The earliest Christian writings are filled with stories of possession and exorcism, which were crucial for the activity of the historical Jesus and for the practice of his earliest followers. Possession, besides being a harmful event that should be e...

Did the early Christians believe their myths? Like most ancient – and modern – people, early Christians made efforts to present their myths in the most believable ways. In this eye-opening work, M. David Litwa explores how and why what later became...

Human trauma gave birth to the Bible, suggests eminent religious scholar David Carr. The Bible's ability to speak to suffering is a major reason why the sacred texts of Judaism and Christianity have retained their relevance for thousands of years. In...

Centuries on, what the Reformation was and what it accomplished remain deeply contentious. Peter Marshall's sweeping new history – the first major overview for general readers in a generation – argues that sixteenth-century England was a society neit...

When the King James translation of the Bible was first published in 1611, it was the first time that many people throughout the English-speaking world were able to read the Old and New Testaments in their native tongue. The majestic scope and poetry...

A fascinating, vivid, and on-the-ground account of Russian Orthodoxy's resurgence. A bold experiment is taking place in Russia. After a century of being scarred by militant, atheistic communism, the Orthodox Church has become Russia's largest and mo...

At the turn of the fifteenth century, private devotionals became a speciality of the renowned Ghent-Bruges illuminators. Wealthy patrons who commissioned work from these artists often spared no expense in the presentation of their personal prayer boo...

Drawing on cutting-edge historical and archaeological research, author Michael Satlow provides a grand, sweeping exploration of the true origins of the Holy Bible. Originally cobbled together from a diverse assortment of ancient Middle Eastern texts...

Relics affected everyone in medieval society. Saintly morsels such as bones, hair, teeth, and clothes, and items like the Crown of Thorns, coveted by Louis IX of France, were thought to bring the believer closer to the saint who might intercede with...

The book of "Habakkuk" (one of the twelve Minor Prophets) is an intensely personal testimony played out against a highly political backdrop. Writing as his land and his fellow Israelites were being invaded and plundered by the Chaldeans, "Habakkuk" q...