The Great Shift: Encountering God In Biblical Times
by James L. Kugel /
2017 / English / EPUB
6.1 MB Download
A world-renowned scholar brings a lifetime of study to
reveal how a pivotal transformation in spiritual experience
during the Biblical Era made us who we are today
A world-renowned scholar brings a lifetime of study to
reveal how a pivotal transformation in spiritual experience
during the Biblical Era made us who we are today
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 L. Kugel argues, this transition
allows us to glimpse a massive shift in human experience—the
emergence of the modern, Western sense of self.
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 L. 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. In the tradition of books like
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. In the tradition of books likeThe Swerve
The Swerve and
andThe Better Angels of Our Nature,
The Better Angels of Our Nature,The Great
Shift
The Great
Shifttells the story of a revolution in human
consciousness and the enchantment of everyday life. This
book will make believers and seekers think differently not
just about the Bible, but about the entire history of the
human imagination.
tells the story of a revolution in human
consciousness and the enchantment of everyday life. This
book will make believers and seekers think differently not
just about the Bible, but about the entire history of the
human imagination.
