This vivid history of the Civil War era reveals how unexpected bonds of union forged among diverse peoples in the Ohio-Kentucky borderlands furthered emancipation through a period of spiraling chaos between 1830 and 1865. Moving beyond familiar arguments about Lincoln’s deft politics or regional commercial ties, Bridget Ford recovers the potent religious, racial, and political attachments holding the country together at one of its most likely breaking points, the Ohio River.Living ...

In The Protestant Ethic, Max Weber opposes the Marxist concept of dialectical materialism and relates the rise of the capitalist economy to the Calvinist belief in the moral value of hard work and the fulfillment of one's worldly duties.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works througho...

A bestselling historian recounts the epic clash that ended the Renaissance and pushed Islam to the gates of ViennaIn Warriors of God and Dogs of God, James Reston, Jr., brought two epochal events in the struggle between Islam and Christendom to readers eager to understand the roots of the present-day conflict. With his unwavering eye for detail, Reston now weaves a captivating narrative that examines a pivotal period in that centuries- long war, w...

A progressive Catholic nun and ex-lawyer recounts her life's journey while highlighting major socio-political issues facing the United States."Optimism, passion, and resilience pervade Campbell's candid account. . . . Campbell intelligently argues for the poor." — Library JournalIn the summer of 2012, Sister Simone Campbell and a group of fellow Roman Catholic nuns toured parts of the country to rally support again...

The United States of America was founded and established by ordinary citizens just like you and me. In their struggle for independence, these heroic men and women willingly shed their blood, sweat, and tears—often sacrificing their own lives and fortunes in order to hand down the precious legacy of freedom we all enjoy today. Now is the time for a new generation of American patriots to rise up and join in the fight. Now is the time for every American to return to the virtues, values, and i...

A concise and authoritative introduction to Islamic political ideasIn sixteen concise chapters on key topics, this book provides a rich, authoritative, and up-to-date introduction to Islamic political thought from the birth of Islam to today, presenting essential background and context for understanding contemporary politics in the Islamic world and beyond. Selected from the acclaimed Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought, and focusing on the ...

Who was Jesus? Why did he come? Some people think it was to save them from their sins, so their spiritual focus is personal salvation. Others appreciate Jesus's teachings but see little connection between the wise teacher of old and how they live life here and now.Both groups have lost the true vision of who Jesus is--a vision that changes everything about us and our world. What we believe about Jesus has the power to transform how we treat all our neighbors--including the poor, th...

While the construction of architecture has a place in architectural discourse, its destruction, generally seen as incompatible with the very idea of "culture," has been neglected in theoretical and historical discussion. Responding to this neglect, Herscher examines the case of the former Yugoslavia and in particular, Kosovo, where targeting architecture has been a prominent dimension of political violence. Rather than interpreting violence against architecture as a mere representation of ...

The first comprehensive empirical account of how religion affects the interpretation, prevention, and mitigation of AIDS in Africa, the world's most religious continent.

John Locke's theory of toleration is generally seen as advocating the privatization of religion. This interpretation has become conventional wisdom: secularization is widely understood as entailing the privatization of religion, and the separation of religion from power. This book turns that conventional wisdom on its head and argues that Locke secularizes religion, that is, makes it worldly, public, and political. In the name of diverse citizenship, Locke reconstructs religion as persuasi...

In The Givenness of Desire, Randall S. Rosenberg examines the human desire for God through the lens of Lonergan’s "concrete subjectivity." Rosenberg engages and integrates two major scholarly developments: the tension between Neo-Thomists and scholars of Henri de Lubac over our natural desire to see God and the theological appropriation of the mimetic theory of René Girard, with an emphasis on the saints as models of desire. With Lonergan as an integrating thread, the author engag...

Perpetua, a 19 year old girl from South London, says that she is God. She gathers a motley collection of followers and begins her travels, performing miracles and spreading her gospel of unconditional love along the way.Her message provokes a strong and ultimately lethal reaction from Christianity's warring factions, politicians and journalists bent on profit instead of the truth. Her story is told by four people: Jack, a tabloid journalist; Claire, a social worker...