A lavish heavyweight Dorling Kindersley visually impactful publication about the earliest signs of feminine worship in the Indian subcontinent and early goddesses seen in the Indus Valley civilisation. Archaeological excavations have yielded hundreds of enigmatic female figurines which have been widely interpreted as having religious relevance. They have elaborate headdresses, prominent eyes and thick lips. The breasts are separately moulded and attached to the body, and the navel is deep. They show complex arrangements of hair and flowers and rarely nude; clothing includes short skirts, belts and necklaces and bangles often in semi-precious stones. The volume offers a different perspective from votive offerings and cult figures from Mohenjo-Daro 2700-2100 BCE which is about 90" in height and the black residue suggests that these sculptures may have been used to burn oil or some sort of incense and of religious significance. She is benevolent and nurturing, fierce and terrible, a warrior and a lover. She creates and gives life, is death personified, and the one who grants eternal salvation. She is the ultimate form of reality, the cosmos. The Goddess inspires deep devotion and has been worshipped and revered across homes in India. Shakti delves deep into her fascinating mythology and rituals and unravel the philosophy and adaptation within many belief systems. From the origins of the Goddess in the ancient civilisation of Harappa to her evolution and changed character in contemporary times, the narrative brings together the diverse threads from different cultures, regions and traditions. Stunningly beautiful colour photography throughout, many full page including the famous image by the Indian artist Raja Ravi Varma's rendition of Kali with his blue skin trampling on Shiva to invoke fear. 392pp, 24.2 x 28.4cm.
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Sub-titled 'On Men Unwittingly Turned Divine', from Haile Selassie, acclaimed as the Living God in Jamaica, to Prince Philip, who became the unlikely centre of a new religion on a South Pacific island, men made divine - only men - have appeared on almost every continent. More than curiosities, these deifications, always emerging at times of civil war, imperial conquest, or revolution, have much to teach us. From nationalist uprisings in India to Nigerian spirit-possession cults, Anna Della Subin explores how deification has been a means of defiance for colonised peoples. Conversely, we see how Christopher Columbus, Cortés, and other white explorers amplified stories of their godhead to justify their dominion over native peoples, setting into motion the currents of racism. A revelatory history spanning five centuries which sheds light on the thorny questions of how our modern concept of religion was invented, why religion and politics are perpetually entangled in our supposedly secular age, and how the power to call someone divine has been used and abused, the tales told here are often colourful and bizarre, and often melancholy, and all told with tremendous intellectual ingenuity. 462pp.

Grayling is Professor of Philosophy and Principal of the New College of the Humanities at Northeastern University London. He believes that philosophy should take an active and useful role in society and in his book proposes a pragmatic and inspiring solution to the three biggest challenges that face the world today - climate change, technology and justice. In his timely book he asks: can human beings agree on a set of values that will allow us to confront the numerous threats facing the planet, or will we simply continue with our disagreements and antipathies as we collectively approach our possible extinction? As every day brings new stories about extreme weather conditions, spyware, lethal autonomous weapons systems, and the health imbalance between the northern and southern hemispheres, Grayling's question - Is global agreement on global challenges possible? - becomes ever more urgent. As we confront the danger of a warming world, AI and technology, justice and rights, relativism, he proves that it is hopelessly utopian to work for an end of division, and instead for all humanity to find common ground. An incredibly thoughtful read for all interested in philosophy and cultural affairs. 232pp.

Sub-titled 'Symbolic Numbers and The Sacred Union In Christianity', this is a welcome reprint of the 2003 classic book on creation and spirituality. Author Margaret Starbird decodes the symbolic numbers embedded in the original Greek phrases of the New Testament, revealing the powerful presence of the feminine divine. The New Testament contains wide use of gematria, a literary device that allows the sums of certain phrases to produce sacred numbers. Exploring the hidden meanings behind these numbers, Starbird reveals that the union between Jesus and his bride Mary Magdalene formed a sacred partnership that was the cornerstone of the earliest Christian community. She demonstrates how the crucial teaching of the sacred marriage that unites masculine and feminine principals, the Heiros Gamos, is the partnership model for life of our planet and the ultimate blueprint for civilisation. Her research challenges the concept that Christ was celibate, and establishes Mary Magdalene as the human incarnation of the sacred bride. She also reveals the true meaning of the '666' prophesied in the Book of Revelation. Chapters include The Blueprint of the Cosmic Temple, Architects of the Christian Faith, the Apocalypse Agenda and The Holy Name of Mary among them. With useful glossary. 170pp in large paperback.

With a biographical introduction by David Bradshaw and a foreword by J. G. Ballard, the Sunday Times described this as a masterpiece, 'Concise, evocative, wise and, above all, humane.' In 1953, in the presence of an investigator, Aldous Huxley took four-tenths of a gram of mescalin, sat down and waited to see what would happen. When he opened his eyes, everything from the flowers in a vase to the creases in his trousers was transformed, Huxley describes his experience with breathtaking immediacy in this novel. In its sequel Heaven and Hell, he goes on to explore the history and nature of mysticism. Still bristling with a sense of excitement and discovery, these illuminating and influential writings remain the most fascinating account of the visionary experience ever written. In that afternoon in Los Angeles, Huxley experienced the suspension of time and space and the melting away of the ego. He talks about artists and their heightened ability to perceive things, about the experiences of schizophrenics and moments of despair but also of unadulterated joy. He talks about the profundity of religious experience and Eastern and Western philosophical views of the world. 'The function of the brain and nervous system is to protect us from being overwhelmed and confused by this mass of largely useless and irrelevant knowledge...' and that was before the Internet! 123pp, paperback.

Father Alex Frost is the vicar of St Matthew's the Apostle, Burnley. Ordained in 2012 after a mixed career working as a football referee, manager at Argos and a stand-up comic, he has been appointed to the General Synod for Blackburn Diocese and hosts The God Cast podcast devoted to issues of faith and spirituality and is married with three children. His book is beautiful and touching, genuinely funny 'because people facing cement-like hardship often use humour as an escape mechanism.' Fr Alex recognised the 17,000 inhabitants of his new parish were in dire need of help. Burnley was a typically rundown place of council estates, severe poverty, litter, crime and drugs, but also a place of hope and aspiration. He found himself running a food bank from a car park, helping the desperate amid his flock as the pandemic raged, and his down-to-earth style of ministry struck a chord with people of all faiths, cultures and classes when the divide between rich and poor was widening. But amid the addiction, appalling loss, illness and neglect there also was hope and moments of comedy and the book shows the rich cast of characters that cross the threshold of any church. Through them it shows the continued relevance of the church for those in peril - the poor and the marginalised and the stories of pain, humour and hope are ever present in this and every community where we can all espouse virtues of love, kindness and tolerance. 238pp.

In the beginning was the word, and in the Middle Ages were kings, princes, and high-ranking religious members whose wealth and influence produced illustrated bibles of extraordinary craftsmanship. This edition brings together 50 of the finest medieval bible manuscripts from the Austrian National Library. With examples from every epoch of the Middle Ages, the collection explores visualizations of the bible in various theological and historical contexts. In impeccable reproduction quality, these stunning images may be appreciated as much as art historical treasures as they are important religious artifacts and masterpieces of illumination. Texts by a team of 15 scientific authors describe each manuscript in detail, exploring both the evolution of the Bible and the medieval understanding of history. A glossary of important terms is also included so that those not versed in bible history can enjoy the texts as well. Colour, 15.6 x 21.7cm, 460 pages. New from Taschen.

There has been a widespread tendency to disregard anti-Judaism, whether expressed in a casual remark or implemented through pogrom or extermination campaign, as somehow exceptional, an unfortunate indicator of personal prejudice, or the shocking outcome of an extremist ideology married to power. But in his magisterial history, David Nirenberg explores anti-Judaism from antiquity to the present, from the Ancient Egyptians who resented their Jewish neighbours, to the ideas of Voltaire and Marx, thereby revealing it to be a mode of thought deeply embedded in the Western tradition. With intolerance and racism on the rise against the West, Nirenberg's central argument is as urgent and as timely as it has ever been. Dark as its subject may be, the book is full of delights. Chapters cover The Road to Emmaus, The Road to Damascus, Making Sense of the World in Jewish Terms, Jewish Enmity in Islam, Jews and Power in Medieval Europe, The Spanish Inquisition, Acting Jewish in Shakespeare's England, 'Israel' at the Foundations of Christian Politics 1545-1677, and Philosophical Struggles from Kant to Heine. Special import. 610pp in sturdy paperback.

Deepak Chopra in his foreword writes, '2,500 years ago, the charismatic young prince who later became known as the Buddha, the Awakened One, left his home and inheritance to go forth into the world in search of a solution to the human predicament. His iconic journey changed the world forever, and many of his spiritual insights are being verified today in the fields of neuroscience, psychology and quantum physics. This volume, a collaboration between the celebrated Himalayan artist Romio Shrestha and Buddhist scholar Ian Baker, reveals the dazzling trajectory of Siddhartha Gautama's life and teachings and the power of art to awaken us to the realities that fervently require our collective attentions.' This beautiful large art book gathers striking Tibetan-style Mandala paintings from master painter Shrestha and his team of artisan monks, made from malachite, lapis lazuli and marigolds, and painted at times with three hairs of a cat's tail. In powerful haunting detail they invite readers to meditate on the Buddha's message of love, completion and connectedness. Chapters cover Quantum Wisdom, The Neurology of Love, The Art of Transformation and Vehicles of Becoming, The Light Within and Transcending and Enlightenment among them. Mostly full page exquisitely coloured and golden paintings on 64 huge pages, 25.4 x 36cm.
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Raised in Iraq in the 1950s, serving as a minister in the post-Saddam government and now a visiting fellow at Princeton, Allawi is supremely well-placed to comment on the rise of the Islamic world in global politics. The gap between the sacred and secular is as much of a key to the crisis in Islam as it has been for Western societies. In the 1950s Allawi grew up in a community where the ruling cultural and political class had moved away from overt identification with Islam. Women rarely wore the hijab, and the pilgrimage to Mecca was mainly for older people. Then the 1960s were dominated by populist and nationalist ideologies, and by the end of the 1970s militant Islam seemed unstoppable, with a radical jihad-inspired culture initially focused on the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. There followed the Iranian revolution, the Iran-Iraq war, the rise of the Taliban, civil wars in Sudan and Algeria, the eruption of global terror and the invasion of Iraq. The author found that only a few of the Muslims he encountered in the political arena could resonate with the spiritual or ethical aspects of Islam, and he traces the origins of change right back to rulers such as Tippu Sultan in Mysore at the end of the 18th century. The divisions within and between Muslims led to extreme violence, particularly the Wahhabi-inspired Islamists. In this wide-ranging book the author argues first that Islam is different from other civilisations, particularly the globalising world order, because it has to recognise the role of the transcendent. Secondly, he tracks the changes that have occurred in Islam's self-understanding in the past two centuries, for instance the science of tafsir, modernising the understanding of the Quran, of which Sayyid Qutb was a leading exponent, seeking Quranic sanction for fighting tyranny. Qutb was key in giving radical Islam legitimacy in the eyes of the public. He then deals with the outer effects of the erosion of Islamic civilisation in terms of institutions and economic life, raising the question of whether a uniquely Islamic order can ever be recreated. 304pp.