"Perhaps most of the essays in this book are substitutes for stories that I have not managed to write," says Amos Oz in the preface to Under This Blazing Light. Published for the first time in English, this collection of essays reveals the personal and political thoughts of Israel's most celebrated novelist. The essays in this volume put a unique perspective on the author's own experiences and development, and reveal a complex and deeply human figure of practical political influence as well as of significant literary stature. Oz's refreshing blend of skepticism and idealism will win for him...

Examines the meaning of 'nirvana' and discusses Buddhist utopias, textuality and world history.

The book brings together specially-commissioned contributions by leading scholars, who survey what has been achieved in recent research on medieval Hebrew language and texts, and shed light on various aspects, particularly the ways the Jewish, Christian and Muslim scholars in the Middle Ages influenced each other. There are contributions by long-established and younger scholars from around the world, and particularly from western European countries where Hebrew studies are currently flourishing (Britain, Holland, France, Spain).

This will be the standard study on the "body" in relation to the major religions. It highlights the distinctive and unfamiliar ways in which diverse religious traditions understand the "body" and notes the assumptions and problems of contemporary attitudes to it. Religion and the Body brings together essays by established experts in the history of religion, the social sciences and philosophy. The result is a rich source for comparative studies of the "body," its relation to society and to the divine.