Faculty of Arts
Department of Classics and Religion
Page Sections
Classics (General)
Public Domain Core Collection [New]
Includes fiction and non-fiction public domain works that have been adapted for post-secondary use through Pressbooks. This collection is a collaborative project between Ryerson and Brock universities. Many of the works include audiobook recordings as well.
Licence: Public Domain
Public Domain Core Collection Faculty Guide [New]
This guide has been created to assist instructors in using the Public Domain Core Collection of texts and to provide some suggestions and examples of open assignments that can be created using these texts [Description from resource].
Licence: CC BY 4.0
Western Civilization (Lumen Learning)
This peer-reviewed, open Lumen Learning course covers introductory concepts in western civilization, from the Hittites to the Protestant Reformation.
Includes: Key terms
Licence: CC BY 4.0, unless otherwise noted.
Ancient and Medieval History
The Ancient and Medieval World
This introductory text is organized in a modular format, with a general introduction to each topic, a timeline and relevant maps, several primary documents to help students to better understand the time period, and at least two visual or audio sources to add a different dimension to that understanding.
Includes: Questions for consideration, glossary
Licence: CC BY 4.0
Manuscripts Online: Written Culture 1000 to 1500
This resource is a collection of manuscripts with introductions. Please note that while free to use, the material on this site are typically not licensed for editing or remixing.
Licence: Copyright holders have made content on the website available for educational purposes for free, however they are not openly licence.
Middle English Dictionary
Licence: Copyright holders have made content on the website available for educational purposes for free, however they are not openly licence.
Western Civilization: A Concise History – Volume 1
Western Civilization: A Concise History is available in three volumes. Volume 1 covers introductory concepts in western civilization, from the origins of civilization in Mesopotamia c. 8,000 BCE through the early Middle Ages in Europe c. 1,000 CE. Topics include Mesopotamia, Egypt, Persia, Greece, Rome, the Islamic caliphates, and the early European Middle Ages.
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Reviews: Available through the Open Textbook Library
Western Civilization: A Concise History – Volume 2
Volume 2 looks at the early Middle Ages to the French Revolution in 1789 CE. This volume covers topics including the High Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the European conquest of the Americas, the Reformation, the Scientific Revolution, and the Enlightenment.
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Reviews: Available through the Open Textbook Library
World History: Cultures, States, and Societies to 1500
This text offers a comprehensive introduction to the history of humankind from prehistory to 1500, covering such cultures, states, and societies as Ancient Mesopotamia, Ancient Israel, Dynastic Egypt, India’s Classical Age, the Dynasties of China, Archaic Greece, the Roman Empire, Islam, Medieval Africa, the Americas, and the Khanates of Central Asia.
Includes: Summary, key terms
Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0
Reviews: Available through the Open Textbook Library
Greek and Roman Studies
Antigone by Sophocles [New]
Written by Sophocles circa 441 BC, Antigone is an Athenian tragedy. Of the three Theban plays, Antigone is the third in order of the events depicted in the plays, but was the first to be written. The reading order of the Theban plays is: Oedipus Rex, followed by Oedipus at Colonus and ending with Antigone [Description from resource].
Includes: audiobook
Licence: CC 0 (Public Domain)
Brevissima: 1001 Tiny Latin Poems
This book is divided into 3 parts, with Part 1 containing only the most commonly used Latin vocabulary, Part 2 containing a word that is less commonly used, and part 3 containing two words which are less commonly used.
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Cicero, Against Verres, 2.1.53-86. Latin Text with Introduction, Study Questions, Commentary and English Translation
This volume provides a portion of the original text of Cicero’s speech in Latin, a detailed commentary, study aids, and a translation.
Includes: Vocabulary, map
Licence: CC BY 4.0
Cicero, On Pompey’s Command (De Imperio), 27-49. Latin Text, Study Aids with Vocabulary, Commentary, and Translation
This course book offers a portion of the original Latin text, vocabulary, and commentary.
Includes: Vocabulary terms
Licence: CC BY 4.0
Reviews: Available through the Open Textbook Library
Latin Via Proverbs
These Latin proverbs are organized by grammatical categories, so that they can be used with students at various levels.
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Mille Fabulae et Una: 1001 Aesop’s Fables in Latin
These fables are organized by main character. An overview of the fable genre is also included.
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Mythology Unbound: An Online Textbook for Classical Mythology
This text covers introductory concepts in classical mythology, from Aegis to Zeus.
Descriptions of figures found in classical mythology. There are actually many different types of myth, not just three. In fact, there are several entire theories of myth. The theoretical study of myth is very complex; many books have been written about theories of myth, and we could have an entire class just on theories of myth (without studying any of the myths themselves). The problem with theories of myth, however, is that they are not very good; they don’t do a great job of explaining the myths or in helping us understand them. Furthermore, the myths themselves are much more interesting than the theories. For this reason, this textbook will not say very much about the theories of myth. But we don’t want to ignore the theoretical study of myth entirely, so we will limit ourselves to discussing only three types of myth (Description from resource). I
Includes: Map
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Reviews: Available through the Open Textbook Library
Myths of the Greek and Roman Gods [New]
Edited by Roberto Nickel, this collection of myths of Greek and Roman gods includes extracts from the Homer’s Odessey and Iliad and Hesiod’s Theogony and Works and Days, Aeschylus’ complete Prometheus Bound, and more.
Licence: CC BY 4.0
The Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle [New]
The Nicomachean Ethics (circa 322 BC) is an ethical treatise by Aristotle. In the text, Aristotle offers a defence of the idea of eudaimonism (human flourishing or happiness) which is achieved as a result of human choice in search of excellence and the good life [Description from resource].
Licence: CC 0 (Public Domain)
The Odyssey by Homer [New]
The Odyssey (originally composed in the 8th or 7th century BCE; published in English in 1614) is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems by Homer. The story follows the Greek hero Odysseus, king of Ithaca, and his journey home after the Trojan War. The poem is divided into 24 books and is one of the oldest existing works of literature still read by contemporary audiences [Description from resource].
Licence: CC 0 (Public Domain)
Oedipus at Colonus by Sophocles [New]
Written shortly before Sophocles’s death in 406 BC and produced by his grandson (also called Sophocles) at the Festival of Dionysus in 401 BC, Oedipus at Colonus (also known as Oedipus Coloneus) is one of the three Theban plays. Of the three Theban plays, Oedipus at Colonus is the second in order of the events depicted in the plays, but was the last to be written. The reading order of the Theban plays is: Oedipus Rex, followed by Oedipus at Colonus and ending with Antigone [Description from resource].
Includes: audiobook
Licence: CC 0 (Public Domain)
Oedipus Rex by Sophocles [New]
Written by Sophocles and first performed around 429 BC, Oedipus Rex, also known by its Greek title, Oedipus Tyrannus, or Oedipus the King, is an Athenian tragedy. Originally, to the ancient Greeks, the title was simply Oedipus, as it is referred to by Aristotle in Poetics. Of the three Theban plays, Oedipus Rex is the first in order of the events depicted in the plays, but was the second to be written. The reading order of the Theban plays is: Oedipus Rex, followed by Oedipus at Colonus and ending with Antigone [Description from resource].
Includes: audiobook
Licence: CC 0 (Public Domain)
Ovid, Amores (Book 1)
From Catullus to Horace, the tradition of Latin erotic poetry produced works of literature which are still read throughout the world. Ovid’s Amores, written in the first century BC, is arguably the best-known and most popular collection in this tradition. Introductory essays included.
Includes: Suggested reading, embedded audio files of the original text read aloud
Licence: CC BY 4.0
Reviews: Available through the Open Textbook Library
Ovid, Metamorphoses, 3.511-733. Latin Text with Commentary
This course book offers a wide-ranging introduction, the original Latin text, study aids with vocabulary, and an extensive commentary. This extract from Ovid’s ‘Theban History’ recounts the confrontation of Pentheus, king of Thebes, with his divine cousin, Bacchus, the god of wine.
Includes: Commentary, glossary
Licence: CC BY 4.0
Poetics by Aristotle [New]
Poetics (circa 335 BC) by Aristotle is the earliest surviving work of dramatic theory and the first surviving philosophical essay to focus on literary theory. Aristotle divides the art of poetry into three genres: verse drama (to include comedy, tragedy, and the satyr play); lyric poetry; and epic. These genres all share the function of mimesis, or imitation of life, but differ in three ways: 1. Differences in music rhythm, harmony, meter and melody; 2. Difference of goodness in the characters; 3. Difference in how the narrative is presented: telling a story or acting it out [Description from resource].
Includes: audiobook
Licence: CC 0 (Public Domain)
Republic by Plato [New]
Republic (circa 375 BC) is a Socratic dialogue by Plato. The text explores topics like justice, the order and character of the just city-state, and the just man. It is one of the most influential works of philosophy and political theory—both intellectually and historically—in the world, thus marking it as Plato’s best-known work [Description from resources].
Includes: audiobook
Licence: CC 0 (Public Domain)
The Roman Empire
This open access text covers introductory concepts in the roman empire.
Includes: Timeline
Licence: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 (Note this resource is free, but adapting or remixing is restricted)
Roman Gods
This open access book analyzes the pagan, Jewish, and Christian concepts of “god” along the lines of space, time, personnel, function, iconography and ritual.
Licence: CC BY-NC 4.0
Tacitus, Annals, 15.20-23, 33-45. Latin Text, Study Aids with Vocabulary, and Commentary
This course book offers a portion of the original Latin text, study aids with vocabulary, and a commentary. It extends beyond detailed linguistic analysis and historical background to encourage critical engagement with Tacitus’ prose and discussion of the most recent scholarly thought.
Includes: Vocabulary aid, maps, family tree
Licence: CC BY 3.0
Reviews: Available through the Open Textbook Library
Virgil, Aeneid, 4.1-299. Latin Text, Study Questions, Commentary and Interpretative Essays
This course book offers a portion of the original Latin text, study questions, a commentary, and interpretative essays. Designed to stretch and stimulate readers, Ingo Gildenhard’s incisive commentary will be of particular interest to students of Latin at both A2 and undergraduate level. It extends beyond detailed linguistic analysis to encourage critical engagement with Virgil’s poetry and discussion of the most recent scholarly thought.
Includes: Study questions, bibliography
Licence: CC BY-NC 3.0
Reviews: Available through the Open Textbook Library
Vulgate Verses: 4000 Verses from the Bible for Teachers and Students of Latin
These Latin verses are organized by grammatical categories, so that they can be used with students at various levels.
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Religious Studies
Christianity, Islam, and Orisa Religion: Three Traditions in Comparison and Interaction
The Yoruba of southwestern Nigeria are exceptional for the copresence among them of three religious traditions: Islam, Christianity, and the indigenous oriṣa religion. In this comparative study, at once historical and anthropological, Peel explores the intertwined character of the three religions and the dense imbrication of religion in all aspects of Yoruba history up to the present.
Licence: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 (Note: This is an open access text which restricts remixing and adapting).
Cultural Worlds of the Jesuits in Colonial Latin America
This volume of 12 essays includes papers from scholars of history, linguistics, religion, art, architecture, music, medicine and science. Please note that although this book is free to read and redistribute, it is not licensed for editing or remixing.
Licence: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 (Note: This is an open access text which restricts remixing and adapting).
The Emergence of Modern Hinduism: Religion on the Margins of Colonialism
The Emergence of Modern Hinduism argues for the importance of regional, vernacular innovation in processes of Hindu modernization.
Licence: CC BY-NC 4.0
Essays in Anarchism and Religion
Anarchism and religion have historically had an uneasy relationship. Yet, ever since the emergence of anarchism as an intellectual and political movement, a considerable number of religious anarchists have insisted that their religious tradition necessarily implies an anarchist political stance. Their stories are finally gaining increasing public and scholarly attention. Reflecting both a rise of interest in anarchist ideas and activism on the one hand, and the revival of religious ideas and movements in the political sphere on the other, this book examines a range of examples of overlaps and contestations between the two from a diverse range of academic perspectives. The first pioneering volume of Essays in Anarchism & Religion comprises eight essays from leading international scholars on topics ranging from the anarchism of the historical Jesus to Zen Buddhism and the philosophies of Max Stirner and Pierre-Joseph Proudhon. In a world where political ideas increasingly matter once more, and religion is an increasingly visible aspect of global political life, these essays offer scholarly analysis of overlooked activists, ideas and movements, and as such reveal the possibility of a powerful critique of contemporary global society.
Licence: CC BY 4.0
Ethnicity, Race, Religion: Identities and Ideologies in Early Jewish and Christian Texts, and in Modern Biblical Interpretation
Religion, ethnicity and race are facets of identity that have become increasingly contested. The modern discipline of biblical studies developed in the context of Western Europe, concurrent with the emergence of various racial and imperial ideologies. The essays in this volume deal both with historical facets of ethnicity and race in antiquity, in particular in relation to the identities of Jews and Christians, and also with the critique of scholarly ideologies and racial assumptions which have shaped biblical studies.
Licence: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 (Note: This is an open access text which restricts remixing and adapting).
Exploring Jesuit Distinctiveness: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Ways of Proceeding within the Society of Jesus
This volume presents twelve essays from the First International Symposium on Jesuit Studies, on the theme of the distinctiveness of Jesuits and their ministries.
Licence: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 (Note: This is an open access text which restricts remixing and adapting).
Faithful Translators: Authorship, Gender, and Religion in Early Modern England
With Faithful Translators Jaime Goodrich offers the first in-depth examination of women’s devotional translations and of religious translations in general within early modern England. Placing female translators such as Queen Elizabeth I and Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke, alongside their male counterparts, such as Sir Thomas More and Sir Philip Sidney, Goodrich argues that both male and female translators constructed authorial poses that allowed their works to serve four distinct cultural functions: creating privacy, spreading propaganda, providing counsel, and representing religious groups. Ultimately, Faithful Translators calls for a reconsideration of the apparent simplicity of “faithful” translations and aims to reconfigure perceptions of early modern authorship, translation, and women writers.
Licence: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 (Note: This is an open access text which restricts remixing and adapting).
The Future of Catholic Theological Ethics
This edited volume undertakes a search for new ways of making Catholic theological ethics relevant.
Licence: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 (Note: This is an open access text which restricts remixing and adapting).
Hindu Pluralism: Religion and the Public Sphere in Early Modern South India
In Hindu Pluralism, Elaine M. Fisher complicates the traditional scholarly narrative of the unification of Hinduism. By calling into question the colonial categories implicit in the term “sectarianism,” Fisher’s work excavates the pluralistic textures of precolonial Hinduism in the centuries prior to British intervention. Drawing on previously unpublished sources in Sanskrit, Tamil, and Telugu, Fisher argues that the performance of plural religious identities in public space in Indian early modernity paved the way for the emergence of a distinctively non-Western form of religious pluralism. This work provides a critical resource for understanding how Hinduism developed in the early modern period, a crucial era that set the tenor for religion’s role in public life in India through the present day.
Licence: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 (Note: This is an open access text which restricts remixing and adapting).
Introduction to Philosophy: Philosophy of Religion
Introduction to Philosophy: Philosophy of Religion introduces some of the major traditional arguments for and against the existence of God, as well as some less well-known, but thought-provoking arguments for the existence of God, and one of the most important new challenges to religious belief from the Cognitive Science of Religion. An introductory chapter traces the connection between philosophy and religion throughout Western history, and a final chapter addresses the place of non-Western and non-monotheistic religions within contemporary philosophy of religion.
Includes: Glossary, questions to consider
Licence: CC BY 4.0
Reviews: Available through the Open Textbook Library
Jesuits in Spanish America before the Suppression: Organization and Demographic and Quantitative Perspectives
This book covers the period from the role members of the Society of Jesus played in urban life in Spanish American and as administrators of frontier missions, from the late sixteenth century until their expulsion in 1767. Please note that although this book is free to read and redistribute, it is not licensed for editing or remixing.
Licence: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 (Note: This is an open access text which restricts remixing and adapting).
Jewish Religion After Theology
Jewish Religion After Theology ponders one of the most intriguing shifts in modern Jewish thought: from a metaphysical and theological standpoint toward a new manner of philosophizing based primarily on practice. Different chapters study this great shift and its various manifestations. The central figure of this new examination is Isaiah Leibowitz, whose thoughts encapsulate more than any other Jewish thinker this stance of religion without metaphysics. Sagi explores corresponding issues such as observance, the possibility of pluralism, the meaning of penance without messianic suppositions, and pragmatic coping with theodicy after the Holocaust, presenting the different possibilities within this great alteration in Jewish thought.
Licence: CC BY-NC 4.0
Introduction to Medieval and Early Modern Experiences of Gender and Faith
An open access chapter within Lived Religion and Gender in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe, this study is an exploration of lived religion and gender across the Reformation, from the fourteenth to the eighteenth centuries. Combining conceptual development with empirical history, the authors explore these two topics via themes of power, agency, work, family, sainthood, and witchcraft.
Licence: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 (Note: This is an open access chapter which restricts remixing and adapting).
The Land, the Bible, and History
This edited volume presents a Catholic view of the Promised Land—as concept, history, and contested terrain—in Catholic teaching and doctrine.
Licence: CC BY 4.0
Lived Religion in the Ancient Mediterranean World
The Lived Ancient Religion project has radically changed perspectives on ancient religions and their supposedly personal or public character. This volume applies and further develops these methodological tools, new perspectives and new questions. The religious transformations of the Roman Imperial period appear in new light and more nuances by comparative confrontation and the integration of many disciplines. The contributions are written by specialists from a variety of disciplinary contexts (Jewish Studies, Theology, Classics, Early Christian Studies) dealing with the history of religion of the Mediterranean, West-Asian, and European area from the (late) Hellenistic period to the (early) Middle Ages and shaped by their intensive exchange. From the point of view of their respective fields of research, the contributors engage with discourses on agency, embodiment, appropriation and experience. They present innovative research in four fields also of theoretical debate, which are “Experiencing the Religious”, “Switching the Code”, „A Thing Called Body“ and “Commemorating the Moment” (Description from resource).
Licence: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 (Note: This is an open access chapter which restricts remixing and adapting).
Making Religion and Human Rights at the United Nations
The series Religion and Society (RS) contributes to the exploration of religions as social systems– both in Western and non-Western societies; in particular, it examines religions in their differentiation from, and intersection with, other cultural systems, such as art, economy, law and politics. Due attention is given to paradigmatic case or comparative studies that exhibit a clear theoretical orientation with the empirical and historical data of religion and such aspects of religion as ritual, the religious imagination, constructions of tradition, iconography, or media. In addition, the formation of religious communities, their construction of identity, and their relation to society and the wider public are key issues of this series.
Licence: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 (Note: This is an open access chapter which restricts remixing and adapting).
Marking the Face, Curing the Soul? Reading the Disfigurement of Women in the Later Middle Ages (Chapter 9)
This is an open access chapter within Medicine, Religion and Gender in Medieval Culture.
Current preoccupations with the body have led to a growing interest in the intersections between religion, literature and the history of medicine, and, more specifically, how they converge within a given culture. This collection of essays explores the ways in which aspects of medieval culture were predicated upon an interaction between medical and religious discourses, particularly those inflected by contemporary gendered ideologies. The essays interrogate this convergence broadly in a number of different ways: textually, conceptually, historically, socially and culturally. They argue for an inextricable relationship between the physical and spiritual in accounts of health, illness and disability, and demonstrate how medical, religious and gender discourses were integrated in medieval culture.
Licence: CC BY-NC 3.0
Medicine – Religion – Spirituality: Global Perspectives on Traditional, Complementary, and Alternative Healing
In modern societies the functional differentiation of medicine and religion is the predominant paradigm. Contemporary therapeutic practices and concepts in healing systems, such as Transpersonal Psychology, Ayurveda, as well as Buddhist and Anthroposophic medicine, however, are shaped by medical as well as religious or spiritual elements. This book investigates configurations of the entanglement between medicine, religion, and spirituality in Europe, Asia, North America, and Africa.
Licence: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 (Note: This is an open access chapter which restricts remixing and adapting).
On the Significance of Religion for Global Diplomacy
What could it mean, in terms of strengthening multilateral diplomacy, if the UN, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the European Union, and other regional diplomatic frameworks engaged more creatively with a religious perspective? In this ground-breaking volume it is argued that international organisations, backed by governments, can and should use their convening power to initiate new, multi-layered frameworks of engagement, inclusive of the representatives of religion.
Licence: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 (Note: This is an open access chapter which restricts remixing and adapting).
On the Significance of Religion in Conflict and Conflict Resolution
In this essay collection, the authors analyze the role of religion in conflict and conflict resolution. They do so from the perspectives of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, while bringing different disciplines into play, including peace and conflict studies, religious studies, theology and ethics.
Licence: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 (Note: This is an open access chapter which restricts remixing and adapting).
Philosophy of Western Religions (Levin et al.) (LibreTexts)
Available through LibreTexts, this open textbook is appropriate for an introductory philosophy of religion class.
Includes: Review and discussion questions
Licence: CC BY 4.0
Politics, Religion and Gender: Framing and Regulating the Veil
Heated debates about Muslim women’s veiling practices have regularly attracted the attention of European policymakers over the last decade. Seeking to establish why the issue has become part of the disciplinary practices of some European countries but not of others, this work brings together an important collection of interpretative research regarding the current debates on the veil in Europe, offering an interdisciplinary scope and European-wide setting. Brought together through a common research methodology, the contributors focus on the different religious, political and cultural meanings of the veiling issue across eight countries and develop a comparative explanation of veiling regimes. This work will be of great interest to students and scholars of religion & politics, gender studies and multiculturalism.
Licence: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 (Note: This is an open access chapter which restricts remixing and adapting).
Power and Religion in Baroque Rome
This study analyzes the ways in which a variety of cultural manifestations were the necessary preconditions for (religious) policy and power in the Rome of Urban VIII (1623-1644).
Licence: CC BY-NC 4.0
The Religion of the Ancient Celts
This digitized book was written in 1911 by John Arnott MacCulloch.
Licence: Public Domain
The Sacred and the Sovereign
This collection features seven articles which tackle the subject of religion and its resurgence in international politics from diverse approaches.
Licence: CC BY-NC 4.0
Sacred Views of Saint Francis: The Sacro Monte di Orta
This is the first significant scholarly work on the Sacro Monte di Orta in English. It includes a catalogue of artists, over one hundred photographs, maps, short essays on each chapel, and longer essays that examine some of the most significant chapels in greater detail.
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Six Ways of Being Religious: A Framework for Comparative Studies of Religion
The book proposes the hypothesis that six generic ways of being religious may be found in any large-scale religious tradition such as Christianity or Buddhism or Islam or Hinduism: sacred rite, right action, devotion, shamanic mediation, mystical quest, and reasoned inquiry. These are recurrent ways in which, socially and individually, devout members of these traditions take up and appropriate their stories and symbols in order to draw near to, and come into right relationship with, what the traditions attest to be the ultimate reality.
Includes: Chapter summaries, study questions, and glossary
Licence: CC BY-NC 4.0
Reviews: Available through the Open Textbook Library
South and East Asian Philosopher Reader: An Open Educational Resource
This Introduction to South and East Asian Philosopher Reader was developed as an Open Textbook for use in a lower-level Philosophy course at a California community college. It contains many of the classic and important works in East and South Asian Philosophies as well as some historical and biographical information. This work is effectively an anthology of many important works in Philosophy that are freely available.
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Studying the Bible: The Tanakh and Early Christian Writings
Studying the Bible: The Tanakh and Early Christian Writings is a university-level, textbook introduction to the study of the Bible, its literary forms, and historical and cultural contexts. This textbook examines the Hebrew Bible (also known as the Tanakh) and the early Christian writings of the New Testament. It is an introduction to the analysis of biblical texts, their histories, and their interpretations. The emphasis throughout this textbook is on the literary qualities of these biblical texts as well as their cultural and historical contexts.
Licence: CC BY-NC 4.0
Reviews: Available through the Open Textbook Library
World Religions: the Spirit Searching
This text, while full of various ways that people have searched and discovered and created, covers a few of the bigger traditions in our world. Each chapter introduces the reader to some ideas from that specific tradition that enlighten them as to how a specific group of people think, believe, and live.
Includes: Videos, links to resources
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
The Years of Jesuit Suppression, 1773-1814: Survival, Setbacks, and Transformation
This book covers the forty-one years between the Society of Jesus’s papal suppression in 1773 and its eventual restoration in 1814. Please note that although this book is free to read and redistribute, it is not licensed for editing or remixing.
Licence: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 (Note: This is an open access chapter which restricts remixing and adapting).
South Asian Studies
Hindu Pluralism: Religion and the Public Sphere in Early Modern South India
In Hindu Pluralism, Elaine M. Fisher complicates the traditional scholarly narrative of the unification of Hinduism. By calling into question the colonial categories implicit in the term “sectarianism,” Fisher’s work excavates the pluralistic textures of precolonial Hinduism in the centuries prior to British intervention. Drawing on previously unpublished sources in Sanskrit, Tamil, and Telugu, Fisher argues that the performance of plural religious identities in public space in Indian early modernity paved the way for the emergence of a distinctively non-Western form of religious pluralism. This work provides a critical resource for understanding how Hinduism developed in the early modern period, a crucial era that set the tenor for religion’s role in public life in India through the present day.
Licence: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 (Note: This is an open access chapter which restricts remixing and adapting).
South and East Asian Philosopher Reader: An Open Educational Resource
This Introduction to South and East Asian Philosopher Reader was developed as an Open Textbook for use in a lower-level Philosophy course at a California community college. It contains many of the classic and important works in East and South Asian Philosophies as well as some historical and biographical information. This work is effectively an anthology of many important works in Philosophy that are freely available.
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
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