Philosophy & Religion Books

Introduction to Zen Training is a translation of the Sanzen Nyumon, a foundational text for beginning meditation students by Omori Sogen - one of the foremost Zen teachers of the twentieth century. Written to provide a solid...

Archery for Beginners is the complete instructional guide for anyone interested in taking up recreational archery. This book covers all the essentials for the beginning archer - from basic skills and equipment to effective and safe training...

Named one of TIME magazine's 100 Greatest Men of the Century, Bruce Lee's impact and influence has only grown since his untimely death in 1973. Part of the seven-volume Bruce Lee Library, this installment of the famed martial artist's private notebooks...

Learn how to target the weaknesses of an attacker and effectively exploit them in order to defend yourself. The 36 Deadly Bubishi Points gives detailed explanations on how the pressure points of traditional Chinese medicine found in the Bubishi, the...

The Eight Immortals, the five eleents, the dragon and the phoenix, yin and yang - presentations of these important cultural symbols ar pervasive in Chinese literature, art, and architecture and without an understanding of their significance, much Chinese...

Follow the brilliant and hilarious adventures of a mad Zen Buddhist monk who rose from humble beginnings to become one of China's greatest folk heroes! Ji Gong studied at the great Ling Yin monastery, an immense temple that still ranges up the steep...

The goals of budo--the martial arts and ways of Japan--lie in refining the body and spirit. The techniques, methods, and rituals of budo can provide invaluable lessons for today's martial artists--and serve as guides to a well-lived life. In Traditions,...

This masterfully crafted guide to ninjutsu or budo explores in depth the history, culture, and philosophy of this fascinating and enduring Japanese martial art.Budo is one of the least understood forms of art in the world. Even more than skills or...

Zen Masters of Japan is the second book in a series that traces Zen's profoundly historic journey as it spread eastward from China and Japan, toward the United States. Following Zen Masters of China, this book concentrates on Zen's significant passage...

Imagine a time when vast helium-fueled airships took the place of aircraft, and where the hunger for adventure and exploration took the human race into stranger places than we ever imagined. The Steampunk Tarot imagines this in an alternate-reality tarot...

In Bali, what you see-sekala-is a colorful world of ceremony, ritual, dance, and drama. What you don't see what is occult-niskala-is the doctrine underlying the pageants, the code underlying the rites, and the magic underlying the dance. In this book,...

Master the ancient Chinese art of Tai Chi Chuan with this informative guide. One of the most popular Chinese martial arts, Tai Chi Chuan is also one of the most effective stress relievers available. In China it is also used extensively for the prevention...

An incisive and illuminating account of how, during the Algerian Revolution, the people of Algeria changed centuries-old cultural patterns and embraced certain ancient cultural practices long derided by their colonialist oppressors as primitive, in order...

"Somebody comes into the Zen center with a lighted cigarette, walks up to the Buddha statue, blows smoke in its face, and drops ashes on its lap. You are standing there. What can you do?" This is a problem that Zen Master Seung Sahn is fond of posing to...

In the 21st century we face innumerable material and existential challenges both now and in the future, from religious fanaticism, mass migration, unfettered corporate power, to inequality, big data and climate change. Ahead of these global threats and...

What is the point of cultural theory? Do we even know what it is? This book is at once an introduction to, and, broadly, a defence of modern cultural theory understood as a particular constellation of inquiry, one that may be all the more important in...

The revival of recognition theory has brought new energy to critical theory. In general terms, recognition theory aims to critically evaluate social structures against a standard of social freedom identified with norms of interaction which are freely...

Monstrous births, rains of blood, apparitions of battles in the sky - people in early modern England found all of these events to carry important religious and political meanings. In An age of wonders, available in paperback for the first time, William E...

"Each century," wrote Charles Dickens "[is] more amazed by the century following it than by all the centuries before." Victorians in theory explores the startling conceit that nineteenth-century poetry is amazed by twentieth-century literary theory. In a...

Monasticism in late medieval England, c.1300-1535 provides the first collection of translated sources on this subject. The volume covers both male and female houses of all orders and sizes, and offers a range of new perspectives on the character and...

This sourcebook collects together for the first time in English the major documents relating to the life and contemporary reputation of Joan of Arc. Also known as La Pucelle, she led a French Army against the English in 1429, arguably turning the course...

Newly available in paperback, this book offers an authoritative overview of the broad and complex terrain of feminist theorising concerning the relationship between literature and theology as it has developed over the past several decades. It provides...

The two studies, "Indivisible Magnitudes," and "Aristotle and Epicurus on Voluntary Action," explain two doctrines in the philosophy of Epicurus, first by a detailed examination of the ancient Greek and Latin texts which describe them, and second by...

Though conditioned by the specific circumstances of eleventh-century Europe, the launching of the crusdaes presupposed a long historical evolution of the idea of Christian knighthood and holy war. Carl Erdmann developed this argument first in 1935 in a...

Stephen Dunning examines Kierkegaard's theory of stages in terms of his dialectic of inwardness, shown here to be the Ariadne's thread" uniting all the major pseudonymous works. Originally published in 1985. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest...

Although Mill regarded Considerations on Representative Government as a mature statement of his theory of democracy, critics have tended to treat it less seriously than most of his other major works. Dennis Thompson argues that this neglect has led to...

Named one of the 100 best nonfiction books of all time by the Modern LibraryAnne Carson's remarkable first book about the paradoxical nature of romantic loveSince it was first published, Eros the Bittersweet, Anne Carson's lyrical meditation on love in...

How to put democracy at the heart of AI governance.Artificial intelligence and machine learning are reshaping our world. Police forces use them to decide where to send police officers, judges to decide whom to release on bail, welfare agencies to decide...

A groundbreaking reinterpretation of early Judaism, during the millennium before the study of the Bible took center stageEarly Judaism is often described as the religion of the book par excellence-a movement built around the study of the Bible and...

This is a collection of the late Heda Segvic's papers in ancient moral philosophy. At the time of her death at age forty-five in 2003, Segvic had already established herself as an important figure in ancient philosophy, making bold new arguments about...

An essential history of Wahhbism from its founding to the Islamic StateIn the mid-eighteenth century, a controversial Islamic movement arose in the central Arabian region of Najd that forever changed the political landscape of the Arabian Peninsula and...

What do you want out of life? To make a lot of money - or work for justice? To run marathons - or sing in a choir? To have children - or travel the world? The things we care about in life - family, friendship, leisure activities, work, our moral ideals...

Why life's shortness - more than anything else - is what makes it meaningful.Death might seem to render pointless all our attempts to create a meaningful life. Doesn't meaning require transcending death through an afterlife or in some other way? On the...

A compelling collection of the life-changing writings of William James.William James-psychologist, philosopher, and spiritual seeker-is one of those rare writers who can speak directly and powerfully to anyone about life's meaning and worth, and whose...

An invigorating exploration of the pleasures and social benefits of conversationTalking Cure is a timely and enticing excursion into the art of good conversation. Paula Marantz Cohen reveals how conversation connects us in ways that social media never...

An in-depth look at why non-Jewish Poles are trying to bring Jewish culture back to life in Poland today.Since the early 2000s, Poland has experienced a remarkable Jewish revival, largely driven by non-Jewish Poles with a passionate new interest in all...

A panoramic history of the antiquarians whose discoveries transformed Renaissance culture and gave rise to new forms of art and knowledgeIn the early fifteenth century, a casket containing the remains of the Roman historian Livy was unearthed at a...

What all of us can do to fight the pervasive human tendency to enable wrongdoing in the workplace, politics, and beyond.It is easy to condemn obvious wrongdoers such as Elizabeth Holmes, Adam Neumann, Harvey Weinstein, and the Sackler family. But we...

Tracing the rise of evangelicalism and the decline of mainline Protestantism in American religious and cultural lifeHow did American Christianity become synonymous with conservative white evangelicalism? This sweeping work by a leading historian of...

Why the tools of philosophy offer a powerful antidote to today's epidemic of irrationalityThere is an epidemic of bad thinking in the world today. An alarming number of people are embracing crazy, even dangerous ideas. They believe that vaccinations...

Enduring lessons from the desert soundscapes that shaped the Christian monastic tradition.For the hermits and communal monks of antiquity, the desert was a place to flee the cacophony of ordinary life in order to hear and contemplate the voice of God...

How decolonization and the cold war influenced literature from Africa, Asia, and the CaribbeanHow did superpower competition and the cold war affect writers in the decolonizing world? In The Aesthetic Cold War, Peter Kalliney explores the various ways...

An entertaining and enlightening collection of ancient writings about the philosophers who advocated simple living and rejected unthinking conformity.The Cynics were ancient Greek philosophers who stood athwart the flood of society's material excess,...

An incisive and sympathetic examination of the case for ending the practice of imprisonmentDespite its omnipresence and long history, imprisonment is a deeply troubling practice. In the United States and elsewhere, prison conditions are inhumane,...

A comprehensive and accessible guide to the Hebrew BibleThis book brings together some of the world's most exciting scholars from across a variety of disciplines to provide a concise and accessible guide to the Hebrew Bible. It covers every...

A bold new interpretation of Augustine's virtue of hope and its place in political lifeWhen it comes to politics, Augustine of Hippo is renowned as one of history's great pessimists, with his sights set firmly on the heavenly city rather than the public...

A panoramic history of American individualism from its nineteenth-century origins to today's bitterly divided politicsIndividualism is a defining feature of American public life. Its influence is pervasive today, with liberals and conservatives alike...

An eminent philosopher explains why we owe it to future generations to take immediate action on global warmingClimate change is the supreme challenge of our time. Yet despite growing international recognition of the unfolding catastrophe, global carbon...