{"product_id":"in-the-valley-of-the-shadow-book-james-l-kugel-phd-9781439130100","title":"In the Valley of the Shadow","description":"Ten years ago, when Harvard professor James Kugel was diagnosed with an aggressive, likely fatal, form of cancer, I was, of course, disturbed and worried. But the main change in my state of mind was that . . . the background music had suddenly stopped. . . . the music of daily life that's constantly going, the music of infinite time and possibilities. Now suddenly it was gone, replaced by \u003ci\u003enothing, \u003c\/i\u003ejust silence. There you are, one little person, sitting in the late-summer sun, with only a few things left to do. Despite his illness, Kugel was intrigued by this new state of mind; it seemed to reveal something basic about the religions that he had been studying for years. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn this wide-ranging exploration of religion throughout the ages, interspersed with personal reflection on the course of his illness, Kugel mines a rich store of sources in an attempt to understand mankind's unending series of encounters with God, from ancient accounts of human meetings with gods and angels, to first-person narratives of religious conversions and the findings of neuroscientists and evolutionary biologists about religious belief. A rigorously honest, sometimes skeptical, but ultimately deeply moving affirmation of religious faith, \u003ci\u003eIn the Valley of the Shadow \u003c\/i\u003eis a powerful meditation on humanity's place in the world and life's greatest mystery.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50044739551505,"sku":"GOR009554521","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51424086655249,"sku":"CIN1439130108G","price":7.75,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52106110271761,"sku":"CIN1439130108VG","price":6.17,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1439130108.jpg?v=1751052745","url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/products\/in-the-valley-of-the-shadow-book-james-l-kugel-phd-9781439130100","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}