Category: Religious History

By Thomas F. X. Noble, Julia M. H. Smith

The major concentration of this publication is the power and dynamism of all elements of Christian adventure from past due antiquity to the 1st campaign. by way of placing the institutional and doctrinal historical past firmly within the context of Christianity's many cultural manifestations and lived formations all over from Afghanistan to Iceland, this quantity of The Cambridge heritage of Christianity emphasizes the ever-changing, diversified expressions of Christianity at either neighborhood and global point. The insights of many disciplines, together with gender reports, codicology, archaeology and anthropology, are deployed to provide clean interpretations which problem the normal truths bearing on this formative interval. Addressing japanese, Byzantine and western Christianity, it explores encounters among Christians and others, particularly Jews, Muslims, and pagans; the institutional lifetime of the church together with legislation, reform and monasticism; the pastoral and sacramental contexts of worship, trust and morality; and eventually its cultural and theological meanings, together with heresy, saints' cults and the afterlife.

By Thomas F. X. Noble, Julia M. H. Smith

Every one quantity makes a considerable contribution in its personal correct to the scholarship of its interval and the entire historical past constitutes a tremendous paintings of educational reference. faraway from being in simple terms a historical past of Western eu Christianity and its offshoots, the heritage goals to supply an international viewpoint. japanese and Coptic Christianity are given complete attention from the early interval onwards, and later, African, some distance japanese, New global, South Asian and different non-European advancements in Christianity obtain right assurance. The volumes disguise renowned piety and non-formal expressions of Christian religion and deal with the sociology of Christian formation, worship and devotion in a large cultural context. The query of family among Christianity and different significant faiths is additionally saved in sight all through.

By Ralph L Piedmont

Study within the Social medical research of faith (RSSSR) publishes reviews of leading edge reports that pertain empirically or theoretically to the clinical learn of faith, together with spirituality, despite their educational self-discipline or expert orientation. This quantity of RSSSR includes articles on conversion narratives of Jehovah's witnesses, trust in an energetic devil, afterlife ideals, religiosity and parenting and spirituality as coping source.

By Alan H. Sommerstein, Isabelle C. Torrance

The oath used to be an establishment of primary significance throughout a variety of social interactions in the course of the historical Greek global, creating a an important contribution to social balance and concord; but there was no complete, committed scholarly research of the topic for over a century. This quantity of a two-volume research explores how oaths functioned within the operating of the Greek city-state (polis) and in relatives among varied states in addition to among Greeks and non-Greeks

By John Granger Cook

Within the early centuries of what got here to be referred to as the Christian period, that new faith competed not just with Judaism but additionally with numerous conventional Greco-Roman spiritual ideals and practices. "Pagan" intellectuals learn the rising Christian scriptures and replied with opinions that provoked long and repeated rejoinders from modern Christian leaders. often times, those criticisms expected views that re-emerged many centuries later in sleek scholarship. John Granger prepare dinner deals the 1st distinctive description of the exegesis of 5 of crucial historical pagan critics of the hot testomony: Celsus, Porphyry, the nameless pagan mentioned by way of Macarius Magnes, Hierocles, and the emperor Julian.

By Joseph Clair

This research considers Augustine's ethics as published in his sermons and letters, within which we will see the appliance of his ethical imaginative and prescient within the suggestion given to his congregation and community.

By Bernard Green

Leo the nice used to be the beneficiary of the consolidation of the ability of the papacy in Rome and the Christianization of the town over the process the previous century. during this conscientiously nuanced learn, Bernard eco-friendly demonstrates the impacts at paintings in this celebrated pope's improvement as a theological philosopher, together with of the main popular theological names of the interval, Ambrose of Milan and Augustine of Hippo. eco-friendly charts Leo's theological trip from his first encounters with the Pelagian and Nestorian controversies, the place he engaged Cassian as an consultant. Leo took an admiring notwithstanding constrained view of Cyril of Alexandria yet misunderstood the weaknesses in Nestorius' idea. As pope, Leo preached a civic Christianity, available to all voters, baptising the virtues of the classical and civic previous. The learn then examines Leo's lately dated sermons and divulges the evolution of his suggestion as he labored out a soteriology that gave complete worth to either the divinity and humanity of Christ, specifically in response to Manichaeism. within the drawback that ended in Chalcedon, Leo's past false impression of Nestorius affected the content material of his Tome, which was once extraordinary of the Christology and soteriology he had constructed in his past preaching. eco-friendly persuasively concludes that its emphasis at the contrast of the 2 natures used to be an uncharacteristic try and reply to either Eutyches and Nestorius, as this pope understood them. within the gentle of Chalcedon, Leo produced a revised assertion of Christology, the Letter to the Palestinian clergymen, that is either extra comprehensive and higher aligned along with his attribute notion.

By Robin Le Poidevin

In Arguing for Atheism , Robin Le Poidevin addresses the query of no matter if theism - the view that there's a own, transcendent author of the universe - solves the inner most mysteries of life. Philosophical defences of theism have usually been in response to the concept that it explains issues which atheistic methods can't: for instance, why the universe exists, and the way there should be goal ethical values. the most competition of Arguing for Atheism is that the opposite is right: that during truth theism fails to provide an explanation for many stuff it claims to. Such an interpretation has been argued for lately by means of 'radical theologians'; Arguing for Atheism is for that reason, a philosophical contribution to at least one of the foremost non secular problems with our instances. Designed as a textual content for collage classes within the philosophy of faith and metaphysics, this book's obtainable sort and various causes of vital philosophical strategies and positions also will make it beautiful to the overall reader.

By Ra'anan S. Boustan, Annette Yoshiko Reed

The concept that of heaven occupied a distinct position within the past due old mind's eye, not just in Judaism and Christianity, but in addition within the Greco-Roman non secular, philosophical, medical, and "magical" traditions. Drawing upon the services of students of Classics, old background, Jewish reviews, and Patristics, this quantity explores the several capabilities of heavenly imagery in numerous texts and traditions so one can map the styles of solidarity and variety in the non secular panorama of past due Antiquity.

By Lawrence S. Cunningham

A short historical past of Saints follows the increase of the cult of saints in Christianity from its starting place within the age of the martyrs all the way down to the current day.Refers to either famous saints, equivalent to Joan of Arc, and lesser-known figures just like the ‘holy fools’ within the Orthodox traditionRanges over matters as various because the background of canonization procedures, the Reformation critique of the cult of saints, and the function of saints in different spiritual traditionsDiscusses the relevance of sainthood within the postmodern eraTwo appendices describe client saints and the iconography of saints in artwork.