Religious Literature

The story of David, the shepherd boy who slew the Philistine Goliath, became the divinely chosen king of the Israelites and seduced Bathsheba, would be compelling in any era. But for medieval Christians, the poet, harpist and warrior assumed immense importance as an exemplar of piety and penitence, an Everyman on whom they could model their own commitment to God.

Until now, there has never been a modern English translation and commentary of the haftarah, the book of prophets that helps form the core of the Jewish identity. Based on nearly 3,000-year-old teachings, and written 2,200 years ago after the Syrians banned the Jewish Bible, or Torah, the haftarah is read at weekly Sabbath services and forms the core of the bar and bat mitzvah ceremonies celebrating Jewish youths' initiation to adulthood.

It was 100 hundred years ago that Charles Sheldon stood at the pulpit of the Central Congregational Church on a Sunday evening and began reading his story-sermon. He told a tale about a Rev. Henry Maxwell in the mythical city of Raymond, which bears a striking similarity to Topeka in the 1890s. The sermon related what happened when a young, unemployed printer came to town and was unable to find work or help.

The British Library has found what it believes to be Buddhism's equivalent of the Dead Sea Scrolls, written on strips of birch bark dating from as early as the second century. The manuscripts on 60 separate fragments of various sizes include some of Buddha's poems, sermons and treatises.

An informal prayer liturgy, designed for Christians and Jews to use together in settings ranging from living rooms to a church or synagogue, has been published by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago. The prayer book was written by Rabbi Leon Klenicki, director of interfaith affairs of the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, and the Rev. Bruce Robbins, general secretary of the United Methodist Commission on Christian Unity.

The Supreme Court gave religious-rights activists two important victories Thursday, ruling that the government may not deny funding or free-speech protections to groups simply because of their religious beliefs. Instead, the justices insisted that officials follow a "neutral" and "evenhanded" approach to matters of religion so that students or church groups are not put at a disadvantage because of their faith.

Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz of Israel, one of the world's foremost Talmudic scholars, will make a rare appearance in Los Angeles on Monday during a public address on the Passover theme of "The Fourth Child." Steinsaltz, the winner of the Israel Prize--that nation's highest honor--is best known for the work that he and a team of scholars have undertaken to translate into English the Talmud, a sweeping multivolume collection of Jewish law and learning completed in the 6th Century.

Eighteen months ago, the Vatican released a 179-page letter--an encyclical--from Pope John Paul II to the bishops of the Roman Catholic Church. It was a complex, tightly reasoned condemnation of moral relativism and situational ethics--a call for strict adherence to the principle that some acts are just plain wrong ("intrinsically evil") and cannot be justified by extenuating circumstances, no matter how compelling.

What's the difference between a guardian angel and a guardian deity? Where did Soka Gakki come from? When is a cathedral not a basilica? And who says the human potential movement is a religion? Trivia buffs intrigued by such questions might find the new "Dictionary of Religion" (HarperCollins) hard to put down. Here are 1,154 pages of religious history and biography, psychology and sociology condensed to bite-size pieces.

The U.S. Supreme Court narrowed the separation between church and state Thursday in two decisions pitting free speech rights against a constitutional ban on state-supported religion. But the two rulings--allowing state university funding of a religious publication and the display of a religious symbol in a public park--were narrowly focused as the court sidestepped requests by conservative groups to change the theory it uses to decide church-state cases.