"Does God Exist? Yes, Here Is the Evidence" considers one of life's most enduring questions. To find an answer, Hendrick Park follows a trail of evidence that uncovers arguments for the existence of God in the characteristics of the natural world, in the moral and religious experiences of people's lives, and in the knowledge contained in divine revelation.

Presented in three parts corresponding to the types of evidence, this exploration draws upon the work of a variety of scientists, philosophers, and theologians. In addition, narratives of Park's personal encounters with the actions of God in his own life provide illustrations that amplify the conclusions expressed by authorities in the various fields of thought.

If you believe in God, but wonder about the reasons for faith that reside in the natural world, human experience, and divine revelation, then "Does God Exist? Yes, Here Is the Evidence" will help to strengthen the foundations of your faith. By asking this one big question-does God exist-you may find yourself asking and then seeking answers to other deep questions about your ultimate destiny with God. "Does God Exist? Yes, Here Is the Evidence" will serve as your guide along the way.

In The Cross in the Visual Culture of Late Antique Egypt Gillian Spalding-Stracey brings the design of crosses in monastic and ecclesiastical settings to the fore. Visual representations of the Holy Cross are often so ubiquitous in Christian art that they are often overlooked as artistic devices themselves. This volume offers an exploration of the variety of designs and associated imagery by which the Cross was expressed across the Egyptian landscape in late antiquity. A survey of locations and images leads to an analysis of artistic influences, possible symbolism, variance across time and place and the contextual use of the motif. Gillian Spalding-Stracey provides the reader with an art-historical perspective of the socio-cultural situation in Egypt at the time.

The first comprehensive study in English of the Japanese hell figure Datsueba explores her evolution since her eleventh-century emergence as a terrifying old woman who strips the clothes of the dead in the afterworld. Drawing widely on literature, art, and worship practices, the author reveals how the creative utilization of Datsueba's key attributes-including a marker of borders, a keeper of cloth, and an elderly woman-transformed her into a guardian of the human journey through life and death and shaped a figure that is diverse and multifaceted, yet also strikingly recognizable across the centuries.

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.

"Mary Magdalene, Iconographic Studies from the Middle Ages to the Baroque" examines the iconographic inventions in Magdalene imagery and the contextual factors that shaped her representation in visual art from the fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries. Unique to other saints in the medieval lexicon, images of Mary Magdalene were altered over time to satisfy the changing needs of her patrons as well as her audience. By shedding light on the relationship between the Magdalene and her patrons, both corporate and private, as well as the religious institutions and regions where her imagery is found, this anthology reveals the flexibility of the Magdalene s character in art and, in essence, the reinvention of her iconography from one generation to the next.

Holy Organ or Unholy Idol? focuses on the significance of the cult of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and its accompanying imagery in eighteenth-century New Spain. Lauren G. Kilroy-Ewbank considers paintings, prints, devotional texts, and archival sources within the Mexican context alongside issues and debates occurring in Europe to situate the New Spanish cult within local and global developments. She examines the iconography of these religious images and frames them within broader socio-political and religious discourses related to the Eucharist, the sun, the Jesuits, scientific and anatomical ideas, and mysticism. Images of the Heart helped to champion the cult's validity as it was attacked by religious reformers.

This is the first study in any language to trace the emergence of the art historical interest in icon painting in the nineteenth century with its evident impact on the course of Russian modernism in the twentieth century. Given the surge in popularity of the Russian avant-garde, a book devoted to the gradual awareness of the artistic value of icons and their effect on Russian aesthetics is timely. The discoveries, the false starts, the incompetence, the interaction of dilettantes and academics, the meddling of tsars and church officials, all make for a fascinating tale of growing cultural awarenss. It is a story that prepares the ground for the explosioin of Russian cultural creativity and acceptability in the early twentieth century.

In The Imagined and Real Jerusalem in Art and Architecture specialists in various fields of art history, from Early Christian times to the present, articulate a variety of cultural, religious and political implications of the visualization of Jerusalem. This collection of essays calls attention to two axes emerging from the study of Jerusalem in art: on the one hand, the volatile contemporary situation, and on the other hand, the abiding chain of meanings that history imparts to the city. From a contemporary perspective and within a broad historical context, the book discusses in depth a series of Western artworks, artefacts, and buildings providing new insights into memory processes and mechanisms of representation of Jerusalem.

This fascinating book provides a fresh perspective on the understanding of sacred imagery and its use through selected studies related to seventeenthcentury Roman visual culture. Painting, Patronage and Deovtion: A Focus on Seven Roman Baroque Masterpieces will accompany an exhibition of works by prominent Baroque artists, at the Villa Mondragone, a Renaissance Papal Villa in the countryside of Rome. The highlight of catalogue and exhibition is a group of masterpieces by seven prominent artists of the seventeenth century: six altarpieces by Carlo Saraceni, Valentin de Boulogne, Andrea Sacchi, Andrea Camassei, Pietro da Cortona, and Carlo Maratti, and one easel painting by Guido Reni commissioned for private devotion. Most of the paintings will be on public view for the first time. The publication offers new approaches to the study of the complex processes involved in the making of a work of art. By reconstructing the religious and social dynamics of artistic patronage and the context of worship and devotion in which these paintings - fully documented by primary sources - were executed, the volume explores the visual impact of these works on the viewers. This beautifully illustrated book will feature remarkable new photographs and details of diagnostic analysis of Pietro da Cortona's and Carlo Maratti's altarpieces.

Charlie Akers has spent his entire life following others, making few decisions, and generally having little input into his future. He wakes up one day in prison and, as usual, has no inkling how he got there. Since he has been charged with suspected robbery and murder, it appears that parole is a long shot, if it is an option at all.

The facts surrounding his capture have left him totally puzzled. He was knocked unconscious at the scene of the crime and could not remember anything about the actual event or the circumstances leading up to it. Is he guilty or innocent? Even he does not really know the answer to that question

A trial time has been set by the District Attorney. Charlie's defense attorney is struggling to gather the correct information in order to prepare a reasonable defense for him. His battle with his situation, his help from friends, and the gaps in his relationship with his best friend from his youth will keep him in suspense for a long time.

How much worse can it get than being assigned to death row and you don't know how you got there?

This book proposes that though Hell seems a God-forsaken place, every scene, character and major image in Dante's Divine Comedy - Hell, Purgatory and Paradise - is associated with one of the Persons of the Holy Trinity, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as it were lurking in the shadows. Thus every one of the hundred cantos has a 'dedication' to a Person, and the cantos form overarching groups which are also so dedicated, making the whole poem like a vast symbolic cathedral, where every action has a secret divine dimension. These presences make it very doubtful that Dante really thinks God tortures people for eternity For readers who may be unfamiliar with Dante, the author has made a translation, abridged, in prose and verse, thus hoping to provide an introduction to Dante for those who do not know him and a new way of reading him for those who do. "The result of decades of reflection on Dante and the Trinity, Dante's Hidden God offers a fresh and challenging vision of the 'Commedia'. Offered as an invitation to read Dante, this inventive presentation of Dante's masterpiece will intrigue readers and gives an accessible account of Paul Priest's highly original ideas about the 'sacrato poema'." Dr Matthew Treherne, Senior Lecturer in Italian, University of Leeds