Four Testaments

Brian Arthur Brown is an independent scholar and a United Church of Canada minister. He is the author or editor of several books, including the award-winning Three Testaments: Torah, Gospel, Quran and Noah’s Other Son.

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

1.Through the Mists of Time: Vedic and Semitic Prehistories Connecting East and West
2.A Priest Becomes a Prophet: Commissioned at the River
3.A Chance Meeting at the Crossroads of History: A Prelude to the Babylonian Interface between Proto Vedic and Proto Semitic Religions
4.The Silk Route: The Axis of the Axial Age
5.The Extant Avesta: A Few Pieces of the Jigsaw Puzzle
6.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 Millennium BCE by Professor Victor H. Mair, Professor of Chinese, Philadelphia University

Preface: Magic and iMagination

7. 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

8.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

9.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

10.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

11.Israel in Exile: God as Israel’s Only Redeemer
12.Up from the River Again, With a Promise of Paradise: Jesus as a Zoroastrian Saoshyant, the Redeemer of the World
13.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

14.Among the Ruins: Tablets and Cylinders
15.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