{"product_id":"9781620405154","title":"Passwords to Paradise : How Languages Have Re-invented World Religions","description":"\u003cstrong\u003ePasswords to Paradise\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor(s): Nicholas Ostler\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSo opens the Gospel of John, an ancient text translated into almost every language, at once a compelling and beguiling metaphor for the Christian story of the Beginning. To further complicate matters, the words we read now are in any number of languages that would have been unknown or unrecognizable at the time of their composition. The gospel may have been originally dictated or written in Aramaic, but our only written source for the story is in Greek. Today, as your average American reader of the New Testament picks up his or her Bible off the shelf, the phrase as it appears has been translated from various linguistic intermediaries before its current manifestation in modern English. How to understand these words then, when so many other translators, languages, and cultures have exercised some level of influence on them?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eChristian tradition is not unique in facing this problem. All religions--if they have global aspirations--have to change in order to spread their influence, and often language has been the most powerful agent thereof. \u003ci\u003ePasswords to Paradise\u003c\/i\u003e explores the effects that language difference and language conversion have wrought on the world's great faiths, spanning more than two thousand years. It is an original and intriguing perspective on the history of religion by a master linguistic historian.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eReview(s):\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Impressively vast in scope and content.\" —\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"For those fascinated by linguistic transitions, this impressive study is a feast.\" —\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Ostler's extensive research and well-drawn conclusions . . . make this an intriguing read.\" —\u003ci\u003eShelf Awareness\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Lucid, erudite and elegant.” —\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review on AD INFINITUM\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Informative and fascinating . . . Ostler's treatment of Latin as a mother to  the supple vernacular tongues we call Romance languages is particularly  good, and his evaluation of the Renaissance humanists and the way in  which they may have loved Latin to death is provocative.” —\u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times on AD INFINITUM\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“What a fascinating book . . . highlights the many currents  that change language, that change peoples and nations. Told with  tenderness, packed with facts, quotations, jests and illustrations, this  is a book that earns the great story it tells.” —\u003ci\u003ePhiladelphia Inquirer on AD INFINITUM\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eISBN:  9781620405154\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e ","brand":"Bloomsbury Press","offers":[{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":40596162838734,"sku":"9781620405154","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0600\/7029\/7806\/products\/getimage_6c79de6e-5e82-4b9f-94a8-dc01f31e136f.jpg?v=1637850990","url":"https:\/\/pickwickbookshop.com\/products\/9781620405154","provider":"Pickwick Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}