Grammar! For many of us, the word triggers memories of finger-wagging schoolteachers, and of wrestling with the ambiguous and complicated rules of using formal language. But what is grammar? In fact, it's the integral basis of how we speak and write. As such, a refined awareness of grammar opens a world of possibilities for both your pleasure in the English language and your skill in using it, in both speech and the written word.

Between 1861 and 1865, the clash of the greatest armies the Western hemisphere had ever seen turned small towns, little-known streams, and obscure meadows in the American countryside into names we will always remember. In those great battles, those streams ran red with blood-and the United States was truly born.

Whether complete or only fragmentary, the 930 extant Dead Sea Scrolls irrevocably altered how we look at and understand the foundations of faith and religious practice. Now you can get a comprehensive introduction to this unique series of archaeological documents, and to scholars' evolving understanding of their authorship and significance, with these 24 lectures. Learn what the scrolls are, what they contain, and how the insights they offered into religious and ancient history came into focus.

個々の物語は聞いたことあるけれども？

England: From the Fall of Rome to the Norman Conquest takes you through the mists of time to the rugged landscape of the British Isles. Over the course of 24 sweeping lectures, Professor Jennifer Paxton of The Catholic University of America surveys the forging of a great nation from a series of warring kingdoms and migrating peoples. From Germanic tribes to Viking invasions to Irish missionaries, she brings to life an underexamined time and place.

From spirituality to politics and science, the occult has had an astonishing influence on the human experience across the centuries. It may surprise you to learn that everyday activities like attending church services or reading your daily horoscope all fit the broad definition of the occult. As you will see in the 24 illuminating episodes of Secrets of the Occult, the mystic and obscure are threaded through our ordinary lives in more ways than you may realize.

The Holy Roman Empire lasted 1,000 years, far longer than ancient Rome. Yet this formidable dominion never inspired the awe of its predecessor. Voltaire quipped that it was neither holy, Roman, nor an empire. Yet as Peter H. Wilson shows, the Holy Roman Empire tells a millennial story of Europe better than the histories of individual nation-states.

昭和を代表する禅僧・山田無文老師が、本文262文字に集約された仏教の真髄『般若心経』を分かりやすい言葉で解き明かした『般若心経』(山田無文著/禅文化研究所刊)を、プロのナレーターが朗読いたしました。お釈迦様の時代の話から、ご本人の体験談に至るまで、様々な話を例に出しつつ山田無文老師が語った言葉を読み起こします。また、大本山妙心寺塔頭 慧照院住職/妙心寺派法式梵唄講師 吹田良忠(ふきた・りょうちゅう)和尚に読経頂いた般若心経の読経も収録いたしました。般若心経の理解を深める事にとどまらず、幅広く仏教について学べる上に、歴史上の名僧のエピソード等も興味深く聴いて頂けるオーディオブックです。 ※本商品は『般若心経』(禅文化研究所刊 山田無文著ISBN:978-4-88182-188-6 1,682円(税込))をオーディオ化したものです。(C)Mumon YAMADA

地中海を中心に興亡を繰り返したさまざまな古代文明の世界、すなわち「地中海世界」の歴史を、古代ローマ史研究の第一人者、本村凌二氏が描きつくす。