What buried secret lies beneath the stones of one of England's greatest former churches and shrines, the Benedictine Abbey of Bury St Edmunds? The search for the final resting place of King Edmund has led to this site, beneath which Francis Young argues the lost king's remains are waiting to be found. Edmund: In Search of England's Lost King explores the history of the martyred monarch of East Anglia and England's first patron saint, showing how he became a pivotal figure around whom Saxons, Danes and Normans all rallied. Young also examines Edmund's legacy in the centuries since his death at the hands of marauding Vikings in the 9th century. In doing so, this fascinating book points to the imminent rediscovery of the ruler who created England.

This book explores the impact of developments in pharmaceutical medicine in the twentieth century on a Christian ethical evaluation of transhumanism and future 'hi tech' medical enhancement technologies. It suggests that the Christian ethical assessment of proposed future radical transhumanist biomedical technologies should be conducted in the light of responses to past medical advances. Two specific case studies are featured, focusing on the oral contraceptive pill and on Prozac and SSRI antidepressants. Whilst future biomedical technologies may have therapeutic benefits for the relief of disease and contribute to improving human health and welfare, the book considers the implications for society and their acceptability as therapies from a Christian perspective. Stressing the inadequacy of natural law alone, the author proposes an ethical framework for assessing novel biomedical technologies according to the effects on personal autonomy, embodiment and bodily life, and on the imago Dei.

Mobile Saints examines the central medieval (ca. 950-1150 CE) practice of removing saints' relics from rural monasteries in order to take them on out-and-back journeys, particularly within northern France and the Low Countries. Though the permanent displacements of relics-translations- have long been understood as politically and culturally significant activities, these temporary circulations have received relatively little attention. Yet the act of taking a medieval relic from its "home," even for a short time, had the power to transform the object, the people it encountered, and the landscape it traveled through. Using hagiographical and liturgical texts, this study reveals both the opportunities and tensions associated with these movements: circulating relics extended the power of the saint into the wider world, but could also provoke public displays of competition, mockery, and resistance. By contextualizing these effects within the discourses and practices that surrounded traveling relics, Mobile Saints emphasizes the complexities of the central medieval cult of relics and its participants, while speaking to broader questions about the role of movement in negotiating the relationships between sacred objects, space, and people.

Enlivened with 102 photographs and 50 figures and maps, "Shamans, Witches, and Maya Priests" explores the "old ways" that still prevail in the Q'anjob'al, Akatek, and Chuj communities of the remote northwestern Cuchumatan Mountains. Krystyna Deuss provides vivid descriptions and images of the traditional rites and rituals she witnessed during fifteen years of fieldwork. These sacred moments include blood sacrifices for the good of the community and private shamanic rituals--as well as black magic. Deuss also includes a selection of the prayers she recorded.

First edition of supplications concerning England and Wales from the Apostolic Penitentiary - an essential resource for any historian of the pre-Reformation Church. The Apostolic Penitentiary was and remains the highest office in the Catholic Church concerned with sin and matters of conscience. The papacy reserved to itself absolution from certain grave sins, and successive popes empowered the cardinal penitentiary in charge of the office to absolve sinners in these reserved cases, which included violence against or by the clergy and abandonment of the religious life. The cardinal was also authorised to grant other favours that were a papal monopoly, including dispensations, notably for marriages between close relatives normally forbidden by church law, and special licences, for example allowing confession to a personal chaplain rather than one's parish priest. Petitioners from across Western Europe requested such favours in their thousands and their supplications shed important new light on religious, social and even political history, covering themes as varied as marriage, sexual deviance, violence, the religious life, popular piety, illegitimacy, and pilgrimage. This valuable evidence, recorded in the registers of the Apostolic Penitentiary held in the Vatican Archives, has only beenavailable to researchers since 1983. This edition makes accessible for the first time over 4,000 supplications concerning England and Wales in the office's fifty earliest surviving registers; they are presented with notes and introduction and other apparatus. Peter D. Clarke is Reader in Medieval History at the University of Southampton; Patrick N.R. Zutshi is Keeper of Manuscripts and University Archives, Cambridge University Library, and a Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.

An increasingly popular area of religious studies, theology and biblical studies. Comprehensive coverage for a textbook for courses on Bible and Film. This new edition includes new pedagogy including key words, a bibliography of movies and revision questions.

An insightful exploration into Christianity today written especially for Jews.

For many Jews, discerning the differences among various Christian groups is perplexing. As a result, they are stuck with an outdated understanding of Christian beliefs, practices and attitudes, especially with regard to their relationship with Judaism, Jews and Israel.

But Christian views are evolving, particularly since the landmark 1965 Catholic statement known as Nostra Aetate that forever changed the landscape of Jewish-Christian relations. This intriguing, brief introduction focuses on the changing Christian currents within the Roman Catholic Church, Protestant denominations, nondenominational megachurches and the emergent church. It also explores the essential doctrines that undergird most Christian belief, including sin, salvation, Jesus as the Messiah, the Second Coming and Christian Zionism and compares them to the Jewish understanding of these issues.

Designed to answer Jews common questions about Christianity, this enlightening overview is also an excellent interfaith resource that will help all readers understand the changing Christian climate and what its implications are for the future of Judaism and interfaith relations.

This book investigates the nature and relevance of conjunctive explanations in the context of science and religion. It explores questions concerning how scientific and religious explanations for features of the world or phenomena within it relate to each other and whether they might work together in mutually enriching ways. The chapters address topics including the relationship between Darwinian and teleological explanations, non-reductive explanations of mind and consciousness, and explanations of Christian faith and religious experience, while others explore theological and philosophical issues concerning the nature and feasibility of conjunctive explanations. Overall, the contributions help to provide conceptual clarity on how scientific and religious explanations might or might not work together conjunctively as well as exploring how these ideas relate to specific topics in science and religion more generally.

Behind the glamour and the crowds. Beyond the movies and the records. Apart from all who knew him, wanted to know him, or just wanted to be near him. Billy Stanley knew Elvis Presley as a brother-and as a man of deep faith. From the day Billy Stanley arrived at Graceland and received a bear hug from the King of Rock and Roll to the last conversation they ever had, one thing stayed the same: Elvis's passion for sharing God's love with as many people he could. In The Faith of Elvis,Billy illuminates Elvis's Christian journey-from the notes Elvis made in his beloved Bible to his struggles with sin as his fame increased to his remarkable generosity toward fans and movie stars alike. Through this first-hand account, you will find touching family stories of the Elvis that pop culture doesn't know; a keen look into how Elvis intricately wove his faith into every part of his life; insights into the ups-and-downs the four brothers experienced while at home and on the road together; and examples of Elvis's profound influence on others-from those closest to him to his cherished fans and, ultimately, the world at large. Here you will find your own faith strengthened and your heart turned more toward heaven-or as Elvis would say, toward the only true King. Includes a photo insert and discussion and reflection questions for group or individual use.

An affectionate but meticulously researched history of one of the most beautiful and best-loved corners of England - Crosthwaite Parish, nestling deep within the mountains and valleys of the Lake District. 'A unique contribution to English history' Hunter Davies 'A delightful, refreshingly written book, attentive to social detail and telling the only story that matters - history' Simon Jenkins 'A wonderful book' Margaret Drabble 'A completely fresh perspective on the Lakes and Lake Poets... I hugely enjoyed it' Andrew Marr Bounded by the peaks of Scafell, Skiddaw and Helvellyn, and embracing such well-known landmarks as Borrowdale, Derwentwater and Keswick, it lies within the heart of the Lake Poets' landscape and its rugged terrain excites passion in all those who know it. The Parish also boasts a remarkable history. Its 90 square miles were governed, from medieval times, by eighteen annually chosen 'customary tenants'; ancestors of the people who later prompted Wordsworth's portrayal of the area as 'a perfect Republic of Shepherds and agriculturalists'. His fellow poet Robert Southey lived within the Parish for forty years, was an active parishioner and rests in St Kentigern's churchyard. Here he is given his rightful position as a Lake Poet. In the nineteenth century, the Victorian state killed off the old parish system, sweeping away the egalitarian rule of the Eighteen Men. But a degree of redemption was at hand. Canon Rawnsley, vicar of Crosthwaite from 1883, pledged to defend the Lake District for future generations. So the Parish was at the heart of the creation of the National Trust and blazed a trail for a wider movement to preserve the English landscape. Writing with a historian's rigour and bearing aloft the banner of the Lake District statesmen, Philippa Harrison has produced a magisterial and fascinating record of a parish with a unique social, cultural and aesthetic resonance in English history.

Rich in historical events and colorfully written, this fascinating account of women in the church spans nearly two thousand years of church history. It tells of events and aspirations, determination and disappointment, patience and achievement that mark the history of daughters of the church from the time of Jesus to the present. The authors have endeavored to present an objective story. The very fact that readers may find themselves surprised now and again by the prominent role of women in certain events and movements proves an inequality that historical narrative has often been guilty of. This is a book about women. It is a setting straight off the record -- a restoring of balance to history that has repeatedly played down the significance of the contributions of women to the theology, the witness, the movements, and the growth of the church. An exegetical study of relevant Scripture passages offers stimulating thought for discussion and for serious reevaluation of historical givens. This volume is enriched by pictures, appendixes, bibliography, and indexes. Like many of the women whose stories it tells, this book has a subdued strength that should not be underestimated.

God's Works Revealed presents a compelling, challenging, and joyful vision for living as a lesbian, gay, or bisexual Catholic today by accepting the divine gift of our sexuality and seeking to live the promises of our baptism. It draws from the deep well of traditional theology, Catholic teaching, and Sacred Scripture while also challenging assumptions that exclude LGB Catholics from the possibility of sexual expression, married life, and participation in the life of the Church. "Informed by theology and formed by the worship of the Church, Albano...engages in serious study and draws on some of the best thought on scripture and natural law theology that has formed his Church's teaching on homosexuality and homosexual actions. He presents not so much a dismissal of what the Church teaches as a critical engagement with that teaching that will point out its insufficiencies and calls for further refinement and reflection. He insists that his experience and that of other gay and lesbian Catholics be taken seriously." -from the foreword "After more than fifty years of ministry on behalf of LGBT Catholics, I have seen considerable developments in Christian understandings about sexuality and gender, which are challenging topics for politicians and Catholics alike. Written from the heart of a faith-filled Catholic gay man who is not a politician, these pages push sexual politics aside and speak to our heads and hearts in a sensible and compelling way. We'll see with new eyes the gifts that persons of various sexual orientations bring to the Church. I recommend this book for all the people of God who are walking the path of synodality with Pope Francis." -Jeannine Gramick, SL, author, and cofounder of New Ways Ministry for LGBT Catholics "God's Works Revealed offers a respectful, well-argued critique of official teachings on homosexuality and the impact on the physical and spiritual lives of LGBTQI people. It is a deeply loving, thoughtful, and ultimately, hopeful dialogue between a gay Catholic and the Church that could open pathways to needed change. Here, you will find truths that speak to your soul." -Marianne Duddy-Burke, executive director of DignityUSA Sam Albano is a writer, educator, and member of the LGBTQI Catholic community. He currently serves as the national secretary of DignityUSA, the oldest and largest organization of LGBTQI Catholics.

When it comes to talking about the activity of directing the church, the language of leadership and leaders is increasingly popular. Yet what is leadership - and how might theological narratives better resource the discourse and practice of leadership in ecclesial contexts? In identifying and critiquing managerialism as a dominant narrative of leadership in the Western church, this book calls for an alternative approach founded on the concept of friendship. Engaging with the wider field of leadership studies, the book establishes an understanding of leadership activity and brings it into conversation with an incarnational ecclesiology. The result is a prophetic reimagining of ecclesial leadership in terms of a relational, kenotic praxis. This praxis of mutuality and love is framed here in the rich language of Christian friendship. The book also wrestles deeply with the embodiment of such a praxis, making explicit the power behaviours typical of friendship-leadership and offering constructive guidance for practitioners in the task of implementation within a complex and fractured world. This book offers a new vision of the centrality of friendship to leadership of a healthy church community. As such, it will be of great use to scholars of practical theology, ecclesiology and leadership, as well as practitioners in church ministry.

This book takes a multi-dimensional and multi-disciplinary approach to religion, religiosity and theology from their earliest beginnings to the present day. It uniquely brings together the natural sciences and theology to explore how religious practice emerged and developed through the four sections into which the book is organized: Evolutionary biology; Philosophical linguistics, psychology and neuroscience; Theology and Anthropology. The volume features an international panel of contributors who develop an innovative picture of religion as a culturally-created social institution; religiosity as a more personal and subjective anthropological element of people expressed through religion; and theology as the study of god. To survive in changing times, living systems - a good characterization of religion, religiosity and theology - all must adaptively evolve. This is a vital study of a rapidly burgeoning field. As such, it will be of great interest to scholars in religious studies and theology as well as in the psychological, sociological, and anthropological study of religion.

When soldiers in the Civil War called on their religious beliefs in order to cope with the horrors of battle, many looked to the regimental chaplain for guidance and understanding. Clergy were always present to address the spiritual needs of the common soldier and administer to the wounded and dying. But as Warren Armstrong shows, military chaplains provided more than comfort.

In a country profoundly shaped by religion, each side adapted its version of Christianity to support its political views. This book documents the role played by Union chaplains in making better soldiers and supporting the North's military efforts. These ministers in uniform focused on preserving the Union and reminding soldiers that slavery was the central issue in the war, preaching the righteousness of abolition in services held in the mud of campgrounds, and often serving as advocates for freedmen.

Armstrong has drawn on a wide range of documents to explain the duties of Union chaplains and differentiate them from their Southern counterparts. He examines the organization of the chaplaincy and reviews its manuals for guidelines on such matters as cultivating desirable character traits and building makeshift churches. He also sheds light on the personalities of the men who served, examines their attitudes toward the war, and assesses their unofficial role as morale officers for the Union army.

Wherever possible, Armstrong uses chaplains' letters, diaries, and written reports to explain their thoughts and actions in their own words. His book is narrative history with a richly human element, including such episodes as a chaplain who took a fallen soldier's place and died in battle and two chaplains of different faiths who slept together for warmth on a cold winter night at Fredericksburg.

Before the Civil War, the need for a military chaplaincy had been challenged on the grounds of separation of church and state, but the valiant service of chaplains during that conflict helped prove their worth and establish a lasting military tradition. In relating their story, Armstrong's work faithfully documents the contributions chaplains made both to the Union victory and to the form that victory took.

This book introduces and examines the work of two significant 21st century Christian - Muslim dialogue initiatives - "Building Bridges" and the "Christian-Muslim Theological Forum" - and gives close attention to five theological themes that have been addressed in common by them. An overview and analysis, including inception, development, outputs and significance, together with discussion of the select themes - community, scripture, prophecy, prayer and ethics - allows for an in-depth examination of significant contemporary Muslim and Christian scholarship on issues important to both faith communities. The result is a challenging encounter to, arguably, a widespread default presumption of irredeemable mutual hostility and inevitable mutual rejection with instances of violent extremism as a consequence. Demonstrating the reality that deep interreligious engagement is possible between the two faiths today, this book should appeal to a wide readership, including upper undergraduate and graduate teaching as well as professionals and practitioners in the field of Christian-Muslim relations.

This volume argues that ancient Greek girls and early Christian virgins and their families made use of rhetorically similar traditions of marriage to an otherworldly bridegroom in order to handle the problem of a girl's denied or disrupted transition into adulthood. In both ancient Greece and early Christian Rome, the standard female transition into adulthood was marked by marriage, sex, and childbirth. When problems arose just before or during this transition, the transitional girl's status within society became insecure. Walker presents a case for how and why the dead Greek virgin girl, depicted in Archaic through Hellenistic sources, in both texts and inscriptions, as a bride of Hades, and the life-long female Christian virgin or celibate ascetic, dubbed the bride of Christ around the third century CE, provide a fruitful point of comparison as particular examples of strategies used to neutralize the tension of disrupted female transition into adulthood. Bride of Hades to Bride of Christ offers a fascinating comparative study that will be of interest to anyone working on virginity and womanhood in the ancient world.

This book offers a systematic and detailed examination of the conservative case for religion by establishment. In doing so, the author demonstrates that the conservative political tradition is rooted in an inescapably religious worldview, and in turn shows what the future of conservatism might be. The author begins the book by analysing the thought of prominent proponents of secular conservatism, chiefly examining the work of Roger Scruton. The author develops a case to show that Scruton's arguments on the privatisation of religion are in tension with his basing of a conservative political settlement on "transcendent bonds". The author then examines alternatives to secular conservatism, especially the chief religious and metaphysical commitments of early conservatives, Edmund Burke and Joseph de Maistre. Finally, in seeking to establish a foundational argument for religion by establishment within the conservative tradition, and more broadly to unify the diverse commitments and objections of conservatives, the author develops a case that draws on Scruton's personalism, as well as the thought of Martin Buber, Andrew Pinsent, and Robert Spaemann. In the course of developing his foundational argument, the author incorporates findings from experimental psychology and themes from contemporary theology. The result is a convincing argument in favour of establishmentarian conservatism, as well as the role of religious ideas in our self-understanding as individuals and as a political community. Conservatism and Grace will appeal to scholars and advanced students interested in political philosophy, philosophy of religion, theology, and the history of conservatism.

As the third volume of a three-volume set on the indigenization of Christianity in modern China, this book analyzes the endeavors of Christianity in adapting to the changing social environment between the late 1920s and the end of the twentieth century. Over the course of its growth in modern China, Christianity has faced many twists and turns in attempting to embed itself in Chinese society and indigenous culture. This three-volume set delineates the genesis and trajectory of Christianity's indigenization in China over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, highlighting the actions of Chinese Christians and the relationship between the development of Christianity in China and modern Chinese history. Chapters in this volume focuses on the late 1920s; the 1930s and the period before and after the founding of the People's Republic of China. The author discusses key transitions in indigenizing Christianity, including efforts to bring the religion to rural regions, devotions to anti-Japanese national salvation, discussions on the coexistence of Communism and Christianity and the Church's adaptation to accommodate Chinese society after 1949. The book will appeal to scholars and students interested in the history of Christianity in China and modern Chinese history.

Gives insight into why Christianity must be indigenized in China. A discussion of interactions between Christianity and modern Chinese history and politics. An illumination of inseparability of the Chinese culture and indigenization of Chinese Church.

This book offers an original contribution to debates about the problem of evil and the existence of God. It develops a Thomistic, Christian theodicy, the aim of which is to help us better understand not only why God allows evil, but also how God works to redeem it. In the author's view, the existence of evil does not generate any intellectual problem that theists must address or solve to vindicate God or the rationality of theism. This is because acknowledging the existence of evil rationally leads us to acknowledge the existence of God. However, understanding how these two facts are compatible still requires addressing weighty, wide-ranging questions concerning God and evil. The author draws on diverse elements of Aquinas's philosophy and theology to build an argument that evil only exists within God's world because God has created and continues to sustain so much good. Moreover, God can and does bring good out of all evil, both cosmically and within the context of our own, individual lives. In making this argument, the author engages with contemporary work on the problem of evil from analytic philosophy of religion and theology. Additionally, he addresses a broad range of topics and doctrines within Thomistic and Christian thought, including God, creation, providence, original sin, redemption, heaven and hell, and the theological virtues. God, Evil, and Redeeming Good is an essential resource for scholars and students interested in philosophy of religion, philosophical theology, and the thought of Thomas Aquinas.

A companion workbook to the bestselling book by Borg, "The Heart of Christianity" helps readers digest what they learn in the book and put this new faith into action.

Places Apuleius' work within the context of the religious climate and developments at the time it was written.