History of religion Books

Book SynopsisEsther Benbassa and Jean-Christophe Attias show that alterity is a useful and morally compelling notion with which to structure Judaism's historically specific and politically charged encounters with deity, femininity, Christianity, and Islam.Trade Review"This is a rich summation of the resources and challenges of Jewish identity and difference at the turn of the third Christian millennium. Committed, lucid, critical, and informed, it exemplifies a vibrantly human science of Jewishness." -- Jonathan Boyarin, author of Storm from Paradise: The Politics of Jewish Memory and Thinking in Jewish

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Book SynopsisBuddhism is indisputably gaining prominence in the West, as is evidenced by the growth of Buddhist practice within many traditions and keen interest in meditation and mindfulness. In The Lotus and the Lion, J. Jeffrey Franklin traces the historical...Trade Review"Whereas most Victorianists are aware of such bestsellers as Edwin Arnold's poem about the Buddha, 'The Light of Asia,' few understand the sheer scope of the 19th-century Buddhism industry. Franklin collects wide-ranging references to, studies of, and polemics about Buddhism, ranging from poems and tracts to novels and religious scholarship. Drawing on postcolonial theory, especially theories of hybridity, the author argues that the 19th-century imperial encounter with Buddhism reshaped Britain as much as it did Britain's colonies. As Franklin demonstrates, Victorians drew on Buddhism (however understood or misunderstood) to criticize Christianity and to develop their own religions—for example theosophy—even as more orthodox Christians also saw the growing presence of Buddhism in Britain itself as part of an atheist threat. The author further demonstrates Buddhism's complex influence on bestselling novelists like H. Rider Haggard and Marie Corelli. But in his most provocative chapter he takes on Rudyard Kipling's Kim, arguing that a Buddhist reading of the text denies the 'polarization' beloved of Western critics (e.g., between India and the Great Game or the self and the other). An exceptionally lucid, accessible study. Summing Up: Highly recommended."—Choice, July 2009"I have been hoping someone would write this book. The sustained readings of Corelli, Haggard, Blavatsky, Edwin Arnold, and Kipling are significant. Most works on Buddhism and Western literature tend to offer weak analogies—how an author's views are 'like' certain Buddhist ones—but J. Jeffrey Franklin actually traces the relationships. The Lotus and the Lion will have a unique place in criticism, forever changing our view of Victorian religion by placing it in its global context."—James Najarian, Boston College"What did Elizabeth Gaskell know about the Dalai Lama? What did Marie Corelli and H. Rider Haggard know about Buddhist ideas of reincarnation and karma? If your reflex answer is 'nothing,' The Lotus and the Lion will surprise you. The assumption that the Victorians knew very little about Buddhism or that such references form mere Orientalist gestures may, J. Jeffrey Franklin suggests, tell us more about ourselves than about them. Franklin chronicles his own 'eye-opening' encounter with the Victorian knowledge of Buddhism in a well-researched and intriguing book that should make scholars open their eyes in turn."—Lisa Surridge, University of Victoria

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Book SynopsisRefocusing the narrative of 20th-century America on the Catholic presence in the United States.Trade ReviewCatholics in the American Century, the most recent volume to appear in the Cushwa twentieth-century series, addresses the problem of Catholic omission head-on. Five of its six essays are by prominent American historians who seek to reimagine their particular areas of expertise once the Catholic presence is taken seriously..Suffice it to say that every historian with an interest in American Catholicism should read and ponder it. -- Leslie Woodcock Tentler * The Catholic Historical Review *A decade ago Cushwa leaders Scott R. Appleby, Timothy Matovina, and Kathleen Sprows Cummings, the current director, along with historian John McGreevy, launched a project to encourage further research on the lives of American Catholics in the twentieth century. One of the goals of the project was to correct the lack of attention given Catholics in the work of many American historians. What would happen if historians paid attention to Catholics, with their distinctive ideas, imaginations, and practices? Now Catholics in the American Century brings together essays exploring how Catholic experience and perspectives enrich our understanding of the broader American experience. * Commonweal *Historiography-lovers, Catholic and non-Catholic alike, should ?nd this edited volume a welcome challenge to standard accounts of American history.... Catholics in the American Century raises important questions for the graduate students and history professionals who will create the next generation of scholar ship and textbooks explaining the American past. Historians of Catholicism in particular will bene?t from the arguments this book presents about why their subject deserves more respect and attention within the profession. -- Thomas J. Carty * American Historical Review *The overall impact of the book is a valuable one: in this day and age when the hierarchy is extremely vocal about its version of American Catholicism, in truth, Catholics have always had to forge their own vision of what it is to be Catholic in America—sometimes creating something entirely new, sometimes in sharp contrast to others of their same faith. * Conscience *There is much food for reflection in these essays as the authors lay down the challenge for mainstream historians and historians of U.S. Catholicism to take one another's works more seriously, and thereby enrichen both fields. -- Jeffrey M. Burns * American Catholic Studies *These six wide-ranging and impressive essays do indeed 'recast narratives of US history' through the lens and critique of Catholicism.... Taken together, these essays challenge well-trodden tales of Catholics in America becoming American Catholics. Deftly tying [them] together... coeditor Appleby's conclusion gestures to future research prospects that more fully integrate Catholic history into US history, perhaps even seeing the two as intertwined. This book would be a great addition to not just collections on Catholicism in the US, but also, taking up the book's charge, collections on US history. Summing Up: Highly recommended. * Choice *"This book is another example of the prolific output of the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism at the University of Notre Dame... All six essays explore the interaction of Catholicism with American culture. Robert Orsi provides an innovative perspective on U.S. Catholic assimilation arguing that the U.S. Catholic emphasis on suffering, pain, sacrifice, and persecution has put Catholics at odds with 'modernity' and with American society even as they became a part of both. Orsi demonstrates how Catholics developed their own narrative that allowed them to adapt to U.S society without sacrificing their distinctiveness...There is much food for reflection in these essays as the authors lay down the challenge for mainstream historians of U.S. Catholicism to take one another’s works more seriously, and thereby enrichen both fields." —Jeffrey M. Burns, American Catholic Studies, Vol. 125, No. 1"Those with a specific interest in the field of twentieth-century American Catholic history will be impressed by the literature surveyed by the contributors.... As well, the authors have an argument that is directed towards a more general readership.... This volume will be valuable reading for a large audience and should provide good library support for courses focusing on twentieth-century American history." —Christopher Hrynkow, Canadian Journal of History/Annales canadiennes d'histoireHart does a masterful job of analyzing the thought of these public intellectuals and placing them in the context of wider discussions of American public policy. Hart has provided excellent scholarship on the major journalistic figures and arguments that formed public Catholic thought in the United States during the Cold War. * Chronicles *Table of ContentsIntroduction: The American Catholic Century by John T. McGreevyChapter 1. U.S. Catholics between Memory and Modernity: How Catholics Are American by Robert A. OrsiChapter 2. Re-viewing the Twentieth Century through an American Catholic Lens by Lizabeth CohenChapter 3. The Catholic Encounter with the 1960s by Thomas J. Sugrue4. Crossing the Catholic Divide: Gender, Sexuality, and Historiography by R. Marie Griffith5. The New Turn in Chicano/Mexicano History: Integrating Religious Belief and Practice by David G. Gutiérrez6. The Catholic Moment in American Social Thought by Wilfred M. McClayConclusion: The Forgotten Americans? by R. Scott ApplebyNotes Acknowledgments Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisIn 1812, eight American missionaries, under the direction of the recently formed American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, sailed from the United States to South Asia. The plans that motivated their voyage were ano less grand than taking part in the Protestant conversion of the entire world. Over the next several decades, these men...Trade ReviewIn 1810 four young evangelical Christian men at Andover Theological Seminary made the decision to dedicate their lives to missionary work and petitioned the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to form a missionary society, the lofty American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM). In 1812, the first group of young men and their wives set out to convert the world to Christianity, launching what would become the largest missionary organization in the UnitedStates. This story has been well told within the burgeoning subspecialty of American missionary history.... Conroy-Krutz's contribution to this history is an innovative approach to understanding the first thirty years (1812–1846). Rather than focusingon the institution’s internal history or missionary theology, she relocates it as a study in imperialisms: the Christian imperialism to convert the world in tandem with the British and American political imperialisms to which missionaries attached themselves in choosing.... Christian Imperialism adds a new perspective to the history of the American Board. -- Roberta Wollons * New England Quarterly *Conroy-Krutz has several objectives, all of which interweave to produce a compelling overall analysis about America's place in the world and how religion helped to shape it.... Conroy-Krutz's most important scholarly intervention is her typology of imperialism and her deft discussion of the ways in which different types of empire, not just American, intersected but also competed with one another.... Christian Imperialism is a superb addition to the burgeoning subfield of work that uncovers the religious aspects of America's engagement with the wider world. * Church History *By focusing on the efforts of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM), the largest missionary organization of the antebellum era, Conroy-Krutz shows how debates about religion and race in the United States were thoroughly shaped by conceptions of "heathens" abroad. Christian Imperialism's extensive use of ABCFM internal sources allows the missionaries to emerge as three-dimensional, complicated people. Taking the mutually constitutive natures of religion and race for granted, [Conroy-Krutz reframes] the parameters of "American religious history." [This book makes] a convincing case that American studies scholars must take religion seriously as an integral part of racial formation and an engine of historical change." * American Quarterly *Emily Conroy-Krutz offers a transnational and implicitly comparative discussion of an aspect of Protestant triumphalism in nineteenth-century America.... Christian imperialism offers a fresh and compelling slant on the politics of missionary activity. Joel Barlow was wrong: the early American republic did have the character of a Christian nation. * Journal of Ecclesiastical History *Wisely, the author of this book follows the suggestion of Paul Kramer ‘to use imperialism as a tool of analysis... something to think with more than think about.’ She sees Christian imperialism ‘as a vision and not a reality’ (10). -- Martin E. Marty, University of Chicago * The Historian *Conroy-Krutz is at her best when describing political complexities, ambiguities, and perplexities that arose as the Board attempted to carry out its vision in a world dominated by Western imperialism. -- Jay R. Case * The Journal of Religion *[A] welcome contribution to the intersection of Vast Early America, American Religious History, Missions History, and American Foreign Relations History. * Religious Studies Review *Table of ContentsPrologue: An American Missionary in LondonIntroduction: Christian Imperialism and American Foreign Missions1. Hierarchies of Heathenism2. Missions on the British Model3. Mission Schools and the Meaning of Conversion4. Missions as Settler Colonies5. American Politics and the Cherokee Mission6. Missionaries and Colonies7. A "Christian Colony" in SingaporeConclusion: Missions and American ImperialismNotesIndex

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Book SynopsisIn a book with a bold new view of medieval Jewish history, written in a style accessible to nonspecialists and students as well as to scholars in the field, Marina Rustow changes our understanding of the origins and nature of heresy itself. Scholars have long believed that the Rabbanites and Qaraites, the two major Jewish groups under Islamic rule, split decisively in the tenth century and from that time forward the minority Qaraites were deemed a heretical sect. Qaraites affirmed a right to decide matters of Jewish law free from centuries of rabbinic interpretation; the Rabbanites, in turn, claimed an unbroken chain of scholarly tradition.Rustow draws heavily on the Cairo Geniza, a repository of papers found in a Rabbanite synagogue, to show that despite the often fierce arguments between the groups, they depended on each other for political and financial support and cooperated in both public and private life. This evidence of remarkable interchange leads Rustow to the conclTrade ReviewRustow's book provides us fascinating new insights into the history of Jewish Eastern communities of Egypt, Syria, and Palestine during the crucial and politically unstable period of the rule of the Fatimid caliphs.... Her focus on documentary and epistolary sources and on the caliphal administration allows Rustow to present a picture of Rabbanite-Karaite relations which differs from the more standard views of modern scholarship... that present Karaism as a separatist 'sect' and a threat to Judaism.... On the contrary, Rustow shows, the Karaites constituted one among other Jewish groups of the period and were fully engaged in Jewish community life as a whole. * Journal of Jewish Studies *The Cairo Geniza documents have been at the center of Jewish scholarship for over a century. Rustow has reviewed the medieval and modern models that emerged on the basis of the rich polemical literature and challenges them against the extant contemporary correspondence that describe the actual interactions.... This well-written and reader-friendly major contribution is accessible to neophyte and scholar alike, and will engender a new, nuanced view of the social relations among Jews and Muslims in the medieval Mediterranean. Highly recommended. * Choice *Table of ContentsIntroduction AbbreviationsPart I: The Shape of the Jewish Community 1. The Tripartite Community 2. Jewish Book Culture in the Tenth Century 3. The Limits of Communal AutonomyPart II: Rabbanites, Qaraites, and the Politics of Leadership 4. Qaraites and the Politics of Powerlessness 5. "Nothing but Kindness, Benefi t, and Loyalty": Qaraites and the Ge'onim of Baghdad 6. "Under the Authority of God and All Israel": Qaraites and the Ge’onim of Jerusalem 7. "Glory of the Two Parties": Petitions to Qaraite Courtiers 8. The Affair of the Ban of Excommunication in 1029Part III: Scholastic Loyalty and Its Limits 9. Rabbanite-Qaraite Marriages 10. In the Courts: Legal ReciprocityPart IV: The Origins of Territorial Governance 11. Avignon in Ramla: The Schism of 1038–42 12. The Tripartite Community and the First CrusadeEpilogue: Toward a History of Jewish HeresyGlossary Guide to Places and People Manuscript Sources Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisIn this important historical account of the role that religion played in defining the political life of a modern national society, Paul A. Hanebrink shows how Hungarian nationalists redefined Hungarya liberal society in the nineteenth centuryas a narrowly Christian nation in the aftermath of World War I. Drawing on impressive archival research, Hanebrink uncovers how political and religious leaders demanded that Christian values influence public life while insisting that religion should never be reduced to the status of a simple nationalist symbol.In Defense of Christian Hungary also explores the emergence of the idea that a destructive Jewish spirit was the national enemy. In combining the historical study of antisemitism with more recent considerations of religion and nationalism, Hanebrink addresses an important question in Central European historiography: how nations that had been inclusive of Jews before World War I became rabidly antisemitic during the interwar pTrade ReviewHanebrink in his excellent, well-researched study brings together important questions concerning nationalism, religion, and the ever-present issue of antisemitism.... The novel aspect of Hanebrink's work is to place religion at the center of the definition of nation and thereby connect it to the growth of antisemitism. * Slavic Review *

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Book SynopsisIn her graceful account of the transformation of European attitudes toward the Ottoman empire during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Lucette Valensi follows the genealogy of the concept of Oriental despotism. The Birth of the Despot examines...Trade ReviewIn The Birth of the Despot, Lucette Valensi argues that the developing discourse on the Oriental despot indicated both disquiet at the prospect that that the Turks were more likely than any Christian king to reunite Europe, and reaction against domestic shifts in power from the nobility to kings and signori.... Her book is beautifully organized and written. Shaped like an oratorio, it follows a simple narrative line in intricate melodies that are pristine and classical in form. * Middle East Journal *Lucette Valensi's essay is an elegant, almost lyrical historical study.... Her study makes some important corrections to traditional assumptions of how Venetians perceived and appropriated the image of the Ottoman Empire in the early modern era. * Sixteenth Century Journal *Using reports read to the doge and senate by ambassadors and envoys extraordinary to the Porte on their return home, Lucette Valensi analyzes their portrayals of Sultans within the context of Renaissance literary traditions. The origins and etymological evolution of the word 'despot,' its attachment to the Sultans, and its emigration into contemporary usage in modern European languages form a central theme. Valensi tells a fascinating story, using the structure of Vivaldi's operatic rendition of the biblical parable of Judith and Holofernes as the organizing principle. She offers important historical insights as well, for Venice was surely better informed about the Turk than any other western polity. The story begins with visions of the Sultan as the model of an enlightened Renaissance prince in all but religion, and ends with an arbitrary and bloodthirsty Mehmet IV driven by strange appetites and unknowable impulses, the very image of Montesquieu's Oriental despot. The style is polished; the organization effective; the insights into the educational methods, rhetoric, and modes of thought of late Renaissance Venice fascinating. * The International History Review *

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Book SynopsisI assume that historical sources can convey human feeling, even though it is fruitless to psychologize individual friends or to reach complete explanations about their motives. I simply accept that because medieval Christians believed in friendship and felt the need for it, some of them both practiced and lived out friendships.from the new IntroductionHuman beings have always formed personal friendships. Some cultures have left behind the evidence of philosophical discussion; some have provided only private or semipublic letters. By comparing these, one discerns the effect exercised by the society in which the writers lived, its opportunities, and its restrictions. The cloistered monks of medieval Europe, who have bequeathed a rich literary legacy on the subject, have always had to take into account the overwhelming fact of community. Brian Patrick McGuire finds that in seeking friends and friendship, medieval men and women sought self-knowledge, the enjoyment of life, the coTrade Review"Brian McGuire's Friendship and Community is by now a classic, the most important book to appear—ever—on the subject. Its sweep is broad. McGuire shows the development of medieval ideals of friendship and community from antiquity to the high Middle Ages. Current interest on the topic is high, in large part due to McGuire’s book."—C. Stephen Jaeger, University of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignTable of ContentsIntroduction—The Debate on Friendship: Antecedents and InterpretersIntroduction to the 2010 EditionI. The Wisdom of the Eastern FathersII. The Western Fathers and the Search for CommunityIII. The Monk and the Wanderer: Varieties of Early Medieval FriendshipIV. The Eclipse of Monastic Friendship, c. 850–c. 1050V. Reform and Renewal: New Impulses Towards Friendship, c. 1050 –c. 1120VI. The Age of Friendship: Networks of Friends, c. 1120–c. 1180VII. Aelred of Rievaulx and the Limits of FriendshipVIII. Continuity and Change: The Persistence of Friendship, c. 1180–c. 1250IX. Epilogue—Ends and Beginnings in Community and FriendshipNotes Table of Abbreviations Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisA reconstruction and exploration of the phenomenon of religious cursing in medieval Europe.Trade Review'May they be cursed in town and cursed in the fields. May their barns be cursed and may their bones be cursed. May the fruit of their loins be cursed as well as the fruit of their lands.' French monks of the Middle Ages hurled curses like these at their enemies, seeking supernatural assistance when no secular judge could help them. In a long-awaited book written with elegance and erudition, Lester Little undertakes the first full-length study of these maledictions.... The book's focus is the way that religious communities—especially the monks who followed Benedict's Rule and hence were known by his name—used liturgical cursing to safeguard their integrity and their possessions, against both laymen and other ecclesiastics. * Journal of Social History *Little begins with a custom that may seem quaint; he ends by leading the reader through a series of centrally important historical developments, and in most cases he succeeds in showing their relevance to this extraordinary custom of liturgical cursing. -- Richard Kieckhefer, Northwestern University * American Historical Review *Professor Little has carried out in masterly fashion his stated goal, the re-creation of the whole cutlure of medieval clamor, and in the process he has illuminated many other aspects of medieval religious, social, and legal practices. His book, filled with charming personal asides, will be duly appreciated by scholars, admirers, and nonspecialists. -- Bede K. Lackner, University of Texas, Arlington * Speculum *

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Book SynopsisAurelius Prudentius Clemens (348ca. 406) is one of the great Christian Latin writers of late antiquity. Born in northeastern Spain during an era of momentous change for both the Empire and the Christian religion, he was well educated, well connected, and a successful member of the late Roman elite, a man fully engaged with the politics and culture of his times. Prudentius wrote poetry that was deeply influenced by classical writers and in the process he revived the ethical, historical, and political functions of poetry. This aspect of his work was especially valued in the Middle Ages by Christian writers who found themselves similarly drawn to the Classical tradition. Prudentius''s Hamartigenia, consisting of a 63-line preface followed by 966 lines of dactylic hexameter verse, considers the origin of sin in the universe and its consequences, culminating with a vision of judgment day: the damned are condemned to torture, worms, and flames, while the saved return to a heaven fiTrade Review"I am most impressed with the clarity and precision of this translation. Martha A. Malamud's verses render Prudentius’ Latin into lucid and compelling measures that honor the literal meaning even as they imitate the cacophony, alliteration, and occasional clusters of half rhyme in the original. Throughout, Malamud demonstrates her keen ear for Prudentius’ language." -- Emily Albu, UC Davis"Martha A. Malamud's translation is readable and dynamic. Her interpretive essay skillfully sets the literary context and is first-class in its close reading and interpretation. I learned a great deal. The Origin of Sin is a substantial and much-needed contribution to Prudentian studies, late antique studies, and even comparative literature." -- Marc Mastrangelo, Dickinson CollegeTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Note on Translations and EditionsTHE ORIGIN OF SIN: AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION Preface The Origin of SinAN INTERPRETIVE ESSAY Introduction 1. Writing in Chains 2. Figuring It Out 3. Seeking Hidden Truth 4. Falling into Language 5. Under Assault 6. Generation of Vipers 7. Signs of Woe 8. In AenigmateNotes References Index

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Book SynopsisIn this new edition, the authors update demographic and technological changes, and describe Amish enterprises outside of Pennsylvania in a new chapter.Trade ReviewUseful in courses in religion and culture; an excellent supplementary text for courses in sociology... Amish and other minority groups... may be inspired and instructed by this heartening document. -- Gene Burd Utopian Studies 2005 Important for anyone interested in the interplay between a small, separate religious group and the dominant culture. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 2005Table of ContentsPrefaceAcknowledgmentsPart I: The Cultural ContextChapter 1. The Roots of Amish LifePart II: Cultural Resources for Entrepreneurship Chapter 2. From Plows to ProfitsChapter 3. A Profile of Amish EnterprisesChapter 4. Homespun Entrepreneurs Chapter 5. Labor and Human ResourcesPart III: Cultural Constraints of EntrepreneurshipChapter 6. The Moral Boundaries of BusinessChapter 7. Taming the Power of TechnologyChapter 8. Small-Scale LimitationsPart IV: The Public Face of Amish EnterpriseChapter 9. Promotion and Professional NetworksChapter 10. Coping with Litigation and LiabilityChapter 11. Negotiating with CaesarChapter 12. Failure and SuccessPart V: The Transformation of Amish SocietyChapter 13. The Fate of a Traditional PeopleChapter 14. National Patters of Amish WorkAppendixes: Research Methods and Data SourcesNotesReferencesIndex

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Book SynopsisIt seeks to restore poetry to its rightful place as a crucial source for interpreting the rich cultural and intellectual life of the era.Trade ReviewThis book persuasively re-evaluates Prudentius as a poet who effectively reshaped the reader's awareness of Christian self in relation to the wider Christian community... Students of Late Antiquity will find much of interest in this study of an ambitious poet. -- Charles Witke Journal of Late Antiquity 2008Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. An Epic Successor? Prudentius, Aeneid 6, and Roman Epic Tradition2. Christian History and the Narrative of Rome3. Christian Theology and the Making of Allegory4. Pagan Philosophy and the Making of AllegoryEpilogue: Self, Poetry, and Literary History in PrudentiusNotesWorks CitedIndex

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Book SynopsisThe book is a valuable text for students and scholars in early modern European history, religion, women's studies, and economic history.Trade ReviewThe author skillfully analyzes extensive archival and printed sources. Choice 2010 With this book Sharon Strocchia performs a service both to convent studies and to historians of Renaissance Florence by bringing these two fields together... Convents, long a hazy presence on the rich scholarly map of Renaissance Florence, now have their political and economic contours there clearly charted. -- P. Renee Baernstein Renaissance Quarterly 2010 An enjoyable, well-written account by a gifted historian clearly knowledgeable about her subject. -- Laura Swan Magistra 2010 Strocchia makes a significant contribution to the developing body of work on women's religious life in the Renaissance... providing a plethora of research avenues for the interested scholar and an interesting glimpse of Renaissance life for the general reader. -- Sally Mayall Brasher American Historical Review 2010 A convincing and wide-ranging analysis of a crucial facet of Renaissance Florence. -- Brian Maxson Canadian Journal of History 2010Table of ContentsList of Tables, Graphs, and FiguresPreface1. The Growth of Florentine ConventsConvents in CrisisThe Midcentury ResurgenceThe Rush to the Convent2. Nuns, Neighbors, and KinsmenFrom Neighborhood Enclaves to Citywide InstitutionsProperty and the Topography of PowerDefenders of the Parish3. The Renaissance Convent EconomyThe Structure of Convent FinanceThe Paradox of ''Private'' WealthBalancing the BudgetThe Medici and the Monte4. Invisible Hands: Renaissance Nuns at WorkEconomic Strategies and OpportunitiesThe Century of Silk: Nuns and Textile ProductionThree Case Studies in Textile WorkBooks and Educational Activities5. Contesting the Boundaries of EnclosureThe Practice of Open Reclusion, 1300–1450Privatization, Enclosure, and Reform, 1430–1500The Florentine ''Night Officers''Ecclesiastical Reform Initiatives, 1500–1540ConclusionAcknowledgmentsNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisLarissa Taylor has examined over 1600 sermons given by the leading lay preachers in France between 1460 and 1560, and examines the social context of preaching and the sermon while reconstructing popular attitudes towards original sin, free will, purgatory, the Devil, the sacraments, and the magical arts.

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Book SynopsisWith original translations of primary texts and articles by leading researchers in the field, Sanctity in the North gives an introduction to the literary production associated with the cult of the saints in medieval Scandinavia.For more than five hundred years, Nordic clerics and laity venerated a host of saints through liturgical celebrations, written manuscripts, visual arts, and oral traditions. Textual evidence of this widespread and important aspect of medieval spirituality abounds. Written biographies (or vitae), compendia of witnessed miracles, mass propers, homilies, sagas and chronicles, dramatic scripts, hymns, and ballads are among the region's surviving medieval manuscripts and early published books.Sanctity in the North features English translations of texts from Latin or vernacular Nordic languages, in many cases for the first time. The accompanying essays concerning the texts, saints, cults, and history of the period complemenTrade Review'The book is rich and well written. One of its main merits is that is explores an understudied topic deserving of more attention inside as well as outside the field of Scandinavian Studies.' -- Federico Zuliani Canadian Journal of History: vol 45: Autumn 2010Table of ContentsPreface Introduction THOMAS A. DUBOIS Part I. Missionary Saints St Ansgar: His Swedish Mission and Its Larger Context SCOTT A. MELLOR Sts Sunniva and Henrik: Scandinavian Martyr Saints in Their Hagiographic and National Contexts THOMAS A. DUBOIS Part II. Royal Saints St Olaf and the Skalds JOHN LINDOW Sacred Non-Violence, Cowardice Profaned: St Magnus of Orkney in Nordic Hagiography and Historiography MARIA-CLAUDIA TOMANY St Knud Lavard: A Saint for Denmark THOMAS A. DUBOIS AND NIELS INGWERSEN The Cult of St Eric, King and Martyr, in Medieval Sweden TRACEY R. SANDSPart III. Holy Bishops and Nuns Pride and Politics in Late-Twelfth-Century Iceland: The Sanctity of Bishop Torlakr Torhallsson KIRSTEN WOLF St Katarina in Her Own Light THOMAS A. DUBOIS Part IV. Saints' Lives in Lived Context Hendreks saga og Kunegundis: Marital Consent in the Legend of Henry and Cunegund MARIANNE E. KALINKE Better Off Dead: Approaches to Medieval Miracles MARGARET CORMACK Bibliography Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisBiblical Epics in Late Antiquity and Anglo-Saxon England provides an accessible introduction to biblical epic poetry.Trade Review"This ground-breaking study draws long-overdue attention to a magnificent body of Latin epics from late antiquity, including Sedulius's Carmen Paschale and Arator's Historia Apostolica. McBrine traces the promulgation of these poems in Anglo-Saxon England, where scholars like Aldhelm and Bede treasured the depth of learning and pleasure in them, and their influence extends even to vernacular epics like the Old English Genesis and Exodus. Biblical Epics in Late Antiquity and Anglo-Saxon England does more than fill a gap; it fundamentally reconfigures our understanding of literary production in Anglo-Saxon England." -- Daniel Donoghue, John P. Marquand Professor of English, Harvard University "Biblical Epics in Late Antiquity and Anglo-Saxon England is a very accessible introduction to the Latin biblical poets and the major poetic features of their biblical epics. This book is a major contribution to Anglo-Saxon studies and provides new context for the development and reception of Anglo-Latin poetry." -- Miranda Wilcox, Department of English, Brigham Young University "This elegantly written and meticulously researched book may well prove a milestone in Anglo-Saxon studies, combining as it does a magisterial overview of some of the most important Latin texts taught in Anglo-Saxon schools with an intricate and intriguing assessment of their impact on Old English texts that evidently echoed in the vernacular their range and purpose. Brilliant close readings sit alongside sweeping vistas, in a book that should both surprise and stimulate all serious scholars and students of Anglo-Saxon England." -- Andy Orchard, FBA FRSC , Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon in the University of OxfordTable of ContentsPreface Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 Juvencus' Euangeliorum libri quattuor (c. 330 CE) Chapter 3 Cyprianus' Heptateuch (c. 400-425 CE) Chapter 4 Sedulius' Carmen paschale (c. 425-450 CE) Chapter 5 Avitus' Historia spiritalis (c. 500 CE) Chapter 6 Arator's Historia apostolica (c. 544 CE) Chapter 7 Reading Biblical Epics in Early England: Aldhelm, Bede, Alcuin Chapter 8 Old English Biblical Verse: Genesis A, Genesis B, Exodus Chapter 9 Conclusion Appendices Bibliography

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Book SynopsisOffers the comprehensive English-language selection of the writings of the multinational missionaries who established the Moravian faith among the indigenous and Afro-descendant populations through the turbulent years of the Great Awakening of 1881 to 1882, when converts flocked to the church and the mission's membership more than doubled.Trade Review"The Awakening Coast is essential reading for experts on Mosquitia and a welcomed addition to Latin American cultural-historical geography."—Andrew Hilburn, Journal of Latin American Geography“The Awakening Coast is of utmost importance because it shows us—firsthand through the lens of the missionaries—how indigenous peoples as late as the nineteenth century could or could not respond ideologically, economically, politically, and socially to the imposed new trends from the ‘outside,’ including their incorporation in 1894 to Nicaragua. How much deeper can one go into finding appropriate sources?”—Christine Hünefeldt, author of Paying the Price of Freedom: Family and Labor among Lima’s Slaves, 1800–1854 Table of ContentsList of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsTranslator’s NoteIntroduction1. Extract of a Letter from H. G. Pfeiffer, 18492. Extract from the Diary of Bluefields, 18543. Establishing a Mission at Rama Key4. Report on a Journey North in 18595. The Hurricane of October 18656. A Visit to the Tungla Indians of Walpasiksa River, 18697. Trade among the Miskito Indians, 1870s8. Mythology of the Miskito Indians9. Sorcery at Kukalaya, 187710. Trading with the Sumu Indians, 187811. Life in Tasbapauni (Bethany), 1870s12. An Early Awakening at Karata, 187913. Bluefields Coup and Kukalaya Awakening, 1881–188214. The Awakening at Karata, 188315. Visit to Nicaraguan Territory, 188316. Kaisa! Travel to Nicaragua, 188617. Proposing Timber over Gold, 188918. Pictures Tell the Story, 189119. Christian Law, 189120. Visions of the Prophet Wima, 189121. The Sambo and Tawira Miskito, 189222. Political Disturbances at Sandy Bay, 189223. The Indians of Dakura and the Wangki River, 1893–189424. Nicaraguan Occupation of the Mosquito Reserve, 189425. Commencing Work along the Wangki River, 189626. A New Mission at Sandy Bay, 189727. Sandy Bay and Wasla, 189828. The Gospel in the Miskito Territory, 1881–188229. Changes in Dakura, 1890s30. The Sumu Indians of Prinzapolka River, 189931. QuamwatlaNotesSelected BibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“This is a wonderful book, beautifully conceptualized and charmingly written. It will be an important contribution to the historiography of Guatemala.”—Virginia Garrard-Burnett, author of Terror in the Land of the Holy Spirit: Guatemala under General Efraín Ríos Montt, 1982–1983 Table of ContentsList of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: The Crucified Christ of Esquipulas1. Power and Identity in the Making of Colonial Guatemala2. The Liberal State and the Conservative Church3. Carrera, the Church, and the Color of the Christ4. The Liberal Republic and Religious Competition5. Revolution, Counterrevolution, and Religion6. The Black Christ of EsquipulasNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisUte Land Religion in the American West, 1879–2009 is a narrative of American religion and how it intersected with land in the American West. Prior to 1881, Utes lived on the largest reservation in North America—twelve million acres of western Colorado. Brandi Denisontakes a broad look at the Ute land dispossession and resistance to disenfranchisementbytracing the shifting cultural meaning of dirt, a physical thing, into land, an abstract idea. This shift was made possible through the development and deployment of an idealized American religion based on Enlightenment ideals of individualism, Victorian sensibilities about the female body, and an emerging respect for diversity and commitment to religious pluralism that was wholly dependent on a separation of economics from religion. As the narrative unfolds, Denison shows how Utes and their Anglo-American allies worked together to systematize a religion out of existing ceremonial practiTrade Review"A welcome edition to the library of anyone interested in the history of the Ute."—Curtis Martin, Southwestern Lore“Beautifully written, clear, and compelling. [This book] is grounded on a solid understanding of history, while also providing insightful interpretation and theoretical nuance.”—Suzanne Crawford O’Brien, professor of religion and culture at Pacific Lutheran University and author of Coming Full Circle: Spirituality and Wellness among Native Communities in the Pacific Northwest “This terrific book shows how white settlers in Colorado used the construct of ‘Ute Land Religion’ to justify their appropriation of Native land, how Ute people both resisted and participated in that invention, and how the category of religion has functioned in the making and remaking of the American West.”—Tisa Wenger, author of We Have a Religion: The 1920s Pueblo Indian Dance Controversy and American Religious Freedom Table of ContentsList of Illustrations List of Maps Acknowledgments Introduction: Religion, Memory, and the American West 1. Plowing for Providence: Nathan Meeker’s Folly 2. Of Outrageous Treatment: Sexual Purity, Empire, and Land 3. She-towitch and Chipeta: Remembering the “Good” Indian 4. Abstracting Ute Land Religion: Fiction and Anthropology on the Reservation 5. Remembering Removal: Enacting Religion and Memorializing the Land 6. The Limits of Reconciliation: Ute Land Religion, Hunting Rights, and the Smoking River Powwow Conclusion: The Burden of Dirt and the Politics of Memory Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisInvokes the case of popular sovereignty in Utah as an important contrast to the better-known slavery question in Kansas. Brent M. Rogers examines the complex relationship between sovereignty and territory along three main lines of inquiry: the implementation of a republican form of government, the administration of Indian policy and Native American affairs, and gender and familial relations.Trade Review"An essential part of the library of anyone interested in the American West or Utah and the Mormons."—Richard H. Jackson, Western Historical Quarterly"Scholar and history buff alike will enjoy Brent M. Rogers' Unpopular Sovereignty . . . a carefully researched and well-written history of the decades-long struggle to bring Territorial Utah to heel."—Rod Miller, TrueWest Magazine"This excellent interpretation of the causes and results of the Mormon War is presented within the larger context of national events, which, in turn, led to the American Civil War."—M. L. Tate, CHOICE"Unpopular Sovereignty is a noteworthy addition to both U.S. and Mormon historiography, and will be the vital text on early Utah Territory’s important place in the American Union for years to come."—Thomas Richards, Civil War Book Review"Rogers's great strength in this thoroughly researched and balanced account is teasing out and analyzing the multifaceted opinions from the original documents to persuasively argue that Utah Territory emerged as a key battleground and hotbed of antebellum debate over popular sovereignty."—Jay H. Buckley, BYU Studies"Brent M. Rogers has delivered a good book. It is deeply researched, well written, and carefully argued. Best of all, it is constructively provocative and engaging. . . . This is a fine work that will be useful to students of the American West, the run-up to the Civil War, U.S. expansion, U.S. politics, and the development of the American state."—Todd M. Kerstetter, Pacific Northwest Quarterly"Unpopular Sovereignty: Mormons and the Federal Management of Early Utah Territory accomplishes a number of impressive feats. In the hands of a less-skilled scholar, these objectives might clash and unduly complicate a book and its narrative. Not so in historian Brent M. Rogers's fine study of antebellum tensions regarding the Mormon political and cultural experiment in the Great Basin."—William Deverell, Mormon Studies Review“Brent Rogers skillfully places the Utah experience at the fulcrum of America’s growing sectional divide in the 1850s and offers important new insights into the deterioration of the Union. This book will force historians of the West to consider Utah Territory alongside Kansas Territory as a hotbed of national debate over popular sovereignty. Beyond that, it should prompt a recalibration of the national narrative to reflect the ways in which religion helped to define what it meant to be an American in the decade leading into the Civil War, sometimes just as much as race.”—W. Paul Reeve, author of Religion of a Different Color: Race and the Mormon Struggle for Whiteness “Balanced and extensively researched.”—Nicole Etcheson, author of A Generation at War: The Civil War Era in a Northern Community “Popular sovereignty, an influential political doctrine in antebellum America, is generally linked to the question of slavery in the territories. But as Brent Rogers shows in this careful study, politicians, administrators, citizens, and soldiers also applied this concept to events and currents in Utah Territory, enriching our understanding of contradictions and inconsistencies in the relationship between the federal government and its western territories.”—Brian Q. Cannon, director of the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies at Brigham Young University author of Reopening the Frontier: Homesteading in the Modern West Table of ContentsList of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. Imperium in Imperio: Sovereignty and the American Territorial2. Intimate Contact: Gender, Plural Marriage, and the U.S. Army in Utah Territory, 1854-18563. Missionaries to the Indians: Mormon and Federal Indian Policies4. Confronting the "Twin Relics of Barbarism": The Mormon Question, the Buchanan Administration, and the Limits of Popular Sovereignty5. The Utah War and the Westward March of Federal Sovereignty, 1857-18586. The U.S. Army and the Symbolic Conquering of Mormon Sovereignty7. To 1862: The Codification of Federal Authority and the End of Popular Sovereignty in the Western TerritoriesConclusionNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisIn a fascinating work of religious history and cultural inquiry, Hatfield brings to life the true story of a nineteenth-century farmer-spiritualist, Jonathan Koons, whom thousands traveled to Ohio to see. As heirs to the second Great Awakening, he and his followers were part of a larger, uniquely American moment that still marks the culture today.Trade Review“This is a marvelous book. It reads like a novel or a screenplay but also functions as a prism that opens up into dozens of other important aspects of nineteenth-century American religion: spiritualism, Johnny Appleseed, Swedenborgianism, atheism, social reform, women’s rights, psychometry, and so on. Perhaps most significantly of all, the author’s rare combination of humanistic sympathy, intellectual generosity, and healthy doubt is a model of what this kind of historiography can be.” -- Jeffrey J. Kripal, author of Secret Body: Erotic and Esoteric Currents in the History of Religions“The work of Jonathan Koons, and, indeed, midwestern Spiritualism in general, has often been overlooked, so Enchanted Ground is a welcome contribution to the field. The book has many strengths, not least of which are its evocative descriptions. Hatfield’s skill as a researcher, writer, and story-teller make this book appropriate for both scholarly and general readers." * Nova Religio *“An unbiased, rich story that situates the historic and consequential acts of ‘the Venerable Jonathan Koons’ and the events that took place in southeast Ohio in wider modern spiritualist and reform movement contexts. Hatfield clearly illustrates the comfort, hope, and sense of community Koons’s supporters found in his séances, imaginative stories, and ostensible ability to connect the living with the dead.” -- Brianna Treleven * Ohio History *“Sharon Hatfield has made a painstaking examination of Koons’s life and career. A fascinating snapshot of the Spiritualist movement in its infancy.” -- Tom Ruffles * Journal of Scientific Exploration *“Hatfield offers a solid biography of one of the most famous and influential spiritualists of the nineteenth century…. Those interested in the hope and optimism spiritualism engendered will enjoy Hatfield’s biographical appreciation of a fascinating figure.” * Journal of Parapsychology *“By an evocative rendition of his story, Hatfield neatly dispels the view that Koons’s ‘spirit room’ was just one more trivial example of the public’s fascination with nineteenth century spiritualism. Instead, her explanation of Koons’s influence in Ohio and the Midwest clearly establishes his significance as one of the most important mediums of the era.” -- Nancy Rubin Stuart, author of The Reluctant Spiritualist: The Life of Maggie Fox“Hatfield demonstrates well (Koons’s) enormous impact on the spiritualist movement, with his popular spirit room becoming a major pilgrimage site in early American spiritualism, serving as a major source of inspiration for later spiritualist practitioners in the 1850s and beyond…. Although this book is of obvious interest to scholars of spiritualism, it should also be of interest also to scholars working in various other subfields of religious studies…. Having done the painstaking work of compiling and organizing the history of Koons and his circle, Hatfield has provided scholars with an important resource….” * Journal of the American Academy of Religion *“(Enchanted Ground) is more than a spiritual biography of one man, it is an history of early Spiritualism in the Midwest…. It would be hard to come away from reading this book without having a deeper understanding of this critical first decade of Spiritualism.” * The National Spiritualist Summit *“Hatfield is a skilled writer and this book is both entertaining and a valuable contribution to the psychical research literature.“ * Society for Psychical Research Journal *[Sharon] Hatfield's depth of research and reporting in Enchanted Ground is one of the book's greatest assets, but it is her luminous writing that makes the story as readable as it is trustworthy. -- Sarah Beth Hopton * Appalachian Journal *

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Book SynopsisThis is a history of Taoism from approximately the 3rd century BC to the 14th century AD. Its aim is to trace the lines of its doctrinal evolution, the wide varieties of factors that came into play over a long period of disconnected eras and the constant absorptions of outside contributions.Trade Review"This is a work of monumental importance by arguably the foremost scholar of Taoism in the world. Insights from the study of Taoism are profoundly changing the way we view China's past, and this book fills the need for a comprehensive history that reflects the progress made in Taoist studies over the last few decades. Though Taoism is known to be an abstruse religion, Robinet lays bare its 'bones and sinews' in exceptionally clear language, one of the things that makes the book so valuable for classroom use."—Stephen Bokenkamp, Indiana UniversityTable of ContentsTranslator's foreword Author's preface Chronology Introduction: definitions and controlling concepts 1. The warring states (fourth to third centuries B. C.) 2. New elements under the Han 3. The celestrial masters 4. Ge Hong and his tradition 5. The Lingbao school 7. The Tang period 8. Under the song and the Yuan: interior alchemy Conclusion Notes Suggestions for further readings Index.

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Book SynopsisThis text looks at the publishing history of the Bible in 19th-century America. It aims to making sense of the major dramas that lay behind the production of over 1,700 different American editions in the century after the American Revolution.Trade Review"A fascinating look into a neglected area of U.S. cultural history." -- Library Journal"An American Bible is a major achievement. . . . It is also an engrossing and readable book . . . rich in detail and color." -- Christianity and Literature"A very readable treatment of an important chapter in American cultural and religious history.—Christian Science Monitor"An American Bible is an extremely compelling piece of cultural history that succeeds in making rich rather than schematic sense of the major dramas that lay behind the production of over 1,700 different American editions of the Bible in the century after the American Revolution. Gutjahr's book is especially powerful in demonstrating how nineteenth-century efforts to purge the Bible of textual and translational impurities in search of an 'authentic' text led ironically to the emergence of entirely new gospels like the Book of Mormon and the massive fictionalized literature dealing with the life of Christ." -- Jay Fliegelman * Stanford University *"Seldom does one encounter such a fascinating book as this one. Well researched and clearly and engagingly written, it breaks new ground concerning the production of Bibles and the interaction of the Bible with social and cultural currents of the time. . . . This excellent book has certainly demonstrated why the Bible moved away from being "the center of American print culture."" -- Libraries & Culture"This pathbreaking study of the production of Bibles in the early history of the United States is a splendid effort in every way." -- Mark A. Noll * Wheaton College *"A fascinating journey through the history of the Bible in America, unprecedented in its scope, erudition, and imagination." -- Jon Butler * Yale University *"Gutjahr not only presents a fascinating and comprehensive picture of the Good Book's history, but brilliantly illumines the explosive world of 19th-century printing and marketing." -- New England Quarterly“Attacking a topic of this magnitude deserves kudos, and Gutjahr’s work provides a solid outline for future scholars to work from, as well as some fascinating analyses.”—American Studies International"This meticulously crafted volume is one of those wonderful scholarly volumes that raises questions as well as addresses them. . . . The extensive notes together with the narrative provide a status quaestionis for the issue of the bible in American culture. As one of the first scholarly studies of this phenomenon, it will long be a standard beginning point for the discussion of the demise of the Bible in American culture; and, therefore a standard work for the continuation of the project of understanding of the intersection of religion and culture in the American experience." -- Stone-Campbell JournalTable of ContentsFigures; Preface; 1. Production; 2. Packaging; 3. Purity; 4. Pedagogy; 5. Popularity; Postscript; Appendixes; Notes; Bibliography; Index.

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Book SynopsisNot long ago, everyone knew that Judaism came before Christianity. More recently, scholars have begun to recognize that the historical picture is quite a bit more complicated than that. In the Jewish world of the first century, many sects competed for the name of the true Israel and the true interpreter of the Torahthe Talmud itself speaks of seventyand the form of Judaism that was to be the seedbed of what eventually became the Christian Church was but one of these many sects. Scholars have come to realize that we can and need to speak of a twin birth of Christianity and Judaism, not a genealogy in which one is parent to the other.In this book, the author develops a revised understanding of the interactions between nascent Christianity and nascent Judaism in late antiquity, interpreting the two new religions as intensely and complexly intertwined throughout this period. Although the officials of the eventual winners in both communitiesthe Rabbis in Judaism and the orthodox lTrade Review"Daniel Boyarin has done it again. With this book . . . he has again provoked, challenged, and enlightened us. With his usual clear, crisp, and sometimes sharp-edged writing, with his consistently critical engagement of ancient primary and modern and postmodern secondary interpretive texts and theories, Boyarin has forced us to think again and in some respects in radically different ways and on radically different terms about. . .the 'making' of Christianity and Judiasm." -- Journal of the American Academy of Religion"This is a rich, stimulating and compelling work. Boyarin's writing is complex and full fo irony and humor. . . . It is fascinating and, like a good drama, draws the reader in as if to solve a mystery. . . . Even those how are not in the field of ancient Judiasm . . . will find much of interest in this book." -- Hebrew Studies"This volume highlights new developments in understanding Christian and Jewish origins. It is intended to be the beginning of a new investigation of the religious histories of rabbinic Jews and Christians in late antiquity. It is, according to Boyarin, to be read more as a series of hypotheses than as a series of conclusions. Nevertheless it is a very exciting publication. . . . I find the central thesis compelling, even astonishing, but quite exhilirating. We are much indebted to someone who has the vision to see the past in ways most of us never fully envisaged." -- Journal of Beliefs & Values" . . . [This] book is especially worthwhile for anyone interested in the evolution of Christian and Jewish self-understanding in Late Antiquity." -- Religious Studies Review"Boyarin tells this story with grace and impressive erudition. Previously unnoticed connections are established that shed rich light on the developments under study. Boyarin has placed the separation of Judaism and Christianity into the historical context of real people attempting to understand themselves and one another, and the once-familiar story will never again look the same. He is to be congratulated for a valuable contribution." -- The Jewish Quarterly Review"Boyarin's exciting book has shown us that the parting of the ways between Christianity and Judaism never really occurred, at least not in the way scholars have imagined." -- History of ReligionsTable of ContentsContents 1. 2. 3. 4. Appendix to Chapter 4:

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Book SynopsisThis book investigates the mappings of ideas about sexual and ethnic difference in Galilee during the centuries following the last Jewish revolt against the Roman Empire.Trade Review"The final result is a complex, fluid and more satisfying picture of space and gender where the answer to the leading question 'where are the women?' can be confidently answered by 'everywhere'." * Journal for the Study of the Old Testament *"This beautifully written and sharply insightful volume offers a reconsideration of the dynamics of households, domesticity, and communal space in late ancient Judaism....Baker's contribution to the study of ancient Jewish culture in signficant in both its substance and its method." -- Shofar

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Book SynopsisFirst printed in the United States during the American Revolution, the Bible underwent many revisions, translations, and changes in format as different editors and publishers appropriated it to meet a wide range of changing ideological and economic demands.Trade Review"A fascinating look into a neglected area of U.S. cultural history." -- Library Journal"An American Bible is a major achievement. . . . It is also an engrossing and readable book . . . rich in detail and color." -- Christianity and Literature"A very readable treatment of an important chapter in American cultural and religious history.—Christian Science Monitor"An American Bible is an extremely compelling piece of cultural history that succeeds in making rich rather than schematic sense of the major dramas that lay behind the production of over 1,700 different American editions of the Bible in the century after the American Revolution. Gutjahr's book is especially powerful in demonstrating how nineteenth-century efforts to purge the Bible of textual and translational impurities in search of an 'authentic' text led ironically to the emergence of entirely new gospels like the Book of Mormon and the massive fictionalized literature dealing with the life of Christ." -- Jay Fliegelman * Stanford University *"Seldom does one encounter such a fascinating book as this one. Well researched and clearly and engagingly written, it breaks new ground concerning the production of Bibles and the interaction of the Bible with social and cultural currents of the time. . . . This excellent book has certainly demonstrated why the Bible moved away from being "the center of American print culture."" -- Libraries & Culture"This pathbreaking study of the production of Bibles in the early history of the United States is a splendid effort in every way." -- Mark A. Noll * Wheaton College *"A fascinating journey through the history of the Bible in America, unprecedented in its scope, erudition, and imagination." -- Jon Butler * Yale University *"Gutjahr not only presents a fascinating and comprehensive picture of the Good Book's history, but brilliantly illumines the explosive world of 19th-century printing and marketing." -- New England Quarterly“Attacking a topic of this magnitude deserves kudos, and Gutjahr’s work provides a solid outline for future scholars to work from, as well as some fascinating analyses.”—American Studies International"This meticulously crafted volume is one of those wonderful scholarly volumes that raises questions as well as addresses them. . . . The extensive notes together with the narrative provide a status quaestionis for the issue of the bible in American culture. As one of the first scholarly studies of this phenomenon, it will long be a standard beginning point for the discussion of the demise of the Bible in American culture; and, therefore a standard work for the continuation of the project of understanding of the intersection of religion and culture in the American experience." -- Stone-Campbell JournalTable of ContentsFigures; Preface; 1. Production; 2. Packaging; 3. Purity; 4. Pedagogy; 5. Popularity; Postscript; Appendixes; Notes; Bibliography; Index.

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Book SynopsisBlown by the Spirit traces the story of the Antinomians, the most important puritan radical group of the English civil war. Most historians have been skeptical about the existence of this group, or any group like it. This book provides proof of the existence of the Antinomians as well as the important role they played in the pre-history of the English civil-war.Trade Review"With enormous ingenuity, diligence and archival skill, Como provides a new and compelling explanation of the origins of sectarian radicalism." -- Sears McGee * University of California, Santa Barbara *". . . Como deserves the high praise for completing a project that some would have thought impossible." -- H-Net Books"This is a marvelous and much-needed book: impressively researched, engaging and demanding, finely nuanced and robustly argued." -- American Historical Review"Using antinomianism as his vehicle, he has reconstructed the complex and symbiotic relationship between radical and mainstream Puritanism and established the presence of its legacy in late-seventeenth-century England. This ambitious project is a touchstone for future work in the field of English Puritanism." -- Renaissance Quarterly"Those who thought we knew all there was to know abot the doctrinal subtleties of the iron-souled band that turned England upside down and conquered a corner of the New World have some reading yet to do. On the required list...belongs Como's magisterial new book on the 'seething sectarian underworld' of mystics, familists, grindletonians, and other antinomans that existed in 'parasitic relationship' to mainstream Puritanism in the two decades leading up to the Civil War." -- Journal of Interdisciplinary History"Blown by the Spirit is a brilliantly conceived and meticulously researched exploration of what Como calls an "antinomian underground" in early Stuart England, of its dialectical relationship to mainstream Puritanism, and of that dialectic's historical influence." -- Theological Studies"In this fascinating, deeply researched, and illuminating book, David Como takes his readers on an intellectual adventure which transforms our understanding of early Stuart puritanism." -- Sixteenth Century Journal"Como has mounted a strong and important argument that deserves to be widely known." -- Journal of Ecclesiastical History

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Book SynopsisA Place in History is a cultural study of Tel Aviv, Israel's population center and one of the original settlements, established in 1909. The book describes how a largely European Jewish immigrant society attempted to forge a home in the Mediterranean, and explores the difficulties and challenges of this endeavor.Trade Review"A Place in History is an important contribution to the growing body of knowledge about Israeli public space in general and urban space in particular... Highly recommended to those who seek a theoretical perspective on Israeli urbanism, or are interested in its ideological roots or its spatial transformations. Though the book focuses on Tel Aviv, in many ways it conveys the broader story of Israeli territorialization. Mann's book could also serve visitors as an excellent critical guide to the city's modern geography and history."—H-Net Reviews"While her love for Tel Aviv is palpable, Mann maintains a critical distance from her subject, which assures A Place in History its own place as an authoritative guide to the complex textualities of Israel's largest urban area."—Tikkun"A very important contribution, this book adds a crucial layer to the discussion of the city of Tel Aviv in its local, national, and historical context. I would even venture to claim that it offers the most complex and multi-layered view to date, a Renaissance text in which the author/flaneuse strolls, researches, interprets, writes, and even makes photographs, all at the same time." —Hebrew StudiesTable of ContentsContents @toc4:Acknowledgments iii Preface iii @toc2:1 Jews in Space 000 2 The Zionist Uncanny: Reading the Old Cemetery on Trumpeldor 000 3 Rothschild Boulevard: When a Street Becomes a Monument 000 4 A View from the Balcony: Public and Private Spaces/Public and Private Selves 000 5 The Edge of Town: Depicting the City's Periphery as a Way of Naming Its Center 000 6 Rabin Square, Summayl, and the Rhetoric of Walking 000 @toc4: Appendix: Poems Cited in the Original Hebrew iii Notes iii Index iii

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Book SynopsisA Place in History is a cultural study of Tel Aviv, Israel's population center and one of the original settlements, established in 1909. The book describes how a largely European Jewish immigrant society attempted to forge a home in the Mediterranean, and explores the difficulties and challenges of this endeavor.Trade Review"A Place in History is an important contribution to the growing body of knowledge about Israeli public space in general and urban space in particular... Highly recommended to those who seek a theoretical perspective on Israeli urbanism, or are interested in its ideological roots or its spatial transformations. Though the book focuses on Tel Aviv, in many ways it conveys the broader story of Israeli territorialization. Mann's book could also serve visitors as an excellent critical guide to the city's modern geography and history." -- H-Net Reviews"While her love for Tel Aviv is palpable, Mann maintains a critical distance from her subject, which assures A Place in History its own place as an authoritative guide to the complex textualities of Israel's largest urban area." -- Tikkun"A very important contribution, this book adds a crucial layer to the discussion of the city of Tel Aviv in its local, national, and historical context. I would even venture to claim that it offers the most complex and multi-layered view to date, a Renaissance text in which the author/flaneuse strolls, researches, interprets, writes, and even makes photographs, all at the same time." -- Hebrew StudiesTable of ContentsContents @toc4:Acknowledgments iii Preface iii @toc2:1 Jews in Space 000 2 The Zionist Uncanny: Reading the Old Cemetery on Trumpeldor 000 3 Rothschild Boulevard: When a Street Becomes a Monument 000 4 A View from the Balcony: Public and Private Spaces/Public and Private Selves 000 5 The Edge of Town: Depicting the City's Periphery as a Way of Naming Its Center 000 6 Rabin Square, Summayl, and the Rhetoric of Walking 000 @toc4: Appendix: Poems Cited in the Original Hebrew iii Notes iii Index iii

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Book SynopsisStarting around 1840, French Jews began to reach out in new ways to Jews elsewhere, especially in North Africa and the Middle East. In describing these activities, they spoke of feelings of solidarité and a mission to bring civilisation to Jews everywhere, a language more meaningful in the French public arena than in Jewish tradition. Far from a remnant of ancient feelings, Jewish solidarity is a modern phenomenon with roots in its inventors'' integration into French political culture. Why did acculturation inspire elite French Jews to affirm their Jewishness through international aid? What did their actions mean in the French public sphere, and how did they transform Jewish identity?In a book that speaks to French historians and Jewish historians alike, Sacred Bonds of Solidarity explores the historical roots of Jewish international aid and the language of solidarity that accompanied it. In using this language, French Jews redefined Jewish identity in laTrade Review"In her path-breaking book... Lisa Moses Leff shows that what seems natural today—international Jewish solidarity—emerged out of very specic nineteenth-century circumstances, especially in France... Sacred Bonds of Solidarity is extremely well written and meticulously researched... This story is therefore of interest both to specialists in Jewish history and to French historians more generally." -- H-Net Reviews in the Humanities & Social Sciences"Leff's analysis rings true and her book has certainly provided a valuable service by elucidating several aspects of both French and Jewish history in the nineteenth century, showing, among other things, that the progress of Jewish emancipation and integration had an important international component, and helping reveal the roots of modern-day Jewish feelings of interconnectedness." -- American Historical Review"This is an exciting and unique contribution to the history of Jewish internationalism. In contrast to an earlier generation of scholars, Leff shows quite convincingly that French Jews did not abandon their Jewishness in order to become integrated French citizens. Rather, they re-conceptualized their Jewishness to reflect the new political and social realities they faced." -- Maud Mandel * Brown University *"This is the story Lisa Moses Leff has to tell, a story of emancipation and religious fellow feeling, and she tells it with lucidity and a deep sympathy for her subject matter...She has recounted a tale of hope and optimism, of a community energized by the prospect of its own emancipation and mobilized to make its contribution to a France itself in the process of transformation." -- Journal of Modern History"By integrating treatises and works of fiction into her research, Leff successfully illustrates the cause and effect element in the Jewish quest for a political and social role in nineteenth-century France as well as the international stage." -- French ReviewTable of Contents@fmct:Contents @toc4:Acknowledgements iii @toc2:Introduction 1 Chapter 1: The Jewish Citizen 000 Chapter 2: Alliances with Restoration Liberals 000 Chapter 3: Jewish Identities in the Age of Romanticism 000 Chapter 4: Secularism and the Civilizing Mission 000 Chapter 5: The Making of Modern Jewish Solidarity 000 Chapter 6: The Myth of Jewish Power 000 Conclusion 000 @toc4:Notes 000 Bibliography 000 Index 000

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Book SynopsisGlory and Agony is the first history of the shifting attitudes toward national sacrifice in Hebrew culture over the last century. Its point of departure is Zionism''s obsessive preoccupation with its haunting primal scene of sacrifice, the near-sacrifice of Isaac, as evidenced in wide-ranging sources from the domains of literature, art, psychology, philosophy, and politics. By placing these sources in conversation with twentieth-century thinking on human sacrifice, violence, and martyrdom, this study draws a complex picture that provides multiple, sometimes contradictory insights into the genesis and gender of national sacrifice. Extending back over two millennia, this study unearths retellings of biblical and classical narratives of sacrifice, both enacted and aborted, voluntary and violent, male and femaleIsaac, Ishmael, Jephthah''s daughter, Iphigenia, Jesus. Glory and Agony traces the birth of national sacrifice out of the ruins of religious martyrdom, exposTrade Review"Despite the vast historiography [of Akedat Yitzhak], Yael Felman's contribution is significant. Glory and Agony presents and interprets Modern Hebrew literature of the trope of Akedat Yitzhak in the Palestine and the State of Israel of the twentieth century . . . Readers with access to Hebrew will derive the most from this thoroughly engaging text. Everyone will learn much from a careful reading." -- Paul Howard Hamburg * University of California, Berkeley *"Yael Feldman's Glory and Agony: Isaac's Sacrifice and National Narrative is an enthralling engagement with one of humanity's most ancient and consequential tropes . . . Though there have been numerous studies of the ever-evolving and sometimes oppressive nature of this myth, none has come close to providing the kind of brave interdisciplinary acumen Feldman's scholarship delivers . . . Glory and Agony is a work of forceful originality yet always meticulously researched, containing illustrative, provocative epigraphs as well as nearly ninety pages of informative and lively notes that engage with extraordinarily eclectic sources." -- Ranen Omer-Sherman * Religion and Literature *"This book by Yael Feldman presents a detailed, complex and sometimes provocative study of the way writers, poets, dramatis, critics, some scholars, and a few visual artists in the State of Israel during the last century have dealt with this account. . . This brief summary only begins to suggest the variety and complexity of material covered in this book. Anyone who knows the Israeli literary scene will find this book an illuminating discussion of that scene and a significant contribution to it." -- William Sheperd * Relegere: Studies in Religion and Reception *"Feldman's book is extremely important and a much needed contribution; a Hebrew version is a desideratum. I know of no other comprehensive study of the akedah, the Sacrifice of Isaac, that compares to this superb multidisciplinary investigation of the Hebrew sources, that demonstrates a rare erudition in both the Jewish tradition and contemporary literature, that suggests original links and connections, and that offers very productive comparative readings." -- Galili Shahar * Cathedra: Journal for the Study of Land-of-Israel [Translated from Hebrew] *"In one of the most comprehensive and impressive historiographies of Hebrew national culture, Feldman elegantly yet passionately presents a multi-dimensional narrative of the Israeli preoccupation with Genesis 22 . . . [N]ew and fresh . . . Feldman's book is an outstanding achievement that is likely to engage scholars and readers for many years to come." -- Neta Stahl * Studies in Christian-Jewish Relations *"Feldman has undertaken an ambitious project [and] ranges over an abundance of literary material . . . [M]assively detailed and comprehensive . . . One of the book's strengths is that it helps demonstrate the significance of modern Hebrew culture to a wider audience." -- Naomi Sokoloff * Association for Jewish Studies Review *"The achievements of this [book] are outstandingly intriguing . . . Glory and Agony is a highly condensed, analytic encyclopedia of the trope of sacrifice in Western culture." -- Iris Milner * The Journal of Israeli History *"Feldman's study stands as a role model for continuing investigations of biblical tropes in modern literatures; indeed her book may even remain the crowning study of the binding of Isaac as a literary trope. But one thing is certain—its readers are unlikely to ever again encounter any kind of sacrificial narrative without harking back to Feldman's observations." -- Yael Halevi-Wise * Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies *"This fascinating, multifaceted, and erudite book traces the use of the narrative(s) of the 'binding of Isaac' (Hebrew Akedah) or 'sacrifice of Isaac' (English) in twentieth-century secular Israeli literature. It discusses the various and changing ways in which the motif of a father's willingness to sacrifice his son to God has been turned into a secular metaphor for military self-sacrifice and heroic death in battle . . . Feldman's book is both very enjoyable and highly thought provoking, and I can recommend it whole-heartedly." -- Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer * Review of Biblical Literature *"Feldman's first-rate interdisciplinary study demonstrates not only how modern ideologies produce re-readings and rewritings of ancient myth but also how ancient myths weight and reshape these very ideologies. A must read for any reader interested in Hebrew culture and the psyche of modern Israel, and an insightful read for inquisitive readers at large." -- Menachem Brinker, University of Chicago and Hebrew University * Jerusalem *"Glory and Agony is an excellent intellectual study that probes into the heart of contemporary Israeli identity while situating and arguing its construction in two mutually inclusive contexts: Jewish tradition and Western thought and philosophy. Clearly an academic work of the highest standards, this important book presents an outstandingly well thought out argument for reconsidering the violent nature of our conduct: personally, collectively, nationally, and globally-universally." -- Hannah Naveh * Tel Aviv University *"I find this book to be an outstanding work: it daringly broaches a topic of enormous scope and yet renders a review that is insightful, scholarly, and nevertheless accessible to the informed lay reader. Its presentation is unique, undertaken as an exploration, tracking the evolution of the discourse on sacrifice in order to arrive at the present moment. Feldman adeptly and convincingly shows how the archetypal myth of Isaac, interwoven throughout human history, has been absorbed into and projected by works of fine arts and belles lettres." -- Nitza Ben-Dov * University of Haifa *"Yael Feldman's Glory and Agony: Isaac's Sacrifice and National Narrative is a dazzling synthesis of political and religious history, particularly the history of the State of Israel and the tradition of Biblical interpretation that, to one's surprise, structures and determines it. This is a new way of writing history. Using the paradigmatic Biblical story of Isaac's binding as her template, Feldman shows that Israeli history, far from leaving the past behind, is actually a recapitulation of the history of Jewish theology, beginning with its invention of human sacrifice and the tradition of putting it to cultural use through centuries of interpretation. It is a true and audacious history, and one bound to draw both praise and fire." -- Perry Meisel * New York University *

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Book SynopsisDrawing on hitherto unexamined manuscripts, this book challenges the standard narrative that English presbyterianism was successfully extinguished from the late sixteenth century until its prominent public resurgence during the English Civil War.Trade Review"Polly Ha's discovery and identification of previously unknown manuscripts related to Walter Travers is ingenious and important. Her account of the religious history of the period with presbyterianism 'put back in' will be a valuable corrective and require that historians rethink their answers to a host of significant questions. No one who studies early modern English religious and political thought and culture or the history of New England can afford to ignore it." -- J. Sears McGee, University of California * Santa Barbara *"This is a fascinating examination of English Presbyterianism in the years when it is not supposed to have existed . . . This is empirical history of the highest order backed by excellent analysis." -- Ethan H. Shagan * Journal of British Studies *"Ha presents us with a quite original vision both of the continuity of Presbyterian thought between 1590 and 1640, when that discussion was supposed to have vanished, and of a full-fledged Presbyterian polity that compelled the loyalty and active involvement of a large number of English urban people." -- Paul S. Seaver * Stanford University *"Ha has done her research assiduously . . . The strength of her book is its diligent tracing of connections across England's counties, the North Sea, the Irish Sea, and the Atlantic . . . [H]ere—at last—we are supplied with a convincing account of the Presbyterian movement's survival in unpropitious times." -- Kenneth J. Stewart * Calvin Theological Journal *"This beautifully crafted, highly insightful study uncovers vital strands of native English Presbyterianism that did not die with the suppression of the Puritan movement by the crown in 1592, but continued to develop and thrive underground in the rich, fertile soil of the late sixteenth- and early seventeenth- century Puritan ecclesiological thought and practice. . . Ha's mastery of contemporary Puritan scholarship and its unexamined biases makes this study especially perceptive and gratifying to read." -- Stephen Brachlow * Journal of Ecclesiastical History *"Polly Ha has done the historical community a great service by bringing the previously marginalized English Presbyterians back to the forefront of the early seventeenth century. . . . Ha's findings re-shape our understanding of early seventeenth-century history, both in England and abroad. This wide impact renders the book essential." -- Benjamin Woodford * Renaissance and Reformation *"Ha's careful research through a range of archival sources provides us with a clear impression of both the intellectual vibrancy of early seventeenth-century English Presbyterianism and also its viability as an alternative form of church government." -- Graeme Murdock * English Historical Review *"Polly Ha's book offers us the best example of this recent flurry of research [into English Presbyterianism]. . . Ha punctuates her logic with strong arguments; nothing is coyly disguised or glossed with excessive prose." -- Ryan Reeves * Sixteenth Century Journal *

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Book SynopsisBrokers of Culture analyzes how Italian Jesuit missionary émigrés attempted to integrate a heterogeneous western population (Native Americans, Hispanics, European immigrants, and native-born Americans) into a global religious community while simultaneously facilitating those groups' entry into American society.Trade Review"This is an essential book for Pacific Northwest historians.""A major study that will shape the next generation of scholarship in Western and religious history." -- John McGreevy * America *"This is a fascinating study about the work of Italian Jesuits in the western part of the United States in the seventy or so years following the European revolutions of 1848 McKevitt proves himself an exceptional scholar by concretizing the threefold task of the historian in finding the sources, evaluating the sources, and writing his own history in this, his latest work." -- Archivum Historicum "This work has been widely researched in American and European archives. It is clearly organized and well written, and it will be read with profit by historians of culture, of immigration, of American Catholicism, of Native Americans, and of the American West." -- Western Historical Quarterly"McKevitt's is an exemplary work of historical scholarship a wonderful example of mature American Catholic historical scholarship." -- David O'Brien * Theological Studies *"Brokers of Culture is a magisterial treatment that will attract a great deal of attention." -- James Carroll * Pacific Historical Review *"McKevitt rescues from an undeserved oblivion those who never made it back to their homelands." -- California History"[Brokers of Culture] provides detailed accounts of the Jesuit educational initiatives among both Native American and Hispanic populations, and it carefully traces how the Jesuit' missionary work was molded by shifts in U.S. Indian policy. It is a significant contribution to what has been termed the 'new western history' and its commitment to the study of previously neglected or undervalued groups and individuals." -- Journal of American History"Brokers of Culture is a wonderful example of mature American Catholic historical scholarship. Always fully informed and scrupulously fair, McKevitt admires his Jesuit subjects but offers well-argued criticism when appropriate. He has a wonderful story, he tells it well, and he has enriched our understanding of American Catholic history." -- Theological Studies"In Brokers of Culture, Gerald McKevitt provides a comprehensive, engaging, and beautifully written account of the expansive and overlooked role played by Italian Jesuits in the American WestThe richness of McKevitt's text, research, and analysis offers an outstanding contribution to the growing literature on missions in the Americas and places this work into the broader context of the history of the American West." -- Southern California Quarterly"The role of Italian Jesuits in the spiritual, intellectual, and scientific growth of the nineteenth century American West may come as a surprise, but Father McKevitt provides a readable approach to an intriguing chapter in American history." -- Michael P. Morris * First Things *"Brokers of Culture is superb, a major study that will shape the next generation of scholarship in Western and religious history." -- America Magazine"McKevitt is the most knowledgeable historian of Jesuit activity in the nineteenth-century trans-Mississippi West... Remarkable book." -- Oregon Historical Quarterly"Brokers of Culture is a masterpiece that closes a gap in our understanding of American Catholic and Jesuit history. In these pages, Gerald McKevitt models the ideal of eloquentia perfecta—articulate wisdom—that his historical subjects journeyed so far to represent." -- Conversations in Jesuit Higher Education"With its attention to individual stories and international connections, Brokers of Culture will be most useful to scholars of Catholic—especially Jesuit—history and missiology. In fleshing out and bringing together the story of the Jesuits in multiple Western regions, it will also be a valuable reference for students of religion in the American West more broadly." -- Church HistoryTable of ContentsContents @toc4:List of Illustrations xxx Preface xxx @toc2:1. Introduction: The Jesuits 1 2. "Out with the Jesuits": Becoming Refugees 000 3. "Instant Despatch": The Ideology of Emigration 000 4. "Witnesses to Shortcomings": Reforming Jesuit America 000 5. "Attracted Toward Remote Lands": Becoming Western Missionaries 000 6. "Methods Adopted by Us": The Art of Indian Conversion 000 7. "Habits of Industry and Useful Toil": Native American Education 000 8. "The Darkest Part of the U.S.A.": The Southwest 000 9. "Who Could Have Done Anything like This in Italy?": The Colleges 000 10. "Our Pen Is at Your Service": Mediating Cultures 000 11. "A Delicate State of Transition": Jesuits Divided 000 12. "Sic Transit Gloria Mundi": Foreign No More 000 13. Conclusion 000 @toc4:Abbreviations 000 Notes 000 Glossary 000 Index 000

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Book SynopsisArguing that the Sephardic experience played a much more vital role in the development of modern nationalism and literary history than has been generally acknowledged, this book demonstrates how modern writers from Europe, the Americas, North Africa, Israel, and India have used Sephardic history to explore the role and status of minorities and dissidents.Trade Review"One might not have imagined that the fate of the Jews banished in 1492 from Spain (in Hebrew, Sepharad) could yield such abundant material for the artistic imagination, yet this volume [] is proof precisely to the contrary . . . Sephardism functions in the end as a symbol for the modern condition, and so this "Postscript" by Halevi-Wise brings us around full circle to the original aim of the study: to show that 'Sephardic history has played a key role in shaping our world'." -- Alejandro Medina * Symposium: A Quarterly Journal in Modern Literatures *"A review such as this can only hint at the abundance of rewarding analysis that went into each of the articles presented here. Each of them can stand on its own merits as valid independent scholarship. Happily, the fact that they have been brought together here by the commonality of the Sephardic theme adds further weight to their perspectives." -- Ralph Taric * Sephardic Horizons *"This book offers a fresh and creative take on the ways that modern authors have imagined Sephardic Jews or employed the trope of Sepharad in order to advance various political, moral, or literary projects. Sephardism's geographical and thematic range and its unique approach will make the theme of Sepharad relevant to a wide-ranging group of scholars not otherwise engaged in Sephardic or even Jewish Studies—a true feat." -- Julia Phillips Cohen * Vanderbilt University *"Sephardism: Spanish Jewish History & the Modern Literary Imagination is a tour-de-force in the study of Jews as 'other' in the modern literary consciousness. So much time has been spent in the West studying the image of Ashkenaz in both Western Jewish and non-Jewish letters that the constant presence of Sepharad has been underestimated or ignored. The double Jewish other—Oriental, mysterious, more authentic, representing the utopian moment when Jews, Muslims and Christians lived symbiotically together—comes to be the gold standard by which Jews and non-Jews come to imagine both Jewish modernity and Jewish history, even today. An important addition to every library." -- Sander L. Gilman * Emory University *

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Book SynopsisWith the Via crucis en mexicano as a starting point, John Schwaller explores the history of the development and spread of the Stations of the Cross, placing the devotion in the context of the Catholic Reformation and the Baroque, the two trends that exalted this type of religious expression.

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Book SynopsisRelates how the Nez Perce and the Dakota Indians became Presbyterians yet incorporated Native culture and tradition into their new Christian identities. Bonnie Sue Lewis focuses on the rise of Native clergy and their forging of Christian communities based on American Indian values and notions of kinship and leadership.

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Book SynopsisThe religious texts in Aztec and Maya Apocalypses, many translated for the first time, reveal the influence of European, Aztec, and Maya worldviews on portrayals of Doomsday by Spanish priests and Indigenous authors alike.

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Book SynopsisReveals how prohibition helped realign the racial and religious order in the American South by linking restrictions on alcohol with political preaching and the disfranchisement of Black voters.

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Book SynopsisTells the little-known story of Darius Hubert, a French-born Jesuit who made his home in Louisiana in the 1840s, where he served churches and schools in Grand Coteau, Baton Rouge, and New Orleans. Hubert pronounced a blessing at the Louisiana Secession Convention and became the first chaplain appointed to Confederate service in the Civil War.

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Book SynopsisArgues that the political ideology and racial views of American Protestants during the Civil War mirrored their religious optimism or pessimism regarding human nature, perfectibility, and the millennium.

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Book SynopsisRobert Emmett Curran’s masterful treatment of American Catholicism in the Civil War era is the first comprehensive history of Roman Catholics in the North and South before, during, and after the war. Curran provides an in-depth look at how the momentous developments of these decades affected the entire Catholic community.

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Book Synopsis

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