A history of ambiguity

Ever since it was first published in 1930, William Empson’s Seven Types of Ambiguity has been perceived as a milestone in literary criticism—far from being an impediment to communication, ambiguity now seemed an index of poetic richness and expressive power. Little, however, has been written on t...

A place of healing for the soul

The tiny, arid Greek island of Patmos is one of the most sacred places in the Christian world, and a place of bewitching power, where people come for a brief summer visit and end up returning, year after year, for the rest of their lives. In A Place of Healing for the Soul, BBC commentator Peter ...

After one-hundred-and-twenty

A deeply personal look at death, mourning, and the afterlife in Jewish traditionAfter One-Hundred-and-Twenty provides a richly nuanced and deeply personal look at Jewish attitudes and practices regarding death, mourning, and the afterlife as they have existed and evolved from biblical times to to...

After the baby boomers

Much has been written about the profound impact the post-World War II baby boomers had on American religion. But the lifestyles and beliefs of the generation that has followed--and the influence these younger Americans in their twenties and thirties are having on the face of religion--are not so ...

American jesuits and the world

How American Jesuits helped forge modern Catholicism around the worldAt the start of the nineteenth century, the Jesuits seemed fated for oblivion. Dissolved as a religious order in 1773 by one pope, they were restored in 1814 by another, but with only six hundred aged members. Yet a century late...

Ancient christianities

How, over the course of five centuries, one particular god and one particular Christianity came to dominate late Roman imperial politics and piety The ancient Mediterranean teemed with gods. For centuries, a practical religious pluralism prevailed. How, then, did one particular god come to domina...

Bible nation

How the billionaire owners of Hobby Lobby are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to make America a “Bible nation”Like many evangelical Christians, the Green family of Oklahoma City believes that America was founded on a “biblical worldview as a Christian nation.” But the Greens are far from...

Born again queer

A groundbreaking history of evangelicalism and homosexuality in the United StatesEvangelicals claim that their opposition to homosexuality is an inherent feature of their faith, rooted in their unchanging beliefs about the Bible. Most scholars, journalists, and observers have accepted this accoun...

C. s. lewis's mere christianity

The life and times of C. S. Lewis's modern spiritual classicMere Christianity, C. S. Lewis's eloquent defense of the Christian faith, originated as a series of BBC radio talks broadcast during the dark days of World War Two. Here is the story of the extraordinary life and afterlife of this influe...

Christian martyrs under islam

A look at the developing conflicts in Christian-Muslim relations during late antiquity and the early Islamic eraHow did the medieval Middle East transform from a majority-Christian world to a majority-Muslim world, and what role did violence play in this process? Christian Martyrs under Islam exp...

Christian political ethics

Christian Political Ethics brings together leading Christian scholars of diverse theological and ethical perspectives--Catholic, Lutheran, Calvinist, and Anabaptist--to address fundamental questions of state and civil society, international law and relations, the role of the nation, and issues of...

Christian supremacy

A panoramic cultural and legal history that traces the roots of antisemitism and racism to early Christian theologySince the earliest days of Christianity, theologians expressed pervasive anxiety about Jews as equal members of society, and, with European expansion in the early modern period, that...

Christianity in the twentieth century

A history of unparalleled scope that charts the global transformation of Christianity during an age of profound political and cultural changeChristianity in the Twentieth Century charts the transformation of one of the world's great religions during an age marked by world wars, genocide, national...

Christianity's american fate

Tracing the rise of evangelicalism and the decline of mainline Protestantism in American religious and cultural lifeHow did American Christianity become synonymous with conservative white evangelicalism? This sweeping work by a leading historian of modern America traces the rise of the evangelica...

Criticism of earth

Long a topic of debate and discussion, Boer sets the record straight about Marx, Engels, and Religion

Dante's divine comedy

The life and times of Dante’s soaring poetic allegory of the soul’s redemptive journey toward GodWritten during his exile from Florence in the early 1300s, Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy describes the poet’s travels through hell, purgatory, and paradise, exploring the state of the human soul aft...

Denmark vesey's bible

A timely and provocative account of the Bible’s role in one of the most consequential episodes in the history of slaveryOn July 2, 1822, Denmark Vesey, a formerly enslaved man, was hanged in Charleston, South Carolina. He was convicted of plotting what might have been the largest insurrection aga...

Dietrich bonhoeffer's letters and papers from prison

From National Book Award–winning author Martin Marty, the surprising story of a Christian classic born in a Nazi prison cellFor fascination, influence, inspiration, and controversy, Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Letters and Papers from Prison is unmatched by any other book of Christian reflection written...

Digging up armageddon

A vivid portrait of the early years of biblical archaeology from the acclaimed author of 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization CollapsedIn 1925, James Henry Breasted, famed Egyptologist and director of the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago, sent a team of archaeologists to the Holy Land ...

Dissimilar similitudes

From an acclaimed historian, a mesmerizing account of how medieval European Christians envisioned the paradoxical nature of holy objectsBetween the twelfth and the sixteenth centuries, European Christians used a plethora of objects in worship, not only prayer books, statues, and paintings but als...

Faith and work

This volume continues exploring the integration of Christian faith in the workplace, building on the first volume of Faith and Work, Christian Perspectives. It covers individual, organizational, and societal dimensions, featuring cross-disciplinary scholarship presented at various conferences and...

Fallen order

Genealogies of the west

This book presents a new look at the West by tracing the still-recognizable footprints of the past and reflecting on the present challenges is facing. It recalls the genealogies of the plural processes, ideas, and events that structure the West’s tradition and identity, and their presence nowaday...

Getting saved in america

What does becoming American have to do with becoming religious? Many immigrants become more religious after coming to the United States. Taiwanese are no different. Like many Asian immigrants to the United States, Taiwanese frequently convert to Christianity after immigrating. But Americanization...

In the hands of god

How evangelical churches in the United States convert migrant distress into positive religious devotionWhy do migrants become more deeply evangelical in the United States and how does this religious identity alter their self-understanding? In the Hands of God examines this question through a uniq...

In the matter of nat turner

A bold new interpretation of Nat Turner and the slave rebellion that stunned the American SouthIn 1831 Virginia, Nat Turner led a band of Southampton County slaves in a rebellion that killed fifty-five whites, mostly women and children. After more than two months in hiding, Turner was captured, a...

Inheriting abraham

How Judaism, Christianity, and Islam have reimagined Abraham in their own imagesJews, Christians, and Muslims supposedly share a common religious heritage in the patriarch Abraham, and the idea that he should serve only as a source of unity among the three traditions has become widespread in both...

Journeys of the mind

A beautifully written personal account of the discovery of late antiquity by one of the world’s most influential and distinguished historiansThe end of the ancient world was long regarded by historians as a time of decadence, decline, and fall. In his career-long engagement with this era, the wid...

Justice

Wide-ranging and ambitious, Justice combines moral philosophy and Christian ethics to develop an important theory of rights and of justice as grounded in rights. Nicholas Wolterstorff discusses what it is to have a right, and he locates rights in the respect due the worth of the rights-holder. Af...

Love in the void

Simone Weil, the great mystic and philosopher for our age, shows where anyone can find God.Why is it that Simone Weil, with her short, troubled life and confounding insights into faith and doubt, continues to speak to today’s spiritual seekers? Was it her social radicalism, which led her to reno...

Medieval christianity in practice

Medieval Christianity in Practice provides readers with a sweeping look at the religious practices of the European Middle Ages. Comprising forty-two selections from primary source materials--each translated with an introduction and commentary by a specialist in the field--the collection illustrat...

On the altar

How Christianity both abolished and absorbed sacrificeFrom the beginning, sacrifice lived a double life in Christianity, both abandoned and essential. Christ’s death on the cross was the sacrifice to end all sacrifice, eclipsing the temple sacrifices of Judaism and paganism. And yet at the center...

Paradise lost

The life and times of Milton’s epic poem about Satan’s revolt against God and humanity’s expulsion from paradiseJohn Milton’s Paradise Lost has secured its place in the pantheon of epic poems, but unlike almost all other works in the pantheon, it is intimately associated with religious doctrine a...

Red theology

In this illuminating new study renowned researcher Roland Boer unearths the little studied, but widely influential, tradition of Christian communism.

Reforming the world

Reforming the World offers a sophisticated account of how and why, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, American missionaries and moral reformers undertook work abroad at an unprecedented rate and scale. Looking at various organizations such as the Young Men's Christian Associati...

Religious fundamentalism in the middle east

Moaddel and Karabenick analyze fundamentalist beliefs and attitudes across nations, faith, and ethnicity, using comparative survey data.

Righteous gentiles

A creative and critical analysis of America's largest pro-Israel organization: Christians United for Israel.

Sin

Why the meaning of sin changed radically during the first centuries of ChristianityAncient Christians invoked sin to account for an astonishing range of things, from the death of God's son to the politics of the Roman Empire that worshipped him. In this book, award-winning historian of religion P...

Slaves of god

A provocative look at the central role of slavery in Augustine’s religious, ethical, and political thoughtAugustine believed that slavery is permissible, but to understand why, we must situate him in his late antique Roman intellectual context. Slaves of God provides a major reassessment of this ...