Compares early Christian beliefs about God with the religious beliefs of others in the Roman Empire and traces the development of Christian theology

As A Million and One Gods shows, polytheism is considered a scandalous presence in societies oriented to Jewish, Christian, and Muslim beliefs. Yet it persists, even in the West, perhaps because polytheism corresponds to unconscious needs and deeply held values of tolerance, diversity, and equality that are central to civilized societies.

While most continents float freely on the face of Mother Sea, the Land of Dhrall survives anchored by the will of the Gods. All Gods, Elder and Younger, share the people and the land of Dhrall equally. But the one place they never enter is The Wasteland: a barren and hideous wilderness ruled by the Vlagh--a god-like creature whose young are evil spawn. Now, as the Elder Gods are about to transfer their power to the Younger Gods, the Vlagh plans to take advantage of their weakened state and neutralize them, eventually conquering the world. To do so, it is breeding a terrible force borne of monsters and demons. But one ray of hope shines through the darkness: four children called the Dreamers. They alone hold the power to change the course of history...and stop the Vlagh in its quest for total world domination.

"ONE GODS: The Mystic Pagan's Guide to the Bible" is a shamanic exploration of the Bible's great journeys, struggles, quests, heroes, and heroines. Janet Rudolph's ground-breaking book is an extra-ordinary look at Biblical mysticism and mystery. In her telling, it was Eve's birthright to eat the fruit from the Tree of Life for it bears her name - Eve in Hebrew means life. Drawing on spiritual forensics, she traces the footsteps of legends such as Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Jacob and Moses across cultures and time. The enigmas of healing serpents, burning bushes, heavenly ladders and more are traced from the ancient mystery schools of Egypt and MesoAmerica to the standing stones of the Celts and beyond. The Bible is represented as a dynamic, living document, guiding the reader in a quest to discover personal answers to age-old questions: Who am I? What is my personal relationship to divinity? Why am I alive? Why will I die? Unveiling new revelations on the Bible's earliest teachings, "ONE GODS" provides inspiration and knowledge as well as concrete tools for readers to embark upon, add a touch of magic to and deepen their own spiritual journeys.

Epic poets of the Renaissance looked to emulate the poems of Greco-Roman antiquity, but doing so presented a dilemma: what to do about the gods? Divine intervention plays a major part in the epics of Homer and Virgil—indeed, quarrels within the family of Olympian gods are essential to the narrative structure of those poems—yet poets of the Renaissance recognized that the cantankerous Olympians could not be imitated too closely. The divine action of their classical models had to be transformed to accord with contemporary tastes and Christian belief. From Many Gods to One offers the first comparative study of poetic approaches to the problem of epic divine action. Through readings of Petrarch, Vida, Ariosto, Tasso, and Milton, Tobias Gregorydescribes the narrative and ideological consequences of the epic’s turn from pagan to Christian. Drawing on scholarship in several disciplines—religious studies, classics, history, and philosophy, as well as literature—From Many Gods to One sheds new light on two subjects of enduring importance in Renaissance studies: the precarious balance between classical literary models and Christian religious norms and the role of religion in drawing lines between allies and others.

In the follow-up to the gay romance bestseller The Lord Won’t Mind, Peter and Charlie’s marriage is put to the test when a young Frenchman enters their lives After a decade together in a steady, happy relationship, a trip to the sun-baked Mediterranean is exactly what Peter and Charlie need. Peter, now an art dealer, and Charlie, an artist, travel to the Riviera to attend to some business. However, once there, they meet a man who pushes their fidelity to the breaking point—and past it. In this, the second novel of the bestselling Peter & Charlie Trilogy, Gordon Merrick picks up with the couple’s lives a few years after The Lord Won’t Mind and in smart and scintillating fashion explores the ways the years can twist and warp a relationship. When their trip continues on a yacht through the Greek islands, Peter creates what he hopes is a good plan to mend their cracked bond, but instead may have created something that will rip them apart forever.

Evolution.