Showing titles in History

A story of spiritual awakening, St. Augustine's Confessions is a fascinating look at the life of an eminent Christian thinker. Widely seen as one of the first Western autobiographies ever written, it chronicles the life and religious struggles of Augustine of Hippo, from his days as a self-confessed sinner to his acceptance of Christianity as an older adult.

Who was among the last at the cross and the first at the empty tomb? Mary Magdalene. Her role in Jesus's ministry as told in all four Gospels was pivotal in many ways. Yet her story is often overlooked, confused, or scandalized by the church. In The Mary We Forgot, award-winning church historian and theologian Jennifer Powell McNutt unpacks Scripture and church history to reveal the real Mary Magdalene as a model of discipleship for all Christians today—women and men alike.

We hear the voices of the early Church Fathers even today. Their teachings, their guidance, their insights, and their sacrifice shaped the Catholic Church. They defined the canon of Scripture. They developed our creeds and forms of worship. They defined Christianity's distinctive moral sense. But who were they? What can we learn from their ancient teachings? What can the Fathers teach the twenty-first century—about holiness, culture, faith, and the Gospel.

Beginning with the story of Stephen from the book of Acts, considered the first Christian martyr, the drama builds to the passion of the early Church's persecution under the Roman Empire. The hardy and radical faith of those first believers spawned medieval missionary movements that spread the gospel across Europe and into England, Scotland, and Ireland. As the story continues, it places a significant emphasis on the sufferings of the early Protestants during the Reformation.

Soren Kierkegaard was a Danish philosopher, theologian, and religious author interested in human psychology. He is regarded as a leading pioneer of existentialism and one of the greatest philosophers of the 19th Century.

Paul is second only to Jesus as the most important person in the birth of Christianity, and yet he continues to be controversial, even among Christians. How could the letters of Paul be used both to inspire radical grace and to endorse systems of oppression - condoning slavery, subordinating women, condemning homosexual behavior? Borg and Crossan use the best of biblical and historical scholarship to explain the reasons for Paul's mixed reputation and reveal to us what scholars have known for decades: The later letters of Paul were created by the early church to dilute Paul's message.

The Ancient Church Fathers reveals the disciples of the 12 apostles and what they taught, from their own writings. It documents that the same doctrine was faithfully transmitted to their descendants in the first few centuries. It also describes where, when, and by whom, the doctrines began to change.

The New York Times bestselling author of God’s Hand on America reveals that what the Founders always believed has been proven true: that America’s rise to prosperity and power, from the writing of the Constitution to the Civil War, unfolded according to a master plan. THE INSPIRATION FOR THE...

The Whitewashing of Christianity is informative, insightful, and inspirational, telling a history that's often hidden, ignored, revised, or unknown. Confrontational, but not combative, it details how the American church has helped create and maintain the false narrative that Christianity is a White man's religion and how it has presented almost every person in Scripture and most of Africa's theologians and martyrs as White men and women.

The Shroud of Turin is one of history's most controversial and perplexing relics. Many believe it to be the genuine burial shroud of Jesus Christ. Some hypothesize the image on the shroud was created through a rare scientific phenomenon. Still others think the shroud is a fake, proven through carbon tests in 1988 to be a clever forgery. In The Truth About the Shroud of Turin, reporter Robert K.Wilcox applies his investigative eye to this mysterious artifact.

Since its beginnings during the Protestant Reformation, Calvinism has spread throughout Europe and America and eventually to Africa and Asia. Today it is one of the largest schools of thought in Protestantism. In this Very Short Introduction, Jon Balserak explores how Calvinist ideas and practices arose, spread, and took root.

Does your knowledge of the Old Testament feel like a grab bag of people, books, events, and ideas? How many times have you resolved to really understand the OT? To finally make sense of it? Perhaps you are suffering from what Sandra Richter calls the "dysfunctional closet syndrome". If so, she has a solution. Like a home-organizing expert, she comes in and helps you straighten up your cluttered closet. Whether you are a frustrated do-it-yourselfer or a beginning student enrolled in a course, The Epic of Eden will organize your understanding of the Old Testament.

When the Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity in 368 AD, he changed the course of European history in ways that continue to have repercussions to the present day. Adopting those aspects of the religion that suited his purposes, he turned Rome on a course from the relatively open, tolerant, and pluralistic civilization of the Hellenistic world, towards a culture that was based on the rule of fixed authority, whether that of the Bible, or the writings of Ptolemy in astronomy and of Galen and Hippocrates in medicine. 

In this fascinating account of the surprisingly violent fifth-century church, Philip Jenkins describes how political maneuvers by a handful of powerful characters shaped Christian doctrine. Were it not for these battles, today's church could be teaching something very different about the nature of Jesus, and the papacy as we know it would never have come into existence. Jesus Wars reveals the profound implications of what amounts to an accident of history: that one faction of Roman emperors and militia-wielding bishops defeated another.

The Christian faith is a call to adventure. Be inspired by these thirty-two saints and give thanks for their faithful stories. Now go and do likewise where God has put you.

Have you ever wondered what Christ said to his disciples on the Emmaus road, making their hearts burn? Follow Ed Clowney through the Old Testament as he shows how all the Scriptures point to Christ. As you explore Old Testament characters and events, you'll be inspired by the many specific insights they give us into Jesus's character and lordship.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER From the bestselling author of How the Irish Saved Civilization comes a compelling historical narrative about Jesus—an obscure rabbi from a backwater of the Roman Empire who became the central figure in Western Civilization. "Divertingly instructive...gratifying...

Church historians have long known and appreciated Christianity's global history. Until recently, however, introductory textbooks on the history of Christianity focused almost exclusively on Europe and North America. Robert Bruce Mullins's A Short World History of Christianity, by contrast, offers a panoramic picture of the history of Christianity in its Western and non-Western expressions.

Gnosticism Explained: Ancient Secret Knowledge, The Gnostic Gospels, Dualism, Sophia, the Demiurge, and the Quest for Spiritual Awakening in Early Christianity What was Gnosticism, and why was it considered one of the most controversial movements in early Christian history? Gnosticism Explained takes readers deep into the hidden world of ancient secret knowledge, exploring the Gnostic gospels, the myth of Sophia, the mysterious Demiurge, and the radical idea that salvation comes through inner awakening rather than external authority. Drawing on historical research and the groundbreaking ...

“Jenkins is one of America’s top religious scholars.” —Forbes magazine The Lost History of Christianity by Philip Jenkins offers a revolutionary view of the history of the Christian church. Subtitled “The Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia—and...