This is a substantially expanded and completely revised edition of a book originally published in 1988 as Maenads, Martyrs, Matrons, Monastics. The book is a collection of translations of primary texts relevant to women's religion in Western antiquity, from the fourth century B.C.E. to the fifth century C.E. The selections are taken from the plethora of ancient religions, including Judaism and …
No book has been more pored over, has been the subject of more commentary and controversy, or had more influence not only on our religious beliefs but also on our culture and language than the Bible. Certainly no book has been as widely read. Many people of faith believe the Bible to be divinely inspired. It seems to have always existed in its present state. Yet the Bible was written by many au…
Everything we know is developed from something we have read, heard, or seen. Therefore, these other thoughts necessarily influence what we write. To the best of our knowledge, we have given specific credit where appropriate. Rather than footnotes or references, we have listed the works that have provided significant information in one way or another, since this is often in concepts rather than …
To many the name of John Calvin brings to mind a religious despot whose teachings give a distorted version of the biblical God. That idea and image could be nothing further from the truth. This short biography of the great reformer who helped bring the gospel to light to the world shows that Calvin wanted no power and had no power and was a hunted man by the bloodthirsty Roman Catholic Church f…
This book aims to introduce you to historical theology as an important and interesting subject. It is also a very large topic; to do justice to it, at least five substantial volumes would be required. This book is an introduction to its aims and themes, which aims to pack as much useful information into a single volume as is realistically possible, using approaches which have been tried and tes…
The Christian doctrine of justification is of immense interest to historians and theologians, and continues to be of major importance in modern ecumenical discussions. The present work appeared in its first edition in 1986, and rapidly became the leading reference work on the subject. Its many acclaimed features include a detailed assessment of the semantic background of the concept in the anci…
In his time, Emil Brunner (1889–1966) was acclaimed as one of the greatest and most influential theologians of the twentieth century, especially in the United States of America. From the 1930s to the early 1960s, it is arguable that no single theologian exercised so extensive and pervasive an influence on American and British theologians and preachers. It is easy to see why Brunner garnered s…
The Christian Church possesses in its literature an abundant and incomparable treasure. But it is an inheritance that must be reclaimed by each generation. THE LIBRARY OF CHRISTIAN CLASSICS is designed to present in the English language, and in twenty-six volumes of convenient size, a selection of the most indispensable Christian treatises written prior to the end of the sixteenth century.
This volume contains 83 sermons, including 14 which resolve “Practical Cases of Conscience” and 25 intended as preparation for the Lord’s Table. The remainder are on such subjects as “Gospel Charity”, “Christ’s Pastoral Care”, “The Duty of a Pastor”, and “The Excellancy of Christ.
"Freshly updated for this second edition with considerable new material, this authoritative introduction to the history of Christian theology covers its development from the beginnings of the Patristic period just decades after Jesus's ministry, through to contemporary theological trends. A substantially updated new edition of this popular textbook exploring the entire history of Christian thou…
How do we know the stories told by historians are true? To what extent can we rely on their interpretations of the past? Histories and Fallacies is a primer on the conceptual and methodological problems in the discipline of history. Historian Carl Trueman presents a series of classic historical problems as a way to examine what history is, what it means, and how it can be told and understood…
Dramatically converted on the stormy seas, a slave-trader-turned-abolitionist penned the best-loved hymn of the Christian faith. A church father was arrested and martyred for teaching the truth about Christ’s incarnation. Captured by pirates and shipped off to Ireland, a priest baptized thousands of pagans, from paupers to princes. Now who ever said church history was boring? The Church Hi…
“Carl Trueman explains modernity to the church, with depth, clarity, and force. The significance of The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self . . . is hard to overstate.” —Rod Dreher, from the Foreword Modern culture is obsessed with identity. Since the landmark Obergefell v. Hodges Supreme Court decision in 2015, sexual identity has dominated both public discourse and cultural trends…
Outline: In this third and final volume of A History of Christian Thought, Dr. Gonzales brings the reader from the beginning of the sixteenth century on the eve of the Reformation down to the twentieth century. The author interprets not only Roman Catholic and Reformation theology, but the theology of the Eastern church as well. Volume III begins with a discussion of the Reformation led by Luth…
Outline: A Companion Correspondence Course to ..... All that the Prophets have spoken. Using a discover-for-yourself approach to learning, this study helps you sort out in logical sequence the events found in the Word of God, and gives you the opportunity to determine the signifiance of each story. For ease of learning, lessons are divided into bite-sized amounts, making it do-able for busy liv…
Outline: In the second edition of this classic work, Ira Lapidus explores the origins and evolution of Muslim societies. The book, new revised and updated, is divided into three parts. The first covers the formative era of Islamic civilization. The second traces the diffusion of worldwide Islamic societies, while the third explores their reaction to European imperialism, and emergence as indep…
Outline: The relationship between the Christian and Muslim worlds has been a long and tortuous one. Over the course of centuries, the balance of power has swung in pendulum fashion - at times the initiative seems to have lain with the Muslim community, with the Christian world simply being compelled to react to developments outside itself; at other times Muslims have found themselves having to …
Outline: Christian theology didn't develop in a vacuum. Understanding the story behind the doctrines that have been debated, defined, and defended throughout history is crucial for truly understanding the doctrines themselves. In this groundbreaking resource, professor Gerald Bray traces the history of Christian theology from the early church to the modern era. Structured to parallel the order …
Outline: Surveying the barriers that contemporary thinking has erected between the natural and the supernatural, between earth and heaven, Hans Boersma issues a wake-up call for Western Christianity. Both Catholics and evangelicals, he says, have moved too far away from a sacramental mindset, focusing more on the "here-and-now" than on the "then-and-there." Yet, as Boersma point out, the teachi…
Outline: Multiplied millions of women all over the world are looking over the church's shoulder, longing to see the freedom Jesus purchased for them at Calvary. Millions more have found freedom in Jesus but are still bound by human ideas - ideas that pressure a woman to let culture, not God, determine her place in the Kingdom. While hurting men and women outside the church cry out, "Is there an…
Outline: Putting Art (Back) in Its Place takes readers on a fascinating journey through the world of Christian art in medieval and Renaissance Italy to rediscover the sacred role artwork can play once again in our churches. Christian discussions of contemporary art often brand artists as lone geniuses disconnected from our churches and our daily lives, and public art is trapped behind signs com…
Outline: In this new, completely rewritten edition of his major 1986 book, Francis Watson extends, updates, and clarifies his response to E. P. Sanders's view of Paul, in order to point the way beyond the polarization of "new" and "old" perspectives on the apostle. The Paul who comes to light in these pages is both agent and thinker, apostle and theologian. He is a highly contextual figure, yet…
Outline: In 1968 Eric Wolf write that anthropology needed to discover history. In this book he applies history to world anthropology. But Wolf's history is not Western history, divided into separate "nations" and chronicling the progress of the victorious elite. Wolf sees history as a web of complex, changing relationships, spun by Europe's rise to world domination. The true history of European…
Outline : William Placher looks at "classical" Christian theology (Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin, Martin Luther) and contrasts it with the Christian discourse about God that evolved in the seventeenth century. In particular, he deals with the notion of transcendence that gained prominence in this era and its impact on modern theology and modern thinking today. He persuasively argues that useful l…
Outline: For a generation, Barbara MacHaffie's fascinating Her Story : Women in Christian Tradition has enabled readers to enter into and recover the oft-ignored or submerged stories of women in the Christian tradition, from biblical times to now. MacHaffie's brief history is now fully updated and revised here and combined with her lively anthology of primary readings to offer unparalled access…
Outline: The subject of Christ and Culture has occupied the church since its inception. Some emphasize the reality of redemption and the imperative of cultural transformation; others critize this approach because of the transient nature of this current life and the specific function of "kingdom" activity. This project focuses on the two competing compositions rooted in the Reformed tradition; n…
Outline: More Christians have died for their faith in the 20th century, than in the previous 19 centuries combined. Here's what's happening, where it's happening, and what America's Christians must do to stop it.
Outline: Bringing alive the lost world of the Middle Ages - From the fall of Rome and the conversion of the Germanic tribes to the dawn of the Reformation, here is a rich and concrete exploration of the religious life ways and spirituality of medieval peasants and artisans, warriors and clerics, wives and children, and even the dead, in their daily interactions with each other, the church, the …
Outline: Christians encounter the modern spirit - After the Reformation, Christians found themselves living amidst wars of religion, Enlightenment, and colonization. The conflictive and fast-changing scene in which Christians of all allegiances were thrown yielded vase and distinct new challenges and venues to ordinary Christians. The spread of Christianity to lands outside Europe and the Middl…
Outline: This book examines Christian ethnographic writing about the Jews in early modern Europe, offering a systematic historical analysis of this literary genre and arguing its importance for understanding both the period in general and Jewish-Christian relations in particular. The book focuses on nearly 80 texts from Western Europe (mostly German) that describe the customs and ceremonies of …
Outline: Division. Polarization. Strife. That's life-as-usual in today's world. But it shouldn't describe the church. It's time for Christians to listen, reach out, and work together for the common good. But how can God's people achieve true unity in a fallen world? What sort of cooperation is actually possible? Luder Whitlock has an answer - a good one - and an appeal. He shows how we can lear…
Outline: Examining a series of processes (islamization, arabization, africanization) and case studies from North, West, and East Africa, this book gives snapshots of Muslim societies in Africa over the last 1000+ years. In contrast to traditions that suggest that Africa is not Muslim, or that Islam did not take root in Africa, author David Robinson shows the complex struggles of Muslims in the…
Outline: Indonesia is the fourth largest country in the world, It comprises more than 17,000 islands inhabited by 230 million people who speak over 300 different languages. Now the world's largest Muslim nation, Indonesia remains extraordinarily heterogeneous due to the waves of immigration - Buddhist, Hindu, Arab, and European - that defined the region's history. Fifty years after the collapse…
Outline : The first major study of the movement leaders of neo-evangelicalism, Awakening the Evangelical Mind draws upon untapped resources to tell the story of how evangelicalism developed as an intellectual movement in the middle of the twentieth century. In Awakening the Evangelical Mind, Owen Strachan provides an accessible historical survey of "neo-evangelicalism," tracing the rise of a mo…
Outline: Those inside and outside of the biblical counseling movement recognize growing differences between the foundational work of Jay Adams and that of current thought leaders such as David Powlison. But, as any student or teacher of the discipline can attest, those differences have been ill-defined and largely anecdotal until now. Heath Lambert, the first scholar to analyze the movement's d…
Outline: Though Karl Barth wrote his lectures on John Calvin more than seventy years ago, the wrestling of one theological giant with another can hardly fail to be exciting and instructive. Delivered at the University of Gottingen in 1922, Barth's lectures offer a brilliant analysis of the Reformation - of Calvin in particular - while at the same time providing vital insights into the developme…
Outline: Modernist Islam was a major intellectual current in the Muslim world during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Proponents of this movement typically believed that it was not only possible but imperative to show how "modern" values and institutions could be reconciled with Islamic ideals. While the movement declined after the 1930s, replaced by secular projects such as nationalism …
Outline: The second volume in the series, The Bible as Book, deals with the effect of early printing on the text, format and use of the Bible, and investigates the unique features of various editions of fifteenth-century printed Bibles as well as the social, political, and technological circumstances under which these publications were produced. This volume represents a gathering of research by…