So, what did America’s founders really believe about God, the Bible, and Christianity? Find out in Faith and Freedom—The Founding Fathers in Their Own Words. This brand-new survey of the founders’ beliefs provides easy-to-read biographical and historical details along with relevant quotations from the speeches and writings of Patrick Henry, John Adams, George Washington, James Madison, Noah Webster, Benjamin Franklin, and a half-dozen others. Often portrayed as either hostile to f...

**An extraordinary and beautifully illustrated exploration of the medieval world through twelve manuscripts, from one of the world's leading experts.Winner of The Wolfson History Prize and The Duff Cooper Prize.A San Francisco Chronicle Holiday Book Gift Guide Pick!**Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts is a captivating examination of twelve illuminated manuscripts from the medieval period. Noted authority Christopher de Hamel invites the reader in...

What has Christianity ever done for us?A lot more than you might think, as Nick Spencer reveals in this fresh exploration of our cultural origins.Looking at the big ideas that characterize the West, such as human dignity, the rule of law, human rights, science – and even, paradoxically, atheism and secularism – he traces the varied ways in which many of our present values grew up and flourished in distinctively Christian soil.Always alert to the ten...

*Includes the following Commentaries: On Election and Predestination. On Ethics and the Common Life. On Faith. On Jesus Christ. On Providence. On the Bible. On the Christian Life. On the Church. On the Knowledge of God, and Other Works*Includes Illustrations*Includes an Original Introduction*Includes Table of Contents and working links for each Title

In December 1945, two Egyptian fellahin, digging for natural fertilizer in the Nile River valley unearthed a sealed storage jar. The jar proved to hold treasure of an unexpected sort: a collection of some fifty-two ancient manuscripts, most of which reflect the teachings of a mystical religious movement we call Gnosticism (from the Greek word gnosis, "knowledge"). The texts are also, with few exceptions, Christian documents, and thus they provide us with valuable new information about the ...

A History of the Popes tells the story of the oldest living institution in the Western world-the papacy. From its origins in Saint Peter, Jesus' chief disciple, through Pope Benedict XVI today, the popes have been key players in virtually all of the great dramas of the western world in the last two thousand years. Acclaimed church historian John W. O'Malley's engaging narrative examines the 265 individuals who have claimed to be Peter's successors. Rather than describe each pope o...

How were the books of the Bible chosen? What was the Roman world like during Jesus' life and ministry? And how are Christians to live out their faith in today's world? Living Faith offers thoughtful and engaging answers to questions about the faith, enabling believers of all backgrounds to understand Christianity more fully. John Schwarz compares and contrasts Christianity with other world religions, proposes helpful disciplines for a believer's spiritual growth, and provides a clear and b...

Rodney Stark's provocative new book argues that, whether we like it or not, people acting for the glory of God have formed our modern culture. Continuing his project of identifying the widespread consequences of monotheism, Stark shows that the Christian conception of God resulted--almost inevitably and for the same reasons--in the Protestant Reformation, the rise of modern science, the European witch-hunts, and the Western abolition of slavery. In the process, he explains why Christian an...

The fifth volume in Piper's acclaimed The Swans Are Not Silent series illustrates powerful and enduring lessons through the missional sufferings of Tyndale, Judson, and Paton.Jesus' words in John 12 are sobering: unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it will bear little fruit. The history of Christianity's expansion proves that God's strategy for reaching unreached peoples with the gospel includes the sufferings of his frontline heralds-the missionaries wh...

This book, widely regarded as groundbreaking since its publication over thirty-five years ago, sheds light on the more radical and prophetic roots of American evangelicalism and has challenged countless readers to rethink their evangelical heritage. It argues that nineteenth-century American evangelicals held a more mature vision of the faith, for they engaged demanding justice, peace, and social issues--a vision that was betrayed and distorted by twentieth-century neo-evangelicals. The bo...

This major new study examines the history of Chinese theologies as they have navigated dynastic change, anti-imperialism, and the heights of Maoist propaganda In this groundbreaking and authoritative study, Chloë Starr explores key writings of Chinese Christian intellectuals, from philosophical dialogues of the late imperial era to sermons and micro blogs of theological educators and pastors in the twenty-first century. Through a series of close textual readings, she sheds...

According to Christian tradition, Pentecost is always seven weeks after Easter Sunday; that is to say, 50 days after Easter (inclusive of Easter Day). Pentecost commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the 12 apostles and other followers of Jesus as described in Acts 2:1-31. Pentecost is sometimes described as the "Birthday of the Church." The problem is, many of our churches do not celebrate it! This devotional has been designed to prepare you for the refreshing. I have revised se...