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Talmud
(Hebrew). “Teaching; study;” the term refers to two scriptures, the Jerusalem Talmud, completed in the early fifth century CE, and the Bavli, the Babylonian Talmud, completed in the sixth century CE. Both took the form of a
gemara
(“commentary”) on the Mishnah.

theoria
(Greek). “Contemplation;” in the modern West, a “theory” is a mental construct; a hypothesis.

Torah
(Hebrew). “Teaching;” often translated as “law;” in the Bible, the word
torah
included God’s perceived guidance in the world and the words he used to formulate it. Thus the Torah often refers to the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, which contains stories about God’s guidance and care. Later Torah was linked with God’s Wisdom and the Word that brought the world into being and became synonymous with the highest knowledge and with transcendent goodness.

transcendence
(Latin derivation); adj.
transcendent
. That which “climbs beyond” known reality and cannot be categorized.

ummah
(Arabic). The Muslim community.

univocal
(Latin derivation). “With one sense;” a proposition that has only one meaning; a word that is unambiguous.

Upanishads
(Sanskrit). “To sit down near to;” esoteric scriptures revered as the culmination of Vedic religion. Thirteen of the classical Upanishads were composed between the seventh and second centuries BCE.

Veda
(Sanskrit); adj.
Vedic
. “Knowledge;” the term used to denote the huge corpus of sacred literature of the Aryan Indians.

Wisdom
(translation of the Hebrew
Hokhmah)
. A personified figure in the book of Proverbs who represents God’s divine plan that governs the universe; the blueprint of creation; identified later with the Torah, the highest wisdom, and the divine Word that brought the world into being. A method of describing God’s activity in the world that human beings can experience as opposed to the inaccessible reality itself.

Word
. See
wisdom; logos
.

yoga
(Sanskrit). “Yoking;” the yoking of the powers of the mind to achieve enlightenment. The meditative discipline designed to eliminate the egotism that holds us back from Nirvana and enlightenment.

zannah
(Arabic). Guesswork; surmise; used in the Qur’an to denote pointless and divisive theological speculation.

ziggurat
(Akkadian). Temple towers built by the Sumerians in a form found in other parts of the world; huge stone ladders that men and women could climb to meet their gods.

Selected Bibliography

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Akenson, Donald Harman.
Surpassing Wonder: The Invention of the Bible and the Talmuds
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Alter, Robert, and Frank Kermode, eds.
The Literary Guide to the Bible
. London, 1987.

Altizer, Thomas J.
The Gospel of Christian Atheism
. Philadelphia, 1966.

_____, with William Hamilton.
Radical Theology and the Death of God
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Anonymous.
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Anselm of Laon.
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Augustine.
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_____.
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_____.
The Trinity
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Ayer, A. J.
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_____.
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Baggini, Julian.
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Barbour, Ian.
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_____.
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_____.
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_____.
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_____.
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_____.
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Burkert, Walter.
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_____.
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_____.
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_____.
Structure and History in Greek Mythology and Ritual
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_____.
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_____.
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_____, with Bill Moyers.
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Caputo, John.
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_____.
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.

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_____.
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_____, with Gianni Vattimo.
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Cassirer, Ernst.
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Certeau, Michel de.
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. Vol. 1:
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______.
The Victorian Church
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Clark, J. C., trans. and ed.
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Clarke, Samuel.
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. 9th ed. London, 1738.

_______.
A Discourse Concerning the Unchangeable Obligations of Natural Religion and the Truth and Certainty of the Christian Religion
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A Collection of Theological Tracts
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Clements, R. E.
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_____, ed.
The World of Ancient Israel: Sociological, Anthropological and Political Perspectives
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Coakley, Sarah, ed.
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Cohen, A., ed.
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Cohn, Norman.
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Collins, James.
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Confucius.
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Copernicus, Nicolaus.
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Cornwell, John.
Darwin’s Angel: An Angelic Response to “The God Delusion.”
London, 2007.

Cox, Harvey.
Fire from Heaven: The Rise of Pentecostal Spirituality and the Reshaping of Religion in the Twenty-first Century
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_____.
The Secular City: Secularization and Urbanization in Theological Perspective
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Cross, Frank Moore.
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_____.
From Epic to Canon: History and Literature in Ancient Israel
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Cross, Richard.
Duns Scotus
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Cupitt, Don.
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_____.
Taking Leave of God
. London, 1980.

Darwin, Charles.
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_____.
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Davies, Brian.
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. Oxford, 1992.

Davies, Oliver.
God Within
. London, 1988.

_____.
Meister Eckhart: Mystical Theologian
. London, 1991.

_____, and Denys Turner, eds.
Silence and the Word: Negative Theology and Incarnation
. Cambridge, U.K., 2002.

Davies, Paul.
God and the New Physics
. London, 1984.

_____.
The Mind of God: Science and the Search for Ultimate Meaning
. London, 1992.

Dawkins, Richard.
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_____.
The God Delusion
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_____.
River Out of Eden
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Deleuze, Gilles.
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_____, and Felix Guattari.
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De Lubac, Henri, SJ.
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Dennett, Daniel.
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Denys the Areopagite.
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Derrida, Jacques.
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_____.
Points… Interviews, 1974-94
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Descartes, Rene.
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_____.
Key Philosophical Writings
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Dever, William G.
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Dewey, John.
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Diderot, Denis.
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_____.
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Dyson, Freeman.
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Eckhart, Meister.
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_____.
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Edwards, Jonathan.
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Eliade, Mircea.
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_____.
A History of Religious Ideas
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_____.
Images and Symbols: Studies in Religious Symbolism
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_____.
The Myth of the Eternal Return, or Cosmos and History
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_____.
Myths, Dreams and Mysteries: The Encounter between Contemporary Faiths and Archaic Realities
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_____.
Patterns in Comparative Religion
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_____.
The Sacred and the Profane
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_____.
Yoga, Immortality and Freedom
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Esposito, John L., ed.
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_____, and Dalia Mogahed.
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Febvre, Lucien.
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