Thomas Green examines the Scottish Reformation from a new perspective - the legal system and lawyers. For the leading lawyers of the day, the Scottish Reformation presented a constitutional and jurisdictional crisis of the first order. In the face of such a challenge moderate judges, lawyers and officers of state sought to restore order in a time of revolution by retaining much of the medieval legacy of Catholic law and order in Scotland. Green covers the Wars of the Congregation, the Reformation Parliament, the legitimacy of the Scottish government from 1558 to 1561, the courts of the early Church of Scotland and the legal significance of Mary Stewart's personal reign. He also considers neglected aspects of the Reformation, including the roles of the Court of Session and of the Court of the Commissaries of Edinburgh.

The Scottish twin sisters Agnes Lewis (1843 1926) and Margaret Gibson (1843 1920) between them spoke modern Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, Persian and Syriac, and were pioneering biblical scholars and explorers at a time when women rarely ventured to foreign lands. The sisters made several journeys to the Monastery of St Catherine on Mount Sinai, and their first two visits there are described in this 1893 publication. Using her sister's journals, Margaret Gibson tells how Agnes discovered a version of the Gospels in Syriac from the fifth century CE. This text is immensely important, being an example of the New Testament written in the eastern branch of Aramaic, the language that Jesus himself spoke. Meanwhile, Margaret Gibson studied other manuscripts in the library and photographed them; the sisters later transcribed and published many of these. Controversy over the circumstances of the discovery led to Margaret publishing this account in 1893.

First published in 1896, this work by Agnes Bensley (d. 1900), wife of the Orientalist and biblical scholar Robert Bensly (1831 93), describes the journey undertaken by a party of scholars to St Catherine's Monastery on Mount Sinai in 1893. In the previous year, sisters Agnes Smith Lewis and Margaret Dunlop Gibson had discovered the Sinai Palimpsest, the earliest-known Syriac version of the Gospels. The purpose of the Bensly's mission was to aid them in transcribing and deciphering the Palimpsest. Beginning with the party's arrival in Cairo, the book describes the preparation for the trip, their journey across the desert, and life in the monastery. However, relations between the members of the party deteriorated; Gibson and Lewis wrote their own accounts of the expedition (also available in this series), and Mrs Bensly's narrative is defensive of the role of her husband, who died days after their return to England.

Edition of ecclesiastical records from a parish church offer a rich source of knowledge for life at the time. The documents in this volume bring to life the day-to-day business and upkeep of the large church of Mildenhall, belonging to a parish whose manor was the richest in the possession of Bury St Edmund's Abbey. The Collections recordthe weekly offerings gathered in aid of church building and maintenance. The churchwardens' accounts provide evidence for such matters as repairs to vestments and books, the cost of candles, and payments to the various tradesmenemployed. The later accounts also show the impact of the Reformation on the church, with the pulling down of the rood, destruction of the stone altar, and erasure of Thomas Becket's name from service books, and so forth. Many of the people in the accounts are also known from their wills, reproduced as an appendix. The documents are set into context with an introduction, which covers the history of the church during the period, and notes. The late Judith Middleton-Stewart gained her doctorate from the University of East Anglia; her book on death and remembrance in the Suffolk deanery of Dunwich, Inward Purity and Outward Splendour, is also published by Boydell.

This book identifies the distinguishing features of fundamental theology, as distinct from philosophical theology, natural theology, apologetics, and other similar disciplines. Addressing the potential for confusion about basic Christian claims and beliefs, Gerald O'Collins sets out to relaunch fundamental theology as a discipline by presenting a coherent vision of basic theological questions and positions that lay the ground for work in specific areas of systematic theology.
Rethinking Fundamental Theology examines central theological questions: about God, human experience and, specifically, religious experience; the divine revelation coming through the history of Israel and through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus; human faith that responds to revelation; the nature of tradition that transmits the record and reality of revelation; the structure of biblical inspiration and truth, as well as basic issues concerned with the formation of the canon; the founding of the Church with some leadership structures; the relationship between Christ's revelation and the faith of those who follow other religions. O'Collins concludes with some reflections on theological method.
Written with the scholarship and accessibility for which O'Collins is known and valued, this book will relaunch fundamental theology as a distinct and necessary discipline in faculties and departments of theology and religious studies around the world.

The twin sisters Agnes Lewis (1843-1926) and Margaret Gibson (1843-1920) were pioneering biblical scholars who became experts in a number of ancient languages. Travelling widely in the Middle East, they made several significant discoveries, including one of the earliest manuscripts of the four gospels in Syriac, the language believed to have been spoken by Jesus himself. Previously published in the Horae Semitica series, this second fascicule contains Gibson's English translation of the Didascalia Apostolorum. Traditionally attributed to the apostles, the text is a treatise on Church law and doctrine, and the volume includes additional material supplied by Gibson from a variety of sources. Covering topics including church organisation, charity and forgiveness, Gibson described the Didascalia as a 'potent instrument' used to gain the 'unquestioning obedience of the Christian people'. An early precursor to the Apostolic Constitutions, this text is of considerable significance to ecclesiastical history.

Since its publication, Church for Every Context has made a significant impact in our understanding of the theology and methodology of Fresh Expressions. In this follow-up, Michael Moynagh develops a model of emergent innovation that combines insights from both complexity and entrepreneurship theories. Taking account of the significant developments in practice and thinking around the emerging church, Church in Life will quickly establish itself as a key text for all interested in pioneer ministry, fresh expressions, church planting, church growth and ecclesiology.

From the footpaths of our cities to the chat rooms of the Internet, people are connecting today as never before. As the planet shrinks through the multiple forces of immigration, travel, electronic communication and more fluid employment patterns, we will find ourselves increasingly forced into contact with those who are significantly different from ourselves. Sadly however, the stranger is often a threat to be resisted rather than a friend to be embraced. In this context of in-your-face diversity, it is time to revisit the heart of the New Testament, with its claim that in Jesus Christ a new quality of human relationship is possible. In his letter to the Ephesians, the apostle Paul claims that Christians are a new kind of people, part of a new community: a 'new humanity' in Christ (Ephesians 2:15). We exist not in isolation, but in relationship. 'Dynamic Diversity' contends that all Christian congregations everywhere are called to be bridging places, centres of reconciliation, where the major diversities separating human beings are overcome through the presence of God's Holy Spirit. Bruce Milne presents a biblical model for today and tomorrow where the diversities of gender, generation, ethnicity, colour and socio-economic status present exciting and challenging opportunities to demonstrate practical oneness. When this happens, churches become wonderfully alive. In Christ we can be one people, one new humanity, one life.

Palliative Care ist eine Antwort auf grundlegende Fragen der modernen Medizin: Wie weit wollen, sollen oder mMedizin: Wie weit wollen, sollen oder mussen wir Leben erhalten, verlangern und verbessern, wenn es von unheilbarer Krankheit, Alter oder Sterben begrenzt wird? Was wird fur ein der menschlichen Wurde und Freiheit gerecht werdendes Leben und Sterben gefordert? Ist alles medizinisch Machbare zu tun, oder widerspricht dies persoenlichen und gesellschaftlichen Vorstellungen von einem guten Leben und Sterben? Und dort, wo die heutige Medizin an ihre Grenzen stoesst, wie gehen wir mit dem Leiden und Sterben um? Welche Bedurfnisse stehen in diesen Situationen im Vordergrund? Wie kann ihnen fur moeglichst alle entsprochen werden? Was ist wesentlich in der Beziehung, in Haltung und Verhalten zueinander zwischen jenen, die unheilbar krank sind, die gehen mussen, vielleicht wollen, und jenen, die sie in dieser Situation betreuen und begleiten? Das Buch "Ethik in der Palliative Care" gibt Antworten auf diese Fragen, indem es umfassend die historischen, medizinischen, ethischen und theologischen Hintergrunde von Palliative Care beschreibt und ihren Stellenwert im Schweizer Gesundheitssystem dokumentiert.

God's Belongers should transform our thinking about what it means to belong to church. Uniquely, David Walker replaces the old and worn division between 'members' and 'nonmembers' with a fourfold model of belonging: through relationship, through place, through events, and through activities. From his extensive practical research, the author shows how 'belonging' can encompass a far wider group of people than those who attend weekly services. This opens up creative opportunities for mission in today's world. 'In this excellent book David Walker brings together his considerable gifts as a first-rate mathematician and theologian in a highly accessible manner. The result is not only fascinating and thought-provoking: its insights have the potential significantly to renew the mission of the church in its efforts to make the love of God in Jesus known. I hope it will be very widely read.' The Right Revd Dr John Inge, Bishop of Worcester

Dr Marchant has produced a systematic account of Church courts as they were re-moulded to serve the Protestant Church in England after the Elizabethan Settlement, and at a time when they were still one of the principal responsibilities of bishops and archdeacons. Responding to the challenge of the times, these courts displayed a vitality and adaptability which has often been unrecognized. This study is based on a detailed account of the courts in the diocese of York, but the author measures the individuality of the northern courts by constant reference to the typical southern diocese of Norwich. There is a full description of the lawyers and the ecclesiastical 'civil service', the amount and nature of the business transacted by the courts, the internal administration of the Church and the sources of its administrative law.

Seit der ersten Verurteilung der Freimaurerei durch Papst Clemens XII. (1738) wird die Mitgliedschaft von Katholiken in Freimaurerlogen mit kirchlichen Strafen belegt. Trotz nationalhistorisch bedingter Unterschiede innerhalb der Freimaurerei und trotz des Bemuhens um eine differenzierte Betrachtung blieb die Haltung der massgebenden kirchlichen Autoritaten gegenuber der gleichzeitigen Mitgliedschaft von Katholiken in Freimaurerlogen und der katholischen Kirche bis heute unverandert rigoros. Ausgehend von den historischen Anlassen der kirchlichen Verurteilungen werden im kanonistischen Teil der Arbeit die Strafnormen bis zur geltenden Rechtslage analysiert, Entwicklungen skizziert und schliesslich die Frage nach der unbedingten Unvereinbarkeit, Katholik und Freimaurer zu sein, erneut gestellt.