Simon Schama (Author)
A passionate history of Judaism; a world unfolding across many continents and five centuries by one of our greatest and internationally bestselling historians.
Belonging is a magnificent cultural history abundantly alive with energy, character and colour. From the Jews’ expulsion from Spain in 1492 it tells the stories not just of rabbis and philosophers but of a poetess in the ghetto of Venice; a boxer in Georgian England; a general in Ming China; an opera composer in nineteenth-century Germany. The story unfolds in Kerala and Mantua, the starlit hills of Galilee, the rivers of Colombia, the kitchens of Istanbul, the taverns of Ukraine and the mining camps of California. It sails in caravels, rides the stage coaches and the railways; trudges the dawn streets of London, hobbles along with the remnant of Napoleon’s ruined army.
The Jewish story is a history that is about, and for, all of us. And in our own time of anxious arrivals and enforced departures, the Jews’ search for a home is more startlingly resonant than ever.
‘A magnificent achievement…’ Jonathan Freedland, Guardian
‘An extraordinary cultural journey, filled with astonishingly colourful and outrageous characters … Schama delivers a superb and thrilling ride, both inspirational and tragic’ Simon Sebag Montefiore, Mail on Sunday
James Fergusson (Author)
Shortlisted for the British Academy Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize for Global Cultural Understanding 2018.
'A SERIOUSLY NECESSARY BOOK.' ROWAN WILLIAMS, FORMER ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY
'A MUST READ.' MIQDAAD VERSI, MUSLIM COUNCIL OF BRITAIN
'A COMPELLING AND COMPASSIONATE SURVEY OF BRITISH ISLAM.’ THE GUARDIAN
'A TIMELY BOOK.' BARONESS WARSI
'HUGELY IMPORTANT.' PETER OBORNE
'HEARTENING.' DAVID ANDERSON QC
In this groundbreaking book, James Fergusson travels the length of Britain to explore our often misunderstood Muslim communities, and to experience life on both sides of our increasingly segregated society.
The face of Britain is changing. The Muslim population has more than doubled over the last twenty years, and is projected to do so again over the next twenty. A societal shift of this size and speed has inevitably brought growing pains, with the impact on our communities becoming ever more profound – as well as painful, because in the eyes of many, Islam has a problem: the extremist views of a tiny minority, which, when translated into action, can result in catastrophic violence.
The danger of this extremist threat - or our response to it - is that we are collectively starting to lose faith in the cultural diversity that has glued our nation together for so long. Our tolerance of others, so often celebrated as a ‘fundamental British value,’ is at risk.
In this groundbreaking book, James Fergusson travels the length of Britain to evaluate the impact these seismic shifts have had on our communities. With the rise of nationalist movements, growing racial tensions and an increasingly out of touch political elite, what does it mean to be a Muslim in Britain? What is life like on both sides of this growing religious divide? And what can we do to heal the fractures appearing in our national fabric?
Al-Britannia, My Country is a timely and urgent account of life in Britain today, a call to action filled with real-life experience, hard truths and important suggestions for our future.
Reza Aslan (Author)
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
In God, Reza Aslan sheds new light on mankind’s relationship with the divine and challenges our perspective on the history of faith and the birth of religion.
From the origins of spiritual thought to the concept of an active, engaged, divine presence that underlies all creation, Aslan examines how the idea of god arose in human evolution, was gradually personalized, endowed with human traits and emotions, and eventually transformed into a single Divine Personality: the God known today by such names as Yahweh, Father, and Allah.
Bold, wide-ranging and provocative, God challenges everything we thought we knew about the origins of religious belief, and with it our relationship with life and death, with the natural and spiritual worlds, and our understanding of the very essence of human existence.
Dalai Lama (Author)
Discover Buddhism with the world's most revered spiritual leader
This jewel of a book offers the core teachings on Buddhism applicable in daily life from His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
This is a classic timeless collection of advice and teachings about the importance of love and compassion, individual responsibility and awareness of the problems in everyday life.
Whoever you are, whatever your beliefs, the Dalai Lama’s words have the power to calm and inspire.
K. M. Sen (Author)
K. M. Sen discusses the evolution of Hinduism's central systems of belief and codes of conduct, as well as popular cults and sects such as Bhakti, Tantrika and the mystics of North India, and describes the varying incarnations of its supreme deity, Krishna and Rama among them. He recounts its history from the Indus Valley civilization c.2500 BC and the Vedic age nature gods to its relationship with Buddhism and Jainism and the impact of western culture. And he describes the day-to-day practice of Hinduism - customs, festivals and rituals; the caste system; and its philosophies and exponents. In a new foreword, the author's grandson Professor Amartya Sen brings his work right up to date, examining the role of Hinduism in the world today.
Sherin Khankan (Author)
'We will change things from within'
Sherin Khankan is a pioneer, founding the first mosque for women in Europe and leading the way for a more progressive form of Islam. In this remarkable work, she shares her journey growing up between east and west to then becoming one of the first female imams in Europe. Addressing controversial issues such as radical Islamic groups, the right of Muslim women to divorce and the patriarchal structure of Islam, this is an eye-opening and empowering manifesto for change.
John Barton (Author)
This book tells the story of the Bible, how it came to be constructed and how it has been understood, from its remote beginnings down to the present. It describes how the disparate writings which comprise the Bible were written and when, as well as what we know - and what we cannot know - about their authors and what they might have meant. Incisive readings shed new light on even the most familiar passages, exposing not only the sources and traditions behind them, but also the busy hands of the scribes and editors who assembled and reshaped them. Rather than the fixed, coherent text it is often perceived to be, the Bible is revealed to be the result of a long and intriguing evolution.
Tracing its dissemination, translation and interpretation in Judaism and Christianity from Antiquity to the rise of modern biblical scholarship, Barton shows how meaning has both been drawn from the Bible and imposed upon it. Part of the book's originality is to illuminate the gap between religion and scripture, the ways in which neither maps exactly onto the other, and how religious thinkers from Augustine to Luther and Spinoza have reckoned with this. A landmark in its field, A History of the Bible makes us rethink the central book of Western culture and the foundation of two world religions.
Emmanuel Carrère (Author)
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John Lambert (Translator)
Corinth, ancient Greece, two thousand years ago. An itinerant preacher, poor, wracked by illness, tells the story of a prophet who was crucified in Judea, who came back from the dead, and whose return is a sign of something enormous. Like a contagion, the story will spread over the city, the country and, eventually, the world. Emmanuel Carrère's astonishing historical epic tells the story of the mysterious beginnings of Christianity, bringing to life a distant, primeval past of strange sects, apocalyptic beliefs and political turmoil. In doing so Carrère, once himself a fervent believer, questions his own faith, asks why we believe in resurrection, and what it means. The Kingdom is his masterpiece.
