Four Testaments

Tao Te Ching, Analects, Dhammapada, Bhagavad Gita: Sacred Scriptures of Taoism, Confucianism, Buddhism, and Hinduism

Foreword by Francis X. Clooney Contributions by David Bruce, K. E. Eduljee, Richard Freund, Cyril Glassé, Victor H. Mair, Jacqueline Mates-Muchin, Arvind Sharma Edited by Brian Arthur Brown

Not available to order

Publication date:

08 July 2016

Length of book:

496 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

ISBN-13: 9781442265783

Four Testaments brings together four foundational texts from world religions—the Tao Te Ching, Dhammapada, Analects of Confucius, and Bhagavad Gita—inviting readers to experience them in full, to explore possible points of connection and divergence, and to better understand people who practice these traditions. Following Brian Arthur Brown’s award-winning Three Testaments: Torah, Gospel, Quran, this volume of Four Testaments features essays by esteemed scholars to introduce readers to each tradition and text, as well as commentary on unexpected ways the ancient Zoroastrian tradition might connect Taoism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Hinduism, as well as the Abrahamic faiths. Four Testaments aims to foster deeper religious understanding in our interconnected and contentious world.

Contents

Foreword by Francis X. Clooney, SJ, Director of the Harvard Center for Study of World Religions

Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Prologue: Four Fingers and a Thumb - Tao Te Ching, Analects, Dhammapada, Gita, and Avesta

Book One
From the Foundations of the Earth to Our Common Spiritual Ancestors

Introduction: East and West Meeting at the Altar of Religion by Cyril Glassé

Exordium: What We Once Knew, by Karl Friedrich Geldner

Preface: Why the Z Factor Matters

Through the Mists of Time: Vedic and Semitic Prehistories Connecting East and West
A Priest Becomes a Prophet: Commissioned at the River
A Chance Meeting at the Crossroads of History: A Prelude to the Babylonian Interface between Proto Vedic and Proto Semitic Religions
The Silk Route: The Axis of the Axial Age
The Extant Avesta: A Few Pieces of the Jigsaw Puzzle
The Fraternal Twins of World Religion: Monism for Monotheists

Book Two
The Taoist Testament

Introduction: Magi in China and Intellectual Ferment in Eurasia at the Middle of the First MillenniumBCE by Professor Victor H. Mair, Professor of Chinese, Philadelphia University

Preface: Magic and iMagination

Tao Te Ching: translated by Victor H. Mair

Book Three
The Confucian Testament

Introduction: Innovation vs.Tradition by Jacqueline Mates-Muchin, Senior Rabbi, Temple Sinai, Oakland

Preface: Fireworks East and West

The Analects: translated by James Legge

Book Four
The Buddhist Testament

Introduction: The Indian Origins of Buddhism by Professor Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Oxford

Preface: King Akbar’s Perfect Religion

Dhammapada: translated by S. Radhakrishnan

Book Five
The Hindu Testament

Introduction: Reciprocal Illumination by Professor Arvind Sharma, Birks Professor in Comparative Religion, McGill University

Preface: With Notes from Mahatma Mohandas Gandhi

Bhagavad Gita: translated by Gandhi

Book Six
The Z Factor

Introduction: Eastern Influence in Western Texts by Dr. David Bruce

Preface: New Frontiers in Scriptural Studies

Israel in Exile: God as Israel’s Only Redeemer
Up from the River Again, With a Promise of Paradise: Jesus as a Zoroastrian Saoshyant, the Redeemer of the World
Chinvat Bridge – The Final Judgement: Zoroastrian Scriptures and “Previous Revelations” Corrected in the Quran

Book Seven
The Dead Zee Scrolls

Introduction: Digging Through Time by Professor Richard Freund

Preface: A Model for the Twenty First Century

Among the Ruins: Tablets and Cylinders
From Aurel Stein to Mary Boyce and Beyond: Controversies in the Twentieth Century

Epilogue: The Resurrection of Zoroaster: A Prophet for the Twenty First Century

Dancing on the Edge of Tombs: More Treasure Than Anyone Imagined

Appendix: Images of the Original Eastern Testaments

Preface to Images: The Edict of Cyrus and the Chinese Cuneiform Bones by E. K. Eduljee

Bibliography

Index

About the Editor

About the Contributors

This is an insightful inquiry into the connections between the primary scriptures of the East, in the context of their cultures, and the primary scriptures of the West. The volume expertly affirms the interconnections between various textual traditions. It is a welcome addition to the ever-growing field of intertextual studies.