Inyo County Free Library - New Acquisitions

These are books and media new to the library and cataloged by the Inyo County Free Library.

Additional information about each title can be found in the catalog (click on the title). For older acquisition lists choose from Select another list. To request any of these titles please contact your local library branch.

1 to 12 of 12

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Imagine there's no heaven: how atheism helped create the modern world

By Stephens, Mitchell

Publishing Date: 2014

Classification: 200

Call Number: 211.809 STE

"The historical achievements of religious belief have been large and well chronicled. But what about the accomplishments of those who have challenged religion? Traveling from classical Greece to twenty-first century America, Imagine There's No Heaven explores the role of disbelief in shaping Western civilization. At each juncture common themes emerge: by questioning the role of gods in the heavens or the role of a God in creating man on earth, nonbelievers help move science forward. By challenging the divine right of monarchs and the strictures of holy books, nonbelievers, including Jean- Jacques Rousseau and Denis Diderot, help expand human liberties, and influence the early founding of the United States. Revolutions in science, in politics, in philosophy, in art, and in psychology have been led, on multiple occasions, by those who are free of the constraints of religious life. Mitchell Stephens tells the often-courageous tales of history's most important atheists--like Denis Diderot and Salman Rushdie. Stephens makes a strong and original case for their importance not only to today's New Atheist movement but to the way many of us--believers and nonbelievers--now think and live."--Amazon.

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Jesus in blue jeans: a practical guide to everyday spirituality

By Jones, Laurie Beth

Publishing Date: 1997

Classification: 200

Call Number: 232.904 JON

Draws on the New Testament to reveal how the life and ministry of Jesus Christ is relevant in the modern world, presenting a daily course of reflective action to help readers put spirituality to practical use in every aspect of work and daily life - (Baker & Taylor)

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Works of love

By Kierkegaard, Søren

Publishing Date: 2009

Classification: 200

Call Number: 248.4 KIE

'The two parts of Works of Love deal respectively with the great commandment: 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God...' (and it's second: '... and thy neighbor as thyself') and with First Corinthians 13, the so-called love chapter. A few added textual treatments round out the whole...

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The masks of God: Creative mythology

By Campbell, Joseph

Publishing Date: 1976, c1968

Classification: 200

Call Number: 291.13 CAM

This volume explores the whole inner story of modern culture since the Dark Ages, treating modern man's unique position as the creator of his own mythology.

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The history of hell

By Turner, Alice K.

Publishing Date: c1993

Classification: 200

Call Number: 291.23 TUR

In an arresting journey through the netherworld, Playboy fiction editor Turner explores the landscape and dynamics of Hell as envisioned by writers, artists, theologians and thinkers from Plato and Augustine to Milton, Calvin, Byron and T. S. Eliot. Starting with the worlds of the dead of the Sumerians, Egyptians, Zoroastrians, Greeks, Romans and Jews, Turner moves on to the sketchy biblical basis for Christian Hell and its increasing importance in thinking about the afterlife. After the fact of Hell was settled, it was up to writers like Bede, Gregory the Great and most of all Dante to give the graphic descriptions of an infernal region where the wicked endure torments. Enlightenment thinkers like Voltaire poured cold water on the idea of Hell, yet, as Turner shows, Hell, far from disappearing in the 20th century, has been one of its central metaphors. Scores of intriguing black-and-white plates reveal how Bosch, Giotto, William Blake, Michelangelo, Rodin and others have shaped popular images of the underworld. Author tour. (Oct.) Copyright 1993 Cahners Business Information.

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Being nobody, going nowhere

By Khema, Ayya

Publishing Date: 1987

Classification: 200

Call Number: 294.3444 KHE

In this book, Ayya Khema gives clear, practical instruction on meditation and techniques for overcoming conditioned mental habits, ideas, beliefs, and limiting thinking patterns.

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Teachings of the Buddha

Publishing Date: 1996

Classification: 200

Call Number: 294.363

This treasury of essential Buddhist writings draws from the most popular Indian, Tibetan, Chinese, and Japanese sources. Among the selections are some of the earliest recorded sayings of the Buddha on the practice of freedom, passages from later Indian scriptures on the perfection of wisdom, verses from Tibetan masters on the enlightened mind, and songs in praise of meditation by Zen teachers. The book also includes traditional instruction on how to practice sitting meditation, cultivate calm awareness, and live with compassion. Jack Kornfield, one of the most respected American Buddhist teachers, has compiled these teachings to impart the essence and inspiration of Buddhism to readers of all spiritual traditions. This edition also includes a new preface by Jack Kornfield and offers a broad array of teachings representing the full spectrum of the Buddhist tradition, including new selections on the role of women in early Buddhism. - (Random House, Inc.)

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Who is my self: a guide to Buddhist meditation : the Poṭṭhapāda Sutta, the Buddha's words on self and consciousness

By Khema, Ayya

Publishing Date: c1997

Classification: 200

Call Number: 294.3823 KHE

Self-transformation is an essential element in all forms of Buddhist meditation--from Tantra to Zen. Ayya Khema, author of the best-sellingBeing Nobody, Going Nowhere, uses one of the earliest Buddhist suttas to guide us along the path of the oldest Buddhist meditative practice for understanding the nature of "self." By following the Buddha's explanation with clear, insightful examples from her years of teaching meditation, she guides us back and forth between the relative understanding and higher realizations of the Buddhist concept of "self." Her thoughtful contemplation of the Buddha's radical understanding of "self" and her practical advice for achieving insight offer the reader a profound understanding of the "self." Both beginning and advanced practitioners will greatly benefit from Ayya Khema's warm and down-to-earth exposition of the Buddha's meditation on "self." - (Simon and Schuster)

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Escape from the land of snows: the young Dalai Lama's harrowing flight to freedom and the making of a spiritual hero

By Talty, Stephan

Publishing Date: 2010

Classification: 200

Call Number: 294.3923 TAL

Documents the Dalai Lama's flight from Tibet to India in 1959, describing the violent uprising in Lhasa between Tibetan rebels and Chinese occupiers and the near-death incidents that the Buddhist spiritual leader endured.

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Ambivalent Zen: a memoir

By Shainberg, Lawrence

Publishing Date: c1995

Classification: 200

Call Number: 294.3927 SHA

Shainberg's involvement with Zen Buddhism began at the age of 16 in 1951, when he met guru Alan Watts; three years later he took a trip to Indian sage Krishnamurti's spiritual center in Ojai, Calif. His interest in Asian wisdom was spurred by his father, a prosperous Memphis chain-store owner who turned away from traditional Judaism to Zen and Krishnamurti's teachings. Moving to New York's Greenwich Village, Shainberg, a novelist and nonfiction author, studied with Japanese Zen masters from the early 1970s on, practicing meditation, trying to overcome fears and ingrained habits to attain enlightenment. As this poignant memoir's title suggests, Zen discipline brought bliss, frustration, moments of absurdity as well as transcendence as he coped with writer's block, a crumbling marriage, unsatisfying psychoanalysis, karate lessons and a truncated career as a Zen monk-in-training. His luminous self-portrait makes us feel Zen as a lived experience. (Jan.) Copyright 1995 Cahners Business Information.

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Judaism: a way of being

By Gelernter, David Hillel

Publishing Date: c2009

Classification: 200

Call Number: 296 GEL

"Written for observant and non-observant Jews and anyone interested in religion, this remarkable book by the distinguished scholar David Gelernter seeks to answer the deceptively simple question: What is Judaism really about? Gelernter views Judaism as one of humanity's most profound and sublimely beautiful achievements. But because Judaism is a way of life rather than a formal system of thought, it has been difficult for anyone but a practicing Jew to understand its unique intellectual and spiritual structure." -- from publisher's website.

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Understanding Islam: an introduction to the Muslim world

By Lippman, Thomas W.

Publishing Date: c1995

Classification: 200

Call Number: 297 LIP

A little over thirteen centuries ago, the prophet Muhammad converted a few Arab desert tribes to the belief in a single god, Allah, thus founding the religion of Islam. Within a century, that belief had created one of history's mightiest empires - and today Islam continues to shape events around the globe. This comprehensive guide offers an informative and insightful introduction to Islam both as a religion and as a political-economic force. It tells the story of Muhammad - and the rise of Islam; outlines the sacred book, the Koran; explains "the five pillars of faith" ; explores the interplay between religion and government; describes the differences that divide Islam; and, above all, shows the influence of Islam on world affairs. This second revised edition provides crucial new material on the Islamic community today, including discussion of the Gulf War and the Salman Rushdie affair; the rise and ebb of fundamentalist fervor in Iran, Algeria, and elsewhere; and the relationships among different factions of the Islamic faith. There are also updated descriptions of internal politics in Syria, Egypt, Pakistan, and other Islamic nations. Complete with glossary, bibliography. and index, Understanding Islam is engrossing, essential reading for both students and all who seek a clearer understanding of the world in which we live.

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