Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time: The Historical Jesus and the Heart of Contemporary Faith

Paula Fredriksen

From Jesus to Christ: The Origins of the New Testament Images of Christ

How did Jesus of Nazareth become the Christ of the Christian tradition? "Magisterial. . . . A learned, brilliant and enjoyable study."--Géza Vermès, Times Literary Supplement "Brilliant and lucidly written, full of original and fascinating insights."--Reginald H. Fuller, Journal of the American Academy of Religion "This is a first-rate work of a first-rate historian."--James D. Tabor, Journal of Religion In this exciting book, Paula Fredriksen explains the variety of New Testament images of Jesus by exploring the ways that the new Christian communities interpreted his mission and message in light of the delay of the Kingdom he had preached. Carefully examining the New Testament texts, she provides fascinating insights into such issues as the social and religious problems facing early Christian communities, the content of Jesus' ministry, and the circumstances of his crucifixion. This edition includes an introduction that reviews more recent scholarship on Jesus and its implications for both history and theology.

Slavoj Zizek, Slavoj A1/2ia3/4ek

The Puppet and the Dwarf: The Perverse Core of Christianity

One of our most daring intellectuals offers a Lacanian interpretation of religion, finding that early Christianity was the first revolutionary collective. Slavoj Zizek has been called "an academic rock star" and "the wild man of theory"; his writing mixes astonishing erudition and references to pop culture in order to dissect current intellectual pieties. In The Puppet and the Dwarf he offers a close reading of today's religious constellation from the viewpoint of Lacanian psychoanalysis. He critically confronts both predominant versions of today's spirituality--New Age gnosticism and deconstructionist-Levinasian Judaism--and then tries to redeem the "materialist" kernel of Christianity. His reading of Christianity is explicitly political, discerning in the Pauline community of believers the first version of a revolutionary collective. Since today even advocates of Enlightenment like Jurgen Habermas acknowledge that a religious vision is needed to ground our ethical and political stance in a "postsecular" age, this book--with a stance that is clearly materialist and at the same time indebted to the core of the Christian legacy--is certain to stir controversy.

Wayne W. Dyer

Your Sacred Self: Making the Decision to Be Free

2, The bestselling author of Your Erroneous Zones, Pulling Your Own Strings, and Wisdom of the Ages combines psychological insights and guidelines for achieving spiritual fulfillment to present a three-step program designed to help readers look inside themselves to find a new sense of self-awareness and spiritual joy. Developing the sacred self, Wayne Dyer explains, brings an understanding of our place in the world and a sense of satisfaction in ourselves and others. In Your Sacred Self, Dyer offers a program that helps listeners establish a spiritually-oriented, rather than an ego-oriented, approach to life. Step by step, Dyer shows us how to progress from emotional awareness to psychological insight to spiritual alternatives in order to change our experience of life from the need to acquire to a sense of abundance; from a sense of one's self as sinful and inferior to a sense of one's self as divine; from a need to achieve and acquire to an awareness that detachment and letting go bring freedom. Your Sacred Self is an inspiring, hopeful, illuminating guide that can help everyone live a happier, richer, more meaningful life.