The Exultet rolls of southern Italy are parchment scrolls containing text and music for the blessing of the great Easter candle; they contain magnificent illustrations, often turned upside down with respect to the text. The Exultet in Southern Italy provides a broad perspective on this phenomenon that has long attracted the interest of those interested in medieval art, liturgy, and music. This book considers these documents in the cultural and liturgical context in which they were made, and provides a perspective on all aspects of this particularly southern Italian practice. While previous studies have concentrated on the illustrations in these rolls, Kelly's book also looks at the particular place of the Exultet in changing ceremonial practices, provides background on the texts and music used in southern Italy, and inquires into the manufacture and purpose of the Exultets--why they were made, who owned them, and how they were used.

THE FREEHOF INSTITUTE OF PROGRESSIVE HALAKHAH The Freehof Institute of Progressive Halakhah is a creative research center devoted to studying and defining the progressive character of the halakhah in accordance with the principles and theology of Reform Judaism. It seeks to establish the ideological basis of Progressive halakhah, and its application to daily life. The Institute fosters serious studies, and helps scholars in various portions of the world to work together for a common cause. It provides an ongoing forum through symposia, and publications including the quarterly newsletter, HalakhaH, published under the editorship of Walter Jacob, in the United States. The foremost halakhic scholars in the Reform, Liberal, and Progressive rabbinate along with some Conservative and Orthodox colleagues as well as university professors serve on our Academic Council.

Pope John Paul II's successor is already the subject of informal negotiations among the College of Cardinals. In Passing the Keys, Burkle-Young illustrates how the process of electing modern popes operates, providing in-depth case histories of the elections of the popes from Leo XIII in 1878 to John Paul II in 1978. Burkle-Young explores the most pressing theological issues-including the current state of the priesthood and the debates waged over contraception and women as priests and bishops-that now guide the College and influence the future of the Vatican.

Reformation in Britain and Ireland is an innovative volume which studies the coming of reform in the sixteenth century more broadly than do traditional national narratives of religious change. It argues for an interactive and comparative understanding of this crucial dimension of British and Irish history. Through the examination of political choices, of ecclesiastical structures, and of individual religious attitudes, it seeks to explain the success or failure of Protestantism in these islands.

Documenting an audacious Franco-German movement for moral disarmament, instigated in 1921 by war veteran and French Catholic politician Marc Sangnier, in this transnational study Gearoid Barry examines the European resonance of Sangnier's Peace Congresses and their political and religious ecumenism within France in the era of two World Wars.

In the past 200 years, the Catholic Church has approved a series of private revelations with a deeply apocalyptic undercurrent. But what have the popes taught concerning these times? In this ground-breaking book, Stephen Walford uncovers the astonishing truth that the successors of St. Peter have together warned of the rapidly approaching final coming of Jesus Christ.

By unearthing a great variety of magisterial documents, the author sheds light on a number of mysteries: how Fatima relates to the definitive coming of the Kingdom at the end of the world; how Vatican II was a prophetic council oriented towards the return of the Lord; and how the popes have consistently linked the era of peace to the definitive renewal of the world after the Last Judgement--and how they have discerned that our own times are ripe for the persecution of the Antichrist. Heralds of the Second Coming lifts the veil on the last stage of salvation history, as proclaimed by the popes from Pius IX to Benedict XVI.

Sexuality and spirituality are two of the most powerful and creative forces we experience as human beings. This work examines how men of Roman Catholic background have come to understand and integrate their homosexuality into daily life.

Homosexuality is still a topic immersed in myth and mystery. As well as providing accurate information about intimate aspects of gay men's lives such as coping with HIV and practicing safer sex, " Gay Catholics Down Under" seeks to raise awareness about spiritual issues for gay men. Each story told provides a unique perspective of what it means to be of Catholic background in Australasia and attracted to men. Several of those interviewed spoke of having no role models and of the isolation growing up not knowing of other gay people. A final chapter reviews the psychosexual implications of the study, including a model of integration of sexual and religious identification, and implications for the gay community and the Church.

Which events created the mindset and prepared the policy of the later-to-be Pope Pius XII? This study takes into account the recently declassified documents in the Vatican Archives dealing with the Catholic Church's policy regarding Germany in the 1920s and 1930s, strongly defined by Nuncio in Germany and, then, Cardinal State Secretary Eugenio Pacelli (later to become Pope Pius XII). It broadens its view to cover also the Vatican's stance towards other European dictatorships of that time, such as Fascist Italy, Franquist Spain, Salazar's Portugal, and the Dollfuss regime in Austria.

In an age when few people ventured beyond their place of birth, Andre Palmeiro left Portugal on a journey to the far side of the world. Bearing the title Father Visitor, he was entrusted with the daunting task of inspecting Jesuit missions spanning from Mozambique to Japan. A global history in the guise of a biography, The Visitor" tells the story of a theologian whose extraordinary travels bore witness to the fruitful contact and violent collision of East and West in the early modern era.

In India, Palmeiro was thrust into a controversy over the missionary tactics of Roberto Nobili, who insisted on dressing the part of an indigenous ascetic. Palmeiro walked across Southern India to inspect Nobili s mission, recording fascinating observations along the way. As the highest-ranking Jesuit in India, he also coordinated missions to the Mughal Emperors and the Ethiopian Christians, as well as the first European explorations of the East African interior and the highlands of Tibet.

Orders from Rome sent Palmeiro farther afield in 1626, to Macau, where he oversaw Jesuit affairs in East Asia. He played a crucial role in creating missions in Vietnam and seized the opportunity to visit the Chinese mission, trekking thousands of miles to Beijing as one of China s first Western tourists. When the Tokugawa Shogunate brutally cracked down on Christians in Japan where neither he nor any Westerner had power to intervene Palmeiro died from anxiety over the possibility that the last Jesuits still alive would apostatize under torture."

This volume deals with the problem of State and Church in the Middle Ages from a new angle. It not only shows how and why the medieval popes pursued a policy of world domination, but also discloses the ideas by which the papal monarchs were primarily influenced.

Barnett traces the Christian critique of the Church and its history in Protestant (English) and Catholic (Italian) thought from the Reformation to the Enlightenment. More than 150 years of bitter polemic between the two great confessions and their religious dissidents produced an unprecedented, comparative historical and sociological anticlericalism. In the last decades of the 17th century, English dissenting thought was pregnant with a critique of the Church, which came to be termed the "Deist" view of Church history: by 1700 the cornerstone of high "Enlightenment anticlerical thought" was in ascent. This work is intended for departments of history (courses in early modern European history, intellectual history), religious studies and philosophy.

Nils Blomkvist discusses how the Baltic Rim was initially Europeanized between 1075 and 1225 AD. He compares the indigenous civilisations to the prevailing western European one. After the expansive Viking period, European penetration became a process of discovery.
The importance of the Catholic Reform movement and its unintentional ties to the formation of an endurable commodity market are outlined. Clashes and compromises are investigated in case studies of the Kalmarsund region, Gotland and the Daugava valley. Dissimilar cases of state formation are compared: those of Sweden and Livonia.
Many classical scholarly problems are revisited. A new approach to the period's narrative sources brings to life Scandinavian, German, Russian, Finno-Ugrian and Baltic attitudes and day-to-day concern in the midst of a change of epic dimensions.

Now fully revised and updated The Book of Saints is a comprehensive biographical dictionary of saints canonised by the Roman Catholic Church. It contains the names of over 10,000 saints, including all modern ones, with significant information about their lives and achievements. Each section begins with an illustration of a particular saint, and the volume includes a list of national martyrs, a bibliography, and a helpful glossary. Produced by the Benedictine monks of St. Augustine's Abbey, Chilworth (formerly Ramsgate) this classic resource is now in its 8th edition, and is fully revised to include all the saints canonised in the last ten years, including Pope St John Paul II and Blessed Paul VI.

During the past few decades, high-profile cases like that of Terry Schiavo have fueled the public debate over forgoing or withdrawing artificial nutrition and hydration from patients in a persistent vegetative state (PVS). These cases, whether involving adults or young children, have forced many to begin thinking in a measured and careful way about the moral legitimacy of allowing patients to die. Can families forgo or withdraw artificial hydration and nutrition from their loved ones when no hope of recovery seems possible? Many Catholics know that Catholic moral theology has formulated a well-developed and well-reasoned position on this and other end-of-life issues, one that distinguishes between "ordinary" and "extraordinary" treatment. But recent events have caused uncertainty and confusion and even acrimony among the faithful. In his 2004 allocution, Pope John Paul II proposed that artificial nutrition and hydration is a form of basic care, thus suggesting that the provision of such care to patients neurologically incapable of feeding themselves should be considered a moral obligation. The pope's address, which seemed to have offered a new development to decades of Catholic health care ethics, sparked a contentious debate among the faithful over how best to treat permanently unconscious patients within the tenets of Catholic morality. In this comprehensive and balanced volume, Ronald Hamel and James Walter present twenty-one essays and articles, contributed by physicians, clergy, theologians, and ethicists, to reflect the spectrum of perspectives on the issues that define the Catholic debate. Organized into six parts, each with its own introduction, the essays offer clinical information on PVS and feeding tubes; discussions on the Catholic moral tradition and how it might be changing; ecclesiastical and pastoral statements on forgoing or withdrawing nutrition and hydration; theological and ethical analyses on the issue; commentary on Pope John Paul II's 2004 allocution; and the theological commentary, court decisions, and public policy resulting from the Clarence Herbert and Claire Conroy legal cases. A valuable resource for students and scholars, this teachable volume invites theological dialogue and ethical discussion on one of the most contested issues in the church today.