Meaning of Life Stuff

Cover of a book titled 'Tree of Knowledge, Tree of Life' by Joseph Erbal Konrad, featuring a still life painting of a green apple, a pear, and several grapes and peaches on a dark background.
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TREE OF KNOWLEDGE, TREE OF LIFE

A 21st CENTURY INTRODUCTION TO THE BIBLE FOR THE MODERN READER

Why do we suffer?  What does it mean to love? How are spirit, death and life intermingled? What is Heaven? Who is Christ, and what does he ask of us? How literally is the Bible to be taken, and when? Must one believe in a literal 6-day creation or else be a ‘bad’ Christian? What is theosis, and is it your destiny?

Spanning the history of the cosmos from its inception to its consummation, Tree of Knowledge, Tree of Life walks modern readers through the Bible, beginning with a history of how the Book came to be. This comprehensive account leaps from myth into archaeology and then documented history, spanning centuries and culminating in an encounter with the authentic Christ.

Using tools ranging from cultural anthropology and geology to archaeology and hermeneutics, Tree of Knowledge, Tree of Life is at once faithful and skeptical, tradi­tionalist and very modern, drawing the essential lessons out of the Biblical narrative to assemble the vast arc that ends at the neighborhood church on the corner today. Tree of Knowledge, Tree of Life seeks to define the chasm between the depths of the unknown and the limits of human understanding.

Stylized letters spelling 'JEK' in a modern, interconnected font with blue outlines, against a black background.
A painting depicting the Virgin Mary on the left with her hands crossed over her chest, wearing a blue robe and a golden halo. On the right, a stylized angel with a golden halo, draped in flowing robes, is gesturing with one finger raised. The background features swirling green and yellow patterns with a distant landscape. The title at the top reads, "The Life, Death, and Times of the Virgin Mary," and the author's name, Joseph Erbal Konrad, appears in red at the bottom.
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THE LIFE, DEATH, AND TIMES OF THE VIRGIN MARY

A MEMOIR OF MARYAM THE THEOTOKOS

In a 1st century Roman city, an exiled old woman on her deathbed is visited by a mysterious stranger.

A secret academic project is sending time-travelers into the past to plumb the secrets of history. But a mysterious shield prevents visitors from seeing and learning the truth about the most dangerous and polarizing event in history… the life, ministry, and death of Christ. Now, a traveler has located his mother, living in an obscure slum in Ephesus and revered by her son’s followers as theotokos…God-Bearer.

As she prepares for her final parting, Maryam tells him the story of her life, and the secrets of her son’s. From her unusual childhood weaving tapestry in the Jerusalem Temple to her forbidden friendship with a Roman soldier, from her unconventional marriage and her world-changing son, to her final years in foreign exile, "The Life, Death and Times of the Virgin Mary” takes you behind the woman in the Gospels to explore the trials and triumphs of the most mysterious and revered woman of all time...

Mary.