A groundbreaking exploration of the Jewish marriage contract and its evolution in English translationTranslating the Ketubah offers a fresh perspective on the ketubah, the Jewish marriage contract. Traditionally composed in Aramaic, ketubot have been examined in other books within the frameworks of Jewish law and Jewish art. Here, however, Benjamin Steiner shows how translations of the ketubah into English helped Jews adapt to changing social and ...

Understanding and Reducing Prison Violence considers both the individual and prison characteristics associated with violence perpetration and violent victimization among both prison inmates and staff.Prison violence is not a random process; rates of violence vary across prisons and the odds of perpetrating violence or experiencing violent victimization vary across inmates and staff. A comprehensive understanding of the causes of prison violence therefore requires considera...

This study explores the shared history of the French empire from the perspective of material culture in order to re-evaluate the participation of colonial, Creole, and indigenous agency in the construction of imperial spaces. The decentred approach to a global history of the French colonial realm allows a new understanding of power relations in different locales. Providing case studies from four parts of the French empire, the book draws on illustrative evidence from the French archives in...

Outreach Resources of the Year, Christianity Today Book Award, The Gospel Coalition Book AwardBiblical Interpretation from the Black Church TraditionGrowing up inthe American South, Esau McCaulley knew firsthand the ongoing struggle between despair and hope that marks the lives of some in the African American context. A key element in the fight for hope, he discovered, has long been the practice ...

How can we make the gospel central to our lives?For decades, Stanley Hauerwas has been provoking Christians with his insistence that if they would only follow their Master, it would impact all areas of life, from the personal to the societal.The lanky Texan whom Time magazine dubbed “America’s theologian” for his zinging insights into today’s ethical questions says Christians should stop bemoaning their loss of cultural and politic...

Children are the most criminally victimized segment of the population, and a substantial number face multiple, serious "poly-victimizations" during a single year. And despite the fact that the priority emphasis in academic research and government policy has traditionally gone to studying juvenile delinquents, children actually appear before authorities more frequently as victims than as offenders. But at the same time, the media and many advocates have failed to note the good news: rates o...

Fast, informed answers to the challenges of false religions -- This is an age when countless groups and movements, new and old, mark the religious landscape in our culture. As a result, many people are confused or uncertain in their search for spiritual truth and meaning. Because few people have the time or opportunity to research these movements fully, the Zondervan Guide to Cults and Religious Movements series provides essential information and insights for their spiritual journeys. The ...

This book distils thirty years of research on the impacts of jail and prison environments. The research program began with evaluations of new jails that were created by the US Bureau of Prisons, which had a novel design intended to provide a non-traditional and safe environment for pre-trial inmates and documented the stunning success of these jails in reducing tension and violence. This book uses assessments of this new model as a basis for considering the nature of environment and behavi...

National Jewish Book Award Winner: An "enlightening" history of how Jews forged their own religious culture as they ventured into the American wilderness ( Choice) .Finalist, 2017 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature, presented by the Jewish Book CouncilJews on the Frontier offers a religious history that begins in an unexpected place: on the road. Shari Rabin recounts the journey of Jewish people as they left East...

Crime in the United States has fluctuated considerably over the past thirty years, as have the policy approaches to deal with it. During this time criminologists and other scholars have helped to shed light on the role of incarceration, prevention, drugs, guns, policing, and numerous other aspects to crime control. Yet the latest research is rarely heard in public discussions and is often missing from the desks of policymakers. This book accessibly summarizes the latest scientific informat...

"An engaging regional history with immense national significance . . . An excellent chronicle of the minority experience in small town America." —Ava F. Kahn, author of Jewish Voices of the California Gold RushIn Jewish Communities on the Ohio River, Amy Hill Shevitz chronicles the settlement and development of small Jewish communities in towns along the river. In these small towns, Jewish citizens created networks of businesses and families that developed...

"A disarming, intelligent, and timely book" that re-examines religious history and scripture with a focus on the feminine experience ( The New York Times).In the world that created the Bible, there were no female scholars and theologians, yet in recent decades, owing to such stunning discoveries as the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nag Hammadi texts, as well as advances in historical understanding and the rise of feminism, a generation of scholars has found new ...