History of religion Books

Book SynopsisThe eighteenth century was the Jews' first modern century. The deep changes that took place during its course shaped the following generations, and its most prominent voices still reverberate today. In this first volume of his magisterial work, Shmuel Feiner charts the twisting and fascinating world of the first half of the 18th century from the viewpoint of the Jews of Europe. Paying careful attention to life stories, to bright and dark experiences, to voices of protest, to aspirations of reform, and to strivings for personal and general happiness, Feiner identifies the tectonic changes that were taking place in Europe and their unprecedented effects on and among Jews. From the religious and cultural revolution of the Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment) to the question of whether Jews could be citizens of any nation, Feiner presents a broad view of how this century of upheaval altered the map of Europe and the Jews who called it home.Trade Review"Shmuel Feiner gives us a capacious and methodologically innovative volume on the "modernity" of the Jewish eighteenth century by juxtaposing myriad events across disparate regions recounted through a captivating panoply of personalities."—David Sorkin, Lucy G. Moses professor of Jewish history at Yale University"Shmuel Feiner has synthesized the work of the best modern scholars of a half-century of European Jewish history and combined it with his own, original research, to tell the story of a period little known to non-specialists. The result is a narrative that is as authoritative as it is entrancing."—Allan Arkush, Jewish Review of Books"Extraordinarily erudite and compulsively readable, this book transforms everything we thought we knew about the Jewish eighteenth century. A remarkable achievement."—Yair Mintzker, Princeton UniversityTable of ContentsPrefaceAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Happy Times? The First Century in the Modern AgeI. 17001. Pictures from Married Life: Glikl the daughter of Leib between Hamburg and Metz2. "Rise up and Succeed": Absolutism and Court Jews in Baroque Culture3. Jews in the News: The Angry Masses, a Holy Society, and "Judaism Unmasked"4. Between Enlightened Thought and an Imaginary UniverseII. 1701–17255. "Everyone Wants to be Happy: Dangers and Amusements6. "Our Miserable Brethren": Jews in Time of War7. Melancholy, Career, and Travels: Five Life Stories8. Christians versus Jews: Bitter and Violent Relations9. From London to Jerusalem: Confrontations and Disputes10. The Challenge of Sabbateanism: The Storm over the "Hypocritical Serpent"11. Competition over the Picture of the World: Witches and Human KnowledgeIII. 1725-175012. To Silence the "Fellow from Padua": Moses Haim Luzzatto and the Great Awakening13. Criticism and Ambition: From Gulliver to the Baal Shem Tov and Jew Süss14. Contradictory Tendencies: Hostility, Violence, and "True Happiness"15. "An Indelible Stain": War and Expulsion16. A Vision of the Future: Ascent of the Soul, a Path for the Just, and a Teacher of the Perplexed17. Toward Mid-Century: The Awakening of ShameIndex

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Book SynopsisIn The Memory Work of Jewish Spain, Daniela Flesler and Adrián Pérez Melgosa explore new trends and activities aimed at reclaiming and reconnecting with Spain's Jewish heritage.Trade Reviewa wide-ranging book that analyzes the ways in which public imaginary has taken form in heritage sites throughout Spain. * Sephardic Horizons *Table of ContentsIntroduction: The Memory Work of Jewish Spain1. The Long Journey of Sephardi Myths 2. Tourism and the Embracing of Spain's Jewish Legacy3. Loss, Rescue, and Converso Dissonances at the Sephardi Museum of Toledo4. Exhibiting Jewish Heritage at the Local and Regional Levels 5. Memory Entanglements: Hervás's Jewish Inheritance and the Francoist Repression6. Returns to Sepharad Conclusion: Memory and the FutureBibliography

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Book SynopsisIn The Memory Work of Jewish Spain, Daniela Flesler and Adrián Pérez Melgosa explore new trends and activities aimed at reclaiming and reconnecting with Spain's Jewish heritage.Trade Reviewa wide-ranging book that analyzes the ways in which public imaginary has taken form in heritage sites throughout Spain. * Sephardic Horizons *Table of ContentsIntroduction: The Memory Work of Jewish Spain1. The Long Journey of Sephardi Myths 2. Tourism and the Embracing of Spain's Jewish Legacy3. Loss, Rescue, and Converso Dissonances at the Sephardi Museum of Toledo4. Exhibiting Jewish Heritage at the Local and Regional Levels 5. Memory Entanglements: Hervás's Jewish Inheritance and the Francoist Repression6. Returns to Sepharad Conclusion: Memory and the FutureBibliography

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"With compelling evidence and impeccable scholarship, Mogilner interrogates the meaning of race as constructed in the late Russian Empire, showing, in particular, how it intersected with Jewish understandings of nationalism and Zionism. Treading new ground, this important book will be of interest to a wide array of scholars."—Jeffrey Veidlinger, Joseph Brodsky Collegiate Professor of History and Judaic Studies, University of Michigan"Marina Mogilner's extraordinary account of the legacy of one of the most odious figures in the history of Zionism, Vladimir Jabotinsky, illustrates how his revisionist Zionism became a dominant strain long after his death. She situates Jabotinsky within the original Russian context out of which he emerged: the modernizing, nationalizing late Russian empire in which ideas of race were central to the sense of nationness developing among Russians and Jews, not to mention other peoples. This work is as original and significant as this superb scholar's earlier books. Mogilner's work is of the highest quality and has brought the conceptions of race in Russia to mainstream attention. Her works deserve the time that one has to take to digest them, both in their density, seriousness, and richness."—Ronald Grigor Suny, William H. Sewell, Jr. Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of History, The University of Michigan"The idiosyncratic Vladimir Jabotinsky, the founder of right-wing Zionism, was one of the most influential political figures of his day. In this remarkable new book, the distinguished historian Marina Mogilner shows how the young Jabotinsky actively engaged in many of the same foundational questions that consumed so many other thinkers of racial thought at the turn of the twentieth century. According to Mogilner's insightful analysis, Jabotinsky's racialized Zionism emerges as much a distinct product of a turbulent imperial political era as an expression of Jewish nationalist cause."—Eugene M. Avrutin, author of Racism in Modern Russia: From the Romanovs to Putin"With daring and verve, Marina B. Mogilner portrays a hitherto unknown intellectual and political profile of Vladimir Jabotinsky, the founder of Jewish radical right, in the earlier days of his Zionist career, convincingly underscoring his pivotal contribution to the formation of Jewish minority anti-hegemonic discourse vis-à-vis the late Tsarist Empire. In doing so, Mogilner not only offers an entirely different account of Jewish identity politics in the late imperial Russia, but also sheds a new light on the broad picture of the politics of difference under the circumstances of imperial modernity at large. This is a must-read for all students of modern Jewish and minority politics in the multiethnic settings."—Dmitry Shumsky, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, author of Beyond the Nation-State"Jews, Race, and the Politics of Difference not only uncovers new facets in Jabotinsky's writings and ideology, but also provides a new methodological perspective for understanding discourse of race as a political language."—Svetlana Natkovich, University of Haifa"Mogilner's fascinating and important study radically changes our perspective on Jews and race by showing how Jews in Imperial Russia used racial science to build the concept of Jews as a people, deserving of recognition. By focusing on Vladimir Jabotinsky as an imperial subject Mogilner shows that his Zionism, based on race as a unifying factor, was a response to his specific historical context. Thus, the study of race must be historicized, and the politics of race today must be distinguished from the politics of race a century ago."—Harriet Murav, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"Marina Mogilner's fourth book completes a breath-taking reinterpretation of late imperial Russia as a context of imperial modernity which nurtured different visions of post-imperial and subaltern politics, including the politics of Jewish race by Vladimir Zeev Jabotinsky. Like a detective, the author uncovers traces of imperial hybridity in the biography of this iconic figure of Zionism. It is a must read for those interested in the global history of race and post-coloniality"—Alexander Semyonov, John J. McCloy '22 Visiting Professor of History at Amherst CollegeTable of ContentsAcknowledgmentsNotes on Transliterations, Translations, and NamesIntroduction: When Race Is a Language and Empire Is a Context1. Race, Zionism, and the Quest for Jewish Authenticity2. Mediterranean as New European: Race and Europeanness in Zionism and Other New Nationalisms3. Racial Purity versus Imperial Hybridity: Vladimir Jabotinsky against the Russian Empire4. Jewish Race versus Russian Race5. Nationalizing Politics in the EmpireConclusionNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"With compelling evidence and impeccable scholarship, Mogilner interrogates the meaning of race as constructed in the late Russian Empire, showing, in particular, how it intersected with Jewish understandings of nationalism and Zionism. Treading new ground, this important book will be of interest to a wide array of scholars."—Jeffrey Veidlinger, Joseph Brodsky Collegiate Professor of History and Judaic Studies, University of Michigan"Marina Mogilner's extraordinary account of the legacy of one of the most odious figures in the history of Zionism, Vladimir Jabotinsky, illustrates how his revisionist Zionism became a dominant strain long after his death. She situates Jabotinsky within the original Russian context out of which he emerged: the modernizing, nationalizing late Russian empire in which ideas of race were central to the sense of nationness developing among Russians and Jews, not to mention other peoples. This work is as original and significant as this superb scholar's earlier books. Mogilner's work is of the highest quality and has brought the conceptions of race in Russia to mainstream attention. Her works deserve the time that one has to take to digest them, both in their density, seriousness, and richness."—Ronald Grigor Suny, William H. Sewell, Jr. Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of History, The University of Michigan"The idiosyncratic Vladimir Jabotinsky, the founder of right-wing Zionism, was one of the most influential political figures of his day. In this remarkable new book, the distinguished historian Marina Mogilner shows how the young Jabotinsky actively engaged in many of the same foundational questions that consumed so many other thinkers of racial thought at the turn of the twentieth century. According to Mogilner's insightful analysis, Jabotinsky's racialized Zionism emerges as much a distinct product of a turbulent imperial political era as an expression of Jewish nationalist cause."—Eugene M. Avrutin, author of Racism in Modern Russia: From the Romanovs to Putin"With daring and verve, Marina B. Mogilner portrays a hitherto unknown intellectual and political profile of Vladimir Jabotinsky, the founder of Jewish radical right, in the earlier days of his Zionist career, convincingly underscoring his pivotal contribution to the formation of Jewish minority anti-hegemonic discourse vis-à-vis the late Tsarist Empire. In doing so, Mogilner not only offers an entirely different account of Jewish identity politics in the late imperial Russia, but also sheds a new light on the broad picture of the politics of difference under the circumstances of imperial modernity at large. This is a must-read for all students of modern Jewish and minority politics in the multiethnic settings."—Dmitry Shumsky, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, author of Beyond the Nation-State"Jews, Race, and the Politics of Difference not only uncovers new facets in Jabotinsky's writings and ideology, but also provides a new methodological perspective for understanding discourse of race as a political language."—Svetlana Natkovich, University of Haifa"Mogilner's fascinating and important study radically changes our perspective on Jews and race by showing how Jews in Imperial Russia used racial science to build the concept of Jews as a people, deserving of recognition. By focusing on Vladimir Jabotinsky as an imperial subject Mogilner shows that his Zionism, based on race as a unifying factor, was a response to his specific historical context. Thus, the study of race must be historicized, and the politics of race today must be distinguished from the politics of race a century ago."—Harriet Murav, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"Marina Mogilner's fourth book completes a breath-taking reinterpretation of late imperial Russia as a context of imperial modernity which nurtured different visions of post-imperial and subaltern politics, including the politics of Jewish race by Vladimir Zeev Jabotinsky. Like a detective, the author uncovers traces of imperial hybridity in the biography of this iconic figure of Zionism. It is a must read for those interested in the global history of race and post-coloniality"—Alexander Semyonov, John J. McCloy '22 Visiting Professor of History at Amherst CollegeTable of ContentsAcknowledgmentsNotes on Transliterations, Translations, and NamesIntroduction: When Race Is a Language and Empire Is a Context1. Race, Zionism, and the Quest for Jewish Authenticity2. Mediterranean as New European: Race and Europeanness in Zionism and Other New Nationalisms3. Racial Purity versus Imperial Hybridity: Vladimir Jabotinsky against the Russian Empire4. Jewish Race versus Russian Race5. Nationalizing Politics in the EmpireConclusionNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisThe Afro-Brazilian religion Candomble has long been recognised as a resource of African tradition, values, and identity among its adherents in Bahia, Brazil. This book describes development of religion as an "alternative" space in which subjugated and enslaved blacks were able to cultivate a sense of individual.Trade Review"[An important] detailing of the development and evolution of a major institution of the African Diaspora [and] of Brazilian and Afro-Brazilian identity." Sheila S. WalkerTable of ContentsContentsAcknowledgementsIntroduction1. Slavery, Africanos Libertos and the Question of Black Presence in Nineteenth-Century Brazil2. Salvador: The Urban Environment3. The Bolsa de Mandinga and Calundu: Afro-Brazilian Religion as Fetish and Fetiçaria 4. "Dis Continuity," Context and Documentation: Origins and Interpretations of the Religion5. The Nineteenth-Century Development of Candomblé6. Healing and Cultivating Axé: Profiles of Candomblé Leaders and Communities7. Networks of Support, Spaces of Resistance: Alternative Orientations of Black Life in Nineteenth-Century Bahia8. Candomblé as Feitiço: Reterritorialization, Embodiment and the Alchemy of History in an Afro-Brazilian ReligionCoda: Abolition, Freedom and Candomblé as Alternative Cidadania in Brazil.GlossaryAppendix: Selected Documents from the Arquivo Público do Estado da BahiaNotesBibliography

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Book SynopsisExamines religious narratives, beliefs, and practices in late Imperial RussiaTrade Review. . . certainly recommended for any combination of curious philosopher, cross-disciplinary psychologist, radical feminist, and communication theorist among us.November 6, 2008 -- Brittany Shoot * Feminist Review *. . . an important contribution to the history of, mainly, Orthodox popular religiosity and Orthodox Christian spirituality of modern Russian and Ukraine.Vol. 81.1, March 2009 -- Martin A. Miller * Duke University *In summary, this is an excellent collection of illuminating essays by noted scholars in their fields, finely written and thoughtfully conceived, which should be read by anyone interested in religious life in late imperial Russia.Vol. 53.3 Fall 2009 -- Michael Pesenson * University of Texas, Austin *Table of ContentsContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Rethinking Religion in Modern Russian Culture Mark D. Steinberg and Heather J. Coleman1. Miraculous Healings Christine D. Worobec2. Transforming Solovki: Pilgrim Narratives, Modernization, and Late Imperial Monastic Life Roy R. Robson3. Scripting the Gaze: Liturgy, Homilies, and the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God in Late Imperial Russia Vera Shevzov4. Written Confessions and the Construction of Sacred Narrative Nadieszda Kizenko5. "Orthodox Domesticity": Creating a Social Role for Women William G. Wagner6. Profane Narratives about a Holy Sacrament: Marriage and Divorce in Late Imperial Russia Gregory L. Freeze7. Arbiters of the Free Conscience: State, Religion, and the Problem of Confessional Transfer after 1905 Paul W. Werth8. Tales of Violence against Religious Dissidents in the Orthodox Village Heather J. Coleman9. Prayer and the Politics of Place: Molokan Church Building, Tsarist Law, and the Quest for a Public Sphere in Late Imperial Russia Nicholas B. Breyfogle10. Divining the Secular in the Yiddish Popular Press Sarah Abrevaya Stein11. Revolutionary Rabbis: Hasidic Legend and the Hero of Words Gabriella Safran12. "A Path of Thorns": The Spiritual Wounds and Wandering of Worker-Poets Mark D. Steinberg13. A New Spirituality: The Confluence of Nietzsche and Orthodoxy in Russian Religious Thought Bernice Glatzer Rosenthal14. Malevich's Mystic Signs: From Iconoclasm to New Theology Alexei Kurbanovsky15. The Theology of Culture in Late Imperial Russia Paul ValliereFurther ReadingList of ContributorsIndex

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Book SynopsisThe story of a large yet little-known Protestant denominationTrade Review"The most informed study of Adventism." —Harold Bloom"I recommend to clergy that they read Seeking a Sanctuary.... you will be more attuned to the sociological trends that drive Seventh-day Adventism." —"A provocative and penetrating account of a complicated and remarkably little-known movement." —Eileen Barker, Sociological Analysis"The most comprehensive review and insightful analysis in print of the sociology, history, and culture of the Seventh-Day Adventist church." —Church History"Make no mistake. For both its breadth and depth, this is the best study of Seventh—Day Adventism that has ever been written." —Jonathan M. Butler"We do not often pause to point to a denominational history, but when one this good comes along, we pause." —Martin E. Marty"The first edition of this book was one of the few must reads for academics interested in the Seventh-day Adventists.... The new edition expands several features of the first: it places more emphasis on regional variations, offshoot groups, and ethnic diversity. Bull (Oxford) and Lockhart (London-based journalist) situate Adventist history in the larger context of American history and, just as importantly, trace the evolution of Adventist doctrine. Recognizing that Adventists form their own subculture, they also provide sociological analysis. This book gives full attention to internal theological conflicts of recent decades. Finally, Seeking a Sanctuary is well written and comprehensive. Any library collecting material on American history or religion should have it.... Essential." —Choice"A masterpiece. It is by far the best book on Adventism that has ever appeared." —Ronald L. NumbersTable of ContentsContents<\>AcknowledgmentsPrologueIntroduction: Public ImagesPart 1. Adventist Theology1. Authority2. Identity3. The End of the World4. The Divine Realm5. The Human Condition6. The Development of Adventist TheologyPart 2. The Adventist Experience and the American Dream7. The Structure of Society8. The Patterns of Growth9. The Science of Happiness10. The Politics of Liberty11. The Ethics of Schism12. The Art of Expression13. Adventism and AmericaPart 3. Adventist Subculture14. Gender15. Race16. Ministry17. Medicine18. Education19. The Self-Supporting MovementConclusion: The Revolving DoorEpilogueList of AbbreviationsNotesBibliographical NoteWeb GuideIndex

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Book SynopsisTaking the influential work of Arthur Huff Fauset as a starting point to break down the false dichotomy that exists between mainstream and marginal, this title features a new generation of scholars who offer fresh ideas for understanding the religious expressions of African Americans in the United States.Trade ReviewMost authors dedicate their books to family members or inspirational figures. IUPUI professor Edward Curtis has dedicated his latest volume, The New Black Gods: Arthur Huff Fauset and the Study of African American Religions (IU Press, 2009) to the IU School of Liberal Arts at IUPUI. 'I wanted to give credit where the credit was due,' said Curtis, faculty member in the Department of Religious Studies and the Millennium Scholar of the Liberal Arts. He noted the central role that the School played in hosting a national conference that brought together scholars from around the country with IUPUI students and Indianapolis community members to discuss religious diversity among African Americans. The book revolves around anthropologist Arthur Huff Fauset’s groundbreaking volume, Black Gods of the Metropolis, first published in 1944. A study of African American religions in Philadelphia, the book was the first to use ethnographic techniques in the study of African-American religions. Fauset spent time with diverse groups such as Pentecostals, Black Judaism, Black Islam, and Father Divine’s Peace Mission Movement. 'The New Black Gods' is a collection of scholarly essays on African American religions in the United States. In an effort to create an understanding of religious practices, scholars returned to the groups Fauset introduced in his work and built on his interpretations. 'This is a volume that is fresh and original, highly unified, important for American black religious studies scholarship, and important for the general insights it raises for the religious studies field as a whole,' write series editors Catherine L. Albanese and Stephen J. Stein.Along with co-editing the collection, Curtis contributed an essay entitled, 'Debating the Origins of the Moorish Science Temple: Toward a New Cultural History.' The essay explores the Moorish Science Temple, which was founded in Chicago in 1925, updating Fauset’s initial 1944 ten page study. IUPUI Religious Studies professor Kelly Hayes also authored a volume chapter examining Brazil’s African religious heritage.In his acknowledgments, Curtis concludes that School of Liberal Arts 'administrators, faculty, and staff members have turned IUPUI into a spectacular place for research and teaching in African American studies.'IUPUI School of Liberal Arts, May 19, 2009The editors of this fine collection of essays have resurrected the influence and importance of Arthur Fauset's classic study Black Gods of the Metropolis (1944) for the field of African American religion. The essays in part 1 attempt to update the five new religious movements in urban areas that Fauset discovered in his ethnographic work for his doctoral dissertation. Each essay tries to add a new angle or new materials to the 'cults' that he studied. For example, Clarence Hardy points to the broader movement of church mothers in the spread of female-led Pentecostal churches in urban areas, of which Bishop Ida Robinson's Mount Sinai Holy Church of America was only one. In Part 2, the contributors attempt to resurrect Fauset's vision for African American religious studies. Of the essays in this section, Stephen Angell's reflections on how Fauset intersected with the Herskovits-Frazier debate on African cultural survivals are the most insightful. In his study, Fauset found a mediating position as a political activist and ethnographer to critique the work of both scholars. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and scholars in the field. --ChoiceL. H. Mamiya, Vassar College, October 2009"This reappraisal of Fauset becomes a reappraisal of how to study African American religions, which makes this volume a must for anyone interested in this field." —Nova Religio"... a fantastic new collection of essays on Arthur Huff Fauset and African American religious traditions." —Phillip Luke Sinitiere, Religion in American History (blog), May 4, 2009"The editors of this fine collection of essays have resurrected the influence and importance of Arthur Fauset's classic study.... --Choice" —, October 2009"Overall, the essays in this collection offer a fresh, thoughtful look into African American religious communities outside of the Christian mainstream.... [T]his is a commendable collection that should encourage and inform subsequent study." —American Historical Review, 116.1 February 2011"This well-conceived book extends Fauset’s respect for religious differences and his laudable refusal to indulge in grand, but inaccurate generalities." —Keith D. Miller, Arizona State UniversityTempe, Arizona, JOURNAL OF AMERICAN HISTORY, Vol. 97. 1 June 2010Table of ContentsContentsForeword by Catherine L. Albanese and Stephen J. SteinAcknowledgmentsIntroduction / Edward E. Curtis IV and Danielle Brune SiglerPart 1. New Religious Movement(s) of the Great Migration Era 1. Fauset's (Missing) Pentecostals: Church Mothers, Remaking Respectability, and Religious Modernism / Clarence Hardy 2. "Grace Has Given God a Vacation": The History and Development of the Theology of the United House of Prayer of All People / Danielle Brune Sigler 3. "Chased out of Palestine": Prophet Cherry's Church of God and Early Black Judaisms in the United States / Nora L. Rubel 4. Debating the Origins of the Moorish Science Temple: Toward a New Cultural History / Edward E. Curtis IV 5. "The Consciousness of God's Presence Will Keep You Well, Healthy, Happy, and Singing": The Tradition of Innovation in the Music of Father Divine's Peace Mission Movement / Leonard Norman Primiano 6. "A True Moslem Is a True Spiritualist": Black Orientalism and Black Gods of the Metropolis / Jacob S. DormanPart 2. Resurrecting Fauset's Vision for African American Religious Studies 7. Religion Proper and Proper Religion: Arthur Fauset and the Study of African American Religions / Sylvester A. Johnson 8. The Perpetual Primitive in African American Religious Historiography / Kathryn Lofton 9. Turning African Americans into Rational Actors: The Important Legacy of Fauset's Functionalism / Carolyn Rouse 10. Defining the "Negro Problem" in Brazil: The Shifting Significance of Brazil's African Heritage from the 1890s to the 1940s / Kelly E. Hayes 11. Fauset and His Black Gods: Intersections with the Herskovits-Frazier Debate / Stephen W. AngellList of ContributorsIndex

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Book SynopsisTells the history of Orthodox Jews in America, from the 17th century onwards, and examines how Orthodox Jewish men and women coped with the personal, familial, and communal challenges of religious freedom, economic opportunity, and social integration. This title is suitable for those seeking to understand the American Jewish experience.Trade ReviewGurock's work is a densely packed, deeply researched, and rich amalgam of history, speculation, and mediation between contending poisitions that is written . . . from within the tradition of Jewish worship he seeks to analyze. * Journal of American Ethnic History *The author has penned the first social history of Orthodox Jews in America from the first arrivals in the 17th century to the present. . . [He] illuminates controversies about the compatibility of modern culture with a truly pious life, thus providing a nuanced view of the most intriguing present-day intra-Orthodox struggle – the relationship of feminism to traditional faith.73 Summer/Fall 2010 * Menorah Review *Jeffrey Gurock is positioned more propitiously than any other historian to take on an overall social history of American Jewish Orthodoxy. -- Karla GoldmanA great storyteller, Professor Gurock masterfully weaves together personal narrative, sermons, and social observations to create gripping narratives of Orthodox Jewry in America. . . . [Orthodox Jews in America] brings together several decades of Gurock's incisive research and thinking on American Orthodoxy while offering a still deeper and more nuanced analysis of its overall development. -- Shuly Rubin SchwartzAlthough there are many good books on the history of Jews in America and a smaller subset that focuses on aspects of Orthodox Judaism in contemporary times, no one, until now, has written an overview of how Orthodoxy in America has evolved over the centuries from the first arrivals in the 17th century to the present. This broad overview by Gurock (Libby M. Klaperman Professor of Jewish History, Yeshiva Univ.; Judaism's Encounter with American Sports) is distinctive in examining how Orthodox Jews have coped with the personal, familial, and communal challenges of religious freedom, economic opportunity, and social integration, as well as uncovering historical reactionary tensions to alternative Jewish movements in multicultural and pluralistic America. Gurock raises penetrating questions about the compatibility of modern culture with pious practices and sensitively explores the relationship of feminism to traditional Orthodox Judaism. There are several excellent reference sources on Orthodox Jews in America, e.g., Rabbi Moshe D. Sherman's outstanding Orthodox Judaism in America: A Biographical Dictionary and Sourcebook, to which this is an accessible and illuminating companion; recommended not only for serious readers on the topic but for general readers as well.May 15, 2009 -- David B. Levy * Touro College, Women's Seminary Library *Gurock systematically describes how the devout built the communal infrastructure and developed a cadre of skilled functionaries to meet the requirements of ritual observance... * Jewish Book World *Gurock's new book is full of interesting details and analysis about how Orthodox Judaism has evolved in America, and how Orthodox Jews have made managed the challenges of American life. This is a well-written social history, illustrated with intriguing photographs. December 4, 2009 * The Jewish Week *Gurock is the unrivaled expert on Orthodox Jews and Judaism in the United States, something he proves ably with this book.February 2010 -- Lila Corwin Berman * Temple University *This volume, superbly written and referenced and the product of dense scholarly research, is well worth the read. Volume LXI, no. 2, 2009 * American Jewish Archives Journal *[T]his is a very good historical and social introduction to the history of Orthodox Judaism and it will certainly find an important place in any collection that deals with American Jewry. The author has a pleasant writing style and provides rich documentation in the notes. Vol. 37, No. 1, March 2011 * Religious Studies Review *Table of ContentsContentsAcknowledgmentsPrologue: Within the Wide Tent of a Bronx Orthodox Congregation, Circa 19601. All Alone and Out of Control2. American Challenges and Jewish Challengers3. Religious Dilemmas of a Treif Land4. Strategies of New York's Orthodox Activists5. Crisis and Compromise6. Brooklyn's Committed Communities7. A More Faithful Following8. Comfortable and Courted9. Orthodox vs. Orthodox10. Open and Closed to FeminismEpilogue: The Tentative Orthodox of the Twenty-First CenturyNotesIndex

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Book SynopsisJewish communities of the Maghrib from ancient to modern timesTrade Review[This] volume as a whole demonstrates the ways in which both Jewish studies and Maghrib studies are emerging from their historic marginalization and into broader discussions of regional history.March 2013 * Journal of African History *[T]his collection goes a long way to increasing our understanding of North African Jewish history and encourages new lines of inquiry into the subject. * Middle East Media and Book Reviews Online *[This] is a highly informative and thought-provoking collection of essays, from which the reader is certain to derive satisfaction and knowledge of a region made all the more significant in light of the revolutionary changes that have taken place in North Africa since the spring of 2011. * AJL Reviews *Table of ContentsPart I: Introduction1. Emily Benichou Gottreich and Daniel J. Schroeter, Rethinking Jewish Culture and Society in North Africa2. Mohammed Kenbib, Muslim-Jewish Relations in Contemporary MoroccoPart II: Origins, Diasporas, and Identities3. Farid Benramdane, Place Names in Western Algeria: Biblical Sources and Dominant Semantic Domains 4. Mabrouk Mansouri, The Image of the Jews among Ibadi Imazighen in North Africa until the Tenth Century5. Abdellah Larhmaid, Jewish Identity and Landownership in the Sous Region of Morocco6. Aomar Boum, Southern Moroccan Jewry between the Colonial Manufacture of Knowledge and the Postcolonial Historiographical Silence7. Yaron Tsur, Dating the Demise of the Western-Sephardi Jewish Diaspora: The Mediterranean AspectPart III: Communities, Cultural Exchange and Transformations8. Philippe Barbé, Jewish-Muslim Syncretism and Intercommunity Cohabitation in the work of Albert Memmi: The Partage of Tunis 9. Susan Gilson Miller, Making Tangier Modern: Ethnicity and Urban Development, 1880-193010. Stacy E. Holden, Muslim and Jewish Interaction in Moroccan Meat Markets, 1873-191211. Saddek Benkada, A Moment in Sephardi History: The Re-establishment of the Jewish Community of Oran, 1792-1831 12. Hadj Miliani, Crosscurrents: Trajectories of Algerian Jewish Artists and Men of Culture since the End of the Nineteenth CenturyPart IV: Between Myth and History: Sol Hachuel in Moroccan Jewish Memory13. Yaelle Azagury, Sol Hachuel in the Collective Memory and Folktales of Moroccan Jews14. Sharon Vance, Sol Hachuel, 'Heroine of the Nineteenth Century': Gender, the Jewish Question, and Colonial Discourse15. Ruth Knafo Setton, Searching for Suleika: A Writer's JourneyPart V: Gender, Colonialism, and the Alliance Israélite Universelle16. Joy A. Land, Corresponding Lives: Women Educators of the Alliance Israélite Universelle in Tunisia, 1882-191417. Keith Walters, Education for Jewish Girls in Late Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century Tunis and the Spread of French in Tunisia18. Jonathan G. Katz, 'Les Temps Héroïques': The Alliance Israélite Universelle in Marrakech on the Eve of the French ProtectoratePart VI: North African Jews and Political Change in the Late Colonial and Post-Colonial Periods19. Fayçal Cherif, Jewish-Muslim Relations in Tunisia during World War II: Propaganda, Stereotypes, and Attitudes, 1939-1943 20. Jamaâ Baïda, The Emigration of Moroccan Jews, 1948-195621. Belkacem Mebarki, Zouzef Tayayou (Joseph the Tailor): A Jew from Nedroma, and the Others 22. Oren Kosansky, The Real Morocco Itself: Jewish Saint Pilgrimage and the Idea of the Moroccan Nation

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Book SynopsisExplores Ottoman Sephardic culture through a study of rabbinic texts written in Ladino, the vernacular language of the Ottoman Jews. This book covers the modernization of Sephardic Jewry in the Eastern Mediterranean in the 19th century. It offers readings of works that examine issues such as social inequality, gender, and secularization.Trade ReviewScholars of the late Ottoman Empire and the modern Middle East more generally will undoubtedly find within this work a number of striking parallels between the responses of other individuals and groups to the growing Western influence in the region and those of the vernacular rabbis portrayed in Lehmann's study. The unexpected consequences precipitated by these rabbis' attempts to preserve their religious universe in the face of change similarly offer fruitful points of comparison. Ladino Rabbinic Literature and Ottoman Sephardic Culture will therefore also be welcomed by scholars interested in broader debates about the role religion played in the emergence of modernity and about the various ways that religious thinkers became modern, even despite themselves.March 2010 -- Julia Phillips Cohen * Vanderbilt University *Lehmann's book is clear and didactic, containing ... some eye-opening conclusions.April 2011 * American Historical Review *. . . [a] detailed and profound study . . . . Lehman's book is an important comtribution to the study of Ottoman Jewry as well as of Middle Eastern social and cultural history in general.Vol. 40 2008 -- Rachel Simon * Princeton University Library *. . . an incisive examination of rabbinic authors and their readers that highlights the importance of vernacular musar literature as a valuable and underutilized resource for the reconstruction of Ottoman Jewish culture. . . . [T]his book is a welcome addition to the burgeoning field of Sephardic and Mizrahi studies, and it should appeal to anyone interested in the interplay between religion and culture in the modern world. * AJS Review *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1 Historical BackgroundPart I Vernacular Musar Literature as a Cultural Factor2 Print and the Vernacular: The Emergence of Ladino Reading CulturePart II Authors, Translators, Readers3 The Translation and Reception of Musar4 "Pasar la Hora" or "Meldar"? Forms of SociabilityPart III Musar Literature and the Social Order5 The Construction of the Social Order6 Three Social Types: The Wealthy, the Poor, the Learned7 The Representation of GenderPart IV Exile and History8 Understanding Exile, Setting Boundaries9 The Impossible Homecoming10 Reincarnation and the Discovery of HistoryPart V The Challenge of Modernity11 Scientific and Rabbinic Knowledge and the Notion of Change12 ConclusionsNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisA sumptuous history of Renaissance FlorenceTrade ReviewThis meticulously researched, well-documented book is thoughtfully conceived and extremely well illustrated, and it contains an ample scholarly apparatus. It immediately becomes a standard source for the monastery's rich history. . . . Highly recommended. * Choice *Historians of Italian Renaissance religion, art, and architecture will . . . be gratified to find in Anne Leader's authoritative monograph a thoroughly researched and closely analyzed account of the Badia's monastic history, building chronology, and artistic prrograms, focusing on the first half of the Quattrocento. . . . At a time when academic presses are limiting the number of images they publish or they are avoiding art historical projects altogether, this lavishly illustrated book is a feast for the eyes. * RENAISSANCE QUARTERLY *Anne Leader, Professor of Art History at the Savannah College of Art and Design, has produced an elegant and important book on the Benedictine Abbey in Florence known as the Badia. * The Medieval Review *[An] excellently researched and enlightening book. * Catholic Historical Review *[T]he book as a whole presents a comprehensive study of an important Florentine institution at a key moment in its history. . . . the research it presents will take on added importance in the context of future studies of similar rebuilding campaigns in Florence and elsewhere. * Speculum April 2013 *To an exceptional degree, Anne Leader's book is valuable on two levels. It places the Florentine Badia so fully and successfully within its historical setting that it serves as an excellent introduction to monastic life and reform in a late medieval or early Renaissance Italian city. . . . Leader proceeds in the rest of the book to a detailed account of the architecture and art of the Badia, showing how a building project served the interest of monastic reform, and arguing an arresting thesis about the attribution of the frescoes. * Church History *The great value of this book, as of any case study that examines a single institution, is that it allows established truths, as much as general preconceptions, to be tested. Leader is to be complimented on a significant contribution to our understanding not simply of a building and its inhabitants, but of Florentine patronage, religious life, burial patterns, workshop structures and social organisation, among other themes.July 1, 2014 * Burlington Magazine *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. The Development of an Urban Monastery2. Benedictine Decadence and the Path to Reform3. Badia Patronage and the Paradox of Autonomy4. Architectural Design as Monastic Reform5. Icon, Symbol, and Narrative at the Florentine Badia6. The Badia PaintersEpilogue: The Badia from the Renaissance to TodayNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisInterprets the doctrines put forth by St. Thomas Aquinas in his treatise On Being and Essence. Joseph Bobik foregrounds the meaning of the important distinction between first and second intentions, the differing uses of the term ""matter,"" and the Thomistic conception of metaphysics.Trade Review"This book has but one aim: to present an intelligible interpretation of the doctrines put forth by St. Thomas Aquinas in his treatise On Being and Essence. It considers uses of the words 'being' and 'essence,' it investigates the essence of natural substances, the immateriality of the human soul, and the existence and the essence of God." —Catholic Book Review"Bobik's commentary is very useful in explaining notions that could mislead many readers of On Being and Essence. He repeatedly draws attention to the meaning of the important distinction between first and second intentions, the differing uses of the term 'matter,' and the Thomistic conception of metaphysics. On the whole, Bobik has a critical and open approach to the text and a strong appreciation of the need for clarity and precision. His commentary should prove illuminating to most students and teachers on Aquinas." —Journal of History of Philosophy

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Book SynopsisThe Heresy of the Free Spirit in the Later Middle Ages has been widely recognized as the standard work on the subject in any language. Robert E. Lerner examines this fourteenth-century European heresy as it appeared in its own age. He concludes that the Free-Spirit movement was not a tightly organized sect of anarchistic deviants, but rather a spectrum of belief that emphasized voluntary poverty and quietist mysticism.Trade Review"The clarity, honesty, and directness of the author's style is admirable. From the book emerges the most enlightening and credible picture we as yet have of the 'free spirits' of the late Middle Ages." —Review for Religious"This is a most important book, both for the completeness of its survey of the available primary sources and for the innovative and persuasive interpretations Robert Lerner brings to his work." —Speculum". . . this is a good book, witty, lucid, and convincing." —History

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Book SynopsisSheila Delany''s spirited translation of Osbern Bokenham''s Legendys of Hooly Wummen (14431447) makes available in modern English the first all-female hagiography. Closely translated from elaborate, Latinate Middle English verse into fluent prose, A Legend of Holy Women contains the Augustinian friar's version of the stories of 13 women saints from gospel, apocrypha, martyrology, and high-medieval history. As Delany writes in her comprehensive introduction, Bokenham gives us not only an all-female hagiographyan authorial decision significant in its own rightbut a gallery of powerful, articulate women who are indubitably worthy to do God's work. Some of them are well-educated, some give sound political advice to a monarch, some preach, converting hundreds and thousands to Christianity, some walk on water or perform resurrection. Nor are they pacifists; on the contrary, they call for divinely inflicted vengeance and approve violence in their cause. Delany argues that GeoTrade Review"We must be grateful to Ms. Delany for the assiduity of her well-researched and perceptive study of the life and works of this little known clerical poet." -- Times Literary Supplement

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Book SynopsisThis text focuses on what it means to be Jewish in America and the different positions held within the Jewish community on past and present church-state issues - whether Orthodox Jews in the military should wear yarmulkes while in uniform - and if Jewish prisoners have a right to Kosher food.Trade Review“Religion and State in the American Jewish Experience justifies itself as offering a fresh view on how American Jews have situated themselves on the emotional issues surrounding church-state relations in the United States.” —Journal of Church and State

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Book SynopsisAs the Church seeks to understand its life and mission in an increasingly secular context, the worldwide experiences of small Christian communities offer significant insights into the Church of the future. This book presents the findings of a theological consultation held at the University of Notre Dame in 1996 among 45 theologians, pastoral leaders and lay members of small communities from five continents. What emerges here is a careful, candid and positive view of how small communities can enrich the life of the Church by drawing together people of diverse cultures and economic situations for spiritual renewal based on a sense of mission to the poor and the excluded. The theology and lived experience presented here offer profound insights into finding and living the reality of Christ in the contemporary world.This book demonstrates how and why the formation and fervor of small Christian communities may well be the leaven for the Church of the future.Trade Review“This well-integrated collection of papers and responses represents the outcome of a four-day theological consultation on small Christian communities held at the University of Notre Dame in 1996...A useful sociological study of small Christian communities in the United States adds to the worth of this valuable little book. This work belongs in the library of every college that offers courses in theology. It could be used as one text among others in a course on church, and also as a reading for introductory courses, parish groups, or for any type of small Christian community.” —*Horizons *

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Book SynopsisIn The Medieval Islamic Republic of Letters: Arabic Knowledge Construction, Muhsin J. al-Musawi offers a groundbreaking study of literary heritage in the medieval and premodern Islamic period. Al-Musawi challenges the paradigm that considers the period from the fall of Baghdad in 1258 to the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in 1919 as an Age of Decay followed by an Awakening (al-nahdah). His sweeping synthesis debunks this view by carefully documenting a republic of letters in the Islamic Near East and South Asia that was vibrant and dynamic, one varying considerably from the generally accepted image of a centuries-long period of intellectual and literary stagnation.Al-Musawi argues that the massive cultural production of the period was not a random enterprise: instead, it arose due to an emerging and growing body of readers across Islamic lands who needed compendiums, lexicons, and commentaries to engage with scholars and writers. Scholars, too, developed their oTrade Review"This significant and timely monograph challenges the old paradigms of the 'Age of Decay' and the 'Awakening' critique through a new theoretical lens. The innovative theoretical framework, inspired by various schools of literary/cultural studies and postcolonial discourse, is informed by Muhsin al-Musawi's close readings of the original—mostly Arabic; some Persian and Turkish—texts and his contextualization centered around 'the learned network' in Cairo and Damascus and its impact on the production of knowledge at the time, all the way to modernity. The Medieval Islamic Republic of Letters is an important work for specialists and will appeal to those interested in Islamic humanism, comparative literature, and cultural studies." —Li Guo, University of Notre Dame"The innovation of this study lies not in the choice of its topic—for many have addressed it—but in its robust examination of medieval themes and intellectual ventures, as it were, in conversation with modern and contemporary theories. The book is also pioneering and timely in transcending traditional single-author scholarship on classical and medieval Arabic, while avoiding both atomization and the traditional line-by-line analysis of the Arabic literary tradition. . . . The end result is the best study I have read of medieval Islamic belles lettres and the most cogent critique of 'the ages of decline' and Eurocentrism theses in a single blow." —Journal of the Society for Contemporary Thought and the Islamicate World“With this work, Muhsin J. al-Musawi . . . has produced perhaps the ultimate expression of his long interest in medieval and pre-modern Islamic culture—a ground-breaking comprehensive and rigorous study of that period’s Arabic literary heritage and ‘cultural capital ,’ in which he unearths a dynamic and diverse ‘Republic of Letters’ . . . . This is a tremendously important work of scholarship that will enthrall many readers around the world, within and outside academia.” —Magazine of Modern Arab Literature"In The Medieval Islamic Republic of Letters, Muhsin al-Musawi draws on his expertise in the complex eras and literary traditions responsible for producing A Thousand and One Nights in order to interrogate the cultural production of Medieval Islam and demonstrate once and for all how such times have dismissively and erroneously been labeled 'the Ages of Decline.' In a patient and in-depth examination of a vast collection of primary and secondary sources, coupled with a thorough and insightful critique of Arabic and European schools of literary thought, and most notably poststructuralist theory, al-Musawi masterfully re-envisions the modalities of literary production that both formed and informed the cultural heritage of Medieval Islam." —al-Hayat Newspaper“Muhsin al-Musawi’s The Medieval Islamic Republic of Letters is above all, a response to contemporary theories of modernity and modernism in all their various amnesias toward world literary history. . . . The end result is the best study I have read of medieval Islamic belles lettres and the most cogent critique of “the ages of decline” and Eurocentrism theses in a single blow.” —SCTIW Review“Instead of settling the stale dispute over whether religion is rationally justified, their work suggests instead that Christian life is an ethical and political practice impassioned by a God who transcends understanding.” —Studies in Spirituality“The author’s blend of literary and historical sources is compelling and strong. I wholeheartedly recommend this book to specialists, graduate students, and even advanced undergraduates interested in medieval Arabic literature, comparative literature, or world literatures.” —Journal of Arabic Literature "This study is best approached as an energetic and erudite romp across wide swathes of cultural terrain—geographically, temporally, institutionally, in terms of modes and foci of communication—rather than as a systematic study. Highly suggestive for ways we need to rethink Arabic (and Persian and Turkish) as renewable resources of creative expression and communication in the twelfth to eighteenth centuries, or the post-classical ‘middle period’ as it is called here. . . . As scholars, this book offers us a nexus through which to conceive of our positivist approaches to religion through an alternative lens of its conceptual world. As humans, it gives us the space to be Islamic in our catholic embrace of the power of human faith outside the limits of our own confessional relationships with the divine." —Journal of Islamic Studies“The importance of Muhsin al-Musawi’s The Medieval Islamic Republic of Letters for the various disciplines tackling Islamic and Arabic knowledge-production is not the originality of its overarching thesis, but its sheer breadth. This work belongs to a decades-long venture of disrupting the early Orientalist stranglehold on the theoretical lenses by which we gauge the Islamic ‘Orient’ and its cultural output . . . the work is a bold and tremendous step in decolonizing our view of the medieval Islamicate.” —Comparative Literature Studies"Muhsin al-Musawi, who has already written a number of smaller studies on the premodern period of Arabic creativity, now crowns his achievements with a lengthy study that should finally put to rest the Orientalist-inspired notion of a 'period of decadence' in the Arab-Islamic cultural heritage. Pointing out the differing aesthetic criteria with which previous generations of Western scholars have had such difficulty with engaging and comprehending, al-Musawi makes telling use of an enormous range of texts in order to analyze and prioritize cultural and literary trends over several medieval centuries and to demonstrate the ways in which successive generations of creative writers and those who commented on their output created a cultural milieu of considerable sophistication." —Roger Allen, Sascha Jane Patterson Harvie Professor Emeritus of Social Thought and Comparative Ethics, University of Pennsylvania

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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 SynopsisTracing the development of progressive Catholic approaches to political and economic modernization, Catholic Intellectuals and the Challenge of Democracy disputes standard interpretations of the Catholic response to democracy and modernity in the English-speaking worldparticularly the conventional view that the Church was the servant of right-wing reactionaries and authoritarian, patriarchal structures.Starting with the writings of Bishop Wilhelm von Ketteler of Germany, the Frenchman Frédérick Ozanam, and England's Cardinal Henry Edward Manning, whose pioneering work laid the foundation of the Catholic third way, Corrin reveals a long tradition within Roman Catholicism that championed social activism. These visionary writers were the forerunners of Pope John XXIII's aggiornamento, a call for Catholics to broaden their historical perspectives and move beyond a static theology fixed to the past.By examining this often overlooked tradition, Corrin attemTrade Review“Corrin presents a thoughtful and well-crafted book on political Catholicism, examining the relationship of the Catholic Church to modernity in general and to democracy in particular. This important study deserves a place in both university and seminary libraries and in any library with a Catholic constituency.” —Library Journal“Corrin meticulously follows the development of some of the most significant progressive American and European Catholic thinkers on politics and social issues. He reliably assesses their contributions, carefully establishing the background against which they acted.” —Choice"Corrin provides an invaluable survey of the main currents of modern Catholic social thought up to World War II. His book should be required reading for undergraduates and the general reader interested in social ethics or the history of ideas." —Christianity Today“Corrin’s study is thought provoking, carefully researched and documented throughout. It has much to teach, and all serious students of Catholic political history should have a look at it.” —American Catholic Studies“Social scientist Jay Corrin presents a historical and informative perspective on the progressive drive within the Catholic church between the late 1800s and the mid 1950s—a time when anti-democratic forces appeared to hold sway.” —Conscience“...an interesting read...” —Catholic Historical Review“Jay P. Corrin’s new book is a major contribution to the study of Catholic intellectuals and their varying responses to these issues in the century following the French Revolution. Thoroughly researched, the book provides a comprehensive view of the Catholic intellectual scene in Europe and America through the prism of the personalities and events that shaped their thinking. Catholic intellectuals brings to light an important part of Catholic intellectual history that societies like the United States, in which Catholics comprise the largest single religious denomination, should revisit.” —Crisis Magazine“The subject itself is fascinating and the compendium of facts which Corrin assembles is a fitting testimony to the considerable historical research he has undertaken. As a historical document it has much to offer.” —Review of Politics“...splendid.... ...a seminal contribution to Chesterton studies, and also to scholarship in Catholic intellectual history and in modern political thought. This volume... is researched deeply, written lucidly, and argued with an admirable fair mindedness.... Catholic Intellectuals and the Challenge of Democracy is an estimable, weighty work of scholarship that deserves careful, respectful reading.” —The Chesterton Review“[Corrin] has done a tremendous amount of research into primary sources, and the extensive documentation is impressive. He provides an engaging treatment of English Catholics in general and Belloc in particular, and splendid treatment of the Spanish Civil War. ...[Corrin] has written a rewarding volume filled with colorful characters, insightful comments on well-known events, and revealing information on more obscure chapters in the tale of Catholic thinkers and democracy.” —Theological Studies“Corrin is to be congratulated for looking at the story from a broad, international perspective (the book is a model for the internationalization of history), and for provoking further important questions....” —H-Net Reviews“This is a fascinating book, impressively documented....” —Ecclesiastical History“...a valuable contribution to our understanding of Catholicism’s engagement with political and economic modernity.” —Religious Studies Review,

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Book SynopsisAn introduction to the Christian theology of salvation in light of the contributions of Thomas Aquinas. In the study, Matthew Levering identifies six important aspects of soteriology - including Jesus' cross, and eternal life - each of which corresponds to an individual chapter in the book.Trade Review“[A]n instructive survey and analysis of Thomas’ understanding of the connections between Old and New Testaments, with special attention to the ways in which the Christian understanding of salvation includes the fulfillment of Israel’s law and worship.”—First Things“Matthew Levering is one of the brightest of the Thomistic new wave and in this exciting book, he displays, for a wide readership, the resourcefulness of the reinvigorated Thomistic theology of today. If you are someone who thought that Thomism ‘went out’ with the Second Vatican Council, then I urge you to read Matthew Levering’s eloquent new book. It will lead you back to St. Thomas Aquinas himself, whom the Church commends, now as before, as a teacher of priviledged authority whose thought lives on with undiminished energy.” —Crisis Magazine“There is much of value in this book. It makes an important contribution to Thomistic studies.” —Catholic Library World“The author explores very closely the Angelic Doctor’s reading of biblical texts in a way that offers a fresh perspective on the connections between law (including natural law) and gospel, as well as the ways in which the Church is and is not ‘the new Israel.’ Levering’ is an illuminating argument for readers with at least a modicum of theological training.” — First Things“[Levering’s] presentation is well-organized, clear, and always to the point. Beginners will find it a prime example of extended theological thinking and writing. More advanced readers will find the 40 pages of notes and the bibliography very helpful.” —Choice“Levering succeeds splendidly both in orienting biblically informed readers to Aquinas’ work and in welcoming Jewish readers into the breadth of Thomist theology of salvation” —Theology Today“Matthew Levering’s book is an example of the type of research and reflection needed if we are to recover in greater fullness the robust thinking of the past, in this case that of Thomas Aquinas, in regard to the ongoing mystery of Israel. This fine work makes a serious contribution to the kind of retrieval theology that must be done before we Christians can approach Jewish-Christian relations in our own day with a genuine spiritual and theological understanding of what the Scriptures and Tradition actually teach.” —The Thomist“The book would make a suitable introduction to newcomers to Aquinas on salvation." —Theological Studies“In Christ's Fulfillment of Torah and Temple, Matthew Levering has written a thoughtful, insightful study, one that will be valuable for Aquinas studies and beyond. Levering's thoughtful treatment of the matter will make his work useful not only for Aquinas studies, but for... contemporary Jewish-Christian dialogue. ...Levering has produced a work that is both careful and creative.” —Pro Ecclesia“Matthew Levering manages to bring both the student and the expert into a fascinating discussion of an ancient sotierology which speaks volumes to contemporary debates.” —Theological Book Review

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The Church of the Fathers by John Henry Cardinal Newman

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Book SynopsisIn seventeenth-century France, southwest of Paris, the Port-Royal convent became the center of the Jansenist movement and of its adherents' resistance to church and throne. Three abbesses from the Arnauld family spearheaded this resistance: Mère Angélique Arnauld (1591-1661), Mère Agnès Arnauld (1593-1671), and Mère Angélique de Saint-Jean Arnauld d''Andilly (1624-1684). Although many books have been written about the tragic lives of the Port-Royal nuns, John J. Conley provides the first study of the radical Augustinian philosophy developed by these remarkable abbesses during decades of persecution by Louis XIV and his ecclesiastical allies. Openly declaring themselves disciples of Saint Augustine, the Arnauld abbesses forged a philosophy notable for its original treatment of the attributes that stressed divine otherness; a moral philosophy of virtue rooted in grace; and a politics that supported the right of women to resist abuses of religious and civil authority. Although tTrade Review“From Sainte-Beuve’s history of Port-Royal to more recent accounts of the events leading to the destruction of Port-Royal des Champs, examinations of the lives and fortunes of seventeenth-century Jansenist men and women are not new. Nor are detailed studies of the philosophical views of Jansenist men, such as that of Blaise Pascal. Adoration and Annihilation, however, presents us with something new and important. In this original and long-overdue contribution to intellectual history, we are given a painstaking analysis of documents that provides a portrait of the philosophically and theologically inspired thought of three of the women of Port Royal. Conley not only gives evidence of the women’s commitment to a negative theology and an Augustinian theory of grace and human free will, he uses gender as a lens through which to reconstruct the women’s emerging virtue ethics—an ethics whose central virtues are the mainstays of early modern female monastic life.” —Eileen O'Neill, University of Massachusetts“John J. Conley, S.J., brings to life, in amazing technicolor, the complex personalities of the long-overlooked and complicated Port-Royal Arnaud women philosophers. Steeped in historical, religious, and philosophical significance, Conley’s lively account highlights the intricacies of the historical setting of the Port-Royal Convent—the political intrigues, the economic power plays, and the often desperate condition of the women who are the main characters. This is an exciting and useful contribution for those teaching philosophy, religion, women’s studies, French literary studies, and history.” —Mary Ellen Waithe, Cleveland State University“John J. Conley provides a fascinating analysis of the neo-Augustinian theological and ethical thought of the nuns of Port-Royal that makes a convincing case for their inclusion in an expanded canon of philosophy. Conley's writing is erudite and his arguments are meticulously researched and supported, making Adoration and Annihilation accessible even for the reader with little background in Augustinian thought. The richness of historical detail and the insight with which he treats these women philosophers and their writings means that Conley does more than render their work visible, he also brings these philosophers themselves to life.” —Catherine Villanueva Gardner, University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth“Conley’s treatment of this most complex philosophical/theological corpus is masterful, and his final estimation of her ethics of resistance appears apt . . . Conley argues convincingly for the relevance of the philosophy developed in the writings of the Arnauld nuns. He has made a valuable contribution to the recognition of the intellectual and spiritual treasures to be minded in convent literature.” —The Catholic Historical Review“As the book’s subtitle suggests, much of the focus is on Port-Royal’s convent philosophy. This book is well worth the attention of a broad range of scholars and students. Conley shows clearly how the Arnauld abbesses were rather modern in their promotion of female autonomy and conscience, even as they defended a philosophy and a theology that saw but sin in human nature, and drew heavily on the most pessimistic theses of Augustine and various disciples of his.” —The Journal of Church History“[A] fascinating exploration of the writings of three seventeenth-century abbesses of Port-Royal. . . . Not only does Conley introduce readers to a little studied corpus of early modern women’s writing, but he also builds a convincing case that this corpus makes important contributions to early modern philosophy. . . [The book] provides an excellent history of . . . a very important early modern religious controversy. It introduces readers to the extraordinarily rich, and radically understudied, field of early modern convent writing. Additionally, it makes a compelling case for the expansion of the philosophical canon through the inclusion of religious works by women, a move that medievalists interested in women’s religious texts ought to consider emulating.” —The Medieval Review“In this stimulating volume, Conley gathers together a number of ongoing scholarly lines of investigation and deploys them at an intellectually sophisticated level of lived religious thought and experience in examining the writings of the three Arnauld abbesses of Port-Royal. . . . Conley, in a sense, restores a needed balance in grasping the Port-Royalist vision, not only taking seriously, but perceiving the challenging integrity of, a Christian understanding whose most creative moment may be yet to come.” —Modern Theology“This book is an elegantly composed and carefully researched argument that the nuns of the Arnauld family were rigorous philosophers whose contributions have been overlooked because of their sex, because the Jansenist movement they supported was suppressed, and because church and secular authorities closed the convent at Port-Royal.” —Sixteenth Century Journal

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Book SynopsisIn this welcome new book Marcia L. Colish offers the only monograph-length study of the patriarch treatises of Ambrose of Milan (c. 340-397), in which he develops, for the first time in the patristic period, an ethics for the laity. Ambrose the ethicist has been viewed primarily as the author of advice to those with special callings in the church, such as priests, widows, and consecrated virgins. His views have been characterized as advocating asceticism and promoting a Platonic view of human nature, in which the body is a moral problem. Ambrose''s patriarch treatises, argues Colish, are instead aimed at lay people who did not have special callings in the church, but who led active lives in the world as spouses, parents, heads of households, professionals, and citizens. These treatises reveal a different side of Ambrose and show that he developed an ethics of moderation based on an Aristotelian and Stoic anthropology, which he modified in the light of biblical ethics and St. Paul''sTrade Review“Masterly and crystal-clear written study of Ambrose's treatises De Abraham, De Issac, De Iacob and De Ioseph . . . This groundbreaking study on the first patristic development of ethics for the common man is very carefully edited . . . has an excellent bibliography of primary sources and is concluded by an excellent Index.” —Vigiliae Christianae"In Ambrose's Patriarchs, Colish shifts the discussion on the bishop's patriarchal treatises from source-critical considerations to their function in the liturgical life of the Milanese church. She argues that Ambrose created these writings in order to instruct Roman catechumens (competentes) on their new identity as members of the people of Israel and to provide them with practical examples of ethical virtue. . . Colish's analysis is polished and convincing, and is suitable for both graduate students and scholars alike." —Religious Studies Review"Marcia Colish . . . is the first scholar to grasp what can be made for modern readers of Ambrose's four treatises on the patriarchs. The result is an original and suggestive book. She shows that Ambrose chose the patriarchs as subjects for exegetical talks to catechumens who were soon to be baptized." —First Things“While acknowledging that Ambrose was eclectic, Colish contends that his critical appropriation of Stoic, Aristotelian, Philonic, and, to a lesser degree, Platonic thought produced a distinctive Ambrosian anthropology and was 'first, in patristic literature,' to articulate an ethic for the common man rather than for ascetics.” —Pro Ecclesia“This is her study of the patriarch treatises of Ambrose in which he develops an ethics for the laity. . . . This is not an ethics based on asceticism and a Platonic view of human nature, in which the body is a moral problem, but rather, an ethics of moderation based on an Aristotelian and Stoic anthropology, which Ambrose modified in the light of biblical ethics and St. Paul's view of human nature.” —Theology Digest“Colish’s book is a study of the four treatises of Ambrose of Milan on the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph. . . . The heart of Colish’s case is that Ambrose’s treatments of the patriarchs were intended in the first instance for Milanese competentes, catechumens who were taking the final steps of initiation into the church. She maintains that Ambrose’s expositions derive from Lenten sermons delivered to these people, instructing them on the ethical entailments of baptism and the significance of the new identity they were about to assume.” —Scottish Journal of Theology“In this engaging and challenging study, Marcia L. Colish, the distinguished historian of ideas and the Philosophy of the Middle Ages, turns her attention to four treatises about the Patriarchs of the Old Testament, written by Ambrose, the late 4th century bishop of Milan. She detects in them the very first Christian ethics ‘for the common man’ and reassesses familiar preconceptions of Ambrose’s philosophical and ethical positions . . . A welcome and original invitation to reconsider late antique Christian preaching and moral exhortation generally. In its admirable lucidity it will be required reading for any student of Ambrose and lf late antique Christian ethics.” —Revue d'Histoire Ecclesiastique“This is a significant study, by a distinguished scholar, of works that are often overlooked but that, as Marcia Colish ably demonstrates, challenge some widely held interpretations of Ambrose as a theologian, ethicist, and philosopher. This book is both thought provoking and enlightening.” —Francine Cardman, Weston Jesuit School of Theology"The readers of this book will not be surprised by Marcia Colish. She has once again given us a succinct and crystal clear condensation of a complex body of thought. But they will be surprised by Colish's Ambrose. This is not at all the world-denying romantic Platonist that many see him to have been. Colish's close attention to the Stoic groundwork of Ambrose's ehtical thought, and to his careful modification of the views of his predecessors, recapture him as the first Christian preacher prepared to present a coherent ethics for the average believer. Far from showing his preaching to have been a chapter in the rise of Christian ascetic extremism, Colish has shown us how to read Ambrose's sermons as a chapter in a more enduring (and, perhaps, more welcome) development—the 'Romanization' of Christian moral thought, with all the this-wordly solidity which the word 'Roman' still invokes." —Peter Brown, Princeton University

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Book SynopsisOriginally published in 1988, Jon Roberts's book provided the first comprehensive analytical overview of public dialogue among nineteenth-century American Protestant intellectuals who struggled with the theory of organic evolution. Before the publication of Darwin's Origin of Species in 1859, most American Protestant intellectuals valued science, especially natural history, for supplying data that appeared to be invaluable for defending many major tenets of the Christian worldview. Arguments over the scientific merits of Darwin's theory gave way to discussions of its theological implications. Roberts's book reconstructs the course of that conversation from 1875 to 1900.Trade Review"Jon H. Roberts has scrutinized the response of Protestant apologists to this major challenge to their faith in such painstaking and exhaustive detail that his effort will surely stand as the book of record." —The Journal of American History"While many contemporary historians have become captivated with sociocultural interpretations of the past, Roberts demonstrates the continuing viability of intellectual history. . . . this book offers one of the fairest historical expositions of the anti-Darwinists to be found in scholarly literature." —The Christian Century"Awarded the Brewer prize of the American Society of Church History, this book provides the most detailed account to date of the reaction of American theologians to Darwinism. . . . this study is richly suggestive and a gold mine of information. Roberts deserves praise for a first book of such depth and complexity." —The American Historical Review"Professor Roberts’ thesis is neat, closely argued and convincing, and his scholarship is prodigious." —Journal of American Studies"Essential reading for an understanding of the battle lines drawn between Protestant evolutionists and their opponents in the late twentieth as well as the late nineteenth century." —Journal of the American Academy of Religion". . . . a rich resource for students of American history and culture. . . . an impressive scholarly accomplishment upon which much subsequent research shall be built." —The Journal of Religion"For those with an interest in the creation-evolution controversies, Darwin and the Divine in America is an important and helpful book." —Theology Today"This thoroughly researched book establishes a new standard for discussing connections between evolutionary theory and Protestant thought in nineteenth-century America." —Isis“...Roberts’ award-winning Darwinism and the Divine in America remains a well documented and valuable source for understanding the intellectual and religious concerns raised by Darwin’s transmutation theory in the late nineteenth-century US.” —Religious Studies Review

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Book SynopsisOrthodoxy and the Roman Papacy offers a comprehensive examination of the papacy from an Orthodox perspective that seeks to find a way toward Church unity.Trade Review“In Orthodoxy and the Roman Papacy: Ut Unum Sint and the Prospects of East-West Unity, not only does Adam A. J. DeVille give a historical and theological background to the thorny problem of the papacy in ecumenical dialogue; he also outlines what a reintegrated Church would look like by suggesting a way the papacy could function. Taking what both Orthodox and Catholic ecumenists have said, he paints a practical portrait of a unified Church. This is a novel and important contribution.” —David Fagerberg, University of Notre Dame"John Paul II’s remarkable encyclical Ut Unum Sint gives occasion for a comprehensive review and analysis of the steady, though often sputtering movement toward Orthodox and Roman Catholic rapprochement in our day. DeVille identifies the major voices, the churches involved, and assesses in particular the place and role of the Papacy in this process. Orthodoxy and the Papacy does a great service in promoting the ecumenical conversation, and will be an edifying resource to all that are interested in it." —Vigen Guroian, University of Virginia"Adam A. J. DeVille looks not only at the history of ecumenism from the Catholic side since Vatican II but also at more than a dozen of the leading Orthodox theologians internationally and their perspectives on the role and status of the bishop of Rome. Not since The Primacy of Peter: Essays in Ecclesiology and the Early Church, a collection of post Vatican II Orthodox views published over twenty years ago, has there been such an extensive and focused presentation of Orthodox points of view." —Michael Plekon, Baruch College"The book's strengths are its contemporary focus on a topic of considerable ecumenical importance and its scholarly attention to the rich diversity of views and developments with regard to the patriarchal office vis-a-vis the papacy. DeVille's contribution is his thoroughgoing accumulation of fact and opinion in a contemporary ecumenical context. In doing so he informs readers about the depth and breadth of efforts by so many currently dedicated to restoring East-West unity in the church." —America“DeVille has produced a first-rate example of creative theological scholarship, extensively researched and engagingly written. The sympathetic and accurate attention to Orthodox viewpoints, as well as attention to the nooks and crannies of Catholic history, make certain that Orthodoxy and the Roman Papacy will be a touchstone for future ecumenical dialogue.” —Catholic World Report“DeVille has here meticulously gathered a cross-section of insights as seen by Orthodox and Roman Catholic theologians from 1960 to 2006 about the role of the papacy. His project responds in part to the invitation of Pope John Paul II’s encyclical Ut unum sint (1995) to examine how the ministry of the Roman pontiff might further promote church unity.” —Theological Studies"Anyone concerned with Catholic-Orthodox unity should read this book. Indeed, anyone who wishes to understand this subject must be familiar with this book. DeVille has written an indispensible, scholarly book.” —Religion in Eastern Europe“DeVille’s exploration of patriarchal and papal responsibilities is offered as a creative way out of the ecclesiological and ecumenical impasse in the current dialogue between the great churches of East and West. . . . As DeVille has capably shown in this study, the challenges of Ut Unum Sint are ones that we will need to heed.” —The Living Church“He examines the relationship between the Eastern (and, to some extent, Oriental) Orthodox Churches and the Roman Catholic Church with regard to the central issue of papal primacy, in the interest of not only appraising the situation but of offering some suggestions for the future. DeVille is certainly to be commended for developing such an unusually proactive position . . . . Deville’s proposal has all the force and tidiness of a good thought experiment.” —Reviews in Religion and Theology

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Book SynopsisTwo interviews have been added to this second edition, in which Wiesel discusses religious faith in the face of evil and love, the moral responsibilities of Jews and non-Jews, the plight of the exiled, Jewish-Christian relations, antisemitism, and mystery and the ineffable.Trade Review"God may be unjust but is never indifferent, speculates Wiesel in these brilliant, intense interviews conducted in 1987 with French journalist de Saint-Cheron. The eminent Holocaust scholar and novelist ranges widely over Jewish-Christian relations, anti-Semitism, politics, Hasidism and Jewish thought". —Publishers Weekly“Throughout this book, Wiesel's understanding of the human condition offers both an honest assessment and also hope that we may learn to live with one another in harmony.” —The Jewish Book News“Saint Cheron probes deeply, asking searching questions about evil, responsibility, faith, and the meaning of life as well as addressing topics of current political import. Wiesel responds passionately, offering many penetrating, personal comments.” —Library Journal"Two themes dominate this book: change and meaning. These form the context of six days of questions posed by Saint Cheron to Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel. Contained here are probably the most comprehensive statements that Wiesel has ever made on Jewish theology, although he labels it as tradition (thought and quest) as distinguished from the more formalized theology of Christianity." —Spirituality Today“M. de Saint Cheron has come with questions only about evil, a universal problem , and exile, an endemically Jewish question, but also about the whole gamut of Jewish existence, past, present, and future…. As a result, the reader is fortunate to share Mr. Wiesel’s thoughts. It is a privilege to see the breadth of his Jewish involvement, commitment, and understanding. It is almost awesome as he talks of his activities, writings, and experience.” —Science and Technology“His [Wiesel] thoughts on evil, love, responsibility, life, death and Judeo-Christian relations as well as his comments on the extermination of over six million Jews give testimony to his own deep belief in God. Michaël de Saint Cheron's insightful questions expand the interviews to a deeper discussion of Wiesel's writings, his comments on the writings of such authors as Unamuno, Kafka, and Mauriac, and his interpretations of the scriptures. Evil and Exile is a most powerful book recommended for students of Wiesel and all readers who are concerned with the defense of human rights. —Charles Snyder, Church and Synagogue Library Assn.“It will not be long before readers come to realize that like Dante and Balzac, Wiesel is the creator of a comprehensive, unified oeuvre that reveals the path taken by an intellect - in the face of unprecedental odds - trying to travel toward God at the same time it tries to reach an understanding of man. One of the pleasures in reading Wiesel is the feeling one gets of being engaged in conversation with a warm human being. The tension created by this contradiction is one of the things that makes this book so interesting. What makes it indepensible is the way Wiesel chooses to respond. —Hadassah Magazine“Wiesel offers wise counsel in this volume concerning evil and suffering, life, and death, chance and circumstance.” —Times Outlook Magazine

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Book SynopsisThis volume offers an account of the life and labours of Edward Sorin, founder of the University of Notre Dame. It describes how he overcame great odds to found and grow one of world's premier Catholic institutions of higher learning.Trade Review“This work will surely stand as Sorin’s definitive biography.” —H-Net“Tracing the astonishing career of this remarkable man has produced not only a definitive biography but a model of how good history should be written. [H]is well crafted, sympathetic narrative is a terrific read.... O’Connell’s magnificent biography, priced reasonably, is a treasure.” —Catholic Library World“This is a great book, extremely well written, about a great man who made an enormous difference.” —Theological Studies“The thirty chapters of this book are thoroughly researched and beautifully crafted with rhapsodic descriptions of the place, complex character development and a fine sense of pacing. It reads like a good novel.” —American Historical Review“Anyone interested in the origins of the University of Notre Dame will cherish this excellent biography of Fr. Edward Sorin. Edward Sorin can be highly recommended. It deserves a place of honor in any well-stocked library.” —Cistercian Studies Quarterly“Complemented by 40 pages of photos and very through index, this biography of Edward Sorin yields endless rewards and insights for dedicated readers.” —St Anthony Messenger“O’Connell’s theme is the tug-of-war between two complex personalities, Sorin the obstinate aristocrat and Moreau the quarrelsome peasant. This approach is instructive because their competition serves as a paradigm for a larger issue in American history: the struggle of European institutions—in this case, a religious congregation—to adapt to the American environment. It is an old story, but one to which an important chapter has been added by this excellent biography.” —The Journal of American History“O’Connell is one of the finest story-tellers of our day, with a craftsman’s handling of the language. This work is a fine tribute to Sorin, to the university which he founded, and to the many fine men and women associated with Holy Cross over the years.” —Catholic Historical Review“This work is well written, blending historical facts with delightful stories and the humor of human foibles.”—Catholic Southwest“With the precision of a calligrapher and the lyrical voice of a librettist, Notre Dame professor emeritus Marvin R. O’Connell has crafted a monumental biography... of Edward Sorin. O’Connell’s biography is a respectful and balanced account of a preeminent nineteenth-century Catholic churchman. The student of higher education will find much of interest here in the anecdotal accounts of Notre Dame’s development under Sorin’s leadership...."—History of Education Quarterly

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Book SynopsisThis is an accessible and informative introduction to the basic facts of religion and to the ways scholars and other people have dealt with religion over the centuries. Bolle's purpose is to provide a serious study that makes sense of religion and religious events in the world.Trade Review“Aptly titled, this is a scintillating and intellectually satisfying survey of centuries of serious religious study focusing less on the specifics of different traditions than on the question why we worship. Drawing on the varied disciplines of philosophy, theology, anthropology, and history and the expertise of past masters of the history of religion—Ibn Khaldun, Max Müller, G. van der Leeuw, Raffaele Pettazzoni, Mircea Eliade, and countless others—Bolle is eager to provide a hermeneutics for the 21st century, offering an updated explanation and understanding of what religion is and why we should know about it. Bolle covers both Eastern and Western traditions, and because his first rule is that ‘you should listen to the people whose religion you try to comprehend,’ readers cannot help but to have their view of religions deepened and broadened. Extensive bibliographies at the end of each chapter will fuel interest and authoritatively guide librarians seeking to build their own collections. Recommended for all academic libraries and large public libraries.” -- Library Journal

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Book SynopsisUsing Augustine as a conversation partner, this important new book explores the value of Michel Foucault's controversial writings for theologians, ethicists, philosophers, and cultural theorists. J. Joyce Schuld demonstrates the promising possibilities as well as the difficulties and limits of applying Foucault's social criticisms within Christian contexts. She maintains that the best way to make Foucault's postmodern concerns and his unsettling descriptions, metaphors, and methods accessible to Christian readers is to examine his thought through a premodern lens.By bringing Foucault and Augustine into constructive dialogue, Schuld reveals the surprising analytical usefulness of Augustine's writings for postmodern and poststructuralist studies. She pursues from a new and critically illuminating perspective the personal, cultural, and historical ramifications of Augustine's formative understanding of love and the complicated effects of original sin on all inter- and intrapersoTrade Review“I hope Schuld’s book is widely read by those interested in Augustine and Foucault, and by many others.” —Theology Today“Foucault and Augustine: Reconsidering Power and Love is a fine book. If offers insights—from Augustine and Foucault, but also from Schuld—of the first importance, not only for scholarship but also for life. It is clearly and beautifully written, and its convincing demonstration that sympathetic and critical readings can be accomplished simultaneously represents the very best of religious studies scholarship.” —Journal of the American Academy of Religion“… Schuld brings together these two creative minds and allows them to illuminate from a number of different angles our contemporary situation. Anyone struggling with the challenges of post-modernism will find this a fertile resource.” —Contact 145"This is a daring and illuminating book … clear and deeply intelligent from beginning to end. S. not only offers reasons for theologians to take Foucault seriously, she also liberates Augustine from readings driven by modern presuppositions rather than by the logic of his own writing. ... to put Foucault and Augustine into dialogue is a great intellectual achievement that testifies to the suppleness of their writings." —Theological Studies“With this thought-provoking and impressive study, J. Joyce Schuld makes an innovative contribution to the growing body of literature exploring the significance of the thought of Michel Foucault for Christian theology and the broader study of religion. …this study is highly recommended for its creative and insightful elaboration of a new and unexpected space of dialogue and for its challenge to the preconceptions and categorizations that can all too readily circumscribe ethical and religious thinking.” —Foucault Studies"When Schuld brings Augustine into Foucault's postmodernism, her aim is less to theologize Foucault than to deliver Augustine from his modern animus. If Augustine can survive (with Foucault's help) his modern reading, then that is good news for much of Christian theology. ...a good resource for theologically invested students of postmodernism...." —The Journal of Religion“Foucault and Augustine is an important book, an original contribution at once to the literature on Augustine and on Foucault, and to current debates about postmodern Christian thought.” —American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly“The underlying assumption of J. Joyce Schuld's contrapuntal blending of Augustine and Foucault is that modernity has been a bad thing for theology. Too much of theology has been 'lost, subjugated, or colonized to serve nontheological aims in modern culture.' . . . a good resource for theologically invested students of postmodernism.” —The Journal of Religion

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Book SynopsisThe variety of ways in which Jews in Israel responded to and appropriated Greek culture is the subject of this volume. The contributors provide corroborating evidence of the influence of Greek culture in Judea and Galilee, from before the Maccabean revolt on into the rabbinic period.Trade Review“[A] formidable collection of the leading scholars in the field. Anyone interested in the intercultural interplay between Judaism and Hellenism in antiquity should own this fine collection of well-written and highly accessible essays.” —Choice“. . . As a whole, the book has as its principal focus the issues of acculturation, assimilation, adaptation, inculturation and implicitly ethnic aspects, which are presented by the contributors in a highly professional way, advancing by a step some hitherto neglected or inadequately analysed details.” —Ancient West & East“In reviewing the articles in the present volume, it would be impossible to do justice to each and every one. All are deserving of careful study, and each expands our horizons with respect to the topic in question. For furthering our awareness and understanding of this important phenomenon in ancient Judaism, we are profoundly indebted to the organizers of this conference, who also produced this most impressive volume of studies. This book is a must for anyone interested in investigating this most central topic in the study of ancient Jewish society.” —Journal of Biblical Literature“This important collection continues the work of discussing how and to what degree the Jews were Hellenized and a part of the Hellenistic world.” —Journal for the Study of the Old Testament“. . . Superb collection . . . Authors constitute a veritable ‘Who’s Who’ of Hellenistic Jewish scholars. . . .[F]ully indexed and carefully crafted, this volume is essential reading for those with a serious interest in the Hellenistic world.” —Religious Studies Review

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Book SynopsisThese essays examine papal teaching authority from Thomas Aquinas in the thirteenth century to the Dominican School of Salamanca in sixteenth century Spain. Fr. Ulrich Horst, O.P., an internationally renowned authority in historical theology, describes the various debates between the Dominicans and other orders over papal teaching authority, especially whether there should be limits placed on papal authority and, if so, what they might be.Horst reviews in a brief and masterful fashion the teaching of medieval and Catholic Reformation Dominican theologians about the teaching authority of the pope. He succinctly shows the differences within the order on the topic and makes clear how Dominicans tended to differ on the matter from theologians of other orders such as the Franciscans and, later, the Jesuits, whose views would eventually lead to the proclamation at Vatican I.In the first chapter, Horst discusses the canonization of St. Thomas, the lecture on the gospel of St.Trade Review“One of the best expositions of the history of the doctrine of infallibility to emerge in the last five years, ranking it with the works of Brian Tierney or Francis Oakley. . . . This is an example of a mature scholar in absolute command of his subject matter. It will be highly valuable for church historians, graduate, and seminary libraries.” —Catholic Library World“For many years Ulrich Horst has published enlightening studies of historical ecclesiology. . . . In this case, Professor Horst has focused on Dominican viewpoints on papal teaching authority. . . . These lectures on the Dominican view of papal authority can be read with profit by anyone interested in historical ecclesiology.” —The Catholic Historical Review“There is deep learning and much to be learned from the master of this slim volume.” —Speculum"Based on a lifetime of research and writing, these three lectures of Father Ulrich Horst, O.P., provide a masterful overview with copious references of the predominant, official, and evolving positions of the Dominicans on the teaching authority of the pope. While always supportive of the jurisdictional primacy of the papacy upon which their own faculties to preach, teach, and render pastoral care depended, Dominican theologians beginning with Tommaso d'Aquino initially held that the Roman Church, rather than the pope personally, was infallible. Only in the sixteenth century with the need for prompt and certain responses to the Protestant challenge did some members of the Dominican School of Salamanca (Melchor Cano, Juan de la Peña, Domingo Báñez, etc.) teach that the pope cannot err. The Jesuits (Gregorio de Valencia, Roberto Bellarmino, etc.) adopted and expanded on this teaching which triumphed at Vatican I despite the efforts of Dominican cardinal Filippo Maria Guidi to defend the earlier Dominican position that the pope must first properly consult before defining. Father Horst has thus demonstrated how nuanced, varied, and slowly evolving was the teaching of the Dominicans on papal authority." —Nelson H. Minnich, The Catholic University of America

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Book SynopsisAn intimate portrait of holiness as exemplified in the lives and thoughts of ten people of faith in the Eastern Orthodox Church. The author introduces readers to a diverse and unusual group of men and women who strove to put the Gospel of Christ into action in their lives.Trade Review“Plekon’s . . . assessment of Russian theologians who have played a leading role on the American church stage is illuminating and challenging. Fr. Plekon’s aim is to show the relevance of Orthodoxy as a living faith in the west, as well as in Russia and in this he succeeds to an exciting degree. Here is a book which contains strong theological argument, presented in a readable and stimulating way.” —Journal of Ecclesiastical History“This gem of a book should be read by all. . . .I recommend without reserve this wonderful, well-written, spiritually enriching book: reading it is a like making a retreat. It shows how human goodness is the really interesting and exciting human story; it is evil that is dull.” —Orientalia Christiana Periodica“His honest and open style is refreshing and reflective of many of the theologians he writes about. Catechists at all levels will be nourished by Living Icons and encouraged in their own struggles with people who are ‘literalists’ or exclusive in their understanding of Christ’s Gospel. Plekon’s Living Icons has a vision that is within its tradition yet beyond it. Those who believe that church unity is an important issue will find openness, willingness, and a creativity to find resolutions through dialogue about similarities.” —Living Light“Written in nontechnical language and composed of chapters that can be appreciated individually, the book is an excellent choice for use in undergraduate as well as graduate courses dealing with modern Orthodoxy and modern Christianity generally. Theologically Plekon’s book is a signal contribution to a broader vision of Orthodoxy.” —Slavic Review“This work offers a precious treasure, a presentation of the lives, work and engagements of these [living icons] presented in a remarkable spirit of sympathy and synthesis. This is a beautiful and important book.” —Contacts“Living Icons is a well-written, well-researched book that gives a moving portrayal of the lives of these ten people without sentimentalizing them. It is essential reading for Orthodox Christians. . . ." —The Russian Review“[I]t is heartening to encounter a significant new study by an Orthodox scholar and priest that hearkens back to a time when Orthodoxy infused creativity and inspiration, to the whole of the Christian Church. Plekon reflects the profound and perennial relevance of Eastern Christianity by examining the life and thought of 10 individuals of the twentieth century whose lives, rooted in the Orthodox faith, reveal a vibrant, living faith that is catholic and orthodox in the best sense of those terms.” —Cistercian Studies Quarterly“[Plekon] provides fetching profiles of ten Orthodox figures. Telling the story through these lives, Father Plekon also provides an inviting introduction to an Orthodox world of piety, reflection, and radical devotion that is too little known in the West.” —First Things“The author of this engaging book traces the spiritual journey of some of the most striking personalities of Orthodoxy of our time. . . . Through these witnesses, through their lives and work, this study reveals the true face of Orthodoxy and is at the same time an urgent appeal to today’s churches. . . [a] very beautiful book, full of spirit.” —Irenikon“What he has to say is most always worth listening to, filled with anecdotes and pithy observations in which one catches something of his warm love for the church. And portraits of notable figures of the Eastern Orthodox Church in the twentieth century are interwoven with sage observations and insightful commentary on the state of Orthodoxy in the world and in America today. I think he has produced a splendid work.” —Theology Today

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Book SynopsisIn The Making and Unmaking of the English Catholic Intellectual Community, 19101950, James R. Lothian examines the engagement of interwar Catholic writers and artists both with modernity in general and with the political and economic upheavals of the times in England and continental Europe. The book describes a close-knit community of Catholic intellectuals that coalesced in the aftermath of the Great War and was inspired by Hilaire Belloc''s ideology. Among the more than two dozen figures considered in this volume are G. K. Chesterton, novelist Evelyn Waugh, poet and painter David Jones, sculptor Eric Gill, historian Christopher Dawson, and publishers Frank Sheed and Maisie Ward. For Catholic intellectuals who embraced Bellocianism, the response to contemporary politics was a potent combination of hostility toward parliamentary democracy, capitalism, and so-called Protestant Whig history. Belloc and his friends asserted a set of political, economic, and historiographical altTrade ReviewJames Lothian's important new book considers the English Catholic world of the first half of the twentieth century as many English Catholics might have wished it to be considered—small but culturally significant, confident but inveterately quarrelsome, patriotic but with a strangely ambiguous loyalty both to Rome and to home. . . . Lothian's examination of this rich and complex community is impressively researched, solidly written, engagingly argued, and in sum, full of fascination. He is to be commended on his achievement." —The Journal of Modern History"This book sheds much new light on English Catholic intellectuals in the four decades that encompassed the two world wars. The book builds on but goes well beyond existing scholarship . . . this is a rich and pioneering study that sheds much light on a neglected area of English cultural and intellectual history. The wealth of primary sources on which Lothian has drawn, together with his compelling narrative, critical analysis, and attention to nuance, will ensure that this is a landmark book." —The Journal of British Studies“Lothian, a history professor at the University of Binghamton in New York, presents a comprehensive history of English Catholic thinkers such as Hilaire Belloc, GK Chesterton, Eric Gill and Evelyn Waugh. These intellectuals and others formed a Catholic counterculture of sorts that produced what is now known as ‘political Catholicism.’ Lothian examines this counterculture, its members’ struggle with Catholicism’s negative attitude towards modernity, and their desire to engage with contemporary society.” —Conscience“. . . there are many fine biographies of Belloc, Chesterton, Eric Gill, David Jones and Evelyn Waugh . . . James Lothian admirably provides a collective biography of three generations of these leaders, showing how they learned from and influenced each other and, finally, how their collective identity shattered. Lothian charts the rise of new Catholic leaders, including Maisie Ward and Frank Sheed, showing the maturing of Catholic political thought.” —Catholic Library World“There is much to admire here, with extensive research on unpublished correspondence complementing Lothian’s wide-ranging familiarity with the published writings of his subjects. The book provides valuable accounts of hitherto neglected individuals and enhances understanding of more familiar figures such as Chesterton, Gill, and Belloc himself.” —American Historical Review“The Making and Unmaking of the English Catholic Intellectual Community deserves respectful consideration. . . . Lothian makes it harder to ignore Catholicism’s resurgence in the British public mind, a salutary reminder that a sacramental faith encompasses both eschatology and sociology.” —The Catholic Historical Review“The author offers a series of analytical biographies of the key figures, chief among whom were Belloc and Chesterton. Lothian ably charts the rise of the English Catholic Intellectual community from the political Catholicism of Belloc and its demise after the Second World War when the political and economic themes of Belloc and Chesterton were displaced by the theological and philosophical interests of figures such as the publishers F. Sheed and his wife M. Ward, under the moderating influence of the historian C. Dawson.” —Religious Studies Review“James Lothian sees the impact of Hilaire Belloc on the intellectual formation of English Catholicism in the twentieth century as more than the effect of personal influence upon fellow writers and thinkers, rather as a major catalytic force in the construction of a corporate voice for Catholicism in the face of contemporary secular energizing challenges. . . an excellent study on a difficult theme and one that will rapidly become a seminal work.” —Recusant History“James Lothian has written an important book on the cultural and political history of the English Catholic community. . . . Lothian’s work is very impressive.” —Political Studies Review“Lothian’s study fills a much needed gap in English Catholic history and also serves as an excellent example of historical scholarship. Thoroughly documented and very well written—Lothian’s combination of personal annotates and ideological information is a genuine tour de force—this study should stimulate a wide range of dissertation topics which hopefully will continue to shed new light on English Catholicism during the inter-war period.” —Anglican and Episcopal History

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Book SynopsisProhibition Is Here to Stay focuses on the Reverend Edward S. Shumaker, a Methodist minister who for nearly twenty-five years led Indiana''s influential chapter of the Anti Saloon League. Shumaker was one of the most powerful men in Indiana in the fight against demon rum, and his influence extended well beyond the boundaries of the state during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Jason Lantzer uses Shumaker''s life and work to shed new light on the rise and fall of Prohibition and to better understand and appreciate the interplay of religion and politics in American culture.Drawing on Shumaker''s personal papers as well as archival work, Lantzer argues that understanding the role of religious faith and in particular evangelical Protestantism is essential to understanding Prohibition. Shumaker''s religious faith inspired his crusade against alcohol and his efforts to make the Indiana Anti Saloon League one of the strongest political pressure groups in theTrade Review“Jason Lantzer's excellent biography of Edward Shumaker places one of America's most successful Prohibition crusaders in the very center of American religion and reform. Lantzer's careful research and thoughtful analysis sharply contradicts the tendency to see Prohibition as a mere sidebar to American history and opens our minds to the connections between political activism and religious faith.” —James H. Madison, author of Slinging Doughnuts for the Boys: An American Woman in World War II"Historian Jason Lantzer has defied the odds. He's authored a doctoral thesis that is readable, academically sound and pertinent to current events. Lantzer tells the story of Edward Shumaker, the most politically influential church pastor in Indiana history. Shumaker was a crusader against alcohol abuse, peaking in influence from World War I to the mid-1920s.” —Indianapolis Star"Presenting evidence that the prohibition movement in Indiana was not happenstance or abnormal, but rather an effect of the mainstream cultural currents of the era, "Prohibition Is Here to Stay" uses Indiana as a lens to further examine larger issues of America's transformation from a rural to an urban majority, as well as the consequent shift in cultural values and the repercussions of industrialization and foreign immigration. A thoughtful, well-researched and persuasively presented study, highly recommended especially for college library collections." —Midwest Book Review“Lantzer aims to shed new light on the American prohibition movement. Among the issues he explores while discussing Shumaker’s life and work are: how dry culture transformed itself from a reformist cause to a national crusade, how the Anti Saloon League functioned at local and state levels, how its message evolved over time, how white evangelical Protestant reformers reached out to other groups, how the rhetoric of inclusion came to be superseded by the more reactionary vision of the Ku Klux Klan, and how the dominant reform of the largest religious segment of American culture came to be repealed and considered a failure.” —Research Book News“Jason S. Lantzer’s “Prohibition Is Here to Stay” is a fine examination of the life and work of Indiana’s dry crusader, the Reverend Edward S. Shumaker. . . . Lantzer’s exploration of the dry movement’s legacy is the most interesting dimension of this work. As he points out, ‘though Shumaker’s reform was over, the culture that produced it was not.’” —Journal of American History“Prohibition is Here to Stay” is a biography of a pivotal figure in the Midwest’s early twentieth century dry crusade. The Reverend S. Shumaker was a Methodist minister who spent his life in Indiana, a man who believed alcohol was a sin from a very young age . . . students of the prohibition movement will find it informative.” —American Catholic Studies“Jason S. Lantzer’s “Prohibition is Here to Stay” offers a detailed, local-level analysis of dry Protestant politics in action through an examination of the life and reform career of Edward S. Shumaker, a Methodist minister who achieved prominence and notoriety as the superintendent of the Indiana Anti Saloon League.” —Church History“Prohibition is often dismissed as an unfortunate aberration in the American reform tradition, led by fanatics, and doomed to failure. Jason S. Lantzer seeks to correct this impression in a well-written and thoroughly documented study on the life and career of Edward S. Shumaker, state superintendent of the Indiana Anti-Saloon League from 1907 until his untimely death in 1929.” —Indiana Magazine of History“Lantzer takes a respectful approach to Shumaker, offering a unique contribution to a neglected subject in state history. . . . Lantzer’s regional story show[s] that the debate over alcohol abuse didn’t end with the repeal of Prohibition. It stays alive through the work of groups such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving and Alcoholics Anonymous.” —Indystar“Using the life of Reverend Edward S. Shumaker as a lens through which to view how social issues can be shaped by religious faith, historian Jason S. Lantzer explores the relationship between religion and politics in American culture, particularly during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This enjoyable, well-researched biography contains extensive and informative notes, as well as a valuable bibliography that includes archives, primary and secondary sources, court cases, dissertations and theses, interviews and oral histories, manuscript collections, newspapers, pamphlets, and websites. Recommended for high school, college, and public libraries.” —Catholic Library World

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Book SynopsisFinding the Voice of the Church is written for a broad audience interested in the challenges facing the contemporary Catholic Church. These challenges are ones that should concern all Christians, not only Catholics. Noted scholar and commentator George Dennis O'Brien poses (and answers) three provocative questions: What is the proper voice of the church? Is there a voice of Christian faith? Can what is said about Christianity be fundamentally distorted by how it is said? Through his clear and relevant discussion of the basic content of Christianity, O'Brien concludes that the primary voice of Catholic Christianity, the papal teaching voice, must be radically re-understood if the Church is to be the proper medium and voice of the gospel message.O'Brien begins with the primary voice of the Church: baptism, gospel, and Eucharist. He contends that too much official teaching from the Roman magisterium to the local pulpit reverses the order of the ancient formula lex oTrade Review“A philosopher by training and a cradle Catholic, O'Brien has a deep commitment to his religious tradition and strong opinions about how it is being handed on. Reading this in the preface, I was buoyed by the hope that Finding the Voice of the Church would be a book nurtured by a mature faith sufficiently critical to cut deep and sufficiently grace-filled to offer healing-minus academic jargon. I think the author succeeds. . . . Finding the Voice of the Church is not theology-lite; neither are its rewards. For careful readers, it can nourish hope, strengthen faith and maybe complicate the intent of Matt 23:9.” —America “To be both a defender of the faith and an advocate of church reform is not easy. King Henry VIII failed spectacularly in that mission, but in his new book George Dennis O’Brien succeeds wonderfully. . . . Employing a masterly command of philosophy, theology, literature, drama, and art, O’Brien proposes another theological approach. . . . [This] book will help committed believers understand the solid ground on which they stand without flattening that ground or pretending to map it completely. . . . I find O’Brien’s book to be original, astute, and praiseworthy.” —Commonweal “This is a contemporary and passionate revisioning of authority in the Roman Catholic Church from the perspective of a committed layman. O'Brien articulates two viewpoints, or ‘voices,’ that seemingly encapsulate the debate in modern Catholicism regarding faith and ecclesiology. . . . Somewhat philosophical, the text, complete with eight pages of endnotes, is easily understood and devoid of much theological jargon. Recommended for all libraries interested in theological titles.” —Library Journal “O'Brien here offers his opinions on the state of the Catholic Church. O'Brien calls for the church to take on a voice that is more listening and therapeutic than didactic and moral.” —Choice “In response to the divide between papal teaching and the opinions of both the Catholic left and the Catholic right, O'Brien opens an inquiry into what the voice of Christian faith is and to what extend, and by what means, the church is capable of being the medium for the Gospels. He looks at the papal voice and official teaching, from the Roman Magisterium to the local pulpit. He also proposes ways in which the church can re-envision the structure and tone of its teaching to be a more authentic voice of the faithful.” —Conscience “It is a soul-searching exploration, a challenge to the status quo, a thinking-out-loud, an invitation to reassess. . . . But those who are open to the stimulation of looking at the Church in an unconventional way will be impressed with the wit and wisdom of a grandfather who loves the Church and knows it can do better.” —St. Anthony Messenger “In this very important work, O'Brien employs all the his ample philosophical acumen to bring us through a consideration of who speaks for the church and how such a one must speak in order to be heard . . . . This book is an important contribution to the many volumes claiming to examine the problems in the Catholic Church today. However, this work emerges above the others in its fascinating consideration of the religious persona and its ability to transform the reader's suppositions about the very nature of faith and teaching.” —Catholic Library World “George Dennis O'Brien thinks the Church has lost its voice. . . . [He] has something to say about how the church should speak to its members and the world at large (and about what the church should say), and he is ready to tell Rome and the rest of us how to recover our voice. And after reading Finding the Voice of the Church, I think the Vatican, the U.S. bishops, the clergy, and the folks in the pews could do a lot worse than pulling up a chair and giving O'Brien-and one another-a good hard listen.” —U.S. Catholic “Finding the Voice of the Church seems to offer something for most everyone. . . . George Dennis O'Brien has listened to and sounded a wide variety of voices to establish a solid foundation and to suggest a voice for the church in the world today.” —CatholicBooksReview.org "As the church finds itself in what O'Brien describes as a ‘profound crisis’, (xi) the author sets about with humor and exaggeration, but serious intent, to describe a way in which the church can begin, not to change or even to reform, but to begin a process of listening so that it can understand the value of the voices of the concerned from all parts of society, within and outside the Catholic Church." —American Catholic Studies

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Book SynopsisThis is the first narrative history of the Archdiocese of St. Paul, from 1840 to 1962. Historian Marvin R. O''Connell brings to life the extraordinary labors and accomplishments of the French priests who came to the upper midwest territory during the first half of the nineteenth century. Over the next fifty years a flood of settlers, primarily Irish and German Catholics, filled up the land. In 1850 Rome created a new diocese centered in the village of St. Paul, and in 1851 French priest Joseph Cretin was named its first bishop. O''Connell''s lively account stresses the social, economic, and political context in which the Catholic Church in Minnesota grew and evolved. He vividly illuminates the personalities of the bishops who followed Cretin, Thomas Grace (185984) and John Ireland (18841918). Ireland inherited a sophisticated system of churches, schools, orphanages, and hospitals, staffed by orders of religious men and women. Ireland built upon this legacy, founding colleges Trade Review"With a sweeping overview, cogent detail, and witty insight, Marvin O'Connell tells the stories of the people who built the Archdiocese of St. Paul: men of energy, grace, vision, and not a little political skill; scoundrels and scalawags on a fluid frontier; women religious who made possible the schools and hospitals that nurtured the faithful; families who built churches through deep faith and painful sacrifice. We see these real people, with personalities and passions and flaws, leaving enduring marks on Minnesota's landscape. This is a grand tale on a grand scale." —Ann Regan, author of Irish in Minnesota“What a gallery of memorable characters we find among these ‘Pilgrims to the Northland.’ And what a fabulous job Marvin O'Connell has done in telling their stories! Besides a major work of scholarship, he has given us what is surely the most readable diocesan history ever written.” —Philip Gleason, University of Notre Dame“ . . . historian Marvin R. O’Connell offers a detailed and engaging narrative of the institution that was integral to Catholicism in the Upper Midwest in the years before Vatican II. This big book is rich in stories of personalities, faith, struggle, and triumph.” —Minnesota History“ . . . Father O’Connell tells the history of the Archdiocese of St. Paul, emphasizing the social, economic, and political context in which the Catholic Church in Minnesota evolved. It begins with the labors and accomplishments o the French priests who arrived during the first half of the 19th century and continues through the death of Archbishop William Brady in 1961.” —The Catholic Spirit“In twenty-four splendidly written and researched chapters, the reader gains an appreciation for the human dimensions significant to the developing archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, not just an annotated biography of bishops and archbishops. . . . This captivating study of pioneer Catholicism also speaks with relevance to contemporary times, especially in areas of immigration, education, healthcare, social welfare and social change.” —Catholic Library World“. . . the volume illustrates the pivotal role of the Archdiocese of St. Paul regarding liturgy, social justice, and an ecclesiology at home in America. O’Connell’s solid research, written in fascinating style and integrated into a larger vision, is a valuable addition to the study of Catholicism in Minnesota and beyond.” —Theological Studies“This massive narrative escapes the status of mere chronicle through its spirited style, its perceptive appraisal of its cast of (frequently Episcopal) characters, and its sense of the rootedness of ecclesiastical in social history.” —Church History“O’Connell can always be counted on for a well-researched and well-written text—and this volume does not disappoint. What is truly delightful about this text is O’Connell’s artistry with words—which he uses to breathe life and color into this history. O’Connell also deftly employs his own recollections of people, places, and events in the Archdiocese of St. Paul from the 1940s onward.” —American Catholic Studies“Marvin R. O Connell’s sweeping Pilgrims to the Northland makes a strong case for the persistence of diocesan-level histories of U.S. Catholicism . . . . O’Connell demonstrates that what is now the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has been not just a chilly northern outpost of immigrant Catholicism, but an important stomping ground for many of the American Church’s most important figures . . . . [R]eaders could not do any better than a narrator like Father O’ Connell—a Minnesota native and a history professor emeritus at Notre Dame. He has crafted an eminently readable tome, one that already begs for a sequel.” —The Journal of Religion

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Book SynopsisThis collection of essays uses the career and scholarship of George M. Marsden to measure current trends in the historical study of American evangelical Protestantism.Trade Review"George Marsden's intellectual interests have made a wide-ranging yet coherent Festschrift possible. The editors and authors have deftly used Marsden's breadth within the history of evangelicalism to bring coherence to the volume through essays on five major aspects of American evangelical history. American Evangelicalism can be read by graduate students in American religious history and certainly will give historians interested in the evolving character of American evangelical scholarship and success a holistic treatment not found anywhere else." —Jon Butler, Howard R. Lamar Emeritus Professor of American Studies, History and Religious Studies, Yale University“American Evangelicalism is a grandly conceived and skillfully executed Festschrift in honor of George M. Marsden. The affection and regard for Marsden from his colleagues and former students shines through one essay after another. As a major historian of American evangelicalism whose scholarly range spans from the colonial era well into the twentieth century, Marsden very much deserves this impressive tribute.” —Leigh Eric Schmidt, Edward C. Mallinckrodt Distinguished University Professor in the Humanities, Washington University in St. Louis"This impressive collection of essays by many of the nation’s most distinguished historians of American religion stands not only as a fitting Festschrift in honor of George Marsden but also as testimony to the incredibly rich and diverse scholarship currently addressing the history of American evangelicalism. This is truly a landmark volume for understanding the state of American religious history." —Robert Wuthnow, Princeton University"This festschrift honors one of the finest twentieth-century scholars of the evolution of evangelicalism and its relationship to US culture. The essays examine the absolutely critical role Marsden played in the development of contemporary historical scholarship regarding US Protestant evangelicalism, while illustrating the state of such scholarship today." —Choice“In these thoroughly researched, compellingly argued pathbreaking works, Marsden. . . inspired many other scholars to investigate and write about. . . topics that greatly enhance our understanding of the role and importance of religion—especially evangelicalism—in American life. . . this treasure trove of thoughtful essays, which, by building on Marsden’s impressive foundation, perceptively assess many key aspects of America’s religious history.” —The Journal of American History“Together, these essays offer a compelling case for understanding the depth and breadth of Marsden’s work. . . This is a powerful testament to the tremendous impact of Marsden’s career on the narrating of American religious history.” —Journal of Church and State“The name of George Marsden. . . needs no introduction to American church historians. . . This volume. . . is a great contribution to scholarship. . . One mark of a truly great scholar is the degree to which that person transforms an entire perception of a major subject. This fine collection of nineteen essays shows how ably Marsden fits this definition.” —Anglican and Episcopal History“This format, as the editors suggest and the impressive assembly of contributors skillfully imparts, sculpts something larger than a tribute; the volume’s value for instruction is manifest and, as such, it bestows to another generation a clear view of the terrain, an edifying lens through which to view it, and a prolific yet discerning exemplar for the future of the discipline.” —Religious Studies Review“It is an elegant, witty, and finely nuanced account of how fundamentalists and other evangelical Protestants were shaping and being shaped by postwar American culture. . . Likewise, the ‘new directions’ essays are a remarkable display of talent and interpretive verve.” —The Catholic Historical Review“. . . this volume [is] a sort of a double tribute. On the manifest level, it pays tribute to Marsden in words, but on the latent level, the overall substance of this volume is itself a reflection of Marsden’s lasting influence upon the writers.” —Fides et Historia

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Book SynopsisPassover and Easter constitute for Jews and Christians respectively two of the most important religious festivals of the year. This volume concentrates on the contexts in which they occur - the periods of preparation for the feasts and their connection to Shavuot and Pentecost.Trade Review“These two volumes are a welcomed addition, and provide a good resource for the present state of scholarly opinion on these two related festivals.” —Journal of Ecclesiastical History“For those new to the book's subject matter, this collection of essays gives an excellent basis for developing the subject and will entice the reader to further research.” —The Heythrop Journal“An excellent ecumenical introduction to the subject.” —WorshipNet

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Book SynopsisThe apparent disappearance of mysticism in the Protestant world after the Reformation used to be taken as an example of the arrival of modernity. However, as recent studies in history and literary history reveal, the Reformation was not experienced in such a drastically transformative manner, not least because the later Middle Ages itself was marked by a series of reform movements within the Catholic Church in which mysticism played a central role.In Mysticism and Reform, 1400-1750, contributors show that it is more accurate to characterize the history of early modern mysticism as one in which relationships of continuity within transformations occurred. Rather than focus on the departures of the sixteenth-century Reformation from medieval traditions, the essays in this volume explore one of the most remarkable yet still under-studied chapters in its history: the survival and transformation of mysticism between the late Middle Ages and the early modern period.WitTrade Review"What happened to mysticism after the Reformation? As this thoroughly engaging and expansive volume shows through a myriad of examples, medieval mysticism generated many afterlives, becoming absorbed, transformed, or reappropriated even when rejected. Mysticism and Reform, 1400–1750 is helpful to all scholars and readers interested in the debates and currents that defined spiritual life from the fifteenth century on. A truly helpful and meticulous collection of essays." —Patricia Dailey, Columbia University“This excellent volume grew from a 2008 conference organized by Poor and Smith, both scholars of medieval studies at Princeton. . . . In their introduction, the editors write that the essays explore ‘the survival and transformation of mysticism between the late Middle Ages and the early modern period.’ . . . This study is for those interested in ecumenism and in understanding based on a ‘politics of love.’” —Choice“[A] colossal failure of the Reformation was in the area of mysticism: both a failure to squelch out its practices and obliterate or neutralize its erstwhile devotees, and a failure to offer any suitable alternative to fill the void left by its ‘absence.’ This volume tells that hidden story.” —Journal of Jesuit Studies“This collection of essays explores in fascinating detail the pluralistic, complicated ways in which mystical writers from 1400-1759 drew upon late-medieval contemplative writers. . . . The editors brought together important essays that shed new light on the relationship between inner mystical experience and the Modern Age.” —Lutheran Quarterly“This capacious and stimulating collection brings together scholars working on texts from across Northern Europe and the colonial New World and spanning more than 300 years. Despite the range of these essays, they are united in their conviction that the mysticism that flourished during the High Middle Ages did not disappear with the advent of Protestantism.” —Renaissance Quarterly“This volume contains twelve essays on early mysticism in Northern Europe. . . . The various essays model different methodological approaches from formal criticism to archival history, while each in its own path pursues the elusive figure of ‘the mystical’ in the centuries following the Reformation. . . . More than half of the essays explicitly address feminine writing, gendered practices, and women’s role in the history of mysticism.” —Monatshefte“As an ensemble, these chapters demonstrate that mysticism served as an important literary leitmotif of the Reformation era. . . . This volume clarifies our understanding of the historical context of mystical literature during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.” —Comitatus “The study of mystical theology in the early modern period is rapidly becoming fashionable. . . . The jewel in the crown of the study is undoubtedly Sarah Apetrei’s chapter concerning mystical theology in early-Enlightenment England. It is here that the aim of the volume to display the impact of mystical theology ‘across confessions and between cultures’ is most obvious. . . . This volume should be applauded for its attempt to offer a ‘reassessment of medieval mysticism’” —British Catholic History “This collection takes up the challenge issued by noted historian Brad Gregory when he threw down the gauntlet in his magnum opus, The Unintended Reformation: How a Religious Revolution Secularized Society. . . . The essays collected here, which originated with a conference on “Mysticism, Reform, and the Formation of Modernity” at Princeton University in 2008, represent extraordinary breadth within a trans-Atlantic scope. Both Catholic and Protestant post-Reformation mystical traditions are thus covered.” —Journal of Jesuit Studies“The sheer ambition of bringing together the unwieldy subjects of mysticism and reform into one volume may seem misguided . . . [yet] this is precisely why the publication of this volume is a most welcome surprise. [The] arrival of such a multifaceted and coherent collection of well-researched essays . . . is indeed a god-send.” —Sixteenth Century Journal

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Book SynopsisReclaiming Goodness: Education and the Spiritual Quest begins with the premise that sound models for achieving both spiritual fulfillment and the good life are lacking in contemporary culture. Arguing that contemporary education is responsible for having abandoned spirituality and the cultivation of goodness in people, Hanan A. Alexander advances a definition of spirituality which acknowledges an integral connection to education. Reclaiming Goodness charts a way to reintegrate ethical and spiritual values with the values of critical thought and reason. Written in accessible and non-technical prose, it will be of interest to professional educators as well as to a wider audience.Trade Review“Hanan Alexander turns his incisive mind to addressing spirituality and education in a marvelously integrative, challenging, and generative book. The work is integrative in drawing from three faith traditions, and also from the philosophy of education and broader philosophical discourse on questions of goodness. The work is challenging because it analyzes major social-religious-educational issues with sharpness and clarity. It also challenges people to think, to ask questions of themselves, to ask questions of Alexander, and even to argue with him. This is exactly what Alexander wants of his readers; intelligent spirituality is his goal. Finally, this work is generative. It stirs bold visions of education for goodness and clears practical pathways for religious peoples to travel. Alexander poses the possibility of a spiritual renaissance—most fully possible when religious and other communities are fully engaged in educating spirituality. I say a huge thank you to Hanan Alexander for daring to put goodness at the center of spiritual life and for equipping readers to see how this might be done!” ”—Mary Elizabeth Mullino Moore, Professor of Religion and Education, and Director of Program for Women in Theology and Ministry, Candler School of Theology, Emory University“Christian readers will find this book most helpful in enabling them to both critique and defend their own stance.” —Journal of Christian Education“An impressive defense of liberal, moral education within an open community of seekers. A formidable champion of a powerful view.” —Choice“Every page is filled with deep innovative thoughts on the moral and spiritual future of liberal education. . . . This book gives the reader not only a clear overview of the different positions (with an extensive index and list of notes for further reading), it also helps him/her to anticipate an authentic and communicative learning, rooted in the wisdom of religious traditions.” —International Journal of Education and Religion“Hanan A. Alexander’s fascinating and hugely enjoyable book is deeply rooted in his own tradition of liberal Judaism. The task he sets himself is to describe a vision of education that is neither instrumental nor utilitarian but promotes a vision of ‘the good life’. This is a tremendously rich book and will be of interest to any reader concerned with spiritual education, religious pluralism and, perhaps especially, the topical debate about Faith Schools.” —Journal of Beliefs and Values“Reclaiming Goodness represents a sophisticated analysis of the spiritual crisis that marks modern life and offers an imaginative program for a renaissance of values and a revitalization of meaning in the present situation. Hanan Alexander draws upon a wide array of philosophical, sociological, and historical resources, as well as the Bible and classical rabbinic sources, in constructing the argument of book. Impressive in its learning and judicious in its diagnosis of the challenges confronting educators and others in the present-day world, Reawakening Goodness also contains positive proposals for the construction of enduring and humane purpose for modern persons.” —David Ellenson, I.H. and Anna Grancell Professor of Jewish Religious Thought at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion“Reclaiming Goodness invites profound reflection on the relationship between education and spirituality. Hanan Alexander complements his clarity of analysis with a passion for the educative potential of religious traditions. His outstanding book deserves a wide readership." —Mary C. Boys, Skinner & McAlpin Professor of Practical Theology, Union Theological Seminary“Reclaiming Goodness is a powerful and important book. It will be noticed not only because it goes against the grain—spirituality, liberal education, education for the good life—but also because the book is so clearly the narrative expression of someone who has passionately lived a life of spirituality, education, and scholarship. The book is profoundly marked by Alexander’s biography.” —Michael Connelly, Director, Center for Teacher Development, University of Toronto“This is an insightful and compassionate book that seeks to connect philosophy with religion; rationality with spirituality; and the cosmic with the secular. I recommend it highly to those in quest of an education that seeks to continue our responsibility to create a society rooted in a consciousness of loving-kindness.” —David E. Purpel, ECL Department, University of North Carolina at Greensboro

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