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Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > Christianity > The Bible > New Testament > General
Discover what The Lord's Prayer really means, reinterpreted for a modern audience
In this new work by the much loved Pope Francis, he offers remarkable insights into what the most popular prayer in Christianity can tell us about living a life of meaning, purpose and strength.
Going through the prayer verse by verse he reminds us of its timeless words, and addresses the concerns of us all, whether Christian or not, seeking to guide us while exploring the importance of social justice, helping others and forgiveness - all key elements of Pope Francis' papacy.
Through his eyes, we realise the sentiments in Our Father are very much of today's world, challenging our doubts and bringing us courage.
This volume presents in new English translations the scattered
fragments and testimonies regarding Hermes Thrice Great that
complete Brian Copenhaver's translation of the Hermetica
(Cambridge, 1992). It contains the twenty-nine fragments from
Stobaeus (including the famous Kore Kosmou), the Oxford and Vienna
fragments (never before translated), an expanded selection of
fragments from various authors (including Zosimus of Panopolis,
Augustine, and Albert the Great), and testimonies about Hermes from
thirty-eight authors (including Cicero, Pseudo-Manetho, the Emperor
Julian, Al-Kindi, Michael Psellus, the Emerald Tablet, and Nicholas
of Cusa). All translations are accompanied by introductions and
notes which cite sources for further reading. These Hermetic texts
will appeal to a broad array of readers interested in western
esotericism including scholars of Egyptology, the New Testament,
the classical world, Byzantium, medieval Islam, the Latin Middle
Ages, and the Renaissance.
We increasingly recognize that Paul did not write his letter to the
Romans primarily out of doctrinal concerns. Paul B. Fowler presses
that insight home in this attentive, yet eminently readable, study
of the Letter's structure. The principles of Fowler's reading are
that rhetorical questions in Romans 3?11 structure the argument,
not as responses to criticism but as Paul's careful guiding of the
reader, and that these chapters, like the paraenesis in Romans
12?15, address specific circumstances in Rome. Careful attention to
the rhetorical structure of the letter points to tensions between
Jew and Gentile that aggravate the already precarious situation of
the Roman congregation. In the course of his argument, Fowler
explodes the common conceptions that Paul employs diatribal
technique to answer objections and that he is primarily engaged in
a debate with Jews. In short, Fowler demonstrates that the apostle
is not writing defensively, but responding with sensitivity to the
volatile atmosphere caused by Claudius's expulsion of some Jews
from Rome. The book includes an appendix on rhetorical devices and
another on epistolary formulas in Paul's letters.
Relatively brief and seemingly unassuming, Philippians is
frequently underestimated by its readers and users. This guide
shows that what lies within this letter is much more complicated
and dynamic than many expect. After surveying the major historical
problems and the methods scholars use to arrive at competing
solutions, Marchal focuses on the letter's famous hymn of Christ-a
rare glimpse into a tradition created by the community in Philippi,
even earlier than Paul's letter. Given its impact and potential,
the hymn deserves sustained attention, including its connections to
slavery and other modes of social power. Turning to the letter as a
whole, Marchal asks how this letter fits with types of
argumentation in Greco-Roman culture, moving then into a detailed
sketch of the rhetorical patterns in the letter, from unity and
sameness to hierarchy and modeling. Feminist and empire-critical
approaches are presented alongside more traditional assumptions and
ideas throughout, signaling how choices in approach and starting
points have historically affected the scholarly visions and
communal uses for Philippians. In the final chapter the letter is
put to a series of atypical uses, as the insights of queer theories
are brought into surprising interaction with the arguments in the
letter. Tarrying over unmentionable ideas and provocative moments
that readers typically race past, this chapter takes the reader
from the hierarchical heights of a cosmic Christ to the depths of
excrement being emptied from the same body, from the arguments of
waste to revealing asides about human waste and feminine lack. The
performative power and possibilities of Paul's letters has never
been stranger nor more subversive of the too often destructive and
dehumanizing uses of biblical images, ideas and arguments.
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