Harvard University Press - RELIGION

Christiad

Sun, 31 May 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Marco Girolamo Vida
Translated by James Gardner
Marco Girolamo Vida (1485–1566), humanist and bishop, came to prominence as a Latin poet in the Rome of Leo X and Clement VII. It was Leo who commissioned his famous epic, the Christiad, a retelling of the life of Christ in the style of Vergil, which was eventually published in 1535. This translation, accompanied by extensive notes, is based on a new edition of the Latin text.
Hardcover May 2009

Aimee Semple McPherson and the Resurrection of Christian America

Fri, 15 May 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Matthew Avery Sutton
Aimee Semple McPherson was the most flamboyant and controversial minister in the United States between the world wars, building a successful megachurch, a mass media empire, and eventually a political career to resurrect what she believed was America's Christian heritage. Sutton's definitive study reveals the woman as a trail-blazing pioneer, her life marking the beginning of Pentecostalism's advance to the mainstream of American culture.
Paperback May 2009

Arguing the Just War in Islam

Fri, 15 May 2009 00:00:00 EDT

John Kelsay
Jihad, with its many terrifying associations, is a term widely used today, though its meaning is poorly grasped. Kelsay's timely and important work focuses on jihad of the sword in Islamic thought, history, and culture. Making use of original sources, Kelsay delves into the tradition of shari'a--Islamic jurisprudence and reasoning--and shows how it defines jihad as the Islamic analogue of the Western "just" war.
Paperback May 2009

For Prophet and Tsar

Fri, 15 May 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Robert D. Crews
In stark contrast to the popular "clash of civilizations" theory that sees Islam inevitably in conflict with the West, Robert D. Crews reveals the remarkable ways in which Russia constructed an empire with broad Muslim support. For Prophet and Tsar unearths the fascinating relationship between an empire and its subjects. As America and Western Europe debate how best to secure the allegiances of their Muslim populations, Crews offers a unique and critical historical vantage point.
Paperback May 2009

To Serve God and Wal-Mart

Fri, 15 May 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Bethany Moreton
In the decades after World War II, evangelical Christianity nourished America’s devotion to free markets, free trade, and free enterprise. The history of Wal-Mart uncovers a complex network that united Sun Belt entrepreneurs, evangelical employees, Christian business students, overseas missionaries, and free-market activists. Through the stories of people linked by the world’s largest corporation, Bethany Moreton shows how a Christian service ethos powered capitalism at home and abroad.
Hardcover May 2009

Two Faiths, One Banner

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Ian Almond
When, in our turbulent day, we hear of a “clash of civilizations,” it’s easy to imagine an unbridgeable chasm between the Islamic world and Christendom stretching back through time. Two Faiths, One Banner shows how in Europe, Muslims and Christians were often comrades-in-arms, repeatedly forming alliances to wage war against their own faiths and peoples. This bold book reveals how the idea of a “Christian Europe” long opposed by a “Muslim non-Europe” grossly misrepresents the facts of a rich, complex, and—above all—shared history.
Hardcover April 2009

Monkey Trials and Gorilla Sermons

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Peter J. Bowler
Bowler doesn't minimize the hostility of many of the faithful toward evolution, but he reveals the less well-known existence of a long tradition within the churches that sought to reconcile Christian beliefs with evolution by finding reflections of the divine in scientific explanations for the origin of life. By tracing the historical forerunners of these rival Christian responses, Bowler provides a valuable alternative to accounts that stress only the escalating confrontation.
Paperback April 2009

Scribal Culture and the Making of the Hebrew Bible

Wed, 15 Apr 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Karel van der Toorn
The scribes of ancient Israel are indeed the main figures behind the Hebrew Bible, and this book tells their story for the first time. Drawing comparisons with the scribal practices of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, van der Toorn details the methods, assumptions, and material means that gave rise to biblical texts. Traditionally seen as the copycats of antiquity, the scribes emerge here as the literate elite who held the key to the production and the transmission of texts.
Paperback April 2009

A Brief Inquiry into the Meaning of Sin and Faith

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 00:00:00 EDT

John Rawls
Edited by Thomas Nagel
Introduction by Joshua Cohen
Introduction by Thomas Nagel
Commentary by Robert Merrihew Adams
John Rawls never published anything about his own religious beliefs, but after his death two texts were discovered which shed extraordinary light on the subject. A Brief Inquiry into the Meaning of Sin and Faith is Rawls’s undergraduate senior thesis, submitted in December 1942, just before he entered the army. The present volume includes these two texts, together with an Introduction by Joshua Cohen and Thomas Nagel, which discusses their relation to Rawls’s published work, and an essay by Robert Merrihew Adams, which places the thesis in its theological context.
Hardcover March 2009

Christianity and American Democracy

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Hugh Heclo
Foreword by Theda Skocpol
Christianity, not religion in general, has been important for American democracy. With this bold thesis, Heclo offers a panoramic view of how Christianity and democracy have shaped each other over the years, and how their relationship is changing in the present day. Responding to his challenging argument, Mary Jo Bane, Michael Kazin, and Alan Wolfe criticize, qualify, and amend it. The result is a lively debate about a momentous tension in American public life.
Paperback March 2009

Ecology and the Environment

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Edited by Donald K. Swearer
Foreword by Dan Schrag
In this slim volume, seven world-class scholars discuss the wide range of perspectives that the fields of literature, history, religion, philosophy, environmental ethics, and anthropology bring to the natural environment and our place in it. The book represents a continuation of the Center for the Study of World Religions’ highly regarded Religions of the World and Ecology series.
Paperback March 2009

Galileo Goes to Jail and Other Myths about Science and Religion

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Edited by Ronald L. Numbers
Ronald Numbers has recruited the leading scholars in this new history of science to puncture the myths, from Galileo’s incarceration to Darwin’s deathbed conversion to Einstein’s belief in a personal God who “didn’t play dice with the universe.” Each chapter in Galileo Goes to Jail shows how much we have to gain by seeing beyond the myths.
Hardcover March 2009

Greetings in the Lord

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 00:00:00 EDT

AnneMarie Luijendijk
This is the first book-length study on Christians in the ancient Egyptian city of Oxyrhynchus, the site where some of the most important and oldest fragments of early Christian books were unearthed. Bringing the people in these dry papyrus letters and documents back to life, the book reveals how diverse Christians lived in this city of diverse situations.
Paperback March 2009

Naming Infinity

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Loren Graham
Jean-Michel Kantor
In 1913, Russian imperial marines stormed an Orthodox monastery at Mt. Athos, Greece to haul off monks engaged in a dangerously heretical practice known as Name Worshipping. Loren Graham and Jean-Michel Kantor take us on an exciting mathematical mystery tour as they unravel a bizarre tale of political struggles, psychological crises, sexual complexities, and ethical dilemmas. The men and women of the leading French and Russian mathematical schools are central characters in this absorbing tale that could not be told until now. Naming Infinity is a poignant human interest story that raises provocative questions about science and religion, intuition and creativity.
Hardcover March 2009

The Sage Learning of Liu Zhi

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Sachiko Murata
William C. Chittick
Weiming Tu
Foreword by Seyyed Hossein Nasr
Liu Zhi (ca. 1670–1724) was one of the most important scholars of Islam in traditional China. His Tianfang xingli (Nature and Principle in Islam), the Chinese-language text translated here, focuses on the roots or principles of Islam. The copious annotations to the translation explain Liu’s text and draw attention to parallels in Chinese-, Arabic-, and Persian-language works as well as differences.
Hardcover March 2009

Stri

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Kevin McGrath
This book is a study of heroic femininity as it appears in the epic Mahabharata, and focuses particularly on the roles of wife, daughter-in-law, and mother, on how these women speak, and on the kinship groups and varying marital systems that surround them.
Paperback March 2009

Bhaviveka and His Buddhist Opponents

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Malcolm David Eckel
Bhaviveka (ca. 500–560 ce) lived at a time of unusual creativity and ferment in the history of Indian Buddhist philosophy. Bhaviveka’s “Verses on the Heart of the Middle Way” (Madhyamakahrdayakarika˙) with their commentary, known as “The Flame of Reason” (Tarkajvala), give a unique and authoritative account of the intellectual differences that stirred the Buddhist community in this creative period. Bhaviveka and His Buddhist Opponents gives a clear and accessible translation of Chapters 4 and 5 of this text: the chapters on the Sravakas, or eighteen schools, and the Yogacaras, Bhaviveka’s most important Mahayana opponents. The book also contains a critical edition of the Sanskrit text of Bhaviveka’s verses and the Tibetan translation of the verses and commentary.
Hardcover March 2009

The Teleology of Poetics in Medieval Kashmir

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Lawrence J. McCrea
This book examines the revolution in Sanskrit poetics initiated by the ninth-century Kashmiri Anandavardhana. Anandavardhana replaced the formalist aesthetic of earlier poeticians with one stressing the unifunctionality of literary texts, arguing that all components of a work should subserve a single purpose—the communication of a single emotional mood (rasa). Attention was redirected from formal elements toward specific poems, viewed as aesthetically integrated wholes, thereby creating new literary critical possibilities.
Hardcover March 2009

Everyday Jihad

Sat, 28 Feb 2009 00:00:00 EST

Bernard Rougier
Translated by Pascale Ghazaleh
As southern Lebanon becomes the latest battleground for Islamist warriors, Rougier plunges us into the heavily populated Palestinian refugee camp at Ain al-Helweh, which became a site for militant Sunni Islamists in the early 1990s. Rougier documents how Sunni fundamentalists, through their own interpretations of sacred texts and jihad, took root in this Palestinian milieu, and explains how radical religious allegiances overcome traditional nationalist sentiment in communities marked by poverty and despair.
Paperback February 2009

God's War

Sat, 28 Feb 2009 00:00:00 EST

Christopher Tyerman
The Crusades are perhaps both the most familiar and most misunderstood phenomena of the medieval world, and here Christopher Tyerman explores the centuries of violence committed in the name of religious devotion Tyerman uncovers a system of belief bound by paranoia and wishful thinking, and a culture founded on war as an expression of worship, social discipline, and Christian charity. Drawing on the most recent scholarship, and told with great authority, God's War is the definitive account of a fascinating story that continues to haunt our contemporary world.
Paperback February 2009

The Secret Revelation of John

Sat, 28 Feb 2009 00:00:00 EST

Karen L. King
Karen L. King offers an illuminating reading of this ancient text, said to be Christ's revelation to his disciple John. In her analysis, the Revelation becomes a comprehensible religious vision--and a window on the religious culture of the Roman Empire. A translation of the complete Secret Revelation of John is included.
Paperback February 2009

Charisma and Compassion

Sat, 31 Jan 2009 00:00:00 EST

C. Julia Huang
Tzu-Chi (Compassion Relief) began as a tiny, grassroots women's charitable group; today in Taiwan it runs three state-of-the-art hospitals, a television channel, and a university. Based on extensive fieldwork in Taiwan, Malaysia, Japan, and the United States, this book explores the transformation of Tzu-Chi.
Hardcover January 2009

The Islamic Marriage Contract

Sat, 31 Jan 2009 00:00:00 EST

Edited by Asifa Quraishi
Edited by Frank E. Vogel
It is often said that marriage in Islamic law is a civil contract, not a sacrament. This volume collects papers from many disciplines examining the Muslim marriage contract. Articles cover doctrines as to marriage contracts (e.g., may a wife stipulate monogamy?); historical instances; comparisons with Jewish and canon law; contemporary legal and social practice; and projects of activists for women worldwide.
Hardcover January 2009

The Clash Within

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 00:00:00 EST

Martha C. Nussbaum
While America is focused on religious militancy and terrorism in the Middle East, democracy has been under siege from religious extremism in another critical part of the world. As Nussbaum reveals in this penetrating look at India today, the forces of the Hindu right pose a disturbing threat to its democratic traditions and secular state. Nussbaum's long-standing professional relationship with India makes her an excellent guide to its recent history.
Paperback January 2009

Christianity and the Transformation of the Book

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 00:00:00 EST

Anthony Grafton
Megan Williams
Christianity and the Transformation of the Book combines broad-gauged synthesis and close textual analysis to reconstruct the kinds of books and the ways of organizing scholarly inquiry and collaboration among the Christians of Caesarea, on the coast of Roman Palestine. The book explores the dialectical relationship between intellectual history and the history of the book, even as it expands our understanding of early Christian scholarship.
Paperback December 2008

Deliverance and Submission

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 00:00:00 EST

Kelly H. Chong
South Korea is home to some of the largest evangelical Protestant congregations in the world. This book investigates the meaning of—and the reasons behind—a particular aspect of contemporary South Korean evangelicalism: the intense involvement of middle-class women. Drawing upon extensive ethnographic fieldwork in Seoul that explores the relevance of women’s experiences to Korean evangelicalism, Kelly H. Chong not only helps provide a broader picture of the evangelical movement’s success in South Korea, but addresses the global question of contemporary women's attraction to religious traditionalism.
Hardcover December 2008

Journey to the East

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 00:00:00 EST

Liam Matthew Brockey
It was one of the great encounters of world history: highly educated European priests confronting Chinese culture for the first time in the modern era. This “journey to the East” is explored by Brockey as he retraces the path of the Jesuit missionaries who sailed from Portugal to China.
Paperback December 2008

The Peculiar Life of Sundays

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 00:00:00 EST

Stephen Miller
From Augustine to Caesarius, through the Reformation and the Puritan flight from England, down through the ages to contemporary debates about Sunday worship, Miller explores the fascinating history of the Sabbath.
Hardcover December 2008

Tradition and Composition in the Epistula Apostolorum

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 00:00:00 EST

Julian V. Hills
In the first major study in English of the Epistle of the Apostles (Epistula Apostolorum), Julian V. Hills probes its remarkable witness to the traditions that circulated in Jesus' name in the second century. Hills tackles the document's literary framework, collecting and assessing signals to its composition. In detailed analyses of passages, Hills shows how older traditions were reshaped and interpreted according to the distinctive communal situation and theological vision of the author. This expanded edition of the out-of-print original, published in 1990, includes a new preface and bibliography.
Paperback December 2008

Beyond Essence

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 00:00:00 EST

Lori K. Pearson
This book demonstrates the intimate connection between Troeltsch's philosophical writings on the essence of Christianity and his historical investigations of Christianity's past. Pearson argues that as a result of his historical work, Troeltsch moved beyond the category of essence and sought new ways of theorizing Christian identity in the context of modernity's pluralistic yet fragmented society.
Paperback November 2008

Leaves from Paradise

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 00:00:00 EST

Edited by Jeffrey F. Hamburger
A pair of leaves recently acquired by Houghton Library presents an opportunity to examine the illuminated sequence composed in honor of John the Evangelist. The richly decorated fragments promise to transform our understanding of the special place of Christ’s “beloved disciple” in 14th-century art, liturgy, theology, and mysticism.
Paperback November 2008

Migration Miracle

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 00:00:00 EST

Jacqueline Maria Hagan
Migration Miracle humanizes the immigration controversy by exploring the harsh realities of the migrants’ desperate journeys. Drawing on over 300 interviews with men, women, and children, Hagan focuses on an unexplored dimension of the migration undertaking—the role of religion and faith in surviving the journey.
Hardcover November 2008

Seven Deadly Sins

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 00:00:00 EST

Aviad Kleinberg
Translated by Susan Emanuel
With intellectual insight and deadpan humor, Kleinberg deftly guides the reader through Jewish, Christian, and Greco-Roman thoughts on sin. Each chapter weaves the past into the present and examines unchanging human passions and the deep cultural shifts in the way we make sense of them.
Hardcover November 2008

Your Spirits Walk Beside Us

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:00:00 EST

Barbara Dianne Savage
Even before the emergence of the civil rights movement, African American religion and progressive politics were assumed to be inextricably intertwined. Savage counters this assumption with the story of a highly diversified religious community whose debates over engagement in the struggle for racial equality were as vigorous as they were persistent.
Hardcover November 2008

An Updated Vedic Concordance

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Edited by Marco Franceschini
After one hundred years, the well-known Vedic Concordance of Maurice Bloomfield has finally been updated. The first edition, published in 1906, was a complete alphabetic index of all Vedic mantras then known. Several important texts belonging to the oldest stratum of Indian literature have been published since and are included in this new edition.
October 2008

Out of the Whirlwind

Wed, 1 Oct 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Kathryn Schifferdecker
The book of Job is a complex treatment of the problem of undeserved suffering. It is also a sustained meditation on creation, on humanity's place in creation, and on God's ordering of creation. In this study, Schifferdecker offers a close literary and theological reading of the book of Job--particularly of God's speeches at the end of the book--in order to articulate its creation theology, which is particularly pertinent in our environmentally-conscious age.
Paperback October 2008

Practitioners of the Divine

Wed, 1 Oct 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Beate Dignas
Kai Trampedach
“What is a Greek priest?” The volume, which has its origins in a symposium held at the Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington, D.C., focuses on the question through a variety of lenses: the visual representation of cult personnel, priests as ritual experts, variations of priesthood, ideal concepts and their transformation, and the role of manteis.
Paperback October 2008

On the Donation of Constantine

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Lorenzo Valla
Translated by G. W. Bowersock
Valla (1407–1457) was the leading theorist of the Renaissance humanist movement. In On the Donation of Constantine he uses new philological methods to attack the authenticity of the most important document justifying the papacy’s claims to temporal rule, in a brilliant analysis that is often seen as marking the beginning of modern textual criticism. This volume provides a new translation with introduction and notes by Bowersock.
Paperback September 2008

The Power of the Buddhas

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Sem Vermeersch
Buddhism in medieval Korea is characterized as “State Protection Buddhism,” a religion whose primary purpose was to rally support (supernatural and popular) for and legitimate the state. This study is an attempt to specify Buddhism’s place in Koryo and to ascertain to what extent and in what areas Buddhism functioned as a state religion.
Hardcover September 2008

Spiritual Wayfarers, Leaders in Piety

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Daphna Ephrat
This book represents the first continuous history of Sufism in Palestine. Covering the period between the rise of Islam and the spread of Ottoman rule and drawing on vast biographical material and complementary evidence, the book describes the social trajectory that Sufism followed.
Paperback September 2008

What Happened at Vatican II

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EDT

John W. O'Malley
During four years in session, Vatican Council II held television audiences rapt with its elegant, magnificently choreographed public ceremonies, while its debates generated front-page news on a near-weekly basis. This book captures the drama of the council, depicting the colorful characters involved and their clashes with one another.
Hardcover September 2008

Dreaming Across Boundaries

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Edited by Louise Marlow
This volume explores the context of theological speculations and political aspirations through the medium of dreams to present fascinating insights into the social history of the pre-modern Islamic world in all its cultural diversity. Wider cultural exchanges are discussed through concrete examples such as the Arabic version of the Aristotelian treatise De divinatione per somnum, and some of the current scholarly assumptions about dreams are challenged by personal reports that express individual personalities, self-awareness, and spiritual development.
Hardcover / Paperback July 2008