Digital library
Textbooks, references and open learning resources.
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Ethics for A-Level: For AQA Philosophy and OCR Religious Studies
LibreTexts
LibreTexts
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Flowering Light: Kabbalistic Mysticism and the Art of Elliot R. Wolfson
Marcia Brennan · Rice University
Kabbalah or Qabalah is an esoteric method, discipline and school of thought in Jewish mysticism.
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Elements of Biblical Narrative - Analysis of the Red Sea Story
Harry Hagan · Archabbey of St. Meinrad in Indiana
This brief introduction (12,000 words) surveys the basic elements of narrative found in the Bible and uses the Red Sea Story (Exod 13:17–14:31) for its examples. The monograph concludes with an analysis of that story to show how the pieces work together to create the power of narrative.
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Six Ways of Being Religious
Dale Cannon · Western Oregon University
In the contents: 2.05: A Way of Being Religious Generically Considered · 03: Different Ways of Being Religious · 04: The Ways of Being Religious Exemplified
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Introduction to Religion
Mark Knockemus · Northeastern Technical College
In the contents: 03: Who Started It Religious Founders Developers and Reformers · 3.02: Religious Context · 9.03: Religious Attitudes towards Money
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World Religions I
Lumen Learning · Lumen Learning
World religions is a category used in the study of religion to demarcate the four—and in some cases more—largest and most internationally widespread religious movements. Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism are always included in the list, being known as the "Big Four". Some scholars also include other world religions, such as Judaism, Sikhism, Taoism, the Baháʼí Faith, Jainism, Confucianism, Shinto and Zoroastrianism, in the category.
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The Bible and Music Author
James F. McGrath · Butler University
James F. McGrath’s The Bible and Music offers what no previous textbook on the subject has before. It provides an overview of the intersection of the Bible and music, from ancient Israelite music and the musical notation in ancient Hebrew manuscripts to the reception of the Bible in classical, rock, hip hop, country, and other genres, alongside embedded videos allowing readers to listen as they read. This textbook does all that and more and, as an open textbook, it costs nothing.
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World Religions II
Lumen Learning · Florida State College at Jacksonville
In the contents: 1.04: Why Are People Religious · 1.05: Types of Religious Experiences · 4.02: Religious Practice During the Shang and Zhou Dynasties
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World Religions: The Spirit Searching
Jody Ondich · Lake Superior College
This text, while full of various ways that people have searched and discovered and created, only touches a few of the bigger traditions in our world. Hopefully each chapter will introduce the reader to some ideas from that specific tradition that enlighten them as to how a specific group of people think, believe, and live.
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Classical Mythology Unbound
Jessica Mellenthin and Susan O. Shapiro · LibreTexts
Today people often use the word “myth” to mean an untrue story or false rumor. For example, if one person asked, “Is Friday the 13th an unlucky day?” another person might answer, “No, that is just a myth.” But the ancient Greeks did not use the word mythos (μῦθος) in this way. For the Greeks, a mythos was simply a story.
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Resisting Gender Violence
Susan Shaw; Xosé Santos; Jayamala Mayilsamy; Kamalaveni Veni · Oregon State University · 2026
Gender violence occurs within every country and cultural context, affecting women, girls, and LGBTQIA+ people of all racial, ethnic, religious, socioeconomic, ability, and age groups. Gender violence is one of the most pervasive human rights violations in the world. With contributing authors from across Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas, Resisting Gender Violence represents a truly global perspective.
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Native Peoples of North America
Susan Stebbins · Open SUNY · 2013
Native Peoples of North America is intended to be an introductory text about the Native peoples of North America (primarily the United States and Canada) presented from an anthropological perspective. As such, the text is organized around anthropological concepts such as language, kinship, marriage and family life, political and economic organization, food getting, spiritual and religious practices, and the arts. Prehistoric, historic and contemporary information is presented. Each chapter begins with an example from the oral tradition that reflects the theme of the chapter. The text includes suggested readings, videos, and classroom activities. This text was updated September 2019; the changes are detailed in an errata section in the text.
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A grammar of Papuan Malay
Angela Kluge · Language Science Press · 2017
This book presents an in-depth linguistic description of Papuan Malay, a non-standard variety of Malay. The language is spoken in coastal West Papua which covers the western part of the island of New Guinea. The study is based on sixteen hours of recordings of spontaneous narratives and conversations between Papuan Malay speakers, recorded in the Sarmi area on the northeast coast of West Papua. Papuan Malay is the language of wider communication and the first or second language for an ever-increasing number of people of the area. While Papuan Malay is not officially recognized and therefore not used in formal government or educational settings or for religious preaching, it is used in all other domains, including unofficial use in formal settings, and, to some extent, in the public media. After a general introduction to the language, its setting, and history, this grammar discusses the following topics, building up from smaller grammatical constituents to larger ones: phonology, word formation, noun and prepositional phrases, verbal and nonverbal clauses, non-declarative clauses, and conjunctions and constituent combining. Of special interest to linguists, typologists, and Malay specialists are the following in-depth analyses and descriptions: affixation and its productivity across domains of language choice, reduplication and its gesamtbedeutung, personal pronouns and their adnominal uses, demonstratives and locatives and their extended uses, and adnominal possessive relations and their non- canonical uses. This study provides a starting point for Papuan Malay language development efforts and a point of comparison for further studies on other Malay varieties.
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Slavery to Liberation: The African American Experience
Joshua Farrington; Norman Powell; Gwendolyn Graham; Ogechi Anyanwu · Encompass Digital Archive · 2019
Slavery to Liberation: The African American Experience gives instructors, students, and general readers a comprehensive and up-to-date account of African Americans’ cultural and political history, economic development, artistic expressiveness, and religious and philosophical worldviews in a critical framework. It offers sound interdisciplinary analysis of selected historical and contemporary issues surrounding the origins and manifestations of White supremacy in the United States. By placing race at the center of the work, the book offers significant lessons for understanding the institutional marginalization of Blacks in contemporary America and their historical resistance and perseverance.
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Zombie Apocalypse: Holy Land, Haiti, Hollywood
Terry Rey · North Broad Press · 2024
Zombie Apocalypse: Holy Land, Haiti, Hollywood explores the intellectual and cultural histories of two highly influential and essentially religious ideas, that of the zombie and that of the apocalypse. The former is a modern idea rooted in Haitian Vodou and its popular African and European religious antecedents, while the latter is an ancient one rooted in Zoroastrianism and the Bible and widely expanded in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and is arguably one of the most influential ideas in world history. Today the merger of the zombie and the apocalypse has pervaded popular culture, with the zombie surpassing the vampire and Frankenstein as the most prolific monster in popular American consciousness. Drawing on biblical studies, African studies, Caribbean studies, and the sociology and history of religion, Parts I (Holy Land) and II (Haiti) explore the religious origins of these ideas. Part III (Hollywood) uses aspects of cultural studies, literary analysis, critical race theory, and cinema studies to document the (primarily) American obsession with the zombie and the zombie apocalypse. The apocalypse and the zombie have been momentous intellectual, historical, and cultural realities and social forces in both very ancient and very recent human history and culture. As such, Zombie Apocalypse provides a focused analysis of certain fundamental aspects of human existence. It challenges readers to cultivate their critical thinking skills while learning about two of the most compelling notions in human religious history and the impact they continue to have.
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Ethics for A-Level
Mark Dimmock; Andrew Fisher · Open Book Publishers · 2017
What does pleasure have to do with morality? What role, if any, should intuition have in the formation of moral theory? If something is ‘simulated', can it be immoral? This accessible and wide-ranging textbook explores these questions and many more. Key ideas in the fields of normative ethics, metaethics and applied ethics are explained rigorously and systematically, with a vivid writing style that enlivens the topics with energy and wit. Individual theories are discussed in detail in the first part of the book, before these positions are applied to a wide range of contemporary situations including business ethics, sexual ethics, and the acceptability of eating animals. A wealth of real-life examples, set out with depth and care, illuminate the complexities of different ethical approaches while conveying their modern-day relevance. This concise and highly engaging resource is tailored to the Ethics components of AQA Philosophy and OCR Religious Studies, with a clear and practical layout that includes end-of-chapter summaries, key terms, and common mistakes to avoid. It should also be of practical use for those teaching Philosophy as part of the International Baccalaureate. Ethics for A-Level is of particular value to students and teachers, but Fisher and Dimmock's precise and scholarly approach will appeal to anyone seeking a rigorous and lively introduction to the challenging subject of ethics.
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Appearance and Behavior: A Sociology of Race and Ethnicity
Salvador Jiménez Murguía · Taft College
In the contents: 6.04: Religious Syncretism and Popular Religiosity · 8.06: Religious Expression and Theodicy · 8.11: The Model Minority and Religious Stereotypes
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Introduction to Anthropology
OpenStax · LibreTexts
In the contents: 13.04: Myth and Religious Doctrine · 13.06: Other Forms of Religious Practice · 15.03: Putting Culture into Media Studies
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Scriptures of the World’s Religions
Elisabeth Burke · Grossmont College
LibreTexts
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The Intelligent Troglodyte’s Guide to Plato’s Republic
Douglas Drabkin · Fort Hays State University
In the contents: 1.01: A Religious Festival in the Piraeus · 7.06: Further Mathematical Studies