This book examines the theology of spiritual formation developed by fourteenth-century Flemish mystic John of Ruusbroec, arguing that his formational path clearly and consistently displays the characteristics of the archetypal narrative structure of the hero's journey. To start with, a hermeneutical dialogue between scholars of the hero's journey and Ruusbroec is established, employing the work of Hans-Georg Gadamer. The author then examines the stages and tropes of the hero's journey according to Vladimir Propp, Joseph Campbell, Northrop Frye, Rene Girard, Dean Miller, and others, exploring the parallels in Ruusbroec's writing and theology of spiritual formation. The book follows Ruusbroec's story of answering the divine call, journeying inward and experiencing the trials of spiritual transformation, attaining the treasure of divine union, and returning in loving service to others. Finally, the ramifications of the argument for the interpretation and application of other mystical and heroic narratives are considered. Offering a new perspective on John of Ruusbroec, mystical theology, and the hero's journey as a spiritual quest, this volume will be of interest to scholars of mysticism, theology, formative spirituality, narrative theory, and religious literature of the Low Countries.

This book explores the life and spirituality of John Cennick (1718-1755) and argues for a new appreciation of the contradictions and complexities in early evangelicalism. It explores Cennick's evangelistic work in Ireland, his relationship with Count Zinzendorf and the creative tension between the Moravian and Methodist elements of his participation in the eighteenth-century revivals. The chapters draw on extensive unpublished correspondence between Cennick and Zinzendorf, as well as Cennick's unique diary of his first stay in the continental Moravian centres of Marienborn, Herrnhaag and Lindheim. A maverick personality, John Cennick is seen at the centre of some of the principal controversies of the time. The trajectory of his emergence as a prominent figure in the revivals is remarkable in its intensity and hybridity and brings into focus a number of themes in the landscape of early evangelicalism: the eclectic nature of its inspirations, the religious enthusiasm nurtured in Anglican societies, the expansion of the pool of preaching talent, the social tensions unleashed by religious innovations, and the particular nature of the Moravian contribution during the 1740s and 1750s. Offering a major re-evaluation of Cennick's spirituality, the book will be of interest to scholars of evangelical and church history.

Is the Nag Hammadi Apocalypse of Paul a Valentinian text? Many would say no, few would say yes. The Valentinian Temple brings together all the available evidence to produce a systematic argument in favour of the Apocalypse of Paul's Valentinian origins. From Valentinus himself to the Gospel of Truth and the Gospel of Philip, this book traces one of the most neglected trajectories in Valentinian Christianity, namely the pursuit of mystical experiences oriented around a heavenly temple. Starting with the divine Name in the fragments of Valentinus, the development of a high-priestly Christology is uncovered across a range of primary sources, culminating in the Gospel of Philip's temple-based rituals of initiation. The Valentinian Temple argues that it is against this intellectual background that the Apocalypse of Paul ought to be understood. This book will be of interest to experts and students in Gnosticism, Valentinianism, early Christianity, Coptic and biblical literature, and Pauline studies.

How the Anglican church responded to population growth and the need for more accommodation, with the building of 1500 new churches, many of the finest quality. This book is the first comprehensive study of late-Georgian church-building. After centuries of post-Reformation inactivity, the Church of England began to address the desperate shortage of accommodation and build on a huge scale. Almost all the leading architects were involved and, amongst approximately 1500 new churches there are some outstanding designs; buildings of the very highest order architecturally. In this pioneering study, the churches are considered free from the Ecclesiological zeal that condemned them and has, for so long, prevented their serious study. It will celebrate the best of them and provide valuable insights into the design and planning of the whole corpus. There will be many revelations. Included is a thorough examination of the stylistic alternatives and contemporary liturgical imperatives, along with their architectural implications. And the book explores a lost world of late-Georgian churchgoing: what people expected and experienced in a church service. Also considered are some of the period's remarkable material and constructional innovations, ones often exploited in church-building, along with the provision of architectural services in the era that preceded full professionalisation.

A holistic, eye-opening history of one of the most significant turning points in Christianity, The Reformation as Renewal demonstrates that the Reformation was at its core a renewal of evangelical catholicity. In the sixteenth century Rome charged the Reformers with novelty, as if they were heretics departing from the catholic (universal) church. But the Reformers believed they were more catholic than Rome. Distinguishing themselves from Radicals, the Reformers were convinced they were retrieving the faith of the church fathers and the best of the medieval Scholastics. The Reformers saw themselves as faithful stewards of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church preserved across history, and they insisted on a restoration of true worship in their own day. By listening to the Reformers' own voices, The Reformation as Renewal helps readers explore: The Reformation's roots in patristic and medieval thought and its response to late medieval innovations. Key philosophical and theological differences between Scholasticism in the High Middle Ages and deviations in the Late Middle Ages. The many ways sixteenth and seventeenth century Protestant Scholastics critically appropriated Thomas Aquinas. The Reformation's response to the charge of novelty by an appeal to the Augustinian tradition. Common caricatures that charge the Reformation with schism or assume the Reformation was the gateway to secularism. The spread of Reformation catholicity across Europe, as seen in first and second-generation leaders from Luther and Melanchthon in Wittenberg to Zwingli and Bullinger in Zurich to Bucer and Calvin in Strasbourg and Geneva to Tyndale, Cranmer, and Jewel in England, and many others. The theology of the Reformers, with special attention on their writings defending the catholicity of the Reformation.   This balanced, insightful, and accessible treatment of the Reformation will help readers see this watershed moment in the history of Christianity with fresh eyes and appreciate the unity they have with the church across time. Readers will discover that the Reformation was not a new invention, but the renewal of something very old.

A History of Eastern Christianity (1968) is a scholarly and comprehensive account of the history of the non-Greek churches of Eastern Christendom. Alexandrine and Antiochian Christianity, with their ramifications in Africa and Asia, are the subjects of an overall survey that ranges from their origins to modern times. The author deals with every Eastern Church, Coptic, Ethiopian, Jacobite, Nestorian, Armenian, Indian and Maronite, as well as the vanished churches of Nubia and North Africa. He gives a preliminary outline of each church, followed by an analytical summary of the faith and culture. He deals not only with the hierarchy, rites, ceremonials and monastic rule, but also with music, art, architecture and literature.

In 1484, William Caxton, the first publisher of English-language books, issued The Golden Legend, a translation of the most well-known collection of saints' lives in Europe. This study analyzes the molding of the Legenda aurea into a book that powerfully attracted the English market. Modifications included not only illustrations and changes in the arrangement of chapters, but also the addition of lives of British saints and translated excerpts from the Bible, showing an appetite for vernacular scripture and stories about England's past. The publication history of Caxton's Golden Legend reveals attitudes towards national identity and piety within the context of English print culture during the half century prior to the Henrician Reformation.

?Que pasaria si algunos de nuestros mas grandes teologos no fueran considerados como tales, en absoluto? Kat Armas es una cubanoamericana de segunda generacion que crecio en las cercanias del famoso vecindario La Pequena Habana de Miami. Su temprana formacion teologica provino de su abuela, que huyo de Cuba durante el apogeo de los disturbios politicos y crio a sus tres hijos sola tras la muerte de su esposo. Combinando la narracion personal con la reflexion biblica, Armas nos muestra el modo en que las voces marginadas --las que a menudo son rechazadas, aisladas y oprimidas debido a su genero, estatus socioeconomico o falta de educacion--, tienen mas que ensenarnos en cuanto a seguir a Dios que lo que nos damos cuenta. Abuelita fe cuenta la historia de teologas anonimas e ignoradas en la sociedad y en la Biblia --madres, abuelas, hermanas e hijas-- cuya supervivencia, fuerza, resistencia y perseverancia nos ensenan el verdadero poder de la fe y el amor. La exploracion de la autora en cuanto a la teologia de abuelita ayudara a personas de todos los origenes culturales y etnicos a reflexionar sobre las abuelitas en sus vidas y sus ministerios, y sobre las formas en que pueden vivir la fe de abuelita cada dia. Kat Armas (magister en Divinidades y en Teologia del Seminario Teologico Fuller) es una escritora y oradora cubanoamericana, que presenta el podcast The Protagonistas, en el que destaca historias de mujeres de color comunes y corrientes, incluidas escritoras, pastoras, lideresas de iglesias y teologas. Ha escrito para Christianity Today, Sojourners, Relevant, Christians for Biblical Equality, Fuller Youth Institute, la revista Fathom y Missio Alliance. Armas tambien trabaja en el proyecto Living a Better Story en el Fuller Youth Institute y habla periodicamente en conferencias sobre asuntos raciales y de justicia. Vive en Nashville, Tennessee.

This volume offers a counterbalance to the dismissal that Orosius's Histories Against the Pagans has suffered in most recent criticism. Orosius is traditionally considered to be a mediocre scholar and an essentially worthless historian. This book takes his literary endeavour seriously, recognizing the unique contribution the Histories made at a crucial moment of debate and uncertainty, where the present was shaped by restructuring the past. The significance of the Histories is recognised intrinsically rather than only in comparison with other texts and authors, principally Augustine of Hippo, Orosius's mentor. The approach of the book is historiographical, exploring the form, purpose, and meaning of the Histories. The themes of divine providence, monotheism, and imperial authority are examined, and the subjects of war and the sack of Rome receive extended analysis. The book foregrounds Orosius's significant historiographical innovations that are seldom explored, such as the subversion of imperial history within a Christian spectrum in the synchronization of the emperor Augustus and Christ. Each chapter contributes to the progression of knowledge about Orosius's Histories and the wider literary and historiographical culture of disruption that characterised the late fourth and early fifth centuries CE.

Islam is not the only religion that has sought to take political power, or believed that it should be possible to create a theocracy. In the 17th century, Christians in the British Isles and North America attempted to follow the examples of 16th century European radicals of contrasting types, while attempting to learn from their mistakes - first in Scotland, and then Cromwell tried to impose just such a rule in the rest of the country. At the same time, millenarian groups planned a religious, political and social revolution to usher in the return of Christ; while others argued for something akin to communism. And even after the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, there were sects, such as the Quakers, whose faith had a radical impact on their politics. Nor is Christian radicalism dead today - it has influenced politicians ever since.

For decades, Classical Myth has been one of the most popular and best-selling texts for the study of classical myth. Oxford University Press is proud to publish this essential book in a vibrant new ninth edition, complemented by digital learning resources that further enhance the reader's engagement with the classical past. Visit www.oup.com/us/he/powell9e for a wealth of new digital teaching and learning resources. Package this text at a discount with one or more of the author's translations of the Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Aeneid--all pubished by Oxford University Press--or with any title in the Oxford World's Classics series. Please contact your OUP sales representative to set up a package.

This book brings a crucial perspective to the examination of religion and politics in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) by focusing on the roles that Christian communities play in this region. Acknowledging and exploring their political activity represents a much-needed contribution to the MENA literature, which overwhelmingly focuses on Islam. Through a collection of country case studies utilizing a variety of analytic methods, the contributors to this collection demonstrate how various Christian groups act as rational, strategic political actors seeking to protect and promote the interests of their organizations and members. The cases explored here elaborate upon how Christians in the MENA region navigate their minority status and respond to local ideas of citizenship that often relegate them to second-class status. The chapters also examine how MENA Churches draw on transnational networks to augment their local political influence. This volume is an important work for understanding contemporary politics in the MENA region, and advances the study of religion's role in politics more generally. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the journal Religion, State and Society.

This collection, by leading legal scholars, judges and practitioners, together with theologians and church historians, presents historical, theological, philosophical and legal perspectives on Christianity and criminal law. Following a Preface by Lord Judge, formerly Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, and an introductory chapter, the book is divided into four thematic sections. Part I addresses the historical contributions of Christianity to criminal law drawing on biblical sources, early church fathers and canonists, as far as the Enlightenment. Part II, titled Christianity and the principles of criminal law, compares crime and sin, examines concepts of mens rea and intention, and considers the virtue of due process within criminal justice. Part III looks at Christianity and criminal offences, considering their Christian origins and continuing relevance for several basic crimes that every legal system prohibits. Finally, in Part IV, the authors consider Christianity and the enforcement of criminal law, looking at defences, punishment and forgiveness. The book will be an invaluable resource for students and academics working in the areas of Law and Religion, Legal Philosophy and Theology.

Demonstrates the vital role Sunday schools played in forming and sustaining faith before, during, and after the First World War for British populations both at home and abroad. Sunday schools were an important part of the religious landscape of twentieth-century Britain and they were widely attended by much of the British population. The Sunday School Movement in Britain argues that the schools played a vital role in forming and sustaining the faith of those who lived and served during the First World War. Moreover, the volume contends that the conflict did not cause the schools to decline and proposes that decline instead set in much earlier in the twentieth century. The book also questions the perception that the schools were ineffective tools of religious socialisation and examines the continued attempts of the Sunday school movement to professionalise and improve their efforts. Thus, the involvement of the movement with the World's Sunday School Association is revealed to be part of the wider developing international ecumenical community during the twentieth century. Drawing together under-utilised material from archives and newspapers in national and local collections, The Sunday School Movement in Britain presents a history of the schools demonstrating their lasting significance in the religious life of the nation and, by extension, the enduring importance of Christianity in Britain during the first half of the twentieth century.

A revealing account of contemporary tensions between Jews and Christians, playing out beneath the surface of conciliatory interfaith dialogue. A new chapter in Jewish-Christian relations opened in the second half of the twentieth century when the Second Vatican Council exonerated Jews from the accusation of deicide and declared that the Jewish people had never been rejected by God. In a few carefully phrased statements, two millennia of deep hostility were swept into the trash heap of history. But old animosities die hard. While Catholic and Jewish leaders publicly promoted interfaith dialogue, doubts remained behind closed doors. Catholic officials and theologians soon found that changing their attitude toward Jews could threaten the foundations of Christian tradition. For their part, many Jews perceived the new Catholic line as a Church effort to shore up support amid atheist and secular advances. Drawing on extensive research in contemporary rabbinical literature, Karma Ben-Johanan shows that Jewish leaders welcomed the Catholic condemnation of antisemitism but were less enthusiastic about the Church's sudden urge to claim their friendship. Catholic theologians hoped Vatican II would turn the page on an embarrassing history, hence the assertion that the Church had not reformed but rather had always loved Jews, or at least should have. Orthodox rabbis, in contrast, believed they were finally free to say what they thought of Christianity. Jacob's Younger Brother pulls back the veil of interfaith dialogue to reveal how Orthodox rabbis and Catholic leaders spoke about each other when outsiders were not in the room. There Ben-Johanan finds Jews reluctant to accept the latest whims of a Church that had unilaterally dictated the terms of Jewish-Christian relations for centuries.

Religious Dissent in the Roman Empire is the third installment in Vasily Rudich's trilogy on the psychology of discontent in the Roman Empire at the time of Nero. Unlike his earlier books, it deals not with political dissidence, but with religious dissent, especially in its violent form. Against the broad background of Second Temple Judaism and Judaea's history under Rome's rule, Rudich discusses various manifestations of religious dissent as distinct from the mainstream beliefs and directed against both the foreign occupier and the priestly establishment. This book offers the methodological framework for the analysis of the religious dissent mindset, which it considers a recurrent historical phenomenon that may play a major role in different periods and cultures. In this respect, its findings are also relevant to the rise of religious violence in the world today and provide further insights into its persistent motives and paradigms. Religious Dissent in the Roman Empire is an important study for people interested in Roman and Jewish history, religious psychology and religious extremism, cultural interaction and the roots of violence.

A major work setting out the inextricable link between politics and religion over the past two centuries, from the French Revolution to the present day's War on Terror. In this dazzling and hugely relevant book Michael Burleigh explores the way in which religion, broadly construed, functions within European societies. 'Earthly Powers' is an examination of the politics of religion and the religion of politics in Europe from the French Revolution until the Great War. Its astonishing scope encompasses the philosophers of the Enlightenment and the influence of thinkers like de Maistre and de Bonald and Lamennais, as well as the pseudo-religious aspects of Marxism. It looks at painters like Zoffany and David and analyses their representations of their times. It considers the exploits of O'Connell, hero of Catholic Emancipation, Mazzini, Mickiewicz and Garibaldi, and goes via nineteenth century English and Russian literature, to the epic struggles between Church and State, industry and the rise of Christian socialism. It concludes with the advent of the 'old stone gods' that heralded the totalitarian political religions of the 20th-century. Throughout, Burleigh's writing is never less than brilliant and absorbing, handling a welter of ideas and historical detail with confidence, verve and sophistication. He is always revealing and original, showing us the deeper workings of history in a way we have never seen before. It confirms him as one of Europe's greatest modern historians.

The question of the reality of Cathars and other heresies is debated in this provocative collection. Cathars have long been regarded as posing the most organised challenge to orthodox Catholicism in the medieval West, even as a "counter-Church" to orthodoxy in southern France and northern Italy. Their beliefs, understood to be inspired by Balkan dualism, are often seen as the most radical among medieval heresies. However, recent work has fiercely challenged this paradigm, arguing instead that "Catharism" is a construct, mis-named and mis-represented by generations of scholars, and its supposedly radical views were a fantastical projection of the fears of orthodox commentators. This volume brings together a wide range of views from some of the most distinguished internationalscholars in the field, in order to address the debate directly while also opening up new areas for research. Focussing on dualism and anti-materialist beliefs in southern France, Italy and the Balkans, it considers a number of crucial issues. These include: what constitutes popular belief; how (and to what extent) societies of the past were based on the persecution of dissidents; and whether heresy can be seen as an invention of orthodoxy. At the same time, the essays shed new light on some key aspects of the political, cultural, religious and economic relationships between the Balkans and more western regions of Europe in the Middle Ages. Antonio Sennis is Senior Lecturer in Medieval History at University College London Contributors: John H. Arnold, Peter Biller, Caterina Bruschi, David d'Avray, Joerg Feuchter, Bernard Hamilton, R.I. Moore, Mark Gregory Pegg, Rebecca Rist, Lucy J. Sackville, Antonio Sennis, Claire Taylor, Julien Thery-Astruc, Yuri Stoyanov

"The Making of the Bible is invaluable for anyone interested in Scripture and in the intertwined histories of Judaism and Christianity." -John Barton, author of A History of the Bible: The Book and Its Faiths The authoritative new account of the Bible's origins, illuminating the 1,600-year tradition that shaped the Christian and Jewish holy books as millions know them today. The Bible as we know it today is best understood as a process, one that begins in the tenth century BCE. In this revelatory account, a world-renowned scholar of Hebrew scripture joins a foremost authority on the New Testament to write a new biography of the Book of Books, reconstructing Jewish and Christian scriptural histories, as well as the underappreciated contest between them, from which the Bible arose. Recent scholarship has overturned popular assumptions about Israel's past, suggesting, for instance, that the five books of the Torah were written not by Moses but during the reign of Josiah centuries later. The sources of the Gospels are also under scrutiny. Konrad Schmid and Jens Schroeter reveal the long, transformative journeys of these and other texts en route to inclusion in the holy books. The New Testament, the authors show, did not develop in the wake of an Old Testament set in stone. Rather the two evolved in parallel, in conversation with each other, ensuring a continuing mutual influence of Jewish and Christian traditions. Indeed, Schmid and Schroeter argue that Judaism might not have survived had it not been reshaped in competition with early Christianity. A remarkable synthesis of the latest Old and New Testament scholarship, The Making of the Bible is the most comprehensive history yet told of the world's best-known literature, revealing its buried lessons and secrets.

This book offers a detailed analysis of one of the key episodes of twentieth-century ecumenism, focusing on the efforts made to reconcile the Church of England and the Methodist Church of Great Britain in the years since the First World War. Drawing on newly available archives as well as on a broad range of historical, theological, and liturgical expertise, the contributions explore what was attempted, why success proved elusive, and how the quest for unity was reconfigured into the twenty-first century. The volume sets contemporary ecumenical ambitions in historical context, explains the origins, course, and aftermath of the Anglican-Methodist 'Conversations' of 1955-72, retrieves their enduring global legacy, and explores the fraught nature of the ecumenical quest. It will be of key interest to scholars with an interest in ecumenism, Methodist studies, and church history.

Women in Christianity in the Modern Age examines the role of women in Christianity in the 20th and early 21st Centuries. This edited volume includes eight important contributions from academics in the field. The modern era has been an age of social and religious upheaval, and the ravages of global warfare and changes to women's role in society have made the examination of the place of women in religion a key question in theology. From theological concerns - engagements with the biblical texts by feminist and anti-feminist theologians, the modern role of Mary and women saints - to political and social debates on women's ministry and place in society, and cultural shifts as expressed through theologically inspired artwork by women, Women in Christianity in the Modern Age provides an overview and in-depth studies of a tumultuous and changing era. This insightful text will be of key interest to students and scholars in Religion and Cultural Studies.

This volume advances our understanding of early Christianity as a lived religion by approaching it through its rites, the emotions and affects surrounding those rites, and the material setting for the practice of them. The connections between emotions and ritual, between rites and their materiality, and between emotions and their physical manifestation in ancient Mediterranean culture have been inadequately explored as yet, especially with regard to early Christianity and its water and dining rites. Readers will find all three areas-ritual, emotion, and materiality-engaged in this exemplary interdisciplinary study, which provides fresh insights into early Christianity and its world. Ritual, Emotion, and Materiality in the Early Christian World will be of special interest to interdisciplinary-minded researchers, seminarians, and students who are attentive to theory and method, and those with an interest in the New Testament and earliest Christianity. It will also appeal to those working on ancient Jewish and Greco-Roman religion, emotion, and ritual from a comparative standpoint.

The Metaphysics of Good and Evil is the first, full-length contemporary defence, from the perspective of analytic philosophy, of the Scholastic theory of good and evil - the theory of Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, and most medieval and Thomistic philosophers. Goodness is analysed as obedience to nature. Evil is analysed as the privation of goodness. Goodness, surprisingly, is found in the non-living world, but in the living world it takes on a special character. The book analyses various kinds of goodness, showing how they fit into the Scholastic theory. The privation theory of evil is given its most comprehensive contemporary defence, including an account of truthmakers for truths of privation and an analysis of how causation by privation should be understood. In the end, all evil is deviance - a departure from the goodness prescribed by a thing's essential nature. Key Features: Offers a comprehensive defence of a venerable metaphysical theory, conducted using the concepts and methods of analytic philosophy. Revives a much neglected approach to the question of good and evil in their most general nature. Shows how Aristotelian-Thomistic theory has more than historical relevance to a fundamental philosophical issue, but can be applied in a way that is both defensible and yet accessible to the modern philosopher. Provides what, for the Scholastic philosopher, is arguably the only solid metaphysical foundation for a separate treatment of the origins of morality.