Aside for the secretaries of state, those lofty roles at the Home Office, MOD, Exchequer, and Foreign office, the ministers of the UK are a cast of roles that expand, and contract based on the whims and political needs of the Prime Minister. Within their portfolios those MPs and Lords are immensely powerful - able to reshape whole sectors of British society, grant or refuse government contracts and planning permission, and intervene in matters throughout the country.And yet, few me...

In a lively and gripping essay on contemporary politics, Peter Riddell remakes the case for representative democracy but concludes that it desperately needs to be strengthened. The effect of the expenses scandal has been to turn off both existing and potential representatives and voters. Naive reformers believe the answer is wholesale constitutional reform, but the result of that is likely to be stalemate and rule by powerful and well-funded vested interests. Instead, Riddell calls for a b...

In recent months, much attention has been paid to Islam and the greater Muslim world. Some analysis has been openly hostile, while even more has been overly simplistic. Islam in Context goes behind the recent crisis to discuss the history of Islam, describe its basic structure and beliefs, explore the current division between Muslim moderates and extremists, and suggest a way forward.Authors Peter G. Riddell and Peter Cotterell draw from sources such as the Qur'an, early Christian ...

To the vast majority of the English public, the role of the United Kingdom’s Supreme Court has often been distant and incomprehensible, its judges a caste apart from society. The Power of Judges ends this mystery, exploring the fundamental concept of justice and explaining the main functions of the courts, the challenges they face, and the complexity of the judicial system.In this lucid account of the judiciary, David Neuberger and Peter Riddell lead us through an array of...

The extraordinary life of Berhane Woldegabriel, Eritrean teacher, journalist and bridge-builder.Berhane Woldegabriel was an Eritrean refugee who settled in the UK for the last thirty years of his life. He became a dedicated peacemaker, using his great political understanding and interpersonal skills to build bridges both amongst his own Eritrean people, and within wider communities.Berhane was a universalist who loved people regardless of nationality and cr...

The metrical translation of the Psalms into the Punjabi language, set to indigenous music in the late nineteenth century in India, plays a vital role in the personal and communal worship of the global Punjabi Christian community. This book is a pioneer work that comprehensively encompasses the cultural, socio-historical, missional, and sociolinguistic aspects of the Punjabi Psalter. It investigates the unique and fascinating story of the contextualizing of Psalms in an exclusive South Asia...

What happens when Muslim women gather together at the mosque to read the Qur'an, learn, and pray? How does family loyalty interact with mosque attendance for women? This book explores the growing Muslim women's piety movement through looking at one women's program in a Syrian suburban mosque. Community models shape individual behavior. The place and power of blessing help define the boundaries between orthodox and popular Islam. Modesty and shame, feasts and fasting, purity and prayer, int...

Much of the world today is convulsed in an epic struggle between the Christian West and Islam. Scholars seeking to understand the issues look back in history to unearth the roots of this conflict. Of great value in this effort are the writings of an eyewitness, a devoted Christian who served as chief financial officer of the Umayyad Empire and wrote at the time Islam was developing. John of Damascus (675–750) authored two major works, the Heresy of the Ishmaelites and the Disp...

The largely Arabo-centric approach to the academic study of tafsir has resulted in a lack of literature exploring the diversity of Qur'anic interpretation in other areas of the Muslim-majority world.The essays in The Qur'an in the Malay-Indonesian World resolve this, aiming to expand our knowledge of tafsir and its history in the Malay-Indonesian world. Highlighting the scope of Qur'anic interpretation in the Malay world in its various vernaculars, it also contextualizes t...

Liu Zhi (c.1662-c.1730), a well-known Muslim scholar in China, published in Chinese outstanding theological works, short treatises, and easy-to-memorize short poems on Islam. He encountered various challenges in his interpretation and transmission of Islamic texts. First, traditional Arabic and Persian Islamic texts used Arabic and Persian concepts to explain Islam. This book answers the question, did Liu Zhi communicate difficult Islamic concepts? Second, Islam has insisted on monotheism....

In 2020 Melbourne School of Theology celebrates its one hundredth anniversary. Proclaiming the Gospel, Engaging the World is a collection of essays that showcases the rich history of the Melbourne Bible Institute, the Bible College of Victoria, and the Melbourne School of Theology--three names but a single proud tradition of serving Christ. This volume contains papers by present and past members of the MBI/BCV/MST family. The papers are organized around four themes: historical review, theo...

A major feature of the rise of Islamism in the Middle East, Asia, Africa and parts of the West is the rapid growth of a starkly repressive version of Islamic shari'a law, often fueled by funds and support from Saudi Arabia. The central purpose of Islamists, including terrorists, is to impose such law in all Muslim lands, and then throughout the world in a new Caliphate. Despite its importance, this worldwide growth of extreme shari'a is under-documented and littl...