History of religion Books

Book SynopsisOffering an analysis of religion in the post - Civil War and twentieth-century South, this title puts race and culture at the center, describing southern Protestant cultures as both priestly and prophetic: as southern formal theology sanctified dominant political and social hierarchies, evangelical belief and practice subtly undermined them.Trade Review"A wonderful book, useful for classes, well written and thoroughly researched. In properly bringing many unstudied and poorly studied characters to the forefront of southern history, it thinks wisely and widely about the places of religion in southern life." - Church History"

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Book SynopsisArgues that white evangelicals' ideas about slavery grew directly out of their interactions with black evangelicals. This book draws from church records and slave narratives to illuminate the relationship between whites and blacks within the evangelical fold. It argues that black evangelicals inadvertently shaped the proslavery argument.

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Book SynopsisSurveys the impact of religion as it evolved on the culture and civilization of ancient Egypt.Trade Review"A monument and a classic. . . . In this book we find the impact of nature upon religion in the abounding land of Egypt; the first skepticism and questionings of the system; the search for social justice as an answer to social woes, and the consequent seizure of royal privileges by lesser men; the attempt to assert monotheism; humble trust in a forgiving god; and the final triumph of priestly rule over religion. Because it is remote from us in time and place, we can look at it in detachment. And yet, in its cadences and in its stresses, it is our own story." * John A. Wilson, from the Introduction *"A masterly study of the development of religion and thought in ancient Egypt. . . . No better attempt has been made to trace from beginning to end the leading categories of life, thought, and civilization as they successfully made their mark on religion, or to follow religion from age to age, disclosing especially how it was shaped by these influences, and how in turn it reacted to society." * E. O. James *

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Book SynopsisThe miracle stories surrounding Sainte Foy form one of the most complete sets of material relating to a medieval saint''s cult and its practices. Pamela Sheingorn''s superb translation from the Medieval Latin texts now makes this literature available in English. The Book of Sainte Foy recounts the virgin saint''s martyrdom in the third century (Passio), the theft of her relics in the late ninth century by the monks of the monastery at Conques (Translatio), and her diverse miracles (Liber miraculorum); also included is a rendering of the Provençal Chanson de Sainte Foy, translated by Robert L. A. Clark.The miracles distinguish Sainte Foy as an unusual and highly individualistic child saint displaying a fondness for gold and pretty things, as well as a penchant for playing practical jokes on her worshippers. In his record of Sainte Foy, Bernard of Angers, the eleventh-century author of the first parts of the Liber miraculorum, emphasizedTable of ContentsList of Figures Preface Introduction The Passion of Sainte Foy The Book of Sainte Foy's Miracles —Letter to Bishop Fulbert —Boon One —Book Two —Book Three —Book Four —Other Miracles of Sainte Foy The Translation of Sainte Foy The Song of Sainte Foy —translation by Robert L. A. Clark Notes Bibliography Index

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Book Synopsis"A very balanced selection of sources for the study of the ancient so-called mystery religions, starting with Eleusis and ending with mysteries in Judaism and Christianity... No other modern sourcebook exists in this field."-Kurt RudolphTrade Review"The ancient mysteries have remained all too mysterious because of the lack of ready access to them. . . . Now we have in one volume a fine collection of the sources that have survived. . . . This will be for many students the lifting of the veil for which they have been looking." * James Robinson, Institute of Antiquity and Christianity, The Claremont Graduate School *"The Ancient Mysteries contains a very balanced selection of sources for the study of the ancient so-called mystery religions, starting with Eleusis and ending with mysteries in Judaism and Christianity. . . . No other modern sourcebook exists in this field. Therefore this book fills a gap not only in the area of late antiquity and early Christianity, but also in the field of history of religions in general." * Kurt Rudolph, Philipps-Universitat Marburg, Germany *"Unlike most books on 'ancient mysteries,' this one is based on careful reading of the original texts in their original languages. It is a competent, intelligent, and sympathetic study of which the original conclusions deserve careful consideration." * Morton Smith, author of Jesus the Magician and The Secret Gospel *Table of ContentsPreface 1. Introduction 2. The Greek Mysteries of the Grain Mother and Daughter, and Related Mysteries Homeric Hymn to Demeter Herodotus, History, Book 8 (selection) Aristophanes, The Frogs (selection) Plutarch of Chaeronea, Progress in Virtue (selection) Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, Book 5 (selection) Herodotus, History, Book 2 (selection) Lucian of Samosata, Alexander the False Prophet (selection) 3. The Andanian Mysteries of Messenia Pausanias, Description of Greece, Book 4 (selection) Rule of the Andanian Mysteries 4. The Greek Mysteries of Dionysos Euripides, The Bacchae (selections) Livy, History of Rome, Book 39 (selection) Achilles Tatius, The Adventures of Leucippe and Clitophon, Book 2 (selection) Pausanias, Description of Greece, Book 6 (selection) Rule of the Iobacchoi Plato, Republic, Book 2 (selection) Orphic Lamella from Thessaly Orphic Hymns 5. The Anatolian Mysteries of the Great Mother and Her Lover, and the Syrian Goddess Arnobius of Sicca, The Case Against the Pagans, Book 5 (selections) Livy, History of Rome, Book 29 (selection) Catullus, Poem 63 Prudentius, On the Martyrs' Crowns (selection) Lucian of Samosata (?), The Syrian Goddess (selections) Apuleius of Madauros, The Golden Ass, Book 8 (selection) Hippolytus of Rome, Refutation of All Heresies (selections) 6. The Egyptian Mysteries of Isis and Osiris Plutarch of Chaeronea, On Isis and Osiris (selections) Isis Aretalogy from Cyme Isis Love Spell from the Great Magical Papyrus of Paris (selection) Apuleius of Madauros, The Golden Ass, Book Flavius Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, Book 18(selection) 7. The Roman Mysteries of Mithras Lucian of Samosata, Menippus (selection) Plutarch of Chaeronea, Life of Pompey (selection) Mithraic Inscriptions of Santa Prisca Firmicus Maternus, The Error of the Pagan Religions (selections) Origen, Against Celsus (selection) Porphyry, On the Cave of the Nymphs (selection) The Mithras Liturgy 8. The Mysteries within Judaism and Christianity Plutarch of Chaeronea, Table-Talk, Book 4 (selection) Philo of Alexandria, On the Contemplative Life (selection) Clement of Alexandria, "To Theodore" Gospel of Philip (selections) Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Greeks (selections) Glossary Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"What triggers landmark events in history, Rubin explains, is often fictions that people believe, rather than incidents that actually took place. . . . With the flair of the ethnographer, Rubin taps into those perennial transpositions and transferences whereby groups of people are bonded together by invoking an alien other who arouses fear and dismay. . . . A powerful and moving book." * Lisa Jardine, New Statesman *

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Book SynopsisGender and Christianity in Medieval Europe seeks to explain the convergence of religion and gender in medieval Christendom. Essays in the volume examine how Europeans identified themselves as women, men, and Christians, and how these identities influenced religious belief and practice in everyday life.Table of ContentsIntroduction. Convent ruins and Christian profession: toward a methodology for the history of religion and gender —Lisa M. Bitel 1 Tertullian, the angelic life, and the bride of Christ —Dyan Elliott 2 One flesh, two sexes, three genders? —Jacqueline Murray 3 Thomas Aquinas's chastity belt: clerical masculinity in medieval Europe —Ruth Mazo Karras 4 Women's monasteries and sacred space: the promotion of saints' cults and miracles —Jane Tibbetts Schulenburg 5 Priestly women, virginal men: litanies and their discontents —Felice Lifshitz Notes Bibliography List of contributors Index

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Book SynopsisBynum argues that Christ's blood as both object and symbol was central to late medieval art, literature, and religious life. As cult object, blood provided a focus of theological debate about the nature of matter, body, and God and an occasion for Jewish persecution; as motif, blood became a central symbol in popular devotion.Trade Review"A wide-ranging exploration of the meaning of the macabre but ubiquitous 'blood piety' that loomed large in Western Christianity in the later Middle Ages." * New York Review of Books *"For three decades now, Bynum has been pivotal in drawing the attention even of nonspecialists to some of the overlooked, sophisticated conceptions that late medieval piety developed of personal identity, death, redemption, gender, asceticism, and the body. She now zooms in on and brilliantly illuminates the equally complex and equally crucial issue of blood. . . . Her empathy with medieval Christians has allowed her to put her finger on one of their key concerns, and Wonderful Blood should refocus the study of late medieval piety once more." * Times Literary Supplement *"A work of deep scholarship. . . Bynum's erudite book poses the question, why blood? . . . There is no other scholar who is better prepared to answer that question." * Speculum *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Preface Some Notes on Usage Chapter 1. Introduction: A Frenzy for Blood —The Emergence of Blood Piety —Blood in the Fifteenth-Century North —Some Recent Approaches PART I. CULTS IN NORTHERN GERMANY Chapter 2. Wilsnack —The Events —Historiography —Blood at the Center —Treatises de Sanguine —Larger Questions Chapter 3. Cults in Mecklenburg and the Mark Brandenburg —Historiography and the Problem of the Evidence —Blood Cult in Middle Germany and the Havelland —North and West of Wilsnack —Anti-Jewish Libels Circa 1500: Sternberg and Berlin —The Fate of Cults in the Sixteenth-Century North —Holy Matter and the Jews PART II. BLOOD DISPUTES IN FIFTEENTH-CENTURY EUROPE AND THEIR BACKGROUND Chapter 4. Debates About Eucharistic Transformations and Blood Relics —Visions and Transformations —The Practical Issue of Transformed Hosts —Concomitance and the Cup —The Debate over Blood Relics: Background —Grosseteste, Bonaventure, and Aquinas on Blood Relics and Identity —Gerhard of Cologne —Discussions of Blood Relics in the Fifteenth Century Chapter 5. Christ's Blood in the Triduum Mortis —Mayronis and the Barcelona Controversy of 1350-51 —John of Capistrano on the Precious Blood —The Triduum Mortis Debate of 1462-64 —Some Arguments Attributed to Nicholas of Cusa —Patterns in Dominican and Franciscan Theology —Conclusion PART III. THE ASSUMPTIONS OF BLOOD PIETY Chapter 6. A Concern for Immutability —The Immutability Theme at Wilsnack —The Transformed-Hosts Debate: A Deeper Issue —Immutability in Debates over Blood Relics and Treatises de Sanguine —Wholeness and Immutability in Story and Cult —Devotional Images —Conclusion Chapter 7. Living Blood Poured Out —Blood as Fertility —Blood as Social Survival —Blood as Engendering and Gendered —Blood as Sedes Animae —Continuity in Discontinuity: The Exsanguination of Christ —Blood as Alive Chapter 8. Blood as Separated and Shed —The Stress on Separation —Blood as Drops —The Revelation of the Hundred Pater Nosters —Accusation and Reproach —Blood as Symbol —The Deeper Paradox: Sacrifice PART IV. SACRIFICE AND SOTERIOLOGY Chapter 9. Late Medieval Soteriology —Salvation as Satisfaction and Response: The Conventional Account —Salvation as Participation —Julian of Norwich —Conclusion Chapter 10. Sacrificial Theology —The Biblical and Patristic Background —Destruction and Oblation —Sacrifice in Blood Cult and Controversy —The Sixteenth Century Chapter 11. The Aporia of Sacrifice —Questioning Blood: The Meditations on the Life of Christ —Avoiding Sacrifice —Who Sacrifices? Including/Excluding Christians and Blaming Jews —Sacrifice and the Marking of Matter Chapter 12. Conclusion: Why Blood? List of Abbreviations Notes Bibliography of Works Cited Index Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisFor nearly eight centuries, the Iberian peninsula was remarkable for its religious, cultural, linguistic, and ethnic diversity. This expanded second edition of Medieval Iberia brings together original sources that testify to its rich and sometimes volatile mix of Christians, Muslims, and Jews.Trade Review"An impressive collection of sources which should prove of great interest to specialist and nonspecialist alike." * English Historical Review *"With the assistance of a large team of acknowledged experts, Constable has succeeded in assembling a distinguished miscellany of unusual interest which deserves to be warmly and widely welcomed." * History Today *

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Book SynopsisAdopting a comparative historical approach, J. H. Chajes uncovers a strain of Jewish belief to which scant attention has been paid. Between Worlds provides fascinating descriptions of cases of possession as well as analysis of the magical techniques deployed by rabbinic exorcists to expel the ghostly intruders.Trade Review"An exciting, persuasive, and well-written study and another key addition to a subject central to early modern religions." * Jewish Quarterly Review *"Chajes's excellent new book . . . succeeds in demystifying the subject of Jewish spirit (i.e., "dybbuk") possession by placing it within a broader cross-cultural and historical context, a s sophisticated methodological approach he calls a 'historical anthropology of spirit possession.' . . . His work is both a history and a phenomenology of Jewish spirit possession during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries." * Choice *"This is a major contribution, not only to early modern Jewish studies but to the subject of spirit possession broadly conceived in the Christian world." * Edward Peters, University of Pennsylvania *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. The Emergence of Dybbuk Possession 2. The Dead and the Possessed 3. The Task of the Exorcist 4. Dybbuk Possession and Women's Religiosity 5. Skeptics and Storytellers Arrival Appendix: Spirit Possession Narratives from Early Modern Jewish Sources Notes Bibliography Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisFocusing on saintly human bodies as relics, animated icons, and performers of the holy in hagiography, this book analyzes how Christians in late antiquity saw the material world with new eyes as a medium for the disclosure of the divine in the earthly realm.Trade Review"The Corporeal Imagination is a thoughtful, sophisticated, and fascinating book. It is important and delightful reading, a skillful interpretation that makes vivid a central problematic on which Christian belief and practice depend, namely, the simultaneous establishment of the nonnegotiable difference of matter and the holy and the perennial urge to bring them as close together as possible, yet without collapsing one into the other." * Journal of Religion *"[Cox Miller's] probings are meticulous, provocative, and incisive. To read this book is to have one's own viewing turned inside out." * Theological Studies *"A highly original contribution to the history of Christianity as well as to the study of religion. Eloquent and learned, this book offers many new insights and models for reflection. The Corporeal Imagination will appeal to scholars of religion, theologians, historians of late antiquity, and historians of art." * J. Rebecca Lyman, Professor Emerita, Church Divinity School of the Pacific *Table of ContentsIntroduction Chapter One: Bodies and Selves Chapter Two: Bodies in Fragments Chapter Three: Dazzling Bodies Chapter Four: Bodies and Spectacles Chapter Five: Ambiguous Bodies Chapter Six: Subtle Bodies Chapter Seven: Animated Bodies and Icons Chapter Eight: Saintly Bodies as Image-Flesh Chapter Nine: Incongruous Bodies Conclusion List of Abbreviations Notes Bibliography Index Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisIn 1395, a poor and illiterate French woman began to experience nightly visions of devils and angels. Was she a saint, a witch, an impostor, or a madwoman? Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski looks for answers in the historical and theological context of this troubled woman's life and times.Trade Review"Late-medieval accounts of illiterate peasants are few and far between, making this in-depth study of Ermine de Reims (c. 1347-96) and her otherworldly encounters a welcome addition to medieval studies . . . Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski explores the world of Ermine in broad strokes, telling Ermine's intriguing story and filling in the corners with context." * The Catholic Historical Review *"[A]ccessible and engaging . . . Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski, well-known for her work on late medieval sanctity, mysticism, and the intersection of religion and politics, has provided scholars with a penetrating account of the life of Ermine de Reims, whose visions constitute a limit case of orthodox belief and practice (particularly female and lay) that illuminates the uncertain boundary between the demonic and the divine." * The Journal of Religion *"Building on the interests established by her earlier work on the intersection between visionary culture and the religious, social, and political upheavals of the Great Schism, Blumenfeld-Kosinski shows how texts and figures long viewed or dismissed as marginal are in fact central to fourteenth century culture. [The Strange Case of Ermine de Reims] offers new perspective not only on the gendered history of classifying and diagnosing-even pathologizing-women's mystical experience, but on the confluences of these diagnostic impulses with the literary hermeneutic tradition. . . . Blumenfeld-Kosinski's nuanced, comparative approach to Ermine's Strange Case opens avenues for future research far beyond any single figure or text; and thanks to this marvelous book, others can take them up for years to come." * The Medieval Review *"The Strange Case of Ermine de Reims tells the story of an ordinary French peasant, a widow whose harrowing tale illumines many hot-button issues of the late Middle Ages-the Papal Schism, the history of witchcraft, the discernment of spirits, the social construction of mental illness. A near-contemporary of Joan of Arc, Ermine emerges from Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski's pages as a haunting figure that no reader will soon forget." * Barbara Newman, Northwestern University *"[Blumenfeld-Kosinski] facilitates our understanding of a range of issues central to late medieval religious thought and life, from the political consequences of the Great Schism to devotional ideas and practices, the essence of female sainthood, and emerging notions of witchcraft and demonic possession." * Parergon *Table of ContentsPrologue Chapter 1. Ermine and Her World Chapter 2. Ermine and Her Confessor, Jean le Graveur Chapter 3. Ermine's Piety and Devotional Practices Chapter 4. Ermine and Her Demons Chapter 5. Ermine and the Discernment of Spirits Epilogue Appendix. The Visions of Ermine de Reims Notes Bibliography Index Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisThe earliest and largest corpus of Christian writings on Islam was written in the Aramaic dialect of Syriac. Envisioning Islam shows how these previously neglected texts problematize modern perceptions of an exclusively hostile Christian reaction to Islam and revolutionize our understanding of the early Islamic world.Trade Review"Penn's book is a mighty achievement. In Envisioning Islam, scholars at last have a one-stop survey of some of the richest but most poorly understood Syriac sources for the early Islamic period, paired with clear-headed analysis and sober conclusions. . . . Penn's book succeeds in defamiliarizing the early history of Muslim-Christian relations and will undoubtedly set the stage for future research on the topic." * The Medieval Review *"Envisioning Islam offers a rich discussion with important implications to better situate early Islam into the cosmopolitan late antique Near East. Penn is to be commended for a valuable contribution to the field." * Intellectual History of the Islamicate World *"A sophisticated and well-conceived study of the evolving depictions of Muslims in Syriac texts that will shed new light on the socially complicated history of early Islam." * Sydney H. Griffith, The Catholic University of America *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1 Chapter 1. When Good Things Happened to Other People: Syriac Memories of the Islamic Conquests Chapter 2. A Different Type of Difference-Making: Syriac Narratives of Religious Identity Chapter 3. Using Muslims to Think With: Narratives of Islamic Rulers Chapter 4. Blurring Boundaries: The Continuum Between Early Christianity and Early Islam Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Liturgical Subjects is a pioneering examination of the medieval religious subject that adds texture and nuance to studies that, so far, have tended to emphasize only the Western Christian tradition. . . . Krueger's is the first study to examine how Orthodox liturgy functioned as a mechanism for the formation of the Byzantine Christian's perception of self." * Bryn Mawr Classical Review *"Liturgical Subjects marks another important step in Krueger's enduring progress as a religious historian . . . The breadth is impressive, the juxtaposition of sacred text and ritual custom is significantly novel, the sensitive reading of hymns and prayers is a constant invitation to explore, and the easy style is a sustained pleasure." * Reading Religion *"A thrilling tour of Byzantine culture through wholly unexpected routes. With beautifully crafted prose, Krueger presents a trajectory lucidly drawn, filled with arresting insight and searing, poignant imagery; yet the account is concrete and concise, moving deftly through its chapters with impressive economy and formidable command of a wide array of textual and material evidence." * Susan Ashbrook Harvey, Brown University *

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"There are a number of things to recommend Gerbner's welcome study. Throughout the text she reminds readers that the English, Dutch, and some French colonists in the Caribbean were arguably shaped more by their Protestantism than any national attachments. That this was especially the case in their engagement with slavery is an important revelation. She is also good at exploring and imagining the response of slaves and free blacks to the evolving theology of slavery that was gradually strengthening slavery's grasp in every corner of the Atlantic world. Perhaps most of all, she shines a light on Christianity's complicity in the development of modern racism." * Journal of Early Modern History *"In case we thought that North American problems with slavery were homegrown, Katharine Gerbner shows in great detail how the same problems existed in the colonized islands of the Atlantic as far back as the early seventeenth century- and indeed were imported directly from these islands to Maryland, South Carolina, and other Southern colonies . . . Her judgment is harsh. But it is a judgment based on impeccable research. Christian Slavery is the sort of well-grounded microhistory that, in the end, proves more valuable than wide-ranging surveys and broad declarations." * Commonweal *"In looking at this relationship between white-exclusivist 'Protestant Supremacy,' the formation of a paternalist Christian Slavery that encouraged conversion of blacks but discouraged their literacy, and the role of Africans and African Americans in compelling (through their words and actions) a rethinking of the relationship between Christianity and slavery, Gerbner has given us a new synthesis that incorporates the Atlantic world perspective beautifully. And she has given us another version of the grim irony of Southern religious history." * Journal of the American Academy of Religion *"Gerbner's facility with Old German Script and Dutch documentary evidence has furnished a much-needed revision of the story of Christian Slavery, uncovering vital evidence for understanding the emergence of White Supremacy. Her focus on the Caribbean Islands is vital, given the fact that slavery there far outweighed slavery on the mainland. Finally, Gerbner's contribution on the role of literacy as an empowering tool for the oppresssed is significant." * Fides et Historia *"How and why did Christianity, seemingly built on spiritual emancipation and equality, give blessing to African slavery in the Americas? Christian Slavery is a powerful new interpretation of this question that will inspire scholars to rethink the connections between religion, race, and slavery in the early modern Atlantic world." * Jon Sensbach, University of Florida *"With impressive chronological and geographical breadth and a clear-eyed, transdenominational perspective, Christian Slavery reveals how the religious programs of early Quakers, Anglicans, and Moravians all became entangled with colonial slavery." * Travis Glasson, Temple University *Table of ContentsIntroduction Chapter 1. Christian Slaves in the Atlantic World Chapter 2. Protestant Supremacy Chapter 3. Quaker Slavery and Slave Rebellion Chapter 4. From Christian to White Chapter 5. The Imperial Politics of Slave Conversion Chapter 6. The SPG and Slavery Chapter 7. Inner Slavery and Spiritual Freedom Chapter 8. Defining True Conversion Epilogue. Proslavery Theology and Black Christianity Notes Bibliography Index Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisIn a work based on a meticulous analysis of sources, many of them previously unexplored, Catherine M. Mooney upends the received account of Clare of Assisi''s founding of the Order of San Damiano, or Poor Clares. Mooney offers instead a stark counternarrative: Clare, her sisters of San Damiano, and their allies struggled against a papal program bent on regimenting, enriching, and enclosing religious women in the thirteenth century, a program that proved largely successful.Mooney demonstrates that Clare (1194-1253) established a single community that was soon cajoled, perhaps even coerced, into joining an order previously founded by the papacy. Artfully renaming it after Clare''s San Damiano with Clare as its putative mother, Pope Gregory IX enhanced his order''s cachet by associating it also with Clare''s famous friend, Francis of Assisi. Mooney traces how Clare and her allies in other houses attempted to follow Francis''s directives rather than the pope''s, divested themselveTrade Review"Mooney's book accomplishes a rare feat: it is both a vital contribution to the study of Clare of Assisi and the religious worlds of which she is a part and an accessible case study of how the best and most careful work of historical scholarship in the study of religion is undertaken." * Journal of the American Academy of Religion *"Catherine Mooney has provided not only an invaluable handbook for the study of the Clarist rules but also a thought-provoking reappraisal of the traditional portrait of St Clare and the origins of the order that bears her name." * Parergon *"In this impressive display of scholarship, Catherine Mooney exposes some long-standing myths about Clare of Assisi and the historical context in which Clare lived, not only broadening the documentary sphere in which the lives of Clare and her sisters in religion are viewed, but also rethinking what the results of this increased scope mean." * Renaissance Quarterly *""Mooney's work is compelling and is an important contribution to Franciscan scholarship. As she demonstrates, penitential communities were diverse in the thirteenth century. However, Mooney also emphasizes that common among them was their insistence upon determining their own form of life amid interference from ecclesiastic authorities that sought to regularize them. Therefore, beyond the study of Clare and the penitential movement in Italy, the monograph also raises questions about the experiences of female penitential communities in other regions in medieval Europe, such as the Low Countries and France." * Medieval Feminist Forum *"[N]ot a traditional biography, Mooney's careful reading of the sources-about Clare herself, the origins of the Order of San Damiano, and the papacy's steadfast attempts to impose greater standardization and enclosure on female religious communities during the early thirteenth century-reveal a woman who was firmly committed to her faith, and determined to resist any attempts to prevent her from fulfilling her understanding of her vocation. Mooney scrutinizes a variety of sources-letters, papal documents, vitae, religious rules, and canonization testimonies-in order to better contextualize Clare and her contemporaries." * Speculum *"What makes Mooney’s book commendable is her meticulous scrutiny of the contemporary sources and the close reading of legal texts, chronicles, letters and the acts of the saint’s canonisation which result in a well-founded and reliable representation of Clare’s guidance of and her struggles for the religious life in San Damiano in the footsteps of St Francis and the Lesser Brothers." * Journal of Ecclesiasticl History *"Clare of Assisi and the Thirteenth-Century Church is a great gift to contemporary women religious, whether Franciscan or not. Too much of our actual history is smothered in the political wranglings of the clerical world and misrepresented by scholars who don’t ask biting questions (when will we stop confusing enforced conformity with reform?) but perpetuate tired old stories about our foremothers. This is the kind of thoughtful research we need from scholars today" * Magidtra *"[A] superb book about Clare of Assisi and the 1253 rule for mendicant women attributed to her. She shows herself to be a sympathetic reader of Clare’s life and writings. Catherine M. Mooney is also a historian with the audacity to challenge received readings and provide readers with a 'new narrative'...[A]n exemplary publication that provides a model of good scholarship and a firm understanding of an important figure." * The Historian *"Catherine M. Mooney’s study is researched, well-written, and responsibly balanced—an indispensable guide enabling a reader to navigate this turning point of the religious life of women." * Church History *"This book is absolutely needed for its depiction of Clare not as a woman destined to be the founder of the Order of San Damiano but as a woman caught in the middle of a struggle between the papacy and the larger grassroots reform movement of the vita apostolica." * Carolyn Muessig, University of Bristol *

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Book Synopsis"The sheer range of Warren's stimulating, provocative discussion ... is impressive. The richness of her sources, a number of which are examined here for the first time, will make her book an important port-of-call."-English Historical ReviewTrade Review"An ambitious study of the actual and symbolic place of women and femininity in fifteenth-century English monastic, literary, and political culture." * Nicholas Watson, University of Western Ontario *"Impressive. . . . Warren is careful to honor the integrity of religious life while looking at the multiple forces that influenced it, and that it influenced as well." * Sharon Elkins, Wellesley College *"The sheer range of Warren's stimulating, provocative discussion . . . is impressive. The richness of her sources, a number of which are examined here for the first time, will make her book an important port-of-call." * English Historical Review *

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Book SynopsisInvestigates the transformation of Cappadocia into a Christian society. Through vivid accounts of Cappadocians as preachers, theologians and historians, this work highlights the disruptive social and cultural consequences of the formation of orthodoxies in theology, history, language, and personal identity in the ancient world.Table of ContentsPreface Introduction ORTHODOXY AND HERESY 1. "The Evil in Our Bosom": Eunomius as a Cappadocian Father CONVERSION 2. "Even Though Roman Laws Judge Differently": Christianity and Local Traditions 3. Remembering the Future: Christian Narratives of Conversion 4. "Everything in Ruins": Ancient Legends and Foundation Myths 5. The Founder of the Cappadocians PREACHERS AND AUDIENCES 6. Listening to the Audience: The Six Days of Creation 7. Small Details: The Cult of the Forty Martyrs THE LIFE TO COME 8. "I Saw a Parrot": Philostorgius at Constantinople 9. A Blank Sheet of Paper: The Apocryphal Basil 10. "Trail of Sorrows": The Autobiographies of Gregory of Nazianzus Epilogue: A Different Late Antiquity Abbreviations Notes Editions and Translations 1. The Cappadocian Fathers 2. Ancient Authors and Texts Bibliography

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Book SynopsisLooking to contexts ranging from premodern Spain and Italy to nineteenth-century Russia, Germany, and America, the contributors to this volume explore the ways the political and intellectual aspirations of successive historical presents have repeatedly reshaped the forms and narratives of Jewish cultural memory.Trade Review"An important contribution not only to Jewish studies but also to the larger study of historical memory." * American Historical Review *Table of ContentsForeword David B. Ruderman Introduction: Al-Andalus, Enlightenment, and the Renewal of the Jewish Past —Adam Sutcliffe and Ross Brann PART I. PHILOSOPHY, POETRY, AND CULTURAL EXCHANGE IN PREMODERN AL-ANDALUS AND ITALY 1. Aesthetic Models in Conflict: Classicist versus Ornamental in Jewish Poetics —Joseph Yahalom 2. The Uses of Exile in Poetic Discourse: Some Examples from Medieval Hebrew Literature —Esperanza Alfonso 3. Their Rose in Our Garden: Romance: Elements in Hebrew Italian Poetry —Dvora Bregman 4. The Crisis of Medieval Knowledge in the Work of the Fifteenth-Century Poet and Philosopher Moses da Rieti —Alessandro Guetta PART II. RENEWING TEXTS, CHANGING HORIZONS: THE JEWISH ENLIGHTENMENTS APPROPRIATION OF ANDALUSI IDEALS 5. Judah Halevis Kuzari in the Haskalah: The Reinterpretation and Re-imagining of a Medieval Work —Adam Shear 6. The Aesthetic Difference: Moses Mendelssohns Kohelet Musar and the Inception of the Berlin Haskalah —Jonathan Karp 7. Varieties of Haskalah: Sabato Moraiss Program of Sephardi Rabbinic Humanism in Victorian America —Arthur Kiron PART III: REFASHIONINGS OF THE JEWISH PAST IN THE ERA OF HASKALAH 8. Solomon Maimon and His Jewish Philosophical Predecessors: The Evidence of His Autobiography —Allan Arkush 9. Quarreling over Spinoza: Moses: Mendelssohn and the Fashioning of Jewish Philosophical Heroism —Adam Sutcliffe 10. Strategic Friendships: Jewish Intellectuals, the Abbé Grégoire, and the French Revolution —Alyssa Goldstein Sepinwall 11. Heine and Haggadah: History, Narration and Tradition in the Age of Wissenschaft des Judentums —Jonathan Skolnik List of Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisClaire M. Waters offers an original examination of the preacher's unique role as an intermediary-standing between heaven and earth, between God and people, participating in and responsible to both sides of that divide.Trade Review"Waters's book is remarkable in the range of sources employed and the attention paid to each genre and work in its cultural context. . . . Her book makes a significant new contribution to the growing field of sermon studies and should also be taken seriously by students of intellectual history who seek to understand the complex roles preachers and preaching played in the later Middle Ages." * Journal of Religion *Table of ContentsPreface Introduction Chapter 1 The Golden Chains of Citation Chapter 2 Holy Duplicity: The Preacher's Two Faces Chapter 3 A Manner of Speaking: Access and the Vernacular Chapter 4 "Mere Words": Gendered Eloquence and Christian Preaching Chapter 5 Transparent Bodies and the Redemption of Rhetoric Chapter 6 The Alibi of Female Authority Chapter 7 Sermones ad Status and Old Wives' Tales; or, The Audience Talks Back List of Abbreviations Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisIn cities and towns across northern Europe in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, a new type of religious woman took up authoritative positions in society, all the while living as public recluses in cells attached to the sides of churches. In Lives of the Anchoresses, Anneke Mulder-Bakker offers a new history of these women who chose to forsake the world but did not avoid it.Unlike nuns, anchoresses maintained their ties to society and belonged to no formal religious order. From their solitary anchorholds in very public places, they acted as teachers and counselors and, in some cases, theological innovators for parishioners who would speak to them from the street, through small openings in the walls of their cells. Available at all hours, the anchoresses were ready to care for the community''s faithful whenever needed.Through careful biographical studies of five emblematic anchoresses, Mulder-Bakker reveals the details of these influential religious women. The life of Trade Review"We are blessed here with a study of rare insight and perception into the functioning of lay religious devotion in northwestern Europe and its interaction with institutionalized and learned clerical religion." * Speculum *Table of Contents1. Bees Without a King 2. The Mother of Guibert of Nogent: The Age of Discretion 3. Yvette of Huy: The Metamorphoses of a Woman 4. Juliana of Cornillon: Church Reform and the Corpus Christi Feast 5. Eve of St. Martin: The Faithful of Liège and the Church 6. Lame Margaret of Magdeburg and Her Lessons 7. Living Saints 8. Epilogue List of Abbreviations Notes Bibliography Index Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisSince the period dealt with is a time of transition from the ancient to Medieval world, it is particularly helpful to have a book that shows how these two worlds were intimately linked from a cultural point of view prior to the political separation brought about by the Arab conquests in the seventh century.-Sebastian Brock, Oxford UniversityTrade Review"Adam Becker brings together work in two different linguistic areas, Syriac and Greek, which are usually conducted separately. Since the period dealt with is a time of transition from the ancient to Medieval world, one of immense significance for the subsequent history of both the Middle East and Europe, it is particularly helpful to have a book that shows how these two geographical worlds were intimately linked from a cultural point of view prior to the political separation brought about by the Arab conquests in the seventh century." * Sebastian Brock, Oxford University *

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Book SynopsisThe first few decades of the eighteenth century witnessed an important moment in Jewish-Christian relations, as influential Christian scholars increasingly looked to Jewish texts to reveal the truths of their own faith. To what extent could postbiblical writings help them better understand the New Testament? And who would best be able to explicate these connections?Connecting the Covenants focuses on two separate but entwined stories, the first centering around the colorful character of Moses Marcus. The English-born son of wealthy parents and the grandson of the famous autobiographical author Glikl of Hameln, Marcus was a prominent Jew educated in the Ashkenazic yeshivah at Hamburg. On New Year''s Day, 1723, Marcus was baptized as a Christian, later publishing a justification of his conversion and a vindication of his newly discovered faith in a small book in London. A trophy convert, he was promoted by figures at the highest levels of the Anglican Church as a culturalTrade Review"Connecting the Covenants uses previously untapped archival sources and little-studied printed books to explore an important episode in the early eighteenth century 'battle of the books.' It sheds light on the famous debate between Ancients and Moderns as well as the status of the Bible in early Enlightenment thought. At the same time, Ruderman uncovers a fascinating episode in the history of European Jewry and Jewish-Christian intellectual relations. Connecting the Covenants is compelling as both narrative and history." * Matt Goldish, The Ohio State University *Table of ContentsIntroduction Chapter 1. Covenants Connected and Unconnected: David Nieto and His Anglican Adversaries, Humphrey Prideaux and Moses Marcus Chapter 2. Moses Marcus's Conversion to Christianity Chapter 3. The Career of Moses Marcus in London: An Expert on Judaism and a Defender of Religious Orthodoxy Chapter 4. Restoring the "True Text" of the Old Testament: William Whiston and His Critics, Johann Carpzov and Moses Marcus Chapter 5. Anthony Collins's Attack on William Whiston: Could the Rabbis Ultimately Rescue Christianity from Its Own Exegetical Crisis? Chapter 6. On the Proper Education of an English Divine: William Wotton and His Learned Friends Conclusion Appendix 1. The Dutch Edition of Moses Marcus's Conversionary Treatise Appendix 2. Constructing a Genealogy of a Christian Scholarly Discipline: William Wotton's History of Christian Writers on the Legal Writings of the Jews Notes Index Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisIn Violence and Belief in Late Antiquity, Thomas Sizgorich seeks to understand why and how violent expressions of religious devotion became central to the self-understandings of both Christian and Muslim communities between the fourth and ninth centuries. Sizgorich argues that the cultivation of violent martyrdom as a path to holiness was in no way particular to Islam; rather, it emerged from a matrix put into place by the Christians of late antiquity. Paying close attention to the role of memory and narrative in the formation of individual and communal selves, Sizgorich identifies a common pool of late ancient narrative forms upon which both Christian and Muslim communities drew.In the process of recollecting the past, Sizgorich explains, Christian and Muslim communities alike elaborated iterations of Christianity or Islam that demanded of each believer a willingness to endure or inflict violence on God''s behalf and thereby created militant local pieties that claimed Trade Review"Thomas Sizgorich is . . . a scholar truly at home in both the late antique and early Islamic worlds who does a superlative job of illustrating the continuities between them." * American Historical Review *"In this bold and learned book, Thomas Sizgorich probes the ideological roots of violence in the Christian and Muslim communities of late antiquity." * Church History *"A work of erudition and eloquent argument, combined with an abiding ethical impulse underwriting its historical project. Sizgorich has done a great service by historicizing some elements of religious violence and uncovering its underlying logics with sophistication and care." * Catholic Historical Review *"Sizgorich brings the early history of Islamic martyrdom and the emergence of the concept of the shahid ('witness' or 'martyr') into a common framework of similar developments in late antique Christianity in the eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. In doing so, he shows that the two worlds were closely related in their development of apparently different kinds of aggressive, even violent behavior that were connected to ideas of ascetic self-control and the disciplining of the community." * Brent D. Shaw, Princeton University *"An original, impressive, fascinating, and very important book. Sizgorich makes a seminal contribution by offering an alternative to the tendency that treats Islam as completely 'other' from the world in which it took shape. He offers instead a vision of an Islam that is an organic part of the late antique cultural and religious world." * Nadia Maria El-Cheikh, American University of Beirut *Table of ContentsIntroduction Chapter 1. "The Devil Spoke from Scripture": Boundary Maintenance and Communal Integrity in Late Antiquity Chapter 2. "The Living Voice of Kindred Blood": Narrative, Identity, and the Primordial Past Chapter 3. "What Has the Pious in Common with the Impious?" Ambrose, Libanius, and the Problem of Late Antique Religious Violence Chapter 4. "Are You Christians?" Violence, Ascetics, and Knowing One's Own Chapter 5. "Horsemen by Day and Monks by Night": Narrative and Community in Islamic Late Antiquity Chapter 6. "The Sword Scrapes away Transgressions": Ascetic Praxis and Communal Boundaries in Late Antique Islam Chapter 7. "Do You Not Fear God?" The Khawarij in Early Islamic Society Chapter 8. "This Is a Very Filthy Question, and No One Should Discuss It": The Messy World of Ibn Hanbal Conclusion Notes Select Bibliography Index Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisNo Place of Rest pursues the literary traces of the traumatic expulsion of Jews from France in 1306. Through careful readings of liturgical, philosophical, memorial, and medical texts, Susan Einbinder reveals how medieval Jews asserted their identity in exile.Trade Review"A sophisticated and beautifully written book. With it, Einbinder arguably becomes the leading literary scholar of medieval French Jews. What is unique about her contribution is that it easily transcends literary historical study per se. Her work embodies what is critical to the success of the new medievalism: Einbinder negotiates or, more precisely, ignores the conventional boundaries between discourses and the modern disciplines to which they gave rise." * Ross Brann, Cornell University *"[Einbinder's] book is a pleasure to read, it provides a generous bibliography, introduces hardly known or unfamiliar literary works, and provides intriguing analysis. No Place to Rest places Einbinder among the leading scholars of medieval French Jewish literature." * The Medieval Review *Table of ContentsIntroduction Chapter 1. Isaac b. Abraham HaGorni: The Myth, the Man, and the Manuscript Chapter 2. Form and History: Hebrew Pantograms and the Expulsion of 1306 Chapter 3. God's Forgotten Sheep: Liturgical Memory and Expulsion Chapter 4. A Proper Diet: Medicine and History in Crescas Caslari's Esther Chapter 5. Physicians and Their Daughters: Memory and Medicine during the Plague Years Chapter 6. Refrains in Exile: French Jewish Poetry in Northern Italy Epilogue Notes Bibliography Index Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisRighteous Persecution examines the long-controversial involvement of the Order of Preachers, or Dominicans, with inquisitions into heresy in medieval Europe. From their origin in the thirteenth century, the Dominicans were devoted to a ministry of preaching, teaching, and pastoral care, to save souls particularly tempted by the Christian heresies popular in western Europe. Many persons then, and scholars in our own time, have asked how members of a pastoral order modeled on Christ and the apostles could engage themselves so enthusiastically in the repressive persecution that constituted heresy inquisitions: the arrest, interrogation, torture, punishment, and sometimes execution of those who deviated in belief from Roman Christianity.Drawing on an extraordinarily wide base of ecclesiastical documents, Christine Caldwell Ames recounts how Dominican inquisitors and their supporters crafted and promoted explicitly Christian meanings for their inquisitorial persecution. InquTrade Review"This rich, exhaustive, and highly focused study sets a new standard for thoroughness among scholars seeking to comprehend the inner logic and workings of religious persecution in medieval Christendom." * Speculum *"I know of no other book that so systematically reviews the question of how Dominicans themselves thought about the relationship of interrogation and torture, truth and pain, persecution and divinity. There are few topics more vital-especially at present-than a study into the relationship of religion and violence. Righteous Persecution is an important and lasting contribution to scholarship." * Mark Gregory Pegg, Washington University *Table of ContentsIntroduction PART I: IN THE GARDEN Chapter 1: The Wolves and the Sheep Chapter 2: Holy Inquisitors Chapter 3: The Burning Torch PART II: INQUISITION AS DIVINE DISCIPLINE Chapter 4: Souls and Bodies Chapter 5: The Deserved Punishment Conclusion List of Abbreviations Notes Select Bibliography Index Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisFounding the Fathers explores the development of early Christian history and theology as a discipline in four nineteenth-century Protestant seminaries in the United States. Archival sources reveal how professors adjusted German scholarship to fit Americans' evangelical assumptions and to make the Catholic past more palatable.Trade Review"This is a genuinely pioneering work from one of the most engaged historians of early Christianity. Elizabeth A. Clark's lucid exposition reveals a mastery of scholarship on German, British, and American educational curricula and intellectual life." * Mark Vessey, University of British Columbia *"Founding the Fathers is sweeping in its view of the history of American higher education, its comprehensive sense of the study of religion, and its firm grasp of the transnational scope of nineteenth-century theological learning. An original and substantial contribution to both American intellectual history and the history of early Christian studies." * Leigh Eric Schmidt, Harvard University *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Higher Education and Religion in Nineteenth-Century United States PART I. THE SETTING: CONTEXTUALIZING THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY IN AMERICA 1. The Institutions and the Professors 2. Infrastructure: Teaching, Textbooks, Primary Sources, and Libraries PART II. HISTORY AND HISTORIOGRAPHY 3. Defending the Faith: European Theories and American Professors 4. History and Church History 5. Development and Decline: Challenges to Historiographical Categories PART III. TOPICS OF EARLY CHRISTIAN HISTORY IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY ANALYSIS 6. Polity and Practice 7. Roman Catholicism 8. Asceticism, Marriage, Women, and the Family 9. The Uses of Augustine Conclusion Appendix: Student Notetakers List of Abbreviations and Archival Sources Notes Bibliography Index Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisThe rise of printing had major effects on culture and society in the early modern period, and the presence of this new technology—and the relatively rapid embrace of it among early modern Jews—certainly had an effect on many aspects of Jewish culture. One major change that print seems to have brought to the Jewish communities of Christian Europe, particularly in Italy, was greater interaction between Jews and Christians in the production and dissemination of books.Starting in the early sixteenth century, the locus of production for Jewish books in many places in Italy was in Christian-owned print shops, with Jews and Christians collaborating on the editorial and technical processes of book production. As this Jewish-Christian collaboration often took place under conditions of control by Christians (for example, the involvement of Christian typesetters and printers, expurgation and censorship of Hebrew texts, and state control of Hebrew printing), its study opens upTrade Review"This compact yet intellectually expansive book illuminates the many overlapping worlds of the production of-and, crucially, the reaction to-Hebrew books in early modern Italy. The period covered is expansive as well, some 300 years. . . . And Italy is the fons . . . of Jewish print culture, home to the first dated Hebrew book as well as the first book printed in the lifetime of its author. . . . This is a collection in which each essay is a labor of love, and in which one is struck by each scholar's deep interest and erudition. . . . It is worthy of the stunning books it discusses." * TLS *"In early modern Italy Jewish books played a central role in the cultural wars that were roiling Christian society. . . . This rich collection of studies . . . delve[s] deeply into fascinating and generally unknown aspects of this subject. . . . An important contribution to the history of the Hebrew book and to early modern Jewish history." * Jewish Book World *"A remarkably valuable contribution to the cultural history of the Jews in the late Middle Ages and the early modern period. The essays offer deep insights into methodological issues broadly connected to the larger general context of continuity and change, focusing on the dialogical relationship between Jewish and non-Jewish identities, especially on the constitutive forces ushering in the modern age." * Robert Bonfil, Hebrew University of Jerusalem *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Book History and the Hebrew Book in Italy —Adam Shear and Joseph R. Hacker Chapter 1. Can Colophons Be Trusted? Insights from Decorated Hebrew Manuscripts Produced for Women in Renaissance Italy —Evelyn M. Cohen Chapter 2. Marchion in Hebrew Manuscripts: State Censorship in Florence, 1472 —Nurit Pasternak Chapter 3. Daniel van Bombergen, a Bookman of Two Worlds —Bruce Nielsen Chapter 4. The Rabbinic Bible in Its Sixteenth-Century Context —David Stern Chapter 5. Sixteenth-Century Jewish Internal Censorship of Hebrew Books —Joseph R. Hacker Chapter 6. Robert Bellarmine Reads Rashi: Rabbinic Bible Commentaries and the Burning of the Talmud —Piet van Boxel Chapter 7. Dangerous Readings in Early Modern Modena: Negotiating Jewish Culture in an Italian Key —Federica Francesconi Chapter 8. The Printing of Devotion in Seventeenth-Century Italy: Prayer Books Printed for the Shomrim la-Boker Confraternities —Michela Andreatta Chapter 9. Hebrew Printing in Eighteenth-Century Livorno: From Government Control to a Free Market —Francesca Bregoli Notes List of Contributors Index Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisThis first full-length study of Jesus' circumcision reimagines the language of difference and identity in early Christianity. From his earliest appearance in the Gospel of Luke to the medieval Feast of the Circumcision, Christ circumcised embodies a new way of imagining Christians and their creation of a new religious culture.Trade Review"This book is a tour de force in demonstrating how varieties of theory can enable fresh readings and understanding of old problems, namely orthodoxy and heresy or the relation of Judaism and Christianity." * J. Rebecca Lyman, Church Divinity School of the Pacific *Table of ContentsPreface Introduction: Splitting the Difference Chapter 1. Circumcision and the Cultural Economy of Difference Chapter 2. (De-)Judaizing Christ's Circumcision: The Dialogue of Difference Chapter 3. Heresy, Theology, and the Divine Circumcision Chapter 4. Dubious Difference: Epiphanius on the Jewish Christians Chapter 5. Scriptural Distinctions: Reading Between the Lines Chapter 6. "Let Us Be Circumcised!": Ritual Differences Conclusion Notes Index Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisAs Thomas F. Mayer demonstrates in this first study of the Roman Inquisition as an institution, the Inquisition underwent constant modification as it expanded. Originally aimed to eradicate Protestant heresy, it went beyond medieval antecedents by becoming a highly articulated centralized organ directly dependent on the pope.Trade Review"Mayer provides a crucial analysis of the ways in which inquisitorial activities could fit into the political agenda of the popes and illuminates both the power and limits of the inquisitions as papal tools in the context of Italian political rivalries. As with his first volume, this work will be essential to anyone seeking a fuller understanding of the Roman inquisition at the turn of the seventeenth century." * Jonathan Seitz, American Historical Review *"An extremely important project. Mayer brings an unprecedented amount of archival research to the table, and his findings will be epoch-making and definitive." * Henry Ansgar Kelly, University of California, Los Angeles *"A profoundly researched analysis of how the Sacred Congregation of the Roman Inquisition actually operated at the center, its procedures, developed 'style,' and jurisprudence as revealed by congregational registers, inquisitors' manuals, and apt sample cases. We learn of the personnel involved, from Cardinal Inquisitors to consultants and notaries. Mayer is especially revealing about some involved in judging Galileo's books and behavior." * Christopher Black, University of Glasgow *Table of ContentsIntroduction Chapter 1. The Roman Inquisition's Operations Chapter 2. The Sacred Congregation: Inquisitors Before 1623 Chapter 3. The Sacred Congregation Under Urban VIII Chapter 4. The Professional Staff Chapter 5. Inquisition Procedure: The Holy Office's Use of Inquisitio Conclusion Appendix List of Abbreviations Notes Selected Bibliography Index Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisThis book explores the sexual slander of Jews in Christian texts from the first through fifth centuries. These early Christian representations of Jewish sexuality reveal how Church fathers used accusations of fleshliness, bestiality, and licentiousness as strategies to differentiate the "spiritual" Christian from the "carnal" Jew.Trade Review"Slandering the Jew deepens our understanding of the connectedness between the body, exegesis, and religious identity in the late ancient world." * Wendy Mayer, Australian Catholic University *Table of ContentsIntroduction Chapter 1. The Making of Carnal Israel: Paul, Barnabas, Justin Chapter 2. Origen Reads Jewishness Chapter 3. Sexual/Textual Corruption: Early Christian Interpretations of Susanna and the Elders Chapter 4. "A Synagogue of Malakoi and Porna": John Chrysostom's Sermons against the Jews Conclusion List of Abbreviations Notes Bibliography Index Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisIn histories of ancient Jews and Judaism, the Roman Empire looms large. For all the attention to the Jewish Revolt and other conflicts, however, there has been less concern for situating Jews within Roman imperial contexts; just as Jews are frequently dismissed as atypical by scholars of Roman history, so Rome remains invisible in many studies of rabbinic and other Jewish sources written under Roman rule.Jews, Christians, and the Roman Empire brings Jewish perspectives to bear on long-standing debates concerning Romanization, Christianization, and late antiquity. Focusing on the third to sixth centuries, it draws together specialists in Jewish and Christian history, law, literature, poetry, and art. Perspectives from rabbinic and patristic sources are juxtaposed with evidence from piyyutim, documentary papyri, and synagogue and church mosaics. Through these case studies, contributors highlight paradoxes, subtleties, and ironies of Romanness and imperial power.CTrade Review"Beginning with the editors' fundamental historiographical and programmatic essay, Jews, Christians, and the Roman Empire is the most important collection of studies on Jews in late antiquity I have ever seen. In fact, it is essential reading for all students of late antiquity. Especially admirable is the book's implicit argument that late antiquity was constituted not by a single seismic shift but by the slow accretion of small changes over time." * Seth Schwartz, Columbia University *"This volume opens up important new intellectual avenues for students of ancient religion and empire and will undoubtedly have a tremendous impact on multiple arenas of scholarly research. There is, simply, no work that tackles the intellectual question 'How do we integrate Judaism into the Roman Empire, and vice versa?' with such depth and breadth." * Andrew S. Jacobs, Scripps College *Table of ContentsList of Abbreviations Introduction: Rethinking Romanness, Provincializing Christendom —Annette Yoshiko Reed and Natalie B. Dohrmann PART I. RABBIS AND OTHER ROMAN SUBELITES Chapter 1. The Afterlives of the Torah's Ethnic Language: The Sifra and Clement on Lev 18.1-5 —Beth A. Berkowitz Chapter 2. The Kingdom of Edessa and the Creation of a Christian Aristocracy —William Adler Chapter 3. Law and Imperial Idioms: Rabbinic Legalism in a Roman World —Natalie B. Dohrmann Chapter 4. The Law of Moses and the Jews: Rabbis, Ethnic Marking, and Romanization —Hayim Lapin PART II. CHRISTIANIZATION AND OTHER MODALITIES OF ROMANIZATION Chapter 5. There Is No Place Like Home: Rabbinic Responses to the Christianization of Palestine —Joshua Levinson Chapter 6. Between Gaza and Minorca: The (Un)Making of Minorities in Late Antiquity —Hagith Sivan Chapter 7. Christian Historiographers' Reflections on Jewish-Christian Violence in Fifth-Century Alexandria —Oded Irshai Chapter 8. Narrating Salvation: Verbal Sacrifices in Late Antique Liturgical Poetry —Ophir Münz-Manor Chapter 9. Israelite Kingship, Christian Rome, and the Jewish Imperial Imagination: Midrashic Precursors to the Medieval "Throne of Solomon" —Ra'anan Boustan PART III. CONTINUITY AND RUPTURE Chapter 10. Chains of Tradition from Avot to the Avodah Piyutim —Michael D. Swartz Chapter 11. Change in Continuity in Late Legal Papyri from Palaestina Tertia: Nomos Hellênikos and Ethos Rômaikon —Hannah M. Cotton Chapter 12. The Representation of the Temple and Jerusalem in Jewish and Christian Houses of Prayer in the Holy Land in Late Antiquity —Rina Talgam Chapter 13. Roman Christianity and the Post-Roman West: The Social Correlates of the Contra Iudaeos Tradition —Paula Fredriksen Notes Select Bibliography of Secondary Sources List of Contributors Index Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisDrawing on the Roman Inquisition's own records, diplomatic correspondence, local documents, newsletters, and other sources, Thomas F. Mayer provides an intricately detailed account of the ways the Inquisition operated to serve the papacy's long-standing political aims in Naples, Venice, and Florence between 1590 and 1640.Trade Review"A stunning achievement. Driven by a deep exploration of primary sources, The Roman Inquisition on the Stage of Italy, c. 1590-1640 examines the way investigation, trial, and sentencing procedures played out in different states. No one will be able to treat the Inquisition in the same old-fashioned way again." * Edward Muir, Northwestern University *"Thanks to wide-ranging research and new perceptions, Thomas Mayer shows how the Roman Inquisition served popes as both a legal and diplomatic institution as they handled jurisdictional squabbles with the diversely organized states of Naples, Venice, and Tuscany." * Christopher Black, University of Glasgow *Table of ContentsIntroduction Chapter 1. Spain and Naples Chapter 2. Naples: Tommaso Campanella Chapter 3. Venice in the Wake of the Interdict Chapter 4. Venice: Giordano Bruno, Cesare Cremonini, and Marcantonio De Dominis Chapter 5. Florence I Chapter 6. Florence II Conclusion Notes List of Abbreviations Selected Bibliography Index Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisThinkers in medieval France constantly reconceptualized what had come before, interpreting past events to give validity to the present and help control the future. The long-dead saints who presided over churches and the ancestors of established dynasties were an especially crucial part of creative memory, Constance Brittain Bouchard contends. In Rewriting Saints and Ancestors she examines how such ex post facto accounts are less an impediment to the writing of accurate history than a crucial tool for understanding the Middle Ages.Working backward through time, Bouchard discusses twelfth-century scribes contemplating the ninth-century documents they copied into cartularies or reworked into narratives of disaster and triumph, ninth-century churchmen deliberately forging supposedly late antique documents as weapons against both kings and other churchmen, and sixth- and seventh-century Gallic writers coming to terms with an early Christianity that had neither the saints norTrade Review"Constance Bouchard has written a substantial, important, and complex book, the fruit of her deep engagement with a range of issues relating to early medieval memory in the area that would become France." * Amy Remensnyder, Brown University *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Preface Notes on Terminology Introduction Chapter 1. Cartularies: Remembering the Documentary Past Chapter 2. The Composition and Purpose of Cartularies Chapter 3. Twelfth-Century Narratives of the Past Chapter 4. Polyptyques: Twelfth-Century Monks Face the Ninth Century Chapter 5. An Age of Forgery Chapter 6. Remembering the Carolingians Chapter 7. Creation of a Carolingian Dynasty Chapter 8. Western Monasteries and the Carolingians Chapter 9. Eighth-Century Transitions: The Evidence from Burgundy Chapter 10. Great Noble Families in the Early Middle Ages Chapter 11. Early Frankish Monasticism Chapter 12. Remembering Martyrs and Relics in Sixth-Century Gaul Conclusion Appendix I. Monasteries in Burgundy and Southern Champagne Appendix II. Churches in Auxerre List of Abbreviations Notes Bibliography Index Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisFew legal events loom as large in early modern history as the trial of Galileo. Frequently cast as a heroic scientist martyred to religion or as a scapegoat of papal politics, Galileo undoubtedly stood at a watershed moment in the political maneuvering of a powerful church. But to fully understand how and why Galileo came to be condemned by the papal courts—and what role he played in his own downfall—it is necessary to examine the trial within the context of inquisitorial law.With this final installment in his magisterial trilogy on the seventeenth-century Roman Inquisition, Thomas F. Mayer has provided the first comprehensive study of the legal proceedings against Galileo. By the time of the trial, the Roman Inquisition had become an extensive corporatized body with direct authority over local courts and decades of documented jurisprudence. Drawing deeply from those legal archives as well as correspondence and other printed material, Mayer has traced the legal proTrade Review"Thomas F. Mayer concludes his deeply researched trilogy on the Roman Inquisition with a model forensic analysis of what he sees as the single trial process of Galileo, carefully analyzed and contextualized from the controversial 1616 precept to the procedure's crisp conclusion in 1633. His judgments about official incompetence, some 'off the rails' procedures, and Galileo's poor choice of advisors are welcome." * Christopher Black, University of Glasgow *Table of ContentsIntroduction Chapter 1. The Florentine Opposition Chapter 2. Formal Proceedings Begin (late 1614-mid-February 1616) Chapter 3. The Precept of 26 February 1616 Chapter 4. The Legal Meaning of 1616: The Jurisprudence and Use of Admonitions and Precepts Chapter 5. The Beginning of the End Chapter 6. The Second Phase of Galileo's Trial Begins Chapter 7. The End Conclusion Appendix: Frequency of Precepts List of Abbreviations Notes Selected Bibliography Index Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisIn 1395, a poor and illiterate French woman began to experience nightly visions of devils and angels. Was she a saint, a witch, an impostor, or a madwoman? Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski looks for answers in the historical and theological context of this troubled woman's life and times.Trade Review"Late-medieval accounts of illiterate peasants are few and far between, making this in-depth study of Ermine de Reims (c. 1347-96) and her otherworldly encounters a welcome addition to medieval studies . . . Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski explores the world of Ermine in broad strokes, telling Ermine's intriguing story and filling in the corners with context." * The Catholic Historical Review *"[A]ccessible and engaging . . . Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski, well-known for her work on late medieval sanctity, mysticism, and the intersection of religion and politics, has provided scholars with a penetrating account of the life of Ermine de Reims, whose visions constitute a limit case of orthodox belief and practice (particularly female and lay) that illuminates the uncertain boundary between the demonic and the divine." * The Journal of Religion *"Building on the interests established by her earlier work on the intersection between visionary culture and the religious, social, and political upheavals of the Great Schism, Blumenfeld-Kosinski shows how texts and figures long viewed or dismissed as marginal are in fact central to fourteenth century culture. [The Strange Case of Ermine de Reims] offers new perspective not only on the gendered history of classifying and diagnosing-even pathologizing-women's mystical experience, but on the confluences of these diagnostic impulses with the literary hermeneutic tradition. . . . Blumenfeld-Kosinski's nuanced, comparative approach to Ermine's Strange Case opens avenues for future research far beyond any single figure or text; and thanks to this marvelous book, others can take them up for years to come." * The Medieval Review *"The Strange Case of Ermine de Reims tells the story of an ordinary French peasant, a widow whose harrowing tale illumines many hot-button issues of the late Middle Ages-the Papal Schism, the history of witchcraft, the discernment of spirits, the social construction of mental illness. A near-contemporary of Joan of Arc, Ermine emerges from Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski's pages as a haunting figure that no reader will soon forget." * Barbara Newman, Northwestern University *"[Blumenfeld-Kosinski] facilitates our understanding of a range of issues central to late medieval religious thought and life, from the political consequences of the Great Schism to devotional ideas and practices, the essence of female sainthood, and emerging notions of witchcraft and demonic possession." * Parergon *Table of ContentsPrologue Chapter 1. Ermine and Her World Chapter 2. Ermine and Her Confessor, Jean le Graveur Chapter 3. Ermine's Piety and Devotional Practices Chapter 4. Ermine and Her Demons Chapter 5. Ermine and the Discernment of Spirits Epilogue Appendix. The Visions of Ermine de Reims Notes Bibliography Index Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisThe earliest and largest corpus of Christian writings on Islam was written in the Aramaic dialect of Syriac. Envisioning Islam shows how these previously neglected texts problematize modern perceptions of an exclusively hostile Christian reaction to Islam and revolutionize our understanding of the early Islamic world.Trade Review"Penn's book is a mighty achievement. In Envisioning Islam, scholars at last have a one-stop survey of some of the richest but most poorly understood Syriac sources for the early Islamic period, paired with clear-headed analysis and sober conclusions. . . . Penn's book succeeds in defamiliarizing the early history of Muslim-Christian relations and will undoubtedly set the stage for future research on the topic." * The Medieval Review *"Envisioning Islam offers a rich discussion with important implications to better situate early Islam into the cosmopolitan late antique Near East. Penn is to be commended for a valuable contribution to the field." * Intellectual History of the Islamicate World *"A sophisticated and well-conceived study of the evolving depictions of Muslims in Syriac texts that will shed new light on the socially complicated history of early Islam." * Sydney H. Griffith, The Catholic University of America *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1 Chapter 1. When Good Things Happened to Other People: Syriac Memories of the Islamic Conquests Chapter 2. A Different Type of Difference-Making: Syriac Narratives of Religious Identity Chapter 3. Using Muslims to Think With: Narratives of Islamic Rulers Chapter 4. Blurring Boundaries: The Continuum Between Early Christianity and Early Islam Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisFor much of the twentieth century, most religious and secular Jewish thinkers believed that they were witnessing a steady, ongoing movement toward secularization. Toward the end of the century, however, as scholars and pundits began to speak of the global resurgence of religion, the normalization of secularism could no longer be considered inevitable. Recent decades have seen the strengthening of Orthodox movements in the United States and in Israel; religious Zionism has grown and radically changed since the 1960s, and new and vibrant nondenominational Jewish movements have emerged.Secularism in Question examines the ways these contemporary revivals of religion prompt a reconsideration of many issues concerning Jews and Judaism from the early modern era to the present. Bringing together scholars of history, religion, philosophy, and literature, this volume illustrates how the categories of religious and secular have frequently proven far more permeable than fixed. The Trade Review"Ari Joskowicz and Ethan Katz have offered an embarrassment of riches in this fine volume . . . of collected essays of such uniformly high quality and originality . . . The overall virtue of this book is to challenge and revise a number of shopworn assumptions in the study of Jewish secularism. Rather than regarding the secularization of the Jews as solely the product of external forces, the authors here are attentive to the inner dynamics of this process. But they-and especially the editors in their introduction-are also aware of the need for a comparative approach to the subject." * Politics, Religion & Ideology *"This volume has an excellent subject and an important agenda . . . [It] aspires to e-imagine the field by challenging 'the very terms that animate many of the most contentious debates in contemporary Jewish life.' It is surprisingly successful in doing so." * Journal of Contemporary History *"This is an important book. It deals intelligently with the issues of secularism from many different perspectives and contexts and will be of great interest to students and scholars of modernization, Jewish studies, and religion." * Richard I. Cohen, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem *Table of ContentsIntroduction. Rethinking Jews and Secularism —Ari Joskowicz and Ethan Katz PART I. NARRATIONS Chapter 1. "Our Rabbi Baruch": Spinoza and Radical Jewish Enlightenment —Daniel B. Schwartz Chapter 2. Reading Mendelssohn in Late Ottoman Palestine: An Islamic Theory of Jewish Secularism —Jonathan Marc Gribetz Chapter 3. Tradition and the Hidden: Hannah Arendt's Secularization of Jewish Mysticism —Vivian Liska PART II. TRANSFORMATIONS Chapter 4. Messianism Without Messiah: Messianism, Religion, and Secularization in Modern Jewish Thought —Christoph Schulte Chapter 5. In the Name of the Devil: Reading Walter Benjamin's "Agesilaus Santander" —Galili Shahar Chapter 6. The Secular and Its Dissonances in Modern Jewish Literature —Michal Ben-Horin Chapter 7. Civil Society, Secularization, and Modernity Among Jews in Turn-of-the-Century Eastern Europe —Scott Ury Chapter 8. Secular French Nationhood and Its Discontents: Jews as Muslims and Religion as Race in Occupied France —Ethan Katz PART III. ADAPTATIONS Chapter 9. Galician Haskalah and the Discourse of Schwärmerei —Rachel Manekin Chapter 10. Secularism and Neo-Orthodoxy: Conflicting Strategies in Modern Orthodox Fiction —Eva Lezzi Chapter 11. Secularism and Nationalism: The Modern Halakhic Discourse on the Identity and Boundaries of the Jewish Community —Arye Edrei PART IV. NEW CONCEPTIONS: A FORUM Chapter 12. Between Supersessionism and Atavism: Toward a Neosecular View of Religion —David N. Myers Chapter 13. Secularism, the Christian Ambivalence Toward the Jews, and the Notion of Exile —Amnon Raz-Krakotzkin Chapter 14. "Eleven Calendars": Beyond Secular Time —Andrea Schatz Notes List of Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisIn a work based on a meticulous analysis of sources, many of them previously unexplored, Catherine M. Mooney upends the received account of Clare of Assisi's founding of the Order of San Damiano, or Poor Clares.Trade Review"Mooney's book accomplishes a rare feat: it is both a vital contribution to the study of Clare of Assisi and the religious worlds of which she is a part and an accessible case study of how the best and most careful work of historical scholarship in the study of religion is undertaken." * Journal of the American Academy of Religion *"Catherine Mooney has provided not only an invaluable handbook for the study of the Clarist rules but also a thought-provoking reappraisal of the traditional portrait of St Clare and the origins of the order that bears her name." * Parergon *"In this impressive display of scholarship, Catherine Mooney exposes some long-standing myths about Clare of Assisi and the historical context in which Clare lived, not only broadening the documentary sphere in which the lives of Clare and her sisters in religion are viewed, but also rethinking what the results of this increased scope mean." * Renaissance Quarterly *""Mooney's work is compelling and is an important contribution to Franciscan scholarship. As she demonstrates, penitential communities were diverse in the thirteenth century. However, Mooney also emphasizes that common among them was their insistence upon determining their own form of life amid interference from ecclesiastic authorities that sought to regularize them. Therefore, beyond the study of Clare and the penitential movement in Italy, the monograph also raises questions about the experiences of female penitential communities in other regions in medieval Europe, such as the Low Countries and France." * Medieval Feminist Forum *"[N]ot a traditional biography, Mooney's careful reading of the sources-about Clare herself, the origins of the Order of San Damiano, and the papacy's steadfast attempts to impose greater standardization and enclosure on female religious communities during the early thirteenth century-reveal a woman who was firmly committed to her faith, and determined to resist any attempts to prevent her from fulfilling her understanding of her vocation. Mooney scrutinizes a variety of sources-letters, papal documents, vitae, religious rules, and canonization testimonies-in order to better contextualize Clare and her contemporaries." * Speculum *"What makes Mooney’s book commendable is her meticulous scrutiny of the contemporary sources and the close reading of legal texts, chronicles, letters and the acts of the saint’s canonisation which result in a well-founded and reliable representation of Clare’s guidance of and her struggles for the religious life in San Damiano in the footsteps of St Francis and the Lesser Brothers." * Journal of Ecclesiasticl History *"Clare of Assisi and the Thirteenth-Century Church is a great gift to contemporary women religious, whether Franciscan or not. Too much of our actual history is smothered in the political wranglings of the clerical world and misrepresented by scholars who don’t ask biting questions (when will we stop confusing enforced conformity with reform?) but perpetuate tired old stories about our foremothers. This is the kind of thoughtful research we need from scholars today" * Magidtra *"[A] superb book about Clare of Assisi and the 1253 rule for mendicant women attributed to her. She shows herself to be a sympathetic reader of Clare’s life and writings. Catherine M. Mooney is also a historian with the audacity to challenge received readings and provide readers with a 'new narrative'...[A]n exemplary publication that provides a model of good scholarship and a firm understanding of an important figure." * The Historian *"Catherine M. Mooney’s study is researched, well-written, and responsibly balanced—an indispensable guide enabling a reader to navigate this turning point of the religious life of women." * Church History *"This book is absolutely needed for its depiction of Clare not as a woman destined to be the founder of the Order of San Damiano but as a woman caught in the middle of a struggle between the papacy and the larger grassroots reform movement of the vita apostolica." * Carolyn Muessig, University of Bristol *

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Book SynopsisJudaism is often described as a religion that tolerates, even celebrates arguments with God. In Pious Irreverence, Dov Weiss has written the first scholarly study of the premodern roots of this distinctively Jewish theology of protest, examining its origins and development in the rabbinic age (70 CE-800 CE).Trade Review"The question of God's injustice is eternal. In bringing us such a trove of sources and in laying them out in an ordered form, Weiss has provided not only a scholarly but also a theological gift." * Reviews in Religion & Theology *"Pious Irreverence is a well-conceived and highly original work that asks to what extent and in what way the human may confront divinity, considering the evident imperfections in divinely created reality. Dov Weiss makes a major contribution to the study of rabbinic literature and demonstrates remarkably wide expertise also in early Christian and Patristic texts, contemporary studies of Judaism and Christianity, and literary theory." * Marc Bregman, University of North Carolina, Greensboro *"In Pious Irreverence, Dov Weiss makes numerous important contributions: He traces the existence of an antiprotest tradition in rabbinic Judaism from the tannaitic period to the amoraic; he identifies fascinating differences between the ways Jewish and Christian antiprotestors quarantine biblical protests; and most importantly, he underscores the crucial role of the Tanhuma-Yelammedenu literature in radicalizing the protest tradition." * Tzvi Novick, University of Notre Dame *Table of ContentsChapter 1. Confrontation as Sin Chapter 2. From Sin to Virtue Chapter 3. Varieties of Confrontation Chapter 4. Confrontation as Ethics Chapter 5. The Humanization of God Chapter 6. Divine Concessions Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisIn Elf Queens and Holy Friars Richard Firth Green investigates an important aspect of medieval culture that has been largely ignored by modern literary scholarship: the omnipresent belief in fairyland.Taking as his starting point the assumption that the major cultural gulf in the Middle Ages was less between the wealthy and the poor than between the learned and the lay, Green explores the church''s systematic demonization of fairies and infernalization of fairyland. He argues that when medieval preachers inveighed against the demons that they portrayed as threatening their flocks, they were in reality often waging war against fairy beliefs. The recognition that medieval demonology, and indeed pastoral theology, were packed with coded references to popular lore opens up a whole new avenue for the investigation of medieval vernacular culture.Elf Queens and Holy Friars offers a detailed account of the church''s attempts to suppress or redirect belief in such tTrade Review"Much has been written on medieval fairies in the past twenty years or so, but in Elf Queens and Holy Friars Green succeeds triumphantly in bringing new insights and thoughtful analysis to their history and their metamorphoses into divergent forms, as the early modern world begins to take shape." * The Times Literary Supplement *"As a guide to the traditions of Britain and France, [Green's] can't be surpassed. This is cultural history from below, not the usual top-down perspective. . . . It is not only original, sensible and deeply researched but accessible. Not only medievalists will actively enjoy reading it." * London Review of Books *"This wonderful book is a rare example of work which is genuinely interdisciplinary, making an equal contribution to our understanding of medieval romance literature, Western Christian theology and medieval Western European cultural history. It does this by bringing together two different bodies of source material-the romances and the writings of medieval churchmen-in both of which the author is equally expert. The result is a whole series of exciting new insights, centred on the theme of fairyland as a contested site in a struggle between official and unofficial cultures in the high and late Middle Ages." * Time and Mind *"A new book by Richard Firth Green is always a significant event, and this one, surveying fairy beliefs in the Middle Ages, is set to become the work of first recourse on the subject. It is scholarly, meticulously researched beyond the limits of all the more familiar examples, and is in many respects a profoundly revisionary account of such beliefs. It deserves to be read not just by folklorists and critics of those medieval romances in which fairies figure, but by cultural, social, and intellectual historians, theologians, and historians of witchcraft." * Speculum *"Elf Queens and Holy Friars is a lucid, rich and engrossing book. Green sustains his case for the contingency and variety of medieval fairy beliefs, while also making a coherent and compelling argument about medieval clerical approaches to such beliefs. The study is likely to become a staple of reading lists across a number of areas of literary and cultural history; however, its appeal should extend well beyond the academy. Elf Queens and Holy Friars is a deeply learned book, but it wears that learning lightly; there is much here for readers new to this field to enjoy, not least the sheer entertainment value of many medieval fairy accounts." * Literature & History *"Although I have brushed up against suggestions of fairy lore and activity many times in the materials with which I work, I have taken them for granted up to now, which also means I did not think very hard about them. Reading this book has illuminated a large expanse of material much more deeply and intimately than I imagined possible." * Claire Fanger, Rice University *Table of ContentsIntroduction Chapter 1. Believing in Fairies Chapter 2. Policing Vernacular Belief Chapter 3. Incubi Fairies Chapter 4. Christ the Changeling Chapter 5. Living in Fairyland Postscript Notes Bibliography Index Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisThe Integrated Self is a book in which Stock continues his project of reading Augustine, and one in which he moves forward in new and perhaps unexpected directions.Trade Review"A refreshing and exciting literary exploration of the title's subject, the "integrated self." Stock models the ongoing importance of engaging with thinkers such as Augustine, Plotinus, and Paul as he cuts through disciplinary propriety in order to think with the ancients. The driving forces behind Stock's study are questions of enduring human interest: Who are we? How do we form ourselves, and one another, as happy, ethical selves? What resources does the ancient world offer to us for understanding ourselves?" * Reading Religion *"As Brian Stock's books on the themes of contemplation and the history of reading are some of the most important published in this subject area, he is, as it were, his own standard. He is one of only a handful of scholars in the field of medieval studies who take the project of close reading seriously." * Rachel Fulton Brown, University of Chicago *

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Book SynopsisIn The Virgin in Song, Thomas Arentzen explores the characterization of Mary in the songs of Romanos the Melodist, one of the greatest liturgical poets of Byzantium. Romanos's hymns shaped a figure, Arentzen argues, who related intimately to her flock in a formative period of Christian orthodoxy.Trade Review"Few interpreters demonstrate such refined poetic sensibilities as Thomas Arentzen does in his reading of Romanos's songs. His engaging-at times, daring-analysis exposes the paradox of portraying Mary as both an erotic virgin and an exemplar for connecting to Christ." * Georgia A. Frank, Colgate University *

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Book SynopsisWhen Jesus was five he killed a boy, or so reports the Infancy Gospel of Thomas. A little boy had run into Jesus by accident, bumping him on the shoulder, and Jesus took offense: Jesus was angry and said to him, ''You shall go no further on your way,'' and instantly the boy fell down and died. A second story recounts how Jesus transformed mud into living birds, while yet another has Joseph telling Mary to keep Jesus in the house so that no one else gets hurt. What was life really like in the household of Joseph, Mary, and little Jesus? The canon of the New Testament provides few details, but ancient Christians, wanting to know more, would turn to the texts we know as the Infancy Gospels.The Infancy Gospel of Thomas is a collection of stories from the mid-second century C.E. describing events in the life of Jesus between the ages of five and twelve. The Proto-gospel of James, also dating from the second century, focuses on Mary and likewise includes episodeTrade Review"The argument of this book is innovative and refreshing. And the book itself is an absolute pleasure to read. Alongside his survey of material from James and Thomas, Frilingos incorporates an impressive array of Greco-Roman sources, and the endnotes and bibliography show deep engagement with recent scholarship on Christian Apocrypha. This is a must-read for scholars of Christian Apocrypha in general and 'family gospels' in particular." * Chruch History and Religious Culture *"For scholars of early Christian literature, the book models a thoughtful, grounded approach to reconsidering familiar texts and recovering their latent theological richness with the help of new questions . . . Frilingos articulates with exceptional clarity why it is essential to consider seriously the relationship between the Proto-Gospel, the Infancy Gospel, and the canonical Gospels . . . Frilingos's work may achieve for the family gospels the kind of revitalization recent decades have seen in studies of the ancient Greek and Latin novels and the Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles." * The Journal of Religion *"A clever and delightful book. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph provides a fresh perspective on the infancy gospels by interpreting them instead as 'family gospels.' Reading them together as two family dramas as opposed to separate texts about Jesus or Mary, Christopher A. Frilingos wrestles with concepts such as the ancient household, fatherhood, education, and divine intervention that are frequently overlooked in scholarly research on these documents." * Caroline Schroeder, University of the Pacific *Table of ContentsPreface A Note on Abbreviations Introduction Chapter 1. Family Matters Chapter 2. Made You Look Chapter 3. Wanting What's Best Chapter 4. Carnal Ignorance Chapter 5. Parents Just Don't Understand Afterword. Together Again Notes Bibliography Index Acknowledgments

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