Books about Pharisees from Amazon.com

For about two decades John W. Loftus was a devout evangelical Christian, an ordained minister of the Church of Christ, and an ardent apologist for Christianity With three degrees--in philosophy, theology, and philosophy of religion--he was adept at using rational argumentation to defend the faith. But over the years, as he ministered to various congregations and taught at Christian colleges, doubts about the credibility of key Christian tenets began to creep into his thinking. By the late 1990s he experienced a full-blown crisis of faith, brought on by emotional upheavals in his personal life as well as the gathering weight of the doubts he had long entertained.

In this honest appraisal of his journey from believer to atheist, Loftus carefully explains the experiences and the reasoning process that led him to reject religious belief. The bulk of the book is his "cumulative case" against Christianity. Here he lays out the philosophical, scientific, and historical reasons that can be raised against Christian belief. From the implications of religious diversity, the authority of faith vs. reason, and the problem of evil, to the contradictions between the Bible and the scientific worldview, the conflicts between traditional dogma and historical evidence, and much more, Loftus covers a great deal of intellectual terrain. For every issue he succinctly summarizes the various points of view and provides references for further reading. In conclusion, he describes the implications of life without belief in God, some liberating, some sobering.

This frank critique of Christian belief from a former insider will interest freethinkers as well as anyone with doubts about the claims of religion..
Price: $13.57 [Notify me when price goes down.]

* The early leaders of the Church were all Jewish
* The original Church was organized around the pattern of the Jewish synagogue
* Yeshua (Jesus) used numerous Jewish idioms in his teachings and was, perhaps, a Pharisee himself

Dr. Moseley illuminates the Jewish background of Yeshua and the Church in this best-selling book. Must reading for every believer..
Price: $7.63 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Breakthrough book provides life-changing insights for Christians trapped between the grace-killers of self-adequacy and self-righteousness..
Price: $7.45 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Paul the Jewish Theologian reveals Saul of Tarsus as a man who, though rejected in the synagogue, never truly left Judaism Author Young disagrees with long held notions that Hellenism was the context which most influenced Paul's communication of the Gospel. This skewed notion has led to widely divergent interpretations of Paul's writings. Only in rightly aligning Paul as rooted in his Jewishness and training as a Pharisee can he be correctly interpreted. Young asserts that Paul's view of the Torah was always positive, and he separates Jesus' mission among the Jews from Paul's call to the Gentiles.

"The Pharisee Saul of Tarsus is arguably one of the most influential religious figures in the history of Western culture. . . . Brad Young is one of the important theologians who is leading the way for Christians to explore the Jewish roots of Jesus, Paul, and Christianity. . . . Brad Young has endeavored to excavate Paul's Pharisaic roots for all to examine, while at the same time leaving the family tree firmly planted and continuing to grow."
—Rabbi Dr. Burton Visotzky, Appleman Chair of Midrash and Interreligious Studies, Jewish Theological Seminary, New York

"Brad Young offers an extremely well-informed, insightful study of Paul as a Jewish theologian. . . . Among the many important qualities Brad Young gained from his years of study from Jewish scholars is a love for and an almost exclusive focus upon the text, what it actually says and does not say; and this perspective has led him to some new, important, and sometimes 'unorthodox' conclusions."
—Rev. Dr. Cheryl Anne Brown, Professor/Consultant, Theological Assistance Group, European Baptist Federation.
Price: $8.98 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Letters between a renowned evangelical minister (R.T. Kendall) and a senior Jewish Rabbi (David Rosen) form a bridge of understanding between two men and two faiths.This groundbreaking book reproduces a candid exchange of letters between two prolific and acclaimed theologians as each seeks to vigorously defend his own beliefs while he is challenged by the claims of the other. Though issues and beliefs separate the two theological camps, the heartfelt correspondence between Kendall, the former minister of Westminster Chapel in London, and Rosen, the former chief rabbi of Ireland, show that deep friendships can be made and strong alliances formed between Jews and Christians. Readers will see their own questions about the differences between Christianity and Judaism reflected in this discussion. Whether on one side or none, they will come away with life-changing inspiration..
Price: $4.23 [Notify me when price goes down.]

This work sketches the many portraits of the Pharisees that emerge from ancient sources. Based upon the Gospels, the writings of Paul, Josephus, the Mishnah, the Tosefta, and archeology, the volume profiles the Pharisees and explores the relationship between the Pharisees and the Judaic religious system foreshadowed by the library of Qumran. A great virtue of this study is that no attempt is made to homogenize the distinct pictures or reconstruct a singular account of the Pharisees; instead, by carefully considering the sources, the chapters allow different pictures of the Pharisees to stand side by side..
Price: $22.31 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Widely praised in its original edition and now part of the Biblical Resource Series, this volume offers a superb discussion of the role of the Pharisees, scribes, and Sadducees in Palestinian Jewish society. Applying a sociological approach to the biblical and literary sources, Anthony Saldarini accurately portrays these three most prominent groups of educated leaders in Jewish society and describes their relationship to other Jewish social movements from 200 B.C.E. to 100 C.E. Featuring a new foreword by James C. VanderKam, Pharisees, Scribes, and Sadducees in Palestinian Society will remain a standard point of reference for the continuing study of Judaism and Christian backgrounds..
Price: $15.99 [Notify me when price goes down.]