Books about Wansbrough from Amazon.com

The New Jerusalem Bible: Standard Edition will satisfy the great need for an authoritative version of "the greatest story ever told" in a package so attractive, user friendly, and affordable, this edition is destined to become a classic. Using the same translation that has been hailed as "truly magnificent" (Journal of Bible Literature), the Standard Edition has a completely redesigned interior, set in a two-column format for easy reading. With all the best features of much more cumbersome and costly versions, this Bible is a must-have for home, church, and school..
Price: $14.10 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Today people find the monastic life exceptionally compelling. The Rule of St. Benedict is widely studied and applied outside the confines of the monastery. Following the huge success of the BBC TV series The Monastery, people have looked at the monastic life as a means of healing, of disciplined living and of people coming to terms with themselves and their own personal truths.

Here are ten people who have taken monastic vows giving a deeply personal and honest account of what the monastic life is actually like and how it brings them closer to God.

Includes contributions by Joanna Gilbert (Postulant, Monastery Of Bose, Italy), Dame Monica Mead (Benedictine Abbey of Curzon Park, Chester, UK), Dom Alban Hood (Douai Abbey, Berkshire, UK), Dom Martin Mcgee (Worth Abbey, Sussex, UK), Dom David Foster (Downside Abbey, Bath, UK), Dame Agnes Wilkins (Stanbrook Abbey, Worcester, UK), Dom Simon McGurk (St. Anselm's Abbey, Washington D.C.), Michael Brunner (Saint Louis Abbey, Missouri) and Andrew Nugent (Glenstal Abbey, Limerick, Ireland).
Price: $12.48 [Notify me when price goes down.]

"John Wansbrough contributed to various aspects of the history and culture of the Middle East and the Mediterranean, but he was most important in stimulating new approaches to the study of early Islam. Starting from the view that Islam's own accounts of its origins are religiously inspired interpretations of history rather than true records of events, Wansbrough developed new and influential theories about the ways in which the emergence of Islam should be understood and studied.

"He was best known for his work on the Koran. In his QURANIC STUDIES, using his profound knowledge of classical and modern literary and historical theory, he applied to the holy book of Islam ideas and approaches which scholars had developed in the study of the Bible and early Christianity. His literary analysis of the Koran and the commentaries on it led him to views very different from those held by traditional Muslims and by the majority of non-Muslin academics.

"...[Wansbrough] questioned the accepted view that the Koran consists of passages associated with (or, in the traditional understanding, divine revelations made to) Muhammad in Mecca and Medina in the early decades of the seventh century, that it had been committed to writing by about 650, and that it was the most important element in Islam from the time of Muhammad onwards.

"These and the other standard ways of approaching the Koran, he argues, resulted from too willing an acceptance of Islam's own tradition--primarily the body of traditional Muslim commentary on the Koran.

"...Starting from the basis that there is very little Islamic literature securely datable to before about 800, Wansbrough saw Islam as evolving gradually from sectarian forms of Judaism over a period of 150 years or so following the Arab conquests in the middle of the seventh century.

"He understood the history of that formative period, including the image of Muhammad and accounts of the formation of the Koran, as a back projection of views that were formed as the culture and religion of Islam emerged in an atmosphere of intense polemic between different groups of monotheists....

"His views and approaches remain controversial, both in academic circles and, for more obvious reasons, among Muslim who know of them. But they were not expressed out of any hostility to Islam. On the contrary, Wansbrough insisted that, together with Judaism and Christianity, Islam is a valid expression of the monotheistic tradition of religion and that it must be treated with the same scholarly seriousness as its sisters. --THE TIMES (London).
Price: $20.00 [Notify me when price goes down.]

One of the most innovative thinkers in the field of Islamic Studies was John Wansbrough (1928-2002), Professor of Semitic Studies and Pro-Director of London University’s School of Oriental and African Studies. Critiquing the traditional accounts of the origins of Islam as historically unreliable and heavily influenced by religious dogma, Wansbrough suggested radically new interpretations very different from the views of both the Muslim orthodoxy and most Western scholars.

In The Sectarian Milieu Wansbrough "analyses early Islamic historiography –or rather the interpretive myths underlying this historiography—as a late manifestation of Old Testament ‘salvation history.’" Continuing themes that he treated in a previous work, Quranic Studies, Wansbrough argues that the traditional biographies of Muhammad (Arabic sira and maghazi) are best understood, not as historical documents that attest to "what really happened," but as literary texts written more than one hundred years after the facts and heavily influenced by Jewish, and to a lesser extent Christian, interconfessional polemics. Thus, Islamic "history" is almost completely a later literary reconstruction, which evolved out of an environment of competing Judeo-Christian sects. As such, Wansbrough felt that the most fruitful means of analyzing such texts was literary analysis. Furthermore, he maintained that it was next to impossible to extract the kernel of historical truth from works that were created principally to serve later religious agendas. Although his work remains controversial to this day, his fresh insights and approaches to the study of Islam continue to inspire scholars. This new edition contains a valuable assessment of Wansbrough’s contributions and many useful textual notes and translations by Gerald Hawting (University of London), plus the author’s 1986 Albert Einstein Memorial Lecture, "Res Ipsa Loquitur.".
Price: $20.46 [Notify me when price goes down.]

This one-volume commentary provides coherent, critical, and continuous commentary on the four Gospels as they appear in the Revised Common Lectionary, Book of Common Prayer, and Prayer Roman Catholic Lectionary for Mass, highlighting themes important for preachers..
Price: $22.72 [Notify me when price goes down.]

An easy reading format of the New Testament; introductions to each book, notes to the reader, single-column text, boldfaced subheading, cross-reference to parallel passages, verse numbers in the margins, and poetic passages in verse form..
Price: $8.80 [Notify me when price goes down.]

In the skillful fashion of a renowned Bible scholar, Henry Wansbrough shares the message and meaning of the Gospel of Luke for modern readers From the beloved Christmas story to Jesus' resurrection and ascension, Luke's Gospel is a biblical treasure. We encounter Jesus and his day as Luke intended--filled with God's spirit and great joy. By casting a new light on this much-loved spiritual classic, Wansbrough gives us a chance to reflect on life and find meaning in Luke's Gospel. His commentary helps deepen our understanding of God and our own faith by getting to the heart of the life and teachings of Jesus Christ and showing us how to apply them to our lives today..
Price: $4.99 [Notify me when price goes down.]