Understanding is probably the least studied and least understood type of learning within the cognitive domain. Fortunately, it is an area which is currently receiving a lot of attention from learning psychologists.
Knowledge and understanding must go hand in hand. Knowledge, without understanding, translates to a shallow collection of facts, that have no real, or intelligent, application.
One doesn’t have to be a committed and practicing Satanist in order to study the doctrines and beliefs of its followers. But reading about them, and trying to gain a true understanding of how these believes evolved, and why they have been adopted, may do much to dispel the many misconceptions that surround this area of philosophy.
As with every journey of discovery, it is essential to undertake serious research, and accumulate the facts. Knowing where to find suitable material, and knowing how to access its worth, is often the first, and biggest, stumbling block. For many, it is a huge barrier to knowledge and genuine understanding.
Paul Elvidge’s work is an excellent place to start. He is an exceptional writer, who actually wants to share his knowledge with the reader. The material, whist detailed and extensive, is written in a style that makes for easy reading.
Elvidge, doesn’t appear to be driven by an egoistical desire to bombard his readers with his own opinions. Nor does he attempt to arrogantly force his ideas on them. Instead he’s developed an interesting vehicle to share his knowledge, and then leaves the reader, to drawn their own conclusions, and to decide how to use the information he provides.
Elvidge carefully explains difficult concepts, and tries hard to present his ideas in simple language; which is neither, condescending, or elitist. This work has the potential to unite knowledge and understanding successfully, and it just may dispel some of the fear that the word, Satanism, triggers.

The fifteenth century may be regarded as a period of transition from the ideals of the Middle Ages to those of modern times. The world was fast becoming more secular in its tendencies, and, as a necessary result, theories and principles that had met till then with almost universal acceptance in literature, in art, in education, and in government, were challenged by many as untenable.
It was, an age of unrest and of great intellectual activity, and at all such times the claims of the Church as the guardian and expounder of Divine Revelation are sure to be questioned. Not that the Church has need to fear inquiry, or that the claims of faith and reason are incompatible, but because some daring spirits are always to be reckoned with, who, by mistaking hypotheses for facts, succeed in convincing themselves and their followers that those in authority are unprogressive, and as such, to be despised.

THE Indian Tantras, which are numerous, constitute the Scripture (Shastra) of the Kaliyuga, and as such are the voluminous source of present and practical orthodox "Hinduism." The Tantra Shastra is, in fact, and whatever be its historical origin, a development of the Vaidika Karmakanda, promulgated to meet the needs of that age. Shiva says: "For the benefit of men of the Kali age, men bereft of energy and dependent for existence on the food they eat, the Kaula doctrine, O auspicious one! is given". To the Tantra we must therefore look if we would understand aright both ritual, yoga, and sadhana of all kinds, as also the general principles of which these practices are but the objective expression.
Yet of all the forms of Hindu Shastra, the Tantra is that which is least known and understood, a circumstance in part due to the difficulties of its subject-matter and to the fact that the key to much of its terminology and method rest with the initiate. The present translation is, in fact, the first published in Europe of any Indian Tantra.

Every religion has its potential to make evil. This is not the guilt of the religion, but of the people promoting it. Islam is disrespected because of the barbarian acts commited by muslims all over the world. Those backward criminals should not stop us getting acquinted with the beautiful side of their religion. This ebook is an ideal introduction to the religion of Islam and to the personality of its founder. While presenting a concise biographical sketch of the only man in history to be thoroughly successful on both religious and secular levels, it provides an intimate look at the Prophet's personal qualities.
Prophet Muhammad was by far the most remarkable man that ever set foot on this earth. He preached a religion, founded a state, built a nation, laid down a moral code, initiated numberless social and political reforms, established a dynamic and powerful society to practice and represent his teachings, and he revolutionized the worlds of human thought and human action for all time.

"Seek for yourself, O man; search for your true self. He who seeks shall find himself in God."
In The Confessions, Saint Augustine addressed himself eloquently and passionately to the enduring spiritual questions that have stirred the minds and hearts of thoughtful men since time began. Written A.D. 397, The Confessions are a history of the young Augustine's fierce struggle to overcome his profligate ways and achieve a life of spiritual grace.
The first ten books of the work relate the story of Augustine's childhood in Numidia; his licentious and riotous youth and early manhood in Carthage, Rome, and Milan; his continuous struggle with evil; his attempts to find an anchor for his faith among the Manicheans and the Neoplatonists; the untiring efforts of his mother, Saint Monnica, to save him from self-destruction; and his ultimate conversion to the Christian faith at the age of thirty-two.
The last three books of The Confessions, unrelated to the preceding account of Saint Augustine's early life, are an allegorical explanation of the Mosaic account of Creation. Throughout the work, the narrative, addressed to God, is interspersed with prayers, meditations, and instructions, many of which today are to be found in the liturgies of all sects of the Christian Church.
The Confessions constitutes perhaps the most moving diary ever recorded of of a soul's journey to grace. Appearing midway in Saint Augustine's prodigious body of theological writings, they stand among the most persuasive works of the sinner-turned-priest who was to exercise a greater influence on Christian thought than any of the other Church fathers.

The treatise "Of the Imitation of Christ" appears to have been originally written in Latin early in the fifteenth century. Its exact date and its authorship are still a matter of debate. Manuscripts of the Latin version survive in considerable numbers all over Western Europe, and they, with the vast list of translations and of printed editions, testify to its almost unparalleled popularity. One scribe attributes it to St. Bernard of Clairvaux; but the fact that is contains a quotation from St. Francis of Assisi, who was born thirty years after the death of St. Bernard, disposes of this theory. In England there exist many manuscripts of the first three books, called "Musica Ecclesiastica," frequently ascribed to the English mystic Walter Hilton. But Hilton seems to have died in 1395, and there is no evidence of the existence of the work before 1400. Many manuscripts scattered throughout Europe ascribe the book to Jean le Charlier de Gerson, the great Chancellor of the University of Paris, who was a leading figure in the Church in the earlier part of the fifteenth century. The most probable author, however, especially when the internal evidence is considered, is Thomas Haemmerlein, known also as Thomas a Kempis, from his native town of Kempen, near the Rhine, about forty miles north of Cologne. Haemmerlein, who was born in 1379 or 1380, was a member of the order of the Brothers of Common Life, and spent the last seventy years of his life at Mount St. Agnes, a monastery of Augustinian canons in the diocese of Utrecht. Here he died on July 26, 1471, after an uneventful life spent in copying manuscripts, reading, and composing, and in the peaceful routine of monastic piety.
With the exception of the Bible, no Christian writing has had so wide a vogue or so sustained a popularity as this. And yet, in one sense, it is hardly an original work at all. Its structure it owes largely to the writings of the medieval mystics, and its ideas and phrases are a mosaic from the Bible and the Fathers of the early Church. But these elements are interwoven with such delicate skill and a religious feeling at once so ardent and so sound that it promises to remain, what it has been for five hundred years, the supreme call and guide to spiritual aspiration.

Never Before Available in Paperback, Louis Ginzberg's landmark seven-volume The Legends of the Jews assembles the many elaborations and embellishments of Biblical stories that flourished in the centuries following the Bible's own creation. Ginzberg devoted most of his life to gathering these legends from their original sources - written in Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Syrian, Aramaic, Ethiopic, Arabic, Persian, and Old Slavic - and reproducing them completely, accurately, and vividly. He presents them in their traditional Biblical sequence and reconciles the sometimes contradictory versions of the same stories found in different sources. In addition to four volumes of the legends themselves, The Legends of the Jews includes two indispensable volumes of notes, which provide the sources for every legend, as well as a comprehensive index to the people, places, and motifs found in the legends and their sources.
"A truly monumental work of scholarship...Read for pleasure by millions of Jews and Christians, consulted by students, scholars, and ordinary folk, The Legends of the Jews has itself become legendary, the magnum opus of one of the twentieth century's greatest and most original Jewish scholars"--James R. Kugel, author of The Bible as It Was

According to Eknath Easwaran, if all of the Buddhist sutras had been lost except the Dhammapada, it alone would be enough for readers to understand and appreciate the wisdom of the Buddha. The language of the Dhammapada is as lucid and flowing as the Psalms or the Sermon on the Mount, and this is why it is one of the most loved and remembered of all Buddhist sutras. Its subject matter, succinctly, is about training the mind, which leads to kind thoughts and deeds, which bring peace and freedom from suffering. If you are interested in reading one of the gems of Buddhist literature, this is a good place to start; and if you are looking for a great version of this beloved scripture, you can't do better. Like all great world scripture, the verses here reward rereading and reflection, prompting you to "strive for wisdom always.
Undoubtedly one of the greatest teachers in history, the Buddha has had an immeasurable influence on the human race. He taught that our suffering stems from desire and that the only way to remove desire is to purify the heart. Dhamma means law, discipline, justice, virtue, truth -- that which holds things together. Pada means way, path, step, foot. So, The Dhammapada is the path of virtue, or the way of truth.

Thus we see, from the various inscriptions, both Babylonian and Assyrian-the former of an extremely early period-the growth and development, with at least one branching off, of one of the most important religious systems of the ancient world. It is not so important for modern religion as the development of the beliefs of the Hebrews, but as the creed of the people from which the Hebrew nation sprang, and from which, therefore, it had its beginnings, both corporeal and spiritual, it is such as no student of modern religious systems can afford to neglect.
Its legends, and therefore its teachings, as will be seen in these pages, ultimately permeated the Semitic West, and may in some cases even had penetrated Europe, not only through heathen Greece, but also through the early Christians, who, being so many centuries nearer the time of the Assyro-Babylonians, and also nearer the territory which they anciently occupied, than we are, were far better acquainted than the people of the present day with the legends and ideas which they possessed.

“Notwithstanding the variety of theological publications of a devotional class, which are perpetually issuing from the press, the author concurs in the opinion of those who think they can scarcely be too numerous. It may reasonably be hoped, that in proportion to the multiplication of works of this kind, the almost incalculable diversities of taste will be suited; and that those who may be disinclined to one style of writing, or to a particular series of subjects, may be allured by their predilections to the perusal of others.”
See also "Female Scripture Biographies (Vol. II)"

After completing his monumental work, The Principles of Psychology, William James turned his attention to serious consideration of such important religious and philosophical questions as the nature and existence of God, immortality of the soul, and free will and determinism. His interest in these questions found expression in various works, including The Varieties of Religious Experience, his classic study of spirituality. Based on the prestigious Gifford Lectures on Natural Religion he gave at the University of Edinburgh in 1901 and 1902, the book--studded with richly concrete examples--documents and discusses various religious states of consciousness and covers such topics as the meaning of the term "divine," the reality of the unseen, the religion of healthy-mindedness, the sick soul, the divided self and the process of its unification, conversion, saintliness, and mysticism.

The suppressed Gospels and Epistle of the Original New Testament of Jesus the Christ, and other portions of the ancient Holy Scriptures. Now extant, attributed to His Apostles, and their Disciples, and venerated by the primitive Christian churches during the first four centuries, but since, after violent disputations forbidden by the Nicene Council, in the reign of the Emperor Constantine and omitted from the Catholics and Protestant editions of the New Testament, by it's compilers. Translated from the original tongues, with historical references to their authenticity, by Archbishop Wake.

The author writes: To the ordinary public--notwithstanding the immense amount of work which has of late been done on this subject--the connection between Paganism and Christianity still seems rather remote. Indeed the common notion is that Christianity was really a miraculous interposition into and dislocation of the old order of the world; and that the pagan gods (as in Milton's Hymn on the Nativity) fled away in dismay before the sign of the Cross, and at the sound of the name of Jesus. Doubtless this was a view much encouraged by the early Church itself--if only to enhance its own authority and importance; yet, as is well known to every student, it is quite misleading and contrary to fact. The main Christian doctrines and festivals, besides a great mass of affiliated legend and ceremonial, are really quite directly derived from, and related to, preceding Nature worships; and it has only been by a good deal of deliberate mystification and falsification that this derivation has been kept out of sight.

Chesterton’s second novel chronicles a hot dispute between two Scotsmen, a Roman Catholic and an atheist, whose fanatically held opinions inspire a host of comic adventures. The story’s allegorical levels vigorously explore the debate between theism and atheism.
Evan Maclan is a passionate and fiery young Catholic. He is outraged one day by an editorial he reads in The Atheist and vents his anger by smashing the window of the paper's office. He then challenges the editor, Turnbull, to a duel. The feuding men are thwarted at every turn in their attempt to find a suitable place for their fight. While the search goes on they continue their theological debate. They eventually arrive at a position of acceptance and mutual understanding before the story reaches its extremely powerful conclusion.