Foreword by Patrick D. MillerIn this remarkable, acclaimed history of the development of monotheism, Mark S. Smith explains how Israel's religion evolved from a cult of Yahweh as a primary deity among many to a fully defined monotheistic faith with Yahweh as sole god. Repudiating the traditional view that Israel was fundamentally different in culture and religion from its Canaanite neighbors, this provocative book argues that Israelite religion developed, at least in part, from the ...

According to the Bible, ancient Israel's neighbors worshipped a wide variety of gods. In recent years, scholars have sought a better understanding of this early polytheistic milieu and its relation to Yahweh, the God of Israel. Drawing on ancient Ugaritic texts and looking closely at Ugaritic deities, Mark Smith examines the meaning of "divinity" in the ancient near East and considers how this concept applies to Yahweh.

The Idea of Nicaea in the Early Church Councils examines the role that appeals to Nicaea (both the council and its creed) played in the major councils of the mid-fifth century. It argues that the conflict between rival construals of Nicaea, and the struggle convincingly to arbitrate between them, represented a key dynamic driving--and unsettling--the conciliar activity of these decades. Mark S. Smith identifies a set of inherited assumptions concerning the role that Nicaea was exp...

The issue of how to represent God is a concern both ancient and contemporary. In this wide-ranging and authoritative study, renowned biblical scholar Mark Smith investigates the symbols, meanings, and narratives in the Hebrew Bible, Ugaritic texts, and ancient iconography, which attempt to describe deities in relation to humans. Smith uses a novel approach to show how the Bible depicts God in human and animal forms—and sometimes both together. Mediating between the ancients’ theories and...

For centuries, the Garden of Eden story has been a cornerstone for the Christian doctrine of the Fall and original sin. In recent years, many scholars have disputed this understanding of Genesis 3 because it has no words for sin, transgression, disobedience, or punishment. Instead, it is about how the human condition came about. Yet the picture is not so simple. The Genesis of Good and Evil examines how the idea of the Fall developed in Jewish tradition on the eve of Christianity....

Walter Cardinal Kasper has written, “It is time, it is the right time, to speak of God.” This book invites readers to use their God-given ability to work through important questions that many people have about God today: Why is God so angry in the Bible? Is the biblical God male or female (or what)? Who is Satan? Why do people suffer?By exploring the Bible’s answers to these and other biblical questions, people can come to understand better their living and loving God.

So resounding is its message that echoes of the Exodus are heard throughout the Old and New Testaments and the present. Exodus names and terms permeate our biblical and liturgical vocabularies: Pharaoh, Moses, Aaron, burning bush, I AM," plagues, Passover, manna, Ten Commandments, forty days and forty nights, Ark of the Covenant. The Exodus experience, indeed, is central to both Jewish and Christian traditions. Exodus is, as Mark Smith reminds us, not only an ancient text but also "today's...

Meg Maher thought she was doing the right thing. Now she's on the run.When a peaceful climate protest ends with a violent explosion in the city centre, every member of the protest group becomes a suspect. The incident is declared a terrorist attack.But the authorities aren't the only ones hunting Meg.Scared and alone, Meg seeks refuge with her father, Luke, knowing that every word she says puts him in danger too. But as the terrorism invest...

Mark Smith presents the ultimate moral dilemma in a breathtaking psychological thriller. Would you try to save them?'First rule of rescue: don't create another casualty.'Grace Disher is about to face every teacher's worst nightmare.Three of her students are going to die.On a high school camping trip, three boys slip away for an ocean swim. By the time Grace catches up, the perilous surf conditions are overwhelming the teena...

A FATHER'S A WAR, A SON'S FASCINATION, AND THE MEMORIES THAT DEFINE OUR NATION'Compelling and deeply personal . . . a riveting evocation of a father's heroic, top-secret RAF missions in WWII, coupled with a son's journey to the heart of his father's life and his war.'—DAMIEN LEWIS , bestselling author of SAS: The Great Train Raid‘An extraordinary story, brilliantly t...

Brought to you by Penguin.The enthralling story from military memorabilia and medal specialist Mark Smith, about his father's war and the stories that fostered Mark's enduring fascinationSunday evenings wouldn't be the same without Mark Smith on Antiques Roadshow.Seeing beyond the military memorabilia shared by members of the public to the often deeply moving human stories at their heart, Mark brings the past vividly to lif...

Amid perpetual upheavals and accelerating world changes, we transition from the Experience Economy where buyers chose memorable outcomes to the Transformational Economy where buyers choose meaningful, authentic, and socially responsible outcomes.Because your customers want to become a better version of themselves, your company must become a better version of itself.This book’s premise: the future belongs to the nimble; those able to resiliently innovate to deliver meaningful goods and serv...