Dialogue with the Other" expresses David Tracy's ongoing interest in the other and The Other. His reflections enter into dialogue with figures as diverse as Meister Eckhart and William James and traditions as different as those of Buddhism, Christianity and Judaism. David Tracy is Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago. He is Professor of Theology at the Chicago Divinity School and Professor in the Committee on the Analysis of Ideas and Methods. Among his better known are "Blessed Rage for Order" (1975), "The Analogical Imagination" (1981), and "Plurality and Ambiguity" (1987)

The influential scholar of religion Mircea Eliade envisioned a spiritually destitute modern culture coming into renewed meaning through the recovery of archetypal myths and symbols. Eliade defined this restoration of meaning as a "new humanism" of existential meaning and cultural-religious unity. Through a biographical exegesis of Eliade's life and writings from his earliest years in Romania to his final ones as professor of the history of religions at the University of Chicago, Cave sets forward a structural description of what this "new humanism" might have meant for Eliade, and what it signifies for modern culture. Cave concludes by endorsing Eliade's radically pluralistic vision which, he argues, offers a key to the revitalization of our demythologized and material culture. This study repositions previous Eliadean studies and places the "new humanism" as the paradigm in relation to which future readings of Eliade should be evaluated.

This unique, comprehensive work tackles questions posed by the polemics of the Church Fathers against the Roman theater and explores the subsequent developments of Western liturgical drama as a continuation of the Roman theater up to the time of Amalarius of Metz in the ninth century.

Traditional histories of North and South America often leave the impression that Native American peoples had little impact on the colonies and empires established by Europeans after 1492. This groundbreaking study, which spans more than 300 years, demonstrates the agency of indigenous peoples in forging their own history and that of the Western Hemisphere. By putting the story of the indigenous peoples and their encounters with Europeans at the center, a new history of the "New World" emerges in which the Native Americans become vibrant and vitally important components of the British, French, Spanish, and Portuguese empires. In fact, their presence was the single most important factor in the development of the colonial world. By discussing the "great encounter" of peoples and cultures, this book provides a valuable, new perspective on the history of the Americas.

A landmark contribution to women's history that sheds new light on the Salem witch trials and one of its most crucial participants, Tituba of The Crucible In this important book, Elaine Breslaw claims to have rediscovered Tituba, the elusive, mysterious, and often mythologized Indian woman accused of witchcraft in Salem in 1692 and immortalized in Arthur Miller's The Crucible. Reconstructing the life of the slave woman at the center of the notorious Salem witch trials, the book follows Tituba from her likely origins in South America to Barbados, forcefully dispelling the commonly-held belief that Tituba was African. The uniquely multicultural nature of life on a seventeenth-century Barbadan sugar plantation—defined by a mixture of English, American Indian, and African ways and folklore—indelibly shaped the young Tituba's world and the mental images she brought with her to Massachusetts. Breslaw divides Tituba’s story into two parts. The first focuses on Tituba's roots in Barbados, the second on her life in the New World. The author emphasizes the inextricably linked worlds of the Caribbean and the North American colonies, illustrating how the Puritan worldview was influenced by its perception of possessed Indians. Breslaw argues that Tituba’s confession to practicing witchcraft clearly reveals her savvy and determined efforts to protect herself by actively manipulating Puritan fears. This confession, perceived as evidence of a diabolical conspiracy, was the central agent in the cataclysmic series of events that saw 19 people executed and over 150 imprisoned, including a young girl of 5. A landmark contribution to women's history and early American history, Tituba, Reluctant Witch of Salem sheds new light on one of the most painful episodes in American history, through the eyes of its most crucial participant.

The sources, content and fate of the 15th-century allegorical fable Visión Deleytable are examined from three angles: as a medieval compendium of religious philosophy, as a major influence in Spanish literature, and as an invaluable historical source on Jewish-Christian interactions in medieval Spain. The volume is divided into three sections. The first part considers Visión's didacticism within the Jewish and Christian frames of education in 15th-century Spain. The second part includes a review of Visión's philosophical content as a comprehensive articulation of a rationalist Weltanschauung. The final section traces its intriguing editorial fate and literary influence through the 17th century in Spain, Italy and the Netherlands. It is Visión's first systematic study from the dual perspective of a Hispanist and a Hebraist.