The Christian religion figures prominently in the vast output, both discursive and imaginative, of Miguel de Unamuno. Unamuno studied nineteenth-century biblical scholarship closely, especially that of the Liberal Protestant school, but its influence did not dictate his direction. Without fully accepting the traditional Roman Catholic interpretation of the New Testament, what position vis-a-vis Jesus of Nazareth did Unamuno occupy himself? How did he see this figure from the Palestine of two thousand years ago, which has been so influential in western culture? What role does the Nazarene play in Unamuno’s work? What does the presence of Jesus tell us about the Basque writer’s idiosyncratic and combative religious views that drew the opprobrium of the Spanish Church hierarchy? This study focuses on the figure of Jesus of Nazareth as he appears in Unamuno’s writings – including The Tragic Sense of Life, The Christ of Velázquez, The Agony of Christianity, and San Manuel Bueno, mártir.

The follow-up to the author's highly successful The Things He Carried, this book takes the post-resurrection sayings of Jesus as starting-points and uses the same reflection format. The meaning and significance of the resurrection, how it was first communicated and how it is communicated to us today, are explored by piecing together these sayings of Jesus. However, the content may not quite be what we imagine. Following the resurrection, we would expect the triumphant 'I have risen from the dead'. Yet Jesus' statements are so different, so apparently innocuous, that they are often overlooked. The Christian faith stands or falls on the resurrection of Jesus; without it, says St Paul, we are to be most pitied. In this revelatory book of surprising reflections, Stephen Cottrell's retelling of the Easter story encourages us to slow down and hear it properly - perhaps for the very first time.

In Saint Saul, Donald Harman Akenson offers a lively and provocative account of what we can learn about Jesus by reading the letters of Paul. As the only direct evidence of Jesus we have that were composed before the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE forever altered the outlook of the Christian and Jewish faiths, Akenson claims that these letters are the most reliable source of information. He dismisses the traditional method of searching for facts about Jesus by looking for parallels among the four gospels because they were handed down to us as a unit by a later generation. Akenson painstakingly recreates the world of Christ, a time rich with ideas, prophets, factions, priests, savants, and god-drunk fanatics. As an eminent historian, Akenson approaches his subject with a fresh eye and a scholarly rigor that is all too rare in this hotly disputed field.

"The Blackwell Companion to Jesus" features a comprehensive collection of essays that explore the diverse ways in which Jesus has been imagined or portrayed from the beginnings of Christianity to the present day.

Considers portrayals of Jesus in the New Testament and beyond, Jesus in non-Christian religions, philosophical and historic perspectives, modern manifestations, and representations in Christian art, novels, and filmComprehensive scope of coverage distinguishes this work from similar offeringsExamines both Christian and non-Christian perspectives on Jesus, including those from ethnic and sexual groups, as well as from other faithsOffers rich and rewarding insights which will shape our understanding of this influential figure and his enduring legacy

Poetry, Rosenthal argues, focuses the imagination of a culture as no other written form can. In each chapter of her book, she considers the world's poets as Shelley's 'unacknowledged legislators' - creators who dreamed or destroyed visions of Jesus which shaped the spiritual climate of their times and nations. The book, though wide-ranging in its coverage and impeccably researched, is written extremely accessibly, as though for the general reader, hence it should appeal to the literature and poetry market more broadly as well as scholars of both poetry and Christianity.

This is the first attempt to investigate the background to the gift of the Holy Blood to Westminster by King Henry III in 1247. Recently the archives of Westminster Abbey have yielded important new material relating to this extraordinary event, including a letter from the patriarch of Jerusalem that describes the relic in detail. This study offers both a commentary on this newly-discovered letter, and an overview of the extraordinary history of the relics of Christ's blood, their origin, distribution, and place in popular devotion.

Bryan combines literary, historical, and theological approaches in this study of the doctrine of the Resurrection. In the first part of the book, the author provides a careful and sympathetic description of first-century Jewish and pagan opinions and beliefs about death and what might follow. He then presents a general account of early Christian claims about the death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. In the second part, Bryan offers a detailed, full-length commentary on and exegesis of the main New Testament texts that speak of Jesus' death and resurrection: 1 Corinthians 15 and the narratives in the four canonical gospels. In the third part, Bryan discusses and evaluates various proposals that have been made by those attempting to explain the data in ways that differ from the traditional Christian explanation. Finally, Bryan asks, "So what?" and considers various theological and ethical implications of accepting the claim "Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead." Throughout his study, Bryan exhibits a willingness to face hard questions as well as an appropriate reverence for a faith that for almost two thousand years has enabled millions of people to lead lives of meaning and grace.

Jurgen Moltmann's The Crucified God is one of the most influential theological books of the twentieth century and a classic to be found on every reading list on Christian doctrine. Arguably the most powerful of Moltmann's books. The Crucified God is a seminal work on the crucifixion and its significance. The book takes death, despair and dreadfulness, the dark side of the human condition, with total seriousness and relates these to a liberating hope of redemption through divine agony and suffering. Influential for many years, especially with political and liberation theologians, but also much more widely, the book represents a concentrated blast of hard-edged doctrinal reflection and will continue to inspire upcoming generations who take seriously the life-changing notion that 'God was in Christ.' Reissued with a new foreword by the author himself.

This 1997 book presents in readable, non-technical language the findings of scholarship on one important aspect of 'who Jesus was' - the many reports in the New Testament and other early Christian writings that Jesus performed healings. The book paints a picture of the sick and sickness in Jesus' world and the means available to deal with sickness. It shows how Jesus as healer fits - and doesn't fit - into that world. We see him as one of the many healers of his day, but set apart as a 'wounded healer' who in his own death achieves the ultimate 'healing', victory over death. In addressing the question 'did Jesus really heal?' the author provides readers with resources from biblical scholarship, medicine, sociology and anthropology to help arrive at their own answers to the question. The suggestions for further reading as well as the questions for discussion make this book ideal both for personal reading and for group study.

In this classic work, renowned rationalist and scholar of religion Ernest Renan is the first biographer of Jesus to present him as entirely human. Renan describes Jesus as a popular religious leader and self-proclaimed Messiah who increasingly advocated the overthrow of Roman rule and the establishment of a theocracy. To support his apocalyptic vision, Renan's Jesus was not above using trickery and deception, as in the raising of Lazarus. The impression left by Jesus on his disciples was so profound that they began to proclaim his Resurrection and presence among them shortly after his death. Even conceding Christ's historicity, it is still seriously debated by modern biblical scholars whether a reliable life of Jesus can be gleaned from the gospels. For this very reason, the questions raised by Renan a century ago about the facts surrounding Jesus' life and the authorship of the gospels are still far from settled. The Life of Jesus has provoked both controversy and praise since its publication in 1863.

Throughout human history, people have told stories to convey wisdom and truth. The parables of Jesus Christ are among the most well known of these. Originally told to different groups of people -- crowds by the lakeside in Gallilee, the disciples, the Pharisees -- these stories contain depths of meaning and insight which remain true for us today. Evelyn Capel studies twelve parables -- including The Prodigal Son, the Story of the Sower, the Talents, The Good Samaritan, and many more -- and draws out their relevance today, showing how they have revealed different truths as human consciousness has developed.

Regina Press is proud to introduce Catholic Classics "TM" for Children. This new line features the artwork of William Luberoff and is edited by Rev. Victor Hoagland, C.P., and Sister Karen Cavanagh, C.S.J. This collection is ideal for schools, groups, parishes and individuals. A must for every child.

Jesus and the Politics of Interpretation seeks to interrupt the rhetorics and politics of meaning which in the past decade have compelled the proliferation of popular and scholarly books and articles about the historical Jesus, and which have turned Jesus into a commodity of neo-capitalist western culture.

In this spirited book, Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza continues her argument begun in Jesus: Miram's Child, Sophia's Prophet (Continuum, 1995), now with a focus on the politics of Jesus scholarship. It is no accident, she maintains, that scholars in the U.S. and Europe have rediscovered the historical Jesus at a time when feminist scholarship, critical theory, interreligious dialogue, postcolonial criticism, and liberation theologies have pointed to the interconnections between knowledge and power at work in positivistic scientific circles. It is also no accident that such an explosion of Jesus books has taken place at a time when the media have discovered the "angry white male syndrome" that fuels neo-fascist movements in Europe and the U.S.

The answer to this commodification of "Jesus" is not a rejection of critical scholarship and Jesus research but a call for their investigation in terms of ideology critique and ethics. By claiming to produce knowledge about the "real" Jesus, Schussler Fiorenza points out, malestream as well as feminist scholars deny the rhetoricity of their research and refuse to stand accountable for their reconstructive cultural models and theological interests. Hence, she calls for an ethics of interpretation that can explore such a scholarly politics of meaning, rather than continue its ideological discourses on "Jesus and Women" that are fraught with bothanti-Judaism and anti-feminism.

Jesus and After uses extracts from Biblical and other writings to outline the birth and early development of the Jesus sect of Judaism - its early simplicity, its later growth, and its separation from its Jewish parent. Besides its focus on the past, this book offers suggestions for the future of both religions. The book shows how these writings fit together chronologically, and how, together, they give a sense of the evolution of Christian thinking, from the death of Jesus in the year 30 to the trials of Christians under Pliny in 110. It has the scholar in view, but it also speaks to the concerns of modern Christians who are uncertain about some traditional church doctrines, and who may be interested to find that those doctrines are not original to Christianity, but are instead part of its later development.

Mater Misericordiae-Mother of Mercy-emerged as one of the most prolific subjects in central Italian art from the late thirteenth through the sixteenth centuries. With iconographic origins in Marian cult relics brought from Palestine to Constantinople in the fifth century, the amalgam of attributes coalesced in Armenian Cilicia then morphed as it spread to Cyprus. An early concept of Mary of Mercy-the Virgin standing with outstretched arms and a wide mantle under which kneel or stand devotees-entered the Italian peninsula at the ports of Bari and Venice during the Crusades, eventually converging in central Italy. The mendicant orders adopted the image as an easily recognizable symbol for mercy and aided in its diffusion. In this study, the author's primary goals are to explore the iconographic origins of the Madonna della Misericordia as a devotional image by identifying and analyzing key attributes; to consider circumstances for its eventual overlapping function as a secular symbol used by lay confraternities; and to discuss its diaspora throughout the Italian peninsula, Western Europe, and eastward into Russia and Ukraine. With over 100 illustrations, the book presents an array of works of art as examples, including altarpieces, frescoes, oil paintings, manuscript illuminations, metallurgy, glazed terracotta, stained glass, architectural relief sculpture, and processional banners.

Learn the answers to some of your most pressing questions about Christianity in bestselling author Lee Strobel's The Case for Christ Answer Booklet. This 64-page booklet is filled with short, easy-to-understand questions and answers about important faith issues. Lee Strobel was an atheist when he began his career as a journalist. Through his journalistic research, he became convinced that Jesus is real, and Strobel has written numerous bestselling books on his findings, including The Case for Christ, The Case for a Creator,and The Case for Faith. A movie, The Case for Christ, is being made of his life story. This movie tie-in booklet hits the highlights of The Case for Christ Answer Booklet and will pique your interest as you read through some of the most pressing questions-and unbelievable answers-of the Christian faith.

This is a concise but comprehensive survey of Christ's life. Chapters include: The Background to the Life of Jesus, Various approaches to the Life of Jesus, Literary Sources for the Life of Jesus, The Early Life and Ministry of Jesus Christ, The Galilean Ministry, The Closing Period, The Teaching of Jesus, The Miracles of Jesus, and Jesus Christ in Early Christian Thought. The outstanding value of this work rests in its easy-to-read style and its completely inclusive content. Also of importance is the analysis of the problems surrounding the historicity of Jesus the man. This is a helpful overview of the God-man for all students.

A unique, timely, and wide-ranging book that formulates and applies an ethic of Jesus to the realm of global politics. Since the fourth century, Christians have wrestled with how they should interact with political authority. The most common view holds that while their ultimate loyalty rightfully belongs to God, Christians also have allegiance to their countries and a moral responsibility to transform their political systems. In The Global Politics of Jesus, Nilay Saiya provides a normative critique of this conventional view and advances an alternative approach. While it may seem natural for the church to fervently engage in political life and cultivate a close relationship with the state, Saiya argues that such beliefs result in a "paradox of privilege." As he shows, when the church yields to the seduction of political power when enjoying the benefits of an alliance with the state, it struggles to adhere to its tenets, and when it resists the allure of state power, it does its best work. This unique and wide-ranging book examines the paradox of privilege in some of the most important areas of global politics and considers its implications for the church itself.

The conviction that Jesus is the restorative Christ demands a commitment to the justice he articulated. The justice of the restorative Christ is justice with reconciliation, justice with repentance, justice with repair, and justice without retaliation. The Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts portray the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ through the radical concept of "enemy-love." In conversation with Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Jesus-for-others), John Howard Yoder (a nonviolent Jesus), Miroslav Volf (an embracing Jesus), and Chris Marshall (a compassionate Jesus), Broughton demonstrates what the restorative Christ means for us today. Following the restorative Christ faithfully involves imaginative disciplines (seeing, remembering, and desiring), conversational disciplines (naming, questioning, and forgiving), and embodied disciplines (absorbing, repairing, and embracing).

Releasing in conjunction with the major motion picture with the same title, Case for Christ charts Lee Strobel’s journey from atheist to faith in Christ. This edition includes an author interview with questions about the movie.

Is there credible evidence that Jesus of Nazareth really is the Son of God?

Now a major motion picture, The Case for Christ, Strobel retraces his own spiritual journey from atheism and former legal editor of the Chicago Tribune to faith in Jesus Christ. Strobel cross-examines a dozen experts with doctorates from schools like Cambridge, Princeton, and Brandeis who are recognized authorities in their own fields. Lee Strobel was the award-winning legal editor of The Chicago Tribune and is the bestselling author of The Case for Christ, The Case for Faith, The Case for a Creator, and The Case for Grace. With a journalism degree from the University of Missouri and a Master of Studies in Law degree from Yale, Lee has won four Gold Medallions for publishing excellence and coauthored the Christian Book of the Year. He serves as Professor of Christian Thought at Houston Baptist University.

Too often the virgin birth of Christ serves merely as an evangelical shibboleth instead of a doctrine that affects our lives. The theological meaning of the virgin birth is rich in and of itself. The author argues that the doctrine has been too long ignored by the church. Collecting from disparate sources into one brief accessible volume, Richard Shenk encourages the church towards boldness, to understand the rich theological treasure that the virgin birth of Christ is for us, and to live out its significance in joy and practice.

Union with Christ is the first extensive work on the Christology of Swiss theologian Adolf Schlatter (1852-1938). It offers fresh insights not only to readers interested in Adolf Schlatter's theology in particular, but also to students and professionals from the historical and dogmatic disciplines in general. The first part of the book sets the scene by tracing the biographical context of Schlatter's Christological thinking. It explores Schlatter's evaluation of Kantianism, of the revival movement, of Ritschl and the Ritschl school, and of dialectical theologians, particularly Karl Barth. Based on this analysis, the second part of the work examines the dogmatic shape of Schlatter's relational Christology in more detail. From the perspective of Schlatter's theological triad of seeing-act, thinking-act, and life-act, it investigates his relational account of Jesus Christ against the backdrop of a distinct Trinitarian framework. According to Schlatter, Jesus reveals his divinity on the cross as he is able to maintain fellowship with God in spite of God-forsakenness - mediated by the Holy Spirit - and he reveals his humanity by remaining in close communion with sinners, transforming them and gathering them into the new community of faith.