The north and the west and the south are good hunting ground, but it is forbidden to go east. It is forbidden to go to any of the Dead Places except to search for metal and then he who touches the metal must be a priest or the son of a priest. Afterwards, both the man and the metal must be purified. These are the rules and the laws; they are well made. It is forbidden to cross the great river and look upon the place that was the Place of the Gods-this is most strictly forbidden. We do not even say its name though we know its name. It is there that spirits live, and demons-it is there that there are the ashes of the Great Burning. These things are forbidden- they have been forbidden since the beginning of time.

Presents Benét's short story of a young tribesman's ritual journey across forbidden land in search of knowledge, accompanied by questions and exercises about the text.

After the Great Burning, when fire fell out of the sky, a young priest explores the forbidden Place of the Gods and discovers what kind of beings lived there before their cities were destroyed.

A young Israelite woman is captured by a mercenary Scythian prince. Driven toward Babylon by both hatred and hope, she endures captivity to reunite with her husband. But will he be there when she reaches Babylon? Can they find what they seek when they meet the prophet Ezekial. . . by the waters of Babylon?

When twelve-year-old Ya'el is taken prisoner by the -Babylonians, her ability to write saves her life. A girl scribe, unique in the Empire, she's destined for slavery in the palace of King Nebuchadnezzar. Days later, her ruined city of Jerusalem is far behind. She struggles to survive on the long brutal trek, while strange dreams disturb her sleep. Her impulsiveness and passion for learning earn her hostility from fellow prisoners and murderous hatred from Babylonian guards. Desperate to avoid her looming fate, she's forced to confront her own complicity in the vitriol directed at her. And the dreams are getting stranger.

A guide to biblically shaped worship, which has the greatest missional impact in a post-Christian culture By the Waters of Babylon examines a relationship between worship, culture, and evangelism that is centered in a desire for biblical fidelity rather than cultural relevance. Imagine how the Hebrews felt during their years of captivity in Babylon. How could they sing the songs they once sang in the spender of Jerusalem now that they sat in exile? Christian worship in the West faces many of the same challenges as this tragic account of Israel's captivity. By all accounts Christendom is dead, and unbiblical beliefs have progressively permeated Western thought, expectations, and culture. So how should churches respond to this seismic shift in their relationship with an increasingly post-Christian culture while still following the biblical mandate to reach that culture with the gospel of Jesus Christ? By the Waters of Babylon will help Christians wrestle through this critical issue of the relationship between Christian worship and evangelistic witness, especially in the context of an increasingly hostile culture. The author demonstrates that biblically regulated, gospel-shaped corporate worship that communicates God's truth through appropriate cultural forms will have the most missional impact in a post-Christian context.

Pulitzer Prizing author Stephen Vincent Benét's By the Waters of Babylon, is the first, most influential work of American post-apocalyptic fiction of the twentieth century. Its haunting story of a tribal priest who investigates the ruins of an ancient city is an unforgettable and challenging reminder of both the fragility of civilization and the hope for human development. This volume also contains six other stories of "Fantasy and Prophecy," including The King of the Cats, a comic fable of human and animal transmutation, selected by the Library of America as one of the outstanding works of fantastic fiction in the past two centuries. The collection includes: By the Waters of Babylon The Curfew Tolls The King of the Cats Doc Mellhorn and the Pearly Gates The Last of the Legions The Blood of the Martyrs Into Egypt