'A rattling good read' - The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu 2020 sees the 400th anniversary of the sailing of the Mayflower - the ship that took the Pilgrim Fathers to the New World. It's a foundational event in American history, but it began as an English story, which pioneered the idea of religious freedom. The illegal underground movement of Protestant separatists from Elizabeth I's Church of England is a story of subterfuge and danger, arrests and interrogations, prison and executions. It starts with Queen Mary's attempts to burn Protestantism out of England, which created a Protestant underground. Later, when Elizabeth's Protestant reformation didn't go far enough, radicals recreated that underground, meeting illegally throughout England, facing prison and death for their crimes. They went into exile in the Netherlands, where they lived in poverty - and finally the New World. Stephen Tomkins tells this fascinating story - one that is rarely told as an important piece of English, as well as American, history - that is full of contemporary relevance: religious violence, the threat to national security, freedom of religion and tolerance of dangerous opinions. This is a must-read book for anyone interested in the untold story of how the Mayflower came to be launched. 'A riveting story ... impeccably researched history ... engaging and entertaining, this book serves as reminder of the importance of upholding religious freedom in our current age.' - Tim Farron MP

Even before ISIS launched its ultra-violent campaign targeting Iraqi Christians in the summer of 2014, Pope Francis proclaimed that the current wave of Christian persecution in the Middle East is worse than the suffering inflicted on believers in the centuries of the early Church. Since the Arab Spring and the start of the civil war in Syria in 2011, which have thrown the region into utter chaos, Muslim extremists have killed thousands of Christians every year, while destroying and desecrating countless churches. Christian communities in Syria, Iraq, and Egypt have been hardest hit. In his new book, author and political commentator George J. Marlin, chairman of Aid to the Church in Need-USA - an agency under the guidance of the Pope that supports the persecuted and suffering Church around the world - describes the sharp rise in Christian persecution in the Middle East. After brief narratives on the rise of Christianity, Islam, and terrorism in the Middle East, Marlin documents country by country, acts of twenty-first century Christian persecution that is nearing a bloody climax that could produce the unthinkable: a Middle East without Christians and the destruction of an ancient patrimony that has been a vital link to the very birth of Christianity.

Das Buch beginnt mit einer kurzen Analyse der gegenwartigen Krise des Christentums und speziell des Adventismus. Der Autor behandelt Zweifel an den Grundlagen des christlichen Glaubens und das Unbehagen Vieler uber manche Lehren und Zustande in ihrer Kirche. Er spricht uber seine eigenen Zweifel, seine Sorgen uber gegenwartige Tendenzen in der adventistischen Kirche und seine Anfragen an einige Glaubensuberzeugungen. Er hat sich jedoch entschieden zu bleiben und apelliert an jene, die am Rande stehen, konstruktiv mit ighren Zweifeln umzugehen, neue Inspiration um Glauben zu finden und die Herausforderung anzuhnehmen, in ihrer Adventgemeinde zu blieben oder in sie zuruckzukehren.

The story of religion in America is one of unparalleled diversity and protection of the religious rights of individuals. But that story is a muddied one. This new and expanded edition of a classroom favorite tells a jolting history-illuminated by historical texts, pictures, songs, cartoons, letters, and even t-shirts-of how our society has been and continues to be replete with religious intolerance. It powerfully reveals the narrow gap between intolerance and violence in America. The second edition contains a new chapter on Islamophobia and adds fresh material on the Christian persecution complex, white supremacy and other race-related issues, sexuality, and the role played by social media. John Corrigan and Lynn S. Neal's overarching narrative weaves together a rich, compelling array of textual and visual materials. Arranged thematically, each chapter provides a broad historical background, and each document or cluster of related documents is entwined in context as a discussion of the issues unfolds. The need for this book has only increased in the midst of today's raging conflicts about immigration, terrorism, race, religious freedom, and patriotism.

In this groundbreaking book, Selina O'Grady examines how and why the post-Christian and the Islamic worlds came to be as tolerant or intolerant as they are. She asks whether tolerance can be expected to heal today's festering wound between these two worlds, or whether something deeper than tolerance is needed. Told through contemporary chronicles, stories and poems, Selina O'Grady takes the reader through the intertwined histories of the Muslim, Christian and Jewish persecutors and persecuted. From Umar, the seventh century Islamic caliph who laid down the rules for the treatment of religious minorities in what was becoming the greatest empire the world has ever known, to Magna Carta John who seriously considered converting to Islam; and from al-Wahhab, whose own brother thought he was illiterate and fanatical, but who created the religious-military alliance with the house of Saud that still survives today, to Europe's bloody Thirty Years war that wearied Europe of murderous inter-Christian violence but probably killed God in the process. This book is an essential guide to understanding Islam and the West today and the role of religion in the modern world.

Gaan of blijven? is eerst en vooral een boek voor de steeds grotere groep adventisten die zich zorgen maken over allerlei ontwikkelingen in hun kerk. Zij zien een groeiend fundamentalisme, een toenemende polarisatie en weigering om standpunten bij te stellen (zoals bijv. op het punt van de rol van de vrouw in de kerk). Velen hebben ook geloofsvragen waarop ze geen antwoord krijgen. En vaak vragen zij zich af of ze alle Fundamentele Geloofspunten tot in detail moeten onderschrijven om zich een 'echte' adventist te mogen noemen. De schrijver is heel open over zijn eigen vragen en twijfels. Hij vertelt waarom hij er desondanks voor kiest om in de kerk te blijven. Hij wil proberen anderen te helpen diezelfde keuze te maken en op een positieve en constructieve wijze met hun twijfels om te gaan.

State sponsorship of terrorism is a complex and important topic in today's international affairs - and especially pertinent in the regional politics of the Middle East and South Asia, where Pakistan has long been a flashpoint of Islamist politics and terrorism. In Islamism and Intelligence in South Asia, Prem Mahadevan demonstrates how over several decades, radical Islamists, sometimes with the tacit support of parts of the military establishment, have weakened democratic governance in Pakistan and acquired progressively larger influence over policy-making. Mahadevan traces this history back to the anti-colonial Deobandi movement, which was born out of the post-partition political atmosphere and a rediscovery of the thinking of Ibn Taymiyyah, and partially ennobled the idea of `jihad' in South Asia as a righteous war against foreign oppression. Using Pakistani media and academic sources for the bulk of its raw data, and reinforcing this with scholarly analysis from Western commentators, the book tracks Pakistan's trajectory towards a `soft' Islamic revolution. Envisioned by the country's intelligence community as a solution to chronic governance failures, these narratives called for a re-orientation away from South Asia and towards the Middle East. In the process, Pakistan has become a sanctuary for Arab jihadist groups, such as Al-Qaeda, who had no previous ethnic or linguistic connection with South Asia. Most alarmingly, official discourse on terrorism has been partly silenced by the military-intelligence complex. The result is a slow drift towards extremism and possible legitimation of internationally proscribed terrorist organizations in Pakistan's electoral politics.