The second edition of a resource that is considered a standard reference in the field. Presents a cross-cultural approach that emphasizes religion's role within everyday life and as a unique experience from culture to culture. The original 2,750 entries have been retained, many heavily updated, and approximately 600 entirely new articles have been added by an international team of scholars and contributors. Print version available in reference.

Examines the key sacred texts and foundational documents of the world's primary religions, from ancient times to the present, providing researchers with a fresh perspective on how critical religious texts have influenced both the past and the present. Three-volume set includes one hundred primary source texts. Print edition available in reference.

Entries on religious movements and concepts, historical and legendary figures, divinities, and religious sites and ceremonies along with color plates of sacred places, vestments, rituals, objects, and texts. Includes a pronunciation guide and notes.

Offers a multidimensional picture of primarily Western civilization, covering Ancient Egypt (2675-332 B.C.E.), Ancient Greece and Rome (1200 B.C.E.-476 C.E.), Medieval Europe (814-1450 C.E.), Renaissance Europe (1300-1600 C.E.), and The Age of the Baroque and Enlightenment (1600-1800 C.E.). Provides access to each historical period through the study of nine different arts and humanities topics: "Architecture and Design," "Dance," "Fashion," "Literature," "Music," "Philosophy," "Religion," "Theater," and "Visual Arts."

Contains over 550 entries composed by leading contemporary theologians from around the world, with a focused emphasis on the most important theological concepts. Volume is organized around a small number of 'core entries' which examine key topics to provide a general overview of major subject areas, while making use of related shorter entries to impart a more detailed knowledge of technical terms. Protestant and Catholic theological concepts are represented.

This highly readable guide to Judaism from Oxford contains a wealth of information on every aspect of Jewish belief and practice, both ancient and modern with all Hebrew terms clearly explained.

A guide to every aspect of the Christian religion and life, including theology, patristic scholarship, churches and denominations, the church calendar and organization, and the Bible. There are also many entries on theologians, philosophers, painters, musicians, and writers of religious works.

This dictionary features broad-ranging entries on the history and doctrines of the major Buddhist schools, information on the spread of Buddhism in Asia and the West, and coverage of issues of contemporary concern such as human rights, abortion, euthanasia, ‘engaged Buddhism’, and the role of women in Buddhist teachings.

A six-volume survey of the history of Western thought and culture, presented through 700 alphabetically arranged entries. Each entry explores the origin, cultural interpretations, and historical themes of such subjects as beauty, love, feminism, diversity, and social capital, among many others. Includes aesthetics.

Offers 325 articles that describe the people and places that appear in the New Testament and Old Testament of the Bible. From prophets, apostles, and groups (such as Hebrews and Angels) to kingdoms and countries, cities and mountains where Biblical events took place.

Provides a comprehensive and comparative account of social justice in the major religious traditions.

This is an encyclopedic dictionary of close to 400 important philosophical, literary, and political terms and concepts that defy easy--or any--translation from one language and culture to another. Drawn from more than a dozen languages spanning the classical, medieval, early modern, modern, and contemporary periods, these are terms that influence thinking across the humanities. The entries, written by more than 150 distinguished scholars, describe the origins and meanings of each term, the history and context of its usage, its translations into other languages, and its use in notable texts.

Provides an exhaustive and organized overview of Jewish life and knowledge from the Second Temple period to the contemporary State of Israel, from Rabbinic to modern Yiddish literature, from Kabbalah to "Americana" and from Zionism to the contribution of Jews to world cultures, Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd edition is important to scholars, general readers and students. Print version also available in reference.

Comprehensive coverage of more than 2,300 North American religious groups in the U.S. and Canada -- from Adventists to Zen Buddhists.

Essay-length and short entries written by a team of leading religious experts, offering the most comprehensive guide to the cultural and intellectual world of Eastern Orthodox Christianity currently available in English. Explores the major traditions of Eastern Orthodoxy in detail, including the Armenian, Byzantine, Coptic, Ethiopic, Slavic, Romanian, and Syriac churches from Late Antiquity to the present, encompassing history, theology, liturgy, monasticism, sacramentology, canon law, philosophy, folk culture, architecture, archaeology, martyrology, hagiography, along with a substantial prosopography. Print copy in reference.

Offers an intellectually rigorous collection of psychological interpretations of the stories, rituals, motifs, symbols, doctrines, dogmas, and experiences of the world's major religious and mythological traditions through a wide range of psychological approaches to understanding the form and content of religious and spiritual experience while also offering insight into the meanings of various symbols and themes of numerous religions.

An essential reference work covering the fascinating relationship between religion and nature. Critically explores the relationships among human beings, their environments, and the religious dimensions of life. This wide-ranging work — chronologically, geographically, religiously — includes 1,000 entries from 520 international contributors. Print copy in reference.

Comprehensive interdisciplinary resource on the origins and development of the Bible, primarily in the canons within Judaism and Christianity. Also documents the history of biblical reception in Islam and other non-Western religious traditions and movements. Includes additional coverage of the Bible in classical, literary, and archaeological contexts as well as its ongoing presence in the visual arts, music, film, and dance. Regular updates.

Features 450 articles by an international community of scholars on the Dead Sea Scrolls--their history, relevance, meaning, and the controversies that surround them. The collection of 800 manuscripts is older than any other collection of manuscripts of the Hebrew Scriptures by almost one thousand years. Includes contributions from 100 distinguished scholars representing diverse traditions and fields of learning on and the historical, archaeological, linguistic, and religious contexts of these texts. Print copy in reference.

Consists of articles on all aspects of the period from the fifth to the fifteenth century, exploring art, architecture, religion, law, science, language, philosophy, and theology, as well as cultural, religious, intellectual, social and political history.

Comprehensive multi-volume overview of the history, doctrines, and teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, including important people and associated topics. eBook version features revised and new articles on theology, philosophy, history, literary figures, saints, musicians, etc. Print version available in reference collection.

Provides in-depth coverage of the political dimensions of the Muslim world in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Provides in-depth coverage of the cultural, political, economic and artistic contributions made by Luther, featuring the latest international scholarship, situating Luther’s legacy in a global perspective. Also offers a guide to the secondary literature.

Covers the entire range of religious and social changes associated with the Reformation in sixteenth-century Europe, encompassing not only issues of church polity and theology but also developments in politics, economics, demographics, art and literature. This broadly cast, interdisciplinary definition allows for a comprehensive social and intellectual history of early modern Europe. Print version in reference collection.

Covers all aspects of the religion and science dichotomy, from humanities to social sciences to the natural sciences, and includes articles by theologians, religion scholars, physicians, scientists, historians, and psychologists, among others.

Traces classical myths in a variety of unexpected places from Arabic poetry and Hollywood films, to psychoanalysis, the Bible, and New Age spiritualism.

Twenty eight articles examining Greek mythology in Greco-Roman culture from a cross-disciplinary perspective.

Explores the genre of myths, folktales, legends, and other traditional literature written from 5000 B.C.E. to the modern era, including Greek, Mesopotamian, Iraqi, African, Roman, North American, Indian, Afghani, Japanese, European, South American, Serbian, Irish, Chinese, and Egyptian myths and folktales. Articles include a contextual overview, summary, an in-depth analysis, and bibliography. Print copy available in reference.

This collection of fascinating, mysterious, and revealing tales captures the immense sweep and diversity of African mythology. The stories touch on virtually every aspect of belief: gods and goddesses, epic heroes and divine tricksters, along with epics of the world's origins, the struggle between the human and the divine, and much more. Four hundred entries cover the entire continent, from the mouth of the Nile to the Cape of Good Hope.

This dictionary features stories of revered deities, sacred places, key events and epics, with many recurring themes and traditions. Entries address the key mythologies of the regions we now call India, China, Tibet, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, and Japan, and broad overviews of specific cultures and their mythic traditions round out the coverage.

A comprehensive and accessible survey of the whole of Celtic mythology, legend, saga, and folklore. It covers the people, themes, concepts, places, and creatures of Celtic mythology, from both ancient and modern traditions, in 4,000 entries ranging from brief definitions to short essays.

Since Plato first coined the term 'mythologia', mythology has come to hold greater significance and power as a crucial element of civilization as a whole. Presents the powerful gods of Greece, Rome, and Scandinavia, the more mystical deities of Buddhist and Hindu India, and the stern spirits of the African and American continents. Drawing upon hundreds of myths from around the globe....

Provides a valuable introduction to centuries-old beliefs, myths and folk tales relating to Cosmology and Flood, Birth and Agriculture, Messengers of the Underworld, Shamans, Disease, Good Fortune, Love and Family, Gods of Village Shrines, and Heroes.

Explores the magical myths and legends of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland and Viking-Age Greenland--outlining along the way the prehistoric tales and beliefs from these regions that have remained embedded in the imagination of the world.

Covering all aspects of mythology, with essays on the world's major mythological traditions (Greek, Native American, Indian, Japanese, Sumerian, Egyptian), along with retellings of better-known myths, and entries on mythological types, motifs, and figures (such as the Descent to the Underworld, the Hero, Creation, Odysseus, Spider Woman, and Inanna), and related subjects (such as fairly tales and legends). Over 1700 entries.

Uses material from the Bible, the Talmud and Midrash, and kabbalistic literature and medieval folklore to explain nearly 700 Jewish myths organized around broad themes such as myths of creation, heaven, and the Messiah.