Slip into a pew at a Catholic church almost anywhere in the world on a Sunday morning, and you'll likely find something missing: the Bible. More than five hundred years after the Bible came off the first printing press, why does the world's largest biblical religion often not have a printed Bible in the room? And if not, how is it that the life of Catholics is shaped by the Bible? In How Catholics Encounter the Bible, award-winning biblical scholar and historian Michael Peppard ex...

Death and rebirth was of vital importance to early Christians in late antiquity. In late antiquity, death was all encompassing. Mortality rates were high, plague and disease in urban areas struck at will, and one lived on the knife’s edge regarding one’s health. Religion filled a crucial role in this environment, offering an option for those who sought cure and comfort. Following death, the inhumed were memorialized, providing solace to family members through sculpture, painting, and epigr...

Michael Peppard provides a historical and theological reassessment of the oldest Christian building ever discovered, the third-century house-church at Dura-Europos. Contrary to commonly held assumptions about Christian initiation, Peppard contends that rituals here did not primarily embody notions of death and resurrection. Rather, he portrays the motifs of the church’s wall paintings as those of empowerment, healing, marriage, and incarnation, while boldly reidentifying the figure of a ...

Slip into a pew at a Catholic church almost anywhere in the world on a Sunday morning, and you'll likely find something missing: the Bible. More than five hundred years after the Bible came off the first printing press, why does the world's largest biblical religion often not have a printed Bible in the room? And if not, how is it that the life of Catholics is shaped by the Bible?In How Catholics Encounter the Bible, award-winning biblical scholar and historian Michael Pep...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Pope Francis invites all humanity to an intimate and personal dialogue on the subject closest to his heart: mercy.“Moving . . . [Pope Francis] opens the sacred space of his conscience to explain how he came to center his ministry, and now his papacy, around mercy.”—James Carroll, The New Yorker“The name of God is mercy. There are no situations we cannot get out of, we are not condemned to si...

"A first-ever English translation and detailed analysis of [an] . . . eighth-century text uncovers a far more substantial version of the wise men story." — USA TodayTheologian Brent Landau presents the ancient account of Melchior, Caspar, and Balthazar, the three "wise men" who journeyed to Bethlehem to greet the birth of Jesus. The Revelation of the Magi offers the first-ever English translation of an ancient Syriac manuscript written in the secon...

"A magnificent book, bursting with profound spiritual insights, from a man who has quickly become one of the greatest spiritual teachers of our time." --James Martin, SJ, author of Jesus: A PilgrimageIn the year since he was elected, Pope Francis’s simple message of mercy, service, and renewal has spread to every corner of the world. Through his gentle demeanor, selfless actions, and welcoming call for service to others, Pope Francis has captured the atten...

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 figure? Did Emperor Constantine select for the New Testament--from some 80 contending Gospels--the onl...

New York Times–bestselling author Garry Wills provides a provocative analysis of the theological and historical basis for the priesthoodIn a riveting and provocative tour de force from the author of What Jesus Meant, Pulitzer Prize winner Garry Wills poses the challenging question: Why did the priesthood develop in a religion that began without it and, indeed, was opposed to it? Why Priests? argues brilliantly and persuasively fo...

"Brilliant . . . Essential reading for anyone who cares about Church history and gender equality. . . . speaks to our times with impressive relevance." — Reading in TranslationFrom one of Italy's most renowned historians of religion, an exciting new portrait of one of Christianity's most complex—and most misunderstood—figures: Mary MagdaleneJesus' favorite and most devoted disciple? A prostitute shunned from her community? A symbol of female leadersh...

After 2,000 years of flawed history, here at last is a magnificent new biography of Mary Magdalene that draws her out of the shadows of history and restores her to her rightful place of importance in Christianity.Throughout history, Mary Magdalene has been both revered and reviled, a woman who has taken on many forms—witch, whore, the incarnation of the eternal feminine, the devoted companion (and perhaps even the wife) of Jesus. In this brilliant new biography, Bruce Chilton, a re...

A deeply personal introduction to the biblical theology and spirituality of Opus Dei by the bestselling Catholic author Scott Hahn.To conspiracy theorists, Opus Dei is a highly secretive and powerful international organization. To its members, however, Opus Dei is a spiritual path, a way of incorporating the teachings of Jesus into everyday life. In Ordinary Work, Extraordinary Grace, Scott Hahn, a member of Opus Dei, describes the organization’s founding, its mission, and...