219 Products

The clergyman and scholar George MacDonald (1824–1905) was a pioneer of fantasy fiction and an inspiration to CS Lewis, author of The Chronicles of Narnia. This collection of MacDonald’s thoughts, selected by Lewis, offers inspiration for every day of the year. Reflecting on topics from ‘Inexorable Love’ to ‘The Torment of Death’, it illuminates the Christian faith that underpins the work of both writers.

In this collection of moving personal testimonies, modern people relate their experiences to the Stations of the Cross and resurrection. Contributers include Archbishops John Sentamu and Vincent Nicholls, Sister Wendy Beckett, Peter Hitchens, Margaret Mizen, the mother of a murdered teenager, Kelly Connor, who ran over and killed an innocent victim, and Anne Maguire, of the wrongfully convicted Maguire Seven. Slightly off-mint.

Six episcopal thrones survive from 14th-century cathedral churches. In this scholarly volume, Charles Tracy presents in-depth studies of the timber thrones in Exeter, St David’s and Hereford Cathedrals and the impressive, canopied oak bishop’s chair in Lincoln; and Andrew Budge contributes a chapter on the two stone episcopal thrones at Wells and Durham Cathedrals. There is much additional information in appendices, and the studies are lavishly illustrated with photographs, plans and line drawings of the thrones.

In the first anthology of its kind, Geffert and Stavrou have compiled more than 100 primary sources in translation – letters and memoirs, official documents, treatises and homilies – to illustrate how Eastern Christianity developed from its Roman origins to the Soviet era and beyond. The texts are preceded by accessible editorial introductions, which explain their cultural and historical background as well as highlighting their importance for understanding the trends, controversies and reforms that have shaped the Orthodox tradition.

By preaching in the open and visiting lay people at home, mendicant friars took religion outside church buildings. Yet, despite their dedication to apostolic poverty, the friars were criticized for their churches’ considerable size. In her study of the ‘social lives of buildings’, Bruzelius describes how friars’ activities shaped the interior and exterior spaces of medieval cities; in particular explaining how individual donors’ requests for intercessory prayers and burial rights led to the episodic expansion and decoration of the friars’ convents.

The philosopher Kurt Flasch offers a full-scale reappraisal of the life and legacy of Meister Eckhart, the medieval German theologian, philosopher and alleged mystic who was active during the 14th-century Avignon Papacy and posthumously condemned as a heretic by Pope John XXII. Flasch argues that Eckhart was an important philosopher of his time rather than a mystic, and sheds new light on this medieval figure who has attracted the attention of modern thinkers including Schopenhauer, Fromm and Derrida.

Bamber Gascoigne tells the story of the Christian faith, from its origins in the Roman Empire, through the glories of Byzantium and the machinations of Renaissance popes, to the Soviet Union’s hostility to religion. His entertaining narrative sets Christianity in the context of other world religions and explains the forces behind its development over time. Revised edition of The Christians, originally written to accompany Gascoigne’s 1977 television series.

In 1517, Martin Luther, the ‘indispensable firestarter’, launched his 95 theses protesting the sale of indulgences by the Roman Catholic Church. From the upheaval of the Reformation that followed, Alec Ryrie’s fast-paced and engaging history traces five centuries of Protestantism, across the globe and across a vast diversity of sects and movements, to Pentecostalism in the 20th century and the situation today. ‘We cannot understand the modern age,’ writes Ryrie, ‘without understanding the dynamic history of Protestant Christianity’.

Karol Wojty?a – St John Paul II – kept a spiritual diary from his early days as a priest in his native Poland until two years before his death in 2005. Now translated into English for the first time, alongside facsimiles of original pages, it charts his religious development over the course of 40 years, including his leadership of the Catholic Church through turbulent times. Intimate, searching and deeply honest, this book reveals his relationship with God, with others, and with himself.

Pope Gregory X (1271–1276) died before the crusade he planned could be launched; but Baldwin uses a study of Gregory’s preparations to reveal the changing nature of crusading and particularly the passagium particulare.

Thomas C Oden summarizes Wesley’s voluminous ethical writings on such subjects as slavery, war and the danger of riches. Under the headings of social, economic, political and theological ethics, he explains Wesley’s thought in everyday language for a modern audience.

Exorcism, the casting out of demons, or ‘deliverance ministry’ (the modern Church of England’s preferred term) is widespread today, with every diocese having a designated member of clergy to advise on the casting out of demons. Francis Young provides a full history of exorcism and its rituals in the Church of England, discusses the Church’s approach to demonology, and reveals how present-day exorcism in Anglicanism is an unlikely anomaly.

Rome, 1922: two men assume power in their respective spheres, the sacred and the secular. Superficially, Pope Pius XI and Benito Mussolini could not have been less alike, yet they shared a social conservatism and hatred of democracy. Combining meticulous research in the Vatican archives with narrative drive, this groundbreaking history reveals the controversial truth of their unholy alliance, and how, as Il Duce grew closer to Hitler, the ailing pontiff began to sense that something had gone terribly wrong… American-cut pages.

St Catherine of Siena was Italy’s answer to Joan of Arc. Amid the war, plague and social unrest of the 14th century, she struggled with feckless clergy, rival popes and conniving cardinals to bring peace to warring factions. Blending meticulous research and vivid storytelling, this first modern, secular biography offers an intimate portrait of the fascinating and revolutionary woman who offered moral guidance to kings, queens and popes, and remains an inspiration to Catholics and feminists alike.

M David Litwa tells the stories of six self-deifiers in their historical, social and ideological contexts: the cosmic rebels Adam, Lucifer and Yaldaboath; and the heroes, Jesus (in John’s Gospel), Simon of Samaria and Allogenes (in Nag Hammadi library).

Religious texts pose many challenges for writers and editors that are not covered by general style guides, whether in print or online. This comprehensive, easy-to-use manual provides clear answers to such questions, including Biblical citation, capitalization, abbreviation and dialogue. Fully updated to keep pace with changes in English usage, it includes an all-new word list and advice on turning blogs into books.

Pope Francis is a pontiff like no other, loved the world over for his humility, charisma and reforming agenda. This Vatican-endorsed illustrated biography recounts his parents’ emigration from Italy, his childhood love of soccer, his calling to the priesthood and his formative encounter with poverty as a missionary in Chile. Illustrated with more than 250 photographs, the book includes 50 removable documents including facsimiles of his baptismal certificate and handwritten notes as pope.

In London between 1700 and 1760, numerous sermons were preached at secular and religious venues every day, and dozens more were published every year. Farooq analyses this preaching culture and examines the role of religion in 18th-century society.

The son of a famous soldier, Andrew Festing spent nine years in the army and another twelve at Sotheby's auction house before becoming a professional painter in 1981. He quickly established himself as a leading portraitist and has completed commissions of prominent figures in politics, the Church and the Royal Family, including the Queen. This exploration of his oeuvre gives an account of his life and influences, discusses his meticulous methods and includes reproductions of over 150 of his works.

Described by Lord Denning as ‘the greatest constitutional document of all times’, Magna Carta is widely seen as a guarantor of individual rights and freedom from tyranny. But how is a charter forced on a medieval king by his barons relevant today? This comprehensive, accessible and richly illustrated volume explains its origins, how it has been interpreted through the centuries, and the inspiration it provides to those wishing to build democratic societies across the world.

North-East England has a rich Christian tradition, which extends back more than 13 centuries to the age of the great Northumbrian saints Aidan, Cuthbert and Bede. This beautifully illustrated volume, with text by the former Dean of Durham, celebrates the region’s religious, cultural and intellectual heritage, from the intricate detail of manuscripts such as the Lindisfarne Gospels to the great cathedrals and monastic ruins that still dominate the landscape between the Tees and the Tweed. Silk marker.

Who was the true Messiah? According to this well-researched, highly controversial book, his name was Marcus Julius Agrippa, a descendent of Herod the great, and he was the author of St Mark’s Gospel.

Having first examined the evidence for the historical Jesus and the reliability of the New Testament documents to establish who Jesus was, what he did and what he taught, Rowe goes on to look at how Jesus has been interpreted and experienced through history up to the present day.

Taking the reader on 20 ‘walks’ around the Vatican, a former Prefect of the Papal Household draws attention to the City State’s abundant examples of armorial devices relating to popes from Eugene IV to John Paul II. The text, which is illustrated with hundreds of photographs, explains the significance of the coats of arms, inscriptions and other decorative features of the Vatican’s buildings, while also forming a brief history of 55 pontificates. Captions in English, French and German.

Francis Young, himself at the forefront of the search to locate the lost coffin of King Edmund, tells the story of the historical search for the real man behind the legendary East Anglian king killed by the Vikings in 869. The book traces Edmund’s progress from martyred king to England’s national saint in medieval times; and describes current research into Edmund’s burial in the abbey at Bury St Edmunds and the present whereabouts of his mortal remains.

This volume makes available full scholarly editions and translations of two documents that are vital for an understanding of Reformation church discipline: the drafts for the reformation of canon law known as the Henrician Canons; and the attempt to revise canon law published by John Foxe in 1571, the Reformation legum ecclesiasticarum, which never became law but attained unofficial authority in ecclesiastical courts. No jacket.

This is the first of three volumes resulting from an ambitious project to compile texts relating to each of the 866 occasions when special national worship has been prescribed in the British Isles to mark times of crisis, celebration and commemoration. As well as the prayers, liturgies and proclamations issued between the Reformation and William of Orange’s expedition in 1688, the book features editorial commentaries on the texts’ content, format and historical background.

Volume II covers the period from the French Revolution to Lindsey’s death in 1808, and reveals his central role in the formation of Unitarianism, and his involvement in movements for political and religious reform. No jacket.

Covering the period from 1747 to the eve of the French Revolution, the letters in this volume include both religious and political debate, and the emergence of a theologically distinct Unitarian denomination. No jacket.

Presenting scholarly editions of eight texts, the Miscellany covers aspects of the Church’s history from the Reformation to 1917, and includes WJ Conybeare’s influential article on 19th-century ‘Church Parties’ (1853). Church of England Record Society 7.

This volume presents four texts that provide different perspectives on the relationship between evangelicalism and the Church: Hannah More’s correspondence during the Blagdon controversy (1799–1802); Henry Ryder’s Charge to the Clergy of Gloucester, 1816; the undergraduate diary of Francis Chavasse (1865–1868); and JC Ryle’s address to the Liverpool diocesan conference in 1881. No jacket.

A prominent cleric during the late 18th century, Richard Hurd (1720–1808) was also a significant figure among the literary ‘pre-Romantics’; and his letters, beginning during his fellowship at Emmanuel, Cambridge, address a wide circle of correspondents. Church of England Record Society 3.

Samuel Rogers (1613–1643) of Wethersfield, Essex, kept a diary while at home with his family, at university in Cambridge, and at various posts in Bishop's Stortford and London. Transcribed and published here for the first time, with a substantial biography and introduction, and with translations of Latin passages, the diary gives access to the experience and observations of a minister who, although himself obscure, was living in ‘interesting times’. No jacket.

One of Methodism’s earliest traditions was the ‘band meeting’, at which a small group of people came together and confessed their sins, in order to grow in holiness and to foster community. Drawing extensively on personal accounts by those who attended them, Watson explains why Wesley considered regular band meetings so important, shows how they grew from a synthesis of Anglican and Moravian concepts of piety and suggests why they declined during the 19th century.

This book’s provocative thesis is that the Dead Sea Scrolls refer directly to Jesus, as the ‘wicked priest’ who opposed the rigid, militant views of the Essene movement. Revealing how Jesus’ message is presented in the Scrolls’ coded language, Vining explores the possibility that Christianity arose out of a schism resulting from the refusal of this ‘ultimate Reform Jew’ to follow Essene orthodoxy; his research also reopens doctrinal questions about reincarnation and the virgin birth.

This study of early modern martyrology takes an innovative approach, starting from the premise that ‘martyrdom is not a death but a story that gets written about a death’. Through close analysis of English texts ranging from medieval drama, through Foxe’s famous Acts and Monuments, to John Milton’s Eikonoklastes, the author traces how narrative forms and rhetoric shaped the meanings of human lives during the theological and political upheavals of the Reformation.

The life of cloistered nuns may seem to be one of renunciation, sacrifice and claustrophobia. Yet for many, it is a source of peace, tranquillity and even joy. Through interviews conducted over six years, this remarkable book tells the stories of the nuns of the Poor Clare Colletine Order in Illinois, and celebrates the counter-cultural values of lives removed from the clamour of consumer society and dedicated to Christ.

Relics associated with Jesus – such as the Shroud of Turin, Holy Grail and Lance of Longinus – are revered by many of the faithful but are a perennial target for sceptics. Nickell presents the evidence on all sides, reporting the historical traditions associated with these objects and describing the range of techniques used by investigators to track down their origins. The final chapter follows the controversy surrounding the supposed ossuary of Jesus’ brother James, pronounced a fake in 2003.