Conflict has been an inescapable facet of religion from its very beginnings. This volume offers insight into the mechanisms at play in the centuries from the Jesus-movement's first attempts to define itself over and against Judaism to the beginnings of Islam. Profiling research by scholars of the Centre for Early Christian Studies at Australian Catholic University, the essays document inter- and intra-religious conflict from a variety of angles. Topics relevant to the early centuries range from religious conflict between different parts of the Christian canon, types of conflict, the origins of conflict, strategies for winning, for conflict resolution, and the emergence of a language of conflict. For the fourth to seventh centuries case studies from Asia Minor, Syria, Constantinople, Gaul, Arabia and Egypt are presented. The volume closes with examinations of the Christian and Jewish response to Islam, and of Islam's response to Christianity. Given the political and religious tensions in the world today, this volume is well positioned to find relevance and meaning in societies still grappling with the monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

"The true poet bares not only his mind and heart but reveals the depths of hissoul. After reading Dave Dowd's current collection, I am fi rmly convinced that he is, indeed, a true poet. Dave's poetry is teeming with stories, teachings, and truisms thatmake us all stop to think, to refl ect and ultimately, to examine our own humanity.From poetry that celebrates the victory and defeat of his beloved Boston Red Sox, toheartfelt love poems, to a selection of work inspired by the epic battle for human life, Dave does not disappoint. This poetry acts as a beacon of light in a time so mired indarkness that its inspired words must be read and its message lived."Host of EWTN Radio's Open Line & The Good FightGod keep you, Dave! Great job!B A R B A R A M C G U I G A N

More and more in our modern and postmodern culture the twin concepts of beauty and truth have been separated both from each other and from their individual connection to the divine source of Beauty and Truth. Even as our public schools move further and further away from their connection to the universal moral code, the world of art (both high and low) embraces an aesthetic that privileges ugliness over beauty, nihilism over form, and radical self-expression over the pursuit of higher truth. As both an effective apologist for truth-based education and as a sub-creator of his own beauty-enhancing fiction, C.S. Lewis is the ideal guide for those who would seek to restore truth and beauty to their proper place and role in our modern world. Sections one and two analyze Lewis' eleven novels, showing how Lewis counters the growing cult of the ugly and helps restore a clearer understanding of the nature of good and evil. Sections three and four turn to Lewis' nonfiction works to assess what advice Lewis can give educators at all levels who would steer their students away from chronological snobbery and values-free education toward a true re-engagement with the past. The book concludes with a commentary onScrewtape Letters that exposes what Satan's main temptation tactics have been since the 1960s and a detailed bibliographical essay of books by and about Lewis.

Here is the book that converted C. S. Lewis from atheism to Christianity. This history of mankind, Christ, and Christianity is to some extent a conscious rebuttal of H. G. Wells' Outline of History, which embraced both the evolutionary origins of humanity and the mortal humanity of Jesus. Whereas Orthodoxy detailed Chesterton's own spiritual journey, this book illustrates the spiritual journey of humanity, or at least of Western civilization. A book for both mind and spirit.

This volume takes readers on a fascinating journey through the visual arts of Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific Islands, contemplating the multivocal dialogues that occur between these artistic media and the texts and traditions of the Bible. With their distinctively antipodean perspectives, contributors explore the innovative ways that both creators and beholders of Oceanic arts draw upon their contexts and cultures in order to open up creative engagements with the stories, themes and theologies of the biblical traditions. Various motifs weave their way throughout the volume, including antipodean landscapes and ecology, (post)colonialism, philosophy, Oceanic spiritualities and the often contested engagements between western and indigenous cultures. Within this weaving process, each essay invites readers to contemplate these various forms of visual culture through Oceanic eyes, and to appreciate the fresh insights that this process can bring to reading and interpreting the biblical traditions. The result is a rich and interdisciplinary array of conversations that will capture the attention of readers within the fields of biblical reception studies, cultural studies, theology and art history.

This is the story of the experiences of Jonathan in the Vietnam War. It is a story of death, violence, pain, and sorrow; of nightmares and disillusions, but it is also a story of God's healing and his message of hope and prosperity.

The Prayer of Jonah--From the Depths of Vietnam Jungles is the story of Jonathan, the Jonah of the modern world, disobeying God's call and finding himself in the belly of the "depths of Vietnam jungles."

After returning from Vietnam, Jonathan, like all the soldiers returning home, was not welcomed by society, especially the hippie movement, calling them "assassins," "baby killers," and all kind of insults.

Jonathan received the call of God for the second time and like Jonah, obeyed the Lord and went to the city to deliver God's message, "a 9-1-1 emergency call" to the great city. He too went in search of his brother, Carlitos, and gave him "a 9-1-1 message" of salvation.

From a South African Passion Play to Turkish Sufi tourism, from contemporary street preaching in America to public Hindu rites in India, from cloistered prayer in 17th century France to the queer politics of 'the closet' today, Performing Religion in Public brings together an international array of voices that grapple with the important role of religious performance in our secular public lives. Because traditional notions of the public sphere have emphasized rational discourse in a secular setting, religion has often been excluded. But religious life is not impersonal argument; rather, it is passionately performed, crossing boundaries between public and private, the personal and the political, and claiming a significant role in modern democracies, from everyday cultural interactions to political advocacy. By focusing on the performative nature of both religion and publics, this timely volume offers a fresh and fruitful re-conception of the relationship between religion and the public sphere.

Few devotional books have had the impact of The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis. Kempis was a 15th Century Augustinian monk whose entire life was devoted to the pursuit of communion with God. His words, originally intended for his fellow monastics, have since become one of the most widelyread spiritual books within the Christian tradition. In The Imitation of Christ, Kempis meditates on a number of themes, at the heart of which is renunciation of the world in favor of a Christ-centered existence. The Imitation of Christ is an influential piece of Christian writing with resonance for anyone on a spiritual path.

The Bible contains passages that allow both scholars and believers to project their hopes and fears onto ever-changing empirical realities. By reading specific biblical passages as utopia and dystopia, this volume raises questions about reconstructing the past, the impact of wishful imagination on reality, and the hermeneutic implications of dealing with utopia - "good place" yet "no place" - as a method and a concept in biblical studies. A believer like William Bradford might approach a biblical passage as utopia by reading it as instructions for bringing about a significantly changed society in reality, even at the cost of becoming an oppressor. A contemporary biblical scholar might approach the same passage with the ambition of locating the historical reality behind it - finding the places it describes on a map, or arriving at a conclusion about the social reality experienced by a historical community of redactors. These utopian goals are projected onto a utopian text. This volume advocates an honest hermeneutical approach to the question of how reliably a past reality can be reconstructed from a biblical passage, and it aims to provide an example of disclosing - not obscuring - pre-suppositions brought to the text.

Agape's Performance shows God's unconditional love for the life and destiny of each reader. In Agape's Performance, Agape teaches Destiny His ways of wisdom and love. Let your own destiny follow and learn the ways of Agape as He shows what one must do to enjoy life and have many happy days. Show Agape your love by living for Him and following His unique path for you called, the best way of all, the way of love. Beautifully and uniquely illustrated in colored pencil media, Agape's Performance flower collection speaks of living the love life freely given by Agape, the most strongest force in the universe. Agape's Performance is a wonderful treasure book that presents an expressive collection of Scriptures intended for all of God's children, both young and old from all walks of life. "Live for Me and I will show you" says Agape. In Agape's Performance, Agape plainly speaks on the path of life as uniquely portrayed in the NCV translation of The Holy Scriptures.

In this masterly work, Martin O'Kane shows artists at work as readers of the Bible and not simply as illustrators of biblical scenes. The painter's eye commonly sees nuances and subtleties of plot and characterization in the biblical text that traditional biblical criticism has overlooked. Focussing in fine detail on some well-known biblical themes-the deception of Isaac, the depiction of Isaiah's suffering servant, the visit of the Magi and the flight into Egypt, among others-O'Kane argues that modern readers need the artist's exegetical insight and engagement to appreciate the text fully. Ranging widely over mediaeval, Renaissance and modern art, the author situates his work within the hermeneutical aesthetics of Hans-Georg Gadamer, Mieke Bal and Paolo Berdini. Some 30 images are reproduced in the text.