This book explores the status of religion in the Post-Prophetic Age, especially as seen through the eyes of the French Islamic scholar Henry Corbin. In lucid and simple prose, Cheetham explores the creative role of the imagination in the formative ground of the three great Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. For Corbin, engaging the soul of the world through the mediating power of the Imaginal is an act of love, a theme Cheetham expands through his analysis of such concepts as mystical poverty, contemplative knowledge, the luminosity of the earth, the theophanic vision, the Christ Angel, Incarnation, the divine sensorium, alchemical transformation, the spiritual humanism of Ivan Illich, Western iconoclasm, and the centrality of gnosis. This book offers a visionary alternative to the confusions of contemporary life. It speaks to believers and non-believers alike.

It is often said that prophecy came to an end in the early Second Temple period. This volume investigates how the Dead Sea Scrolls help to better understand Israelite Jewish prophecy and Israelite-Jewish prophetic texts. However, it not only contributes to the study of prophecy and the prophetic books of the Hebrew Bible by analyzing the textual history and interpretative history of prophetic books - the former being concerned with the manuscripts of prophetic books found in Qumran and elsewhere, the latter being focused on para-prophetic texts and commentaries - it also investigates the phenomenon of active prophecy, i.e. ongoing prophetic activities, after the early Second Temple period, long after prophecy came to its so-called end. In the first part of this volume, Matthias Henze deals with the paraprophetical literature from Qumran. Martti Nissinen addresses the relation between Qumran Pesher hermeneutics and Ancient Near Eastern omen divination. Timothy H. Lim asks if, why, and in what sense the psalms were considered to be prophecies or prophetic. In the second part of the volume, George J. Brooke asks the question, "Was the Teacher of Righteousness Considered To Be a Prophet?" and Katell Berthelot shows in her study of 4QTestimonia (4Q175) that the Teacher of Righteousness was not the only active "prophet" in the 2nd cent. BCE. The third part of the volume looks at a wider definition of prophecy. Esther Eshel shows how the tree imagery of the Genesis Apocryphon's symbolic dreams participates in a Jewish tradition that is attested in both earlier and later texts. Leo G. Perdue demonstrates that apocalyptic developed out of both prophecy and mantic wisdom. Perdue also provides a survey of mythical mantic sages in the Ancient Near Eeast and mantic sages and mantic wisdom in biblical, and ancient Jewish literature. Finally, in the fourth part of the volume, Armin Lange offers an example of how the Dead Sea Scrolls help to solve cruces interpretum in the prophetic books of the Hebrew Bible. For this purpose he studies "The Genre of the Book of Jonah" in light of the paratextual literature from Qumran.

The study reported in this volume grew out of some theoretical work, one phase of which bore specifically on the behavior of individuals in social movements that made specific (and unfulfilled) prophecies. We had been forced to depend chiefly on historical records to judge the adequacy of our theoretical ideas until we by chance discovered the social movement that we report in this book. At the time we learned of it, the movement was in mid-career but the prophecy about which it was centered had not yet been disconfirmed. We were understandably eager to undertake a study that could test our theoretical ideas under natural conditions. That we were able to do this study was in great measure due to the support obtained through the Laboratory for Research in Social Relations of the University of Minnesota. This study is a project of the Laboratory and was carried out while we were all members of its staff. We should also like to acknowledge the help we received through a grant-in-aid from the Ford Foundation to one of the authors, a grant that made preliminary exploration of the field situation possible.

What does the New Testament teach about the spiritual gift of prophecy? What is it? How does it function? Can evangelical Christians use it in their churches today? This updated, comprehensive work answers such questions and points the way to a renewed understanding of the gift of prophecy—an understanding that suggests how the body of Christ may enjoy one of the Holy Spirit's most edifying gifts without compromising the supremacy of Scripture.

"When we consider that at least one-quarter of God's written Word is predictive prophecy, notes Derek Prince, we are drawn to its pages with new vision--and great anticipation. Through grounded, scholarly, optimistic and personal insights, this trusted Bible teacher will help you gain new understanding about what to expect as times draws to a close." -- Back cover

From the origins and exodus to the restoration and new hope, Kingdom of Priests offers a comprehensive introduction to the history of Old Testament Israel. Merrill explores the history of ancient Israel not only from Old Testament texts but also from the literary and archeological sources of the ancient Near East. After selling more than 30,000 copies, the book has now been updated and revised. The second edition addresses and interacts with current debates in the history of ancient Israel, offering an up-to-date articulation of a conservative evangelical position on historical matters. The text is accented with nearly twenty maps and charts.

A startling exploration of the history of the most controversial book of the Bible, by the bestselling author of Beyond Belief. Through the bestselling books of Elaine Pagels, thousands of readers have come to know and treasure the suppressed biblical texts known as the Gnostic Gospels. As one of the world's foremost religion scholars, she has been a pioneer in interpreting these books and illuminating their place in the early history of Christianity. Her new book, however, tackles a text that is firmly, dramatically within the New Testament canon: The Book of Revelation, the surreal apocalyptic vision of the end of the world . . . or is it? In this startling and timely book, Pagels returns The Book of Revelation to its historical origin, written as its author John of Patmos took aim at the Roman Empire after what is now known as "the Jewish War," in 66 CE. Militant Jews in Jerusalem, fired with religious fervor, waged an all-out war against Rome's occupation of Judea and their defeat resulted in the desecration of Jerusalem and its Great Temple. Pagels persuasively interprets Revelation as a scathing attack on the decadence of Rome. Soon after, however, a new sect known as "Christians" seized on John's text as a weapon against heresy and infidels of all kinds-Jews, even Christians who dissented from their increasingly rigid doctrines and hierarchies. In a time when global religious violence surges, Revelations explores how often those in power throughout history have sought to force "God's enemies" to submit or be killed. It is sure to appeal to Pagels's committed readers and bring her a whole new audience who want to understand the roots of dissent, violence, and division in the world's religions, and to appreciate the lasting appeal of this extraordinary text.