The Tudors are England's most notorious royal family. But, as Leanda de Lisle's gripping new history reveals, they are a family still more extraordinary than the one we thought we knew. The Tudor canon typically starts with the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, before speeding on to Henry VIII and the Reformation. But this leaves out the family's obscure Welsh origins, the ordinary man known as Owen Tudor who would fall (literally) into a Queen's lap--and later her bed. It passes by the courage of Margaret Beaufort, the pregnant thirteen-year-old girl who would help found the Tudor dynasty, and the childhood and painful exile of her son, the future Henry VII. It ignores the fact that the Tudors were shaped by their past--those parts they wished to remember and those they wished to forget. By creating a full family portrait set against the background of this past, de Lisle enables us to see the Tudor dynasty in its own terms, and presents new perspectives and revelations on key figures and events. De Lisle discovers a family dominated by remarkable women doing everything possible to secure its future; shows why the princes in the Tower had to vanish; and reexamines the bloodiness of Mary's reign, Elizabeth's fraught relationships with her cousins, and the true significance of previously overlooked figures. Throughout the Tudor story, Leanda de Lisle emphasizes the supreme importance of achieving peace and stability in a violent and uncertain world, and of protecting and securing the bloodline. Tudor is bristling with religious and political intrigue but at heart is a thrilling story of one family's determined and flamboyant ambition.

Brahana Selassie is a priest in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, and here gives an account of Ethiopia's national Church from its origins in biblical times to the present century. Drawing extensively on both biblical and academic sources, 'Towards a Fuller Vision' describes the controversies that have raged within the Church, and its constant struggle for the independent existence it has now achieved.

God's Story, Our Story is an introduction to Christian faith from an Anabaptist perspective. It can be used in a group of people considering baptism, or by someone who just wants to mull over faith questions on their own before--or even after--they say yes to God's Story.

This sourcebook of primary texts illustrates the history of Christianity from Nicaea to St. Augustine and St. Patrick. It covers all major persons and topics in the "golden age" of Greek and Latin patristics. This standard collection, still unsurpassed, is now available to a wider North American audience.

How did Christianity come to have such an extraordinary influence upon Europe? Beginning with the transmission of Jesus - teaching throughout the Roman world, Gillian Evans shows how Christianity transformed not only the thinking but also the structures of society, in a Christendom that was, until relatively modern times, essentially a "European" phenomenon. She traces Christianity's influence across the centuries, from its earliest days, through the East/West schism, the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, to its development in the scientific age of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and its place in the modern world. The History of Christian Europe will appeal to scholars of religion and history who are seeking a fuller understanding of how Christianity helped shape and define Europe and, consequently, the wider world.

In this warm and personal book, Dr. Phil Parshall looks at what Muslims believe and how this affects their behaviour.

Parshall compares and contrasts Muslim and Christian views on the nature of God, sacred scriptures, worship, sin, and holiness.

A new way to follow Jesus that draws on old ways of following him. Prominent progressive writer, speaker, and minister Robin Meyers proposes that the best way for the faithful to recapture the spirit of the early Christian church is to recognize that Jesus-following was - and must be again - subversive in the best sense of the word because the gospel taken seriously turns the world upside down. No matter how the church may organize itself or worship, the defining characteristic of the church of the future will be its Jesus-inspired countercultural witness.

What keeps women from being their best? Joyce has been helping women better themselves by helping identify emotional barriers and physical, mental, and spiritual obstacles in their lives for years. Now she provides another answer-confidence.

Our society has an insecurity epidemic, women in particular. Compensating by pretending to be secure-a common response-only leads to feelings of shame. Lack of self-confidence causes great difficulty in relationships of all kinds, and in marriage instances can even lead to divorce.

In THE CONFIDENT WOMAN, Joyce explores the seven characteristics of a woman with confidence, which include a woman who knows she is loved, who refuses to live in fear, and who does not live by comparisons. Joyce explains that confidence stems from being positive in your actions and living honestly, but most importantly from having faith, in God and in ourselves.

Christianity Today 2019 Book Award Winner This introductory guide, written by a leading expert in medieval theology and church history, offers a thorough overview of medieval biblical interpretation. After an opening chapter sketching the necessary background in patristic exegesis (especially the hermeneutical teaching of Augustine), the book progresses through the Middle Ages from the eighth to the fifteenth centuries, examining all the major movements, developments, and historical figures of the period. Rich in primary text engagement and comprehensive in scope, it is the only current, compact introduction to the whole range of medieval exegesis.

Church leadership is a demanding and challenging role. There are many responsibilities involved in leading a church, which can be difficult to maneuver without the proper tools and resources.Written with Bible-based truths and helpful insights, Foundations of Church Administration is both an exploration of those responsibilities and a practical guide to navigating through them. Each chapter is authored by a notable expert in the field who, with sound experience and effective steps, helps church leaders efficiently succeed in the many facets of their responsibilities.In this honest exploration, church leaders will find a new perspective on church administration that will help them dig deeper and develop a long-lasting and effective practice of leading and administrating a church.

Answers to the most common questions and misconceptions about the Bible Seven Things I Wish Christians Knew about the Bible is a short and readable introduction to the Bible-its origins, interpretation, truthfulness, and authority. Bible scholar, prolific author, and Anglican minister Michael Bird helps Christians understand seven important "things" about this unique book: how the Bible was put together; what "inspiration" means; how the Bible is true; why the Bible needs to be rooted in history; why literal interpretation is not always the best interpretation; how the Bible gives us knowledge, faith, love, and hope; and how Jesus Christ is the center of the Bible. Seven Things presents a clear and understandable evangelical account of the Bible's inspiration, canonization, significance, and relevance in a way that is irenic and compelling. It is a must read for any serious Bible reader who desires an informed and mature view of the Bible that will enrich their faith.

An engaging, richly illustrated account of parish churches and churchgoers in England, from the Anglo-Saxons to the mid-sixteenth century Parish churches were at the heart of English religious and social life in the Middle Ages and the sixteenth century. In this comprehensive study, Nicholas Orme shows how they came into existence, who staffed them, and how their buildings were used. He explains who went to church, who did not attend, how people behaved there, and how they-not merely the clergy-affected how worship was staged. The book provides an accessible account of what happened in the daily and weekly services, and how churches marked the seasons of Christmas, Lent, Easter, and summer. It describes how they celebrated the great events of life: birth, coming of age, and marriage, and gave comfort in sickness and death. A final chapter covers the English Reformation in the sixteenth century and shows how, alongside its changes, much that went on in parish churches remained as before.

For the better part of fifteen centuries, Christians read Scripture on two complementary levels, the literal and the spiritual. In the modern period, the spiritual sense gradually became marginalized in favor of the literal sense. The Bible came to be read and interpreted like any other book. This brief, accessible introduction to the history of biblical interpretation examines key turning points and figures and argues for a retrieval of the premodern spiritual habits of reading Scripture.

You can be the match that ignites a great Bible discussion! You only need a few basic skills. This guidebook by Jack Kuhatschek and Cindy Bunch (both veteran discussion leaders and experienced Bible study creators) will show you: how to start a group how to decide what to study how to prepare to lead how to study the Bible how to use a study guide how to write your own questions how to lead the discussion how to evaluate the study Over 100,000 copies of this handbook (now revised and expanded from the original, Leading Bible Discussions) have been used by Bible study leaders and Sunday school teachers. Along with practical suggestions and the answers to common questions offered in each brief chapter, you'll find two appendixes: "Guidelines for Interpreting Scripture" and "A Sample Study." The resources section also leads you to more training guides, website references and study guides to use with your group. Here is the help you need to lead a great Bible discussion.

Everything pastors, parish leaders, and young adult volunteers need to know about bringing those between 20 and 40 into the active life of the church. Based on the heralded Archdiocese of Chicago outreach, this proven program for ministering to and with young adults is filled with sound principles and effective strategies.

First published edition of documents and letters from a highly-significant incident within the nineteenth-century Catholic church. The row between Bishop Herbert Vaughan of Salford and the Jesuits became a cause celebre in the 1870s and was only settled eventually in Rome after the personal intervention of the pope. While the immediate issue was the provision of secondary education, at stake were key questions of authority that had troubled the English Catholic community for centuries; the solution played a major part in determining the relationship between the newly restored bishops and the Religious Orders. This volume brings together for the first time all the relevant English and foreign archival sources and enables the reader to take a balanced view of the whole issue. The documents and letters [including Vaughan's private diary] paint an intriguing and not always flattering picture of the principal combatants. Bishop Vaughan [later Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster] was a determined champion of his own and his fellow-bishops' rights as diocesan bishops. Against him stood the leaders of the Jesuit Order, jealous of their traditional privileges and heirs to centuries of service to the English Catholic community. By the 1870s that community wasbeginning to develop a commercial and professional middle class who demanded secondary education for their children. Many of them looked to the Jesuits to provide it and they claimed the right to do so, irrespective of the wishesand rights of the bishop. The source material is accompanied by an introduction placing them into their social and historical context, and explanatory notes. It forms an important addition to an understanding of the nineteenth-century English Catholic Church. Father Martin John Broadley is a priest in the Catholic diocese of Salford; he also lectures at the University of Manchester.