Showing titles in History

Did Columbus believe that God called him west to undiscovered lands? Does American democracy owe its inception to the handful of Pilgrims that settled at Plymouth? If, indeed, there was a specific, divine call upon this nation, is it still valid today?

In American Gospel (literally meaning the "good news about America"), New York Times best-selling author Jon Meacham sets the record straight on the history of religion in American public life. As Meacham shows, faith, meaning a belief in a higher power, and the sense that we are God's chosen, has always been at the heart of our national experience, from Jamestown to the Constitutional Convention to the Civil Rights Movement to September 11th.

The Gnostic Gospels provides engaging listening for those seeking a broader perspective on the early development of Christianity. Author and noted scholar Elaine Pagels suggests that Christianity could have developed quite differently if Gnostic texts had become part of the Christian canon.

Keene believes there is no God. Jane Delaney knows differently, and when the famous opera singer plows into her car, God provides her with the opportunity to share her faith with the great Keene Moray. As his new personal assistant, she knows she can make the most of her proximity and perhaps prove Keene's atheism wrong.

It was the splendor and the scandal of the age. In 1506, the ferociously ambitious Renaissance Pope Julius II tore down the most sacred shrine in Europe, the millennium-old St. Peter's Basilica built by the Emperor Constantine over the apostle's grave, to build a better basilica.

Is an intimate experience of the Divine meant only for saints and mystics? Ask Tessa Bielecki, a former Carmelite nun and abbess of a monastic community, and the answer is an emphatic no. "Mystical experience is as natural to us as breathing," she explains. "It erupts spontaneously and graciously when we live on the spot and savor the real." Wild at Heart presents her call to you, the ordinary seeker, to have a loving realization of God, which is your divine birthright.

Lost for nearly 1,700 years, newly restored and authenticated, the Gospel of Judas presents a very different view of the relationship between Jesus and Judas. Rather than paint Judas as a traitor, it portrays him as acting at Jesus' request.

G. K. Chesterton was a journalist, playwright, poet, biographer, novelist, essayist, literary commentator, editor, orator, artist, and theologian. Orthodoxy is his great apologia for the Christian faith, which was prompted by a serious attack in 1903 against Christianity by well-known newspaper editor Robert Blatchford.

With subtlety and exceptional sensitivity, historian Zoë Oldenbourg analyzes the complicated tangle of currents and ideas that motivated the Crusades. As Oldenbourg describes them, the Crusades were not simply a religious phenomenon, nor were they motivated by pure aggression. They were the result of a religious climate that led people of all walks of life to leave their homes and follow the unattainable ideal of heaven on earth.

Malcolm Muggeridge contends that Christendom is quite different from Christianity. Christ said, "My kingdom is very much a part of this world, and thus subject to decay and eventual ruin." In this book, Muggeridge explores the prevailing downfall of Christendom. However, contrary to our natural impulse to mourn this, Muggeridge makes a cogent and convincing argument that now is a time to rejoice.

Two celebrated scholars illustrate how the newly discovered Gospel of Judas provides a window into understanding how Jesus' followers understood his death, why Judas betrayed Jesus, and why God allowed it. Presented with the elegance, insight, and accessibility that has made Pagels and King the leading voices in this field, this is a book for academics and popular audiences alike.

The Gospel According to Judas, by Benjamin Iscariot, sheds new light on the mystery of Judas (including his motives for the betrayal and what happened to him after the crucifixion) by retelling the story of Jesus through the eyes of Judas, using the canonical texts as its basic point of reference. Ostensibly written by Judas' son, Benjamin, and following the narrative style of the Gospels, this re-creation is provocative, compelling, and controversial.

Fritz Mauthner hat in seinem vierbändigem Opus "Magnum der Atheismus und seine Geschichte im Abendlande (1920-1923)" auch einen historisch-philosophischen Überblick zur Kulturgeschichte des Teufels bis in das 19. Jahrhundert nachgezeichnet.

Luther ist allen bekannt und in aller Munde, aber deshalb ist er uns keineswegs mit dem vollen Bilde seines Wesens und Wirkens gegenwärtig. Nicht nur haftet meist der Blick zu ausschließlich an der religiösen Bewegung, die von ihm ausging, auch wird nicht genügend anerkannt, daß die Erneuerung der Religion ihre einzigartige Kraft und Wucht aus dem Ganzen eines eigentümlichen Lebens schöpfte, das in jenem Manne hervorbrach, und das in der Religion wohl seinen Höhepunkt fand...

World-renowned pollster George Barna has the numbers, and they indicate a revolution is already taking place within the Church: one that will impact every believer in America. Committed, born-again Christians are exiting the established church in massive numbers. Why are they leaving? Where are they going? And what does this mean for the future of the Church?

Is Christianity obsolete? Can an intelligent, educated person really believe the Bible? Or do the atheists have it right? In his new book, best-selling author Dinesh D'Souza ( What's So Great about America) investigates both Christianity and atheism and their influences on culture to show why there is, indeed, something great about Christianity.

In December 1929, in a cave near Peking, a group of anthropologists and archaeologists that included a young French Jesuit priest named Pierre Teilhard de Chardin uncovered a prehuman skull. The find quickly became known around the world as Peking Man and was acclaimed as the missing link between erect hunting apes and our Cro-Magnon ancestors. It also became a provocative piece of evidence in the roiling debate over creationism versus evolution.

The remarkable response of the Amish Community to the horrific shooting of 10 schoolgirls at Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania in October 2006 stunned the larger world. Amish Grace tells the incredible story of this community's reaction to the senseless shooting and explores its profoundly countercultural practice of forgiveness.

Written between A.D. 413 and 426, The City of God is one of the great cornerstones in the history of Christian thought, a book which is vital to the understanding of modern Western society. Augustine originally intended it to be an apology for Christianity against the accusation that the Church was responsible for the decline of the Roman Empire, which had occurred just three years earlier. Indeed, Augustine produced a great amount of evidence to prove that paganism was responsible for this event. However, by the time the work was finished, the book had taken on a larger theme.

It is the same old story of the struggle between the old and the new. This tale, portrayed in the dark detail of the eighth-century, tells of old foresters, who desire to cling to the past, and a bright, young Christian who comes to teach them about the birth of Christ.