History of religion Books

Book SynopsisChristianity: The Basics is a compelling introduction to both the central pillars of the Christian faith and the rich and varied history of this most global of global religions. This book traces the development of Christianity through an exploration of some of the key beliefs, practices and emotions which have been recurrent symbols through the centuries: Christ, the kingdom of heaven and sin Baptism, Eucharist and prayer Joy, divine union and self denial Encompassing the major epochs of Christian history and examining the unity and divisions created by these symbols, Christianity: The Basics is both a concise and comprehensive introduction to the Christian tradition.Table of Contents1. Christian Origins 2. Classic institutions 3. Medieval Synthesis 4. The Reformation and Counter-Reformation 5. Modernity and the Present.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book SynopsisThis is the 2005 second edition of a comprehensive study of the French wars of religion. Focusing on the social history of religion, it argues that this conflict was fomented by religious tensions among the population at large. The text has been updated and the 'Suggestions for further reading' entirely re-written.Trade Review'This book is the first comprehensive study of the wars to appear for over twenty years … it succeeds admirably in steering the reader through the confusing morass that is the history of the French Wars of Religion and provides the reader with a concise summary of current academic thinking on the matter … it would provide those members wishing to learn more about the ones with an excellent starting point.' Arquebusier 24:3'Using brief biographies of the main actors of that time, figures, maps and an index, this book deals with a great amount of facts, questions, and ideas in a limited number of pages. Well written and carefully presented, it is a good and useful synthesis which gives an excellent overview of a deeply controversial period.' Bulletin de la Société d'Histoire Moderne et Contemporaine 3-4'A skillful weaver of narrative and analysis... Holt .... offer[s] [a] masterful probing of complex and fascinating issues.' Renaissance and Reformation'Holt... develops both a comprehensive narrative of the wars and an important synthesis of the scholarly literature... The book is balanced and extremely enjoyable to read.' Sixteenth Century JournalTable of ContentsIntroduction; Chronological table of events; 1. Prologue: Gallicanism and reform in the sixteenth century; 2. 'The beginning of a tragedy': the early wars of religion, 1562–70; 3. Popular disorder and religious tensions: the making of a massacre, 1570–4; 4. The rhetoric of resistance: the unmaking of the body politic, 1574–84; 5. Godly warriors: the crisis of the league, 1584–93; 6. Henry IV and the edict of Nantes: the remaking of Gallicanism; 7. Epilogue: the last war of religion, 1610–29; 8. Conclusions: economic impact, social change and absolutism; Short biographies; Genealogical charts; Suggestions for further reading.

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Book SynopsisThe Cambridge Guide to Jewish History, Religion, and Culture provides a comprehensive and accessible overview of the Jewish experience, from its ancient origins to its impact on contemporary popular culture. The twenty-one historical and thematic essays examine the ongoing diversity and creativity of the Jewish experience, including the lives and contributions of women.Table of ContentsIntroduction Judith R. Baskin and Kenneth Seeskin; 1. The Hebrew Bible and the early history of Israel Marc Zvi Brettler; 2. The Second Temple Period Alan F. Segal; 3. The rabbinic movement Hayim Lapin; 4. The Jewish experience in the Muslim world Norman A. Stillman; 5. Jewish life in Western Christendom Robert Chazan; 6. Jews and Judaism in early modern Europe Adam Shear; 7. European Jewry: 1800–1933 Marsha L. Rozenblit; 8. Jews and Judaism in the United States Pamela S. Nadell; 9. The Shoah and its legacies Peter Hayes; 10. The founding of modern Israel and the Arab-Israeli conflict Bernard Reich; 11. The centrality of Talmud Michael S. Berger; 12. Judaism as a religious system Harvey E. Goldberg; 13. Jewish worship and liturgy Ruth Langer; 14. Jewish private life: gender, marriage, and the lives of women Judith R. Baskin; 15. Jewish philosophy Kenneth Seeskin; 16. Jewish mysticism Hava Tirosh-Samuelson; 17. Modern Jewish thought Leora Batnitzky; 18. Contemporary forms of Judaism Dana Evan Kaplan; 19. Jewish popular culture Jeffrey Shandler; 20. Aspects of Israeli society Judith R Baskin; 21. The futures of world Jewish communities Calvin Goldscheider; Glossary; Timeline.

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Book SynopsisRoger Haight, SJ, has a PhD from the University of Chicago, USA (1973) and a STL from the Jesuit School of Theology in Chicago, USA (1981). He has taught for over 30 years in Jesuit schools of theology in Chicago, Toronto, the Philippines, and Cambridge, Massachusetts. He has been a visiting professor in France, India, Peru, and Kenya. He is a past president of the Catholic Theological Society of America (1994/95).Trade Review"While maintaining the theological nature of his study, Roger Haight's historical ecclesiology lays a sturdy foundation in a historical, sociological analysis of the beginnings and development of the Christian Church from its origin in Jesus of Nazareth to the eve of the Reformation.... This is a groundbreaking volume... Haight has served all ecclesiologists well by initiating a way of looking at ecclesiology as it develops on the ground, so to speak. He has done it with theological integrity and clear analyses. He challenges us all to understand differences as values and the most appropriate way for the incarnation to continue through human history, honoring both the human and the divine whether in the stable or the palace of the council chamber." -Catholic Studies/ http://www.CatholicBooksReview.org/, 2005Cover Story Feature on Haight -National Catholic Reporter, 2/25/05"While maintaining the theological nature of his study, Roger Haight's historical ecclesiology lays a sturdy foundation in a historical, sociological analysis of the beginnings and development of the Christian Church from its origin in Jesus of Nazareth to the eve of the Reformation...each chapter concludes with a social historical analysis and a few illuminating pages that draw out principles for historical theology. It is these analytic pages that set Haight's book apart from other studies...This is a groundbreaking volume." -Catholic Books Review, 2005 -- Catholic Books Review"Haight presupposes a Christian unity in the face of religious pluralism within the historical context of postmodernity..."- Susan K. Wood -- Susan K. WoodRoger Haight's two-volume Christian Community in History is an ambitious, multi-layered work that defines the common divisions in ecclesiological approaches. In integrating a history of the church with both theological and social scientific analyses, Haight adopts themes that James Gustafson explored decades ago in Treasure in Earthen Vessels, but which have pretty much disappeared from ecclesiology ever since. -- Amy Plantinga Pauw"Haight displays a laudable awareness of the complexity of issues.... Ultimately, though, what will give this book landmark status in the discipline of ecclesiology will be its method; it is a truly critical and historical study in a discipline struggling with how to order itself in the contemporary theological world." -Anglican Theological Review"Haight displays a laudable awareness of the complexity of issues.... Ultimately, though, what will give this book landmark status in the discipline of ecclesiology will be its method; it is a truly critical and historical study in a discipline struggling with how to order itself in the contemporary theological world." -Anglican Theological Review"Haight proceeds with a historical analysis of the self-constitution of the Church from its origins as a Jesus movement to the heights of medieval Christendom and concludes the volume with the era of conciliarism in the late medieval Church. Several of the essays cast light on the act of reading scripture as a theological exercise, as an encounter with the divine. Thus, a common thread running through this volume is the theological conviction that the prime subject of scriptural interpretation is in fact the self-revealing God. Other contributions offer fascinating explorations of theological interpretation and intertextuality as exemplified with the scripture itself. Haight's study of late medieval ecclesiology sheds light on the all but forgotten influence of conciliarism in healing the Western rift in the papacy. While I find the author's historical study quite insightful. I found this a very helpful, scholarly trek though the major developments in the Roman Catholic Church's self-understanding." -Toronto Journal of Theology"After gaining much renown for his Christology from below Haight applies his methodology to ecclesiology. In this first of a projected two-volume ecclesiology from below, Haight traces the history of the church from its beginnings into the late Middle Ages, concluding with a positive assessment of conciliarism.... Recommended." -Choice, 5/05 * Choice *"I salute Haight for the extraordinary accomplishment represented in this two-volume work..."- Richard P. McBrien, Horizons * Horizons *"Haight's comparable efforts to find methods based on a hermeneutics of authors, a hermeneutics of texts, and a hermeneutics of receivers can open up a common ground amidst diverse viewpoints for understanding the church, foster new formulations about the church's identity and mission, and affirm common practices."- Bradford E. Hinze, Religious Studies Review * Religious Studies Review *[Part of a] landmark work ... Unlike other books on church history or ecclesiology, this is not one with a ‘hidden author’ ... Instead, Haight constantly engages the reader by explaining what he is doing and why he is doing it, and also by introducing topics such as historical consciousness, globalization, religious pluralism, and contemporary secularism. * Reviews in Religion and Theology *Review in German in Theologische Literaturzeitung 131 (2006) * Theologische Literaturzeitung *Table of ContentsPreface Introduction Part I: The Question of Method 1. Historical Ecclesiology Part II: The Formation of the Church 2. Genesis of the Church 3. The Pre-Constantinian Church 4. The Post-Constantinian Church 5. The Gregorian Reform and the New Medieval Church 6. Conciliarism and the Late Medieval Church Index

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Book SynopsisIn Christendom at the Crossroads, the introductory book in the Westminster History of Christian Thought series, J. A. Sheppard explores the development of Christian theology in the medieval period. Expertly leading readers through the major theological controversies and issues of the era, Sheppard highlights why those particular questions were...

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Book SynopsisWacker gives an in-depth account of the practices of American pentecostal churches. He examines aspects of pentecostal culture, including rituals, speaking in tongues, the authority of the Bible, the central role of Jesus in everyday life, the gifts of prophecy and healing, ideas about personal appearance, women’s roles, and race relations.Trade ReviewWacker...gives an in-depth, well-researched look at the history, beliefs, and everyday lives of early Pentecostals (1900-1925). He discusses their culture, temperament, taboos, use of time, organizational skills, and leadership. While exploring the boundaries that separate the Pentecostals from mainstream U.S. society, he also shows how only a minority fit the stereotype of poor and alienated folk. The genius of the Pentecostal movement, Wacker states, lies in its ability to hold two seemingly incompatible impulses--the primitive and the pragmatic--in productive tension. Recommended for cultural and theological collections. -- George Westerlund * Library Journal *In this remarkable study, Wacker, raised a pentecostal and now a respected historian at Duke University, devastates the standard stereotypes...What emerges instead is a remarkably rich account of the inner lives of ordinary men and women who felt themselves filled with the power of the Holy Ghost. In 15 tightly organized chapters, Wacker offers a comprehensive ethnography of the first generation of pentecostals--their faith, their social attitudes and their politics. He leads the reader through enchanted landscapes populated by angels and demons, pauses to assess reports of xenolalia (speaking in a human language allegedly unknown to the speaker) and surveys the gulfs that have divided charismatics from their detractors. It is difficult to imagine a more judicious treatment of the subject; meticulously researched, lyrically written and continuously illuminating. Wacker's book is essential reading for anyone who wishes to understand the origins of this influential current in American culture. * Publishers Weekly *Even serious, sympathetic studies reinforced the popular impression that Pentecostalism was the expression of poorly educated and socially marginal people, outcasts who grasped an exuberant faith as an escape from their miseries or found in it the meaning and discipline to make that escape effective. Challenging this premise is one of the remarkable accomplishments of Grant Wacker...His meticulous review of the data leads to a different, and in some sense surprising, conclusion: "Contrary to stereotype, the typical convert paralleled the demographic and biographical profile of the typical American"...Heaven Below is a historical ethnography, examining topics like authority, rhetoric, worship and prohibitions, and attitudes towards finances, education, women and race. -- Peter Steinfels * New York Times *In Heaven Below, Grant Wacker offers a comprehensive, fact-laden and readable account of the birth of Pentecostalism in the early 20th century. Believers embraced the "four-fold" gospel of personal salvation, Holy Ghost baptism, divine healing and the imminent return of Jesus. Wacker has strayed a bit from the faith of his parents and grandparents, with ties not to the United Methodist Church. But it's not a total backslide: "I guess the most honest way to explain my relation to the Pentecostal tradition is to say that I am a pilgrim with one leg still stuck in the tent." -- Colman McCarthy * Washington Post Book World *Wacker brings a matter-of-fact honesty to his account of the early years of American Pentecostalism, which covers roughly 1900 to 1925. While the book is exhaustively researched, Wacker's writing does not suffer from academic turgidity. At the same time, while he is sympathetic to the hopes and dreams of his subjects, he maintains a scholarly distance. -- Zachary Karabell * Los Angeles Times *Unlike other histories of Pentecostalism, Wacker uses the letters, journal entries, newspaper articles, and other writings of the believers themselves as he examines the rise and development of the movement. With a blend of thorough scholarship, lively detail, and elegantly crafted prose, Wacker provides us with an enlightening glimpse into the history of Pentecostalism in this first-rate history of American religion. -- Henry L. Carrigan Jr. * Christian Science Monitor *Both Wacker's approach and his thesis break new ground. The approach values the ordinary as much as the privileged, and the thesis explains how people sustained by otherworldly immediacy succeeded so remarkably in the here-and-now...Wacker's careful work in primary sources is both welcome and needed. His extensive documentation is not just the mark of a competent historian; it is also the power of his book. In the sources Wacker overhears many "yes...buts," and he keeps listening when other scholars have tended to stop. Sometimes he finds speakers manifesting endearing traits; sometimes he is repulsed. His sympathy--or at least his ability to empathize--is apparent, but so it his careful sensitivity to the nuancing that keeps sympathy from dulling critical scholarship...[Wacker] reveals the world of early Pentecostalism from within, in all its aspects, and allows readers to draw their own conclusions. One can't ask anything more of a historian. -- Edith Blumhofer * Books & Culture *Despite copious adherents and a growth curve that defies trends in most masculine groups, Pentecostals remain largely misunderstood by both the general public and their fellow Christians. Wacker endeavors to develop an understanding of this movement in this study of its early history...Scholars will find Wacker's research thorough, yet his writing is accessible to a popular audience...Highly recommended. -- R. Watts * Choice *A rich account of the inner lives of ordinary men and women who felt themselves filled with the power of the Holy Ghost. A comprehensive ethnography of the first generation of Pentecostals, their faith, their social attitudes and their politics, which illuminates the origins of this influential current in American culture. * Arizona Daily Star *Table of Contents* Preface * Acknowledgments * Introduction *1. Temperament *2. Tongues *3. Testimony *4. Authority *5. Cosmos *6. Worship *7. Rhetoric *8. Customs *9. Leaders *10. Women *11. Boundaries *12. Society *13. Nation *14. War *15. Destiny * Epilogue * Appendix: U.S. Pentecostal Statistics * Notes * Index

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Book SynopsisThe unseeing of the gods was a requirement of Western modernity. Beginning with sixteenth-century debates over Christ's real presence in the host, Robert Orsi imagines an alternative. He urges us to withhold from absence the prestige modernity encourages and instead to approach contemporary religion and history with the gods fully present.Trade ReviewThis book is classic Orsi: careful, layered, humane, and subtle… If reformed theology has led to the gods’ ostensible absence in modern religion, History and Presence is a sort of counter-reformation literature that revels in the excesses of divine materiality: the contradictions, the redundancies, the scrambling of borders between the sacred and profane, the dead and the living, the past and the present, the original and the imitator… History and Presence is a thought-provoking, expertly arranged tour of precisely those abundant, excessive phenomena which scholars have historically found so difficult to think. -- Sonja Anderson * Reading Religion *Perhaps the heart of [Orsi’s] genius for writing about religion lies in his deft balance of the individual person and the encompassing dynamics of national and international history… Many, I suspect, will applaud Orsi’s effort at pushing back on the epistemological presumptions of modernity, in part at least because doing so opens the way for a fuller recognition of materiality, of the troubling bodies and substances, images, and efficacious things that act on devotees with a force to be reckoned. -- David Morgan * Material Religion *With reference to Marian apparitions, the cult of the saints, and other divine–human encounters, Orsi constructs a theory of presence for the study of contemporary religion and history. Many interviews with individuals devoted to particular saints and relics are included in this fascinating study of how people process what they believe. * Catholic Herald *Orsi’s evoking of the full reality of the holy in the world is extremely moving, shot through with wonder and horror. Speaking of the sanctuary at Chimayo—which the present reviewer has also visited—Orsi rejects trauma theory. The well of earth is not a ‘metaphor for suffering,’ a ‘hole in the mind’ where suffering spills out; instead, ‘the seeming emptiness is in fact full’; the hole is paradoxical; Christ is present in the dirt… There is much that is specifically Catholic about the horrors and glories that Orsi sets out in such carefully researched detail. His argument in a short epilogue that we should see all religious history through a matrix of presence is, nonetheless, convincing. -- Caroline Walker Bynum * Common Knowledge *[A] compelling ethnography…Orsi shows that the history of presence includes belief and doubt, anger and awe…Ultimately, this book is meant as a manifesto for historians of religion more broadly…Orsi’s history of a stereotype serves an important purpose, as it rehabilitates the miracle of divine presence in our own histories of religion. -- Madeline McMahon * Marginalia *A fiercely inquisitive book on the heart of Roman Catholicism… The bulk of History and Presence concentrates on…the perception phenomenon at the back of worldwide cults of saints’ relics, holy shrines, saints’ cults, apparitions of Mary, and the like. Through very nimble and wide-ranging research, Orsi lays bare the complex intermingling of faith and psychology that has been a key element of Catholicism for five hundred years. One of the persistent strengths of the book is its keen awareness of the day-to-day meaning of its mysteries for the ordinary people involved. -- Steve Donoghue * Open Letters Monthly *[A] brilliant, theologically sophisticated exploration of the Catholic experience of God’s presence through the material world… On every level—from its sympathetic, honest, and sometimes moving ethnography to its astute analytical observations—this book is a scholarly masterpiece. * Choice *Orsi recaptures God’s breaking into the world through stories that range from tales of saints, such as Bernadette, to common people who directly experienced divine intervention… The book does an excellent job of explaining both the difficulties and values inherent in recognizing God in the world. * Publishers Weekly *This is a meticulously researched, humane, and deeply challenging book. It concerns the people and the groups for whom heaven and earth, life and death are not separated by absolute boundaries. ‘Gods’ (to use Orsi’s term) cross these boundaries. Christ, the Virgin Mary, saints, and the beloved dead remain real presences to many, in a modern world that finds no place for them. The story is set against the background of postwar American Catholicism. It has searing moments of desperate hope and unexpected comfort. It also has moments of sheer horror—as when Orsi explores what sexual harassment by priests means to those who saw in priests human gateways to heaven. The men and women studied in this book do not belong to ‘a world we have lost.’ They belong to a world we have lost sight of. -- Peter Brown, Princeton University

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Book SynopsisTertullian founded a Christian Latin language and literature, strove to unite the demands of the Bible with Church practice, defended Christianity, attacked heresy, and pondered morality. Octavius by Minucius Felix, an early Christian writer of unknown date, is a debate between a believer and non-believer that depicts Roman religion and society.

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Book SynopsisThe Didache as a mediating document between Jewish and gentile Christians, advocating Mosaic law without full conversion.Trade Review'In this stimulating and original monograph, Nessim argues that the author of the Didache mandated the same Torah followed by the Jewish people for gentiles, insofar as it was deemed to apply to them. The claim is controversial, but in arguing it, Nessim touches on an array of issues pertinent to the study of Jewish and Christian identity and their relationship to each other.' - James Carleton Paget, University of Cambridge 'Much has been written since the rediscovery of the Didache on its relationship to Judaism and Torah, but most of the work has been piecemeal, focusing on particular texts and problems. . . . In this book Daniel Nessim has provided a plausible and holistic account of its background in the historical context of the failed revolt against Rome and its aftermath in Antioch, drawing particularly on the Dead Sea Scrolls and other Jewish sources. He locates the struggle in the emergence of the earliest movement of Jesus believers around the position of Torah, God's covenant with Israel, and continuing Jewish ethnic identity in mixed communities of Jesus believers. . . . His study provides intriguing possibilities for rethinking relations today between Jesus-believing Jews and gentiles who identify with and wish to live and worship in common with them.' - Jonathan Draper, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa 'A fresh and measured study of how the Didache understood the application of the Torah to Gentile followers of Jesus and Jews respectively. I highly recommend it!' - David Rudolph, The King's University, Southlake, TexasTable of ContentsPreface | ix Abbreviations | xi Introduction | xiii Part One: Didache and Torah | 1 1. The Didache and the Torah: A Literature Review | 3 2. Text and Transmission | 22 Part Two: A Comprehensible and Authoritative Teaching | 45 3. Crisis and Community | 47 4. Two Ways and the One Way of Torah | 74 5. An Authoritative Torah and Teacher | 90 Part Three: Torah for the Lord's Community | 113 6. The Two Ways Choice | 115 7. The Sectio, Jesus, and the Torah | 129 8. The Sectio and the Two Ways | 140 9. The Torah and the Two Ways | 158 10. The Yoke of the Lord | 177 11. The Two Ways Disciple | 196 Conclusion | 221 Bibliography | 225 Author Index | 243 Subject Index | 247 Index of References | 253

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Book SynopsisA paradigm-shifting history that reveals how the early Christian churches in the East helped to shape the Asia and the Christianity we know today

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Book SynopsisOne man's spiritual journey through the world's greatest city.Table of ContentsContents PageAcknowled gments 9Introduction 11 Part I: Old Ways1. The River Runs Throu gh It 252. New Gods for Old 373. A Time for Gifts 614. Fires of Faith 77 Part II: New Ways5. Godnarok 1116. This Charming Magic 1437. Like Shining from Shook Foil 1658. Sufi’s World 1899. City of God 217Bibliography 232

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Book SynopsisThis textbook surveys the major advances in the heavenly sciences from Isfahan, Maragha and Samarqand. Itlooks at the development of astronomy and astrology in the Islamic world from the 9th to the 17th century, and their influence on the beliefs and practices of individuals and institutions in the Islamic world and Europe.

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Book SynopsisThe German edition of Commentary on Luther''s Catechisms by Albrecht Peters has long been the gold standard of research on the catechetical texts of the great reformer. This translation makes the wealth of research available in English for both the researcher and the catechist. Separate volumes address the Decalogue, the Creed, the Lord''s Prayer, the Sacraments, and Confession with the Table of Duties, prayers, and the Marriage and Baptismal Booklets. This volume places Martin Luther''s exposition of the Apostles'' Creed in its biblical, historical, and systematic context, and more generally within the Reformer''s trinitarian teaching.Foreword by Gottfried SeebassTranslated by Thomas H. Trapp Books In This SeriesCommentary on Luther''s Catechisms, Ten CommandmentsCommentary on Luther''s Catechisms, CreedCommentary on Luther''s Catechisms, Lord''s

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Book SynopsisHelps readers better understand the complex worldwide Christian movement and become more globally minded in their faith and practice.Table of ContentsContentsIntroduction1. Global Christianity: A Very Brief History2. Four Christian Traditions3. Africa4. Latin America5. Europe6. Asia7. North AmericaConclusionIndex

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Book SynopsisThrough a commanding view extending over five thousand years, Jan Assmann explores the connections between religion, culture, and memory, in ten brilliant essays.Trade Review"Religion and Cultural Memory is not only an excellent book for scholars who want to develop a timely understanding of theoretical key concepts like memory, text, myth, and ritual, but is also a stimulation introduction for anyone interested in the genisis of our cultural self-understanding." —Philosophy in Review/Comptes Rendus PhilosophiquesTable of Contents@fmct:Contents @toc4:Preface iii @toc2:Introduction: What is 'cultural memory'? 0 1 Invisible religion and cultural memory 2 Monotheism, memory and trauma. Reflections on Freud's book on Moses 000 3 Five stages on the road to the canon. Tradition and written culture in Ancient Israel and early Judaism 000 4 Remembering in order to belong. Writing, memory and identity 000 5 Cultural texts suspended between writing and speech 000 6 Text and ritual. The meaning of the media for the history of religion 000 7 Officium memoriae: ritual as the medium of thought 000 8 A life in quotation. Thomas Mann and the phenomenology of cultural memory 000 9 Egypt in Western memory 000 @toc4:Notes 000

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Book SynopsisTrade Review...a handy paperback guide and supplement designed to further the understanding of all things Quaker. * Reviews in Religion & Theology, Vol. 14, No. 1 (2007) *...the scope of the work covering as it seems to do the full range of Quakerism's manifestation, is amazing....an excellent work. * Quaker Studies, March 2007 (vol 11, no 2) *Offering a reference for Quakers and general readers interested in the faith, this reference focuses on the religion's history, scope, and modern diversity of theology and practice. * Reference and Research Book News *A chronology, a historical introduction and a dictionary of Friends, this book is essential for both personal and meeting libraries. From 'abolition' to 'Zaru, Jean', 'conservative Friends' to the 'pastoral movement', 'Friends United Meeting' to 'tithes', this reference book illuminates both 'Friendly' terminology as well as a Quaker perspective on more general religious terms and concepts. * Quaker Life *

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Book SynopsisBeginning in the twelfth century, clergy and laity alike started wondering with intensity about the historical and developmental details of Jesus'' early life. Was the Christ Child like other children, whose characteristics and capabilities depended on their age? Was he sweet and tender, or formidable and powerful? Not finding sufficient information in the Gospels, which are almost completely silent about Jesus'' childhood, medieval Christians turned to centuries-old apocryphal texts for answers.In The Quest for the Christ Child in the Later Middle Ages, Mary Dzon demonstrates how these apocryphal legends fostered a vibrant and creative medieval piety. Popular tales about the Christ Child entertained the laity and at the same time were reviled by some members of the intellectual elite of the church. In either case, such legends, so persistent, left their mark on theological, devotional, and literary texts. The Cistercian abbot Aelred of Rievaulx urged his monastic readeTrade Review"[A]n excellent monograph in a burgeoning area of study. No doubt it will appeal to readers interested religious devotion in later medieval Western Europe; at the same time, it offers much for scholars of early Christianity and the transmission of apocrypha more generally. Dzon presents a compelling study that will surely provide a firm foundation for future scholarship on the Christ Child in his myriad medieval manifestations." * Review of Biblical Literature *"In this fascinating study, Mary Dzon tackles the 'hidden years,' as she terms them, of Jesus’ childhood—particularly the time between his birth and the episode with the temple doctors in Jerusalem...This is truly a thought-provoking study, not only for anyone interested in the Christ Child, but also for readers who wish to deepen their understanding of the intricacies of medieval devotional culture." * Studies in the Age of Chaucer *"In this ambitious and impeccably well-researched book, Mary Dzon explores the emergence and later influence of apocryphal treatments of Christ’s childhood...[A] thoroughly enjoyable and interesting book...This richly detailed study makes a serious contribution to medieval studies and will no doubt be an engine of creative and productive engagement in its own right. " * Religion & Literature *"Quests are undertaken to be disappointed. Like the grail of the medieval romances, the Christ Child of medieval devotion remains elusive both in modern scholarship and in the medieval sources. How important was meditation on Jesus’ childhood in medieval devotion to his humanity? It is oddly difficult to say. Mary Dzon has admirably analysed [the] sources that we do have...Dzon is to be commended for allowing the theological arguments of her sources to outshine the prevailing desire in the scholarship to make Jesus’s humanity central at the expense of his Godhead." * The Journal of Theological Studies *"The Christ Child, like the Man of Sorrows, was a regular presence in later medieval religion, but a complex and seemingly contradictory figure. He could be the subject of tender affective piety, but he could also be the mischievous child of apocryphal infancy narratives, lowly and vulnerable or lordly and powerful, the subject of imaginative narratives or the focus of meditation and prayer. With deeply impressive learning and clarity, Mary Dzon unfolds the complexities of the Christ Child in medieval culture. She gives the subject the careful and captivating attention it has long needed." * Richard Kieckhefer, Northwestern University *"The Quest for the Christ Child in the Later Middle Ages fills a major lacuna in the history of affective piety: the importance of the Christ Child in lay and clerical devotion from the twelfth to the fifteenth century. This book is a timely and novel exploration of terra incognita, with methodological relevance to scholars outside the fields of medieval spirituality." * William MacLehose, University College London *Table of ContentsList of Abbreviations Chapter 1. Introduction: Recovering Christ-Child Images Chapter 2. The Christ Child in Two Treatises of Aelred of Rievaulx and in Early Franciscan Sources Chapter 3. Aquinas and the Apocryphal Christ Child in the Later Middle Ages Chapter 4. A Maternal View of Christ's Childhood in the Writings of Birgitta of Sweden Chapter 5. Conclusion: The Yearning of the Quest Appendix: Summary of William Caxton's Infantia salvatoris (c. 1477) Notes Works Cited Index Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisThe advent of Islam in the seventh century brought profound economic changes to the Jews living in the Middle East, and Talmudic law, compiled in and for an agrarian society, was ill equipped to address an increasingly mercantile world. In response, and over the course of the seventh through eleventh centuries, the heads of the Jewish yeshivot of Iraq sought precedence in custom to adapt Jewish law to the new economic and social reality.In Maimonides and the Merchants, Mark R. Cohen reveals the extent of even further pragmatic revisions to the halakha, or body of Jewish law, introduced by Moses Maimonides in his Mishneh Torah, the comprehensive legal code he compiled in the late twelfth century. While Maimonides insisted that he was merely restating already established legal practice, Cohen uncovers the extensive reformulations that further inscribed commerce into Jewish law. Maimonides revised Talmudic partnership regulations, created a judicial method to enable JewishTrade Review"Maimonides and the Merchants opens a new window onto Maimonides' unprecedentedly systematic and comprehensive code of law. Cohen's exceptionally clear and cogent readings of Mishneh Torah, balanced against previous rabbinic legal writings on the one hand and Geniza evidence on the other, successfully establish Mishneh Torah as a social-political endeavor addressed to a real-life audience." * Islamic Law and Society *Table of ContentsNotes and Abbreviations Introduction Chapter 1. Codification and Legal Change Chapter 2. Halakha and the Custom of the Merchants Chapter 3. Updating the Halakha Chapter 4. Partnership Chapter 5. Commercial Agency (Suhba) Chapter 6. Suhba-Agency in the Code Chapter 7. Proxy Legal Agency Chapter 8. Sale and Contract Chapter 9. Judicial Autonomy Conclusion. Legal Change and Originality Notes Works Cited Index Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisThis volume offers a comprehensive portrait of St. Augustine (354-430) drawn from the breadth of his writings and from the long course of his career. One chapter is devoted to each of his masterpieces (Confessions, On the Trinity, and City of God) and one

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Book SynopsisBringing together scholars from literary, historical, and religious studies,Constructing Nineteenth-Century Religioninterrogates the seemingly obvious category of religion. This collection argues that any application of religion engages in complex and relatively modern historical processes. In considering the various ways that nineteenth-century religion was constructed, commodified, and practiced, contributors to this volume speak to each other, finding interdisciplinary links and resonances across a range of texts and contexts. The participle in its title-Constructing-acknowledges that any articulation of nineteenth-century religion is never just a work of the past: scholars also actively construct religion as their disciplinary assumptions (and indeed personal and lived investments) shape their research and findings. Constructing NineteenthCentury Religion newly analyzes the diverse ways in which religion was debated and dep

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Book SynopsisWhat was the impact of liturgy on the development of orthodox doctrine in the early Christian church? With renowned liturgical historian Maxwell E. Johnson as a guide, readers of Praying and Believing in Early Christianity will discover the important and sometimes surprising ways that worship helped to shape what was believed, taught, and confessed. In particular, Johnson considers this relationship in terms of soteriology: What is the role of grace in the process of salvation? Trinity: How did early devotion to Christ and the church''s baptismal and eucharistic liturgies help shape the developing doctrine of the Trinity? Christ and Mary: What does the devotional and liturgical term theotokos say about them both? ethics: How does the liturgy contribute not only to doctrine but also to convictions about morality? Johnson also explores the ways this relationship worked in the opposite direction: How did doctrinal developments shape liturgical texts in the patristic period? ThTrade Review"Finally! A renowned historian of liturgy explores at length the creative interplay between liturgical practice and theological reflection. This has been a desideratum for some time now, especially given the fresh readings of early Christian sources and the glimpses these provide of liturgical practices. In his new book, Max Johnson offers a nuanced, carefully argued, and expertly corroborated look at how doctrine shaped liturgical prayer and how prayer shaped the church�s faith in the early centuries. Mapping the interplay between praying and believing in a multidimensional way, Johnson makes an important and much needed contribution to the ongoing conversation about the relationship between worship and doctrine in the church�s life. I highly recommend this book." Teresa Berger, Yale Institute of Sacred Music, Yale Divinity School"Professor Maxwell Johnson of the University of Notre Dame has written a short but fulsome account of the influence of the liturgy on the development of the doctrines of grace, Trinity, Christology, and Mariology in the ancient Church and on early Christianity�s moral practices. Entering into current debates in liturgical theology, Johnson challenges claims about liturgy and prayer as primary theology (lex orandi) and disagrees with the understanding of orthodoxia as `right praise� (it is `right teaching�). Rather, he sees a simultaneous development of both liturgy and dogma in the early centuries in which one should look for the theology embedded in the liturgy and doxology and supplication expressed in theology. While Johnson aimed this book at master�s level students, it will be of interest also to his peers, who will find points to challenge precisely because they are so engagingly made." The Rev. Dr. Frank C. Senn, STS, Pastor (retired), Immanuel Lutheran Church, Evanston, Illinois"Assembling ample documentary evidence from the early Christian centuries, and drawing on supportive argumentation from recent scholarship, Maxwell Johnson here demonstrates the prime role of worship and devotion in shaping the Church�s doctrine and ethics; and then in turn he signals the recurrent need for the classical faith to inform contemporary liturgy and the moral life. A tightly reasoned book, with many illustrative examples!" Geoffrey Wainwright, Robert Earl Cushman Professor Emeritus of Christian Theology, Duke Divinity School"This insightful book, while ostensibly for master�s-level students in liturgical studies, should be on the required reading list for graduate students not only in liturgical theology, but also in historical theology, worship studies, systematic theology, practical theology, pastoral theology, moral theology, and Christian spirituality. This book should also be considered, at a minimum, as supplemental reading in church history courses for seminarians." Donna R. Hawk-Reinhard, The Robert E. Webber Institute for Worship Studies, Horizons"Masterfully synthesizing a wealth of early sources with the best of current scholarship, Johnson convincingly argues for a mutual and ongoing relationship between liturgical prayer and doctrine. He presents abundant evidence relating to the ways in which eucharistic, baptismal, and devotional prayer shaped doctrines emerging from Nicaea, Constantinople, Ephesus, and even Chalcedon. Similarly, he demonstrates how liturgical prayer was affected by doctrines received from these councils. This scholarship alone makes Praying and Believing in Early Christianity an important text." David A. Pitt, Loras College, Dubuque, Iowa, Worship"Praying and Believing in Early Christianity is an important contribution to the question of the formative role of liturgy in doctrinal development. Johnson’s audience is ‘beginning students in liturgical studies at the master’s level’ (xiv). He does assume some background in the theological controversies addressed by the first four ecumenical councils. However, in most cases Johnson provides enough context so that the book can be read with insight by those who are not knowledgeable about these controversies. Therefore, I would recommend a wider readership than graduate students in theological studies." Wilburn T. Stancil, Catholic Books Review"A scholarly tome on the impact of liturgy on doctrine in the early Christian church. Johnson provides an excellent translation of significant sources throughout his chapters, serving as a great resource on how these ancient doctrinal and liturgical discussions shaped how we prayed and later believed."John Thomas J. Lane, SSS,�Emmanuel

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Book SynopsisShows that the Pure Land tradition informed twentieth-century Japanese thought in profound and surprising ways and suggests that it might do the same for twenty-first-century thinkers. The critical power of Pure Land utopianism has yet to be exhausted.

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Book SynopsisThe first modern study of prehistoric religion in Ireland to draw on the combined evidence of archaeology, literature and folklore to illuminate practice and belief from the earliest human habitation in the island down to the advent of Christianity in the fifth century AD. An excellent book... a highly accessible and lively assessment of continuity and change in belief and religion from pre-Celtic times through to the arrival of St Patrick. ...Afine book and to be recommended to a wide readership, especially to all those who think that Irish history started in 1601. IRISH STUDIES REVIEW DAITHI O HOGAIN was Professor of Folklore at University College Dublin.Table of ContentsPre-Celtic cultures; basic tenets in the Iron Age; the Druids and their practices; the teachings of the Druids; the society of the gods; the rites of sovereignty; the triumph of Christianity.

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Book SynopsisIf we believe the church cannot split because it is Christ’s one body, how do we understand the Reformation?Table of ContentsContentsIntroduction 9Chapter One: Understanding the Church 33Chapter Two: Approaches to Scripture 80Chapter Three: God’s Work in Salvation: Grace 119Chapter Four: The Human Response: Faith, Belief, Works 144Chapter Five: Persecution 175Chapter Six: Summing Up 198

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Book SynopsisA fascinating, in-depth exploration of the messianic idea in Sunni Islam through four major movements from different times and placesTrade Review‘A wealth of information... This book does far more than fill a gap in scholarship on messianism in Sunni Islam. It offers a far-reaching analysis of mahdis in dialogue with the historic tradition that inspired and shaped them, and provides insights into the patterns of messianic thinking that continues to infuse militant Muslim movements today. It makes a major contribution to our understanding of messianism in Islam, of the study of messianism more broadly, and of the power of religious ideas to change the world.’ * Journal of the American Oriental Society *‘Friedmann’s study provides important historical depth… Friedmann reminds us of the potency of the messianic idea.’ * Fitzroy Morrissey, The Critic *‘Building on his earlier rich forays into Islamic apocalypticism, Friedmann offers a clear and succinct account of Sunni mahdism in history. Deftly choosing his case studies and progressing effortlessly from early Islamic to medieval and modern times, he corrects a significant imbalance in previous scholarship on the figure of the mahdi: the tendency to privilege Shi‘i conceptions. An excellent launchpad for anyone wishing to make the acquaintance of the Sunni mahdi.’ -- Christian Lange, Professor and Chair of Arabic and Islamic Studies, University of Utrecht‘For more than five decades, Yohanan Friedmann has patiently and meticulously studied a crucial aspect of Islamic history: the role of prophetic figures in mediating between God and humankind, and the social and political implications of that role. Through his past monographs to this work, he has examined thoroughly, with impressive erudition and subtle reflections, the subject from the earliest days of Islam to the present. He thus reveals – with not only the rigour of a philologist and a historian, but with clarity and great pedagogical skill – one of the most important dimensions of Muslim religiosity in all its diversity and complexity.’ -- Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi, Professor, École Pratique des Hautes Études – Université PSL (Sorbonne)‘This excellent book brings into focus the stories, systems of thought and movements created by four mahdis active in different times and places, from medieval al-Andalus to modern India. Friedmann draws upon his in-depth knowledge of the classical Islamic sources to magisterially reveal the inspiration and the interpretative capacities of these leaders, and in so doing he challenges the idea that mahdism is a phenomenon related to Shi‘i rather than to Sunni Islam. He adroitly uses these four central characters to show how the expectation of a redeemer translates into political movements, with mostly tragic consequences.’ -- Mercedes García-Arenal, Research Professor, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book SynopsisAncient Christians lived in a world of 'magic.' They and others-particularly those of low status-used curses as ritual objects to seek justice from gods and other beings. These curses, and invective against them, reveal the complexity of ancient Mediterranean religions and their aesthetics: their use of materiality, poetics, song, and incantation.Table of ContentsIntroduction: Curses, Religion, Aesthetics; 1. Making justice: curses, Justin Martyr, and the nailing of documents; 2. Substance and story: a greengrocer and the drowned Pharaoh at Antioch; Interlude; 3. Tongues, breath, stutter: 1 Corinthians and a Corinthian curse; 4. Incantation: sound and song as curse, cure, and gospel; Conclusions.

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Book SynopsisThis Element introduces New Age religion, a loosely cohesive conglomerate of different spiritual currents with no common founder, leader, institution, dogma, or scripture. This Element emphasizes both the unity and diversity of the New Age.

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