Strange Gods
Strange Gods

Author: Susan Jacoby

Publisher: Vintage

Published: 2017-03-21

Total Pages: 514

ISBN-13: 1400096391

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In a groundbreaking historical work that focuses on the long, tense convergence of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam with an uncompromising secular perspective, Susan Jacoby illuminates the social and economic forces that have shaped individual faith and the voluntary conversion impulse that has changed the course of Western history—for better and for worse. Covering the triumph of Christianity over paganism in late antiquity, the Spanish Inquisition, John Calvin’s dour theocracy, American plantations where African slaves had to accept their masters’ religion—along with individual converts including Augustine of Hippo, John Donne, Edith Stein, Muhammad Ali, George W. Bush and Mike Pence—Strange Gods makes a powerful case that nothing has been more important in struggle for reason than the right to believe in the God of one’s choice or to reject belief in God altogether.

The Chronicle of Seert
The Chronicle of Seert

Author: Philip Wood

Publisher: Oxford University Press (UK)

Published: 2013-08-29

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 0199670676

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This book examines the cultural and political history of the Church of the East, the main Christian church in Iraq and Iran. Philip Wood uses medieval Arabic sources to examine history-writing by Christians in the fifth to ninth centuries AD.

A Book Forged in Hell
A Book Forged in Hell

Author: Steven Nadler

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2011-10-09

Total Pages: 299

ISBN-13: 069113989X

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When it appeared in 1670, Baruch Spinoza's Theological-Political Treatise was denounced as the most dangerous book ever published. Religious and secular authorities saw it as a threat to faith, social and political harmony, and everyday morality, and its author was almost universally regarded as a religious subversive and political radical who sought to spread atheism throughout Europe. Steven Nadler tells the story of this book: its radical claims and their background in the philosophical, religious, and political tensions of the Dutch Golden Age, as well as the vitriolic reaction these ideas inspired. A vivid story of incendiary ideas and vicious backlash, A Book Forged in Hell will interest anyone who is curious about the origin of some of our most cherished modern beliefs--Jacket p. [2].

Godless Citizens in a Godly Republic: Atheists in American Public Life
Godless Citizens in a Godly Republic: Atheists in American Public Life

Author: Isaac Kramnick

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 2018-08-21

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 0393254976

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“Illuminating.” —Phil Zuckerman, author of Living the Secular Life If the First Amendment protects the separation of church and state, why have atheists had to fight for their rights? In this valuable work, R. Laurence Moore and Isaac Kramnick reveal the fascinating history of atheism in America and the legal challenges to federal and state laws that made atheists second-class citizens.

The Godless Constitution
The Godless Constitution

Author: Isaac Kramnick

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 1997

Total Pages: 196

ISBN-13: 9780393315240

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The Godless Constitution is a ringing rebuke to the religious right's attempts, fueled by misguided and inaccurate interpretations of American history, to dismantle the wall between church and state erected by the country's founders. The authors, both distinguished scholars, revisit the historical roots of American religious freedom, paying particular attention to such figures as John Locke, Roger Williams, and especially Thomas Jefferson, and examine the controversies, up to the present day, over the proper place of religion in our political life. With a new chapter that explores the role of religion in the public life of George W. Bush's America, The Godless Constitution offers a bracing return to the first principles of American governance.

Chronicles
Chronicles

Author: Chris Given-Wilson

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 2004-01-01

Total Pages: 342

ISBN-13: 9781852853587

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The priorities of medieval chroniclers and historians were not those of the modern historian, nor was the way that they gathered, arranged and presented evidence. Yet if we understand how they approached their task, and their assumption of God's immanence in the world, much that they wrote becomes clear. Many of them were men of high intelligence whose interpretation of events sheds clear light on what happened. Christopher Given-Wilson is one of the leading authorities on medieval English historical writing. He examines how medieval writers such as Ranulf Higden and Adam Usk treated chronology and geography, politics and warfare, heroes and villains. He looks at the ways in which chronicles were used during the middle ages, and at how the writing of history changed between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries.

The Illuminated World Chronicle
The Illuminated World Chronicle

Author: Nina Rowe

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 2020-11-24

Total Pages: 221

ISBN-13: 0300247044

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A look into an enchanting, underexplored genre of illustrated manuscripts that reveals new insights into urban life in the Middle Ages In this innovative study, Nina Rowe examines a curious genre of illustrated book that gained popularity among the newly emergent middle class of late medieval cities. These illuminated World Chronicles, produced in the Bavarian and Austrian regions from around 1330 to 1430, were the popular histories of their day, telling tales from the Bible, ancient mythology, and the lives of emperors in animated, vernacular verse, enhanced by dynamic images. Rowe’s appraisal of these understudied books presents a rich world of storytelling modes, offering unprecedented insight into the non-noble social strata in a transformative epoch. Through a multidisciplinary approach, Rowe also shows how illuminated World Chronicles challenge the commonly held view of the Middle Ages as socially stagnant and homogeneously pious. Beautifully illustrated and backed by abundant and accessible analyses of social, economic, and political conditions, this book highlights the engaging character of secular literature during the late medieval era and the relationship of illustrated books to a socially diverse and vibrant urban sphere.