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This volume demonstrates the intricate literary structure and high poetic quality of the book of Nahum and represents a significant break-through in the study of Hebrew prosody with important implications for understanding the formation of the canon of the Hebrew Bible.

An acclaimed scholar presents a fundamentally new conception of the relationship between Christianity and the Paganism of Greece and Rome.

This pathbreaking book explores in plentiful detail the symbolic meanings of the serpent from 40,000 BCE to the present, and from diverse regions in the world. In doing so it emphasizes the utter creativity of the biblical authors’ use of symbols and argues that we must, today, reexamine our own archetypal conceptions with comparable creativity.

This original and captivating book offers important insights into the development of angelology, the origins of Christology, and popular western spirituality. In doing so, it provokes stimulating theological reflection on key existential questions.

In this volume, New Testament scholar Joseph A. Fitzmyer provides a fresh translation of the Pauline epistle along with extensive commentary and notes, a complete outline, a bibliography for further research, and useful indexes.

With original insights and deeply researched commentary on this New Testament book, John Reumann offers both classical approaches and new methods of understanding social and rhetorical issues in Paul’s letters to the Philippians.

In this eagerly anticipated fourth volume in the Marginal Jew Series, John P. Meier corrects misconceptions about Mosaic Law in Jesus’ time and addresses the teachings of Jesus on major legal topics like divorce, oaths, the Sabbath, purity rules, and the various love commandments in the Gospels.

In this definitive book on the real, historical Jesus, one of our foremost biblical scholars meticulously sifts the evidence of 2,000 years to portray neither a rural magician nor a figure of obvious power, but a marginal Jew.

This book is the second volume in John Meier's masterful trilogy on the life of Jesus. In it he continues his quest for the answer to the greatest  puzzle of modern religious scholarship: Who was  Jesus?  Meier brings to life the story of a man, Jesus,  who by his life and teaching gradually made himself  ma...

No man is an island, not even Jesus, as John Meier writes in Companions and Competitors, the third installment of his four-part series, A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus. Here, Meier explains his conviction that "No human being is adequately understood if he or she is considered in isolation from other human beings." His findings, particul...

Canonical scriptures were created over many centuries by disparate authors working in a variety of genres. Even so, they are unified by an overarching concern for the divine covenants and what they mean for God’s people, shows Scott Hahn in this deeply researched volume.

This book completes Michael V. Fox’s comprehensive study of the book of Proverbs. The author translates and explains in accessible language the meaning and literary qualities of the sayings and poems comprising the final chapters, with special attention to other wisdom books, particularly from Egypt.

In this detailed investigation of the final chapters of the Gospel of Mark, Joel Marcus situates Mark’s description of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection within the historical, political, and religious contexts of the day, emphasizing in particular the Jewish revolt against the Romans in 66-73 C.E.

As the most accurate and readable version of the Book of Mormon ever published, Royal Skousen’s corrected text represents a work of remarkable dedication and a landmark in American religious scholarship.

This book makes available William Tyndale's sixteenth-century English translation of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testament) and the historical books of the Old Testament, translations that laid the foundation for all subsequent English bibles. This edition includes modernized spelling, Tyndale's introduction and notes, and an introduction by David Daniell that explores Tyndale'...

Printed in Germany in 1534 and smuggled into England for distribution, Tyndale's masterly translation of the New Testament outraged the clerical establishment by giving the laity direct access to the word of God for the first time. Despite its suppression, it ultimately formed the basis of all English bibles—including much...

With wit and wisdom seven acclaimed scholars in sociology, history, science, and theology examine the debate between creationists and evolutionists and the teaching of evolution in America’s schools. This volume marks the one-hundredth anniversary of The Terry Lecture Series.

This extraordinary work is the first biography in a generation of one of the world's most important scientists, Robert Boyle—a pioneer of the modern experimental method, the champion of a novel mechanical view of nature, and a penetrating thinker regarding philosophical and theological issues related to sc...

In this important book, an eminent scholar seeks to reconcile accounts of the world given in the natural sciences and religion by examining initiatives in cognitive science and evolutionary biology on one hand and theology on the other.

A world-renowned physicist-theologian provides a new framework for dialogue between science and religion, using recent scientific inquiry into relativity, evolutionary theory, life after death, and many other issues as a foundation on which to build a model of Christian belief structure.

Despite the differences of their subject matter, science and theology have a cousinly relationship, John Polkinghorne argues in this thought-provoking book. From a unique perspective as both theoretical physicist and Anglican priest, he uncovers an array of significant parallels between quantum physics and theology.

 

Reality is multi-layered, consisting not only of the scientific processes of the natural world but also the personal dimension of human nature, asserts quantum physicist/Anglican priest John Polkinghorne in his latest book. His integrated view of reality draws on insights both scientific and religious to expand our understanding of the nature and complexity of reality.

 

John Polkinghorne brings unique qualifications to his exploration of the possibilities of believing in God in an age of science: he is internationally known as a theoretical physicist and as a theologian. In this thought-provoking book, Polkinghorne focuses on the collegiality between science and theology, contending that the inquiries of these "intellectual cousins" are parallel.

One of our great theologians, also a physicist, here sets a new agenda for religion’s dialogue with science. John Polkinghorne approaches the dialogue from a little-explored perspective in which theology shapes the discussion, and he argues convincingly that science and theology can inform one another in significant ways.

In this captivating book, one of the most highly-regarded scientist-theologians of our time offers a thought-provoking exploration of the interaction between science and theology. John Polkinghorne defends the place of theology in the university, discusses the role of revelation in religion, and focuses closely on reconciling what science can say about the processes of the universe with theology&#...

Do we live in a world that makes sense, not just now but forever? If the universe is going to end in collapse or decay, can it really be a divine creation? Is there a credible hope of a destiny beyond death? In this engaging book, a leading scientist-theologian draws on ideas from science, scripture, and theology to address these and other important questions.

Long before Darwin published his On the Origin of Species, scientific discoveries and developments threatened religious beliefs based on the literal truth of the Bible. This book looks at these conflicts through the writings of Enlightenment thinkers, casting interesting light on the history of ideas and on such contemporary controversies as creationism and in...

In this sensitive, imaginative, and original work, Gary Anderson shows how changing conceptions of sin and forgiveness lay at the very heart of the biblical tradition.

In this provocative book, David Bentley Hart dismantles distorted religious “histories” offered up by Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, and other contemporary critics of religion. He counters their polemics with a brilliant account of Christianity and its message of human charity as the most revolutionary movement in all of Western history.

Theologian, ethicist, and political analyst, Reinhold Niebuhr was a towering figure of twentieth-century religious thought. In this important book, the best of Niebuhr's essays have been brought together for the first time. Selected, edited and introduced by Robert McAfee Brown—a student and friend of Niebuhr's and himself a distinguished theologian—the works included here testify to t...

This new edition of John Henry Newman’s celebrated Apológia includes a powerfully revisionist introduction in which historian Frank M. Turner challenges previous interpretations of Newman’s conversion to Roman Catholicism and of the Apológia itself. The book also features six of Newman’s important and illuminating Anglican se...

In this classic and deeply insightful book, one of the world’s most eminent philosophers describes the dilemma of modern man and points a way to the conquest of the problem of anxiety. This edition includes a new introduction by Peter J. Gomes that reflects on the impact of this book in the years since it was written.

In this classic work, the eminent Catholic philosopher Étienne Gilson deals with one of the most important and perplexing metaphysical problems: the relation between our notion of God and demonstrations of his existence. Gilson examines Greek, Christian, and modern philosophy as well as the thinking that has grown out of our age of science in this fundamental analysis of the problem of God.

This book is the first to systematically examine Leibniz’s scattered writings on two mysteries of Christian thought, the Trinity and Incarnation. Contrary to previous views of Leibniz, the philosopher emerges as a thinker receptive to traditional Christian theology and committed to defending the legitimacy of truths beyond the full grasp of human reason....

This volume presents the correspondence between Gottfried Leibniz, one of Europe’s most influential Enlightenment scholars, and Batholomew Des Bosses, a Jesuit philosopher keenly interested in Leibniz’s philosophy. With new translations of the letters and an authoritative introduction, the book makes a unique contribution to Leibniz scholarship.

Dr. Carl Gustav Jung, author of some of the most provocative hypotheses in modern psychology, describes what he regards as an authentic religious function in the unconscious mind.  Using a wealth of material from ancient and medieval Gnostic, alchemistic, and occultistic literature, he discusses the religious symbolism of unconscious processes and the possible continuity of religious forms th...

In this stimulating book a distinguished theologian reflects on the development of atheism from the beginnings of modernity to the present day, offering a new interpretation of the origins of atheistic consciousness.

One of the founders of existentialism, the eminent philosopher Karl Jaspers here presents for the general reader an introduction to philosophy. In doing so, he also offers a lucid summary of his own philosophical thought. In Jaspers’ view, the source of philosophy is to be found “in wonder, in doubt, in a sense of forsakenness,” and the philosophical quest is a process of continu...

What is the common bond that links different religious traditions? Discussing a wide range of Western and Eastern religions, one of the world's most prominent philosophers of religion presents an interpretation of religions as culturally conditioned responses to a universal divine reality. John Hick's groundbreaking work provides not only a foundation for religious affirmation but also a framework...

Nearly five centuries after Thomas More wrote Utopia, his book continues to address issues of powerful contemporary concern—religious pluralism, women’s rights, state-sponsored education, colonialism, and justified warfare. Clarence Miller’s new translation of this foundational text in philosophy and political theory reflects with unprecedented accuracy the sense and tone ...

This readable and engaging book by an acclaimed historian is the only wide-ranging synthesis devoted to the French experience of religious change during the period after the wars of religion up to the early Enlightenment.

The Italian Inquisition, or Holy Office, was established in 1542, stimulated partly by the earlier Spanish operation. While Spain’s “black legend” affected opinions of the Inquisition in Italy, this pioneering book shows that there were significant differences between their operations, targets, and casualties.

 ...

This book, the first comprehensive treatment in English of the ideology and practice of the Inquisitional censors of Mexico, shatters long-held beliefs about the Inquisition. Martin Nesvig challenges the idea that the Inquisition was a monolithic institution and demonstrates how the persecution of heresy also grew into the persecution of books.

A controversial reassessment of Mary Tudor’s efforts to eradicate Protestantism and restore Catholicism in mid-sixteenth-century England, written by a leading authority on the history of Christianity.

This stimulating history of early Christianity, the first full account for over forty years, revisits the extraordinary birth of a world religion, and gives a new slant on a familiar story.

In this bold new narrative history Steve Pincus argues that England’s Glorious Revolution was a fundamental turning point in the making of the modern world.

This biography of Joan of Arc paints a vivid portrait of the teenaged French peasant girl whose charisma and sheer force of will electrified those around her and struck terror into the hearts of the English soldiers and leaders.

What was it like to participate in the Crusades? This vividly written book recreates for the first time the experience of medieval European crusaders, from the elation of taking up the cross, through years of staggering privation, to the difficult adjustment upon returning home.

This sweeping, global history explores how the Virgin Mary, scarcely mentioned in the Gospels, rose to become our most prominent female figure. The book is groundbreaking in scope, encompassing sixteen centuries and a wealth of historical sources and visual materials from Christian cultures around the world.

 This engaging and at times heartbreaking book looks at evangelicalism through the lives of nine public figures who embraced this religious tradition, but later repudiated it. The author recounts the faith journeys of George Eliot, Vincent van Gogh, James Baldwin, and others to understand better their negotiations of faith and evangelicalism itself.

This brilliant new portrait of Protestant reformer John Calvin reveals his human complexity, the sources of his convictions, and how he inspired and transformed the sixteenth-century world. The book captures a man at once arrogant, charismatic, unforgiving, generous, and shrewd.

In this major new account of the fall of the Roman Empire, prizewinning author Adrian Goldsworthy examines the painful centuries of the superpower’s decline. Bringing history to life through the stories of the men, women, heroes, and villains involved, the author uncovers surprising lessons about the rise and fall of great nations.

Crushed by the Romans in the first century A.D., the ancient Druids of Britain left almost no reliable evidence behind. This captivating book by a world expert examines what is known of the Druids, then explores how and why they have been repeatedly reinvented to play varying roles in English, Scottish, and Welsh history.

This elegantly written book is the definitive account of Paracelsus the Great, preeminent physician, astrologer, occultist, and radical activist of the early Reformation.

This groundbreaking book is the first to investigate the idea of religious tolerance in Spain, Portugal, and their New World colonies during the era of the Inquisition. Surprisingly, a variety of common people believed in freedom of conscience and rejected the exclusive validity of the Catholic Church. The author explores why this was so and how the New World influen...

This book surveys the history of an ideologically-charged site in Moscow where Russian rulers since Alexander I have planned, constructed, and destroyed monuments of colossal proportions—the magnificent Cathedral of Christ the Savior, the unbuilt Palace of Soviets, the world’s largest heated outdoor swimming pool, and a recent reconstruction of the cathedral.

 

This groundbreaking book examines slavery in the Islamic Middle East from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth century and along the way offers fresh perspectives on bondage throughout the world. By listening to the unheard voices of enslaved peoples, Ehud Toledano arrives at new ways of thinking about both the enslaver and the enslaved.

This remarkable four-volume set assembles the principal creeds and confessions of the Christian church, from biblical times to the present, and places them in their historical and theological context. The set includes over 225 texts with translations from many languages, introductions, commentary, and notes for each creed and confession, an introductory volume by Jaroslav Pelikan, and a CD-ROM.

In this remarkable book, one of the world’s leading theologians offers insights into the history and significance of Christian creeds. Jaroslav Pelikan addresses essential questions about the Christian tradition: the origins of creeds; their function; their political role; how they relate to Christian institutions, worship, and service; and how they help to explain the major divisions of the...

An eminent humanist scholar here examines the traditions of interpretation of the two “great codes” we live by: the Bible and the American Constitution. Jaroslav Pelikan compares the methods of official interpreters—the Christian Church and the Supreme Court—demonstrating how the approaches of each can illuminate the other.

One of the most highly regarded works of intellectual history of the past decade, Jesus Through the Centuries is an original and compelling study of the impact of Jesus on cultural, political, social, and economic history. Noted historian and theologian Jaroslav Pelikan reveals how the image of Jesus created by each successive epoch—from rabbi in the first century to liberator in the ...

This beautiful volume is adapted from Jaroslav Pelikan's classic work Jesus Through the Centuries. In this wise, informative, and sumptuously illustrated book, Pelikan discusses how each age created Jesus in its own image, discovering in his life and teachings the answers to fundamental questions of human existence and destiny.

Jaroslav Pelikan, world-renowned historian and author of the best-selling Jesus Through the Centuries and many other books, examines all of Christian history and culture to create the most complete portrait of the Virgin Mary ever written. Pelikan assesses the ways Protestants, Catholics, Jews, and Muslims, artists, musicians, and writers, and men and women everywhere have depicted, venerat...

The momentous encounter between Christian thought and Greek philosophy reached a high point in fourth-century Byzantium, and the principal actors were four Greek-speaking Christian thinkers whose collective influence on the Eastern Church was comparable to that of Augustine on Western Latin Christendom. In this erudite and informative book, a distinguished scholar provides the first coherent accou...

Two highly respected religious scholars, one a Christian and the other a Jew, explore the origins of the belief in resurrection. They clarify what is surprising to many—that the Jews believed in resurrection long before the emergence of Christianity—and they discuss deep and meaningful connections between their two faiths.

This provocative volume explores the origins of the Jewish doctrine of the resurrection of the dead. Contrary to the widely accepted modern view, the ancient rabbis were keenly committed to the belief that at the end of time, God would restore the deserving dead to life, argues eminent theologian Jon D. Levenson.

The near-sacrifice and miraculous restoration of a beloved son is a central but largely overlooked theme in both Judaism and Christianity, celebrated in biblical texts on Isaac, Ishmael, Jacob, Joseph, and Jesus. In this highly original book, Jon D. Levenson explores how this notion of child sacrifice constitutes an overlooked bond between the two religions. 

The Second Crusade (1145-1149) was an extraordinarily bold, but largely unsuccessful, attempt to defeat “unbelievers” in the Holy Land, Iberia, and northeastern Europe. This definitive book casts new light on the origins, planning, and execution of the Second Crusade, uncovering its profound impact on both Europe and the Middle East.

Jonathan Riley-Smith here provides a comprehensive history of the Crusades: an account of the theology of violence behind the Crusades, the major Crusades, the experience of crusading, and the crusaders themselves. With a wealth of fascinating detail, Riley-Smith brings to life these stirring expeditions and the politics and personalities behind them. His book will be the standard and authoritativ...

This is the story of a battle for a unified faith that plunged Spain into 350 years of terror. Joseph Pérez explores the frightening history of the Spanish Inquisition—its interrogations, torture, and executions; the inner workings of its councils and courts; its methods of policing information and enforcing behavior—as well as its long-term impact on the nation.

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, thousands of women confessed to being witches and were put to death. Why were older women the most frequent victims? Why did they confess? This book is a gripping account of the pursuit, interrogation, torture, and burning of witches, particularly in Germany, as well as a deeper exploration of the psychology of witch-hunting in modern culture.

In this book H. C. Erik Midelfort delves deeply into eighteenth-century records to explore the story of German Catholic priest Johann Joseph Gassner’s extraordinary powers of exorcism. The author describes the thousands of healings, the official efforts to curb Gassner, the public controversy, and the surprising role of magic and belief in an age of scientific enlightenment.

This intriguing book by a master historian explores the ancient story of Noah and the Flood—its origins in pre-Biblical culture, its development in Western thought over 2,000 years, and its fascination for theologians, scientists, and even psychoanalysts. Generously illustrated throughout, the book includes compelling accounts of individuals who endorsed or rejected the story, and of painter...

In this engrossing book, the author of the classic work The Pursuit of the Millennium investigates the origins of apocalyptic faith—the belief in a perfect future, when the forces of good are victorious over the forces of evil. Norman Cohn takes us back two thousand years to the world views of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and India, the innovations of Iranian and Jewish prophets and sa...

This fascinating book explores Constantine’s remarkable building program in Rome, focusing on such monuments as the Arch of Constantine, the Basilica Constantiniana, and the Tomb of St. Peter. The author highlights with new clarity the crucial role the emperor played in Rome’s transition from its pagan, imperial past to its future as a Christian capital.

How did Jesus of Nazareth become the Christ of the Christian tradition? And why did the early Christian communities develop different theological images of Jesus? In this exciting new book, Paula Fredriksen answers this question by placing the various canonical images of Jesus within their historical context—the Hellenistic and Judaic cultures from which the Christian communities grew. Caref...

Why during the lifetime of Augustus (63 b.c. to a.d. 14) did Roman civilization spread so quickly, influencing art and architecture, religion, law, local speech, and city design throughout the ancient world? In his latest book Ramsay MacMullen argues that this acculturation was due to eager imitation by conquered peoples ably served by Romans’ effective techniques of mass production and stan...

In this original book, an eminent historian explores how early Christian doctrine was determined by majority vote in church councils during the third to sixth centuries. Ramsey MacMullen brings the reader directly into council chambers, where rank and file bishops engage in debate, then vote to establish a single Christian orthodoxy.

In this book, MacMullen investigates the transition from paganism to Christianity between the fourth and eighth centuries. He reassesses the triumph of Christianity, contending that it was neither tidy nor quick, and he shows that the two religious systems were both vital during an interactive period that lasted far longer than historians have previously believed.

This is the first book to focus on the beliefs and practices common to all non-Christian religions of the Empire. After examining the successes of the more dynamic cults and the effects on paganism of the conversion of the Constantine, MacMullen concludes that the conversion of the Empire to Christianity was not as inevitable and complete as it has seemed up until now.

Prominent historian Ramsay MacMullen here offers a new perspective on the decline and fall of Rome. MacMullen argues that a key factor in Rome’s fall was the steady loss of focus and control over government as its aims were thwarted for private gain by high-ranking bureaucrats and military leaders. Written in an informal and lively style, his book—the culmination of years of research a...

How did the early Christian church manage to win its dominant place in the Roman world? In his newest book, an eminent historian of ancient Rome examines this question from a secular—rather than an ecclesiastical—viewpoint.

This important book offers the first comprehensive history of religious dualism, the doctrine that cosmos and man are constant battlegrounds for the forces of good and evil and their supernatural protagonists. Yuri Stoyanov traces crucial stages in the evolution of dualism from its early expression in late Egyptian religion and the revelations of Zoroaster to the revival of the “Great Heresy...

This magisterial book provides an analysis of the course of Western intellectual history between A.D. 400 and 1400. The book is arranged in two parts: the first surveys the comparative modes of thought and varying success of Byzantine, Latin-Christian, and Muslim cultures, and the second takes the reader from the twelfth-century revival of learning to the high Middle Ages and beyond, the period in...

How did the Holy Grail come to form the centerpiece of a story about a knight in King Arthur’s court? In this fascinating book Joseph Goering explores the possible sources of this influential tale that originated with Chrétien de Troyes, and ultimately links the legend to medieval paintings in the Spanish Pyrenees which depict the Virgin Mary with a radiant bowl.

This lively history of the rise of Methodism charts the development of the movement from its unpromising origins in England in the 1730s to its major international importance by the 1880s. The book explores Methodism’s phenomenal growth in the British Isles, America, and around the globe, and the complex reasons for its wide-ranging appeal.

Written by one of the world's greatest authorities on Martin Luther, this is the definitive biography of the central figure of the Protestant Reformation.

This wide-ranging book examines the development of intellectual culture across the breadth of Europe between about 1350 and 1550, providing fresh perspectives on the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the nature of each. Anthony Levi analyzes intellectual developments in the works of Erasmus, Luther, Calvin, Marsilio Ficino, Thomas More, and many others, and he considers the full sweep of religious...

In this vivid and perceptive exploration of the enduring conflict in Ireland and the people who sustain it, Marcus Tanner contends that the roots of “the troubles” are inescapably religious. Through detailed research into the Irish past and a deep personal knowledge of Ireland today, Tanner shows that Ireland’s persistent conflict can only be understood in the context of five cen...

Casting an entirely new light on England’s break with Rome, this masterful book reveals Henry VIII as a prime mover of religious policy during twenty critical years in English history. G. W. Bernard focuses on how and why the king was thinking as he was and shows that Henry was no mere pawn or bewildered believer, but a deliberate, ruthless, and brilliant strategist.

Although the prestige of the Enlightenment has declined in recent years, this book argues that it was a more complex phenomenon than either its detractors or advocates assume. The Enlightenment includes rationalist as well as antirationalist tendencies, a critique of traditional morality and religion, and even the beginning of a moral renewal and spiritual revival.

The Enlightenment, considered an age of rationalism, is not normally associated with miracles. In this intriguing book, however, Jane Shaw presents accounts of miracles among ordinary worshippers and reactions to them in early modern England. She arrives at new conclusions about the role of ordinary people in the development of Enlightenment thought.

Here a distinguished American historian challenges the belief that the eighteenth century was essentially modern in its temper. In crystalline prose Carl Becker demonstrates that the period commonly described as the Age of Reason was, in fact, very far from that; that Voltaire, Hume, Diderot, and Locke were living in a medieval world, and that these philosophers “demolished the Heavenly City...

Surviving copies of the Book of Hours, the most personal and widely used book of the later Middle Ages, offer precious clues to the lives of their owners and the times in which they lived. Religious historian Eamon Duffy examines these prayer books and the messages and jottings in their margins for insights into an era of great religious and social change.

This engrossing book encompasses the extraordinary history of the papacy, from its beginnings nearly two thousand years ago to the present day. In this new edition, the final chapter has been expanded to cover the last years of John Paul II and the election of Benedict XVI.

 

This prize-winning account of the pre-Reformation church recreates lay people’s experience of religion in fifteenth-century England. Eamon Duffy shows that late medieval Catholicism was neither decadent nor decayed, but was a strong and vigorous tradition, and that the Reformation represented a violent rupture from a popular and theologically respectable religious system. For this edition, D...

In this classic work, Wayne A. Meeks analyzes the earliest extant documents of Christianity—the letters of Paul—to describe the tensions and the texture of life of the first urban Christians. In a new introduction, he describes the evolution of the field of New Testament scholarship over the past twenty years, including new developments in fields such as archaeology and social history.

This wise and eloquent book describes the formative years of Christianity when Christian beliefs and practices shaped their unique moral order. Wayne Meeks illuminates the process of socialization that produced the early forms of Christian morality, showing what is distinctive about the Christian viewpoint and what is similar to the moral components of Greco-Roman or Jewish thought.

In this eloquent introduction to early Christian thought, eminent religious historian Robert Louis Wilken examines the tradition that such figures as St. Augustine, Gregory of Nyssa, and others set in place. These early thinkers constructed a new intellectual and spiritual world, Wilken shows, and they can still be heard as living voices in the modern world.

This book, which includes a new preface by the author, offers an engrossing portrayal of the early years of the Christian movement from the perspective of the Romans.

This volume contains a wide-ranging English-language collection of Savonarola’s works. Demonstrating the extent of the Dominican friar’s impact on the debates of the Italian Renaissance, the book includes his sermons and treatises on pastoral ministry, prophesy, politics, moral reform, and excommunication, and his final writings before dying at the stake.

Preeminent classicist Mary Lefkowitz brings fresh insights to the mythology of ancient Greece, demonstrating that these stories are not only entertaining but also offer crucial lessons about human experience. They spoke to ancient audiences—and can speak to us—about the meaning of divinity, the nature of justice, and the limitations of human knowledge.

This delightful book offers a rare glimpse of life in a remote sixteenth-century English village during the dramatic changes of the Reformation. Through vividly detailed parish records kept from 1520 to 1574 by the Sir Christopher Trychay, the garrulous priest of Morebath, we see how a tiny Catholic community rebelled, was punished, and reluctantly accepted Protestantism under the demands of the E...

A renowned historian here presents a new view of the notorious Spanish Inquisition, arguing that there was less terror, bigotry, and persecution associated with it than has been previously believed. Based on thirty years of research, the book will revolutionize further study in the field.

Isolated islands in the northernmost reaches of Russia, Solovki has been the site of a beautiful medieval monastery, a religious rebellion and massacre, a prison, a major place of pilgrimage, and a Gulag camp. This riveting book tells the story of Solovki, in the process portraying the tragedies and triumphs of the Russian past.

This sweeping book charts the history of Calvinism across Europe, from the birth of the Reformed tradition in Switzerland in the sixteenth century to the unraveling of orthodoxy in the seventeenth. Philip Benedict addresses the causes of Calvinism’s remarkable expansion, the theological debates around Reformed doctrine, the inner workings of diverse national churches, the contributions of gr...

This timely and original book examines the increasing influence of evangelical Christians in recent American politics and elections. The author explores contemporary strains of evangelical theology that have led some groups to embrace radical, progressive activism while others ally themselves with the religious right and the Republican Party.

This book draws on newly opened archives to recount the full story of the life and achievements of reformer Thomas L. Kane—abolitionist, women’s rights advocate, Civil War general, and, though not a Mormon himself, indefatigable defender of the religious rights of Mormons.

In the mid-1700s, an outbreak of religious revivals shook American colonial society. This book provides a definitive history of these revivals, called the First Great Awakening, and shows how the evangelical movement’s radical notions of the spiritual equality of all people encouraged the democratic style that later came to characterize the American republic.

Thomas Kidd explores the religious history of colonial New England during a period that witnessed the end of Puritanism and the emergence of a revivalist religious movement and global evangelical awakenings.

This pathbreaking book tells the story of American metaphysical religion more fully than it has ever been told before, along the way revising the entire panorama of American religious history. Catherine L. Albanese argues that metaphysical religion has been more influential than previously recognized and that it offers key insights into mainstream American religion.

This book is the first to explore the profound impact of the Bible on African American culture and history, from the colonial era to the present. Connecting hip-hop, soul, sermons, and a wide range of other arts to the Bible, Allen Callahan shows how certain biblical themes have helped African Americans deal with extraordinary injustice and find a collective identity.

 

In the two decades prior to the Civil War, the Hutchinson Family Singers of New Hampshire emerged as America’s most popular musical act. This engaging book tells the Hutchinsons’ story and documents their contributions to abolition and temperance, to the transformation of American culture, and to the history of the American protest song.

In this book Nathan O. Hatch offers a provocative reassessment of religion and culture in the early days of the American republic, arguing that during this period American Christianity was democratized and common people became powerful actors on the religious scene. Examining five distinct traditions or mass movements that emerged early in the nineteenth century—the Christian movement, Metho...

This book is the most comprehensive survey of early American Christian theology ever written, and a major contribution to American intellectual history. It encompasses scores of American theological traditions, schools of thought, and thinkers active from 1636 to 1865 and considers the social and institutional settings for religious thought during this period.

This classic work, winner of the 1973 National Book Award in Philosophy and Religion and Christian Century’s choice as the Religious Book of the Decade (1979), is now issued with a new chapter by noted religious historian David Hall, who carries the story of American religious history forward to the present day.

This groundbreaking book tells the story of Joseph Hurley, the American priest who became a Vatican diplomat, a witness to Pope Pius XII’s behind-the-scenes debates on Nazism and the Holocaust, and a participant in secret dealings between the U.S. and the Vatican from the 1930s through the early years of the Cold War.

In this absorbing book, George McKenna ranges across the entire panorama of United States history to track the development of American patriotism. Shaped by the Puritan belief in a providential “errand,” America’s unique patriotism has influenced the nation in both positive and negative ways, sometimes uniting and sometimes dividing her people.

This book uncovers the stories of hundreds of English pilgrims who came to the New World in the 1630s but decided not to stay. Why did they come, and what prompted their return? The extensive original research for the book provides illuminating information on the colonial experiment in the New World as well as the religious and political tumults in the Old.

In this compelling history of the California Franciscan missions and their impact on the Indians they sought to convert, James A. Sandos offers a balanced assessment of the missions’ tensions, conflicts, accomplishments, and limitations, focusing primarily on the religious conflicts between the two groups.

This groundbreaking book tells the “upstairs-downstairs” story of plantation life in coastal Georgia from 1805 to 1869. Addressing not only the history of plantation owner Charles Colcock Jones and his family, historian Erskine Clarke also explores the experiences of the family slaves, offering deep insight into the nature of oppression and how African-American slaves struggled against...

These collected sermons, the reflections of some of America’s most prestigious religious figures, were delivered during Yale University’s Tercentennial celebrations in 2001. William Willimon, William Sloane Coffin, Barbara Brown Taylor, and others offer valuable insights into the moral, social, and political nature of our time.

This landmark book—the first biography of a controversial and influential religious figure—describes the remarkable life of the Rev. William Sloane Coffin Jr., the premier voice of northern religious liberalism from the 1960s through the 1980s and a supporter of civil rights, the anti-Vietnam War movement, disarmament, and gay rights.

In this groundbreaking and timely history, an eminent historian of religion chronicles America’s struggle to fulfill the promise of religious toleration enshrined in our Constitution. William Hutchison shows that as Catholics, Mormons, Jews, and adherents of other world religions have come forward to challenge the Protestant mainstream, Americans have expanded their understanding of what it ...

This insightful new conceptualization of American political history demonstrates that—despite the clear separation of church and state—religion lies at the heart of American politics. From the Puritan founding to the present day, the American story is a moral epic, James Morone says, and while moral fervor has inspired the dream of social justice it has also ignited our fiercest social...

This final volume in The Works of Jonathan Edwards publishes for the first time Edwards’ “Catalogue,” a notebook he kept of books of interest, especially titles he hoped to acquire, and entries from his “Account Book,” a ledger in which he noted books loaned to family, parishioners, and fellow clergy. These two records, along with several shorter documents pres...

This extensive volume covers the final fifteen years of Jonathan Edwards’s preaching and includes some of his greatest sermons, among them the Farewell Sermon to his Northampton congregation. Edwards deals with topics ranging from the spiritual role of youth in the community to the war with the French and their Indian allies.

This unusual volume presents the entire contents of Jonathan Edwards’s “Blank Bible,” a leather-bound manuscript containing an interleaved printed edition of the King James Bible in which the theologian penned more than five thousand notes and entries over three decades.

This inaugural volume in The Works of Jonathan Edwards is his major contribution to theology and stands as a leading document on Calvinist thought.  Mr. Ramsey’s introduction provides a fresh analysis of Edwards’ theological position, includes a study of his life and the intellectual issues in the America of his time, and examines the problem of free will in the philosophic...

This volume contains Edwards’ most mature and persistent attempt to judge the validity of the religious development in eighteenth-century America known as the Great Awakening. In developing criteria for such judgment he attacked at the same time one of the fundamental questions facing all religion: how to distinguish genuine from spurious piety?

Interpreting the Great Awakening of the eighteenth century was in large part the work of Jonathan Edwards; whose writings on the subject defined the revival tradition in America. Moving from sensitive descriptions of "the Surprising work of God" in conversion to a consuming quest for the essence of true religion, and threading his way through mounting controversies over "errors in doctrine and dis...

Jonathan Edwards, one of the great thinkers in the history of American religion, was first and foremost a preacher and pastor. This collection of fifteen sermons, four of which have never before been published, represents the major themes of Edwards’ preaching and reflects the stages of a life dedicated to experiencing and understanding spiritual truth.

Prepared by editors of the distinguished series The Works of Jonathan Edwards, this authoritative anthology includes selected treatises, sermons, and autobiographical material by early America's greatest theologian and philosopher.

Jonathan Edwards, a towering figure in the history of American theology, was both a great American and a brilliant Christian. This definitive biography draws on newly available sources to reveal how the internationally famous preacher was shaped by cultural and religious battles of his time and how he struggled to reconcile his Puritan heritage with the secular world emerging out of the Enlightenm...

This book traces the history of the Bible from the eleventh century, when it was available only to the clerical elite, to our own time, when it is a source of guidance and inspiration to people in all walks of life. Endlessly retailored to meet changing needs, the Bible—now in countless versions and translations—has become more influential as it has become m...

In 1958, an estranged Episcopalian priest forged an ancient gospel that told of Jesus and his apostles using magic and homosexual rites. Until now, the forgery has fooled many of the best Biblical scholars. Peter Jeffery unravels the mystery of the “Secret Gospel,” proves that the document is a hoax, and reveals the motives behind the forgery.

 

 

This new and up-to-date philological edition of all substantive Hebrew inscriptions from the Iron II (pre-exilic) period takes into account the most current research and presents extensive textual commentary, casting new light on the ancient Israelite language, history, and religion in the monarchic period.

This lavishly illustrated book explores medieval Castilian culture and the Arabic, Hebrew, and Christian strands that are inextricably woven into its fabric. The authors paint a vivid portrait of the culture through its arts, architecture, poetry and prose, all enriched by dynamic interaction with disparate cultures and peoples.

This book, by an internationally acclaimed biblical scholar, examines the many and varied ways that the biblical story of Joseph, which ranks alongside The Odyssey and other ancient legends as a canonical test, has been interpreted in early modern Europe.

An important study by a leading expert on this extraordinary and previously unknown illuminated Byzantine manuscript representing the apogee of Constantinopolitan craftsmanship around 1100.

Constituting a major reappraisal of the cultural role of the Church during the 17th century, illustrated essays call attention to the paradoxical nature of the most characteristic visual forms of Spanish Catholicism and reassess these images’ role in the practice of belief.

This beautifully illustrated book examines the emergence of Christian art in the third century A.D. Drawing on insights from recent discoveries, leading experts explore topics from Jewish art in the Greco-Roman period and the influence of Constantine, to the development of church decoration and illuminated Bibles. New color photographs of frescoes, marble sculpture, silver...

This book demonstrates the breadth and beauty of Islamic calligraphy across centuries and continents, as seen in rare early folios of the Qur’an.

A master historian here offers an eloquent and personal recollection of a life in ideas. John Lukacs integrates his conception of history and human knowledge with memories of his life in Hungary, in the U.S., and with his family in a distinctive work that—like every other he has penned—challenges, informs, and delights.

In this book, a leading Auden scholar explores in detail the profound relation between the poet’s Christian faith and his art. Through insightful readings of Auden’s writings and biography, Arthur Kirsch shows how faith helped Auden come to terms with himself as an artist and as a man, despite his homosexuality and his early disinterest in religion.

In this richly illustrated book, Jules Lubbock focuses attention on famous works in which Italian Renaissance painters and sculptors told important Bible stories. He shows how prominent artists including Giovanni Pisano, Giotto, and Donatello depicted biblical events so as to captivate the viewer and encourage the search for deeper meanings.

In Ronald Paulson’s latest book, he turns his attention to the subject of sin vs. evil and the important distinction between the two that today is widely ignored. Roaming through Western literature, Paulson shows how questions of evil and sin—and evil and sinful behavior—are addressed by authors from Ovid to Shakespeare to Vonnegut.

In this lovely illustrated gift book, literary critic Harold Bloom considers the meaning of angels, and particularly fallen angels. Exploring representations of angels in world literature from the Bible to Milton’s Paradise Lost to Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, Bloom offers a wise and personal meditation on a perennially fascinating subj...

This groundbreaking book investigates the religious issues that businesses confront as they expand their global activity. The author proposes that corporations can become instruments of peace by providing a forum for nurturing religious harmony.

The distinguished scholar David Gelernter presents a highly original guide to Judaism as a way of life and the fundamentals of Jewish belief.

The popularity of Kabbalah, a Jewish mystical movement at least 900 years old, has grown astonishingly in recent decades. In this original piece of scholarship a noted expert on Kabbalah provides for the first time a broad overview of the major trends in the “kabbalistic Renaissance” of recent decades together with in-depth discussions of major figures an...

This book tells the rich history of New York City’s magnificent Eldridge Street Synagogue, the first synagogue in America founded by East European Jews. Built in 1887 in response to an enormous wave of immigrants, the synagogue has served as a place of worship as well as a singularly important center in the development of American Judaism.

In this book, the world’s foremost scholar of Kabbalah explores the understanding of erotic love in Jewish mystical thought. Encompassing a wide range of works ranging from late antiquity to Polish Hasisim, Moseh Idel highlights the diversity of Kabbalistic views on eros and distinguishes between the major forms of eroticism. 

 

In this wide-ranging discussion of the Kabbalah—from the mystical trends of medieval Judaism to modern Hasidism—one of the world’s foremost Kabbalah scholars considers different visions of the nature of the sacred text and of the methods to interpret it. Moshe Idel delineates the particular hermeneutics belonging to Jewish mysticism and considers the various interpretive strategi...

In this highly interesting book, renowned biblical expert Bernhard Lang offers the first full portrait of the ancient Hebrew God. Drawing on all available evidence, including ancient Near Eastern and Egyptian texts and art, Lang sets forth a comprehensive view of the God of Israel that will fascinate and surprise both general reader and religious historian alike.

This masterful translation of the second book of The Code of Maimonides deals primarily with laws concerning the worship of God. The first translation based on the manuscript approved by Maimonides himself, it is accompanied by annotations and an introduction.

In this powerful sequel to Abraham Joshua Heschel: Prophetic Witness, Edward Kaplan tells the story of Heschel’s life and work in America, after his escape from Nazism. A tireless challenger to spiritual and religious complacency, Heschel not only influenced Jewish debate but also wider religious and cultural debates in the postwar decades.

This is volume one of the first biography of Abraham Joshua Heschel, one of the outstanding Jewish thinkers of the twentieth century. It traces Heschel's life from his birth in Warsaw in 1907 to his emigration to the United States in 1940, describing his roots in Hasidic culture, his Polish and German experiences, and his relations with Martin Buber. A second volume will tell the story of Heschel'...

Drawing on a huge Nazi archive created to identify Jewish converts to Christianity as far back as the seventeenth century, this compelling book explores the lives of Jews in Berlin from 1645 to 1833. The book considers the Jewish experience in German society and provides a nuanced view of the various motivations behind the decision to convert.

This magisterial work chronicles the 350-year history of the Jewish religion in America. Tracing American Judaism from its origins in the colonial era through the present day, Jonathan Sarna explores how Judaism adapted in this new context, how American culture affected Jewish religion and culture, and how American Jews shaped their own communities and faith in the new world.

In this deeply moving book, Alexandra Garbarini studies an array of diaries written by ordinary Jewish men and women witnessing the Holocaust. Garbarini analyzes the variety of Jewish experiences throughout German-occupied Europe, offering insights into the role of diary writing for victims and the unexpected range of their perspectives.

The escape of ultra-orthodox Jewish leader Rebbe Schneersohn from Hitler’s Warsaw in 1939 has always been a subject of speculation. This book uncovers the true story of the rescue and the heroic role of the part-Jewish German soldier who led the operation. A harrowing story about identity and moral responsibility, it is also a riveting narrative of an extraordinary rescue mission.

Examining data on Christian rescuers and nonrescuers of Jews during the Holocaust, Pearl Oliner illuminates questions of religion and altruism. She investigates, for example, whether religion encourages altruism on behalf of those who do not belong, and whether the very religious are more likely to be altruistic toward outsiders than those who are less religious.

Best-selling author Dr. Mark Epstein here offers insights on the interface between Buddhist teachings and Western psychotherapy. Immersed in both worlds, he has sought for twenty-five years to bridge the two, and in these essays shows that Buddhist thought and Western psychology are more compatible than at first it may appear.

Ali A. Allawi—a respected Iraqi statesman and thinker who has served the postwar government in several posts—offers a bold analysis of today’s crisis in the Islamic world. He offers proposals that will surprise some and anger others, but they cannot be ignored by anyone concerned about the future of Islamic civilization.

Tackling one of the world’s most perplexing and divisive issues, renowned historian Benny Morris considers the legacy of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, previous proposed solutions to the conflict between Palestinians and Israel, and the viability of various options for the future. His conclusions inspire hope for a just solution in a region where it is most sorely ...

This groundbreaking account of the first Israeli-Arab war is history at its best: meticulously accurate, objective, and told with drama and flair. Benny Morris demolishes misconceptions and brings to light the political and military facts of the war that led to the birth of the state of Israel and the shattering of Palestinian Arab society.

In today’s world of conflict and threatened nuclear violence, few books, if any, could be more important than this one. Middle East expert Trita Parsi untangles the complex and often duplicitous relations among Israel, Iran, and the United States from 1948 to the present and spells out how American policies can avert catastrophe and lead the region toward peace...

In this important book, one of the world’s experts on human rights issues explores the state of religious freedom around the globe. Father Robert Drinan finds that the U.N., the U.S., and the international community have fallen short, but he offers hopeful guidelines for promoting religious freedom and encouraging greater tolerance.



 

Many millions of Americans believe that God requires unconditional support for Israel and that the coming battle of Armageddon is His will. This timely book explores Christian Zionism, its 400-year history, and the impact of the movement on American foreign policy in the Middle East and on deteriorating relationships with European allies.

In this meticulously researched book, Gordon Hahn analyzes why contemporary Russia is a dangerous seedbed for radicalized Islam and then proposes what we should be doing about it. Hahn draws an alarming picture of an increasingly sophisticated and effective Chechen jihadist network with grand ambitions and dangerous global connections.

One of the first events of decolonization in the twentieth century, the Great Partition of 1947 was also one of the most bloody. In this sweeping reappraisal of India’s liberation from British rule and the emergence of Pakistan, Yasmin Khan uncovers the recklessness of the Partition plan, its catastrophic human...

Efraim Karsh, a widely respected expert in Middle Eastern affairs, challenges the way we understand Middle Eastern history and politics in this provocative book. September 11 and other Islamic acts of aggression have little to do with U.S. behavior or policy, Karsh argues. Rather, such attacks express Islam's ancient, powerful, and continuing imperial tradition.

In this substantially revised and expanded version of Nikki Keddie’s classic work Roots of Revolution, the author brings the story of modern Iran to the present day. She explores the political, cultural, and social changes of the past quarter century, in particular the effects of the Iran-Iraq war, the Persian Gulf War, and Iran’s strategic relationship with the U.S. after 9/11....

What are the real reasons for 9/11? What kind of thinking enables terrorists to justify unprovoked destruction and the murder of innocent people? This penetrating book is the first to explain the inner logic of al-Qaida and like-minded extremist groups. Mary Habeck examines the new movement known as jihadism and suggests how it can be defeated.

This engrossing book explores the first millennium of Islamic culture, shattering stereotypes and enlightening readers about the events and achievements that have shaped contemporary Islamic civilization. A wonderful introduction to the rich history of the Muslim people, the volume proceeds from Muhammad’s seventh-century revelations to the great Ottoman, Satavid, and Mughal empires and conc...

Widely known and respected for his work in international human rights, Father Robert F. Drinan here describes the history of the human rights movement since World War II and the obstacles its faces today. With clarity and force, Father Drinan discusses every important human rights issue, the performance of the United States and the United Nations, and how leaders and individuals can mobilize for a...

Leila Ahmed adds a new perspective to the current debate about women and Islam by tracing what Islamic texts throughout history have had to say about women and gender. Using the analytical tools of contemporary gender studies, Ahmed surveys Islamic discourse on women and places debates in their social and historical context, focusing on Arabia during the period in which Islam was founded...

This reader-friendly quotation book is unique in its focus on modern and American quotations.  It is also the first to use state-of-the-art research methods to capture famous quotations and to trace sources of quotations to their true origins.  It contains more than 12,000 entries not only from literary and historical sources but also from popular culture, sports, computers, po...

Translated into seventeen languages since its first publication in 1936, E. H. Gombrich’s bestselling history of the world is at last available in English. Gombrich tells the story of mankind from the Stone Age to the atomic bomb, focusing not on small detail but on the sweep of human experience, the extent of human achievement, and the depth of its frailty.