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The best-selling books on the subject by Marcus Borg, John Dominic Crossan, John Meyer, and Luke Timothy Johnson, among many others, attest to this hunger. But each of these scholars presents his own reading of the historical information, usually beginning with the earliest known Jesus-related material, Jesus' sayings, and leads the public into a particular understanding of Jesus and the early Jesus movements. The New Q will provide the general public with the original source through a fresh translation of the early Sayings Gospel known as Q. This book will guide people through their reading of the texts themselves so that readers will be able to judge the validity of other scholars' reconstructions. The New Q is the companion volume necessary to understand the current writing on the historical Jesus and the history of earliest Christianity. Valantasis provides a new translation of the Synoptic Sayings Source, Q. He translates each section from the Greek of the critical edition of Robinson and Kloppenborg, and he gathers the translation of the full text as a coherent collection of sayings at the end of the book. Avoiding the scholarly arguments that make Q inaccessible, as well as the constant comparison of Matthew and Luke, this commentary will straightforwardly present the text based on the work of those scholars who have provided a critical edition. It provides an initial reading in a language appropriate to religious seekers. The translation itself will be fresh and provocative, since its meaning and interpretation are not linked to its later use in the narrative gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke. In fact, readers of this translation will be able to hear the sayings of Jesus as Matthew and Luke heard them before the writing of their gospels. The goal is to recreate the kind of challenging and intellectually stimulating engagement with the sayings that probably put Christianity on the Roman map. Readers will be able to encounter Jesus' voice and the voices of early Christians directly, without the intrusion of the later use of these sayings by the gospel writers. Valantasis also provides a commentary on each of the sayings. The commentary will focus on three facets: what the saying says, what it could have meant at the time, and how is was used by early Christians. The first two questions provide the basic information by developing a literary analysis of the sayings (a reading of Jesus' words) and by positing a significance for the saying in the context of earliest Christianity (what the saying could have meant). The final question directs the reading of the saying toward its use by religious people then and now as a means of forging an alternative subjectivity, defining new religious and social relationships, and constructing an alternative understanding of the nature of the spiritual and physical world. In other words, this commentary will provide an ascetical reading of the sayings to explore the manner in which the sayings source might have been read by individuals and communities in antiquity, and it will provide an alternative to the currently established reading of the sayings in modern scholarship primarily as a window on the historical Jesus' doctrines and teaching.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49602948399377,"sku":"GOR002778517","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52655724822801,"sku":"NLS9780567025616","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0567025616.jpg?v=1751461319"},{"product_id":"religions-of-late-antiquity-in-practice-book-richard-valantasis-9780691057514","title":"Religions of Late Antiquity in Practice","description":"This is an unprecedented collection of nearly seventy Late Antique primary religious texts. These texts--all in new English translation and many appearing in English for the first time--represent every major religious current from the late first century until the rise of Islam. Produced through the efforts of thirty-six leading scholars in the field, they constitute a comprehensive view of religious practice in Late Antiquity. Religious life and performance during this period comprised diverse, often unusual practices. Philosophical ascent, magic, legal pronouncement, hymnography, dietary and sexual restriction, and rhetoric were all part of this deeply fascinating world. Religious and political identity often intertwined, as reflected in the Roman persecution of Christians. And a fluid boundary between religion and superstition was contested in daily life. Many practices, including ascetic training, crossed religious boundaries. Others, such as \"incubation\" at specific temples and certain divination rites, were distinctive practices of individual groups and orders. Intrinsically interesting, the practice of religion in the Late Antique also edifies modern-day religious life. As this volume shows, the origins of the contemporary Western religious terrain can be gleaned in this period. Rabbinic Judaism flourished and spread. Christianity developed still-important theological categories and structures. And even movements that did not survive intact--such as Neoplatonism and the once-powerful Manichaean churches--continue to influence religion today. This rich sourcebook includes discussions of asceticism, religious organization, ritual, martyrdom, religion's social implications, law, and theology. Its unique emphasis on practice and its inclusion of texts translated from lesser-known languages advance the study of religious history in several directions. A strong interdisciplinary orientation will reward scholars and students of religion, theology, gender studies, classical literatures, and history. 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The book focuses on the communities that produced each gospel, the dynamic energy each gospel displays for creating and sustaining community life, the different interpretations of the person of Jesus, and the different systems of organization and leadership each gospel promulgated. The authors carefully describe the social context of each Gospel and delineate the practices the texts prescribe. Each gospel has an imaginative portal, an introductory chapter introducing the necessary background for understanding the social, intellectual, and religious setting for each gospel. Their reading of each Gospel builds on these foundations to illustrate the nature and scope of the community's practices. Their work starts from the assumption that the communities did not look to the Gospels for biographical data on the life of Jesus to offer the reader a powerful reading of each Gospel community, its unique practices, and the way people were trained to become members of it. 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It is a thinking person's guide to the spiritual life written for the smart seeker who wants to be fully attuned to God, fully interactive with other believers, fully connected to the wider world in which humans live, fully engaged with the physical universe, fully committed to service to the poor and disenfranchised, and, finally, fully postmodern. Adopting a literary device first used in the fourth century by the Desert Father Evagrios Pontikos, Richard Valantasis offers a \"century\" of spiritual texts - a hundred short essays from 800 to 900 words - on a hundred spiritual themes. Believing that \"tradition is the action of the Holy Spirit making available the wisdom of the past in a new idiom and a time,\" Valantasis moves from the pre-modern spiritual world of the Christian tradition to the postmodern realities of our current world, and back again.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50369148551441,"sku":"CIN0826417051G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0826417051.jpg?v=1750882607"},{"product_id":"making-of-the-self-book-richard-valantasis-9781556352867","title":"The Making of the Self","description":"A leading scholar of ascetical studies, Richard Valantasis explores a variety of ascetical traditions ranging from the Greco-Roman philosophy of Musonius Rufus, the asceticism found in the Nag Hammadi Library and in certain Gnostic texts, the Gospelof Thomas, and other early Christian texts. This collection gathers historical and theoretical essays develop a theory of asceticism that informs the analysis of historical texts and opens the way for postmodern ascetical studies. Wide-ranging in historical scope and in developing theory, these essays address asceticism for scholar and student alike. The theory will be of particular interest to those interested in cultural theory and analysis, while the historical essays provide the researcher with easy access to a significant corpus of academic writing on asceticism.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50380709363985,"sku":"CIN1556352867G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51037074522385,"sku":"NIN9781556352867","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52684196151569,"sku":"NLS9781556352867","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1556352867.jpg?v=1751374157"},{"product_id":"dazzling-bodies-book-richard-valantasis-9781625647801","title":"Dazzling Bodies","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50385974034705,"sku":"CIN1625647808G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51040177815825,"sku":"NIN9781625647801","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52125045752081,"sku":"NLS9781625647801","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1625647808.jpg?v=1750992369"},{"product_id":"subjective-eye-book-richard-valantasis-9781498247832","title":"The Subjective Eye","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51030522069265,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51030524559633,"sku":"NIN9781498247832","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52423939391761,"sku":"NLS9781498247832","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1498247830.jpg?v=1750956477"},{"product_id":"making-of-the-self-book-richard-valantasis-9781498210614","title":"The Making of the Self","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51030588883217,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51030590980369,"sku":"NIN9781498210614","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52473654116625,"sku":"NLS9781498210614","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1498210619.jpg?v=1751405873"},{"product_id":"dazzling-bodies-book-richard-valantasis-9781498222495","title":"Dazzling Bodies","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51151864561937,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51151866396945,"sku":"NIN9781498222495","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52137993109777,"sku":"NLS9781498222495","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1498222498.jpg?v=1751405885"},{"product_id":"gospel-of-thomas-book-richard-valantasis-9780415116213","title":"The Gospel of Thomas","description":"This volume offers the first full commentary on the Gospel of Thomas, a work which has previously been accessible only to theologians and scholars. Valantasis provides fresh translations of the Coptic and Greek text, with an illuminating commentary, examining the text line by line. He includes a general introduction outlining the debates of previous scholars and situating the Gospel in its historical and theological contexts. 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This volume honors a scholar and theologian of historical theology, a theorist and a practitioner of religion and the arts, and a keen analyst of cultural trends both ancient and modern. . . .  Margaret R.] Miles's prodigious production as a scholar has legendary qualities. Her dozen-plus books alone explore history, patristics, ancient philosophy, art and art history, spiritual formation and religious practice, critical theory, film, ethics and values, personal growth, gender and women's studies, as well as her true academic loves, Augustine and Plotinus. . . . The breadth and depth of her own work and her influence upon others demands an expansive volume, which the editors of this Festschrift unfortunately had to restrict to four categories--Historical Theology, Religion and Culture, Religion and Gender, and Religion and the Visual Arts--in order to capture the heart of our appreciation for her. --from the Introduction","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52683676713233,"sku":"NLS9781597525190","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53381437784337,"sku":"NIN9781597525190","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781597525190.jpg?v=1762321229"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-gb\/collections\/author-books-by-richard-valantasis.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}