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)

This volume examines what it means to proceed in the path of wisdom by beginning with fear of God, that is, mindfulness always and everywhere of God's being and presence. Michael Allen describes the praxis of fearing the Lord, how that posture of contemplative pursuit marks the theological task and defines our theological method; in so doing it takes up the significant topics of divine revelation, theological exegesis, intellectual asceticism, and retrieval/ressourcement from a distinctly doctrinal perspective. In each of these conversations, doing theology in the presence of God functions as a consistent thread. God is not mere object but truly functions as subject in the process of theological growth, though God's presence and agency fund rather than negate creaturely theological responsibility. The Fear of the Lord: Essays on Theological Method explores some of the most central questions of contemporary theological method - revelation, Scripture, theological interpretation, retrieval, intellectual asceticism, scholastic method - by asking in each and every case what it means to think fundamentally of the perfect and present God involved and active in these spheres.

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.

Hegel makes philosophical proposals concerning religion and Christianity that demand critical reflection from contemporary theology. Possible defences and criticisms are given in Hegelian discourse, which raise important questions in current theological inquiry.This religious enquiry runs through publications and writings produced during the development of Hegel's systematic philosophy. De Nys considers the understanding of religion and Christianity that Hegel develops in the "Phenomenology of Spirit". The discussion of religious involvement gives special attention to questions concerning religious discourse, which Hegel addresses in his treatment of representational thinking, including Hegel's critique of Schleiermacher.This leads to a discussion of the problem of the relation between the world and God and the issue of God's transcendence, which requires further analysis of the relation of representational and speculative thinking. These discussions provide a framework for considering Hegel's understandings of specific Christian mysteries. The Hegelian conception of the Trinity, the mysteries of Creation, Incarnation and reconciled in dwelling are considered in connection with biblical conceptions of the Trinity.The conclusion examines critical problems surrounding Hegel's essential proposals about religion and Christianity, as well as contributions that Hegel makes to, and the challenges his thinking poses to, contemporary theological inquiry. Throughout, the discussions emphasize an understanding of Hegel's views concerning religion and Christianity as a resource for critical reflection in contemporary theology."The Philosophy and Theology" series looks at major philosophers and explores their relevance to theological thought as well as the response of theology.

Adomnan, ninth abbot of Iona, wrote his book, On Holy Places (De Locis Sanctis), in the closing years of the seventh century. It is a detailed account of the sites mentioned in the Christian scriptures, the overall topography, and the shrines that are in Palestine and Egypt at that time. It is neatly broken into three parts: Jerusalem, the surrounding areas, and then a few other places. The whole has a contemporary and lively feel; and the reader is then not surprised when Adomnan says he got his information from a Gallic bishop name Arculf. Things then get interesting for the more one probes, the book the amount of information that could have been obtained from Arculf keeps diminishing, while the amount that can be shown to be a reworking of written sources increases. We then see that Adomnans book is an attempt to compile a biblical studies manual according to the demands of Augustine (354-430) - one of which was that there had to be an empirical witness. Thus, Adomnan wrote the work and employed Arculf as a literary device. However, he produced the desired manual which remained in use until the Reformation. As a manual we can use it to study the nature of scriptural studies in the Latin world of the time, and perceptions of space, relics, pilgrimage, and Islam. While a study of how the work was used by others, transmitted, reworked (for example by the Venerable Bede) brings unique light onto the theological world of the Carolingians.

Once upon a time there lived upon an island a merry and innocent people, mostly shepherds and tillers of the earth. They were republicans, like all primitive and simple souls; they talked over their affairs under a tree, and the nearest approach they had to a personal ruler was a sort of priest or white witch who said their prayers for them. They worshi-pped the sun, not idolatrously, but as the golden crown of the god whom all such infants see almost as plainly as the sun. Now this priest was told by his people to build a great tower, pointing to the sky in salutation of the Sun-god; and he pondered long and heavily before he picked his materials. For he was resolved to use nothing that was not almost as clear and exquisite as sunshine itself; he would use nothing that was not washed as white as the rain can wash the heavens, nothing that did not sparkle as spotlessly as that crown of God. He would have nothing grotesque or obscure; he would not have even anything emphatic or even anything mysterious. He would have all the arches as light as laughter and as candid as logic. He built the temple in three concentric courts, which were cooler and more exquisite in substance each than the other. For the outer wall was a hedge of white lilies, ranked so thick that a green stalk was hardly to be seen; and the wall within that was of crystal, which smashed the sun into a million stars. And the wall within that, which was the tower itself, was a tower of pure water, forced up in an everlasting fountain; and upon the very tip and crest of that foaming spire was one big and blazing diamond, which the water tossed up eternally and caught again as a child catches a ball.