By championing the ideals of independence, evangelism, and conservatism, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) has grown into the largest Protestant denomination in the country. The Convention's mass democratic form of church government, its influential annual meetings, and its sheer size have made it a barometer for Southern political and cultural shift. Its most recent shift has been starboar…
In contemporary American culture it has become commonplace to hear people on the street, and even politicians, arguing that government should not “legislate morality.”.........
The nineteenth century was one of the most diverse and creative periods in the history of Christian theology. Its problems, challenges, and developments continue to be assimilated by theologians today, while its great thinkers – G. W. F. Hegel, Friedrich Schleiermacher, Søren Kierkegaard, John Henry Newman, et al. – are the subject of intensive international scholarship.
Karl Marx's theories have shaped and directed political economic, and social thought for 150 years. Here the renowned philosopher Peter Singer describes Marx's life and early ideas before clearly and concisely identifying the central vision that unifies Marx's thought and enables us to grasp it as a whole. In this new edition. Singer explores whether Marx and his ideas remain relevant to politi…
This 2007 text is a comparative, analysis of one of the most fundamental stages in the formation of Europe. Leading scholars explore the role of the spread of Christianity and the formation of new principalities in the birth of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Bohemia, Hungary, Poland and Rus' around the year 1000. Drawing on history, archaeology and art history, and emphasizing problems related to the…
This book explores some early works of Christian literature, those devoted to the New Testament in the 200 years or so after the rise of Constantine by Juvencus, Sedulius, and Arator. They have been somewhat neglected in the Anglophone world, at least, though there are notable exceptions among the small number of relevant monographs; it is important, especially in an increasingly interdisciplin…
The notorious Guy Fawkes was a member of the plot to blow up England’s Parliament and kill King James I in November 1605. The plan was thwarted when the king’s men discovered Fawkes in the cellars carrying a lantern (above) and guarding barrels of gunpowder. Since then, on November 5 Britain celebrates his defeat, often by burning Fawkes in effigy, a ritual that mocks him and warns potentia…
St Maximus the Confessor, the greatest of Byzantine theologians, lived through the most catastrophic period the Byzantine Empire was to experience before the Crusades. This book introduces the reader to the times and upheavals during which Maximus lived. It discusses his cosmic vision of humanity and his Christology. The study makes available several of Maximus’ theological treatises, many of…
The present investigation has grown out of several preoccupations, some private, some professional, and others, finally, that I would call public. Private preoccupation: to say nothing of my gaze directed back now over a long life—Reflexion faite (looking back)—it is a question here of returning to a lacuna in the problematic of Time and Narrative and in Oneself as Another, where temporal e…
Augustine’s philosophy of life involves reviewing one’s past and exercises for self-improvement. Centuries after Plato and before Freud he invented a “spiritual exercise” in which every man and woman is able, through memory, to reconstruct and reinterpret life’s aims. Brian Stock examines Augustine’s unique way of blending literary and philosophical themes. He proposes a new interpr…
The Book of Common Prayer is one of the most important and influential books in English history, but it has received relatively little attention from literary scholars. This study seeks to remedy this by attending to the Prayerbook’s importance in England’s political, intellectual, religious, and literary history. The first half of the book presents extensive analyses of the Book of Common …
This book started life as the final chapter of Jesus and the Victory of God (1996), the second volume in the series Christian Origins and the Question of God, of which the first volume is The New Testament and the People of God (1992). The present work now forms the third volume in the series. This is a departure from the original plan, and since people often ask me what is going on some explan…
This issue of History looks back at not one, but two monumental revolutions: the Reformation, which began in 1517, and the Russian Revolution of 1917. Separated by 400 years, these two events don’t appear to have much in common, but at their core they are bound together by the power of great writing.....
Whether a novel, a movie, or a television show—there is nothing like a good story. Combine compelling characters with dramatic conflict, and audiences will devour each installment until they know the ending.....
The purpose of this book is to tell the story of how God's Word went from being strictly for those in the pulpit to being read, understood, and acted upon by laypeople. It is a story of tragedy and triumph: spilled blood and the preservation of a sacred treasure.
THIS BOOK IS about the young Kant. It is an investigation of the first two decades of his philosophical life, from the Thoughts on the True Estimation of Living Forces (1746/7) to the Dreams of a Spirit-Seer (1766). I examine the rise and fall of the ‘‘precritical’’ theories and place them in their historical and topical context—exploring how Kant resolved problems his predecessors an…
At his inauguration to the chair in The History of Systems of Thought’ at the Collegè de France in Paris in 1970 Michel Foucault commented on the difficulties, the responsibilities and the risks, associated with entering the world of discourse. I suspect most of us can understand Foucault’s preference, namely to be already within discourse, to be ‘borne way beyond all possible beginnings…
After first publishing this book in 1995, in subsequent reprintings I was able to correct a few errata, add a biblical index, and update the bibliography. For the present task of thoroughly revising the whole text, I need to take account of the numerous biblical, historical, and systematic studies of Jesus that have appeared in recent years. Many valuable, as well as some questionable, books an…
This book deals with the early history of the process that advanced atheism, agnosticism, and religious unbelief. This chapter discusses the coverage of the book and provides a brief background of the individuals who overtly rejected religious faith from 1520 to 1780. That period saw the fears that unbelief and irreligion were on the rise, as well as sustained and systematic attacks on Christia…
Divided Kingdom is the second part of a study of the early modern origins of Irish society. As with the first volume, Contested Island, its main concern is with the changing relationships and patterns of interaction among the different sections of an ethnically, and by this time religiously, divided society, continuing the story from Ireland’s part in the British civil wars of the mid-sevente…
Bearing witness, a term often used by psychologists, happens when one person listens as another shares an experience. The act of being heard often gives support to the teller, validating their story and giving meaning to the event. Objects can also bear witness, and historians rely on their testimony to learn about the past. The Gothic masterpiece Notre Dame de Paris bore witness to the turbule…
The ultimate aim of history is human self-knowledge. In the words of 20th-century historian R. G. Collingwood: “The value of history is that it teaches us what man has done and thus what man is.”
Science is an ongoing search for truth—a perpetual struggle to discover how the universe works that goes back to the earliest civilizations...
The Literature of the Arminian Controversy highlights the importance of the Arminian Controversy (1609-1619) for the understanding of the literary and intellectual culture of the Dutch Golden Age. Taking into account a wide array of sources, ranging from theological and juridical treatises, to pamphlets, plays and and libel poetry, it offers not only a deeper contextualization of some of the mo…
Of all the demons, monsters, fiends, and ogres to preoccupy the western imagination in literature, art, and film, no figure has been more feared―or misunderstood--than Satan. But how accurate are the popular images of Satan? How--and why--did this rather minor biblical character morph into the very embodiment of evil? T.J. Wray and Gregory Mobley guide readers on a journey to retrace Satan's …
This series of critical reflections on the evolution and major themes of pre-modern Muslim theology begins with the revelation of the Koran, and extends to the beginnings of modernity in the eighteenth century. The significance of Islamic theology reflects the immense importance of Islam in the history of monotheism, to which it has brought a unique approach and style, and a range of solutions …
The Cambridge Companion to Socrates is a collection of essays providing a comprehensive guide to Socrates, the most famous Greek philosopher. Because Socrates himself wrote nothing, our evidence comes from the writings of his friends (above all Plato), his enemies, and later writers. Socrates is thus a literary figure as well as a historical person. Both aspects of Socrates’ legacy are covere…
During the tumultuous period of world history from 1660 to 1815, three complex movements combined to bring a fundamental cultural reorientation to Europe and North America, and ultimately to the wider world. The Enlightenment transformed views of nature and of the human capacity to master nature. The religious reawakenings brought a revival of heart-felt, experiential Christianity. Finally revo…
The An Encyclopedia surveys all aspects of the crusading movement from its origins in the 11th century to its decline in the 16th century. Unlike other works, which focus on the eastern Mediterranean region, this expansive four-volume encyclopedia also includes the struggle of Christendom against its enemies in Iberia, Eastern Europe, and the Baltic region, and also covers the military orders, …
This edition presents for the first time "all the non-biblical Qumran texts classified according to their genres, together with English translations. Of these texts, some twenty were not previously published. The Hebrew-Aramaic texts in this edition are mainly based on the FARMS database of Brigham Young University, which, in its turn, reflects the text editions of the ancient scrolls (mainly "…
This edition presents for the first time "all the non-biblical Qumran texts classified according to their genres, together with English translations. Of these texts, some twenty were not previously published. The Hebrew-Aramaic texts in this edition are mainly based on the FARMS database of Brigham Young University, which, in its turn, reflects the text editions of the ancient scrolls (mainly "…
The Hebrew narrative art achieves its highest level in the stories of Saul, David, and Solomon. But beyond that, the description of these all-too-human characters and the dramatic events of the birth of the Israelite state depicts a change of eras that became determinative for half a millennium of Israelite history. In this volume Dietrich introduces readers to the stories of the early Israelit…
What happens in a recession? How does money work? Why do we pay taxes? Economics affects every aspect of our lives, from how we get to work to where we spend our money-and big economic ideas continue to shape the world. Written in plain English, The Economics Book is packed with short, pity explanations that cut through the jargon, step-by-step diagrams that untangle knotty theories, classic…
Routledge is proud to announce the publication of a new major reference work from world-renowned scholar Hans J. Hillerbrand. The "Encyclopedia of Protestantism" is the definitive reference to the history and beliefs that continue to exert a profound influence on Western thought. Featuring entries written by an international team of specialists and scholars, the encyclopedia traces the course o…
Discover more than 85 of the most important ideas, movements, and events that have defined feminism and feminist thought throughout history with this original, graphic-led book. Using the Big Ideas series' trademark combination of authoritative, accessible text and bold graphics, this book traces feminism and the feminist movement from its origins, through the suffragette movement of the 19t…
Originally published in 1930, this book contains a series of extracts from Thomas Carlyle's influential three-volume work The French Revolution: A History (1837). The text was compiled with the intention of providing a 'representation both of Carlyle's delineation of the Revolution, and of his poetic scheme of history.' Continuity of narrative is ensured through the use of short explanatory lin…
The Gods and Technology is a careful and original reading of the principal statement of Martin Heidegger's philosophy of technology, the essay Die Frage nach der Technik ("The question concerning technology"). That essay is a rich one, and Richard Rojcewicz's goal is to mine it for the treasures only a close reading of the original German text can bring out. Rojcewicz shows how the issue of tec…
The History of the Jews in the Greco-Roman World examines Judaism in Palestine throughout the Hellenistic period, from Alexander the Great's conquest in 334BC to its capture by the Arabs in AD 636. Under the Greek, Roman and finally Christian supremacy which Hellenism brought, Judaism developed far beyond its biblical origins into a form which was to influence European history from the Middle A…
Why did the first civilizations emerge when and where they did? How did Islam become a unifying force in the world of its birth? What enabled the West to project its goods and power around the world from the fifteenth century on? Why was agriculture invented seven times and the steam engine just once? World-historical questions such as these, the subjects of major works by Jared Diamond, David …
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This popular text has been updated to ensure that it continues to provide a current and comprehensive overview of the main Christian theologies of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
The Movie Book, the latest in DK's award-winning Big Ideas Simply Explained series, profiles 100 of the best movies ever made throughout the world. From classic 1930s film noir and Hollywood romance to international art-house and 21st-century sci-fi, The Movie Book brings the world's most influential films to life with its illustrative design. Unforgettable quotes, film stills, and original …
Naturalism provides a rigorous analysis and critique of the major varieties of contemporary philosophical naturalism. The authors advocate the thesis that contemporary naturalism should be abandoned, in light of the serious objections raised against it. Contributors draw on a wide range of topics including: epistemology, the philosophy of science, the philosophy of mind and agency, and natural …
The Philosophy Book explains more than one hundred of the greatest ideas in philosophy through clear, succinct text and easy-to-follow graphics. Using straightforward graphics and artworks, as well as thoroughly accessible text that elucidates more than two thousand years of philosophical thought, The Philosophy Book makes abstract concepts concrete. From moral ethics to the philosoph…
Presented here in a new translation, with a historical introduction by the translators, "Fear and Trembling and Repetition" are the most poetic and personal of Soren Kierkegaard's pseudonymous writings. Published in 1843 and written under the names Johannes de Silentio and Constantine Constantius, respectively, the books demonstrate Kierkegaard's transmutation of the personal into the lyrically…
Søren Kierkegaard, the nineteenth-century Danish philosopher rediscovered in the twentieth century, is a major influence in contemporary philosophy, religion, and literature. He regarded Either/Or as the beginning of his authorship, although he had published two earlier works on Hans Christian Andersen and irony. The pseudonymous volumes of Either/Or are the writings of a young man (I) and of …
Sexuality and Socialism is a remarkably accessible analysis of many of the most challenging questions for those concerned with full equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. Inside are essays on the roots of LGBT oppression, the construction of sexual and gender identities, the history of the gay movement, and how to unite the oppressed and exploited to win sexual libe…
Written by the Orthodox historian Rabbi Berel Wein, The Oral Law of Sinai is an extraordinary and beautifully illustrated book that explores the Talmud—a law book that is a faithful transmission of the Oral Law of Sinai. As Rabbi Wein explains, the Talmud is two separate books comprising the Oral Law. This work offers an explanation of the first book of the Talmud, the Mishnah
In this book, Roger Olson sets forth classical Arminian theology and addresses the myriad misunderstandings and misrepresentations of it through the ages. Irenic yet incisive, Olson argues that classical Arminian theology has a rightful place in the evangelical church because it maintains deep roots within Reformational theology, even though it maintains important differences from Calvinism. My…
This Handbook re-examines the concept of early modern history in a European and global context. The term 'early modern' has been familiar, especially in Anglophone scholarship, for four decades and is securely established in teaching, research, and scholarly publishing. More recently, however, the unity implied in the notion has fragmented, while the usefulness and even the validity of the term…