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Books > Religion & Spirituality > General > Religious intolerance, persecution & conflict > General
John Foxe's ground-breaking chronicle of Christian saints and
martyrs put to death over centuries remains a landmark text of
religious history. The persecution of Christians was for centuries
a fact of living in Europe. Adherence to the faith was a great
personal risk, with the Roman Empire leading the first of such
persecutions against early Christian believers. Many were
crucified, put to the sword, or burned alive - gruesome forms of
death designed to terrify and discourage others from following the
same beliefs. Appearing in 1563, Foxe's chronicle of Christian
suffering proved a great success among Protestants. It gave
literate Christians the ability to discover and read about brave
believers who died for expressing their religion, much as did Jesus
Christ. Perhaps in foretelling, the final chapter of the book
focuses upon the earliest Christian missions abroad: these, to the
Americas, Asia and other locales, would indeed see many more
martyrs put to death by the local populations.
We live in a world driven by fear. But should we allow fear to play
such a large role in our lives? According to the religions of the
world, the answer is no. In this helpful and illuminating book,
Michael Kinnamon challenges readers to consider why we find
ourselves in this age of fear and what we can do about it. Drawing
on support from a diversity of religious traditions and teachers,
Kinnamon argues that religious faith is the best way to combat a
culture of fear. He explores fear in relation to the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the American political scene, and
he shares courageous examples of individuals from different
religions working for peace. Perfect for individuals or group
study, this book helps readers understand the manipulative power of
fear and how religious beliefs call us to reject fear at all costs.
A study guide is included.
In this all-embracing Christian church history, E. H. Broadbent
details the growth, traditions and teachings of churches and
denominations through the ages. Intended as an introduction to
organized Christianity, the Pilgrim Church selects examples from
the time of Christ onward of Christian denominations. From the
beginning, Broadbent is keen to emphasize how gaps in history mean
much of the church history is simply obscured. How exactly
Christians almost two thousand years ago, or in the pre-Reformation
Middle Ages, worshipped and practiced their faith is simply a
mystery for theologians and historians. The central argument of
Broadbent's book is that the Catholic church, in its effort to
suppress divergence it deemed as heresy, destroyed much of the
evidence of other churches. Much of the book is composed with this
underpinning principle; a truth that resounds through the entire
text, which is informed by the undoubted scholarship of the author.
This book provides a sophisticated investigation into the
experience of being exterminated, as felt by victims of the
Holocaust, and compares and contrasts this analysis with the
experiences of people who have been colonized or enslaved. Using
numerous victim accounts and a wide range of primary sources, the
book moves away from the 'continuity thesis', with its insistence
on colonial intent as the reason for victimization in relation to
other historical examples of mass political violence, to look at
the victim experience on its own terms. By affording each
constituent case study its own distinctive aspects, The Victims of
Slavery, Colonization and the Holocaust allows for a more enriching
comparison of victim experience to be made that respects each group
of victims in their uniqueness. It is an important, innovative
volume for all students of the Holocaust, genocide and the history
of mass political violence.
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