{"title":"Brent Nongbri","description":"\u003cp\u003eDive into the world of Brent Nongbri, where ancient texts meet modern scholarship. Explore his insightful works on early Christian manuscripts, forgery, and the fascinating history of books and writing.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"god-s-library-book-brent-nongbri-9780300248609","title":"God's Library","description":"A provocative book from a highly original scholar, challenging much of what we know about early Christian manuscripts    “[Nongbri] sets out to demystify the ‘discovery’ of ancient writings, advancing a more sober and realistic framework for assessing the breathless claims and counterclaims that appear in the media. . . . For those wanting to know something of the material basis for the world’s most published (and possibly, read) book, Nongbri’s own book is a gift.”—Luke Timothy Johnson, Commonweal     In this bold and groundbreaking book, Brent Nongbri provides an up-to-date introduction to the major collections of early Christian manuscripts and demonstrates that much of what we thought we knew about these books and fragments is mistaken. While biblical scholars have expended much effort in their study of the texts contained within the earliest Christian manuscripts, there has been a surprising lack of interest in thinking about these books as material objects with individual, unique histories. We have too often ignored the ways that the antiquities market obscures our knowledge of the origins of these manuscripts.     Through painstaking archival research and detailed studies of the most important collections of early Christian manuscripts, Nongbri vividly shows that the earliest Christian books are more than just carriers of texts or samples of handwriting. They are three-dimensional archaeological artifacts with fascinating stories to tell, if we’re willing to listen.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49730739175697,"sku":"NGR9780300248609","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52413624516881,"sku":"GOR010465065","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0300248601.jpg?v=1751164457"},{"product_id":"before-religion-book-brent-nongbri-9780300154160","title":"Before Religion","description":"For much of the past two centuries, religion has been understood as a universal phenomenon, a part of the \"natural\" human experience that is essentially the same across cultures and throughout history. Individual religions may vary through time and geographically, but there is an element, religion, that is to be found in all cultures during all time periods. Taking apart this assumption, Brent Nongbri shows that the idea of religion as a sphere of life distinct from politics, economics, or science is a recent development in European history-a development that has been projected outward in space and backward in time with the result that religion now appears to be a natural and necessary part of our world.  Examining a wide array of ancient writings, Nongbri demonstrates that in antiquity, there was no conceptual arena that could be designated as \"religious\" as opposed to \"secular.\" Surveying representative episodes from a two-thousand-year period, while constantly attending to the concrete social, political, and colonial contexts that shaped relevant works of philosophers, legal theorists, missionaries, and others, Nongbri offers a concise and readable account of the emergence of the concept of religion.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50142734811409,"sku":"GOR013869619","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50227396280593,"sku":"CIN030015416XG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52548059300113,"sku":"CIN030015416XVG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52899620552977,"sku":"GOR007640467","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/030015416X.jpg?v=1750695104"},{"product_id":"before-religion-book-brent-nongbri-9780300216783","title":"Before Religion","description":"For much of the past two centuries, religion has been understood as a universal phenomenon, a part of the “natural” human experience that is essentially the same across cultures and throughout history. 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Examining a wide array of ancient writings, Nongbri demonstrates that in antiquity, there was no conceptual arena that could be designated as “religious” as opposed to “secular.” Surveying representative episodes from a two-thousand-year period, while constantly attending to the concrete social, political, and colonial contexts that shaped relevant works of philosophers, legal theorists, missionaries, and others, Nongbri offers a concise and readable account of the emergence of the concept of religion.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50243761373457,"sku":"CIN0300216785G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52102959268113,"sku":"CIN0300216785VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52732496904465,"sku":"NIN9780300216783","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53148512059665,"sku":"GOR008816754","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0300216785.jpg?v=1751228301"},{"product_id":"god-s-library-book-brent-nongbri-9780300215410","title":"God's Library","description":"A provocative book from a highly original scholar, challenging much of what we know about early Christian manuscripts","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52725798011153,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52725798207761,"sku":"GOR009550502","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780300215410.jpg?v=1763117407"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-brent-nongbri.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}