The Great Shift
Encountering God in Biblical Times
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Narrated by:
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Malcolm Hillgartner
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By:
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James L. Kugel
About this listen
Why does the Bible depict a world in which humans, with surprising regularity, encounter the divine - wrestling an angel, addressing a burning bush, issuing forth prophecy without any choice in the matter? These stories spoke very differently to their original audience than they do to us, and they reflect a radically distinct understanding of reality and the human mind. Yet over the course of the thousand-year biblical era, encounters with God changed dramatically.
As James Kugel argues, this transition allows us to glimpse a massive shift in human experience - the emergence of the modern, Western sense of self. In this landmark work, Kugel fuses revelatory close readings of ancient texts with modern scholarship from a range of fields, including neuroscience, anthropology, psychology, and archaeology, to explain the origins of belief, worship, and the sense of self and the changing nature of God through history. The Great Shift will make believers and seekers think differently not just about the Bible but about the entire history of the human imagination.
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In his subtle and engaging investigation into the life and times of Jesus, Thomas Cahill shows us Jesus from his birth to his execution through the eyes of those who knew him and in the context of his time—a time when the Jews were struggling to maintain their beliefs under overlords who imposed their worldview on their subjects. Here is Jesus the loving friend, itinerate preacher, and quiet revolutionary, whose words and actions inspired his followers to journey throughout the Roman world and speak the truth he instilled.
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Desire Delivers
- By David on 04-18-03
By: Thomas Cahill
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Mary as the Early Christians Knew Her
- The Mother of Jesus in Three Ancient Texts
- By: Frederica Mathewes-Green
- Narrated by: Frederica Mathewes-Green
- Length: 4 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Mary is the flower of femininity to some, a woman of power to others. She has been seen as a paragon of obedience as well as an instrument of liberation. Some have piled her status so high that it rivals that of her Son. Other do their best to ignore her. Behind all of those images is a girl who grew up to be the mother of Christ.
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Loved it
- By Gee on 02-08-18
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Simply Jesus
- A New Vision of Who He Was, What He Did, and Why He Matters
- By: N. T. Wright
- Narrated by: James Langton
- Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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“Jesus - the Jesus we might discover if we really looked,” explains Wright, “is larger, more disturbing, more urgent than we had ever imagined. We have successfully managed to hide behind other questions and to avoid the huge, world-shaking challenge of Jesus’s central claim and achievement. It is we, the churches, who have been the real reductionists. We have reduced the kingdom of God to private piety; the victory of the cross to comfort for the conscience; Easter itself to a happy, escapist ending after a sad, dark tale. Piety, conscience, and ultimate happiness are important...."
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A must read for today's church
- By Joey A. on 03-17-12
By: N. T. Wright
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Paul and Jesus
- How the Apostle Transformed Christianity
- By: James D. Tabor
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Historians know virtually nothing about the two decades following the crucifixion of Jesus, when his followers regrouped and began to spread his message. During this time the man we know as the apostle Paul joined the movement and began to preach to the gentiles. Using the oldest Christian documents that we have - the letters of Paul - as well as other early Christian sources, historian and scholar James Tabor reconstructs the origins of Christianity.
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Paul or Jesus?
- By James on 01-29-13
By: James D. Tabor
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Reading Judas
- The Gospel of Judas and the Shaping of Christianity
- By: Elaine Pagels, Karen L. King
- Narrated by: Justine Eyre, Robertson Dean
- Length: 3 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Two celebrated scholars illustrate how the newly discovered Gospel of Judas provides a window into understanding how Jesus' followers understood his death, why Judas betrayed Jesus, and why God allowed it. Presented with the elegance, insight, and accessibility that has made Pagels and King the leading voices in this field, this is a book for academics and popular audiences alike.
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Judas Iscariot: Betrayer or Saint?
- By Diane on 08-21-12
By: Elaine Pagels, and others
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The Lost Gospel
- Decoding the Ancient Text That Reveals Jesus' Marriage to Mary the Magdalene
- By: Simcha Jacobovici, Barrie Wilson
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 12 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Waiting to be rediscovered in the British Library is an ancient manuscript of the early Church, copied by an anonymous monk. The manuscript is at least 1,450 years old, possibly dating to the first century, Jesus' lifetime. And now, The Lost Gospel provides the first-ever translation from Syriac into English of this unique document that tells the inside story of Jesus' social, family, and political life. The Lost Gospel takes listeners on an unparalleled historical adventure through a paradigm-shifting manuscript.
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Very well-crafted but uses lot of sketchy material
- By Leifen on 01-09-18
By: Simcha Jacobovici, and others
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The Case for the Psalms
- Why They Are Essential
- By: N. T. Wright
- Narrated by: James Langton
- Length: 4 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Reading, studying, and praying the Psalms is God's means for teaching us what it means to be human: how to express our emotions and yearnings, how to reconcile our anger and our compassion, how to see our story in light of God's sweeping narrative of salvation. Wright provides the tools for understanding and incorporating these crucial verses into our own lives. His conclusion is simple: all Christians need to read, pray, sing, and live the Psalms.
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Psalms are an important part of historic worship
- By Adam Shields on 04-26-14
By: N. T. Wright
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How Jesus Became God
- The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee
- By: Bart D. Ehrman
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 10 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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In a book that took eight years to research and write, leading Bible scholar Bart D. Ehrman explores how an apocalyptic prophet from the backwaters of rural Galilee crucified for crimes against the state came to be thought of as equal with the one God Almighty Creator of all things. Ehrman sketches Jesus's transformation from a human prophet to the Son of God exalted to divine status at his resurrection. Only when some of Jesus's followers had visions of him after his death - alive again - did anyone come to think that he, the prophet from Galilee, had become God.
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Wishing for a bit more meat on the bones
- By Darwin8u on 04-09-14
By: Bart D. Ehrman
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The Gospel of Thomas
- By: Joseph B. Lumpkin
- Narrated by: Daniel Pivin
- Length: 1 hr and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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In the winter of 1945, in Upper Egypt, an Arab peasant discovered a large vessel. Inside were scrolls containing a hitherto unseen book. One of these books was the Gospel of Thomas. Here before you is the translation of that book. This is the contemporary translation of the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas with Greek and Coptic verses. Included are Bible parallels and commentary placed within the flow of the text to explain and expand these amazing verses.
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Do not purchase
- By Alex M. Frankel on 10-27-19
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You Shall Be as Gods
- A Radical Interpretation of the Old Testament and Its Tradition
- By: Erich Fromm
- Narrated by: Allan Robertson
- Length: 8 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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The Old Testament is one of the most carefully studied books in the world’s history. It is also one of the most misunderstood. This founding text of the world’s three largest religions is also, Erich Fromm argues, an impressive radical humanist text. He sees the stories of mankind’s transition from divided clans to united brotherhood as a tribute to the human power to overcome. Filled with hopeful symbolism, You Shall Be as Gods shows how the Old Testament and its tradition is an inspiring ode to human potential.
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Fascinating new ideas
- By D. Hansen on 11-24-16
By: Erich Fromm
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Walton and Walton offer in The Lost World of the Torah a restorative vision of the ancient genre of instruction for wisdom that makes up a significant portion of the Old Testament. In the ancient Near East, order was achieved through the wisdom of those who governed society. The objective of torah was to teach the Israelites to be wise about the kind of order needed to receive the blessings of God's favor and presence within the context of the covenant. Here listeners will find fresh insight on this fundamental genre of the Old Testament canon.
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Worthwhile with caveats
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Lost Scriptures
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Great book destroyed by horrific narration.
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The Making of the Bible
- From the First Fragments to Sacred Scripture
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excellent
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Worthwhile with caveats
- By Telorast on 03-05-13
By: Philip Jenkins
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- Narrated by: James Clement
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What listeners say about The Great Shift
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- DJ
- 10-27-22
Changing Conceptions of God and the Self
"The Great Shift" is another erudite yet highly readable book from James Kugler. Reviewing 1,000 years of Biblical history, he ties the changing concept of God to the changing concept of the self. In Kugler's view, the Biblical idea of God became more abstract and universal as the concept of the self became more concrete and individualized. As for the narration, Malcolm Hillgartner's work is first-rate, give or take a few mispronunciations of the Hebrew. His tone is excellent, and he conveys, in this scholarly work, a sense of "story."
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- Zvi Pardes
- 01-04-21
Deep and satisfying. Simply awesome.
a rich and broad examination of the changing senses of self and how that plays out in encounters with the divine throughout the earliest biblical accounts though to the post-temple period. Just awesome.
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- mark peterson
- 08-17-18
Excellent resource!
Kugel shows amazing erudition as he integrates research on the theory of self with progressive aspects of biblical revelation.
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