More than ever before, scholars recognize that nearly every form of religion or spirituality has a vital connection with art. World religions, from Hinduism to The Eastern Orthodox Church, have a long and rich relationship with an array of artistic traditions. In recent decades, the academic study of religion and the arts has burgeoned. Yet a broad and serious consideration of the topic has yet to reach readers. The first comprehensive book of its kind, The Oxford Handbook of Religion and the Arts provides expert guidance to artistry and aesthetic theory in religion. Edited by Frank Burch Brown, the Handbook brings together an international team of leading scholars to present an interdisciplinary volume of nearly forty original essays. Readers are presented the main topics, issues, methods, and resources for the study of religious and theological aesthetics. The essays give light to the dynamic interaction of world religions and art making. The volume ranges from antiquity to present day to examine idolatry, aesthetics in liturgy, and the role of art in popular religion. Ranging from music and poetry to architecture and film, the Handbook crosses the boundaries of different faiths and art forms to survey established and pioneering voices within the field. An authoritative text for scholars and students, The Oxford Handbook of Religion and the Arts will remain an invaluable resource for years to come.

Thomas Aquinas and John Duns Scotus are arguably the most celebrated representatives of the 'Golden Age' of scholasticism. Primarily, they are known for their work in natural theology, which seeks to demonstrate tenets of faith without recourse to premises rooted in dogma or revelation. Scholars of this Golden Age drew on a wealth of tradition, dating back to Plato and Aristotle, and taking in the Arabic and Jewish interpretations of these thinkers, to produce a wide variety of answers to the question 'How much can we learn of God?' Some responded by denying us any positive knowledge of God. Others believed that we have such knowledge, yet debated whether its acquisition requires some action on the part of God in the form of an illumination bestowed on the knower. Scotus and Aquinas belong to the more empirically minded thinkers in this latter group, arguing against a necessary role for illumination. Many scholars believe that Aquinas and Scotus exhaust the spectrum of answers available to this circle, with Aquinas maintaining that our knowledge is quite confused and Scotus that it is completely accurate. In this study, Alexander Hall argues that the truth about Aquinas and Scotus lies somewhere in the middle. Hall's book recommends itself to the general reader who is looking for an overview of this period in Western philosophy as well as to the specialist, for no other study on the market addresses this long-standing matter of interpretation in any detail.

Beginning in 2004, De Gruyter publishes the Deuterocanonical and Cognate Literature * Yearbook (DCLY) in cooperation with the International Society for the Study of Deuterocanonical and Cognate Literature. The Society is devoted to the study of the books of the Greek Bible (Septuagint), not contained in the Hebrew Bible, and to later Jewish literature, comprising approximately the time between the 3rd century B.C.E. and the 1st century C.E. The yearbooks contain the papers of the international conferences held by the Society. Volumes from 2005 to 2011 are available online. - Prayer from Tobit to Qumran, ed. by Renate Egger-Wenzel and Jeremy Corley (2004) - The Book of Wisdom in Modern Research, ed. by Angelo Passaro, Giuseppe Bellia, John J. Collins (2005) - History and Identity, ed. by Nuria Calduch-Benages and Jan Liesen (2006) - Angels, ed. by Friedrich Reiterer, Tobias Nicklas and Karin Schoepflin (2007) - Biblical Figures in Deuterocanonical and Cognate Literature, ed. by Hermann Lichtenberger and Ulrike Mittmann-Richert (2008) - The Human Body in Death and Resurrection, ed. by Tobias Nicklas, Friedrich Reiterer, Joseph Verheyden (2009)

The modern political idea of jihad-a violent struggle against corrupt or anti-Islamic regimes-is essentially the brainchild of one man who turned traditional Islamic precepts inside out and created the modern radical political Islamist movement. Using the evolution of Sayyid Qutb's life and writings, Musallam traces and analyzes Qutb's alienation and subsequent emergence as an independent Islamist within the context of his society and the problems that it faced. Radicalized following his stay in the United States in the late 1940s and during his imprisonment from 1954 to 1964, Qutb would pen controversial writings that would have a significant impact on young Islamists in Egypt for decades following his death and on global jihadist Islamists for the past quarter century. Since September 11, 2001, the West has dubbed Qutb the philosopher of Islamic terror and godfather ideologue of al-Qaeda. This is the first book to examine his life and thought in the wake of the events that ignited the War on Terrorism. A secular man of letters in the 1930s and 1940s, Qutb's outlook and focus on Quranic studies underwent drastic changes during World War II. The Quran became a refuge for his personal needs and for answers to the ills of his society. As a result, he forsook literature permanently for the Islamic cause and way of life. His stay in the United States from 1948 to 1950 reinforced his deeply held belief that Islam is man's only salvation from the abyss of Godless materialism he believed to be manifest in both capitalism and communism. Qutb's active opposition to the secular policies of Egyptian President Nasser led to his imprisonment from 1954 to 1964, during which his writings called for the overthrow of Jahili (pagan) governments and their replacement with a true and just Islamic society. A later arrest and trial resulted in his execution in August 1966.