In imitation leather and beautifully soft to the touch with a flexible binding in dark tan with gold cross embossed on the front cover, this English Standard Version Bible is an essentially literal Bible translation that combines word for word accuracy with literary excellence, beauty and depth of meaning. First published in 2001, it has become trusted by millions of Christians worldwide and continues the legacy established first in the Tyndale New Testament (1526) and the KJV Bible (1611). It also provides the most recent evangelical Christian Bible Scholarship and the translation team included over 100 Christian scholars and pastors worldwide. In 6 point Lexicon type, double column format, Smyth-sewn binding, it includes the entire New Testament plus psalms and proverbs and references to what the text says about acceptance, angels, demons, the church, courage, covenant, death, discipleship, divorce, drinking and drugs, eternity, faith, financial difficulties, forgiveness, giving and more. 656pp, 2.7" x 4.3" in this wonderfully durable flexicover.

From the excellent Lives of Great Religious Books series, this illustrated edition has desirable roughcut 'deckle' page edges, highly desirable in the USA, in a Princeton University Press publication. It is the untold story of how the Arabic Qur'an became the English Koran for millions of Muslims; the Koran is sacred only in Arabic, the original Arabic in which it was revealed to the prophet Mohammad in the 7th century. To many Arab and non-Arab believers alike, the book literally defies translation, yet English translations exist and are growing, both in number and in importance. Bruce Lawrence tells the remarkable story of the ongoing struggle to render the Koran's lyrical verses into English, and to make English itself an Islamic language. He revisits the life of Mohammad and the origins of the book before recounting the first translation of the book into Latin by a non-Muslim - Robert of Ketton's 12th century version paved the way for later ones in French and German, but it was not until the 18th century that George Sale's influential English version appeared. Many of these early translations, while part of a Christian agenda to 'know the enemy', often revealed grudging respect for their Abrahamic rival. Fresh English translations emerged by South Asian Muslim scholars, and this book is the first to explore the complexities of this translation saga. It also looks at cyber Korans, versions by feminist translators, and now a graphic Koran by the acclaimed visual artist Sandow Birk. 248 deckle pages, illus. including covers for various first editions and reprints.

Taken from the King James Bible and packaged as individual, beautifully designed paperbacks featuring new introductions by prominent literary figures, from crime fiction author P. D. James to the Dalai Lama, from Joanna Trollope with The Books of Ruth and Esther, A. S. Byatt The Song of Solomon, Peter Ackroyd The Book of Isaiah, Alasdair Gray with The Books of Jonah, Micah and Nahum, and Ruth Rendell with The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans, and Karen Armstrong of The Epistle to the Hebrews, each brings a fresh, new approach to some of the world's oldest and greatest works of literature. Beautifully packaged in a slipcase with black spines and bright red titles on the side with simply the names James, Hebrews, Romans, Acts, Wisdom, Jonah, Isaiah (by far the longest), Solomon, Samuel and Ruth. Slipcased paperbacks, 11 x 15.6cm. 862pp.

New International Version of the Holy Bible containing the Old Testament and the New Testament to enable English speaking people from around the world to read and hear God's eternal Word. 'Sheds unique light on our path in a dark world and sets forth the way to our eternal well-being.' Beautifully bound and stitched with golden page edges, the binding is a quality bonded leather in dark tan with spots of gold tooling and scrollwork around the title on front cover and spine, a satin pagemarker. Perhaps best of all is the inclusion of your family history in an Our Family Tree with blank spaces to fill in, and a record of Births, Marriages, Deaths and Special Family Events, and at the back space to fill in words and phrases that describe your family, favourite Bible verses or mottos, the family heritage and nationalities, nicknames and their meanings, heirlooms, holidays, foods, games, family recipes and several pages to include family photos and a useful card wallet on the inside back cover to keep items ready to insert or clippings. The whole exquisitely produced publication is 1136 pages and it will lay flat at a lectern. And no two column tiny text here - it is one wide column per page with big clear text and lines in the margins for your own notes. Exceptional value for money. 19.5 x 25cm.

Based on the fable of the man who traded his world for superhuman powers and knowledge, Faust became the life's work of Germany's greatest poet. It is a compelling dramatic poem that charts the life of a deeply flawed individual and his fight against despair and the nihilism of the diabolical Mephistopheles; it is also a symbolic and panoramic commentary both on the human condition and on modern history and culture. This edition presents Part One of Faust in a new translation that preserves the poetic character of the original, its style and diction, its tragic pathos and hilarious comedy. In addition, John Williams has translated the Urfaust, an early draft of Part One that offers a fascinating glimpse into the younger Goethe's imagination, and the sensational draft scenarios for the witches' Sabbath - material so ribald and blasphemous that Goethe did not dare publish it. 512pp. Paperback.

86 near life-size figures of the male ancestors of Christ once looked down on the choir and eastern extension of the medieval cathedral and priory church of Canterbury. Made of stained glass, the ancestors of Christ windows illuminated liturgical areas all year round. Dating from the 12th-century, the surviving windows from the series are among the oldest panels of stained glass in England. Canterbury Cathedral's 'Ancestors of Christ' windows from the 12th century depict the male ancestors of Jesus Christ as they were listed in the Gospel of Luke, from Adam to Christ. The Old Testament patriarchs have inspired reverence and admiration in person for hundreds of years and, in this book, readers can admire photos of them while also learning the original context, iconographic program and the windows' stylistic development. The 86 works of art were created in 1178 and not all of them remain, but the 43 still in place include images of Naasson, who was head of the tribe of Judah, and Ezekias, who was a king of Judah but fell ill when Jerusalem was besieged by the Assyrian king, to the figures of Moses and Jethro with Moses seated in a throne listening to his father-in-law urging him to appoint officers to help him rule. Most of the figures were removed in the late 18th century and transferred to either the west windows of the nave or the southwest transept window, with 17 original borders (without their figures) remaining in the clerestory. Learn about Lamech, who represents the eighth generation since Adam and was the last figure in the 'Ancestors of Christ' sequence to be attributed to the Methuselah Master. The book admires Jared, the fifth generation since Adam, who is rendered in a confident manner sitting on a golden, backless throne with wide decorative bands around his neck and at the cuffs. Noah, the ninth generation since Adam, is depicted in his window as looking up and being animated as if in conversation, an appropriate action given that God spoke to Noah and instructed him to build the ark. The brilliance of the book includes a photograph of art, from the Great West Window at the end of the cathedral's nave which is home to the Gothic window in the west wall was thought to have been created by 1400 AD, to 'The Exodus of the Israelites' found in the north choir aisle of the cathedral which depicts Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt away from the Pharaoh. Paperback, 7.5" x 10.9", colour images, 104pp.

Painter, poet, immigrant, rebel and global citizen, born in Lebanon, Kahlil Gibran emigrated to America as a young man in the 1890s, where he became a successful artist and prose poet. His book The Prophet of 1923 became a worldwide bestseller, selling 40 million copies and being translated into more than 40 languages. It is a series of 26 philosophical essays written in poetic English prose, and as a writer, Gibran encouraged a renaissance in Arab literature. As an artist he painted hundreds of canvases including portraits of artistic celebrities. Raised a Maronite Catholic, his spirituality and thought embraces elements of other traditions including Sufi mysticism and the Baha'i faith. From his childhood and spiritual roots in Mount Lebanon, to the city wilderness of urban America, from his apprenticeships in the creative circles of Boston, Beirut, Paris and New York to his art and activism for Greater Syria, Gibran crafted a religiously inclusive art that embraced a universal message, informed by Christian, Islamic and Judaic elements. Exiled between the worlds of the Middle East and the West, he defied boundaries to assert a vision of an underlying humanity and faith that all people can share. This richly illustrated biography draws on a lifetime of dedicated research to tell his compelling story and how his determination and talent broke down barriers to forge a new and fruitful life and career in a new homeland. A splendid tome of 524pp with many illustrations plus eight pages of colour plates including his beautiful oil paintings Family Scene and Ages of Women. 24.8 x 18.7cm x 5cm deep, this really is a whopping heavyweight tome complete with elegant pagemarker.

Take a step out of the system and be encouraged and inspired by the artistic avant-garde with wise words on stealing, holding yourself back, probing pain, discovering you are not a creative genius, right things wrong space, wrong things right space, inventions, going to excess and intervention. Find ideas worth taking from Pablo Picasso, Bridget Riley, Marina Abramovic who encourages us to embrace unpleasant emotions and investigate taboo subjects. William Blake resists and reassess the norm. Andy Warhol joins a collective to spark ideas and share experiences. Marcel Duchamp and Rachel Whiteread take things out of context to find new value. Cindy Sherman creates an alter ego and Jeff Koons challenges the boundaries of good taste. And there are others who question whether it's good to disrupt a routine, turn an idea on its head, or challenge the norm in a book that will give you the confidence to take creative risks and experiment, free from self-doubt. 112pp, softback with big typography and nice design, and eight pages of colour plates from the artists at the back.

'The libidinal, erotic and romantic need not come together in one lover. We can fuck without devotion, adore without horniness, gape without love - this has been the stuff of literature and song for millennia.' Yet sex talk is oddly superficial and much of daily life is certainly sexualised, typically while trying to sell us something. In 'The Secret Life of Catherine M'. Catherine remembers the beautiful anonymity of orgies, the free abandonment of herself to men. Similarly, theorist David Halperin describes gay bathhouses as opportunities for sex without elaborate straight courting rites. European philosophers and theologians have been at the forefront of this campaign against carnal joy and have deemed lust ignoble. Plato was writing in the 4th century before Christ and raised without any Christian shame. In his Symposium he portrays flirting with wit and charm and has no qualms about describing an erect penis. The generation after Plato, the early Stoics were not prudish about sex - statesman Seneca called desire a 'secret destruction'. The philosopher and commune leader Epicurus believed that sex was natural but superfluous and that sex was often healthier to relieve lust than not, especially if longing and love led to pain. Here is figurative fucking, achieving oneness, and sexual intercourse while being 'ashamed of being in the body'. For Augustine our genitals are wilful and capricious, and procreation without orgasm is the ideal. In his Paradise, men ejaculate like they might reach for a fruit - calmly, with no shudder. Aristotle rarely discussed sex and sexuality; 13th century theologian Thomas Aquinas married Augustine's fear of lust to Aristotle's virtue theory, and idea of a purposeful universe. For Aquinas, we were not made by God ...to wank or suck one another. These are all sins and the only allowable fucking is between a married man and woman to make babies.... In the 15th century, philosopher Marsilio Ficino was clearly in love with the younger Giovanni Cavalcanti, but was wary of 'the filths of the body' as he put it in De Amore. To many, screwing was safer as an intellectual or poetic trope than as an actual part of philosophical life. On sex, the most radical departure from medieval and Renaissance ideas came in the 18th century with philosophers like Rousseau, Diderot and Voltaire. The Marquis de Sade took this brazen materialism and turned it against his era's gentile rationality and the aristocratic aesthete used his position to rape and torture the poor, eventually being jailed then committed for his crimes. He was typical of another powerful man abusing women and another thinker who made sense of sex only by stripping it of everything but pure physicality. Inspired by philosophy, literature and private life, Damon Young explores the paradoxes of the bedroom in a book which more than teases your mind. 278pp.

Whether you believe in one god, many gods, or no god at all, this is a book to challenge the way you think about the divine and its role in our everyday lives. Aslan replaced the staid, well-worn portrayal of Jesus of Nazareth with a startling new image of the man in all his contradictions and here she takes on a subject even more immense - God, writ large. In layered prose and with thoughtful, accessible scholarship, he narrates the history of religion as one long and remarkably cohesive attempt to understand the divine by giving it human traits and emotions. This innate desire to humanise God is hardwired in our brains, making it a central feature of nearly every religious tradition. But we bestow upon God not just all that is good in human nature - our compassion and thirst for justice - but all that is bad in it - greed, bigotry, violence. All the qualities inform our religions, cultures and governments and more than just a history of our understanding of God, this book is an attempt to get to the root of this humanising impulse in order to develop a more universal spirituality. Chapters include Adam and Eve in Eden, The Lord of the Beasts, The Face in the Tree, Spears into Ploughs, Lofty Persons and The High God. The book is an appeal to stop foisting our human compulsions upon the divine and in that truth lies the key to a more mature, more peaceful and more primal form of spirituality. 300pp, illus. Remainder mark.