Alain de Botton's Religion for Atheists" looks at the God debate with fresh eyes " All of us" whether religious agnostic or atheist are searching for meaning. & in this wise & life-affirming book non-believer Alain de Botton both rejects the supernatural claims of religion & points out just how many good ideas they sometimes have about how we should live. & he suggests that non-believers can learn & steal from them. Picking & choosing from the thousands of years of advice assembled by the world's great religions to get practical insights on art community love friendship work life & death Alain de Botton shows us a range of fascinating ideas on a range of topics including relationships work culture love & death
- & that could be of use to all of us irrespective of whether we do or don't believe. In the " Sunday Times" top-ten bestseller " Religion for Atheists" Alain de Botton takes us one step further than Dawkins & Hitchens have ventured & into a world of ideas beyond the God debate..."A serious & optimistic set of practical ideas that could improve & alter the way we live". (Jeanette Winterson " The Times"). "A beautiful inspiring book.. .offering a glimpse of a more enlightened path". (" Sunday Telegraph"). " Packed with tantalizing goads to thought & playful prompts to action". (" Independent"). " Smart stimulating sensitive. A timely & perceptive appreciation of how much wisdom is embodied in religious traditions & how we godless moderns might learn from it". (" Financial Times"). " There isn't a page in this book that doesn't contain a striking idea or a stimulating parallel". (" Mail on Sunday"). " Packed with tantalizing goads to thought & playful prompts to action". (" Independent"). Alain de Botton was born in 1969 & is the author of non-fiction essays on themes ranging from love & travel to architecture & philosophy. His bestselling books include " How Proust Can Change Your Life" " The Art of Travel" " The Consolations of Philosophy" " The Architecture of Happiness" " Status Anxiety" " Essays in Love" "A Week at the Airport" & " The Pleasures & Sorrows of Work". He lives in London & founded The School of Life & Living Architecture."
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A book covering the essence of six world religions: Christianity Buddhism Hinduism Islam Judaism & Sikhism. This book is a course companion especially suitable for Years 7-9. It may be used alongside existing Religion for Today" titles & forthcoming titles for Key Stage 3." ...

Religion in Human Evolution is a work of extraordinary ambition--a wide-ranging nuanced probing of our biological past to discover the kinds of lives that human beings have most often imagined were worth living. It offers what is frequently seen as a forbidden theory of the origin of religion that goes deep into evolution especially but not exclusively cultural evolution. How did our early ancestors transcend the"idian demands of everyday existence to embrace an alternative reality that called into question the very meaning of their daily struggle? Robert Bellah one of the leading sociologists of our time identifies a range of cultural capacities such as communal dancing storytelling & theorizing whose emergence made this religious development possible. Deploying the latest findings in biology cognitive science & evolutionary psychology he traces the expansion of these cultural capacities from the Paleolithic to the Axial Age (roughly the first millennium BCE) when individuals & groups in the Old World challenged the norms & beliefs of class societies ruled by kings & aristocracies. These religious prophets & renouncers never succeeded in founding their alternative utopias but they left a heritage of criticism that would not be quenched. Bellahs treatment of the four great civilizations of the Axial Age--in ancient Israel Greece China & India--shows all existing religions both prophetic & mystic to be rooted in the evolutionary story he tells. Religion in Human Evolution answers the call for a critical history of religion grounded in the full range of human constraints & possibilities. ...

Comprehensive in its coverage this completely revised & updated second edition of Religions in the Modern World" considers the history & modern practices of the worlds main religious traditions. It analyses trends in the manifestation of religion in the modern world from secularization to the rise of new spiritualities & is at the cutting edge of developments in the study of religion. This second edition
Includes:: new chapters on Religion & Violence Paganism & Religion & Popular Culture; discussion of the strength of the Christian Right Post 9/11 & 7/7 developments in Religion & Politics; case studies & anecdotes text extracts chapter menus & end-of-chapter summaries glossaries & annotated further reading sections; a wide variety of photographs figures tables & maps; & religions in the Modern World is the ideal textbook for those coming to the study of religion for the first time as well as for those who wish to keep up-to-date with the latest perspectives in the field. Fully international in coverage it is accessibly written by practising & specialist teachers."
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The Access to Religious Studies series offers a concise & readable introduction to the key areas of religious studies for students & the general reader. Religious Experience looks at the ways we can define religious experience & at religious experience as a basis for faith. It looks at religious experience within the major world religions & explores the role of mystery in religious practice along with the ways in which a sense of the supernatural is created in worship. The book compares the views of those who believe that religion centres around personal experience against those who believe that too great a stress on personal experience leads toward a spiritual elitism. Religious Experience

Includes::"ations from primary sources including sacred texts suggestions for further reading & practice questions for the various awarding bodies.

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This new edition of the Religious Studies ISEB Revision Guide" has been fully updated to reflect the revised 13 plus Common Entrance syllabus &

Includes:: a brand new section on 'contemporary issues'. Pupils are given a summary of all prescribed Old & New Testament texts together with a comprehensive analysis of the issues raised by each. There is an additional revision section covering the history structure & key beliefs of the six major world religions: Christianity Judaism Islam Hinduism Buddhism & Sikhism. Pupils can perfect their exam technique using the sample exam questions included in the book & a comprehensive glossary defines all the key terms required at this level."

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Prue Leith describes herself as greedy in all senses of the word. Cook caterer restaurateur food writer journalist novelist businesswoman teacher television presenter charity worker lover wife & mother she has certainly been greedy for life. Prue came to London in the early 1960s & not long afterwards opened Leith's Restaurant. By the mid-seventies she was a food columnist on the Daily Mail had published several cookbooks & opened Leith's School of Food & Wine. But it wasn't all work. Prue writes with honesty of her affairs her longing for children the birth of her son the adoption of her daughter & many other things besides. Prue's down-to-earth attitude is an inspiration. Relish reflects one lucky woman's incredible appetite for life. ...

Prue Leith describes herself as greedy in all senses of the word. Cook caterer restaurateur food writer journalist novelist businesswoman teacher television presenter charity worker lover wife & mother she has certainly been greedy for life. Born in South Africa the daughter of a well-known actress Prue came to London in the early 1960s set up a successful catering company & later opened Leiths Restaurant a food lovers oasis in Londons then gastronomic desert. By the mid-seventies she was a regular food columnist on the Daily Mail had published several cookbooks & opened Leiths School of Food & Wine. But it wasnt all work. For thirteen years she had a secret affair with the married man who was to be her husband for another twenty-five years. She writes movingly of the anguish for both families; of her longing for children; the birth of her son Daniel & the adoption of her daughter Li-Da. Prue writes with relish humour & honesty. Whether she is running her own businesses or sitting on the boards of public companies; founding charities or leading institutions her down-to-earth attitude to triumph & disaster is an inspiration. She is forthright about her love life; her mothers senility; her husbands smoking himself to death; the theft of her savings & falling in love at sixty-six with a manic-depressive. Above all Relish reflects one lucky womans incredible zest for life. ...

This book is about Buddhism & the pursuit of happiness. The author takes us on an intensely personal journey into the practice of Nichiren Buddhism which has now been embraced by many millions of people around the world. It is not in any way about a remote abstract inaccessible philosophy. It is about Buddhism in daily life; about learning in a wholly practical way how to build a better & happier life for yourself & for those whom your life touches no matter what the circumstances. You dont have to conform to a specific lifestyle. You dont have to be especially knowledgeable or dedicated or indeed religious in any way. Nichiren Buddhism teaches the extraordinary truth that happiness is not a matter of chance or accident but essentially a matter of choice & that we can all learn how to make that choice. ...

The Reluctant Fundamentalist" is Mohsin Hamid's thrillingly provocative international bestseller. It is shortlisted for the Man Booker prize in 2007. Now a major film directed by Mira Nair & starring Kate Hudson & Kiefer Sutherl&. ' Excuse me sir but may I be of assistance? Ah I see I have alarmed you. Do not be frightened by my beard. I am a lover of America...' So speaks the mysterious stranger at a Lahore cafe as dusk settles. Invited to join him for tea you learn his name & what led this speaker of immaculate English to seek you out. For he is more worldy than you might expect; better travelled & better educated. He knows the West better than you do. & as he tells you his story of how he embraced the Western dream
- & a Western woman
- & how both betrayed him so the night darkens. Then the true reason for your meeting becomes abundantly clear... Challenging mysterious & thrillingly tense Mohsin Hamid's masterly " The Reluctant Fundamentalist" is a vital read teeming with questions & ideas about some of the most pressing issues of today's globalised fractured world. " Masterful...A multi-layered & thoroughly gripping book which works as a poignant love story a powerful dissection of how US imperialist machinations have turned so many people against the world's superpower
- & as a thriller that subtly ratchets up the nerve-jangling tension towards an explosive ending". (" Metro"). " Beautifully written.. .more exciting than any thriller I've read for a long time". (Philip Pullman). "A brilliant book". (Kiran Desai). " Admirably spare & amazingly exciting". (Rachel Cooke " New Statesman"). Mohsin Hamid is the author of " The Reluctant Fundamentalist" " Moth Smoke" & " How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia". His fiction has been translated into over 30 languages received numerous awards & been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. He has contributed essays & short stories to publications such as the " Guardian" " The New York Times" " Financial Times" " Granta" & " Paris Review". Born & mostly raised in Lahore he spent part of his childhood in California studied at Princeton University & Harvard Law School & has since lived between Lahore London & New York."


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