David Noel Freedman (1922-2008) was a prolific, influential biblical scholar and the longtime holder of an endowed chair in Hebrew biblical studies at the University of California, San Diego.
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Reviews
Brian C. Wilson --Western Michigan University "The Rivers of Paradise is a rarity among scholarly works on religion today, as it can be read profitably by specialists and general readers alike. Students who are looking for brief yet sophisticated introductions to Judaism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Christianity, and Islam will find these essays engagingly written and satisfyingly detailed. Specialists, on the other hand, will find a book that takes comparative religion seriously and that boldly redefines the contentious category of 'world religion' through the lens of Weberian sociology. Not all who read The Rivers of Paradise will agree with the authors' assessments, but the book will spark debate, and for this reason alone it will make an ideal text for both undergraduate and graduate courses in religious studies." Willard G. Oxtoby --University of Toronto "No religious tradition begins in a vacuum. This book's authorial team ably explains what we can hope to know of the varying lives and times of five important religious founder figures."