Christian Churches, denominations, groups Books

Book SynopsisAn engaging, richly illustrated account of parish churches and churchgoers in England, from the Anglo-Saxons to the mid-sixteenth centuryTrade Review“Christmas is the time of year when people are most likely to attend divine service, and Going to Church in Medieval England . . . tells us how they did it 800 years ago. . . . Orme also describes how the churches that punctuate our landscape came about, and who ran them.”—Simon Heffer, Daily Telegraph, “2021’s Best Histories”“Nicholas Orme writes with an engaging lightness of touch while clearly laying out the functions, use and management of medieval parish churches. The result is so skilfully, successfully and thoroughly executed that it belies the complexity and scope of the task.”—John Jenkins, Times Literary Supplement“Orme’s book, a vast intricate mosaic resting atop a mountain of research, is often funny, often moving, and always fascinating. You finish it with a real feeling for the lives of normal people (so often absent from history books) in a world of great contrasts . . . a world of humour, and of sadness; a world not entirely unlike our own.”—Duncan Morrison, Daily Telegraph“A thrilling reconstruction of what you might have seen in church 800 years ago, from parishioners licking relics to noblemen punching vicars in the face.”—Daily Telegraph“Eye-opening. . . . Orme deftly shows how church language became part of everyday English.”—Harry Mount, Spectator“Prof Orme’s beady eye for lively human interest makes him very good company.”—Ysenda Maxtone Graham, Country Life“Orme explains in impressive detail what churches (and church-going) were like in the Middle Ages.”—The Week“A distinguished and highly accessible contribution to the unfolding scholarly landscape of this subject. . . . Orme is known for his scholarship on medieval children. Despite the fact that he concludes that they are an elusive presence, he provides some fascinating details.”—Kitty Turley, The Tablet“It is perhaps the particular virtue of this book that its author is every bit as interested in the everyday life of the church as he is in the sacred highpoints of sacred theatre and the beauties of medieval architecture. . . . This is, in other words, a complete picture of a whole world.”—William Whyte, History Today “Orme is an authoritative and accessible guide, and this exhaustive and lavishly illustrated study is a must-read.”—Katherine Harvey, Church Times“Professor Orme’s detailed, but very readable (and affordable) book, brings together recent scholarship to provide an accessible account of how people worshipped and practised religion in their local church. . . . It is definitely a ‘must have’ addition to any medievalist’s bookshelf.”—Richard Halsey, Friends of Friendless Churches“The book provides an accessible account of what happened in the daily and weekly services and how churches marked the seasons of Christmas, Lent, Easter and summer.”—Methodist Recorder“Nicholas Orme provides a vivid and detailed look at what it was actually like to attend church in medieval times—the sights, sounds and smells. He includes delightful details about seating arrangements, how the interior of the church would have looked, what happened to those who didn’t attend church, and much more. . . . An engaging read that will stay with you long after you finish the last page.”—Rachel Bellerby, Family Tree Magazine“Yale has served Orme especially well, with superb colour illustrations integrated straight into this text. . . . His subject is inherently visual in all its aspects, from the architecture of church buildings to the teeming daily activity that went on inside and around them.”—Diarmaid MacCulloch, London Review of Books“Orme’s mastery of the subject shines through soon enough; given his long and distinguished career, this is hardly a surprise. With a light and accessible touch he leads his readers through the give-and-take of churchgoing from the origins of the parish among the newly converted Anglo-Saxons to the role it inevitably played in the implementation of the Reformation at local level. . . . The depth and detail of his work lies in his characters, both saints and sinners with all their wants, needs, foibles, hopes, and fears.”—Serenhedd James, The Critic“This is a wonderful book; I recommend it to everyone who wants to know what actually happened in a medieval church.”—Heather Falvey, Local Historian“Nicholas Orme’s latest book on the buildings, staffing, congregations, and uses of the medieval church offers instead a broad work that is rich in detail, as it draws together geographical, social and religious complexities into a comprehensive and engaging whole.”—British Catholic History, British Catholic History“This truly fascinating book, packed with extraordinary details, was a joy to read and often a revelation.”—Marc Lloyd, Global Anglican“As well as being highly instructive, this is an enjoyable volume to read, and should be on every church archaeologist’s bookshelves.”—Warwick Rodwell, Medieval Settlement Research“The great strength of the book lies in the fact that the author never confines himself to the prescriptive but constantly strives to uncover what actually happened in medieval English parish churches . . . it will surely become essential reading for anyone seriously interested in religion in England in the Middle Ages.”—Clare Cross, Ecclesiology Today“Alert throughout to change across time, the complexities of sources, and the variety of past experience, Nicholas Orme has written a wonderful book. With great clarity and insight, he captures the human and material reality of quotidian Christian worship across the middle Ages.”—John H. Arnold, author of Belief and Unbelief in the Middle Ages“Drawing on both surviving churches and contemporary literature and attentive to gender, status, and geography, Orme explores what ordinary men and women saw, heard, and experienced when they attended church.”—Katherine L. French, University of Michigan“What actually happened in a medieval church? What was medieval worship like? Turn to this book, and you’ll find answers to all the questions you’ll ever ask.”—Nigel Saul, author of Richard II“For many years Nicholas Orme has been enlightening readers with incisive appreciations of the religious and social institutions of medieval England. Beautifully illustrated throughout, this study brings home to readers the reality of formal Christian witness as experienced by England’s medieval parishioners.”—Roger Bowers, University of Cambridge

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Book Synopsis2020 Christianity Today Book Award Winner for Church/Pastoral Leadership 2019 TGC Ministry Book of the Year Winner Drawing on a lifetime of pastoral experience, The Care of Souls is a beautifully written treasury of proven wisdom which pastors will find themselves turning to again and again. Harold Senkbeil helps remind pastors of the essential calling of the ministry: preaching and living out the Word of God while orienting others in the same direction. And he offers practical and fruitful advice—born out of his five decades as a pastor—that will benefit both new pastors and those with years in the pulpit. In a time when many churches have lost sight of the real purpose of the church, The Care of Souls invites a new generation of pastors to form the godly habits and practical wisdom needed to minister to the hearts and souls of those committed to their care.

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Book SynopsisThe first account of the dissolution of the monasteries for fifty years—exploring its profound impact on the people of Tudor EnglandTrade Review“The most important book on the subject for two generations. . . . Clark’s achievement is unmistakable. . . . Carefully researched, beautifully structured, and courageously argued, The Dissolution of the Monasteries is precise, polemical, and sweeping. It should be instantly recognized as a classic.“—Crawford Gribben, Wall Street Journal“Deeply researched . . . steeped in primary sources, scrupulously polite and anti-sensational. . . . The result may well be the most important book on the English Reformation since Eamon Duffy’s The Stripping of the Altars.”—Dan Jones, Sunday Times“Clark . . . builds up a huge mosaic of life on the eve of the Reformation, taken from letters and law cases, wills and account books.”—Christopher Howse, Daily Telegraph“This is a book about people, though, not ideas, and as a detailed account of an extraordinary human drama with a cast of thousands, it is an exceptional piece of historical writing.”—Lucy Wooding, Times Literary Supplement“A terrific work of scholarship and profoundly dispiriting with it. . . . The big narrative is enlivened by riveting accounts of individuals caught up in the great events.”—Melanie McDonagh, Catholic Herald, “Books of the Year”“James Clark’s absorbing and formidable study presents much that is refreshingly new. . . . It was easy to misread Henry VIII . . . in the 1530s. This is where Clark’s account is at its most rewarding. . . . For there is no sign until the very last twelve months of monastic life that there was any masterplan for complete suppression.”—Diarmaid MacCulloch, London Review of Books“Important and original . . .; it will deservedly become the standard textbook for the next generation of scholars.”—Hugh Willmott, BBC History Magazine“This book is a considerable achievement, absorbing in its detail, not easy to do justice in a short review. Among many striking discussions, there is vivid, wide-ranging treatment of monastic life in late medieval England and Wales.”—Ann Hughes, Times Higher Education Supplement“An impressively detailed study that yields a rich harvest. Clark has unearthed a wealth of overlooked details to challenge centuries of controversy and misconception, and provides a welcome new perspective on Henry VIII, his ‘henchman’ Thomas Cromwell and other powerful members of the court.”—Tracy Borman, BBC History Magazine, “Books of the Year”“One of the most interesting elements of James Clark’s excellent, substantial new book is the epilogue on the afterlife of the religious houses and indeed of the religious themselves—right into Jacobean England.”—Melanie McDonagh, The Tablet“Clark’s epic work fills the gap for a modern readership: he provides a massive account, the first dedicated one in half a century, which, unfortunately for many historians, will mean that an additional such book will hardly be needed again for another 50 years.”—Sean McGlynn, Spectator“It has been decades since we last had a history of the Dissolution and Clark has made excellent use of recent research, including archaeological reports, alongside his own exceptional and extensive work in the archives. . . . This is quite simply the best history yet written on English monasticism in the 16th century, and it will surely remain so for years to come.”—Mathew Lyons, History Today“Invaluable. . . . A major addition to our understanding of the whole process of the Henrician Reformation [and] the fullest account of the Dissolution ever written.”—Eamon Duffy, The Tablet“Most studies with ‘a new history’ in their title have their obsolescence built in. Newness is a quality rarely long retained. Clark’s book is something different: the product of that most impressive of conjunctions—fine historical writing, high analytical intelligence, and Stakhanovite labours in the archives—it takes its subject to a new level. It looks set to be the authoritative account of the dissolution of the monasteries for decades to come.”—John Adamson, Catholic Herald“Direct quotations of records, complete with the original spellings, involves a bit of enjoyable light work to decipher what the subjects are discussing; it is totally engaging as a motif, and enables Clark to draw the reader deep into his narrative.”—Serenhedd James, The Critic“This is an immersive and thought-provoking read that looks at the social changes from all perspectives.”—Family Tree Magazine“A starting point for all future students of the Dissolution. . . . The book’s strongest point is its back-story. . . . You will not read this book for its account of government policy: rather, for its view of how that policy looked and felt to the communities that were destroyed by it.”—Alec Ryrie, Church Times“Immense scholarship . . . an enjoyable and essential read.”—Susan Doran, Journal of Religious History“By any standards this is a remarkable book. . . . It sets the standard for the kind of work that is needed to clarify the process of Reformation.”—Raymond Gillespie, Search“It is hard to see how Clark’s account could be improved upon: it is to be admired not only for its scholarship and attention to detail, but also for the understanding that it generates. . . . Clark has achieved much in this extensive study and it will, in time, become the leading examination of this complex subject.”—Paul Flux, Albion Magazine“A wonderfully researched and engaging account of this terrible calamity.”—Barney White Spunner, Aspects of History“This extraordinary and impressive piece of scholarship, delivered in marvellously clear prose, offers a forensic investigation of how and why, under Henry VIII, monasticism in England was brought to such a swift and merciless end, and charts, as no other work has done, the profound social consequences of this seismic change. This long-awaited study is required reading.”—Suzannah Lipscomb, author of The King Is Dead“Exceptional. . . . The author’s extensive research has unearthed a wealth of previously overlooked details that challenge centuries of controversy, rumour and misconception. As well as providing a fresh perspective on well known characters such as Henry VIII and his ‘henchman’ Thomas Cromwell, the narrative brings the people who lived and worked in the monasteries vividly to life. A stunning achievement.”—Tracy Borman, author of Thomas Cromwell“Establishes Professor Clark as the leading authority on Tudor monasticism and the experience of its end; and it is therefore now the main text in that major field.”—Ronald Hutton, author of The Making of Oliver Cromwell“This is a landmark book. Clark has swept away many old generalisations and assumptions in favour of a much more detailed and nuanced account of this social (as well as religious) revolution. The end result is nothing short of magnificent—yet also intricate, intimate, touchingly human and endlessly fascinating.”—Ian Mortimer, author of The Time Traveller’s Guide to Medieval England

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Book SynopsisThis elegant Bible edition honors the beauty and richness of the New King James Version in a convenient portable size with essential study tools and traditional red-letter text for the Words of Christ.The New King James Version in the Sovereign Collection reflects the legacy and majesty of the King James Version Bible produced more than 400 years ago, but in language updated for today. This beautiful Bible, which contains design flourishes that pay tribute to the Bible produced in 1611, comes in a convenient portable size with essential study tools and traditional red-letter text for the Words of Christ.The Sovereign Collection continues Thomas Nelson''s long history and stewardship publishing Bibles, featuring elegant letter illustrations leading into each chapter combined with clear and readable Comfort Print®, connects you to the legacy of faith, and inspires your time in the Word to be enjoyable and fruitful.Features i

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Book SynopsisA groundbreaking examination of female power in pre-Islamic Arabia‘A genuinely paradigm-shifting work by one of the most exciting and innovative scholars in the field... compelling and powerful...’ Reza Aslan Arab noblewomen of late antiquity were instrumental in shaping the history of the world. Between Rome’s intervention in the Arabian Peninsula and the Arab conquests, they ruled independently, conducting trade and making war. Their power was celebrated as queen, priestess and goddess. With time some even delegated authority to the most important holy men of their age, influencing Arabian paganism, Christianity and Islam. Empress Zenobia and Queen Mavia supported bishops Paul of Samosata and Moses of Sinai. Paul was declared a heretic by the Roman church, while Moses began the process of mass Arab conversion. The teachings of these men survived under their queens, setting in motion seismic debates that fractured the earlTrade Review‘A genuinely paradigm-shifting work by one of the most exciting and innovative scholars in the field. Queens and Prophets upends popular assumptions concerning Arab women in late antiquity. Drawing on an impressive range of extensive research, Emran El-Badawi sheds new light on the history of the Near East by studying three female rulers alongside the most significant holy men of the era. In doing so, he reveals the importance of these women to the history of the late antique Near East. It is a compelling and powerful narrative that is sure to provoke thought and discussion amongst scholars and curious readers alike.’ -- Reza Aslan, author of Zealot and An American Martyr in Persia‘In this remarkable book, Emran El-Badawi brings to light the stories of influential noblewomen and female deities, to show how female power shaped religion and politics in late antique and early Islamic Arabia. Despite their importance, these female figures have been marginalised in the historical record over time, from Roman and Arabic histories till modern writings about early Islam. El-Badawi sensitively engages the historical memories preserved in these sources, disentangling kernels of truth from topoi, legend, and embellishment. This clear and well-written account should change how we consider women’s impact upon these patriarchal societies.’ -- Karen Bauer, Senior Research Associate, The Institute of Ismaili Studies‘A breathtaking journey through the religions and cultures of the late antique Near East. El-Badawi brings to life accounts of warriors and queens who defy standard notions of the social and religious history of the Arabs. His masterful book offers new insights into the intimate relationships between paganism, Christianity, and early Islam in the Near East, and on the distinctive roles that women played in all of these traditions.’ -- Gabriel Said Reynolds, Crowley Professor of Islamic Studies and Theology, University of Notre Dame‘Emran El-Badawi provides a landmark contribution to scholarship, grasping the nuance and depth of women’s power, spirituality, and presence in late antique Near East, when pagans, Jews, and Christians allied militarily and worshiped at the Oak of Mamre. Queens and Prophets cogently narrates this complex historical and cultural context, demonstrating the patriarchal polemics of Abrahamic and Roman traditions that gloss this powerful force and ultimately empower the birth of Islam.’ -- Roberta Sabbath, Religious Studies Director, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and editor of Troubling Topics, Sacred Texts

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Book SynopsisA classic NKJV Bible that looks and feels like the majestic heritage it comes from, with historically rich design details including elegant drop caps, line-matched text, and traditional covers.

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Book SynopsisThis elegant Bible edition honors the beauty and richness of the New King James Version in a convenient portable size with essential study tools and traditional red-letter text for the Words of Christ.The New King James Version in the Sovereign Collection reflects the legacy and majesty of the King James Version Bible produced more than 400 years ago, but in language updated for today. This beautiful Bible, which contains design flourishes that pay tribute to the Bible produced in 1611, comes in a convenient portable size with essential study tools and traditional red-letter text for the Words of Christ.The Sovereign Collection continues Thomas Nelson''s long history and stewardship publishing Bibles, featuring elegant letter illustrations leading into each chapter combined with clear and readable Comfort Print®, connects you to the legacy of faith, and inspires your time in the Word to be enjoyable and fruitful.Features i

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Book SynopsisA 50th anniversary revised edition of the beloved classic, God is Red. First published in 1972, Vine Deloria Jr.'s God Is Red 50th Anniversary Edition remains the seminal work on Native religious views, asking new questions about our species and our ultimate fate. Celebrating three decades in publication with a special 30th-anniversary edition, this classic work reminds us to learn "that we are a part of nature, not a transcendent species with no responsibilities to the natural world." It is time again to listen to Vine Deloria Jr.'s powerful voice, telling us about religious life that is independent of Christianity and that reveres the interconnectedness of all living things.

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Book SynopsisJohn Geometres’s Life of the Virgin Mary, a work of outstanding theological sophistication animated by deeply felt devotion to the Mother of God, remains largely unknown today. This new edition of the Byzantine Greek text and the first complete translation in a modern language presents a masterpiece of early Marian writing to new audiences.

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Book SynopsisWe may associate a number of images with the Eastern Orthodox church – ornate church buildings, services with candles and incense, men wearing embellished robes – but what does the Eastern Orthodox church actually believe? What are the similarities and differences between them and western evangelical churches? What is their history? In this short book Panagiotis Kantartzis introduces us to Eastern Orthodoxy from an Evangelical perspective and tells us what we need to know.Trade ReviewPastor Kantartzis covers the most important points with clear, concise and well–researched prose. If you want the best engagement with Orthodoxy from an evangelical perspective, look no further. -- Michael Horton (J. Gresham Machen Professor of Systematic Theology and Apologetics, Westminster Seminary California, Escondido, California)Blessed with wide learning, acute theological insight, and pastoral experience from living in an Orthodox country, Dr. Kantartzis is outstandingly qualified for this task, which he does superbly. -- Robert Letham (Wales Evangelical School of Theology, Bridgend, Wales)Kantartzis offers a unique book that combines careful and sensitive analysis of Orthodox Christianity with a respectful and constructive engagement from the perspective of his own Evangelical faith. -- Aristotle Papanikolaou (Professor of Theology and the Archbishop Demetrios Chair in Orthodox Theology and Culture, Fordham University, New York Co–founding Director, Orthodox Christian Studies Centre)… reminds us that the differences between Evangelical Protestantism and Eastern Orthodoxy are rooted in fundamental principles that touch on every aspect of theology. The presentation is clear and fair to both sides, making it a reliable resource for dialogue between these two very different Christian traditions. -- Gerald Bray (Research Professor, Beeson Divinity School at Samford University, Birmingham, Alabama)

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Book SynopsisThe New York Times bestseller and definitive history of Christianity for our time—from the award-winning author of The Reformation and SilenceA product of electrifying scholarship conveyed with commanding skill, Diarmaid MacCulloch's Christianity goes back to the origins of the Hebrew Bible and encompasses the globe. It captures the major turning points in Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox history and fills in often neglected accounts of conversion and confrontation in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. MacCulloch introduces us to monks and crusaders, heretics and reformers, popes and abolitionists, and discover Christianity's essential role in shaping human history and the intimate lives of men and women. And he uncovers the roots of the faith that galvanized America, charting the surprising beliefs of the founding fathers, the rise of the Evangelical movement and of Pentecostalism, and the recent crises wit

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Book SynopsisA fresh consideration of the enduring tradition of the Seven Deadly Sins, showing its continuing post-medieval influence. The tradition of the seven deadly sins played a considerable role in western culture, even after the supposed turning-point of the Protestant Reformation, as the essays collected here demonstrate. The first part of the book addresses such topics as the problem of acedia in Carolingian monasticism; the development of medieval thought on arrogance; the blending of tradition and innovation in Aquinas's conceptualization of the sins; the treatment of sin in the pastoral contexts of the early Middle English Vices and Virtues and a fifteenth-century sermon from England; the political uses of the deadly sins in the court sermons of Jean Gerson; and the continuing usefulnessof the tradition in early modern England. In the second part, the role of the tradition in literature and the arts is considered. Essays look at representations of the sins in French music of the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries; in Dante's Purgatorio; in a work by Michel Beheim in pre-Reformation Germany; and in a 1533 play by the German Lutheran writer Hans Sachs. New interpretations are offered of Gower's "Tale of Constance" and Bosch's Tabletop of the Seven Deadly Sins. As a whole, the book significantly enhances our understanding of the multiple uses and meanings of the sins tradition, not only in medieval culture but also in the transition from the medievalto the early modern period. RICHARD G. NEWHAUSER is Professor of English and Medieval Studies, Arizona State University, Tempe; SUSAN J. RIDYARD is Professor of History and Director of the Sewanee Medieval Colloquium,The University of the South, Sewanee. Contributors: Richard G. Newhauser, James B. Williams, Kiril Petkov, Cate Gunn, Eileen C. Sweeney, Holly Johnson, Nancy McLoughlin, Anne Walters Robertson, Peter S. Hawkins, CarolJamison, Henry Luttikhuizen, William C. McDonald, Kathleen Crowther.Trade ReviewProvides many interesting and valuable discussions of specific texts (and occasionally visual and musical sources), and the ways in which these employ the concept of sin and particularly that of the seven capital sins.[It] throws new light on the way people in the medieval and early modern world thought about sins, but also on how sins were good to think with. * HISTORY *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Understanding Sin: Recent Scholarship and the Capital Vices - Richard G. Newhauser Working for Reform: Acedia, Benedict of Aniane and the Transformation of Working Culture in Carolingian Monasticism - James B. Williams The Cultural Career of a 'Minor' Vice: Arrogance in the Medieval Treatise in Sin - Kiril Petkov Vices and Virtues: A Reassessment of Stowe MS 34 - Cate Gunn Aquinas on the Seven Deadly Sins: Tradition and Innovation - Eileen C. Sweeney A Fifteenth-Century Sermon Enacts the Seven Deadly Sins - Holly Johnson The Deadly Sins and Contemplative Politics: Gerson's Ordering of the Personal and Political Realms - Nancy A. McLoughlin 'These Seaven Devils': The Capital Vices on the Way to Modernity - Richard G. Newhauser The Seven Deadly Sins in Medieval Music - Anne Walters Robertson The Religion of the Mountain: Handling Sin in Dante's Purgatorio - Peter S. Hawkins John Gower's Shaping of 'The Tale of Constance' as an Exemplum contra Envy - Carol Jamison Through Boschian Eyes: An Interpretation of the Prado Tabletop of the Seven Deadly Sins - Henry M. Luttikhuizen Singing Sin: Michel Beheim's 'Little Book of the Seven Deadly Sins', a German Pre-Reformation Religious Text for the Laity - William C. McDonald Raising Cain: Vice, Virtue and Social Order in the German Reformation - Kathleen M. Crowther

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Book SynopsisIan Shaw charts the story of Christianity from its birth and infancy among a handful of followers of Jesus Christ, through its years of development into a global religious movement, spanning continents and cultures and transcending educational and social backgrounds.Trade ReviewWhat an original idea. Ian Shaw has presented the current scholarship in church history in a very engaging way. I hope this book is widely read... An absolutely outstanding volume! * Ian Randall, Senior Research Fellow, Spurgeon’s College *‘Christians today have largely lost their historical memory, and it is no surprise that as a result many are struggling to agree on the right way ahead for the church. Ian Shaw’s remarkable book, encompassing in one volume the entire chronological and geographical range of Christian history, will prove invaluable in helping Christians to recover their historical memory and hence to find wisdom for the future.’ * Brian Stanley, Professor of World Christianity, University of Edinburgh. *‘Believers need to know the story of their own faith, and Christianity: the Biography is a great place to start. It covers fascinating figures, movements, and trends across two millennia without ever getting bogged down or side-tracked. It is not only clear and accessible, but also inspiring and wise.’ * Timothy Larsen, McManis Professor of Christian Thought, Wheaton College *This is . . . an immense achievement of breadth of scope, clarity of focus, and fair-mindedness. It should have a starred place on every ordination-training reading list. * Church Times *

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Book SynopsisOn fire for God—a sweeping history of puritanism in England and AmericaTrade Review“Hot Protestants is a fine work of scholarship, written in a gracefully understated style, and is among the fairest and most readable accounts of the glorious failure that was trans-Atlantic Puritanism.”—Barton Swaim, Wall Street Journal“Exhilarating popular history...convincingly captures in one bold retelling decades of scholarship on Puritanism’s origins, developments and characteristics”—Johanna Harris, Times Literary Supplement“The rise and fall of transatlantic puritanism is told through political, theological, and personal conflict in this exceptional history. . . . With a clear narrative tied together with helpful clarifications, Winship’s cogent work nicely lays out the history of how puritans emerged from Protestantism.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review“Hold on to your hats. Michael Winship has written one of the finest and most challenging studies of early modern Puritanism—and this in a field replete with gifted scholars.”—Jonathan Wright, Catholic Herald“Michael P. Winship tells an ocean-spanning story with a light touch and an ear for compelling vignettes.”—Alec Ryrie, BBC History Magazine“Puritanism was inescapable: it led to vicious conflict, rebellion, and civil war on both sides of the Atlantic from the 1540s onwards. Michael P. Winship has written an admirable and fascinating survey of this movement, learned and full of insight”—Jonathan Clark, Church Times“The scope and comprehension of all aspects of Puritanism in Hot Protestants is remarkable."—Glenn A. Moots, Journal of Religious History “An immensely enjoyable and informative read.”—Pierre Lurbe, Cercles “A sweeping and cogently argued survey of Puritan political ambitions in the Atlantic world…Winship is right that Puritanism changed due to fragmentation and the loss of power in Old and New England, and most modern Protestants baulk at their rigid views on matters of church, state and the habits of godliness.”—Matthew Rowley, Bunyan Studies Listed on Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles List for 2019 “A fresh retelling of the ups and downs of the Puritan movement in England and New England, a story conveyed through vignettes that capture its dynamics in unusually insightful ways.”—David D. Hall, author of A Reforming People“An important work by one of our leading scholars of puritanism, placing the movement in its proper Atlantic context and offering valuable insights in a way accessible to all readers.”—Francis J. Bremer, author of First Founders"A compelling read. This is the only genuinely trans-Atlantic history of puritanism, taking in the full sweep of the story from the 1540s to the 1690s. Throughout, Winship displays an unmatched command of the field, astute judgment, and independence of mind. Hot Protestants is a tremendous achievement."—John Coffey, author of Exodus and Liberation“A long needed study of the transatlantic Puritan movement, knitting together its disparate elements into a coherent whole. Winship's mastery of the subject on both sides of the Atlantic is unparalleled, and his forceful account, told in vigorous and lucid prose, will remind readers why Puritanism had a powerful influence in shaping the modern world.”—Mark A. Peterson, author of The Price of Redemption

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“Susan Rankin has for decades reflected on the relations between the visible signs on the page and musical sound. This book boldly steps in a new direction in several fields of study: palaeography, history of the book, history of liturgy, music history, art history, and the broad history of the eighth and ninth centuries.” —Calvin M. Bower, translator of Fundamentals of MusicTable of ContentsList of Illustrations List of Music Examples List of Tables Note on Musical Examples Note on Manuscript Citations Preface Abbreviations Introduction Making Chant Books Part I. Reforming and Regulating 1. Musical Persuasion 2. Musical Eloquence 3. The Provision and Ownership of Chant Books Part II. Displaying Pronuntiatio 4. Making Instructions Visible 5. The Delivery of Festal Readings and Prayers 6. Singing the Psalms Part III. Making Chant Books 7. Books for Priests and Books for Singers 8. Purple, Gold, Silver and Ivory 9. New Directions 10. Fulfillment and Transformation Appendix. Feasts with chants included in the second sacramentary in Paris BnF lat. 9430 and Tours 184 Bibliography Index of Manuscripts General Index

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Book SynopsisThis is the first fully annotated, academic edition of the Book of Mormon in its 200-year history. Modelled after the Oxford line of annotated Bibles, it provides readers with the information they need to understand this classic text of American religious history. This edition reformats the complete scriptural text in the manner of modern Bible translations with paragraphs, quotation marks, poetic stanzas, and section headings, all of which clarify the book''s complicated narrative structure. As a result, readers experience a more accessible and readable presentation than the standard version. Annotations explain the meaning and context of specific passages, delineate extended arguments, identify rhetorical patterns, explore theological implications, highlight ancient and modern parallels, and point out intertextual connections, particularly with the Bible.The Book of Mormon is subdivided into internal books; in this edition, each book is preceded by an introduction that discusses its Trade ReviewThe Annotated Book of Mormon opens up rich nuances of the texts and the impact of their reception as spirituality and literature. A significant contribution to understanding that reveals the contribution of the Book of Mormon to theology and religion. * Andrew Teal, Faculty of Theology and Religion, Oxford University *The Annotated Book of Mormon encourages serious study of a central text in American religious, literary, and cultural history. An essential guide for all readers. * Matthew Bowman, Howard W. Hunter Chair of Mormon Studies, Claremont Graduate University *The Annotated Book of Mormon is a rich study resource that I hope will help transform the way we engage with the Book of Mormon as a people. * Conor Hilton, Twenty-First Century Mormon Literature *Table of ContentsEditor's Preface Abbreviations Title Page Introduction to the Small Plates 1 Nephi 2 Nephi Jacob Enos Jarom Omni Words of Mormon Introduction to Mormon's Abridgment of the Large Plates Mosiah Alma Helaman 3 Nephi 4 Nephi Mormon Introduction to Moroni's Additions Ether Moroni Testimonies Three Witnesses Eight Witnesses Emma Smith Joseph Smith General Essays The Origins of the Text The Transmission and Language of the Text The Book of Mormon and the Bible Book of Mormon Theology Lived Religion in the Book of Mormon The Book of Mormon and the Latter-day Saints The Book of Mormon in American History The Book of Mormon as Literature Reading the Book of Mormon as Ancient History Reading the Book of Mormon as Fiction Reading the Book of Mormon as Revealed Scripture Reading the Book of Mormon as World Scripture Further Reading Maps and Charts Possible Routes of Lehi's Journey Mormon's Map Book of Mormon Plates and Records Record Keepers in the Book of Mormon Key Families in the Book of Mormon Jaredite Kings Time Line of Nephite History Chronology of the Translation Glossary Biblical Quotations, Allusions, and Verbal Parallels Index of Names

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Book SynopsisAcclaimed teaching pastor Daniel Grothe speaks to the sense of loneliness that many feel in today''s age of hypermobility and noncommittal wandering, reminding us of the ancient vow of stability and teaching us how we can lead a richer life of friendship, community, and purpose.Unlike previous generations that had to stay put, many people today have unprecedented access to a lifestyle of mobility. We can explore and bounce from place to place, never settling down or making anywhere home. And while it feels freeing to be able to try something new whenever we want--whether it''s a new job, a new city, a new group of friends, or even a new church--somewhere along the way, we discover we''re missing something. We may be paying our bills and have a roof over our heads, but we''re lonely and unfulfilled, disconnected and unsatisfied. What''s that all about? What is the missing piece?In The Power of Place, pastor Daniel Grothe speaks to the human ach

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Students of ancient Christianity and general readers will find here a lucid translation and a helpful guide to the study of an important source for early Christian history." * Church History and Religious Culture *"This outstanding version will soon become standard in courses, for it is in every way superior to its competition." * Review of Biblical Literature *"Schott's translation was a bold undertaking; it has generated a monumental achievement. It certainly deserves to become the next generation's standard English version of Eusebius' History." * Studies in Late Antiquity *"A singular achievement in Eusebian studies. . . . This volume will become the standard translation." * Journal of Classics Teaching *"This new translation offers contemporary readers an accessible text with insights into the cultural and social influences that shaped Eusebius’ story of Christianity." * Reading Religion *"A remarkable work of scholarship. . . . Schott’s translation has certainly become the first I turn to." * Ancient Jew Review *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Abbreviations General Introduction the ecclesiastical history Book 1 Book 2 Book 3 Book 4 Book 5 Book 6 Book 7 Book 8 Book 9 Book 10Appendix A. Maps Appendix B. Eusebius’s Bishop Lists and Chronology Glossary Selected Bibliography Index Nominum (Index of Names) Index Locorum (Eusebius’s Sources)

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Book SynopsisMarcion is unanimously acknowledged to be one of the most important and most intriguing figures of the Early Church. In spite of this importance, there is no comprehensive up-to-date study on his life and thought. Thus, the desire to fill this gap within the academic world - which is inconvenient for both students and professors alike - has been the inspiration for writing this thesis. However, this work does not only aim at providing a complete study on Marcion for the twenty-first century, but also at ridding scholarship from several severe misconceptions regarding the arch-heretic. The main argument of Sebastian Moll's study is that previous scholarship has turned Marcion's exegesis of Scripture upside down. He did not find the inspiration for his doctrine in the teachings of the Apostle Paul, it is the Old Testament and its portrait of an inconsistent, vengeful and cruel God which forms the centre of his doctrine. Marcion does not understand the Old Testament in the light of the New, he interprets the New Testament in the light of the Old. This insight casts a new light on Marcion's place within the history of the Church, as the initiator of a fundamental crisis of the Old Testament in the second century. But not only did he have an enormous influence on Christian exegesis, he also stands at the beginning of the epochal fight between orthodoxy and heresy. As the first man to ever officially break with the Church for doctrinal reasons, and whose biography would become a stereotype for future heresiologists, Marcion can rightfully claim the title of 'arch-heretic'.

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Book SynopsisThe Sunday Times paperback bestseller and Waterstones Non-Fiction Book of the Month*Featuring a brand new chapter!*''Never have the joys of exploring the churches and cathedrals of this country been so vividly conveyed as they are in this engaging and elegiac book.'' - New Statesman **BOOK OF THE YEAR pick 2023**''A delicious treat'' - Financial Times **TRAVEL BOOK OF THE YEAR pick 2023**''A charming odyssey'' - The Times''A wonderful book; thoughtful and challenging'' - Daily Telegraph *****''A beautiful book'' - Gabriel Byrne ''Beautiful and brilliant. I loved it'' - Fergus Butler-Gallie From the author of A Tomb With a View - Scottish Non-Fiction book of the Year Churches are all around us. Their steeples remain landmarks in our towns, villages and cities, even as their influeTrade ReviewWhat makes Steeple Chasing so compelling - and it is a wonderful book; thoughtful and challenging - ... is Ross's essential kindness, his unfailing empathy with the people he meets on his pilgrimage. * Daily Telegraph *A charming odyssey . . . in this lyrical love letter to churches Ross reminds us there is something worth saving and people who will make the effort. * The Times *His book is a delicious treat, and one that both believers and sceptics will enjoy. * Financial Times *Reading a book is another reciprocal act: if it's good, it stays with you. Ross's readers will have his words humming through them for a long time. * Spectator *Lovely, lyrical, whimsical, elegiac ... Ross has a gift for making you feel you're there with him, just as awed as he is. * Times Literary Supplement *Ross has always had a quiet charm, and it is perhaps displayed best in this book. . . it is properly interested in humanity, especially in its complexity. * The Scotsman *Steeple Chasing is, as you might expect from Ross, itself a beautiful object, full of delicacy and deliberation in the writing. . .a fascinating, beautifully written book full of both the strange and the terrible, but also full of grace and love. * The Herald *Beautifully observed and evocatively written. * Country Life *Never less than fascinating. * Books From Scotland *

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Book SynopsisMany American Christians have come to understand their relationship to other Christian denominations and traditions through the lens of religious persecution. This book provides a historical account of these developments, showing the global, theological, and political changes that made it possible for contemporary Christians to claim that there is a global war on Christians. This book, however, does not advocate on behalf of particular repressed Christian communities, nor does it argue for the genuineness (or lack thereof) of certain Christians’ claims of persecution. Instead, this book is the first to examine the idea that there is a “global war on Christians” and its analytical implications. It does so by giving a concise history of the categories (like “martyrs”), evidence (statistics and metrics), and theologies that have come together to produce a global Christian imagination premised upon the notion of shared suffering for one’s faith. The purpose in doing so is not to deny certain instances of suffering or death; rather, it is to reflect upon the consequences for thinking about religious violence and Christianity worldwide using terms such as a “global war on Christians.”Trade Review"Jason Bruner's Imagining Persecution offers a polite, probing, and ultimately devastating deconstruction of the common American Christian belief that there is at this time a global war of persecution against Christians. This is an extraordinarily important book. In its own understated way, it raises this fundamental question—why exactly is it so important for conservative American Christians to believe they are part of a globally persecuted community?"— David P. Gushee, author of Still Christian: Following Jesus Out of American Evangelism. "A significant contribution."— David Smith, author of Religious Persecution and Political Order in the United States "Persecution, Martyrdom, and Christian Identity: 7 Questions with Jason Bruner"— Sacred Matters "New Books Network - New Nooks in Christian Studies" interview with Jason Bruner— New Books Network - New Nooks in Christian StudiesTable of ContentsContents Preface 1. Coming to Terms: Christians, Martyrs, and Persecution 2. Christians, Martyrdom, and Persecution from the New Testament to the Reformation 3. Religious Persecution and American Christianity 4. A Global War on Christians? 5. The Global Politics of the Suffering Body of Christ Notes Bibliography Acknowledgments Index

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Book SynopsisThis book considers a series of biblical and pastoral arguments against both the multisite and multiservice church model, making the claim that maintaining a single assembly best embodies the unity the church possesses in Jesus Christ.

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Book SynopsisAn excellent overview of Christianity, suitable for students (and teachers!) embarking on the new GCSE and A'-Level Religious Studies specifications.Written in the same clear and engaging style as the bestselling Puzzle of Ethics and Puzzle of God, this book covers key content common to all the new specifications including: Jesus: His incarnation, life, ethical teaching, crucifixion and resurrection, saving importance for Christians and relationship with God; The development of Christianity through from the Early Church to contemporary Global Christianity; The similarities and differences between different types of Christianity in terms of beliefs, teachings and practices; The use and authority of the Bible and other sources of authority within the Churches as well as how the Bible shapes Christian Ethics; Christian responses to science, feminism, secularism, philosophy and the new atheism as well as crises in social justice.Most importantly, Vardy places these themes in context and hTrade Review‘This book is a “must read” for all students of Religious Studies. If we are honest, in a postmodern world, most teachers have only a shallow understanding of Christianity. Fortunately, Peter Vardy comes to the rescue with this masterpiece. It is clear and absorbing.’- Peter Mothersole, Head of R.E., Truro High School for Girls ‘An essential requirement for all those engaged with the new GCSE and A-Level Religious Studies. I defy any student or teacher not to be gripped by this book!’- Jacinta Bowe, Head of R.E., St Mary’s Shaftesbury ‘A clear, intelligent, accessible, informed and balanced account of the puzzle of Christianity.’- Fr Frank Brennan SJ, Professor of Law, ACU ‘A mini-encyclopedia of the Christian faith, which will be of enormous help not only to those studying in schools, but also to adult readers.’- Archbishop Peter Carnley, former Anglican Primate of Australia

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Book SynopsisBoston Globe journalist and Catholic commentator Michael O’Loughlin opens a wonderful window into the heart and revolutionary mission of Pope Francis by examining his extensive and revelatory use of social media—published to coincide with the pontiff’s visit to the United States in September 2015.Michael O’Loughlin uses Pope Francis’s almost daily “tweets” to his 21 million followers to explain why this pope has captured the world’s imagination and to explore his strategy and vision for the Catholic Church. Grouped by the Pope’s most pressing concerns—forgiveness, mercy, injustice, poverty, war, joy, the environment, and more—The Tweetable Pope uses Francis’ pithy 140-character (or fewer) missives as a prism to view the biographical, historical, and spiritual context of his messages and how each is part of a larger vision.O’Loughlin contends that these seemingly simple commu

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Book SynopsisMormonism''s founder, Joseph Smith, claimed to have translated ancient scriptures. He dictated an American Bible from metal plates reportedly buried by ancient Jews in a nearby hill, and produced an Egyptian Book of Abraham derived from funerary papyri he extracted from a collection of mummies he bought from a traveling showman. In addition, he rewrote sections of the King James Version as a New Translation of the Bible. Smith and his followers used the term translation to describe the genesis of these English scriptures, which remain canonical for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Whether one believes him or not, the discussion has focused on whether Smith''s English texts represent literal translations of extant source documents. On closer inspection, though, Smith''s translations are far more metaphysical than linguistic. In Joseph Smith''s Translation, Samuel Morris Brown argues that these translations express the mystical power of language and scripture to interconnect people across barriers of space and time, especially in the developing Mormon temple liturgy. He shows that Smith was devoted to an ancient metaphysics--especially the principle of correspondence, the concept of as above, so below--that provided an infrastructure for bridging the human and the divine as well as for his textual interpretive projects. Joseph Smith''s projects of metaphysical translation place Mormonism at the productive edge of the transitions associated with shifts toward secular modernity. This transition into modern worldviews intensified, complexly, in nineteenth-century America. The evolving legacies of Reformation and Enlightenment were the sea in which early Mormons swam, says Brown. Smith''s translations and the theology that supported them illuminate the power and vulnerability of the Mormon critique of American culture in transition. This complex critique continues to resonate and illuminate to the present day.Trade ReviewBrown's goal lies in finding just the right concept combination to bring today's reader into some sort of understanding of Smith's situation, and he does with "primordial" elements, a notion centripetally attracting such themes as sacred-secrecy, wisdom traditions, priesthoods, and most especially family bonding. Brown's affinity with primordial dynamics generates this book's extended account of how he sees them developing within Josephâs personal spirituality and community leadership all, again, framed by Smith family ties, evolving capacities for death conquest, religious protest, and ever ongoing cosmic possibilities. * Douglas J. Davies, Mormon Studies Review *...its approach is thought-provoking and creative, and parts of it can break new ground in understanding the work of Joseph Smith. * Kent P. Jackson, Birmingham Young University, BYU Studies Quarterly *I found Joseph Smith's Translation stimulating. Brown weaves his way through the wide variety of the texts Smith produced to identify common threads of metaphysical transformation and communal ascent. For those with an esoteric bent, he provides satisfying ways of understanding Joseph Smith's scriptural contributions. Samuel Morris Brown has "translated" Joseph Smith for the reader in a way we have not seen before. * Cheryl Bruno, Association for Mormon Letters *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction: Language, Time, and the Human Cosmos Nineteenth-Century Contexts Smith's Goals and Aspirations Smith's Approach Implications SECTION ONE INTRODUCTION: CONTEXTS Chapter 1. The Quest for Pure Language Chapter 2: The Nature of Time Chapter 3: Human and Divine Selves SECTION TWO INTRODUCTION: TEXTS Chapter 4: The Task of the Book of Mormon: To Save the Bible, First You Must Kill It Chapter 5: Rereading the Bible: Joseph Smith's New Translation Chapter 6: The Egyptian Bible and the Cosmic Order Chapter 7: The Transcendent Immanent Temple Epilogue BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Book SynopsisProtestant orientations to work and economics have shaped wider American culture for several centuries. But not all strands of American Protestantism have elevated secular work to the highest echelons of spiritual significance. This book surveys the efforts of a religious movement within white Protestant fundamentalism and its neo-evangelical successors to make work matter to God.Today, bearing the name the faith and work movement, this effort puts on display the creative capacities of religious and lay leaders to adapt a faith system to the changing social-economic conditions of advanced capitalism. Building from the insights and theory of Max Weber, Andrew Lynn draws on archival research and interviews with movement leaders to survey and assess the surging number of new organizations, books, conferences, worship songs, seminary classes, vocational programming, and study groups promoting classically Protestant and Calvinist ideas of work and vocation. He traces these efforts back to eTrade ReviewIn these days when almost everything about American evangelicalism is controversial, this well-researched, fair-minded book about the evangelical 'faith and work' movement is a welcome contribution. Andrew Lynn has provided a great deal for supporters of the movement, its critics, and all who worry about the moral malaise present in the marketplace to ponder. * Robert Wuthnow, author of Why Religion Is Good for American Democracy *The faith at work movement is an ongoing and evolving social movement, not a flash in the pan or a passing fad. Andrew Lynn brings us a strong contribution to the growing number of scholarly studies of the surprisingly diverse nature of the faith at work movement. Lynn's provocatively titled Saving the Protestant Ethic focuses on and brings us fresh insights into the conservative evangelical Protestant wing of the movement, whose search for meaning and purpose drives their economic activity. * David W. Miller, Princeton University Faith & Work Initiative *This brief summary surely fails to capture the depth and breadth of Lynn's extraordinary descriptive project. He does a masterful job of separating the different theological threads that are woven together by the faith and work movement and contextualizing them in socioeconomic terms. Adherents of re-integrating theology will find the portrait of themselves and their views recognizable...What Lynn's book demonstrates above all is that the faith and work movement has not fallen far from the creative class tree...No one wants to go back to the fundamentalist work ethic. Everyone wants their Monday to matter to God. * Charlie Clark, FareForward *This book represents an impressive achievement, drawing on a multidisciplinary array of deft ethnographic interviews, attentive participant observations, profound understanding of emic group discourse, impressive historical primary sources, nimbly enhanced and refined sociological theory, and quantitative analysis. * Religious Studies Review *Saving the Protestant Ethic explores the faith and work movement within contemporary American Evangelicalism...Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. * Choice *Table of ContentsIntroduction Part One: The Rise of the Evangelical Faith and Work Movement Chapter One: More Than Toil Chapter Two: The Fundamentalist Work Ethic Chapter Three: The Making of a Movement Chapter Four: The Four Evangelical Theologies of Work Part Two: Contours, Contingencies, and Contending Interests Chapter Five: Whose Work Matters to God? Chapter Six: From the Christian Right to the Corporate Right Chapter Seven: From Culture Wars to Cultural Stewardship Chapter Eight: On Roads Not (Yet) Taken Acknowledgements Appendix A: Research Methods

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Book SynopsisEvangelicalism has rapidly become one of the most significant religious movements in the modern world. An umbrella term that encompasses many Protestant denominations that share core tenets of Christianity, evangelicalism is foremost defined by its disciples'' consideration of the Bible as the ultimate moral and historical authority, the desire to evangelize or spread the faith, and the value of religious conversion known as being born again.As the Evangelical movement has grown rapidly, so has its influence on the political stage. Evangelicals affect elections up and down the Americas and across Africa, provoke governments throughout Asia, fill up some of the largest church buildings, and possess the largest congregations of any religion in the world. Yet evangelicals are wildly diverse- from Canadian Baptists to Nigerian Anglicans, from South Sea Methodists to Korean Presbyterians, and from house churches in Beijing to megachurches in Saõ Paulo.This Very Short Introduction tells the evangelical story from the preacher-led revivals of the eighteenth century, through the frontier camp meetings of the nineteenth, to the mass urban rallies of the twentieth, and the global megachurches of the twenty-first. More than just a sketch of where evangelicals have come from, this volume aims to clearly examine the heart of evangelical phenomenon. Is there such a (single) thing as evangelicalism? What is its basic character? Where are the evangelicals going? And what in the world do they want?Trade Review"...an insightful primer for journalists, scholars, politicians and curious curious observers into one of the most vibrant, if often caricatured, social movements in the world today." * René Breuel, Times Literary Supplement *The media . . . continue to view evangelicalism through the distorting lens of current American politics and religion. John Stackhouse's brilliant introduction to the topic will help the general reader to correct the distortion and grasp the multiple yet still distinctive ways in which evangelicals both think about their faith, and negotiate the social and political challenges of the modern world. * Brian Stanley, Professor of World Christianity, University of Edinburgh *We now have an answer to 'Who is an evangelical?'John Stackhouse gives us the best summary of our history I've read: compelling, interesting, and critically helpful. In too many places recently, the label "evangelical" has been hijacked and abused. This book helps us rise above those skirmishes as Stackhouse knits together various strains, groups, movements, and moments in an ever-enlarging pattern, giving coherence and insight into this global Christian community. Evangelicals themselves should read this book, but everyone else who cares about understanding evangelicals will find it enormously helpful also. * Brian Stiller, World Evangelical Alliance *This lucid and snappy introduction to evangelicalism guides us from deep and tangled historical roots through the contradictions and complexity of the modern global faith. Stackhouse captures the diversity of evangelicalism without losing the 500-year plotline--an amazing feat. * Molly Worthen, Associate Professor of History, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill *As a Canadian not caught up in the United States' religious-political partisanship and as an expert historian-theologian, John Stackhouse is perfectly situated to explain the history, development, and contemporary relevance of "evangelical Christianity." This excellent introduction is especially strong in its careful definition of terms and in its treatment of evangelicals around the world. * Mark Noll, author of America's Book: The Rise and Decline of a Bible Civilization, 1794-1911 *This opening salvo sets the tone for the discussion of evangelicalism that follows, a discussion that provides much-needed historical depth and global breadth for frequently myopic North Americans. * Robert J. Dean, Providence Theological Seminary *Table of ContentsIntroduction Chapter 1: Original evangelicalism Chapter 2: Evangelicalism defined Chapter 3: Evangelicalism expands Chapter 4: The challenges of modernity Conclusion References Further Reading

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Book SynopsisSowing the Sacred traces the development of Mexican-American Pentecostalism among farmworkers from the 1910s to the 1960s, drawing on oral histories, photographs taken by farmworkers, and material from new archival collections to tell an intimate story of sacred-space making in a context of labor exploitation.Trade ReviewA terrific glimpse into previously untold histories, Sowing the Sacred is a beautiful, moving, and an important work of scholarship on the material and spiritual lives of ethnic Mexican farmworkers and church leaders in California. Please read this book. * Jacqueline M. Hidalgo, Professor of Latina/o/x Studies and Religion, Williams College *With a beautiful mix of photographs, oral histories, and archival research, Barba gracefully uncovers the tragic and resilient worlds of Mexican Pentecostal farmworkers as they labored in the fields, created sacred spaces, and lived dignified lives in the American West. Sowing the Sacred more than fills a significant gap in the literature on Latina/o religion and labor, it changes the field entirely. Simply put, this book is groundbreaking. * Felipe Hinojosa, author of Apostles of Change: Latino Radical Politics, Church Occupations, and the Fight to Save the Barrio *Sowing the Sacred impressively reframes the history of proletarian religion in California's harsh agribusiness. Lloyd Barba deftly demonstrates how subaltern Pentecostal farmworkers sacralized the very soil and water of their labor and fired the imaginations of key Chicano/a Movement leaders. * Daniel Ramírez, Associate Professor of American Religions, Claremont Graduate University *Sowing the Sacred successfully places the sacred stories and laboring bodies of Apostólicos front and center, offering the reader not just a window into the past, but entirely new sets of lenses through which to examine, uncover, and admire the fruit of a completely different kind of "labor" that left a permanent mark on U.S. and Mexican history. * Gaby Viesca, George Fox University *Sowing the Sacred: Mexican Pentecostal Farmworkers in California by Lloyd Daniel Barba is a beautifully told and rigorously researched history of a subaltern religious denomination in California's agricultural farmlands. * David Flores, Department of Ethnic Studies, Sacramento State University, Sacramento, CA, USA *Sowing the Sacred is more than a history of Mexican Pentecostal farmworkers in California. It is an excavation, unearthing a religious tradition that's been buried beneath social prejudice and scholarly neglect. * Christian Century *An important contribution Sowing the Sacred gives us is the way it adds to the historical texture of the United States' design of labor laws and practices regarding farmworkers and capitalistic production of the fields. * Yara González-Justiniano, Divinity School Vanderbilt University *Sowing the Sacred successfully places the sacred stories and laboring bodies of Apostólicos front and center, offering the reader not just a window into the past, but entirely new sets of lenses through which to examine, uncover, and admire the fruit of a completely different kind of "labor" that left a permanent mark on U.S. and Mexican history. * Gaby Viesca, The Perspectivas *Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Introduction: The Sacralized Profane Chapter 1: Sacred Routes: Mapping the Church Chapter 2: Sacred Waters: Baptizing the Church Chapter 3: Sacred Fields: Building the Church Chapter 4: Sacred Talents: Maturing the Church Chapter 5: Sacred Nostalgia: Remembering the Church Conclusion: The Sacred Beyond the Profane Bibliography

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Book SynopsisSowing the Sacred traces the development of Pentecostalism among Mexican-American migrant laborers in California''s agricultural industry from the 1910s to the 1960s. At the time, Pentecostalism was often seen as a distasteful new sect rife with cultish and fanatical tendencies; U.S. growers thought of Mexicans as no more than a mere workforce not fit for citizenship; and industrial agriculture was celebrated for feeding American families while its exploitation of workers went largely ignored. Farmworkers were made out to be culturally vacuous and lacking creative genius, simple laborers caught in a vertiginous cycle of migrant work. This book argues that farmworkers from La Asamblea Apostólica de la Fe en Cristo Jesús carved out a robust socio-religious existence despite these conditions, and in doing so produced a vast record of cultural vibrancy. Examining racialized portrayals of Mexican workers and their religious lives through images created by farmworkers themselves, Sowing the

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Book SynopsisIn the mountains of beautiful, bucolic northern Utah, many Latter-day Saints (Mormons) are visited by spirits. Local folklore is filled with stories of uncanny encounters of all kinds, and Latter-day Saint scripture and prophetic teachings emphasize the reality and the importance of the spirit world. Spirit encounters are common in this community. People report visits from the benevolent spirits of kin offering aid and also from evil spirits who tempt and harass. Combining folklore research with ethnography, the book examines many types of spirit encounters and shows that such experiences must be understood as particularly Latter-day Saint phenomena.Spirit encounters take place within a larger cultural and religious framework that emphasizes the important relationships between living and non-living beings. For Mormons in northern Utah, spirit lore and experiences are interpreted and understood with reference to Latter-day Saint cosmology and particularly Mormon conceptions of the natur

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Book SynopsisDiakonia Studies closes the account on John N. Collinss 40 years of involvement in groundbreaking linguistic research and argumentation concerning the nature and functioning of Christian ministry. Dispute has swirled around the Greek term diakonia for 50 years. Once seen as enshrining the New Testament value of loving Christian servicewhat Jerome Murphy-O''Connor called one of the dogmas of New Testament scholarshipthe word was exposed by Dieter Georgi in 1964 as arguably meaning something quite different. In 1974 John N. Collins published his first paper on the issue, pointing to inadequacies in Georgi''s brief account. Then in 1990 Collins published his exhaustive semantic survey, Diakonia: Re-interpreting the Ancient Sources. His re-interpretation was variously hailed as devastating, provocative, unfashionable, and a scholarly avalanche whose conclusions are inescapable. Since then, the book has stood at the center of the Collins-Debate. Meanwhile Collins''s findings have been incorTrade ReviewIt is now over 20 years since the publication of Collins's seminal work, Diakonia: Reinterpreting the Ancient Sources. His approach in that book and subsequent publications is now essential reading for anyone intending to explore the subject. This most recent collection gathers together a range of articles (both published and unpublished), many of which have previously been hard to find, making it much easier to reflect on and respond to Collins's valuable contribution to the field. * Paula R. Gooder, Theologian in Residence, Bible Society *It is impossible to understand the present discussions about diakonia and the diaconate without taking into account the impact of John Collins. This book offers a unique introduction to Collinss influence on scholarly works, ecumenical dialogues and church practice, and his participation in the international debate. Some of his groundbreaking works have, for the first time, been collected in this booka book that gives a comprehensive view of John Collinss research and the consequences thereof. * Sven-Erik Brodd, Professor of Ecclesiology, University of Uppsala, Sweden *This book is the result of a lifelong study of diakonia and its cognates. Collins shines fresh light on the pivotal theme of church offices in early Christian communities: a theme that has far-reaching implications, challenging not only the idea of the deacon as a social worker but also the widespread consensus about ecclesiastical offices as humble and beneficent services. The author's meticulous reengagement with the semantics of diakonia sets the stage for a new approach to Christology and ecclesiology, releasing both from a false service paradigm. * Dr. Anni Hentschel, lecturer for New Testament studies at the Goethe Universitat Frankfurt *Table of ContentsTable of Contents ; Preface ; Studies in diakonia ; Diakonia from the nineteenth century to today ; 1. From diakonia to diaconia today: historical aspects of interpretation ; 2. Re-interpreting diakonia in Germany: Anni Hentschel's Diakonia im Neuen Testament ; 3. The problem with values carried by diakonia / diakonie in recent church documents ; Diakonia in the early church ; 4. How ancient Greeks thought of diakonia ; 5. Diakonia in the teaching of Jesus ; 6. The mediatorial role of Paul as minister / diakonos ; 7. Ministry as office ; 8. Ministry among gifts ; 9. Paul, delegate to Jerusalem ; 10. The diakonia of the Seven ; Towards ministry for the twenty-first century ; 11. Theology of ministry in the ywentieth century: ongoing problems or new orientations? ; 12. Ordained and other ministries: making a difference ; 13. Fitting lay ministries into a theology of ministry ; Part 1: A critique of an American consensus ; Part 2: Making a fit ; 14. Ties that bind: deacons today in the grip of yesteryear ; Selected Publications ; Sources of Studies ; Indices of Names, Biblical and Early Christian sources

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Book SynopsisSophronius' Synodical Letter was was read out at the Sixth Ecumenical Council in 680-1, and provided the only sustained rebuttal of the monoenergist doctrine. This is the first publication of the letter in annotated translation alongside the original Greek. Includes a comprehensive introduction and further documents on the monoenergist doctrine.Trade Review[an] excellent book * L.R. Wickham. The Journal of Theological Studies *Table of ContentsI: SOPHRONIUS AND HIS SYNODICAL LETTER ; TEXTS AND TRANSLATIONS ; II: THE SYNODICAL LETTER ; III: A MONOENERGIST DOSSIER ; BIBLIOGRAPHY ; INDEXES

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Book SynopsisAugustine of Hippo (354-430 AD) was regarded by sixteenth century Europe as one of the most contested religious and philosophical authorities. He was cast as a characteristically Lutheran, Catholic, or Calvinist thinker, and even as the ideal Erasmian pastor. These wildly contrasting receptions raise crucial questions about the significance of Augustine''s thought in the Reformation period. They also show the complex relationship between religious change and the new intellectual culture of Renaissance humanism. Drawing on a variety of printed and manuscript sources, Arnoud Visser breaks new ground in three ways. He systematically grounds Augustine''s theological reception in the history of reading and the material culture of books and manuscripts. He does not confine his examination to particular confessional parties or specific geographic boundaries, but offers a cross-confessional account of Augustine''s appropriation in early modern Europe. Finally, he provides crucial insight into the nature of intellectual authority in the early modern period. Central in this study are the production, circulation and consumption of Augustine''s works. Visser examines the impact of the new art of print, the rise of humanist scholarship, and the emerging confessional divisions on Augustine''s reception. He shows how editors navigated a wealth of patristic information by using search tools and anthologies. He also explains how individual readers used their copies and how they applied their knowledge in public debates alongside other media of communication. Reading Augustine in the Reformation argues that the emerging confessional pressures did not restrict intellectual life, as has often been claimed, but promoted new scholarship.Trade ReviewVisser has produced a careful and thought-provoking study of the range of ways in which Augustines works were made available to and appropriated by theologians during the sixteenth century. * Charlotte Methuen, Journal of Theological Studies *Visser writes with admirable clarity and precision, skillfully alternating syntheses, analyses and many fascinating examples. In 136 pages, he covers an impressive amount of printed material which he has ordered usefully and imaginatively, each section providing an argument of its own towards his conclusions. This case study offers a model for further research in the field. * Monique Cuany, Bibliothèque d'Humanisme et Renaissance *Visser raises a host of generally fascinating ideas and comments on them in ways that are at once intriguing and important. ... Visser's work will undoubtedly leave its mark on all who study Reformation thought. For this it is deserving of enormous praise. ... In conclusion, Visser's study is very good. * Jon Balserak, The Sixteenth Century Journal *Table of ContentsList of Abbreviations ; List of Figures ; Introduction ; Part 1: Production ; Chapter 1. The Arrival of the Printing Press ; Chapter 2. Humanist Scholarship and Editorial Guidance ; Chapter 3. Augustine after Trent ; Part 2: Dissemination ; Chapter 4. How to Find the Right Argument: Bibliographies and Indexes ; Chapter 5. Customizing Authority: Anthologies and Epitomes ; Part 3: Consumption ; Chapter 6. How Readers Read Their Augustines ; Chapter 7. Patristics and Public Debate ; Epilogue ; Appendix: Opera omnia editions of Augustine 1500-1620 ; Notes ; Bibliography ; Index

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Book SynopsisWinner of the Mormon History Association Best International Book Award The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints continues to contend with longstanding tensions surrounding gender and race. Yet women of color in the United States and across the Global South adopt and adapt the faith to their contexts, many sharing the high level of satisfaction expressed by Latter-day Saints in general. Caroline Kline explores the ways Latter-day Saint women of color in Mexico, Botswana, and the United States navigate gender norms, but also how their moral priorities and actions challenge Western feminist assumptions. Kline analyzes these traditional religious women through non-oppressive connectedness, a worldview that blends elements of female empowerment and liberation with a broader focus on fostering positive and productive relationships in different realms. Even as members of a patriarchal institution, the women feel a sense of liberation that empowers them to work against oppression and agTrade Review"Scrupulously researched. . . . Kline's conclusions are vitally important, not only for scholars who must now expand their sense of the variety of responses Mormon women have to Church teachings and policies, but also for missionaries, travelers, investigators, and leaders at all levels in this hierarchical, patriarchal, imperfect, Utah-based church." --Association of Mormon Letters“Reading Caroline Kline's Mormon Women at the Crossroads: Global Narratives and the Power of Connectedness has been an exercise of discovery, delight, and richly provoking insights. . . . I would enthusiastically recommend this book to anyone with a stake in the tradition. " --Juvenile Instructor"Mormon Women at the Crossroads blends personal stories with theological considerations of women’s roles in contemporary Mormonism." --Foreword Reviews"Yes! Mobilizing her powerful skills as a researcher and her lived understanding of Mormonism, Caroline Kline amplifies the voices of women from the global Mormon movement with a level of respect for complexity and nuance we just don’t get from official LDS venues. In so doing, she offers us all a model for Mormon Studies--and, more broadly, religious studies--of how to navigate the vast distances in geography, history, and perspective that one faith tradition can embrace. This is how we understand our fellow Saints: we listen and let them teach us. Thank you, Dr. Kline. This book should be taught in introductory religious studies courses nationwide, and I hope no Mormon Studies class in the country proceeds without this text on the syllabus."--Joanna Brooks, author of Mormonism and White Supremacy: American Christianity and the Problem of Racial Innocence

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Book SynopsisThe Mormon tradition's emphasis on prophetic authority makes the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints unique within America's religious culture. The religion that Joseph Smith created established a kingdom of God in a land distrustful of monarchy while positioning Smith as Christ's voice on earth, with the power to form cities, establish economies, and arrange governments.Michael Hubbard MacKay traces the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' claim to religious authority and sets it within the context of its times. Delving into the evolution of the concept of prophetic authority, MacKay shows how the Church emerged as a hierarchical democracy with power diffused among leaders Smith chose. At the same time, Smith's settled place atop the hierarchy granted him an authority that spared early Mormonism the internal conflict that doomed other religious movements. Though Smith faced challenges from other leaders, the nascent Church repeatedly turned to him to decide civic plansTrade Review"Michael MacKay utilizes a humble and penetrating method in his Prophetic Authority: Democratic Hierarchy and the Mormon Priesthood. It is in the details of early Mormon history that MacKay truly excels." --Mormon Studies Review"A welcome and overdue contribution to the short list of publications on authority in the Church. . . . MacKay does not disappoint. . . . MacKay has given us a well-researched and thought-provoking examination of authority both preceding and following the 1830 organization of the Church." --BYU Studies Quarterly​"MacKay's account of priesthood authority should come as a relief to Mormon historians who have struggled to make the restoration of priesthood orderly and consistent. . . . In telling this complex story, MacKay is respectful and admiring and, for his readers, always illuminating." --Journal of Arizona History​"MacKay's excellent command of the subject matter makes this a necessary resource." --Choice​"A unique blend of scholarship, research, and historical retelling that goes well beyond accounts . . . MacKay's reconstruction can easily sustain the fabric of faith." --Interpreter​"The existence of this text should be heralded as an important milestone." --Juvenile Instructor​”Was early Mormonism excessively democratic, representative of a newly disestablished society? Or deeply theocratic, echoing the skeptical backlash against those same liberating impulses? In this exhaustively researched and sophisticatedly argued book, Michael MacKay argues that it is not an 'either, or' but 'yes, and.' And in doing so, MacKay digs into some of founding—and foundational—paradoxes concerning religion in the early American republic.”—Benjamin E Park, author of American Nationalisms: Imagining Union in an Age of Revolutions, 1783–1833”In Prophetic Authority, MacKay gives us the most thorough and painstaking description of the slow blossoming of the Mormon priesthood hierarchy available, embedding the story in the raucous context of antebellum American democracy. Valuable for anyone who wants to understand either of those worlds better.”—Matthew Bowman, author of Christian: The Politics of a Word in America

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Book SynopsisTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction A Theory of Types Stories of the Fall Curses from God Reimagining the Exodus Divided Kingdoms Prophets and Prophecy “We Talk of Christ, We Rejoice in Christ” Last Things Notes Index

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Douglas Hyde was for twenty years a dedicated Communist working for the cause on the London Daily Worker. In his late 30's he converted to Roman Catholicism and was soon quite disillusioned with the lower level of dedication among his fellow religionists than among his former comrades. In this book he shares with the Church how the Communists train their people in both dedication and leadership. This book is very important for any pastor or Christian leader to read." —Theology

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Book SynopsisSince the original publication of this title, the twelfth-century Calabrian Abbot Joachim of Fiore has been accorded an increasingly central position in the history of medieval thought and culture. In this classic work Marjorie Reeves shows the wide extent of Joachimist influence from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries and demonstrates the continuity between medieval and Renaissance thought in the field of prophecy.Reeves pinpoints some of the most original aspects of Joachim''s theology of history and traces his reputation and influence through succeeding centuries. She also explains how his vision of a final age of the spirit in history became a powerful force in shaping expectations of the future in Western Europe. The book traces in detail the development of the three great images in which these expectations came to be focused: New Spiritual Men, Angelic Pope, and Last World Emperor. In addition, Reeves illuminates how the pervading influence of Joachim''s conceptsTrade Review“In a work of encyclopedic proportions, the fruit of thirty years of study and research, Reeves presents a survey of Joachimism from the early thirteenth century down to Renaissance and Reformation times, to the day when intelligent and educated men ceased to take prophecy seriously. . . . One would be hard put to pinpoint any important ‘prophet,’ writer, or interpreter of history within the five centuries studied who has been overlooked or slighted.” —The Catholic Historical Review“Reeve’s book is an impressive demonstration of her mastery of an enormous subject: nothing less than the content, spread, and transformations of Joachim of Flora’s ideas during five centuries. No longer can anyone relegate Joachim’s influence to the realm of esoteric. Reeves shows that he shaped the views not only of heretics and Franciscan Spirituals but also of solid middle-of-the-road friars: Franciscan, Dominican, and Augustinian . . . and even of Jesuits and Protestants. . . . [N]o student of Joachism will in future be able to neglect Reeve’s work: it is now an essential starting point for research about Joachim and his followers.” —Speculum“Reeves must be congratulated on her exploration of a complicated and difficult subject. Her book sheds light on a great many aspects of medieval and early modern history.” —The English Historical Review"In the present study . . . Reeves provides valuable insights and exhaustive research into the increasingly important, but highly controversial, figure of Joachim of Fiore (c. 1135-1202)." —Sixteenth Century Journal

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Book SynopsisThese letters offer invaluable insights into Robert Giroux 's publishing process that brought some of Thomas Merton's most important books to his readers.Trade Review"This volume provides Thomas Merton readers with a unique perspective on his development as a published author and a deepened appreciation of Robert Giroux's role in fostering that development. The book is both a lively and enjoyable read and a significant resource for students and scholars researching various aspects of Merton's prolific writing career. It will lead to new perspectives on and to a more nuanced understanding of the development of Merton's wide-ranging interests in monastic life and religious renewal, in social and political issues, in interreligious dialogue and literary criticism, and in numerous other fields." —Patrick F. O'Connell, editor of Thomas Merton: Selected Essays"The Letters of Robert Giroux and Thomas Merton is an important historic record of the emergence and development of one of the great spiritual writers of the twentieth century and of his long friendship and working relationship with one of the great editors of the time. In these letters, carefully and unobtrusively edited and annotated by Patrick Samway, S.J., we see the ups and downs of Merton’s literary affairs against the background of the rapid changes taking place both in the church and in the world during these years. With the advent of email and the demise of the art of letter writing, this book is a testament to a fast disappearing era and the immense value to be found in the literary and historical records contained in such exchanges." —Paul M. Pearson, director, Thomas Merton Center“Robert Giroux, a great editor and publisher, was also a great friend, and Thomas Merton's correspondence with him—steady, tight in focus, rich in detail, frankly affectionate—makes clear how fully editing and publishing, for Giroux, was an act of friendship. That is no surprise. The surprise is in seeing, through these letters, how deeply Merton's vast and various body of work was grounded in friendship—in the desire to share all that he had come to know with the people he loved.” —Paul Elie, author of The Life You Save May Be Your Own"Giroux and Fr. Merton first met when both were students at Columbia University in the late 1930s. This volume of their letters begins with one from Giroux dated March 8, 1948, as the manuscript of Fr. Merton’s autobiography, “The Seven Storey Mountain,” was being revised and prepared for publication. At this time, Giroux was Fr. Merton’s editor at Harcourt, Brace & Co., a major New York publishing house. This book would go on to become a mega-bestseller and make Fr. Merton one of the most influential Catholic authors of the 20th century. Later in life, he would express regret that his autobiography included a kind of naive piety and a romanticized portrayal of monastic life. Still, “The Seven Storey Mountain” remains a classic that has never been out of print. . . . Fr. Samway’s introduction, footnotes and epilogue enrich the book beautifully." —The Compass"The Letters of Robert Giroux and Thomas Merton as compiled and edited by the Jesuit scholar Patrick Samway is a must read for the legions of Thomas Merton enthusiasts whose lives have been touched by his writings. This extraordinary collection of correspondence will also prove to be of immense interest to anyone with an interest in the publishing process that Merton engaged in with the editorial assistance and under the influence of Robert Giroux." —The Midwest Book Review"Few people were as influential in Merton’s writing career as Robert Giroux, classmate at Columbia, editor at two publishing houses, critic, confidant, and friend. . . . This collected correspondence runs from 1948 until Merton’s death in 1968 and discusses the business connected with the 15 volumes Merton and Giroux worked on. . . . In these letters, readers find the (justifiable) laments concerning censors and religious superiors reluctant to allow publication, often over remarkably trivial concerns. And publishers demonstrated that they could be as contentious, arbitrary, and capricious as any monastic censor. Several exchanges about racism, war, and literature—Giroux was editor for T. S. Eliot, Jack Kerouac, Flannery O’Connor, and Robert Lowell, among many others—allow readers to listen in on the wisdom of two astute observers of mid-20th century society." —Choice"The letters reveal a lifelong friendship between Merton and Giroux. . . . This is an important contribution to Merton scholarship—a new primary text in the Merton oeuvre. However, it is also a testimony to the brilliance of Robert Giroux, who emerges here as one of Merton's most important interpreters, critics, and collaborators." —American Catholic Studies“In many ways, the book primarily serves as an important literary and historic record, and will be of great interest to students and scholars looking in detail at Merton’s writing career and undertaking research on Merton.” —Modern Believing“Most helpful, and [indispensible] to the success of this book, are Samway’s annotations. . . . Who will read this book? Scholars of both Merton and Giroux. Merton fans. I think both groups will be pleased.” —Cistercian Studies Quarterly“The extensive professional and personal correspondence between Giroux and Merton is here presented with extremely helpful footnotes, biographical introduction, epilogue, and index.” —Commonweal

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Book SynopsisLisa Kaaren Bailey''s Christianity''s Quiet Success: The Eusebius Gallicanus Sermon Collection and the Power of the Church in Late Antique Gaul is the first major study of the Eusebius Gallicanus collection of anonymous, multi-authored sermons from fifth- and sixth-century Gaul. Bailey sheds new light on these sermons, which were strikingly popular and influential from late antiquity to the High Middle Ages, as the large number of surviving manuscripts attests. They were used for centuries by clergy as a preaching guide and by monks and pious lay people as devotional reading. Bailey''s analysis demonstrates the extent to which these stylistically simple and straightforward sermons emphasize consensus, harmony, and mutuality as the central values of a congregation. Preachers encouraged tolerance among their congregants and promoted a model of leadership that placed themselves at the center of the community rather than above it. These sermons make clear the delicaTrade Review“This is a model study. With a deft survey of the evidence and an eye for telling detail, Lisa Bailey has substantially added to our understanding of preaching, modes of persuasion, and everyday religious practice in late antique Gaul. Sins and sinners, problems of faith, the troubling facts of injustice, the shared work of salvation—all are illuminated in this penetrating analysis.” —William E. Klingshirn, The Catholic University of America"A thorough study of the Eusebius Gallicanus collection was long due, in particular a study that is not focused only on the question of authorship. Lisa Bailey convincingly shows that the collection was made for the average Gallic preacher and that it can therefore provide a picture of late antique Christianity that significantly differs from the one we get through the sermons of figures like Augustine or Caesarius of Arles." —Eric Rebillard, Cornell University“This book . . . concerns an ancient collection of sermons called Eusebius Gallicanus. It consists of 76 sermons, written in southern France in the late fifth century, and probably collected into a homiliary in the sixth.” —American Benedictine Review“The Eusebius Gallicanus collection of sermons . . . has received comparatively little scholarly attention, being comprehensively overshadowed by the sermons of Caesarius of Aries. Bailey’s monograph . . . aims to show why this collection is worthy of wider consideration and how it brings important new insights to our understanding of the process of Christianization in late antique Gaul.” —Bryn Mawr Classical Review“Debates on authorship and historical context have hindered closer analysis of the sermons themselves and of the nature and purpose of the collection. Christianity’s Quiet Success is therefore all the more welcome. In this valuable book Bailey reassesses the importance of the Eusebius Gallicanus sermons and their contribution to the emergence of western Christendom.” —Journal of Theological Studies“Bailey reveals that it is a collection of texts that was pivotal in allowing the church to centralize its authority and impose uniformity in a social milieu that otherwise lacked such powerful totalizing discourse. Bailey can be credited for single-handedly bringing this sermon collection out from the depths of the footnote to the front page. Perhaps one of the greatest implications of this important study is that it makes it abundantly clear that an English translation of the sermon collection is vitally necessary.” —Religious Studies Review“Lisa Kaaren Bailey has written an important work. . . .In detailing distinct local pastoral strategies within the strategies advanced by episcopal authority, Bailey has revealed the need to reinterpret not only the role of the early Church in the community, but also the role of episcopal authority in managing these communities.” —Parergon“Bailey’s book convincingly argues that the largely anonymous, low-key sermons of [Eusebius Gallicanus’ sermon collection] are an indispensable counterpoint to the idea that the success of the Church in the West is due to the rise of powerful bishops. The ‘quiet success’ referred to in the title is the result of patient community building by ordinary pastors.” —Vigilae Christianae“Bailey . . . conducts an extensive examination of the text’s contents, thereby providing broader context and enabling greater accuracy for an understanding of preaching and receiving the Christian message in Gaul.” —Church History“Simply by providing an exposition of such an important, but hitherto almost ignored, collection of texts, Bailey has provided a service to scholarship. However, her analysis of the sermons and of what they imply about Gallic Christianity, both in secular and monastic settings, is extremely convincing throughout. Her work is a significant expansion of our knowledge of Christianity in late-antique Gaul.” —The Catholic Historical Review

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Book SynopsisEastern Orthodox and Anglicans is a study of inter-Orthodox relations, the role of the Anglican Church, and the problems of Orthodox nationalism in modern age. Trade Review“This interesting and important new book offers the first dedicated scholarly investigation into major movements of ecumenical contact among Anglicans and Orthodox between the First World War and the Second World War. Bryn Geffert draws on substantial archival work in English and Russian to write what he calls ‘the story of efforts toward rapprochement by two churches and their ultimate failure to achieve formal unity of intercommunion.’ . . . Above all, this is a cautionary tale about the difficulties inherent in connections among churches with very positive intentions but no ability to speak with one voice.” —The Living Church“Geffert examines political entanglement and territorial aims as well as complex theological issues with clarity and precision. The conclusion contains insightful reflections on the ecumenical longue durée and relations among the principle Christian traditions during the Cold War and beyond.” —The Russian Review“This is a nostalgic book. It describes the time when Western Christians were encountering the Orthodox Church often for the first time, meeting refugees from Russia after the Communist Revolution and extending invitations for conferences and church celebrations to each other. This book describes these early encounters in the period between the wars . . . the encounter of Eastern and Western Christianity described in this book has been rich and creative, usually warm and friendly, and has contributed much to the life of the churches.” —Theology“This detailed study of Anglican-Orthodox relations in the early years of the ecumenical movement not only traces their development but also analyses the motives which impelled each side to seek closer relations. This illuminating study of the complex dynamics of inter- and intra-church relations is of contemporary relevance as well as of historical interest. Members of the International Commission for the Anglican-Orthodox Theological Dialogue who have not yet read it should certainly do so. . . .” —The Journal of Ecclesiastical History“The history of the contacts between Orthodoxy and Anglicanism for the last century-and-a-half is competently recounted in Geffert’s interdisciplinary account. The work is a model of bibliographical organization. . . . The narrative is engaging and clear, with an occasional Russian word in parentheses to convey the flavor of a pungent remark.” —Journal of Ecumenical Studies“Geffert is to be congratulated for the massive amount of research that has gone into this history of the ecumenical efforts toward rapprochement between Anglicans and Orthodox in the period of the 1920s and 1930s, especially in the years between World War I and World War II . . . the great strength of this book lies in its investigation of countless secondary sources. . . .” —Anglican Theological Review“The author is to be congratulated for the massive amount of research that has gone into this history of the ecumenical efforts towards rapprochement between Anglicans and Orthodox in the period of the 1920s and 1930s, especially in the years between the two great world wars.” —Anglican and Episcopal History“Geffert’s work superbly illustrates a moment when institutional alignment seemed possible, but failed. Despite the outcome, his book deserves close attention for the sources it probes and the era it depicts.” —Church History“[Geffert’s] meticulous study, based on archival and published sources, provides a thorough treatment of factors inclining interwar Orthodox and Anglicans to dialogue. Nevertheless, the myriad reasons given for the impossibility of Orthodox-Anglican church unity necessarily overwhelmed ambitions of closer east-west church ties.” —The Slavic Review“Geffert’s book will become required reading for anyone seeking to understand the complicated web of relationships with the Orthodox that developed between the wars. It is also a timely reminder to historians of the ecumenical movement that ‘nontheological factors’ in church divisions are not completely dead, not least where church appointments depend in some measure on the civil power.” —The Journal of Modern History

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