Ancient Religion History

In the autumn of 1834, New York City was awash with rumors of a strange religious cult operating nearby, centered around a mysterious, self-styled prophet named Matthias. It was said that Matthias the Prophet was stealing money from one of his followers; then came reports of lascivious sexual relations, based on odd teachings of matched spirits, apostolic priesthoods, and the inferiority of women. At its climax, the rumors transformed into legal charges, as the Prophet was arrested for the murder of a once highly regarded Christian gentleman who had fallen under his sway.

In the best-selling Warriors of God and Dogs of God, James Reston Jr. limned two epochal conflicts between Islam and Christendom. Here he examines the ultimate battle in that centuries-long war, which found Europe at its most vulnerable and Islam on the attack. This drama was propelled by two astonishing young sovereigns: Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and Turkish sultan Suleyman the Magnificent. Though they represented two colliding worlds, they were remarkably similar.

How did human societies scale up from small, tight-knit groups of hunter-gatherers to the large, anonymous, cooperative societies of today - even though anonymity is the enemy of cooperation? How did organized religions with "Big Gods" - the great monotheistic and polytheistic faiths - spread to colonize most minds in the world? In Big Gods, Ara Norenzayan makes the surprising and provocative argument that these fundamental puzzles about the origins of civilization are one and the same, and answer each other.

Christ in the Psalms takes the listener on a thought-provoking and enlightening pilgrimage through this beloved prayer book of the Church. Lively and highly devotional, this audiobook holds a wealth of insight into the beloved Scriptures, the world of the Early Church, and the Apostles themselves.

Tracing the migrations of the Denisovans and their interbreeding with Neanderthals and early human populations in Asia, Europe, Australia, and the Americas, Andrew Collins and Greg Little explore how the new mental capabilities of the Denisovan-Neanderthal and Denisovan-human hybrids greatly accelerated the flowering of human civilization over 40,000 years ago. They show how the Denisovans displayed sophisticated advances, including precision-machined stone tools and jewelry, tailored clothing, celestially-aligned architecture, and horse domestication.

Richard Carrier, Ph.D., philosopher, historian, blogger, has published a number of papers in the field of ancient history and biblical studies. He has also written several books and chapters on diverse subjects, and has been blogging and speaking since 2006. He is known the world over for all the above. But here, together for the first time, are all of Dr. Carrier's peer reviewed academic journal articles in history through the year 2013, collected with his best magazine articles, research papers, and blog posts on the same subjects.

Belief and Cult argues that belief isn't uniquely Christian but was central to ancient Roman religion. Drawing on cognitive theory, Jacob Mackey shows that despite having nothing to do with salvation or faith, belief underlay every aspect of Roman religious practices—emotions, individual and collective cult action, ritual norms, social reality, and social power. In doing so, he also offers a thorough argument for the importance of belief to other non-Christian religions.

In Flee from Heresy, Bishop Athanasius Schneider — raised among persecuted Catholics in the Soviet Union — offers a systematic treatment of more than 130 doctrinal errors, from ancient times down to our own day, along with English translations of the Church’s major anti-heresy documents of the past two centuries.

This comprehensive history sets yoga in its global cultural context for the first time. It leads us on a fascinating journey across the world, from arcane religious rituals and medieval body-magic, through muscular Christianity and the British Raj, to the Indian nationalist movement and the arrival of yoga in the 20th-century West. We discover how the practice reached its present-day ubiquity and how it became embedded in powerful social currents shaping the world's future.

It evolved from various traditional African religions and practices, and in the American South, incorporated elements of indigenous botanical knowledge. These practices taught believers how to invoke the blessings of spirits and deities through persuasion powers, herbs, rituals, spells, talismans, roots and nature.

Step into the world that exists just beyond the realm of common knowledge, and emerge enlightened. If you are ready to embark on this thrilling journey, then listen to The History of Witchcraft now, and dive deep into the mystifying annals of witchcraft....

Africa may have given rise to the first human beings, and Egypt probably gave rise to the first great civilizations, which continue to fascinate modern societies across the globe nearly 5,000 years later. From the Library and Lighthouse of Alexandria to the Great Pyramid at Giza, the Ancient Egyptians produced several wonders of the world, revolutionized architecture and construction, created some of the world’s first systems of mathematics and medicine, and established language and art that spread across the known world.

The Apocrypha of the Bible examines the history of the books excluded from the Bible, the characters and events told by the books, and the discoveries that have influenced Biblical studies in the last few centuries.

People need stories to make sense of the world - to hold their lives together, and to fasten on to those values that last. The greatest stories are found in the Bible, enduring through the centuries. In Genesis, acclaimed television journalist Bill Moyers brings together some of the world's liveliest minds for spirited round-table discussions of the ageless stories from the Bible's first, towering book.

Egypt's geographical isolation and the unique geography of the Nile Valley are thought to have been responsible for its long existence. Because of military control, astronomical concepts in Egypt became so ingrained and inseparable from everyday concerns that they became an integral part of life. As your gaze rises to the horizons of Egypt, you can see the movement of the stars and planets: the climatic conditions never change. Besides this, Egypt also enjoys a cloudless sky almost all the time and a latitude that allows the most densely populated regions of the heavens to be viewed.

Egyptian alchemy and Sufism, with a coherent explanation of fundamentals and practices. This audiobook explains how ancient Egypt is the origin of alchemy and present-day Sufism and how the mystics of Egypt camouflage their practices with a thin layer of Islam. The audiobook also explains the progression of the mystical way toward enlightenment, with a coherent explanation of its fundamentals and practices. It shows the correspondence between the ancient Egyptian calendar of events and the cosmic cycles of the universe.

In Jesus on Trial, New York Times bestselling author David Limbaugh applies his lifetime of legal experience to a unique new undertaking: making a case for the gospels as hard evidence of the life and work of Jesus Christ. Limbaugh, a practicing attorney and former professor of law, approaches the canonical gospels with the same level of scrutiny he would apply to any legal document and asks all the necessary questions about the story of Jesus....

The Shepherd of Hermas is an astounding piece of ancient Christian writing. Traditionally ascribed to Hermas, the brother of Pope Pius I of Rome, it is usually dated at between AD 120 and AD 150. This means that the author may have been in contact with an Apostle such as John who died around AD 98. And he was most certainly contemporaneous with those who knew some of the Apostle such as Ignatius and Polycarp.

This book is a sequel to Dr. Goldberg's Time Travelers from Our Future, and depicts the significance of Hermes, the very first time traveler, on both Egypt's development and our planet's heritage. According to Dr. Goldberg's case histories and research, Egypt developed from four sources: Lemuria(Mu), Atlantis, ETs, and time travelers. One of the most dramatic chapters deals with Hermes' role as Moses' advisor and rewrites the history of the Exodus by demonstrating that the original jewish people were Egyptians!

History's most intriguing detective story may have been solved - recently unearthed evidence points towards the real location of the ancient, lost city of Atlantis. More than 2,000 years ago Plato laid down around a hundred cryptic clues about the location of the lost world of Atlantis. Since then countless experts have tried to crack Plato's code. Some claim Atlantis lies under the volcanic rocks of Santorini. Others place it in the Bermuda Triangle, off the coast of Africa or say it is lost forever beneath the waves of the Atlantic Ocean. But what if Atlantis is far closer than we think?