Philip Schaff’s classic work colloquially known as The Early Church Fathers is an invaluable resource filled with the primary documents and early theological building blocks for the Christian church. Comprised of thirty-eight volumes, it is broken into three parts: the Ante-Nicene Fathers, and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First and Second Series.

This eighth volume includes five treatises meant to promote a good conscience before God. A Discourse of Conscience establishes a framework for understanding the importance of conscience and how it functions. The Whole Treatise of the Cases of Conscience is an extensive treatment of casuistry that treats man in his three principle conditions (by himself, in relation to God, and in relation to others). A Treatise Tending unto a Declaration whether a Man Is in the Estate of Damnation or in the Estate of Grace distinguishes between true and false professors, demonstrates how Roman Catholicism falls short of assurance, and highlights the devil’s attempts to sully the consciences of God’s people. A Case of Conscience gives full attention to the importance of personal assurance of salvation. A Grain of Mustard Seed provides consolation to weak Christians by encouraging them to recognize and grow in gratitude for the grace they have. There is much in the present volume to commend to the reader, but what clearly stands out is Perkins’s skill as a spiritual adviser.

Renowned Reformation scholar Timothy J. Wengert explores the genesis of Lutheran biblical interpretation by tracing the early work of Martin Luther, Melanchthon, and other Wittenberg exegetes. Their new approach led them to view Scripture in terms of "law and gospel," to read and translate the Greek and Hebrew text, and to focus on a theology of the cross and justification by faith. Luther and his colleagues found God working in the last place anyone would reasonably look: on the cross, in weakness and foolishness. Wengert demonstrates how these key historical and theological perspectives can be demonstrated in preaching, reflection, and teaching today. Using brief examples of preaching The Seven Last Word of Christ and reflecting on Luther’s work on a variety of Psalms, the author provides a path for students and pastors alike to plumb the depth of Lutheran hermeneutics in their preaching and teaching.

This first full-scale study of the Evil Eye in the Bible and the biblical communities has traced in four volumes evidence of Evil Eye belief and practice in the ancient world from Mesopotamia (c. 3000 BCE) to Late Roman Antiquity (c. 600 CE). The fourth and final volume considers the literary and material evidence of the unabated thriving of Evil Eye belief and practice in Israel following the destruction of the Jerusalem temple in 70 CE (chapter 1) and in early Christianity (chapter 2) through Late Antiquity (500-600 CE), with a brief reference to Evil Eye lore in early Islam. Numerous cross-references relate the subject matter of this volume to that of the previous three. A concluding Epilogue (chapter 3) offers some final thoughts on this survey of Evil Eye belief and practice in antiquity and their role in conceptualizing and combatting the pernicious forces of evil in daily life. Beside presenting the first full-scale monograph on the Evil Eye in the Bible and the biblical communities (volumes 3 and 4), the volumes summarize a century of research since the milestone two-volume study of Siegfried Seligmann, Der bose Blick und Verwandtes (1910), and they describe the ecological, historical, social, and cultural contexts within which the biblical texts are best understood. Throughout the study, the Evil Eye in antiquity is treated not as an instance of vulgar superstition or deluded magic, but as a physiological, psychological, and moral phenomenon whose operation was deemed explicable on rational grounds.

Giovanni Boccaccio is one of the most influential writers in the Western tradition, yet his first literary work, "Diana's Hunt," has never been translated into English, and the Italian text has long been out of print. Anthony Cassell and Victoria Kirkham redeem Boccaccio's early effort in this dual-language edition, with an extensive introduction and commentary, that goes far beyond assuring its accessibility. The plot of "Diana's Hunt" is simple enough: the narrator observes the goddess Diana convening a band of Neapolitan court ladies to hunt in a wood. After slaying an impressive number of beasts, the huntresses are incited to rebellion against Diana by the fairest of their number. They invoke the goddess Venus, who transforms the beasts into young men ready to be faithful to her. As a final twist, the narrator himself, who we now learn was actually a stag all along, undergoes a similar transformation and is offered to the fairest lady. Cassell and Kirkham have edited the Italian text of "La Caccia di Diana," drawing from the six extant manuscripts of the original work. Their critical interpretation of the poem redefines the ground on which we evaluate the merits of "Diana's Hunt" and points to ways in which it looks forward to Boccaccio's later work. The poem emerges as an allegory of the struggle in the soul before Christian baptism and entrance into the active life of virtue. This theme will be central in the early fictions, such as the Filocolo and Ameto, and will be parodied and reversed in the later Elegy of Madonna Fiammetta and Corbaccio. The editors offer a readable translation, extensive notes, and a glossary of female historical characters that will prove invaluable to students and scholars of medieval and Renaissance literature, women's studies, and art history.

Seng-Kong Tan argues that human participation in the divinea classical theological axiom most notably associated with the Eastern Orthodox traditionis a central theme in the theology of Jonathan Edwards. This notion, Tan contends, is a defining motif for the entire systematic sweep of Edwardss theology, and it serves to focus and determine the contours of Edwards's thought. Fullness Received and Returned situates Edwards's theology within the folds of the classical theological tradition, while arguing that Edwards's is a unique and creative form of Reformed theology.