Provides a detailed review of the ancient Hebrew scriptures and the Christian New Testament, while exploring the influences of the environment and circumstances of the time in which they were written. 15,000 first printing. Tour.

Surpassing Wonder: The Invention of the Bible and the Talmuds

Akenson, Donald Harman

Religion & Spirituality

Harcourt

The gospels, scholars agree, were written after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE. This catastrophic event, argues Donald Akenson, forever altered the outlook--and the agenda--of the Christian and Jewish faiths. Of all the New Testament writings, only Paul's letters were composed before 70 CE. Thus, Akenson says, they are the only direct evidence we have that is untainted by this profound and lasting shift in perspective. And yet this most important source on the life of Jesus is also the most neglected. In Saint Saul, Akenson offers a lively and provocative account of what we can learn about Jesus by reading the letters of Paul, providing fresh new insights into both Jesus and Paul. Akenson painstakingly recreates the world of Christ, a time rich with ideas, prophets, factions, priests, savants, and god-drunk fanatics. He insistently stresses throughout the Jewishness of Jesus (for example, referring to Jesus and Paul as Yeshua and Saul, as they were then known). Equally important, he dismisses the traditional method of searching for facts about Jesus by looking for parallels among the four gospels; they were handed down to us as a unit by a later generation, he argues. Saul, although he did not know Yeshua personally, knew his most important followers, and wrote immediately after Yeshua's death. Saul's teachings were approved (though sometimes reluctantly) by Yeshua's brothers and other early leaders. As an eminent historian, Akenson approaches his subject with a fresh eye and a scholarly rigor that is all too rare in this hotly disputed field. The result is a vibrantly written and provocative book that will captivate anyone seeking to know more about the historical Jesus and the earliest Christians.

Saint Saul: A Skeleton Key to the Historical Jesus

Oxford University Press

In Saint Saul, Donald Harman Akenson offers a lively and provocative account of what we can learn about Jesus by reading the letters of Paul. As the only direct evidence of Jesus we have that were composed before the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE forever altered the outlook of the Christian and Jewish faiths, Akenson claims that these letters are the most reliable source of information. He dismisses the traditional method of searching for facts about Jesus by looking for parallels among the four gospels because they were handed down to us as a unit by a later generation. Akenson painstakingly recreates the world of Christ, a time rich with ideas, prophets, factions, priests, savants, and god-drunk fanatics. He insistently stresses throughout the Jewishness of Jesus, referring to Jesus and Paul as Yeshua and Saul, as they were then known. As an eminent historian, Akenson approaches his subject with a fresh eye and a scholarly rigor that is all too rare in this hotly disputed field.

The Americanization of the Apocalypse: Creating America's Own Bible

Elegant and inventive, Surpassing Wonder uncovers how the ancient Hebrew scriptures, the Christian New Testament, and the Talmuds of the Rabbis are related and how, collectively, they make up the core of Western consciousness. Donald Harman Akenson provides an incisive critique of how religious scholars have distorted the holy books and argues that it was actually the inventor of the Hebrew scriptures who shaped our concept of narrative history—thereby founding Western culture.

History

World

University of Chicago Press

A Mirror to Kathleen's Face: Education in Independent Ireland, 1922-1960

A Mirror to Kathleen's Face: Education in Independent Ireland, 1922-1960

Education & Teaching

Schools & Teaching

Univ of Toronto Pr

Hailed as one of the most important books on social sciences of the last fifty years by the Social Sciences Federation of Canada. Akenson argues that, despite the popular conception of the Irish as a city people, those who settled in Ontario were primarily rural and small-town dwellers. Though it is often claimed that the experience of the Irish in their homeland precluded their successful settlement on the frontier in North America, Akenson's research proves that the Irish migrants to Ontario not only chose to live chiefly in the hinterlands, but that they did so with marked success. Akenson also suggests that by using Ontario as an "historical laboratory" it is possible to make valid assessments of the real differences between Irish Protestants and Irish Catholics, characteristics which he contends are much more precisely measurable in the neutral environment of central Canada than in the turbulent Irish homeland. While Akenson is careful not to over-generalize his findings, he contends that the case of Ontario seriously calls into question conventional beliefs about the cultural limitations of the Irish Catholics not only in Canada but throughout North America.

The Irish in Ontario: A Study in Rural History

Americas

McGill-Queen's University Press

McGill Queens Univ

Deals directly with the question of whether cultural differences between Irish Protestants and Irish Catholics have had significant and casually important effects on the behaviour of the two groups. The conclusion of the author's analysis is that, based on the research of the Irish in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and United States as well as in Ireland itself, there are few significant social or economic differences between the two groups. In actual fact the author found indications of fundamental similarities. In view of this observation, the author asks the question that given the demonstrated opinions of Irish Catholics and Protestants, what factors in Irish society have kept them at loggerheads? The author focuses on Irish taboos against inter-marriage, the segregation in education, and the nature of Protestant and Catholic belief.

Small Differences: Irish Catholics and Irish Protestants, 1815-1922, an International Perspective (McGill Queen's Studies in the History of Religion)

Europe

In a parish register in Ireland, Akenson discovered a record naming an Eliza McCormack White as John's sister. Employing imaginative reconstruction, he proposes that Eliza McCormack, a transvestite prostitute who was in central Canada at the time John White arrived on the Canadian scene, was actually John's sister. Further, he suggests that John White can be best understood by recognizing that he was in fact Eliza!

At Face Value: The Life and Times of Eliza McCormack/John White

Literature & Fiction

Akenson, Don

United States

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Akenson, Donald Harman. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Akenson, Donald Harman

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Akenson, Donald Harman. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Surpassing Wonder: The Invention of the Bible and the Talmuds

Saint Saul: A Skeleton Key to the Historical Jesus

Saint Saul: A Skeleton Key to the Historical Jesus

The Americanization of the Apocalypse: Creating America's Own Bible

Surpassing Wonder: The Invention of the Bible and the Talmuds

A Mirror to Kathleen's Face: Education in Independent Ireland, 1922-1960

The Irish in Ontario: A Study in Rural History

The Irish in Ontario: A Study in Rural History

Small Differences: Irish Catholics and Irish Protestants, 1815-1922, an International Perspective (McGill Queen's Studies in the History of Religion)

At Face Value: The Life and Times of Eliza McCormack/John White