Throughout history, scientific discovery has clashed with religious dogma, creating conflict, controversy, and sometimes violent dispute. In this enlightening and accessible volume, distinguished historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edward Lar...

When the Gospel writings were first produced, Christian thinking was already cognizant of its relationship to ancient memorial cultures and history-writing traditions. Yet, little has been written about exactly what shaped the development of early Ch...

Social media has dominated the discourse surrounding recent events in the Muslim world – from the seismic events of the Arab Spring and its aftermath, to ISIS's slick online recruitment and digitally documented campaign of terror, to the ongoing civi...

Western intellectuals have long theorized that religion would undergo a process of marginalization and decline as the forces of modernity advanced. Yet recent events have disrupted this seductively straightforward story. As a result, while it is clea...

Considered by Muslims as the only true art, calligraphy has played a prominent role in Islamic culture since the time of the prophet Muhammad. Exploring this central role of the written word in Islam and how writing practices have evolved and adapted...

With tremendous speed, the Islamic State has moved from the margins to the center of life in the Middle East. Despite recent setbacks, its ability to conquer and retain huge swaths of territory has demonstrated its skillful tactical maneuvering, ambi...

A fascinating new study of the symbolic power of food and its role in forming kinship bonds and religious identity in early Christianity. Scholar of religion John Penniman considers the symbolic importance of food in the early Roman world in an enga...

Riveting and eloquent, the collected writings of a key figure – and one of the first female leaders – of the eighteenth-century evangelical movement. Sarah Osborn (1714–1796) was one of the most charismatic female religious leaders of her time and o...

For curious readers young and old, a rich and colorful history of religion from humanity's earliest days to our own contentious times In an era of hardening religious attitudes and explosive religious violence, this book offers a welcome antidote. Ri...

Essential primary sources reveal the central tensions between American politics and religion throughout the nation's history. Despite the centrality of separation of church and state in American government, religion has played an important role in t...