The Carolingian period represented a Golden Age for the abbey of St Gall, an Alpine monastery in modern-day Switzerland. Its bloom of intellectual activity resulted in an impressive number of scholarly texts being copied into often beautifully written manuscripts, many of which survive in the abbey's library to this day. Among these books are several of Irish origin, while others contain works of learning originally written in Ireland. This study explores the practicalities of the spread of this Irish scholarship to St Gall and the reception it received once there. In doing so, this book for the first time investigates a part of the network of knowledge that fed this important Carolingian centre of learning with scholarship. By focusing on scholarly works from Ireland, this study also sheds light on the contribution of the Irish to the Carolingian revival of learning. Historians have often assumed a special relationship between Ireland and the abbey of St Gall, which was built on the grave of the Irish saint Gallus. This book scrutinises this notion of a special connection. The result is a new viewpoint on the spread and reception of Irish learning in the Carolingian period.

The Vita Christi of the fourteenth century Carthusian, Ludolph of Saxony, is the most comprehensive series of meditations on the life of Christ of the late Middle Ages. Ludolph assembles a wealth of commentary from the fathers of the church and the great medieval spiritual writers and weaves them into a seamless exposition on the Gospel. This is the first English translation of this classic work, and it also is the first edition in any language to identify the thousands of sources used by Ludolph, both those he quotes and the many he cites without attribution. It will be of great interest to students of Christian spirituality, but it is intended, as was the original text, for ordinary believers seeking to enter more deeply into the meaning of the life of Christ. When complete, there will be 4 volumes.

Silence is like a burglar alarm that won't turn off. Grief must like silence; the mere whisper of a cry or hint of a tear and Grief makes its presence known. Silence is a megaphone for Grief. A constant that is a deafening reminder of what I am missing. Yet, I find at times it also promotes a quietness with my Lord. Somehow I need to find a way to cherish the solitude in a positive way.

"Proving once again that God's light is brightest when our hour is darkest, Walking through the Valley of Tears is one man's surprising discovery of unending grace at his time of greatest grief. This is a must read for anyone experiencing loss or needing affirmation of God's limitless love."
-Rosemary Clair, author of Heir of Earth

"When your body is exhausted and your soul is parched, you can find unexpected comfort, nurture, rest, and renewal in the darkness of the valley. Buddy McElhannon reminds us that resources are abundant in the valley as the living water pours forth through tears and grief gives way to the riches only heartache can cultivate. Heartwarming, honest, and hopeful, Buddy gently invites us all to journey together with Christ through the depths of the valley and introduces us to good soil, calm water, and the protected canopy that God provides so we can once again shout with joy from the mountaintop. I promise that Buddy will be a helpful guide as you find strength in weakness, hope in despair, and joy in journey while Walking through the Valley of Tears."
-Reverend Catherine Boothe, United Methodist minister and former hospital chaplain

Occupy Religion introduces readers to the growing role of religion in the Occupy Movement and asks provocative questions about how people of faith can work for social justice. From the temperance movement to the Civil Rights movement, churches have played key roles in important social movements, and Occupy Religion shows this role is no less critical today.

God uses people daily to communicate His fragrance and message to us. Too often we don't check to see what aroma or impression we are leaving for others to see, hear, or smell.

After visiting someone's home or before checking out of a motel, or when moving, we double check to make sure we haven't left anything behind. Even criminals check to make sure they haven't left any clues at the crime scene to identify them.

A story reminded me of this. A robber thought he had committed the perfect crime. He assumed he left no clues behind. But he didn't count on someone remembering how he smelled. The smell he left behind was what helped convict him.

Yes, we leave something everywhere we go. Stuart Holden reminded a young man moving from a boarding house of this fact when the young man said, he was just double checking to make sure he wasn't leaving anything behind. "There's one thing you will leave behind, young man, your influence."

As religions grow and evolve, they adapt to their current circumstances, with new ideologies often deviating dramatically from their roots. The variety of religious institutions in modern society necessitates a focus on diversity and inclusiveness in the interactions between organizations of different religions, cultures, and viewpoints. Gender and Diversity Issues in Religious-Based Institutions and Organizations elucidates the impact of gender identity and race within religious-based institutions and organizations. Policymakers, academicians, researchers, government officials, and religious leaders will find this text useful in furthering their research related to inclusiveness and diversity in their respective roles. This essential reference source builds on the available literature on gender and diversity issues in religious-based settings and contexts with chapters relating to race relations in the Churches of Christ, the role of women in religious movements in Latin America, gay-straight alliances at religious-based colleges and universities, and lessons and insights for religious institutions and faculty.

The discovery and imparting of knowledge are the essential undertakings of any university. Such purposes determined John Carroll, SJ's modest and surprisingly ecumenical proposal to establish an academy on the banks of the Potomac for the education of the young in the early republic. What began earnestly in 1789 still continues today: the idea of Georgetown University as a Catholic university situated squarely in the American experience.

Beautifully designed with over 300 illustrations and photographs, "A History of Georgetown University" tells the remarkable story of the administrators, boards, faculty, students, and programs that have made Georgetown a leading institution of higher education. With a keen eye for detail, historian Robert Emmett Curran -- a member of the Georgetown community for over three decades -- explores the broader perspective of Georgetown's sense of identity and its place in American culture.

Volume One traces Georgetown's evolution during its first century, from its beginnings as an academy within the American Catholic community of the Revolutionary War era through its flowering as a college before the Civil War to its postbellum achievements as a university. Volume Two highlights the efforts of administrators and faculty over the next seventy-five years to make Georgetown an ascending and increasingly diverse institution with a range of graduate programs and professional schools. Volume Three examines Georgetown's remarkable rise to prominence as an internationally recognized research university -- both culturally engaged and cosmopolitan while remaining grounded in its Catholic and Jesuit character.

Each volume features numerous illustrations, photographs, and appendices that include student demographics, enrollments, and lists of board members.

Brigham Young and Thomas L. Kane first met on the plains of western Iowa in 1846 The Mormon prophet and the Philadelphia reformer would go on to exchange more than one hundred letters over the next three decades. This annotated collection of their correspondence reveals a great deal about these two remarkable men, while also providing crucial insight into nineteenth-century Mormonism and the historical moment in which the movement developed. Until his death in 1877, Young guided the religious, economic, and political life of the Mormon community, whose settlements spread throughout the West and provoked a profound political, legal, and even military confrontation with the American nation. Young relied on Kane, 21 years his junior, as his most trusted outside adviser, making Kane the most important non-Mormon in the history of the Church. In return, no one influenced the direction of Kane's life more than Young. The surviving letters offer crucial insights into Young's personal life and views as well as his actions as a political and religious leader. The correspondence reveals the strategies of the Latter-day Saints in relating to American culture and government during these crucial years when the "Mormon Question" was a major political, cultural, and legal issue. The letters also shed important light on the largely forgotten "Utah War" of 1857-58, triggered when President James Buchanan dispatched a military expedition to ensure federal supremacy in Utah and replace Young with a non-Mormon governor. The Prophet and the Reformer offers a complete reproduction of the exchange between Young and Kane, and provides an introduction to each letter that contextualizes and analyzes it.

In the fall of 2007, the author thought he would head south for the winter with his RV and find a nice place to take a vacation from the cold. He had done volunteer work in the past and thought he might visit a couple of orphanages he had heard about from friends of his and see if he could be of assistance. It wasn't long before he was deeply involved with a group of fifty children 24-7 playing dad to many, and sharing in some events that were incredibly funny, and too many times heartbreaking. Reading this story will give you a feel for the politics, the reality of corrupt churches and the politics played with unfortunate children in that country we all know so little about south of the border. After returning for three winters to the southern Sonoran Desert to be with the huge family he had become a part of, bizarre events and political moves by the churches involved and the government bring the completely true story to a climax.

Of the many books written about the Battle of Gettysburg, none has included selections from the collected memoirs of the 238 chaplains, North and South, who were present at the battle-until now. Because chaplains were considered noncombatants, most, with the exception of Father William Corby of the Irish Brigade, were largely ignored. This unique study has brought to light many of the observations of clergymen, protestant, Catholic, and Jewish, who accompanied their regiments wherever they marched, camped, or fought. Some of the memoirs have never been published, others unnoticed for a century. Because this is the first book to approach the Battle of Gettysburg from this perspective, rosters of Union and Confederate chaplains reportedly present at the battle are also included. To establish reference points for the chaplains' memoirs, they have been placed in the context of the three-day battle itself, a bloody conflict Father James Sheeran of the 14th Louisiana Infantry characterized as a time when he could not have been more frightened "Had Hell itself broken its boundaries." Chaplain randolph McKim of the 2nd virginia Cavalry thought that on the firing line he had nothing to do but sit on his horse and be shot at. After the battle was over, however, chaplains became very busy. They helped bury the dead and comfort 21,000 wounded soldiers. The chaplains themselves did not escape injury. Four chaplains had been killed, wounded, or injured and eighteen captured to be detained in prisons. This is their story in their own words.