The significance of the Old Testament for human history and culture is undeniable. Whatever our personal convictions regarding its content, the Old Testament contains the origins of nearly everything we think about God. Variously labeled as the Hebrew Bible, the Tanak, the First Testament, and the Old Testament, among others, this library of texts from ancient Israel has been preserved for more than two thousand years.

Emerging from the polytheistic context of the ancient world, the enduring significance of the Old Testament is to be found in the concept of monotheism. Indeed, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam share in this unique religious legacy. We will discover in this chapter what lies behind the terminology we use when we speak of monotheism, and how the Old Testament perceives and develops the understanding of a singular God. Known to ancient Israel as Yahweh, Israel’s God came to be understood as Creator, source of all, and sovereign over all. Only in time would Israel come to believe that Yahweh was not only its God, and the God Israelites were called to worship, but the one and only God.

This chapter examines the three foundational strands that shaped early Christianity and, in turn, western thought: Judaism, Hellenistic philosophy, and Roman culture. It begins with Judaism, emphasizing its monotheism, prophetic self-criticism, and teleological view of history – features that deeply influenced Christian theology. The Book of Isaiah is central, offering themes of justice, suffering, and messianic hope later interpreted as prefiguring Christ. The chapter then turns to Hellenistic philosophy – especially, Stoicism, Skepticism, and Epicureanism – which informed Christian ideas about the soul, virtue, and the good life. These schools stressed moral discipline and the pursuit of wisdom, values that Christianity absorbed and reinterpreted theologically. The Roman contribution centered on imperial power, civic virtue, and especially the Latin language, which became Christianity’s primary medium in the West. Roman thinkers like Cicero and Virgil helped transmit Greek ideas, emphasizing duty, eloquence, and destiny. These strands – Jewish, Greek, and Roman – were not seamlessly integrated, but their dynamic interaction laid the groundwork for a western intellectual tradition rooted in moral inquiry, historical depth, and a universalizing spiritual vision.

This chapter addresses the role of oxytocin and vasopressin in shaping social behavior, reviewing both human and animal studies. The chapter critiques the early optimism around oxytocin’s ability to foster trust and emotional understanding, providing evidence from failed replication studies and highlighting the effects of sex, context, and brain region-specific interactions. It also assesses clinical research on oxytocin as a potential treatment for autism spectrum disorder, pointing out the limitations of current approaches and the complexity of translating animal research into human applications.

This chapter explores the genetic and cellular foundations of biopsychology, focusing on the diversity that exists at the molecular and cellular levels within the brain. It explains the key processes of gene expression, including DNA transcription and translation, emphasizing how variation in these processes contributes to neuronal diversity. Moreover, this chapter provides a high-level overview of advanced techniques, such as transcriptomics, describing how these techniques are informing the process of classifying neuron types. The chapter also explores cellular anatomy by analyzing the wide range of neuronal shapes and the complexity of their connections. This foundation sets the stage for future discussions of neurotechnologies, for which an understanding of genetic constructs will enable students to better grasp the capabilities of tools like optogenetics and calcium imaging.

In this chapter, we will explore Israel’s book of worship – Psalms. These “songs,” collected over hundreds of years, nevertheless convey timeless expressions of Israel’s faith. This Old Testament collection has been organized into five books, and many of the individual psalms have titles, musical notations, or historical details.

Scholarship in the discipline of form criticism has furthered our understanding of how the original materials (sources behind the present texts) may have functioned in Israel’s life situations (German, Sitz im Leben). In general, we can identify larger categories of praise and lament, and of individual and corporate psalms. Specific forms include hymns, communal and individual laments, thanksgiving songs, and royal psalms. Thus, for example, the form of lament corresponds to a crisis situation; a royal psalm form is situated in events surrounding the king. These forms, preserved and presented as the collected psalms, represent an overview of Israel’s religious worldview. We will not necessarily observe statements of strict monotheism, but we will hear Israel “sing” of Yahweh, who alone is worthy of praise.

This chapter deepens the exploration of Plato’s philosophical project by emphasizing his use of examples – mythic, biographical, and narrative – as central to the acquisition of wisdom. It focuses on Plato’s imaginative range and didactic strategies, especially in his dialogue Phaedo. Socrates emerges as both character and exemplar, a living instance of philosophical integrity whose personal choices – particularly his death – embody the ethical convictions Plato sought to convey. The chapter shows that for Plato, philosophy is less a set of conclusions than a transformative activity, oriented toward the soul’s alignment with truth and the good. Through both argument and myth, Plato guides his readers toward a deeper moral vision, one that integrates eros, memory, and judgment. The importance of imitation, role models, and interior cultivation is highlighted, with particular attention to how genre shapes philosophical meaning. Plato’s educational vision, centered on the whole person, contrasts with modern fragmentary views of reason, challenging us to think of learning as a moral and spiritual enterprise. Wisdom, in this account, is not only a matter of knowledge, but of living in accordance with higher realities glimpsed through story, character, and example

This chapter explores Aristotle’s account of the good life as presented in the Nicomachean Ethics, emphasizing his empirical, observational approach to virtue, social life, and human flourishing. Aristotle presents human beings as inherently social and defines virtues—such as generosity, magnanimity, and justice—as traits expressed in habitual action and observed within social contexts. Justice, in particular, emerges as a “complete” virtue, operative only within the framework of law and reciprocity. Aristotle also articulates the importance of friendship (philia), distinguishing between lesser forms based on utility or pleasure and the highest form—friendship grounded in shared virtue. Intellectual virtues are treated alongside moral ones, with phronêsis (prudence or practical wisdom) guiding right action. Ultimately, Aristotle identifies contemplation as the highest human activity, likening it to divine activity. Though only attainable by few, contemplation fulfills the intellect’s potential and brings human beings closest to the divine. The chapter concludes by reflecting on Aristotle’s conception of divinity, the nature of blessedness, and how these inform a hierarchical vision of reality in which the contemplative life represents the fullest expression of human excellence.

First and Second Kings continue the stories of monarchic rule. Textual sources from the Assyrian and Babylonian Empires aid us considerably in the historical reconstruction of these centuries, but we will quickly observe that a religious agenda is central. First, the narrative accounts are connected by a recurring literary formula that evaluates each king – not primarily on political and military achievements but on the basis of that king’s faithfulness to Yahweh. Insertions of the so-called Elijah and Elisha cycles further demonstrate a concern to emphasize prophetic authority, which demands exclusive loyalty to Yahweh.

Second, content bears out the overriding religious motivation. For example, Solomon is associated with the great wisdom tradition in Israel. Nevertheless, for these biblical authors success is measured by obedience to Yahweh, and Solomon’s devotion to Yahweh is compromised because of his many wives and religious unfaithfulness. His downfall is also Israel’s – the United Monarchy is divided into the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. Religious unfaithfulness, exhibited by most of the kings, accounts for the fall of Israel to the Assyrians in 722 bceand of Jerusalem (Judah) to the Babylonians in 586 bce.

This chapter generalizes entanglement to multipartite systems, focusing on robustness and scalability across qudits.

We have already encountered prophets in the historical books. We will look now at four of the Old Testament’s writing prophets: Amos, Hosea, Micah, and Isaiah. Eighth-century Israel witnessed increased accessibility to writing and an expanded role for the prophet. The recurrent phrase, “Thus says Yahweh” (messenger formula), epitomizes the primary role of the prophet as a messenger speaking on behalf of God.

Sources from Mari in the eighteenth century bceand others from seventh-century Assyria verify the antiquity of divination practices, of which prophecy is a type. Israel demonstrated opposition to certain divination practices, but its prophets consistently delivered messages from Yahweh, distinguished by their ethical and moral vision. Of the three basic types of Old Testament prophetic speech, prophecies are the most common and represent messages to an individual or corporate entity. Utterances are the confessions or prayers of the prophet to God, and narratives offer historical details corresponding to the prophet. Two important features will become evident as we explore the content of these books: covenant loyalty to Yahweh and the international extent of Yahweh’s authority.

This chapter introduces tensor networks as tools for describing multipartite systems and encoding correlations.