History of religion Books

When it first appeared in 1882, this book was a pioneering work in every respect. This new edition includes an Introduction and numerous footnotes, explaining the background to historical events and religious and political figures.

The Parting of the Ways is James Dunn's classic exploration of the important questions that surround the emergence of Christian distinctiveness and the pulling apart of Christianity and Judaism in the first century of our era. The book begins by...

Since the 1830s, Holiness and Pentecostal movements have had a significant influence on many Christian churches, and they have been a central force in producing what is known today as World Christianity. This book demonstrates the advantages of analyzing...

Christ among the Medieval Dominicans adopts a genuinely multi-disciplinary approach to its topic, bringing together the research of experts in a wide variety of fields. The essays in this volume provide many perspectives (theology, philosophy,...

The lives, ideas and influence of nine audacious Jews - what they did, what they believed and their contribution to the Jewish story. Courageous, challenging and often misunderstood, they left a lasting legacy for humanity. This book has a chapter on...

A Canadian-built mission house in the heart of Seoul became the heart of the emerging South Korean democratization movement, while a Korean minister rose to serve as the spiritual leader of Canada's largest Protestant denomination. The century-long...

Tensions between Protestantism and Catholicism dominated politics in nineteenth-century Canada, occasionally erupting into violence. While some liberal politicians and community leaders believed that equal treatment of Protestants and Catholics would...

In The Uncomfortable Pew Bruce Douville explores the relationship between Christianity and the New Left in English Canada from 1959 to 1975. Focusing primarily on Toronto, he examines the impact that left-wing student radicalism had on Canada's largest...

"The Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation" is a landmark work that brings to life the long-inaccessible ancient scrolls of Qumran. Three distinguished translators at the forefront of modern scrolls scholarship reveal the rich tapestry of writings known as...

Franciszek Kotula, well known author and historian (1900-1984) documented important events as he witnessed them in his community from the earliest days of the Nazi occupation in his home town of Rzeszów, Poland from 1939-1944. He made notes of everything...

First Published in 2004. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Examines the role of the Roman emperors’ slaves in the rise of Christianity, and how imperial slaves were essential to early Christians’ self-conception as a distinct people in the Mediterranean.

“Quran & History” is an academic research studying the historical claims of the Quran, and the dependency of Mohammad on myths and religions present during his time, in formulating his description of the few historical events...

This book analyzes the oldest Chinese ideographs (word pictures carved in bronze and bone) to reveal that ancient Chinese history includes biblical events from creation to the flood. It presents the fact that the ancient Chinese worshiped the Triune God.

Religion is a major subfield of ancient history and classical studies, and Roman religion in particular is usually studied today by experts in two rather distinct halves: the religion of the Roman Republic, covering the fifth through first centuries B.C...

This book identifies the deep limitations and the violent consequences of the longstanding and constantly developing 'free speech debates' typical of so many contexts in the West, and explores the possibilities to combat racism when liberal values are...

An English translation of a sixteenth-century Spanish manuscript, by an Inca Jesuit, about Inca religion and the spread of Christianity in colonial Peru. Includes an introductory essay.

Racism based on human colour is biologically skin-deep, but deeply embedded in the very fabric of society. Racism, a culturally transmitted learned behaviour, is present in the Church, a part of society. The same Church that emphasises that all human...

The headlines are filled with the politics of Islam, but there is another side to the world's fastest-growing religion. Sufism is the poetry and mysticism of Islam. This mystical movement from the early ninth century rejects worship motivated by the...

On April 24, 2005, Cardinal Joseph Alois Ratzinger became Pope Benedict XVI, the twenty-first-century successor of the Apostle Peter and the spiritual leader of more than one billion Roman Catholics. Who is this complex man whose office grants him sole...

Despite President George W. Bush's assurances that Islam is a peaceful religion and that all good Muslims hunger for democracy, confusion persists and far too many Westerners remain convinced that Muslims and terrorists are synonymous. In the aftermath...

The United States is one of the most religious places on earth, but it is also a nation of shocking religious illiteracy.Only 10 percent of American teenagers can name all five major world religions and 15 percent cannot name any.Nearly two-thirds of...

The Meaning of the Nag Hammadi, now in paperback opens the with the thrilling adventure story of the discovery of the ancient Papyrii at Nag Hammadi. Muhammad Ali, the fellahin, discovered the sealed jar, he feared that it might contain a jinni, or...

Where did Christianity come from?Acclaimed author Gregory Riley embarks on a remarkable journey in this readable and persuasive account of the origins of Christianity. Riley demonstrates that early Christians held widely differing beliefs about God,...

Named Book of the Year by Books and Culture

Know the Theologians by Jennifer Powell McNutt and David W. McNutt profiles some of the most important thinkers throughout church history, from the first centuries to the twentieth, introducing readers to their life and thought--and demonstrating their...

"Divisions among Christians are a scandal. There is no other word for it: a scandal!" These words are from Pope Francis during an audience in 2015 and refer to a reality that obscures the good news of Jesus to a world in need of healing...

In Uses and Abuses of Moses, Theodore Ziolkowski surveys the major literary treatments of the biblical figure of Moses since the Enlightenment. Beginning with the influential treatments by Schiller and Goethe, for whom Moses was, respectively, a member...

This study of the religious landscape of Indianapolis-the summative volume of the Lilly Endowment's Project on Religion and Urban Culture conducted by the Polis Center at IUPUI-aims to understand religion's changing role in public life. The book examines...

Religious conflicts had a pronounced effect on women and their families in early modern England, but our understanding of that impact is limited by the restrictions that prevented the open expression of religious beliefs in the post-Reformation years...

Muslim Societies in Africa provides a concise overview of Muslim societies in Africa in light of their role in African history and the history of the Islamic world. Roman Loimeier identifies patterns and peculiarities in the historical, social, economic,...

Examines the theme of identity: geographic, ethnic , religious, status and sex-based. Discussions of Roman texts and images show how constructions of identity and culture contributed to the creation of "late antiquity" as a historical concept.

This book examines the theory of consciousness developed by the school of Recognition, an Indian philosophical tradition that thrived around the 10th c. CE in Kashmir, and argues that consciousness has a linguistic nature.

This book reflects on one of the most pressing challenges of our time: the current and historical relationships that exist between the faith-traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. It begins with discussion on the state of Jewish-Christian...

Interest in Karl Barth is running at unprecedented levels in the English-speaking world, and it is high time that his excellent survey volume of formative eighteenth and nineteenth-century thinkers (first published in English by SCM Press) was once again...

We used to hear cabin crew instructions about the importance of taking care of ourselves first andthen our children, that were also in danger during the flight.These instructions are similar to what the world's priests did when they asked their followers...

This insightful history explores the stereotype of Dallas Theological Seminary as an anti-intellectual stronghold of fundamentalism and dispensational premillennialism. The tenures of the school's five presidents reveal the tensions that DTS, a blend of...

Through this lively narrative of church history, readers will discover that the story of Christianity is an exhilarating adventure. Tucker's engaging writing style, informative historical overview, and selection of colorful characters are sure to attract...

Steven Rozenski reopens old discussions and addresses new ones concerning late medieval devotional texts, particularly those showing continental and German influences.For many, Martin Luther's translation of the Bible into German has come to define the...

Dialectic and Narrative in Aquinas investigates the intent, method, and structural unity of Thomas Aquinas's Summa Contra Gentiles. In this innovative study Thomas S. Hibbs goes against the grain of most traditional interpretations of the work, which...

Rodes examines the legal materials (cases, statutes, canons, and measures) used in the English experience of updating the medieval synthesis of church and state.

This is the first full history of the Society of St Francis from the struggles of the 1920s through its rapid growth in the post-war years to the present day.