Modern history has not been neutral in telling the story of religion. Since it presumes the centrality of human motives and machinations as the one and only means of explicating the unfolding of ‘events’, it has helped set the terms for what counts as a viable motive and what does not, and this is evident in the systematic unmasking of religion as only really ever about ‘something else’. By distilling more substantive/primary economic, political or other kinds of motives from the detritus ...

Here, for the first time in English, is Franz Brentano’s The Teaching of Jesus, a compendium of texts Brentano assembled for publication shortly before his death that constitute a frank, public settling of accounts with the Christian religion. Originally conceived by Brentano as a volume that might help others similarly led to doubt the doctrines of Christianity, the book is remarkably free of bitterness or spitefulness. On the contrary, what makes the book of singular importance,...

Victors not only write history: they also reproduce the texts. Bart Ehrman explores the close relationship between the social history of early Christianity and the textual tradition of the emerging New Testament, examining how early struggles between Christian "heresy" and "orthodoxy" affected the transmission of the documents over which many of the debates were waged. He makes a crucial contribution to our understanding of the social and intellectual history of early Christianity and rais...

When it appeared in 1670, Baruch Spinoza's Theological-Political Treatise was denounced as the most dangerous book ever published--"godless," "full of abominations," "a book forged in hell . . . by the devil himself." Religious and secular authorities saw it as a threat to faith, social and political harmony, and everyday morality, and its author was almost universally regarded as a religious subversive and political radical who sought to spread atheism throughout Europe. Yet Spin...

"Arguably the most distinctive feature of the early Christian literature," writes Bart Ehrman, "is the degree to which it was forged." The Homilies and Recognitions of Clement; Paul's letters to and from Seneca; Gospels by Peter, Thomas, and Philip; Jesus' correspondence with Abgar, letters by Peter and Paul in the New Testament--all forgeries. To cite just a few examples. Forgery and Counterforgery is the first comprehensive study of early Christian pseudepigrapha ever produced in English...

The Essential Pope Benedict XVI is "an outstanding collection of texts that takes us straight to the heart of Benedict XVI's thoughts" (Alister McGrath).Introduction by D. Vincent Twomey, SVDOn 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. Through John F. Thornton and Susan B. Varenne'...

A massive survey of New Testament scholarship--its history, methodology, and findings--from a Catholic standpoint. Fr. Collins (Catholic U. of Louvain) has a masterful grasp of his subject; and this book is a model of clarity, organization, and fair-mindedness.

An accessible summary of the classic work by renowned theologian Herman BavinckHerman Bavinck's four-volume Reformed Dogmatics is one of the most important theological works of the twentieth century. The recently completed English translation has received wide acclaim.Now John Bolt, one of the world's leading experts on Bavinck and editor of Bavinck's four-volume set, has abridged the work in one volume, offering students, pastors, and lay readers ...

What are we missing when we look at the creation narratives of Genesis only or primarily through the lens of modern discourse about science and religion? Theologian Peter Bouteneff explores how first-millennium Christian understandings of creation can inform current thought in the church and in the public square. He reaches back into the earliest centuries of our era to recover the meanings that early Jewish and Christian writers found in the stories of the six days of creation and of Adam...

Since its publication in 1950, Protestant Biblical Interpretation has been a standard introduction to hermeneutics in evangelical colleges and seminaries. Twice revised, this textbook has sold well over 100,000 copies. Now this venerable resource is available in a paperback edition."Hermeneutics," writes the author, "is the science and art of Biblical interpretation. . . . As such it forms one of the most important members of the theological sciences. This is especially tr...

The study Karl Barth has generally been excluded from religious studies departments in favour of more liberal theologians such as Tillich. For many years scholar Garrett Green has argued that there is no justification for this neglect. To support his theory that Barth can and should be studied as a religious theorist rather than just a theologian Garrett Green presents a brand new translation of Chapter 17 of Karl Barth's Church Dogmatics prefaced by a detailed introduction to the text.

Many Christians today long to become reacquainted with their ancient ancestors in the faith. They see a deeper worship and devotion in the prayers and hymns of the early church. And they believe that the writings of the early church can shed new light on their understanding of Scripture.But where and how do we begin? Our first encounter with the writings of the church fathers may seem like visiting a far country where the language, assumptions, concerns and conclusions are complete...