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Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > General > History of religion
The result of over thirty years of research and lecturing, Paul
Through Mediterranean Eyes is a ground-breaking study of Paul's
first epistle to the Corinthians. Bailey examines this canonical
letter through the lenses of Paul's Jewish socio-cultural and
rhetorical background and the Mediterranean context of the
Corinthian recipients. In a set of connected essays, he draws the
reader's attention to the letter's rootedness in the Hebrew
prophetic tradition, the intentional theological structure of
Paul's epistolary organization and the Near Eastern cultural
practices that inflect Paul's rhetorical performance. All of this
is brought to bear in teasing out the nature of Paul's response to
the critical situations facing the Corinthian community: racial,
ethnic and theological divisions, sexual misconduct, intimate
interaction with pagan practices and disputes about church
practices.
Raider. Conqueror. King. Saint. This is the story of Olav
Haraldsson, the greatest Viking who ever lived. A ruthless Viking
warrior who named his most prized battle weapon after the Norse
goddess of death, Olav Haraldsson and his mercenaries wrought
terror and destruction from the Baltic to Galicia in the early
eleventh century. Thousands were put to the sword, enslaved or
ransomed. In England, Canterbury was sacked, its archbishop
murdered and London Bridge pulled down. The loot amassed from years
of plunder helped Olav win the throne of Norway, and a century
after his death he was proclaimed 'Eternal King' and has been a
national hero there ever since. Despite his bloodthirsty
beginnings, Olav converted to Christianity and, in a personal
vendetta against the old Norse gods, made Norway Christian too,
thereby changing irrevocably the Viking world he was born into.
Told with reference to Norse sagas, early chronicles and the work
of modern scholars, Desmond Seward paints an intensely vivid and
colourful portrait of the life and times of arguably the greatest
Viking of them all.
A fascinating analysis of the evolution of religion from the
internationally renowned evolutionary psychologist When did humans
develop spiritual thought? What is religion's evolutionary purpose?
And in our increasingly secular world, why has it endured? Every
society in the history of humanity has lived with religion. In How
Religion Evolved, evolutionary psychologist Professor Robin Dunbar
tracks its origins back to what he terms the 'mystical stance' -
the aspect of human psychology that predisposes us to believe in a
transcendent world, and which makes an encounter with the spiritual
possible. As he explores world religions and their many
derivatives, as well as religions of experience practised by
hunter-gatherer societies since time immemorial, Dunbar argues that
this instinct is not a peculiar human quirk, an aberration on our
otherwise efficient evolutionary journey. Rather, religion confers
an advantage: it can benefit our individual health and wellbeing,
but, more importantly, it fosters social bonding at large scale,
helping hold fractious societies together. Dunbar suggests these
dimensions might provide the basis for an overarching theory for
why and how humans are religious, and so help unify the myriad
strands that currently populate this field. Drawing on
path-breaking research, clinical case studies and fieldwork from
around the globe, as well as stories of charismatic cult leaders,
mysterious sects and lost faiths, How Religion Evolved offers a
fascinating and far-reaching analysis of this quintessentially
human impulse - to believe.
How and why did the early church grow in the first four hundred
years despite disincentives, harassment, and occasional
persecution? In this unique historical study, veteran scholar Alan
Kreider delivers the fruit of a lifetime of study as he tells the
amazing story of the spread of Christianity in the Roman Empire.
Challenging traditional understandings, Kreider contends the church
grew because the virtue of patience was of central importance in
the life and witness of the early Christians. They wrote about
patience, not evangelism, and reflected on prayer, catechesis, and
worship, yet the church grew--not by specific strategies but by
patient ferment.
Britain's pagan past, with its mysterious monuments, atmospheric
sites, enigmatic artifacts, bloodthirsty legends, and cryptic
inscriptions, is both enthralling and perplexing to a resident of
the twenty-first century. In this ambitious and thoroughly
up-to-date book, Ronald Hutton reveals the long development, rapid
suppression, and enduring cultural significance of paganism, from
the Paleolithic Era to the coming of Christianity. He draws on an
array of recently discovered evidence and shows how new findings
have radically transformed understandings of belief and ritual in
Britain before the arrival of organized religion. Setting forth a
chronological narrative, Hutton along the way makes side visits to
explore specific locations of ancient pagan activity. He includes
the well-known sacred sites-Stonehenge, Avebury, Seahenge, Maiden
Castle, Anglesey-as well as more obscure locations across the
mainland and coastal islands. In tireless pursuit of the elusive
"why" of pagan behavior, Hutton astonishes with the breadth of his
understanding of Britain's deep past and inspires with the
originality of his insights.
Throughout China's rapidly growing cities, a new wave of
unregistered house churches is growing. They are developing rich
theological perspectives that are both uniquely Chinese and rooted
in the historical doctrines of the faith. To understand how they
have endured despite government pressure and cultural
marginalization, we must understand both their history and their
theology. In this volume, key writings from the house church have
been compiled, translated, and made accessible to English speakers.
Featured here is a manifesto by well-known pastor Wang Yi and his
church, Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu, to clarify their
theological stance on the house church and its relationship to the
Chinese government. There are also works by prominent voices such
as Jin Tianming, Jin Mingri, and Sun Yi. The editors have provided
introductions, notes, and a glossary to give context to each
selection. These writings are an important body of theology
historically and spiritually. Though defined by a specific set of
circumstances, they have universal applications in a world where
the relationship between church and state is more complicated than
ever. This unique resource will be valuable to practical and
political theologians as well as readers interested in
international relations, political philosophy, history, and
intercultural studies.
The Parish Church was the primary site of religious practice
throughout the early modern period. This was particularly so for
the silent majority of the English population, who conformed
outwardly to the successive religious upheavals of the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries. What such public conformity might have
meant has attracted less attention - and, ironically, is sometimes
less well documented - than the non-conformity or semi-conformity
of recusants, church-papists, Puritan conventiclers or separatists.
In this volume, ten leading scholars of early modern religion
explore the experience of parish worship in England during the
Reformation and the century that followed it. As the contributors
argue, parish worship in this period was of critical theological,
cultural and even political importance. The volume's key themes are
the interlocking importance of liturgy, music, the sermon and the
parishioners' own bodies; the ways in which religious change was
received, initiated, negotiated, embraced or subverted in local
contexts; and the dialectic between practice and belief which
helped to make both so contentious. The contributors - historians,
historical theologians and literary scholars - through their
commitment to an interdisciplinary approach to the subject, provide
fruitful and revealing insights into this intersection of private
and public worship. This collection is a sister volume to Martin
and Ryrie (eds), Private and Domestic Devotion in Early Modern
Britain. Together these two volumes focus and drive forward
scholarship on the lived experience of early modern religion, as it
was practised in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Despite its size, Ely has always been one of the most wealthy and
important dioceses in the country. The essays here focus on the
careers of its bishops, with additional chapters on its buildings
and holdings. The diocese of Ely, formed out of the huge diocese of
Lincoln, was established in 1109 in St Etheldreda's Isle of Ely,
and the ancient Abbey became Ely Cathedral Priory. Covering at
first only the Isle and Cambridgeshire, it grewimmensely in 1837
with the addition of Huntingdonshire, Bedfordshire and West
Suffolk. The latter two counties left the diocese in 1914, but a
substantial part of West Norfolk was added soon after. Until the
nineteenth century Ely was one of the wealthiest dioceses in the
country, and in every century there were notable appointments to
the bishopric. Few of the bishops were promoted elsewhere; for most
it was the culmination of their career, and manyhad made
significant contributions, both to national life and to
scholarship, before their preferment to Ely. They included men of
the calibre of Lancelot Andrewes in the seventeenth century, the
renowned book-collector John Moorein the eighteenth, and James
Russell Woodford, founder of the Theological College, in the
nineteenth. In essays each spanning about a century, experts in the
field explore the lives and careers of its bishops, and their
families and social contacts, examine their impact on the diocese,
and their role in the wider Church in England. Other chapters
consider such areas as the estates, the residences, the works of
art and the library and archives. Overall, they chart the
remarkable development over nine hundred years of one of the
smallest, richest and youngest of the traditional dioceses of
England. Peter Meadows is manuscript librarian in Cambridge
University Library. Contributors: Nicholas Karn, Nicholas Vincent,
Benjamin Thompson, Peter Meadows, Felicity Heal, Ian Atherton,
Evelyn Lord, Frances Knight, Brian Watchorn
Where did the ideas of heaven and hell come from? As strange as it
may seem to us now, there was a time when no one thought they would
go to heaven or hell after they died. In fact, there is no mention
of them in the Old Testament, and Jesus did not believe the souls
of the departed were bound for either realm. In this gripping
history of the afterlife, Bart Ehrman reveals how the concepts of
heaven and hell developed and took hold, and why they endure to
this day. He examines the social, cultural and historical roots of
competing views held by Greeks, Jews and Christians, and traces how
beliefs changed over time. Ultimately, he shows that many of our
ideas about heaven and hell emerged long after Jesus's time,
through the struggle to explain the injustices of the world.
The walls of medieval churches were brightly painted with religious
imagery and colourful patterns, and although often shadows of their
former selves, these paintings are among the most enigmatic art to
survive the Middle Ages. This beautifully illustrated book is an
ideal introduction to this fascinating subject. It tells the
stories behind the paintings and explains their purpose, the
subjects they showed, how they were made and by whom, and what
happened to these works of art during and after the enormous
upheavals of the Reformation. It also compares and contrasts
religious and domestic wall paintings and explores modern
approaches to their conservation and care. A comprehensive
gazetteer provides an invaluable guide to where the best British
examples can be seen. Roger Rosewell is a Fellow of the Society of
Antiquaries and a leading expert on medieval wall paintings. He is
also the Features Editor of Vidimus, the online magazine about
medieval stained glass and a professional lecturer and
photographer. Educated at St Edmund Hall, Oxford University, he has
also written Stained Glass and The Medieval Monastery for Shire.
Written by an independent, non-Catholic, Pulitzer Prize shortlisted
historian of international standing
Word Guild 2012 Canadian Christian Writing Award Honorable Mention,
The Grace Irwin Prize (2013) 2012 Book of the Year Award, Foreword
Magazine The history of women interpreters of the Bible is a
neglected area of study. Marion Taylor presents a one-volume
reference tool that introduces readers to a wide array of women
interpreters of the Bible from the entire history of Christianity.
Her research has implications for understanding biblical
interpretation--especially the history of interpretation--and
influencing contemporary study of women and the Bible.
Contributions by 130 top scholars introduce foremothers of the
faith who address issues of interpretation that continue to be
relevant to faith communities today, such as women's roles in the
church and synagogue and the idea of religious feminism. Women's
interpretations also raise awareness about differences in the ways
women and men may read the Scriptures in light of differences in
their life experiences. This handbook will prove useful to
ministers as well as to students of the Bible, who will be
inspired, provoked, and challenged by the women introduced here.
The volume will also provide a foundation for further detailed
research and analysis. Interpreters include Elizabeth Rice
Achtemeier, Saint Birgitta of Sweden, Catherine Mumford Booth, Anne
Bradstreet, Catherine of Siena, Clare of Assisi, Egeria, Elizabeth
I, Hildegard, Julian of Norwich, Therese of Lisieux, Marcella,
Henrietta C. Mears, Florence Nightingale, Phoebe Palmer, Faltonia
Betitia Proba, Pandita Ramabai, Christina Georgina Rossetti,
Dorothy Leigh Sayers, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Harriet Beecher
Stowe, St. Teresa of Avila, Sojourner Truth, and Susanna Wesley.
The first comprehensive book about Chillingham in
Northumberland-its unique wild cattle, its historic castle and
church, and the family associated with them since the twelfth
century. Julius Caesar admired the cattle's ancestors for their
brute strength, Sir Walter Scott immortalised them. They were
painted by Sir Edwin Landseer and Archibald Thorburn, and depicted
at their best by Thomas Bewick, the master engraver. Darwin studied
them and wrote about them in the 'Descent of Man'. The historian
Simon Schama described the Chillingham cattle as "the great,
perhaps the greatest icon of British natural history". The Castle's
history is chequered and the nobles who lived there even more so.
Incest, adultery, witchcraft, torture, kingmakers and traitors, a
cricketer and a cowboy are all part of its history, resulting in
its modern reputation for cruel and benign ghosts still regularly
seen in the castle. Founded around 1184, the country church, in its
simplicity hides a fifteenth-century tomb described as "one of the
finest such monuments in the country outside a cathedral". Edited
by Dr Paul G. Bahn and Vera Mutimer, with a foreword by HRH Prince
Charles, the Prince of Wales.
Originally published in 1995, The Early Writings of Harold W. Clark
and Frank Lewis Marsh is the eighth volume in the Creationism in
Twentieth Century America series, reissued in 2019. The book is a
collection of original writings by the prominent creationist Harold
W. Clark, and the biologist, educator and young Earth creationist
Frank Lewis Marsh. Although both were significant figures in the
anti-evolutionist movement of the early 20th century, unlike other
members of the movement, both Marsh and Clarke were trained
scientists studying under eminent evolutionists of the time. Both
writers struggled to reconcile new scientific understandings of
geology, botany and palaeontology, supported by Darwin’s theory
of evolution, with their own creationist beliefs in genesis and
flood theory. Both scientists as such began to develop their own
theories of evolution that remained in line with creationist
beliefs. This compact and unique collection includes the writings
of Marsh and Clark from this period, featuring some of their
well-known works on the subject including ‘Back to Creation’
and ‘Fundamental Biology’. This volume of original sources will
be of interest to academics of religion, natural history and
historians of the 19th century.
The stories and contributions of the apostles provide an important
entree into church history. This comprehensive historical and
literary introduction uncovers their lives and legacies,
underscoring the apostles' impact on the growth of the early
church. The author collects and distills the histories, legends,
symbols, and iconography of the original twelve and locates figures
such as Paul, Peter, and John in the broader context of the history
of the apostles. He also explores the continuing story of the
gospel mission and the twelve disciples beyond the New Testament.
There are many editions of the writings of St. Francis, and
biographies about him, but here in one volume are both, plus the
complete text of the late medieval work, The Little Flowers, which
did more to establish the legend of the man than any other work.
This "Paraclete Giants" edition includes the complete Road to
Assisi, Paul Sabatier's ground-breaking and foundational biography
of the saint, first published in French in 1894 and re-issued and
expanded in 2002; the complete Francis in His Own Words: The
Essential Writings; and The Little Flowers, thus offering the best
introduction to St. Francis yet available between two covers. Other
Paraclete Giants include The Complete Julian of Norwich and The
Complete Introduction to the Devout Life, both translated and
introduced by Fr. John-Julian, OJN.
Britain is a treasure trove of medieval architecture. Almost every
village and town in the land has a church that was built during the
period, whose history is legible - to those who know how to look -
in every arch, capital, roof vault, and detail of window tracery.
By learning how to identify the stylistic phases that resulted from
shifts in architectural fashion, it is possible to date each part
of a church to within a decade or two; this book introduces all the
key features of each succeeding style, from Anglo-Saxon and Norman
through to the three great gothic styles, Early English, Decorated
and Perpendicular. It will be indispensable to anyone who enjoys
exploring medieval churches, and who wants to understand and
appreciate their beauty more deeply.
Examining Catholic activism in the south-west of France during the
middle decades of the sixteenth century, this book argues -
contrary to prevailing views - that the phenomenon was both
widespread and militant even before the formation of the Catholic
League in 1576. Whilst recent research has provided a far greater
understanding of the Huguenot struggle for security and legitimacy,
there has not been a correspondingly thorough investigation into
the grass-roots Catholic reaction to this, and by dismissing
episodes of pre-League Catholic militancy as limited and ephemeral,
a distorted picture of French confessional conflict and rivalry is
painted. Utilizing surviving material from the provincial archives
at Bordeaux, Toulouse, Agen, and at the Bibliotheque Nationale in
Paris, this book provides ample evidence for placing the birth of
Catholic activism in the period preceding the Wars of Religion,
highlighting the confessional tensions that exploded throughout the
1540s and 1550s. As competing bands of religious enthusiasts, and
municipal and court officials, fought first with words, then with
weapons, for supremacy of the community in the towns of the
south-west, a steady escalation of confrontation can be traced.
Within this atmosphere of rising tension, it is shown how Catholic
militancy mirrored the organizational and fund-raising capacity of
their Protestant rivals, and how the local military elite rose to
support their co-religionists at the outbreak of formal hostilities
in 1562. The ascendancy of Catholic militants in key urban centres
by 1570 would deal a fatal blow to Protestant plans for supremacy
of the south-west.
Originally published in 1961, Christianity Among the Religions
examines whether it is possible to learn from other religions
without compromising on personal religious loyalties. The book
traces from the thirteenth century the gradual awakening of the
West to the spiritual qualities of other religions and the various
efforts made to place them in relation to Christianity. It explores
the reports sent home by Jesuit missionaries in China, the advance
in knowledge in nineteenth-century Europe, and the gradual decline
in Western "provincialism". In doing so, the book puts forwards
suggestions for the relation between Christianity and other
religions and calls for open conversations between representatives
of different faiths with the aim of increased unity of spirit.
Christianity Among the Religions will appeal to all those with an
interest in the history of Christianity and religious studies more
generally.
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