{ "item_title" : "Gods", "item_author" : [" Xavier Klonef "], "item_description" : "Gods: A History of the Sacred traces humanity's great religious adventure from prehistory to the present day. From the spirits and ancestors of the Palaeolithic world to the gods of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, India, China, Africa, and pre-Columbian America; from the emergence of the one God in Israel to Christianity and Islam; from ancient temples to the new forms of sacredness that have arisen in modernity.With a historical and anthropological perspective, and in a clear, engaging, and rigorous style, this book explores how different cultures have understood the divine, how they have represented it, how they have linked it to power, the body, death, and the order of the world, and how that experience has shaped the history of civilisation.This is not a book of defence or attack. It is a book of understanding. Because to study the history of the sacred is also to study the deepest questions of the human being: fear, hope, justice, suffering, death, and the need for meaning.The history of the gods is also the history of humanity standing before mystery.INDEXIntroduction. Why Do Human Beings Create Gods?PART I - THE BIRTH OF THE SACREDChapter 1. Before the Temples. Spirits, the Dead, and Invisible ForcesChapter 2. When the Sky Became Power. Storm, Sun, Moon, FertilityChapter 3. From Village to Temple. Agriculture, City, and the Administration of the DivinePART II - GODS AND CIVILISATIONChapter 4. Mesopotamia. Gods for a Fragile HumanityChapter 5. Egypt. Eternal Order and the Promise of Defeating DeathChapter 6. Canaan, Phoenicia, and Israel. From the Storm God to the One GodChapter 7. Persia. Fire, Truth, and Judgement: Zoroastrianism and the Moralisation of the CosmosChapter 8. Greece. Gods with Human FacesChapter 9. Rome. Religion, Empire, and the Usefulness of WorshipChapter 10. India. The Infinite Face of the DivineChapter 11. China and Japan. Heaven, Ancestors, and HarmonyChapter 12. Africa. Vital Force, Mediation, and PresenceChapter 13. Pre-Columbian America. Cosmos, Sacrifice, and BalancePART III - WHAT THE GODS DO IN HUMAN LIFEChapter 14. Gods of Power. Kings, Cities, and EmpiresChapter 15. Gods of the Body and Fertility. Sex, Birth, Abundance, and ContinuityChapter 16. Gods of War and Fear. Violence, Sacrifice, and ProtectionChapter 17. Gods of Death. Judgement, Shadow, Resurrection, and ImmortalityChapter 18. Gods of Knowledge and Meaning. Wisdom, Destiny, and the Order of the WorldPART IV - FROM POLYTHEISM TO THE ONE GODChapter 19. The Invention of Universality. From Local Gods to the God of AllChapter 20. Judaism. The God of Covenant, Law, and MemoryChapter 21. Christianity. Incarnation, Salvation, and Universal ExpansionChapter 22. Islam. The Radical Unity of GodPART V - THE ECLIPSE OF DIVINITYChapter 23. After the Gods. Secularisation, Disenchantment, and the VoidChapter 24. The Invisible Gods of the Present. Nation, Progress, Market, Technology, and the Self", "item_img_path" : "https://covers2.booksamillion.com/covers/bam/9/79/819/607/9798196074981_b.jpg", "price_data" : { "retail_price" : "12.99", "online_price" : "12.99", "our_price" : "12.99", "club_price" : "12.99", "savings_pct" : "0", "savings_amt" : "0.00", "club_savings_pct" : "0", "club_savings_amt" : "0.00", "discount_pct" : "10", "store_price" : "" } }

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