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 …
Unless you were a personal friend of C. S. Lewis, or one of his many correspondents, you are probably not aware that he went by “Jack” to his friends, a name he landed on as a child and decided it suited him better than his given one (Clive Staples Lewis). So at the end of most of his letters, you encountered “Yours, Jack.” This book is intended to extend that personal relationship to y…
Angels. We all know what they look like. They have wings and halos. They appear in children’s nativity plays. They wear long white robes, apart from cherubs, who are like naked fat little children. They live in heaven on clouds but come to earth to guard or to guide. They are portrayed in stained glass windows and look down protectively from gravestones, but they also appear in films, cartoon…
Gnosticism was a wide-ranging religious movement of the first millennium CE—with earlier antecedents and later flourishings—whose adherents sought salvation through knowledge and personal religious experience. Gnostic writings offer striking perspectives on both early Christian and non-Christian thought. For example, some gnostic texts suggest that god should be celebrated as both mother an…
Definitions of humanism as educational movement, philosophical concept or existential ‘life stance’ have evolved over the centuries as the term has been adopted for a variety of cultural and political purposes and contexts, and reactions against humanism have contributed to movements such as structuralism, postmodernism and postcolonialism.
Tony Davies offers a clear introduction to the …
Myth is that most elusive of cultural forms—forever avoiding the constraints of definition and analysis; yet always attesting, through its protean persistence, to an indomitable grip upon the human imagination. Call myth what you will, others will certainly put it differently and claim good grounds for their standpoint. For those bred in the West, the ancient Greek patrimony casts a long shad…
Millions have been enthralled by The Da Vinci Code's fascinating historical speculations-and the blockbuster novel's audience has also made bestsellers of several books offering to separate the facts from the fiction. This comprehensive, encyclopedic volume is written by an acclaimed medievalist-and takes an objective, history-based approach to the phenomenon and the questions it has raised. …
In The Truth about Muhammad, New York Times bestselling author and Islam expert Robert Spencer offers an honest and telling portrait of the founder of Islam-perhaps the first such portrait in half a century-unbounded by fear and political correctness, unflinching, and willing to face the hard facts about Muhammad's life that continue to affect our world today.
From Muhammad's first "revelati…
In The Truth about Muhammad, New York Times bestselling author and Islam expert robert Spencer offers an honest and telling portrait of the founder of Islam - perhaps the first such portrait in half a century - unbounded by fear and political correctness, unflinching, and willing to face the hard facts about Muhammad's life that continue to affect our world today.
In his staggeringly popular work of fiction, Dan Brown states up front that the historical information in the The Da Vinci Code is all factually accurate. But is this claim true? As historian Bart D. Ehrman shows in this informative and witty book, The Da Vinci Code is filled with numerous historical mistakes.
Did the ancient church engage in a cover-up to make the man Jesus into a divine fi…
C. S. Lewis excelled at plumbing the depths of the human heart, both the good and the bad, the beautiful and the corrupt. From science fiction and fantasy to essays, letters, and works of apologetics, Lewis has offered a wealth of insight into how to live the Christian life.
In this book, Rigney explores the center of Lewis’s vision for the Christian life—the personal encounter between …
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…
Outline: The Quiknotes series offers concise resources on topics important to all Christians. It's essential knowledge within reach! Quiknotes: Devotional classics gives you the greatest Christian writings in a nutshell. Discover the spiritual wisdom of Christians through the ages. Useful for students and teachers alike.
- Auther biographies
- Book summaries
- Timeline
- List of sources for…
Outline: Scripture testifies that in the work of Jesus Christ the power of Satan, sin, and death has been broken. Yet on and on the ages roll, and wars rage, humans destroy one another and themselves, and natural evils such as earthquakes and tsunamis occur. We seem to suffer what J. H. Bavinck calls "the great delay", still awaiting Christ's final victory. In this illuminating survey of the bo…
Outline: - Is there a God?
- What is the evidence for belief in such a being?
- What is God like?
- Or, is God a figment of human inspiration?
- How do we know that such a being might not exist?
- Should belief or disbelief in God's existence make a difference in our opinions and moral choices, in the way we see ourselves and relate to those around us?
These are fundamental questions, and…
Outline: Stan Telchin, a Messianic Jew and former pastor, explores in depth the heart and soul of Messianic Judaism. He exposes the motive behind its creation, its controversial doctrines and its ineffectiveness in Jewish evangelism. Messianic Judaism has grown significantly in fewer than four decades. While intended originally to appeal to Jewish people, unexpectedly it appeals also to Gentile…
Outline: Much attention has been paid to the words of the earlies Christian canonical and extracanonical texts, yet Larry Hurtado points out that an even more telling story is being overlooked - the story of the physical texts themselves. Widely recognized for his outstanding scholarship, Hurtado combines his comprehensive knowledge of Christian origins with an archivist's eye to make sense of …
Outline: It has become a commonplace to say that the Latin Fathers did not really hold a doctrine of deification. Indeed, it is often asserted that Western theologians have neglected this teaching, that their occasional references to it are borrowed from the Greeks, and that the Latins have generally reduced the rich biblical and Greek Patristic understanding of salvation to a narrow view of …
Outline: This groundbreaking book presents a system of biblical truth that brings together people, their problems, and the living of God. It is founded on three convictions:
- That God's Word should be the counseling authority of Christians helping people with broken lives,
- That counseling is a part of the essential ministry of the local church,
- That God's people can and shoudl be trai…
Outline: The Cultural Exegesis series is designed to complement the Engaging Culture series by providing methodological and foundational studies that address the way to engage culture theologically. Each volume works within a specific cultural discipline, illustrating and embodying the theory behind cultural engagement. By providing the appropriate tools, these books equip the reader to enga…
Outline: The main topics covered are 'the great commandment', the synagogue and its function, the parable, the Sabbath, divorce and forgiveness. These topics differ not only in subject matter, but also in the type comparison offered - legal, historical, literary, theological and even contrasting themes. Reading the texts will produce questions for dialogue - some suggested questions for discu…
Overview: In this comprehensive and systematic volume, renowned literary expert the author introduces readers to the specific themes, patterns, and techniques used by the biblical authors. A companion to the author's book, this practical guidebook will equip you to interpret each book of the Bible through the lens of its literary forms and features - helping you faithfully read, understand, an…
Overview: In this bold sequel to Paul the Apostle, celebrated New Testament scholar the author reclaimed the apocalyptic center of Paul's proclamation for the life of contemporary church.
Overview: This book is an indispensable tool for those seeking to understand the multiformity of interpretation used in the rabbinic midrash, a collection of commentary on the Hebrew Scriptures composed during the dynamic first six centuries of the Common Era. Because this magnificent work of ancient Jewish scholarship was composed using several methods of interpretation, it must be read with …
"The Answer to Faustus, a Manichean is the most extensive attack on the Manichean religion that the early Church produced. Since Augustine himself had been associated with Manicheanism for nearly a decade before his conversion, his writing displays an insiders knowledge of Manichean teaching. Written probably at the very end of the fourth century, the Answer responds to a certain Faustus, a M…