In the Bible, 2 Corinthians 3:18 tells us that as you gaze upon the beauty of the Lord, as you worship the God of Love, you become like the object of your worship and adoration. The nature of God is love, which means that everything that God does is born out of love. It's in every fiber of His being. This is who He is. If somebody was to say to you, “I don’t think God loves me”, you could respond, “That's impossible!” God cannot not love. His very essence, His very b...

There are some lessons we learn over the course of our lifetime which come around again and again. As you grow through experience and hopefully gain wisdom, the second and third time they visit you they are deeper and higher and broader and more powerful. Like old and trusted friends, they take up residence in your mind and heart, and when most needed, appear at just the right moment to help you make important decisions and choices. It is these soulmates we explore in this book.

Language is a precious and wonderful gift. Words are diamonds, and infinitely more precious. And yet, so often language is thoroughly inadequate in its ability to properly communicate the immeasurablle depths of the human heart, and soul, and spirit, and mind. Poetry is mankind’s visible attempt to express and expose our invisible yet tangble otherness.I am a settled and searching soul, unafraid to explore the chasms and corners of our human fragrance, both my own and that of other...

The present volume collects eighteen essays exploring the history of ancient Near Eastern studies. Combining diverse approaches—synthetic and analytic, diachronic and transnational—this collection offers critical reflections on the who, why, and how of this cluster of fields. How have political contexts determined the conduct of research? How do academic agendas reflect larger social, economic, and cultural interests? How have schools of thought and intellectual traditions configured, and ...