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Book SynopsisDas orthodoxe Christentum im Fokus der InterkonfessionalitÃtsforschung

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Book SynopsisIn Educating the Catholic People, David Salomoni reconstructs the complex educational landscape that arose in sixteenth-century Italy and lasted until the French Revolution. Over three centuries, various religious orders, both male and female, took on the educational needs of cities and states on the Italian peninsula, renewing the traditional humanist pedagogy. Historians, however, have not attempted to produce a synthesis on this topic, focusing mainly on the pedagogical activities of the Jesuits and neglecting the contributions and innovations of other groups. This book addresses this historiographical gap, providing a new chapter in the comparative study of pre-modern education.Table of ContentsList of Maps Introduction  1 State of Research and Historiographical Problems 1 Educating the Modern Catholics?: Roots of Catholic Schools in Renaissance Italy (15th–16th cc.)  1 The Last Phase of Communal Education in Italy   1.1 Complexity of the Renaissance Communal School System   1.2 Weaknesses of the Renaissance Communal School System  2 The Catholicization of Italian Education 2 Historical Paths: The Definition of Pedagogical Identities (16th–17th cc.)  1 Male Religious Orders   1.1 An Educational Benchmark: The Jesuits   1.2 The Barnabites   1.3 The Somascans   1.4 The Piarists   1.5 The Theatines and the Servites  2 Female Religious Orders   2.1 The Ursulines   2.2 The Angelic Sisters and the Guastalla College   2.3 Rosa Venerini and Lucia Filippini: The Pious Teachers 3 Schools and Colleges: Processes of Settlement in Italy and Contiguous Areas  1 From Lombardy to the Kingdom of France  2 Schools for Northern Italy and Small Towns  3 A Congregation for the Large Cities  4 Between Central, Southern and Eastern Europe  5 The Franciscans between Continuity and Rupture 4 Different Types of Schools Operated by Religious Orders  1 Public Education Entrusted to Religious Orders and Secular Priests   1.1 Udine and the Barnabites: On the Outskirts of the Peninsula   1.2 Jesuits and Piarists in the Duchy of Modena: A Competition between Local Networks   1.3 Guastalla: A Multi-layered Religious Education for the Community  2 Episcopal Requests   2.1 The Somascans Between Schools and Diocesan Seminaries  3 Other Types of Schools Operated by Religious Orders   3.1 Barnabite Schools Established by Notables and Aristocrats   3.2 The Religious as Private Teachers   3.3 Women, Nuns, Teachers: The ‘Educandato’ of Saint Charles 5 The End of an Educational Season: The Schools of Religious Orders between Scientific and Political Revolutions (17th–18th cc.)  1 The Scientific Culture: Religious Orders on the Eve of Modernity   1.1 Famiano Michelini and the Galilean Piarists   1.2 Baranzano Redento  2 School Reforms in the Age of Enlightenment   2.1 The European Situation   2.2 The Situation in Italy: The Italian States and the Religious Orders  3 Conclusion 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 SynopsisThis classic of Christian apologetics seeks to persuade the skeptic that there are good reasons to believe in God even though it is impossible to understand the deity fully. First written over a century ago, the Grammar of Assent speaks as powerfully to us today as it did to its first readers. Because of the informal, non-technical character of Newman''s work, it still retains its immediacy as an invaluable guide to the nature of religious belief. A new introduction by Nicholas Lash reviews the background of the Grammar, highlights its principal themes, and evaluates its philosophical originality.Trade Review“Lash’s introduction to this recent reissue of Newman’s Grammar makes that work accessible to contemporary students of philosophy and theology alike. If one wishes a fresh perspective on the shape of the ‘critical questions’ facing philosophical theology, as well as an object lesson in the norms implicit in ordinary discourse properly employed, that person would be well advised to take up this century-old volume.” —Theological Studies“The combination of Newman’s original genius, complemented by Nicholas Lash’s ability to focus his concerns onto ours, makes this edition a useful tool for teachers.” —America“Here is presented one of the most famous 19th century statements of Christian apologetics, including a most influential analysis of the faith-reason controversy.” —Reprint Bulletin Book Reviews

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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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Book SynopsisThe essays in this book honor and extend the work of Rowan A. Greer, Walter H. Gray Professor Emeritus of Anglican Studies at Yale University Divinity School, by exploring the connections between textual interpretation and the formation of religious identity. A diverse and prestigious group of biblical scholars, church historians, and theologians study the function that scripture plays in the creation and maintenance of faith communities and the ways that communal locations in turn shape the interpretation of scripture.The first part of the book examines specific examples of ancient biblical interpretation as a means of creating, maintaining, and challenging Christian identity in the pluralistic ancient world. Authors study acts of interpretation in the Martyrdom of Polycarp, the Physiologus, Gnostic literature, the fifth-century mosaic of the Church of Hosios David in Thessaloniki, and in the works of Irenaeus, Origen, Augustine, John Chrysostom, and Porphyry oTrade Review"This book will be of interest for those concerned with patristic exegesis and the contemporary discussion of how that exegesis, and texts generally, are to be interpreted." —Journal of Ecclesiastical History“A stimulating engagement of postmodern hermeneutics and the field of patristics, Reading in Christian Communities assists theologians and historians in understanding the ways in which the interpretation of texts develops out of particular cultures and, in turn, influences those cultures.” —Journal of Early Christian Studies"...a very fitting tribute.... The scholarly authors of these essays are all colleagues, students, or friends of Greer, and the essays are intended as a tribute to him and a continuation of his work. Both with regard to the content of the essays and the reflections on the modern hermeneutical problem, this is a welcome addition to the ever growing literature on the subject." —The Heythrop Journal“...[A] substantial contribution to the post-modern theological conversation." —Perspectives in Religious Studies"In their focus on reading and exegesis as means to create communities these essays, each in their own way, contribute much to the 'contexts' they seek to illuminate, both the historical ones of early Christianity and late Antiquity as well as the modern, or perhaps post-modern, Christian contexts of their authors. The most striking among the many things that connects these essays is, however, at least for this reader, the sense of deep affection for Rowan Greer the person and teacher, which permeates all of them and which is perhaps the most precious contribution of all." —Journal of Ancient Christianity“This is a wide-ranging collection of essays providing a fitting tribute to the work of Rowan Greer. The combination of detailed studies and more general methodological discussion works well because there is good feed across from one to the other. The key theme is both theological and hermeneutical, focusing on interpretive communities and their vital role in reading scripture. The historical dimension of these studies illuminates the current situation. This is a timely work, as well as a fascinatingly varied collection.” —Frances Young, Edward Cadbury Professor of Theology, University of Birmingham“An unusually rich and nuanced set of essays celebrating and enacting the current renaissance and reconceptualization of the field of patristic biblical engagement that Rowan Greer has done so much to instigate. A must-read for those who wish to be a part of this vibrant conversation.” —Margaret M. Mitchell, Associate Professor of New Testament and Chair, Department of New Testament and Early Christian Literature, The University of Chicago

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Book SynopsisThe history of Christianity has been marked by tension between ideas of sacred and secular, their shifting balance, and their conflict. In Christianity and the Secular, Robert A. Markus examines the place of the secular in Christianity, locating the origins of the concept in the New Testament and early Christianity and describing its emergence as a problem for Christianity following the recognition of Christianity as an established religion, then the officially enforced religion, of the Roman Empire.Markus focuses especially on the new conditions engendered by the Christianization of the Roman Empire. In the period between the apostolic age and Constantine, the problem of the relation between Christianity and secular society and culture was suppressed for the faithful; Christians saw themselves as sharply distinct in, if not separate from, the society of their non-Christian fellows. Markus argues that when the autonomy of the secular realm came under threat in the ChristianisTrade Review“The central argument of the book. . . is that the ‘Christian tradition has a legitimate place for the autonomy of the secular’, meaning that Christians need not subject all social, political, or cultural institutions to distinctly religious views.” —First Things"Christianity and the Secular. . . is a fascinating and informative survey of Christian history and the pervasive influence of Christianity on secular society." —Library Bookwatch"Markus explores the origins of the notion of the 'secular' and its place in Christian history until eclipse in the western Middle Ages." —New Testament Abstracts"Markus . . . has been preoccupied with the church's relation to the secular for forty years; his erudition has produced this compact, meaty, and insightful volume. This book will appeal to church historians, sociologists interested in religion, lay Christians interested in the relation of their faith to society, and theologians concerned with ecclesiology." —Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith“These lectures will not only assist the reader in dealing with the present situation regarding the secular and its relationship to religion, but will place the topic in context beyond the sociological/historical studies in which these arguments are usually framed. The role of Augustine here is extremely important, and students of Augustine will appreciate Markus' contribution here.” —Catholic Library World“Markus interweaves his discussion of late antiquity with current debates about the relationship of the Church and the world, showing vividly that the questions of culture and inculturation, of the right relationship with the world, of the secular, secularization and desecularization, with which the Church currently grapples, are not new. Markus's interpretation of Augustine will no doubt find detractors, but he shows persuasively that Augustine's thinking has much to contribute to current debates.” —Theology“Markus sees the clue to Augustine’s attitude to the secular in his persistent eschatologism. The City of God is neither the Church on earth, nor civil society, but is by contrast in the world to come, where the peace, knowledge, love, and praise of god will receive their ultimate satisfaction.” –—The Journal of Theological Studies"As a contribution to the post-9/11 debate on religions, cultures and societies, these lectures are as finely attuned to their moment as Robert Markus's classic 1970 study, Saeculum, which they update and extend. Christianity and the Secular challenges all who are concerned with the limits of the 'secular' to take better account of the shaping events and theories of the time in which the Roman Empire turned Christian. A beautifully measured book." —Mark Vessey, Canada Research Chair in Literature / Christianity and Culture, University of British Columbia"At a time when the proper boundaries between the sacred and the secular are contested as never before, Robert Markus offers a subtle and persuasive analysis of the roots of this distinction in early Christian theology, including especially but not only the writings of Augustine. He argues that the idea of a secular realm of this-worldly practices and concerns, legitimate and independent on its own terms, is Christian in origin and can be defended on theological grounds. At the same time, he also shows that this theological conception of a secular realm need not lead to 'thin' liberalism or to an excessively individualistic view of society. He thus takes issue with leading strands of patristic scholarship—including some tendencies in his own earlier work—as well as engaging with a number of theologians who have recently argued that the secular realm is at best a necessary evil. The resulting work is a historically grounded, theologically sophisticated defense of the proper autonomy of secular public life, its autonomy from religious control and its place as a legitimate sphere for Christian activity. This is a most timely work which will further confirm Prof. Markus' status as one of the foremost intellectual historians of our day." —Jean Porter, The John A. O'Brien Chair in Theology, University of Notre Dame

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Book SynopsisKevin Madigan studies the development and union of scholastic, apocalyptic and Franciscan interpretations of the Gospel of Matthew from 1150 to 1350. These interpretations are placed within the context of high-medieval religious life and attitudes of the papacy toward the Franciscan Order.Trade Review“It is... heartening to turn to this penetrating study of Peter John Olivi.... Madigan shows himself a very able scholar who works in the tradition of Beryl Smalley.... With Madigan’s help, there are new reasons to benefit from the unique exegesis expounded by this gifted Franciscan friar from the land of langue d’oc, who often enough said no to whatever he thought shortchanged the ideals of Jesus and Francis.”—Cistercian Studies". . . Kevin Madigan has taken a careful scholarly knowledge of a biblical commentary and worked it into a much bigger picture. He contextualizes Olivi's commentary in the history both of scriptural exegesis and of the mendicant-secular quarrels, especially over poverty, of the high Middle Ages. He employs his close reading to illuminate newly a much wider question, as all good scholarship should." —Speculum“Madigan ends by noting that Olivi’s distinctive exegetical traits—occasional controversialism and muted Joachism—had no future, for the Franciscan exegete who called the late-medieval tune, Nicholas of Lyra, had absolutely no use for them. Madigan’s book, however, will surely have a future because of its clarity and sovereign control of the material.” —The Catholic Historical Review“Eleven years ago Kevin Madigan wrote a good dissertation on Olivi's Matthew commentary. In subsequent years he broadened his investigation, placing his research in a richer, more complex historical context which gave it new meaning and importance. The result is a truly excellent book, one that places Olivi's commentary within a long, developing exegetical tradition—three, in fact—and makes good sense of it in the process. Madigan writes well, too, a rare gift in historians. “ —David Burr, Virginia Tech“Olivi and the Interpretation of Matthew in the High Middle Ages is an excellent contribution to the growing bibliography on the study of the Bible in the Middle Ages. Kevin Madigan reads the difficult Franciscan texts with skill and shows the complex ways in which exegesis and apocalypticism intersect. It is especially interesting to see the importance of these controversial texts in a larger medieval context.” —E. Ann Matter, University of Pennsylvania"...an important and needed contribution to the history of biblical interpretation." —The Sixteenth Century Journal“For specialists in medieval exegesis and spirituality, it is important for the access it provides to Olivi’s unedited and largely unstudied Matthew commentary and for the fascinating implications it teases out.” —Religious Studies Review“Olivi and the Interpretation of Matthew in the High Middle Ages is a wonderfully clear and original study of the primary forms of high medieval gospel exegesis.” —Amy Hollywood, Dartmouth College

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Book SynopsisKevin Madigan studies the development and union of scholastic, apocalyptic and Franciscan interpretations of the Gospel of Matthew from 1150 to 1350. These interpretations are placed within the context of high-medieval religious life and attitudes of the papacy toward the Franciscan Order.Trade Review“It is... heartening to turn to this penetrating study of Peter John Olivi.... Madigan shows himself a very able scholar who works in the tradition of Beryl Smalley.... With Madigan’s help, there are new reasons to benefit from the unique exegesis expounded by this gifted Franciscan friar from the land of langue d’oc, who often enough said no to whatever he thought shortchanged the ideals of Jesus and Francis.”—Cistercian Studies". . . Kevin Madigan has taken a careful scholarly knowledge of a biblical commentary and worked it into a much bigger picture. He contextualizes Olivi's commentary in the history both of scriptural exegesis and of the mendicant-secular quarrels, especially over poverty, of the high Middle Ages. He employs his close reading to illuminate newly a much wider question, as all good scholarship should." —Speculum“Madigan ends by noting that Olivi’s distinctive exegetical traits—occasional controversialism and muted Joachism—had no future, for the Franciscan exegete who called the late-medieval tune, Nicholas of Lyra, had absolutely no use for them. Madigan’s book, however, will surely have a future because of its clarity and sovereign control of the material.” —The Catholic Historical Review“Eleven years ago Kevin Madigan wrote a good dissertation on Olivi's Matthew commentary. In subsequent years he broadened his investigation, placing his research in a richer, more complex historical context which gave it new meaning and importance. The result is a truly excellent book, one that places Olivi's commentary within a long, developing exegetical tradition—three, in fact—and makes good sense of it in the process. Madigan writes well, too, a rare gift in historians. “ —David Burr, Virginia Tech“Olivi and the Interpretation of Matthew in the High Middle Ages is an excellent contribution to the growing bibliography on the study of the Bible in the Middle Ages. Kevin Madigan reads the difficult Franciscan texts with skill and shows the complex ways in which exegesis and apocalypticism intersect. It is especially interesting to see the importance of these controversial texts in a larger medieval context.” —E. Ann Matter, University of Pennsylvania"...an important and needed contribution to the history of biblical interpretation." —The Sixteenth Century Journal“For specialists in medieval exegesis and spirituality, it is important for the access it provides to Olivi’s unedited and largely unstudied Matthew commentary and for the fascinating implications it teases out.” —Religious Studies Review“Olivi and the Interpretation of Matthew in the High Middle Ages is a wonderfully clear and original study of the primary forms of high medieval gospel exegesis.” —Amy Hollywood, Dartmouth College

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Book SynopsisSerbin examines the transformational role played by clergymen and seminarians in the Brazilian Church of the mid-nineteenth century as they left seminaries to establish greater contact with the people. This would form part of the early liberation theology movement.Trade Review“Serbin’s superb new study offers a comprehensive look at the church from the colonial period to the end of the military government in the 1980s. He takes the long view in order to demonstrate his central argument: that the ‘progressive’ Catholic Church of the twentieth century, with its political activism and social consciousness, did not emerge out of a void but rather developed out of patterns already set in the colonial period that shifted as they played out against the backdrop of a changing Brazil. . . . The book is a welcome addition to the field of Brazilian history and the history of the Catholic Church in Latin America.” —American Historical Review“This work stakes out entirely new terrain in the history and historiography of Catholicism and society in Brazil. . . . Uncompromising and yet compassionate in its judgments, this second major work on the Church since the author's Secret Dialogues (2000) draws ably and amply on hitherto untapped, century-old archives of key religious congregations charged with clerical training and of Brazil's national hierarchy that oversaw it . . . In uncovering these notable findings and ably setting them within the push and pull of world and national forces, Serbin reconfirms his standing as one of the leading historians of Brazil's past.” —The Americas“Serbin . . . see[s] the equally vast and variegated military, political and religious history of Brazil through a narrower lens of changing cultural ideals of the clergy and seminaries. He charts the rise of priest revolutionaries imbued with the ideals of the enlightenment.” —Horizons“Needs of the Heart provides a rich analysis of the historical development of the Catholic Church in Brazil. Much more than in institutional history, this work examines how, over the course of five centuries, priests navigated the divide between Europe and America as they participated in shaping a Brazilian nation as well as a distinctly Brazilian church.” —Hispanic American Historical Review“ . . . by focusing on priests, and connecting their experience to broader socio-political dynamics, Professor Serbin enriches the stories of liberation theology and of the role played by the Catholic church in promoting democracy and social justice . . . a significant contribution to scholarship on Latin America.” —Latin American Studies“The long and winding history of the Brazilian Catholic Church is thus revealed in Serbin’s analysis as the partial work-product of its primary foot soldiers—its clergy. As such, the book provides a critical complement to previous work which has focused with relative exclusivity on the policies and practices of church leadership, whether in Brazil or the Vatican.” —The Catholic Historical Review"In Needs of the Heart, Kenneth P. Serbin examines the rise and crisis of a model of priestly vocation that was not 'traditional' but rather a new discipline, institutionalized in the mid-nineteenth century. Its intimate, splendidly documented analysis of men's responses to that model can give us a constructive perspective on the coverups of sexual misconduct within the American clergy. Needs of the Heart is also an extraordinary history of the Sixties in Latin America. The countercultural and experimental movements within Brazil's seminaries, ranging from psychoanalysis to 'living alongside the people,' offer us a touchstone for judging the promise and contradictions in the post-1945 Christian quest for individual fulfillment and social justice." —Dain Borges, University of Chicago“Kenneth Serbin’s Needs of the Heart, extraordinary in its breadth, depth, and compelling analysis, unveils the triumphs and tragedies of Brazil’s priests and the seminaries that formed them. The current world-wide tensions and scandals engulfing the priesthood are reflected in this study—a study that needs to be replicated throughout the Catholic world.” —Donald Cozzens, John Carroll University, author of The Changing Face of the Priesthood"This innovative analysis places the formation of a Brazilian priesthood at the center of a preeminently historical examination of the Catholic Church in Latin America's largest country, giving us a new understanding of the forces within and without that have uniquely and universally explained the controversial efforts of seminarians, priests, and bishops to redefine clerical identity in a a national context lying “between Europe and America.” Serbin brings an impressive amount of fresh evidence to reveal Brazil's Catholic Church from the inside, and his reliance on the voices of seminarians, priests, and religious [brothers] for dissecting the post-Vatican II debate over a priestly vocation goes to the heart of the future of the church in a twenty-first century world. This superb study takes church history in a new direction, appropriately recasting a Europe-centered ecclesia within its largest field of Third-World congregants." —Linda Lewin, University of California, Berkeley

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Book SynopsisSince its retrieval by the Second Vatican Council, the idea of Christian families as domestic churches has slowly but steadily gained favor among Catholics. Striking a careful balance between academic theology and practical spirituality, Florence Caffrey Bourg provides a comprehensive analysis of the home and family as one of the most authentic and important locations of the faith community. Bourg draws on literature pertaining to domestic churches from the period of Vatican II to the present to explore the concept of domestic church in relation to the Catholic theological traditions of sacramentality, virtue, and the consistent ethic of life.Bourg examines the role of familiesas basic cells of society and churchin character education, formation of religious identity and vision, and creation of more just social structures. She provides a foundational treatment of Christian family life as a proper concern of systematic theology, especially ecclesiology. Her analysis leads her Trade Review"This thoughtful and at times very personal exploration of the Christian family as domestic church provides an excellent and accurate overview of recent developments in Roman Catholic teaching on this subject. The book also contributes significantly to an understanding of the household as a locus for evangelisation and training in the virtues. ...I applaud Bourg's constructive theological work on behalf of the family." —Studies in Christian Ethics"…a carefully researched and constructed paradigm for thinking about the role of the family within the Church. It offers a refreshing and needed vision regarding the centrality of families as tiny communities where we may discern God's presence and action in human lives." —Theological Studies“…wonderful…. This book will be a great resource for any family or small, faith-based group, or for a marriage course….” —Catholic Library World"...a most welcome contribution, attempting with great care and humility to offer some systematic reflections that are both enlightening and a stimulus to action. [T]he ecumenical significance of her work is compelling." —Theology Today"... a helpful contribution to theology of the family, ecclesiology, sacramental theology, practical theology, and lay spirituality. With discipline and creativity, she digs into traditional theological resources ... to articulate theological frameworks for living within the tensions of contemporary family life." —Journal of Religion"This is an important book.... Florence Caffrey Bourg has given us a start for building a theology of family that is thoughtful, practical, and action filled." —Catholic Books Review"Where Two or Three are Gathered is a much needed illustration of how Christians, and especially Catholics, can better understand their call to marriage and family in its ecclesial dimenson and thus more intentionally 'find God in every day life'. . . is a timely, important, and carefully written book that is original, persuasive, and viatl for te greater self-understanding of Christian families and the longed-for transformation of the world at the center of Catholic social thought." —Spiritus (Spring 2006)“Bourg relates today's restored interest in the concept of the family as 'domestic church' especially to the important interventions of bishop Pietro Fiordelli (1916-2004) or Parato, Italy, at several sessions of Vatican II where he relied on his pastoral experience in the Christian Family Movement as well as his familiarity with traditional teachings of John Chrysostom and Augustine of Hippo relating too the family. . . . Hopefully, this book will be widely read since it develops a theology and spirituality especially of the laity that is not abstract but deeply rooted in the everyday lives of the faithful.” —Journal for the Study of Marriage and Spirituality

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“This important collection reveals Patriarch Bartholomew’s consistent and unrelenting concern to connect the Christian faith and Christian moral values with the moral questions that lie behind political choices and challenge governments, churches, and individuals.” —Brian Daley, S.J., author of God Visible“Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew is widely recognized as one of the most significant and influential religious leaders in our time. Those familiar with his writings and addresses will welcome this volume to the library of Patriarch Bartholomew’s wisdom, while those new to his thinking and ministry will find this book an excellent introduction to his work.” —Daniel P. Horan, O.F.M., author of All God’s Creatures"This important book is both a gift and a challenge to Christians of all traditions and backgrounds, as well as to others who share with us the stewardship of this planet Earth, 'our island home.' In these pages there is much of value for anyone who would dare to follow Jesus and his Way of Love for all of God's children and all of creation." —The Most Reverend Michael B. Curry, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church and author of Love is the Way"It is such a gracious filial duty to celebrate, with this publication, the stalwart figure and the eminently moral voice that His All-Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew is in ecumenical relations, in international policy formulation, and in thinking about care for the earth, our common home. So beautifully do the words of Ben Sirach apply to him: 'a counsellor in his prudence, a seer of all things in prophecy, and a resolute prince of God's flock'! (Sirach 44:3–4)." —Cardinal Peter K. A. Turkson, chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences"Archdeacon Chryssavgis has had a front-row seat to the remarkable leadership and ministry of His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. In publishing this compilation of Bartholomew’s prophetic and courageous statements, Chryssavgis has done a great service for those who stand in awe of the Ecumenical Patriarch’s witness to the power of the gospel and his hope for Christian friendship and unity." —Rev. Austin I. Collins, C.S.C., vice president for mission engagement and church affairs, University of Notre Dame"Global Initiatives of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew is an invaluable resource for understanding the life and ministry of a most remarkable hierarch. Therefore, in a very real way, Chryssavgis prepares us for an informed reading of the joint (and hence truly ecumenical) groundbreaking documents that follow." —Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president emeritus of Fordham University"This book holds considerable, perhaps even immeasurable, riches. These are our prophets—prophets of unity, peace, freedom, sustainability, climate justice, and ultimately, prophets of hope—who refuse capitulation either to a false irenicism or to despair. An essential volume!" —Jennifer Newsome Martin, author of Hans Urs von Balthasar and the Critical Appropriation of Russian Religious Thought"There is much wisdom in this book for Christians of all traditions." —Christian Century ReviewTable of ContentsForeword Introduction Climate Change: An Ecumenical Imperative Joint Statements 1. On the Importance of Dialogue with Pope John Paul II in Rome (1995) 2. A Code of Environmental Ethics with Pope John Paul II in Venice and Rome (2002) 3. Dialogue of Charity with Pope John Paul II in Rome (2004) 4. Dialogue of Truth with Pope Benedict XVI in Istanbul (2006) 5. Anniversary of a Milestone with Pope Francis in Jerusalem (2014) 6. Confirmation of Common Witness with Pope Francis in Istanbul (2014) 7. Climate Change and Human Health with Archbishop Welby in Istanbul and Canterbury (2015) 8. Responding to the Refugee Crisis with Pope Francis and Archbishop Ieornymos in Lesvos (2016) 9. Standing up to Modern Slavery with Archbishop Welby in Istanbul (2017) 10. World Day of Prayer for Creation with Pope Francis in Rome and Istanbul (2017) 11. A Universal Appeal for a Global Challenge with Pope Francis and Archbishop Welby in Rome, Istanbul, and Canterbury (2021) Notes

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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 SynopsisTrade Review"[A] very informative, exciting, and stimulating book about the resistance of the Church of Norway to Nazism during the German occupation 1940-1945….It is an important contribution." -- Torleiv Austad * Lutheran Quarterly *"Hassing’s book is a valuable contribution to our understanding of the Norwegian Church during the Nazi occupation. One of the few books on this topic available in English, this book speaks to larger issues concerning the relationship between church and state, religious ethics, and resistance and should be of interest to a wide range of scholars of religious history, political history, the history of World War II and Norwegian history." -- Anna M. Peterson * Journal of Church and State *"Hassing’s volume is an important contribution to the literature. . . . This book is a “must” for the library of anyone interested in the Lutheran Church, national politics during the Nazi era, twentieth-century Norwegian history, and church resistance in the face of adversity." -- Brenda L. Gaydosh * Historian, The *"Hassing weaves a compelling story. His account of the struggle that was waged to prevent the establishment of a youth organization modeled after the Hitler Youth is particularly striking." -- Patrick Bernhard * American Historical Review *Table of ContentsPreface Acknowledgments Map of the Church of Norway’s dioceses in 1940 Part One | Preludes 1. German Prelude 5 2. Norwegian Preludes Part Two | Invasion, Accommodation, Collaboration 3. Weserubung 4. Forging a Front Part Three | Resistance 5. In Defense of a Just State 6. The NS Church System 7. Against Nazification 8. In Defense of the Church 9. The Resignation of the Bishops 10. In Defense of the Young 11. Easter 1942 Part Four | Contesting NS Legitimacy 12. Negotiations? 13. The Autonomous Church 14. The NS Church Part Five | Final Protests 15. In Defense of Jews 16. Against Compulsory Labor Service Part Six | Holding Out 17. Between the Times Part Seven | Liberation 18. The Reckoning Epilogue: Legacies Abbreviations Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“[A] worthwhile book. . . . [McGuckin] knows how to address a non-Orthodox audience, presenting in a relatively short book most of what needs to be known about two millennia of Christian history.”—Diarmaid MacCulloch, New York Review of Books“McGuckin is consistently energetic and constructively provoking in his narrative . . . [and] offers some first-rate treatments of theology and the ethos of Orthodox worship.”—Rowan Williams, Times Literary Supplement“A triumph. . . . A book that will be read and pondered for decades to come.”—Andrew Louth, Los Angeles Review of Books“A clear, historically and theologically rooted portrait of what the Church is for Orthodox Christianity and how it differs from Western Christians’ expectations.”—John Singleton, Methodist Recorder“As the author of this stimulating and well-written book comments, many histories of the Christian Church produced in the West . . . tell the story often without so much as a nod towards the Eastern Church. This book seeks to remedy the situation by providing not only a history of the Eastern Orthodox Church but also an introduction to its rich traditions of worship, spirituality and theology.”—Paul Richardson, Church of England Newspaper“An engaging, sophisticated yet accessible, account of the Orthodox Church—its self-understanding, theology, sacramental life, and history—from the time of the New Testament through its long pilgrimage in the East and more recently into the West. One of the best introductions available.”—John Behr, author of The Mystery of Christ“This is a rich, fascinating history, from the beginning of Christianity to Patristics and contemporary Orthodoxy, by an outstanding scholar. It includes inspiring intellectual and mystical figures, importantly not only men, but also women, like Elisabeth Behr-Sigel.”—Ilaria L. E. Ramelli, Durham University“This clear, lively and erudite book, comprehensive in its brevity, is an honest and ultimately hopeful account of the living tradition of faith from the apostolic times to our day—a true salvation history.”—The Rev’d Canon John McLuckie“This book has the potential to become one of the most important introductions to the Eastern Christian world.”—George E. Demacopoulos, author of Colonizing Christianity: Greek and Latin Religious Identity in the Era of the Fourth Crusade“John McGuckin, one of today’s most astute and prolific exponents of Eastern Orthodoxy, leads us into the deepest historical and theological roots of the Orthodox tradition. With fresh insight, McGuckin orients non-Orthodox readers to the internal life and practices of Orthodox churches and imaginatively projects the unique vocation of Orthodoxy in a postmodern world.”—Paul M. Blowers, Milligan University

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“An impressive work in its scope and erudition, this will be a major contribution to the study of biblical literature and the history of the Hebrew language.”—William M. Schniedewind, author of A Social History of Hebrew“Dating biblical texts, which has become contentious recently, is finally defended cogently and coherently, with a careful and even-handed tone. This book is a major methodological contribution, which should be required reading for any biblical philologist.”—Na’ama Pat-El, University of Texas at Austin“In this full-scale and comprehensive treatment, two experts of the Hebrew Bible demonstrate conclusively the validity of applying historical linguistics to the relative dating of Biblical Hebrew texts. This book has long been a desideratum.”—Steven E. Fassberg, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem“An engaging, nuanced, and candid inquiry into Biblical Hebrew ‘chronolects’ and an array of other issues surrounding biblical textual criticism and history. This is an important book.”—W. Randall Garr, University of California, Santa Barbara

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Book SynopsisA fresh look at Acts of the Apostles and its depiction of Jewish identity within the larger Roman era When considering Jewish identity in Acts of the Apostles, scholars have often emphasized Jewish and Christian religious difference, an emphasis that masks the intersections of civic, ethnic, and religious identifications in antiquity. Christopher Stroup's innovative work explores the depiction of Jewish and Christian identity by analyzing ethnicity within a broader material and epigraphic context. Examining Acts through a new lens, he shows that the text presents Jews and Jewish identity in multiple, complex ways, rather than as a simple foil for Christianity. Stroup convincingly argues that when the modern distinctions among ethnic, religious, and civic identities are suspended, the innovative ethnic rhetoric of the author of Acts comes into focus. The author of Acts leverages the power of gods, ancestry, and physical space to legitimate Christian identity as a type of Jewish idenTrade Review“If ancient gods and humans formed family groups, what did it mean for non-Jews to make an exclusive commitment to the god of Israel? Reading Acts with this question in mind, Christopher Stroup creatively explores how Luke reconfigured ethnicity, identity and divinity within the matrix of the early imperial city.”—Paula Fredriksen, author of When Christians Were Jews “Stroup combines archaeology and theory to push well beyond previous discussions of the identity of both Jews and followers of Jesus in Acts. This is the new required discussion partner on these issues!”—Lawrence M. Wills, author of Not God's People“Ingeniously conceived and brilliantly argued, this book is a major step forward in our understanding of Acts and how being a follower of Jesus was a way of being both a real Jew and distinct from other Jews in the Roman World.”—Guy MacLean Rogers, Wellesley College “A welcome intervention, this bold and engaging volume demands a new approach to Acts and Christian origins. This is a necessary book, valuable for anyone interested in the interpretation of Acts, the rise of Christianity, and discursive constructions of human difference.”—Jennifer Knust, Duke University “This insightful volume convincingly challenges the common notion that ‘Jew’ is an ethnic category, while ‘Christian’ is its nonethnic opposite. In this masterful demonstration of interdisciplinary scholarship, Stroup provides a fresh and provocative reading of one of the earliest Christian attempts at rhetorical identity formation, the Acts of the Apostles.”—Michal Beth Dinkler, author of Literary Theory and the New Testament

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Book SynopsisPlacing the social history of East Syrian Christians at the center of the Iranian imperial story, this book explains the endurance of a culturally diverse empire across four centuries.Trade Review"An expertly conceived and beautifully written counterpoint to earlier studies of Christian history in the Sasanian Empire... In his meticulous reading of East Syriac sources and the Middle Persian literatures and histories that underlie them, Payne has substantially contributed to a new body of scholarly studies that is quickly revising our understanding of the place of Christianity in the Sasanian period." Marginalia "Overall, A State of Mixture is an important contribution to the religious situation in the Sasaniden Kingdom and the structural development of the relations between Christians and Zoroastrians prior to Islamic expansion; this research merits close attention." PlekosTable of ContentsA Note on Names, Translations, and Transliterations Acknowledgments Introduction 1. The Myth of Zoroastrian Intolerance: Violence and the Terms of Christian Inclusion 2. Belonging to a Land: Christians and Zoroastrians in the Iranian Highlands 3. Christian Law Making and Iranian Political Practice: The Reforms of Mar Aba 4. Creating a Christian Aristocracy: Hagiography and Empire in Northern Mesopotamia 5. The Christian Symbolics of Power in a Zoroastrian Empire Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisChristian communities flourished during late antiquity in a Zoroastrian political system, known as the Iranian Empire. In placing the social history of East Syrian Christians at the center of the Iranian imperial story, this book helps explain the endurance of a culturally diverse empire across four centuries.Trade Review"An expertly conceived and beautifully written counterpoint to earlier studies of Christian history in the Sasanian Empire... In his meticulous reading of East Syriac sources and the Middle Persian literatures and histories that underlie them, Payne has substantially contributed to a new body of scholarly studies that is quickly revising our understanding of the place of Christianity in the Sasanian period." Marginalia "Overall, A State of Mixture is an important contribution to the religious situation in the Sasaniden Kingdom and the structural development of the relations between Christians and Zoroastrians prior to Islamic expansion; this research merits close attention." PlekosTable of ContentsA Note on Names, Translations, and Transliterations Acknowledgments Introduction 1. The Myth of Zoroastrian Intolerance: Violence and the Terms of Christian Inclusion 2. Belonging to a Land: Christians and Zoroastrians in the Iranian Highlands 3. Christian Law Making and Iranian Political Practice: The Reforms of Mar Aba 4. Creating a Christian Aristocracy: Hagiography and Empire in Northern Mesopotamia 5. The Christian Symbolics of Power in a Zoroastrian Empire Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisSaint Gregory of Nazianzus, also known as Gregory the Theologian, lived an illustrious life as an orator, poet, priest, and bishop. Until his death, he wrote scores of letters to friends and colleagues, clergy members and philosophers, teachers of rhetoric and literature, and high-ranking officials at the provincial and imperial levels, many of which are preserved in his self-designed letter collection. Here, for the first time in English, Bradley K. Storin has translated the complete collection, offering readers a fresh view on Gregory's life, social and cultural engagement, leadership in the church, and literary talents. Accompanying the translation are an introduction, a prosopography, and annotations that situate Gregory's letters in their biographical, literary, and historical contexts. This translation is an essential resource for scholars and students of late antiquity and early Christianity.Trade Review"Just as Storin’s excellent translation shows, these texts deserve to be appreciated as epistolary and editorial projects whose full meaning depends on context, audience, and arrangement." * Bryn Mawr Classical Review *"Will prove valuable not only to scholars of Gregory or ancient epistolography, but all those interested in the interdependent constructions of rhetoric, philosophy, and the self in late antiquity." * Ancient Jew Review *“Bradley K. Storin’s work constitutes a major step forward in scholarship on Gregory’s epistolary corpus." * Augustiniana *

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Just as Storin’s excellent translation shows, these texts deserve to be appreciated as epistolary and editorial projects whose full meaning depends on context, audience, and arrangement." * Bryn Mawr Classical Review *"Will prove valuable not only to scholars of Gregory or ancient epistolography, but all those interested in the interdependent constructions of rhetoric, philosophy, and the self in late antiquity." * Ancient Jew Review *"Bradley Storin’s edition of Gregory of Nazianzus’ Letter Collection is an invaluable resource for English-speaking scholars of Gregory of Nazianzus and his 4th-century cultural context." * Reading Religion *“Bradley K. Storin’s work constitutes a major step forward in scholarship on Gregory’s epistolary corpus." * Augustiniana *

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Storin offers a thought-provoking analysis. . . . [and the] book is a welcome addition to the scholarship on Gregory’s self-presentation and will certainly stimulate further discussion about the ways we read his letter collection." * Bryn Mawr Classical Review *"Provides clear and succinct introductions to several aspects of the social and intellectual life of Late Antiquity. It is, moreover, a commendable illustration of how these insights can be applied to specific texts." * Scoreboard for Classical Studies *"Will prove valuable not only to scholars of Gregory or ancient epistolography, but all those interested in the interdependent constructions of rhetoric, philosophy, and the self in late antiquity." * Ancient Jew Review *"Self-Portrait in Three Colors adds nuance and depth to our understanding of the life and times of Gregory of Nazianzus." * Reading Religion * "Indispensable." * Augustiniana *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Note on Translations 1. An Epistolary Autobiography 2. The Architecture of the Letter Collection 3. “The Most Eloquent Gregory” 4. “Father of Philosophers” 5. “Basilist” Epilogue Abbreviations Notes Works Cited Index of Gregory’s Epistulae Index of Subjects

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Reading this book conveys the feeling of bouncing over bumps at high speed on a sunny day in an all-terrain sports utility vehicle. How can such lugubrious topics provide so much fun? The tale is animated by the telling. With sly wit, subtle humour, agile prose and empathetic imagination, Kyle Smith narrates the growth of one of Christianity’s defining traditions." * Times Literary Supplement *"Cult of the Dead is the rare academic book that shows empathy; for the martyrs themselves and for those with devotion to them. . . . Smith does our dearly departed the ultimate favor: He allows the dead to speak once more." * National Catholic Reporter *“For a topic that encompasses millennia of fascinating history, Smith’s digestible book offers a compelling and comprehensive introduction to the role of the lives and afterlives of Christianity’s martyrs in Western society from late antiquity to the present day.” * New Criterion * "In this beautifully produced book...Kyle Smith brings alive devotion to the martyrs over the centuries and demonstrates how it helped to shape Christian devotional life, art, architecture, literature, and spirituality." * Journal of Religious History *"Carefully researched and accessible." * CHOICE *"The great accomplishment of Smith’s book is that it manages to both revel in the macabre appeal of the martyrs, and, at the same time, take the Christian cult of the dead sympathetically and seriously." * Reading Religion *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Preface Introduction 1. The First of the Dead 2. The Names of the Dead 3. The Remains of the Dead 4. The Feasts of the Dead 5. The Living Dead 6. The Miracles of the Dead 7. The War for the Dead 8. The Legends of the Dead Postscript Acknowledgments Notes for Further Reading Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisIn the waning years of Latin America's longest and bloodiest civil war, the rise of an unlikely duo is transforming Colombia: Christianity and access to credit. In her exciting new book, Rebecca C. Bartel details how surging evangelical conversions and widespread access to credit cards, microfinance programs, and mortgages are changing how millions of Colombians envision a more prosperous future. Yet programs of financialization propel new modes of violence. As prosperity becomes conflated with peace, and debt with devotion, survival only becomes possible through credit and its accompanying forms of indebtedness. A new future is on the horizon, but it will come at a price.Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgments Preface Introduction: Aspirational Faith 1. Credit 2. The Soul 3. Deregulating Christianity 4. Inclusion 5. Multiplication 6. Becoming Conclusion: Necrofinance Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisTable of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgments Preface Introduction: Aspirational Faith 1. Credit 2. The Soul 3. Deregulating Christianity 4. Inclusion 5. Multiplication 6. Becoming Conclusion: Necrofinance Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisA free open access ebook is available upon publication. Learn more atwww.luminosoa.org. What is the purpose of a church? Who owns a church? Mary K. Farag persuasively demonstrates that three groups in late antiquity were concerned with these questions: Christian leaders, wealthy laypersons, and lawmakers. Conflicting answers usually coexisted, but from time to time they clashed and caused significant tension. In these disputes, juridical regulations and opinions mattered more than has been traditionally recognized. Considering familiar Christian controversies in novel ways, Farag's investigation shows that scholarship has misunderstood well-known religious figures by ignoring the legal issues they faced. This seminal text nuances vital aspects of scholarly conversations on sacred space, gift giving, wealth, and poverty in the late antique Mediterranean world, making use not only of Latin and Greek sources but also Coptic and Arabic evidence.

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Book SynopsisEven before the emergence of the civil rights movement, African American religion and progressive politics were assumed to be inextricably intertwined. Savage counters this assumption with the story of a highly diversified religious community whose debates over engagement in the struggle for racial equality were as vigorous as they were persistent.Trade ReviewToday when black religious leadership and ideas have been thrust into the race for the American presidency, Barbara Savage helps to sift through the myriad and longstanding debates over black religion and politics. In this powerfully written and compelling book, Savage brings profound clarity to the institution that remains at the center of black spiritual and community life. -- Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, author of Righteous Discontent: The Women's Movement in the Black Baptist ChurchWith the recent controversy over the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, former pastor of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, much attention has been recently paid to the topic of the black church in America. Yet historian Savage shows in her book that "there is no such thing as the black church." Countering the image of a monolithic institution, Savage instead portrays the theological, economic and social diversity within black churches. Through biographical vignettes, Savage spans the 20th-century black religious experience, focusing on the ever-present question African-Americans asked about the role their churches should play in the politics for racial justice. Savage's greatest contribution is her restoration of black women to a central place in black religious experience. Though women formed the vast majority of those in the pews, most historians have focused on the male ministers who led the congregations. Savage argues for the importance of Mary McLeod Bethune, Nannie Helen Burroughs, and Fannie Lou Hamer, among others. A concluding chapter on Barack Obama and Wright smartly observes how Wright himself downplayed black religious diversity to make his defense of the black church. * Publishers Weekly *Savage recounts the circuitous journey along which black religious sentiment and political ideology have conflicted, converged, and sometimes melded throughout the 20th century. She presents this sociohistorical study chiefly through an engaging series of portraits of individuals who combined African American religious and political sensibilities in innovative ways, including W.E.B. DuBois, Carter Woodson, Benjamin Mays, E. Franklin Frazier, Mary McLeod Bethune, and Nannie Helen Burroughs. -- Dann Wigner * Library Journal *Your Spirits Walk Beside Us marks the beginning of a new history of African American religion, not as a sacred narrative, but as the exciting story of a powerful but ambivalent Christian legacy in African American life. Savage has brilliantly rethought a matter of broad and urgent contemporary significance -- the enduring dilemmas and ambiguities of the African American religious experience amid the demands of modern American political life. -- Robert A. Orsi, author of Thank You, Saint Jude: Women's Devotion to the Patron Saint of Hopeless CausesSavage challenges our thinking about a monolithic 'black church' and encourages us to engage with the full diversity and complexity of black religious institutions. A beautifully written, brilliant, and important book, it is both a profound work of history as well as a timely intervention into contemporary politics. -- Farah Jasmine Griffin, author of Who Set You Flowin'? The African-American Migration NarrativeWith this brilliant explication of the relationship between African American religious and political life, Barbara Savage dramatically deepens our understanding of the twentieth-century freedom struggle. Hers is a moving and provocative exploration of faith, doubt, and profound commitment. -- Kevin Boyle, author of Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights and Murder in the Jazz AgeThis passionate and incisive analysis of the relationship between twentieth-century black religion and politics reveals the paradoxes as well as the dynamism intrinsic to black church culture. It is a major accomplishment. -- Wallace Best, author of Passionately Human, No Less Divine: Religion and Culture in Black ChicagoHere is a book that couldn't be more topical...[Savage] examines in detail the history and implications of black church development as a political force in America. Her work is readable and thought-provoking, bringing us up to the minute with its brief but telling examination of the relationship between Barack Obama and his own church, and its by-now famous pastor Jeremiah Wright. -- Barbara Bamberger Scott * Curled Up with a Good Book *The debate about the role and relevance of religion in the social and political lives of African Americans has raged since the days of slavery. Historian Savage focuses on the period from the turn of the twentieth century, a time of tension between science and faith as more and more black Americans sought education and as racial inequalities and exploitation left black Americans as much in need of spiritual succor as ever. As black Americans adjusted to life in urban areas, and to the attendant racial discrimination and segregation, the black church became the only indigenous institution with the stability and influence to effect change within and outside the community, giving rise to the notion of "the black church" despite what was actually a great diversity of religious institutions. Savage focuses on diverse figures from the early 1900s through the current day, including Marcus Garvey, sociologist W. E. B. DuBois, and activist Marian Wright Edelman. She explores changes in how religion has been viewed and how it has been used as a political and social engine as much as for spiritual uplift. -- Vanessa Bush * Booklist *Table of Contents* Contents * Introduction * The Reformation of the "Negro Church" * Illusions of Black Religion * In Pursuit of Pentecost * The Advent to Civil Rights * Southern Black Liberal Protestantism * A Religious Rebellion * Reconcilable Differences * Notes * Acknowledgments * Index

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Book SynopsisIn some religious countries, churches have drafted constitutions, restricted abortion, and controlled education. In others, church influence on public policy is far weaker. Why? Nations under God argues that where religious and national identities have historically fused, churches gain enormous moral authority--and covert institutional access. ThesTrade ReviewWinner of the 2016 Best Book Award, European Politics and Society Section of the American Political Science Association "[An] excellent volume."--Choice "A landmark contribution... It blends statistical analysis, qualitative paired comparisons, and formal theory into an argument that is both theoretically nuanced and empirically rich... Nations under God should be kept on a shelf within arm's reach as scholars grapple with these questions."--David T. Buckley, Journal of Church and State "An original and insightful argument that is essential to understanding the role of religious institutions in politics."--Jonathan Fox, Perspectives on PoliticsTable of ContentsList of Figures ix List of Tables xi Acknowledgments xiii Chapter 1 Introduction 1 Chapter 2 Weapons of the Meek: How Churches Influence Policy 22 Chapter 3 Catholic Monopolies: Ireland and Italy 62 Chapter 4 Post-Communist Divergence: Poland and Croatia 145 Chapter 5 Religious Pluralism and Church Influence: United States and Canada 227 Conclusion Where Churches Matter 329 Appendix Further Tests of the Argument 345 References 373 Index 407

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewWinner of the 2016 Best Book Award, European Politics and Society Section of the American Political Science Association "[An] excellent volume."--Choice "A landmark contribution... It blends statistical analysis, qualitative paired comparisons, and formal theory into an argument that is both theoretically nuanced and empirically rich... Nations under God should be kept on a shelf within arm's reach as scholars grapple with these questions."--David T. Buckley, Journal of Church and State "An original and insightful argument that is essential to understanding the role of religious institutions in politics."--Jonathan Fox, Perspectives on PoliticsTable of ContentsList of Figures ix List of Tables xi Acknowledgments xiii Chapter 1 Introduction 1 Chapter 2 Weapons of the Meek: How Churches Influence Policy 22 Chapter 3 Catholic Monopolies: Ireland and Italy 62 Chapter 4 Post-Communist Divergence: Poland and Croatia 145 Chapter 5 Religious Pluralism and Church Influence: United States and Canada 227 Conclusion Where Churches Matter 329 Appendix Further Tests of the Argument 345 References 373 Index 407

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