The distinct religious culture of early modern Spain -- characterized by religious unity at a time when fierce civil wars between Catholics and Protestants fractured northern Europe -- is further understood through examining the expulsion of the Jews and suspected Muslims. While these two groups had previously lived peaceably, if sometimes uneasily, with their Christian neighbors throughout much of the medieval era, the expulsions brought a new intensity to Spanish Christian perceptions of both the moriscos (converts from Islam) and the judeoconversos (converts from Judaism). In Parallel Histories, James S. Amelang reconstructs the compelling struggle of converts to coexist with a Christian majority that suspected them of secretly adhering to their ancestral faiths and destroying national religious unity in the process.

Discussing first Muslims and then Jews in turn, Amelang explores not only the expulsions themselves but also religious beliefs and practices, social and professional characteristics, the construction of collective and individual identities, cultural creativity, and, finally, the difficulties of maintaining orthodox rites and tenets under conditions of persecution. Despite the oppression these two groups experienced, the descendants of the judeoconversos would ultimately be assimilated into the mainstream, unlike their morisco counterparts, who were exiled in 1609.

Amelang masterfully presents a complex narrative that not only gives voice to religious minorities in early modern Spain but also focuses on one of the greatest divergences in the history of European Christianity.

Reports from Western Europe raise the question whether it has become an increasingly hostile place for Christian religious practice or presence outside the four walls of a church - and whether governments are involved in or support the marginalization of Christians. Most prominent was the 2004 case in which the European Union openly denied Italian Minister for European Politics Rocco Buttiglione a position as European Commissioner due to his adherence to Catholic moral teaching. Reports also indicate that the marginalization of Christians occurs through subtle changes in law and policy that drive Christian expression off the public square or signal that Christians are not welcome on the square. In recent months four British Christians filed petitions with the European Court of Human Rights after they were denied reasonable religious accommodation in the workplace first by their respective employers, and then by the UK courts. This briefing will examine reports of the Western European movement toward state-sanctioned marginalization of Christians. It will further analyze the origins, methods, and implications of such a movement and its relation to religious freedom rights as they are protected in major international human rights agreements. This report includes responses by: Roger Kiska, Legal Counsel, Alliance Defending Freedom (Vienna, Austria) Professor Tom Farr, Director of the Religious Freedom Project Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, Georgetown University Dr. Roger Trigg, Academic Director, Kellogg Centre for the Study of Religion in Public Life, Oxford University and Associate Scholar, Religious Freedom Project, Georgetown University

'Dan's book demonstrates that the future will belong to the peacemakers - the true heroes among us.' - Bear Grylls When thirty-three Chilean miners stepped into the light, alive and well, after sixty-nine days entombed in the earth, the world experienced a rare treat - some good news. Was this an anomaly, or are there other untapped glimmers of hope, hidden behind the headlines? Armed with a camera, a notebook, and a perilous sense of curiosity, Dan Morrice embarks upon a global journey to meet the peacemakers - unsung heroes, forging peace in extreme environments, from war-torn nations to disaster zones. From Chilean miners to Syrian refugees, from ex-football hooligans in Britain, to revolutionaries in Israel-Palestine, Dan discovers how the most unlikely people are rediscovering Christian faith and rewriting the fractured history of our time. At the apex of his journey, Dan's interviews lead him on a five-hundred-mile walk across the Negev Desert to find their source of hope first-hand. In a generation tired of divided nations and negative news, Finding the Peacemakers tells the unreported story of a global movement overcoming the odds to build peace in troubled times. 'One of the most inspiring books I have read for many years.' - Baroness Caroline Cox

There exists in the world today a nearly universal presumption that the Holy Bible is a "good" book. This presumption is reinforced all around us. Bible versus are etched into the walls of our national monuments. Churches operate tax exempt. Even the President of the United States takes his oath of office with one hand planted firmly on a copy of the Bible. But this presumption is false, argues Michael Scott Earl. In his book, Bible Stories Your Parents Never Taught You, Mr. Earl makes his case by exposing us to story after story of looting, murder, genocide, torture, slavery -- moral atrocities that have largely failed to register in the public mind. Earl argues that an awareness of these atrocities is important because it enables us to see the Bible as a motivating force behind many of history's most violent and brutal episodes. Bible Stories Your Parents Never Taught You is a 'shock and awe' campaign against the presumed moral irreproachability of the Holy Bible. It is a much needed dose of moral clarity in an age of religious confusion and godly violence.

Historically, the Roman Catholic Church had not recognized the religious freedom of other religious groups. During Vatican II (1962-1965), the Church reformed its historic stance on religious freedom through the Document, Dignitatis Humanae ("Of Human Dignity"). Since then, much debate regarding the meaning of Dignitatis Humanae has ensued, both within the Church and among non-Catholics. This work contributes to the ongoing debate, offering contemporary insights that provide a different perspective than is commonly understood. Relying primarily upon Catholic sources, the author investigates the historical, philosophical, theological, and political factors that contribute to the formulation of Dignitatis Humanae, which also explain the different ways that the Document is applied in Spain, Mexico, and the United States. This work demonstrates how Catholic hegemony is a factor that influences the application of Dignitatis Humanae.

The playground at Saint Thomas Moore School in Houston has become a terrifying place. When Sister Agnes hears young Will's fiery funeral sermon for a dead bird, she must comfort a group of fearful students. At the forceful insistence of his teachers, Will Powers reluctantly stops his explosive sermon. Will's teacher thinks that his parents, and particularly his father, seem very troubled. The parents won't return Sister Agnes's phone calls about similar events involving Will. School psychologist Sister Andrea Albright turns for help to a trusted psychiatrist friend, Dr. Tom Tolman. The ensuing therapy is seen from Will's perspective and the "helpful" adults around him. Those who would aid the boy instead reveal perspectives on psychotherapy's ability to thwart the evil of malignant self-absorption. And along the path of Will's therapy, Sister Andrea and her friend Tom find genuine love and romance. A Boyish God is a troubling novel with deep insights. Says the author, "I was jolted to my core when I learned that a college friend's son died at the Rev. Jim Jones's side at Jonestown. Two books and over thirty years later, I am still searching for answers...especially about terror prevention. " Peter Alan Olsson is a retired psychiatrist/psychoanalyst. His four published nonfiction books are Malignant Pied Pipers of Our Time: From the Rev. Jim Jones to Osama Bin Laden; The Cult of Osama: Psychoanalyzing Bin Laden and His Magnetism for Muslim Youths; If I Knew Then What I Know Now: Advice to a Young Psychotherapist; and Poems Behind a Psychiatrist's Couch. Visit www.drpeterolsson.com. Publisher's website: http://sbpra.com/PeterAlanOlsson

Redemption Alley follows the lives of three people with differing spiritual destinies Cleophas Jedidiah Pettibone aka C.J. was born into a family of preachers. C.J. had a great adviser and guide into becoming a preacher in his father, Rev. Jasper Pettibone. He became a successful pastor of his own church. After realizing some of the carnal side of the profession and bad choices, the crumbling of his marriage and the abandonment of his family, he found himself in need of redemption. Tamara Baker, found a love for doing hair and brought to fruition a successful business with the help of her loving mother. She witnessed the shortcomings of preachers in her life; decided in her words that she could not "do church." Her mother's relationship failures and consequent addiction caused their once close bond to deteriorate. Tamara found she was in need of redemption. Byron "Butta" McClendon was a young man who grabbed life and lived on a sports pedestal. When the stadium lights were turned off and the real world were staring in his face. Butta decided to get involved with the seedy and illegal business venture with his friends. Meeting his deadbeat father and facing life threatening events, "Butta" found he was in need of redemption. The lives of these three intertwined then descended into places that made it difficult to realize their destination. You will follow then into the depths of destruction and arrive with them to claim their victories. This happens because there is a "Redemption Alley"

David J. Harvey presents his personal and sometimes controversial treatment of homosexuality throughout the Scriptures. This book was born from years of research, study and teaching on the topic of Homosexuality, and what the Bible really says about it. Straight people will gain a fresh understanding of the journey that many gay Christians encounter, and gay and lesbians Christians will find a companion who identifies with their hurt and rejection from the mainline churches across the country. While there is much confusion in the Christian world as to what the Bible says about homosexuality, there is great clarity about how Jesus instructed His followers to walk in love. Hopefully, you will find renewed acceptance in your faith and a reason to celebrate your sexuality as you read how you are created; to be the gay or straight child of God. You too can find that Wondrous Love

THIS BOOK is hopefully instructive, and is both dead-serious, and tongue-in-cheek at the same time....We have a lot of problems with "reproduction" in America-We don't hear about elections being decided anywhere else in the civilized world over alarm that someone "gay" may get married, or have a faction that wants to force women to have children even if they have been raped]-whether they want to or not-In Sum, how some really dumb notions about sex may cost America leadership of the free world

One religion will never bring world peace or feed the children or care for the sick and dying. One group cannot eliminate poverty, violence, drugs, human trafficking or complete global spiritual change. A priority agenda must be to make people moral citizens of the world before they can become mystical citizens of heaven. Synergetic cooperation is not to suggest a least common denominator religion or that Judaism, Islam or Christianity should lose their culture or compromise their sacred reality. Culture and tradition are social glue that holds religions together. Yet, compromise (a "together-promise" agreement) is a necessary part of a common agenda for progress. Where organized groups choose not to function, personal action can make a difference and break down some of the barriers to an action agenda that could strengthen the monotheistic message. Remember, the goal for a global outreach is not domination or control, but emancipation from poverty and violence, and liberty to choose a personal and eternal destiny at the hands of Providence. For this to happen, the walls to personal faith and action must be removed.

'This acutely argued book will engender a thousand conversations' Cynthia Ozick The prescient New York Times writer delivers an urgent wake-up call exposing the alarming rise of anti-semitism -- and explains what we can do to defeat it On 27 October 2018 Bari Weiss's childhood synagogue in Pittsburgh became the site of the deadliest attack on Jews in American history. For most of us, the massacre came as a total shock. But to those who have been paying attention, it was only a more violent, extreme expression of the broader trend that has been sweeping Europe and the United States for the past two decades. No longer the exclusive province of the far right and far left, anti-Semitism finds a home in identity politics, in the renewal of 'America first' isolationism and in the rise of one-world socialism. An ancient hatred increasingly allowed into modern political discussion, anti-Semitism has been migrating toward the mainstream in dangerous ways, amplified by social media and a culture of conspiracy that threatens us all. In this urgent book, New York Times writer Bari Weiss makes a powerful case for renewing Jewish and liberal values to guide us through this uncertain moment.

These Are The Generations chronicles the story of the Baes, a North Korean family that struggled to receive and pass on the gospel from generation to generation, through labor camps, prisons, interrogations, and the greatest challenge of all-everyday life in North Korea. Their story is told by Reverend Eric Foley, founder and Chief Executive Officer of Seoul USA, a ministry serving to bridge the Western church with Christians in Asia. Mr. Bae-a former prisoner for his faith in the North Korean gulag- says Christian inmates are forced to endure many hardships, inhumane treatment, and horrid conditions in prison. However, he told Foley not to feel sorry for them because, "Prison is the best seminary training a Christian can get."

The five-year period following the proclamation of the Republic in April 1931 was marked by physical assaults upon the property and public ritual of the Spanish Catholic Church. These attacks were generally carried out by rural and urban anticlerical workers who were frustrated by the Republic's practical inability to tackle the Church's vast power. On 17- 18 July 1936, a right-wing military rebellion divided Spain geographically, provoking the radical fragmentation of power in territory which remained under Republican authority. The coup marked the beginning of a conflict which developed into a full-scale civil war. Anticlerical protagonists, with the reconfigured structure of political opportunities working in their favour, participated in an unprecedented wave of iconoclasm and violence against the clergy. During the first six months of the conflict, innumerable religious buildings were destroyed and almost 7,000 religious personnel were killed. To date, scholarly interpretations of these violent acts were linked to irrationality, criminality and primitiveness. However, the reasons for these outbursts are more complex and deep-rooted: Spanish popular anti-clericalism was undergoing a radical process of reconfiguration during the first three decades of the twentieth century. During a period of rapid social, cultural and political change, anticlerical acts took on new -- explicitly political -- meanings, becoming both a catalyst and a symptom of social change. After 17--18 July 1936, anticlerical violence became a constructive force for many of its protagonists: an instrument with which to build a new society. This book explores the motives, mentalities and collective identities of the groups involved in anti-clericalism during the pre-war Spanish Second Republic and the Spanish Civil War, and is essential reading for all those interested in twentieth-century Spanish history. Published in association with the Canada Blanch Centre for Contemporary Spanish Studies.

Published early in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I and only five years after the death of the Roman Catholic Queen Mary I of England, Foxe's Book of Martyrs was an affirmation of the Protestant Reformation in England during a period of religious conflict between Catholics and Protestants. Because the English monarch was the temporal head of the Church of England, a change in ruler could change the legal status of religious practice. Adherents of the rejected faith risked persecution by the State, and during the reign of Mary I, non-Catholics were publicly burned at the stake. Foxe's account of these martyrdoms contributed significantly to a nationalistic repudiation of the Roman Catholic Church and asserted a historical justification intended to establish the Church of England as a continuation of the true Christian church rather than a modern innovation. The First Part covered early Christian martyrs, a brief history of the medieval church, including the Inquisitions, and a history of the Wycliffite or Lollard movement. The Second Part of the work dealt with the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI, during which the dispute with Rome led to separation of the English Church from papal authority, a new foundation for the Church of England, and the issuance of the Book of Common Prayer. The Third Part treated the reign of Queen Mary and the Marian Persecutions, in part instigated by Edmund Bonner, Bishop of London.

As a Democracy, our government ought to reflect the core beliefs of its people. As people of faith, our faith ought to inform every aspect of our lives; from children, to family, to finances, to health, to marriage, and yes...even to politics It is no far stretch to say that as our faith informs our lives, it should also inform our politics.

"My God, My Politics" will stand as a template for every reader to truly define their personal political ideology. No longer will our personal politics be influenced from the OUTSIDE IN, by party affiliations or outside forces; it will be from the INSIDE OUT through the development of our core belief systems. No longer will we allow what we know as the "Separation of Church & State" to disconnect our faith from our politics. "My God, My Politics" will set your faith free to speak to your politics

This book will empower you to:
+ Develop your political ideology based on your faith
+ Interpret scripture in a manner that will guide your politics
+ Be an advocate for what you believe in the political arena
+ Use your faith to influence your policies

Steve DeNoon, in his book Israel, Are They Still God's People? shares essential information about groups that believe in replacement theology concerning the God of Israel. In a fact filled and easy to read format, he is refutes groups such as the Jehovah's Witnesses and Seventh Day Adventists. DeNoon exposes errors taught by Watchtower organization's. It is a vital tool to help us in our approach to these deluded people.This book provides many Biblical truths about the importance of natural Israel in Bible prophecy. It identifies who the 144,000 of Revelation are and who might be the Antichrist in a not so distant future.This book should be a part of every church library. It touches not only error of false prophets and their organizations; but it also introduces an interesting discovery on the Sea of Reeds that has never been considered by Biblical scholars.All concerned Christians will find this book a helpful addition to their library.

Examines religious intolerance in Pakistan primarily against Hindus and Christians.

This is a powerful and inspirational challenge to the Western Church to take the systematic, symbolic and comprehensive attacks on Christians of all denominations around the world seriously. That Christians are persecuted in various parts of the world is well-known. Less often documented are the violent, systematic attacks on churches and holy sites. Part of an historic process, places of Christian worship have been destroyed over the centuries, from the middle ages through the Armenian genocide and the assaults on Christians in the Middle East and Turkey through to the present day. This book focuses on the continuing attacks on Christian communities in many parts of the world today. Baroness Cox presents graphic photographs and survivors' accounts as testimony to widespread destruction, and provides powerful documentary evidence of contemporary persecution. This is a powerful challenge to the rest of the Church, and advocates of religious freedom, to take these attacks on Christians of all denominations seriously. She writes, 'no other belief tradition has suffered such sustained assaults - or been so silent about violence perpetrated against its own people.' Though painful, the contents combine to provide a moving celebration of the resilience of the human spirit and the Christian faith.

Published early in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, of England, only five years after the death of the Roman Catholic Queen Mary, the work is an affirmation of the Protestant Reformation in England during the ongoing period of religious conflict between Catholics and Protestants. Since the English monarchs also asserted control over the Church in England, a change in rulers could change the legal status of religious practices. As a consequence, adherents of one religion risked judicial execution by the State depending on the attitudes of the rulers. During Mary's reign, common people of Christian faith were publicly burned at the stake in an attempt to eliminate dissension from Catholic doctrines. Foxe's account of Mary's reign and the martyrdoms that took place during it contributed very significantly to the belief in a distinction from the Roman Catholic Church and the Pope as a central aspect of English national identity. By compiling his record, Foxe intended to demonstrate a historical justification for the foundation of the Church of England as a contemporary embodiment of the true and faithful church, rather than as a newly established Christian denomination. Wilder Publications is a green publisher. All of our books are printed to order. This reduces waste and helps us keep prices low while greatly reducing our impact on the environment.

The Tactics of Toleration examines the preconditions and limits of toleration during an age in which Europe was sharply divided along religious lines. During the Age of Religious Wars, refugee communities in borderland towns like the Rhineland city of Wesel were remarkably religiously diverse and culturally heterogeneous places. Examining religious life from the perspective of Calvinists, Lutherans, Mennonites, and Catholics, this book examines how residents dealt with pluralism during an age of deep religious conflict and intolerance. Based on sources that range from theological treatises to financial records and from marriage registries to testimonies before secular and ecclesiastical courts, this project offers new insights into the strategies that ordinary people developed for managing religious pluralism during the Age of Religious Wars. Historians have tended to emphasize the ways in which people of different faiths created and reinforced religious differences in the generations after the Reformation's break-up of Christianity, usually in terms of long-term historical narratives associated with modernization, including state building, confessionalization, and the subsequent rise of religious toleration after a century of religious wars. In contrast, Jesse Spohnholz demonstrates that although this was a time when Christians were engaged in a series of brutal religious wars against one another, many were also learning more immediate and short-term strategies to live alongside one another. This book considers these "tactics for toleration" from the vantage point of religious immigrants and their hosts, who learned to coexist despite differences in language, culture, and religion. It demands that scholars reconsider toleration, not only as an intellectual construct that emerged out of the Enlightenment, but also as a dynamic set of short-term and often informal negotiations between ordinary people, regulating the limits of acceptable and unacceptable behavior. Published by University of Delaware Press. Distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press.

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.