An introduction to the medieval cathedral, those churches that are regarded as the greatest achievements of medieval architecture. Details their social history, who built them, how they were built, and why. Forty photos and maps help to guide the reader through a narrated tour of these awe-inspiring churches. When we think of cathedrals, we usually envision the great Gothic Buildings of 12th- and 13th-century Europe. But other than being a large church, a cathedral is neither a specific building type nor specifically medieval. What a makes a large church a cathedral is the presence of a single item of furniture: the chair (in Latin: cathedra) or throne that is the symbol of the ecclesiastical and spiritual authority of a bishop. This book is an introduction to the medieval cathedral, those churches that are usually regarded as among the greatest achievements of medieval architecture. While cathedrals were often the most prominent urban structure in many European cities, their construction was never a civic responsibility, but remained the responsibility of the clergy in charge of the day to day activities and services. Beginning with an overview of the social history of cathedrals, Clark examines such topics as patrons, builders and artists, and planning and construction; and provides an in-depth examination of the French Cathedral at Reims—a seminal building with significant technological advances, important sculptural programs, a surviving bishop's palace, and other structures. The volume concludes with a series of illustrations, a selection of original texts, and a selected bibliography for further study. A full index is also provided.

In this magisterial two-volume book, Pier Luigi Tucci offers a comprehensive examination of one of the key complexes of Ancient Rome, the Temple of Peace. Based on archival research and an architectural survey, his research sheds new light on the medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque transformations of the basilica, and the later restorations of the complex. Volume 1 focuses on the foundation of the complex under Vespasian until its restoration under Septimius Severus and challenges the accepted views about the ancient building. Volume 2 begins with the remodelling of the library hall and the construction of the rotunda complex, and examines the dedication of the Christian Basilica of SS Cosmas and Damian. Of interest to scholars in a range of topics, The Temple of Peace in Rome crosses the boundaries between classics, archaeology, history of architecture, and art history, through Late Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the early modern period.

The imperial convent of St. Servatius at Quedlinburg (founded in 936) was one of the wealthiest, most prestigious, and most politically powerful religious houses of medieval Germany, subject only to the authority of the emperor and the pope. This is the first English-language volume to provide an introduction to this important female religious community. The twelve essays by a team of international scholars address an array of topics in Quedlinburg's medieval history, with a particular focus on how the Quedlinburg community of learned aristocratic women used architecture and the visual arts to assert the abbey's illustrious history, ongoing political importance, and cultural significance. Contributors are: Clemens Bley, Karen Blough, Shirin Fozi, Tobias Gartner, Eliza Garrison, Evan A. Gatti, G. Ulrich Grossmann, Annie Krieg, Manfred Mehl, Katharina Ulrike Mersch, Christian Popp, Helene Scheck, and Adam R. Stead.

"Revelation and Trinity" provides a guide for the serious study of the systematic theologies of John Calvin and Karl Barth.

The controversial debate between Karl Barth and Emil Brunner drew attention to John Calvin's theology. Each one claims his theology is more faithful to Calvin's theology than the other. In "Revelation and Trinity," author Sang-Hwan Lee analyzes and interprets the theologies of Calvin's 1559 "Institutes" and Barth's "Church Dogmatics" and how they affect Christianity.

Originally a doctoral thesis, Lee's analysis demonstrates their conceptual basis in the revelation of the triune God to which the Bible and the Church attest, and he imparts the implications of this basis. "Revelation and Trinity" highlights the relationship that both Calvin and Barth find between the ontology of the living God in revelation and its noetic and conceptual possibility in faith.

Revitalizing the discussion on the theologies of Calvin and Barth and their relationship, Lee offers a critical assessment of the tenability of the oneness and the threeness of God in their theologies. "Revelation and Trinity" offers old and new insights into their theologies, and examines their relationship with a fresh discussion.

EVANGELISM MANUAL

This manual exemplifies the most effective methods of evangelism. It also provides many strategic plans and guidelines for effective evangelism. All believers, particularly those who aspire to be in leadership or are currently in ministry should own this evangelism manual. This manual is a much-needed resource in the field of evangelistic outreach. It seeks to give practical training and equipping to those who wish to fulfill the call of the Great Commission. The manual is useful for teaching, training, witnessing, follow-up discipleship, launching your own ministry, and even for acquiring personal knowledge of evangelism.

From the earliest centuries of Christianity, the cult of saintly relics has been an important feature of the worship of the Church. This book explores the way in which church architecture has been shaped by holy bones - the physical remains or `relics' of those whom the Church venerated as saints. This is the first complete modern study of this aspect of medieval church architecture in western Europe.

Considers many facets of the medieval church, dealing with institutions, buildings, personalities and literature. The text explores the origins of the diocese and the parish, the history of the See of Hereford and of York Minster. It discusses the arrival of the archdeacon, the Normans as cathedral builders and the kings of England and Scotland as monastic patrons. The studies of monastic life deal with the European question of monastic vocation and with St Bernard's part in the sensational expansion of the early 12th century. An epilogue takes us to the 14th century, contrasting Chaucer's parson with an actual Norfolk rector.

This book is a critical study of the role played by architecture and texts in promoting political and religious ideologies in the ancient world. It explains a palace as an element in royal propaganda seeking to influence social concepts about kingship, and a text about a temple as influencing social concepts about the relationship between God and human beings. Applying the methods of analysis developed in built environment studies, the author interprets the palace and temple building programs of Sennacherib, King of Assyria, and Solomon, King of Israel. The physical evidence for the palace and the verbal evidence for the temple are explained as presenting communicative icons intended to influence contemporary political and religious concepts. The volume concludes with innovative interpretations of the contributions of architectural and verbal icons to religious and political reform.

Examining the concept of 'Temple' throughout Scripture, HEAVEN ON EARTH explores one of the most interesting, but least appreciated themes in biblical theology. Far from being a building used simply for religious activities, the Temple in biblical literature embodies a rich variety of theological ideas. At the heart of these is the interface provided between a holy God and sinful people. An understanding of the role of the Temple (and its predecessor, the Tabernacle) in biblical history provides a remarkable insight into the redemptive purposes of God. From the Garden of Eden in Genesis to the new creation in Revelation, biblical literature abounds with references and allusions to the Temple, all of which underline its significance as an institution and concept. HEAVEN ON EARTH brings evangelical biblical scholars and theologians together to offer a fresh approach to this often neglected area. The biblical essays cover Old Testament, inter-testamental and New Testament material. From Paternoster Press.

Love in a marriage is often expected to bear only the sweet fruits. Nevertheless, every married couple can testify that disappointment is unavoidable and bitter. At this point, throwing in the towel seems to be the only solution, but those who have lived to witness victory can tell a different story. This book takes us through a couple whose marriage had hit a hard rock. However, one spouse's commitment to God through pain, temptations, and despair won her husband back and restored their marriage. If you care for your marriage, be daring enough to read this book. Your marriage is not beyond repair, because God is here to turn that bitter experience into something better

The Safavid period represents an immensely rich chapter in the history of Iranian architecture. In this discussion of Safavid architecture in the context of its political, social and religious milieu, Kishwar Rizvi gives special consideration to the shrine of Shaykh Safi, built in AD 1334, as an important template for an emergent Safavid taste. Of both regal and religious significance, the shrine's direct relationship to imperial power is unique in Islamic architecture and provides valuable information about the methods of architectural benefaction prevalent in early modern Iran. Rizvi examines the ways in which the transition from a devotional aesthetic to an imperial one represented the young dynasty's imperial aspirations, and affected a wide range of public buildings from mosques to palaces during the early Safavid period and beyond.

In Architecture, Power and Religion in Lebanon, Ward Vloeberghs explores Rafiq Hariri's patronage and his posthumous legacy to demonstrate how religious architecture becomes a site for power struggles in contemporary Beirut. By tracing the 150 year-long history of the Muhammad al-Amin Mosque - Lebanon's principal Sunni mosque - and the subsequent development of the site as a commemoration venue, this account offers a unique illustration of how architecture, religion and power become discursively and visually entangled. Set in a multi-confessional society marked by social inequalities and political fragmentation, this interdisciplinary study analyses how architectural practice and urban reconfigurations reveal a nascent personality cult, communal mourning, and the consolidation of political territory in relation to constantly shifting circumstances.

In Applied Emblems in the Cathedral of Lugo, Carme Lopez Calderon explores the emblematic programme found in the Chapel of Nuestra Senora de los Ojos Grandes (Galicia, Spain), consisting of fifty-eight emblems painted c. 1735. Making use of a wide range of printed sources, the author delves into the meaning of each emblem and provides an all-encompassing interpretation of this cycle, which can rightly be described as the richest and most complete programme of Marian applied emblematics in the Iberian Peninsula.

In Tombs in Early Modern Rome (1400-1600), Jan L. de Jong reveals how funerary monuments, far from simply marking a grave, offered an image of the deceased that was carefully crafted to generate a laudable memory and prompt meditative reflections on life, death, and the hereafter. This leads to such questions as: which image of themselves did cardinals create when they commissioned their own tomb monuments? Why were most popes buried in a grandiose tomb monument that they claimed they did not want? Which memory of their mother did children create, and what do tombs for children tell about mothers? Were certain couples buried together so as to demonstrate their eternal love, expecting an afterlife in each other's company?

The volume explores the stone carved shrines for the scrolls of the Mosaic Law from the mid-sixteenth to the mid-seventeenth century synagogues in the former Polish Kingdom. Created on the margin of mainstream art and at a crossroad of diverse cultures, artistic traditions, aesthetic attitudes and languages, these indoor architectural structures have hitherto not been the subject of a monographic study. Revisiting and integrating multiple sources, the author re-evaluates the relationship of the Jewish culture in Renaissance Poland with the medieval Jewish heritage, sepulchral art of the Polish court and nobles, and earlier adaptations of the Christian revival of classical antiquity by Italian Jews. The book uncovers the evolution of artistic patronage, aesthetics, expressions of identities, and emerging visions among a religious minority on the cusp of the modern age.

Read the Jewish Idea Daily's review here. In 1789, when George Washington was elected the first president of the United States, laymen from all six Jewish congregations in the new nation sent him congratulatory letters. He replied to all six. Thus, after more than a century of Jewish life in colonial America the small communities of Jews present at the birth of the nation proudly announced their religious institutions to the country and were recognized by its new leader. By this time, the synagogue had become the most significant institution of American Jewish life, a dominance that was not challenged until the twentieth century, when other institutions such as Jewish community centers or Jewish philanthropic organizations claimed to be the hearts of their Jewish communities. Concise yet comprehensive, The Synagogue in America is the first history of this all-important structure, illuminating its changing role within the American Jewish community over the course of three centuries. From Atlanta and Des Moines to Los Angeles and New Orleans, Marc Lee Raphael moves beyond the New York metropolitan area to examine Orthodox, Reform, Conservative, and Reconstuctionist synagogue life everywhere. Using the records of approximately 125 Jewish congregations, he traces the emergence of the synagogue in the United States from its first instances in the colonial period, when each of the half dozen initial Jewish communities had just one synagogue each, to its proliferation as the nation and the American Jewish community grew and diversified. Encompassing architecture, forms of worship, rabbinic life, fundraising, creative liturgies, and feminism, The Synagogue in America is the go-to history for understanding the synagogue's significance in American Jewish life.