity began by tracing its earliest texts, including the Gospel...
| Author | Peter J. Gomes |
| ISBN | 0060088303 |
A very lively, excellent, and relevant booking on reading the Bible. It was written for readers across the spectrum - from those who are intimidated by it or curious, to those who may feel they know it rather well. Though this topic may seem prudishly boring, the author has a wonderful way of bringing both...
| Author | Anonymous |
| ISBN | 0892819111 |
Restores to the forefront of the Christian tradition the importance of the divine feminine
• The first complete English-language translation of the original Coptic Gospel of Mary, with line-by-line commentary
• Reveals the eminence of the divine feminine in Christian thought
•...
| Author | Charles Freeman |
| ISBN | 1400033802 |
A radical and powerful reappraisal of the impact of Constantine’s adoption of Christianity on the later Roman world, and on the subsequent development both of Christianity and of Western civilization.
When the Emperor Contstantine converted to Christianity in 368 AD, he changed the...
| Author | Anonymous |
| ISBN | 0060669357 |
The Nag Hammadi Library was discovered in 1945 buried in a large stone jar in the desert outside the modern Egyptian city of Nag Hammadi. It is a collection of religious and philosophic texts gathered and translated into Coptic by fourth-century Gnostic Christians and translated into English by dozens...
| Author | Rodolphe Kasser |
| ISBN | 1426200420 |
For 1600 years its message lay hidden. When the bound papyrus pages of this lost gospel finally reached scholars who could unlock its meaning, they were astounded. Here was a gospel that had not been seen since the early days of Xianity, & which few experts had even thought existed–a gospel told...
A History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years
| Author | Diarmaid MacCulloch |
| ISBN | 0713998695 |
The author of The Reformation returns with the definitive history of Christianity for our time. Once in a generation a historian will redefine his field, producing a book that demands to be read--a product of electrifying scholarship conveyed with commanding skill. Diarmaid MacCulloch's Christianity...
Reading Judas: The Gospel of Judas and the Shaping of Christianity
| Author | Elaine Pagels |
| ISBN | 0670038458 |
The two leading, bestselling experts on the Gnostic Gospels weigh in on the meaning of the controversial newly discovered Gospel of Judas.
When the Gospel of Judas was published by the National Geographic Society in April 2006, it received extraordinary media attention and was immediately...
America's Four Gods: What We Say about God - and What That Says about Us
| Author | Paul Froese |
| ISBN | 0195341473 |
Despite all the hype surrounding the "New Atheism," the United States remains one of the most religious nations on Earth. In fact, 95% of Americans believe in God--a level of agreement rarely seen in American life. The greatest divisions in America are not between atheists and believers, or even between...
