A Texas oilman. A brilliant female archaeologist. An unknown world underneath the Vatican.

In 1939, a team of workers beneath the Vatican unearthed an early Christian grave. This surprising discovery launched a secret quest that would last decades — a quest to discover the long-lost burial place of the Apostle Peter.

From earliest times, Christian tradition held that Peter — a lowly fisherman from Galilee, whom Christ made leader of his Church — was executed in Rome by Emperor Nero and buried on Vatican Hill. But his tomb had been lost to history. Now, funded anonymously by a wealthy American, a small army of workers embarked on the dig of a lifetime.

The incredible, sometimes shocking, story of the 75-year search and its key players has never been fully told — until now. The quest would pit one of the 20th century’s most talented archaeologists — a woman — against top Vatican insiders. The Fisherman’s Tomb is a story of the triumph of faith and genius against all odds.

In der Geografie, als einer Leitwissenschaft in Sachen "Landschaft", definiert man aktuell Stadtelandschaften als massstablich und raumlich ganz unterschiedliche Ebenen. Diese lassen sich auf einzelne Stadte, auf bestimmte Stadtregionen und selbst auf Metropolregionen oder die seit 1918 eingefuhrte Megalopolis projizieren. Historiker verstehen unter einer "Stadtelandschaft" meist ein Gebiet mittlerer Groessenordnung mit unterschiedlich starker Urbanisierung, wobei in der "Stadtlandschaft" Stadte und Markte, Burger und Handler im umschriebenen Raum zwangslaufig eine dominierende Rolle spielen. Der interterritoriale Vergleich fuhrt uns einerseits hinaus in die Welt der europaischen Urbanitat, andererseits liegt ein deutlicher Fokus auf den grossen wie kleinen Stadten Suddeutschlands. In Farbe und Ausfuhrlichkeit analysieren die Autoren dort die Stadtkultur vom Mittelalter bis zur Moderne. Politische, soziale und oekonomische Netzwerke werden ebenso behandelt wie spannende interstadtische Bezuge durch Reisende, Gelehrsamkeit, Schulen, Literatur oder Musik. Teildisziplinen wie die Historische Ortsnamenforschung runden das Bild ab.

Religion in Enlightenment England introduces its readers to a rich array of BritishChristian texts published between 1660 and 1750. The anthology documents the arc of Christian writings from the reestablishment of the Church of England to the rise of the Methodist movement in the middle of the eighteenth century. The Enlightenment era witnessed the explosion ofmass print culture and the unprecedented expansion of literacy across society. These changes transformed many inherited Christian genresasuch as the sermon and the devotional manualawhile also generating new ones, from the modern church hymn to spiritual autobiography. The authors included in this collection confronted the rise of modern science and forged new rules of modern toleration.Their writing reveals the unprecedented spiritual authority assumed by women and helps explain how emotion moved to the center of religious experience. Religion in Enlightenment England captures the literary energy and excitement unleashed by the Enlightenment itself: authorsengageone another in spirited dialogue that pits reason against revelation, religious conformity against dissent, innovation against tradition, andFreethinking against natural religion. An indispensable asset for any scholar's library, the anthology includes texts by William Law, John Bunyan, Elizabeth Singer Rowe, John and Charles Wesley, Richard Baxter, John Toland, Mary Astell, Daniel Defoe, John Norris, Margaret Fell Fox, Isaac Watts, Thomas Traherne, John Tillotson, William Penn, and Anne Conway.

This book analyzes two large surveys of clergy and lay people in the Church of England taken in 2001 and 2013. The period between the two surveys was one of turbulence and change, and the surveys offer a unique insight into how such change affected grassroots opinion on topics such as marriage, women's ordination, sexual orientation, and the leadership of the Church. Andrew Village analyzes each topic to show how opinion varied by sex, age, education, location, ordination, and church tradition. Shifts that occurred in the period between the two surveys are then examined, and the results paint a detailed picture of how beliefs and attitudes vary across the Church and have evolved over time. This work uncovers some unforeseen but important trends that will shape the trajectory of the Church in the years ahead.

In this sometimes controversial book, Lynda Telford explores the lives of women who have had personal and unofficial influence at the Vatican over the centuries. They may have coerced or otherwise influenced various popes into making decisions which affected papal rule. Against the background of the history of the papacy, when popes were expected to be celibate, the author identifies those popes whose love and admiration for women led to their giving them a voice, not only in their domestic arrangements but also in matters concerning the Church. The women discussed include Marozia, said to have been the mistress of Pope Sergius III, who appears to have taken a violent path to power; and Vanozza dei Catanei, who was the mistress of Alexander VI (Rodrigo Borgia) and bore him four children. Rodrigo was thought to have obtained the title of pope through simony and, although possessed of many engaging qualities, there was no denying his worldliness and determination to ignore the Church's rules on celibacy. He then took on a mistress, Giulia Farnese, who was able to use her influence to promote the cause of her brother, Alessandro Farnese, who would later become Pope Paul III. There were several notable and influential women through the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, including Felice della Rovere, Catherine de Medici and Olimpia Pamphilj. The list also includes queens, such as Christina of Sweden, who abdicated and moved to Rome. Although the scandals abated in the nineteenth century, Mother Pascalina's close relationship with Pope Pius XII in the twentieth caused a great deal of speculation. Engaging, controversial and sometimes illuminating, this is ultimately an exploration of the Catholic Church's sometimes fraught relationship with women.

2020 For the Church Book Award This brief, accessible invitation to the historic creeds and confessions makes a biblical and historical case for their necessity and shows why they are essential for Christian faith and practice today. J. V. Fesko, a leading Reformed theologian with a broad readership in the academy and the church, demonstrates that creeds are not just any human documents but biblically commended resources for the well-being of the church, as long as they remain subordinate to biblical authority. He also explains how the current skepticism and even hostility toward creeds and confessions came about.

Die Autorin schliesst eine Lucke in der Dogmengeschichte des Rechtsgedankens der Nichtigkeit sittenwidriger Vereinbarungen. Sie weist nach, dass die Kanonistik des Hochmittelalters im Zusammenhang mit der Entwicklung des Grundsatzes "pacta sunt servanda" eigene, neue inhaltliche Kriterien fur die Zulassigkeit von Vereinbarungen einfuhrte und spater einen theologisch begrundeten Begriff der "boni mores" schuf. Dieser wich von dem roemisch-rechtlichen Begriff der guten Sitten in der Legistik ab. Der Rechtsgedanke der Begrenzung der Vertragsfreiheit durch die guten Sitten als allgemeines und moralisches Kriterium ist heute in 138 BGB verankert. Die Untersuchung zeigt, dass er auf das naturrechtlich begrundete Verstandnis der "boni mores" im kirchlichen Recht des Hochmittelalters zuruckzufuhren ist.

We need a bigger vision for the city. It's not enough to plant individual churches in isolation from each other. The spiritual need and opportunity of our cities is too big for any one church to meet alone. Pastors Neil Powell and John James contend that to truly transform a city, the gospel compels us to create localized, collaborative church planting movements. They share lessons learned and principles discovered from their experiences leading a successful citywide movement. The more willing we are to collaborate across denominations and networks, the more effectively we will reach our communities-whatever their size-for Jesus. Come discover what God can do in our cities when we work together.