What does it mean to be a good reader of Genesis 1-11? What does it mean to take these ancient stories seriously and how does that relate to taking them literally? Can we even take any of this material seriously?Reading Genesis Well answers these questions and more, promoting a responsible conversation about how science and biblical faith relate by developing a rigorous approach to interpreting the Bible, especially those texts that come into play in science and faith disc...

Master the art of flight with the "Paper Airplane Guy," John M. Collins. This superb collection features world-class designs that have flown on four continents and are used in the prestigious Red Bull Paper Wings International Finals.Whether you are a beginner or an advanced folder, this book guides you through a diverse range of planes, from the easy-to-fold Phoenix to the Suzanne the current Guinness World Record holder for distance (226 feet, 10...

John J. Collins's A Short Introduction to the Hebrew Bible is one of the most popular introductory textbooks in colleges and seminary classrooms. Enriched by decades of classroom teaching, it is aimed explicitly at motivated students, regardless of their previous exposure to the Bible or faith commitments. This more compact version of Collins's renowned Introduction to the Hebrew Bible is combined with even more student-friendly features, including charts, maps, photograp...

John J. Collins's Introduction to the Hebrew Bible is one of the most reliable and widely adopted critical textbooks at undergraduate and graduate levels alike, and for good reason. Enriched by decades of classroom teaching, it is aimed explicitly at motivated students, regardless of their previous exposure to the Bible or faith commitments. The approach is ecumenical, in the sense that it seeks not to impose any particular theological perspective but to provide information and ra...

This landmark resource, the first fully-based on the authoritative NABRE translation, contains the trustworthy study notes, expanded essays, and informational sidebars which have guided and informed students and general readers for 25 years. In this new edition, which comes in a protective slipcase, one-third of the Reading Guide materials are new, and all of the other Guides have been reviewed and revised by their original authors. The extensive Reading Guide, the focal point of this volu...

How did apocalyptic concerns shape ancient Jewish life and literature?In this compelling study, renowned scholar John J. Collins examines the apocalyptic worldview that emerged in Jewish thought during the Hellenistic and Greco-Roman periods. He reconstructs this perspective through carefully contextualized readings of ancient Jewish apocalyptic literature.According to Collins, defining features of the apocalyptic worldview include the desire to grasp histo...

Adam Smith’s 1776 Inquiry into The Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations – more often known simply as The Wealth of Nations – is one of the most important books in modern intellectual history.Considered one of the fundamental works of classical economics, it is also a prime example of the enduring power of good reasoning, and the ability of reasoning to drive critical thinking forward. Adam Smith was attempting to answer two complex questions: where does a nation’s we...

Biblical scholars today often sound as if they are caught in the aftermath of Babel -- a clamor of voices unable to reach common agreement. Yet is this confusion necessarily a bad thing? Many postmodern critics see the recent profusion of critical approaches as a welcome opportunity for the emergence of diverse new techniques. In The Bible after Babel noted biblical scholar John J. Collins considers the effect of the postmodern situation on biblical, primarily Old Testament, criti...

John Maynard Keynes’s 1936 General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money is a perfect example of the global power of critical thinking. A radical reconsideration of some of the founding principles and accepted axioms of classical economics at the time, it provoked a revolution in economic thought and government economic policies across the world. Unsurprisingly, Keynes’s closely argued refutation of the then accepted grounds of economics employs all the key critical thinking sk...

Most people understand Judaism to be the Torah and the Torah to be Judaism. However, in The Invention of Judaism, John J. Collins persuasively argues this was not always the case. The Torah became the touchstone for most of Judaism’s adherents only in the hands of the rabbis of late antiquity. For 600 years prior, from the Babylonian Exile to the Roman destruction of the Second Temple, there was enormous variation in the way the Torah was understood. Collins provides a co...

One of the most widely praised studies of Jewish apocalyptic literature ever written, The Apocalyptic Imagination by John J. Collins has served for over thirty years as a helpful, relevant, comprehensive survey of the apocalyptic literary genre.After an initial overview of things apocalyptic, Collins proceeds to deal with individual apocalyptic texts — the early Enoch literature, the book of Daniel, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and others — concluding with an examination of apocal...

John Alexander Dowie (1847-1907) was a Scottish evangelist and "faith healer" who migrated to the United States from Australia in the late 1800s. Dowie was referred to by critics of his time as a "confidence man", a person who appealed to the confidence of victims using deception to convince or persuade them out of money or into submission. In the case of Dowie's Christian Catholic Church cult following, commonly referred to as "Zionites" or "Dowieites", both money and power were gained.