This study questions why the relationship between the worship of other gods and the worship of idols within the Old Testament is difficult to define, acknowledging how various traditions have seen these two issues as synonymous and others have viewed them as separate commandments. Judge argues that there are four factors at play in this diversity. He introduces the first three through an examination of the relationship between the prohibitions listed in the biblical text, and the fourth through a study of the biblical depiction of the war against idols before and after the fall of the Northern Kingdom. Judge argues that texts depicting the era before the fall provide a context in which there are strong grounds to distinguishing the worship of the “wrong gods” and the worship of the right God in the wrong way. However, texts depicting the era after the fall provide a context in which the issues appear to have been fused.

Within modern frameworks of knowledge and representation, Dionysos often appears to be atypical for ancient culture, an exception within the context of ancient polytheism, or even an instance of a difference that anticipates modernism. How can recent research contribute to a more precise understanding of the diverse transformations of the ancient god, from Greek antiquity to the Roman Empire? In this volume, which is the result of an international conference held in March 2009 at the Pergamon Museum Berlin, scholars from all branches of classical studies, including history of scholarship, consider this question. Consequently, this leads to a new look on vase paintings, sanctuaries, rituals and religious-political institutions like theatre, and includes new readings of the texts of ancient poets, historians and philosophers, as well as of papyri and inscriptions. It is the diversity of sources or methods and the challenge of former views that is the strength of this volume, providing a comprehensive, innovative and richly faceted account of the “different” god in an unprecedented way.

Our lives revolve around our deepest needs and greatest treasures. Relationships. Family. Financial security. Private hopes and dreams. Most of our desires are healthy. Yet these longings can become passions we not only pursue, but worship. And while idol worship may seem like ancient history, we still face the modern-day equivalent [version], as natural needs slowly consume our hearts and minds, competing with God’s rightful place in our lives. No Other Gods offers a revealing look at the heart of a woman. Author Kelly Minter explores what happens when good desires become false gods, robbing us of an intimate relationship with our heavenly father. So discover the freedom in surrender. The healing in worship. And the joy found in exchanging everyday gods for the one true God. Listen to two samples from Kelly Minter's worship CD Finer Day. Finer Day: First In My Heart: Buy Finer Day here » ,

Christianity is no longer th dominant belief system in today's pluralistic culture. Eastern religions, esecially, have attracted wide interest. Pressing the theological and dialogical dimensions of religious pluralism, Vroom offers a broad study of the views of Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam, especially their views on truth.

Seeskin looks at the ways in which Judaism can help restore balance to our lives. He reviews the foundations of the Sabbath, exploring how it can help guard us against the incursion of the work-a-day world, preserving a private, personal time for each of us. And he shows Judaism has responded throughout the ages to the temptations of idolatry by helping to create and protect a private and sacred time and place in our lives

In a world with so many religions, why Jesus? We are living in a time when you can believe anything, as long as you do not claim it to be true. In the name of “tolerance,” our postmodern culture embraces everything from Eastern mysticism to New Age spirituality. But as Ravi Zacharias points out, such unquestioning acceptance of all things spiritual is absurd. All religions, plainly and simply, cannot be true. Jesus Among Other Gods provides the answers to the most fundamental claims about Christianity, such as: Aren’t all religions fundamentally the same? Was Jesus who He claimed to be? Can one study the life of Christ and demonstrate conclusively that He was and is the way, the truth, and the life? In each chapter, Zacharias considers a unique claim that Jesus made and then contrasts the truth of Jesus with the founders of Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism with compelling insight and passionate conviction. In addition to an impressive breadth of reading and study, he shares his personal journey from despair and meaninglessness to his discovery that Jesus is who He said He is. “In Jesus Among Other Gods, Ravi Zacharias demonstrates that he is one of the most intellectually gifted as well as spiritually sensitive writers of today’s leading apologists for the Christian faith. Zacharias brings alive the unique power of the claims of Jesus about himself and the utter relevance of his message today for the human condition.” — David Aikman, author of Great Souls

After abandoning her bastard child, Ellen met a middle aged American who took her as Celine, the name she gave him, to America. Twenty years later, she would take Magnus Eden, a young playwright, to be her lover. With the death of Horace her husband, she felt a solid grip on Magnus' affection until a return to La Playa unravelled Magnus' true identity and challenged her vow not to let him go even if it would mean crying to other gods.

This is the first full-scale assessment of the theological, social and ideational implications of our new understandings of ancient Israel's social and religious development. Scholars now stress the gradual emergence of Israel out of the culture of ancient Palestine and the surrounding ancient Near East rather than contrast Israel with the ancient world. Our new paradigms stress the ongoing and unfinished nature of the monotheistic 'revolution', which is indeed still in process today. Gnuse takes a further bold step in setting the emergence of monotheism in a wider intellectual context: he argues brilliantly that the interpretation of Israel's development as both an evolutionary and revolutionary process corresponds to categories of contemporary evolutionary thought in the biological and palaeontological sciences (Punctuated Equilibrium).