This brief introduction to Christianity is designed to help readers understand this important religious tradition. With both nuance and balance, this text provides broad coverage of various forms of Christianity with an arresting layout with rich colors. It offers both historical overviews and modern perspectives on Christian beliefs and practices. The user-friendly content is enhanced by charts of religious festivals, historic timelines, updated maps, and a useful glossary. It is ideal for courses on Christianity and will be a useful, concise reference for all readers eager to know more about this important religious tradition and its place in our contemporary world.

Written from an objective historical perspective, A New History of Christianity provides the best readable yet scholarly one-volume account of Christianity from its origins to the present day.Chapters cover Christian beginnings, the growth of the early Christian communities, the character of the medieval Church, popular religion, the Protestant Reformation, the Catholic Reformation, the early modern Church, the Church in the nineteenth century, the Church in war and peace, and the crisis of the modern Church>

The philosophy of Albert Schweitzer has proved widely influential in modern thinking, especially in the field of ethics. His leading ethical idea can be summarized in the phrase "reverence for life" - namely, that good consists in maintaining and perfecting life, and evil consists in destroying and obstructing life. For Schweitzer, all life is sacred. Ethics thus deals with human attitudes and behavior toward all living beings. Unlike many moral philosophers, Schweitzer argues that knowledge of human nature does not provide a sufficient foundation for any adequate moral theory. That is why he bases his ethics on much broader foundations, articulated in his philosophy of civilization and the philosophy of religion. Schweitzer argues that the material aspect of our civilization has become far more important than its spiritual counterpart. Even organized religion has put itself in the service of politics and economy, thereby losing its vitality and moral authority. Schweitzer's ethics of reverence for life, argues Predrag Cicovacki, offers a viable alternative at a time when traditional ethical theories are found inadequate. Schweitzer's robust and un-dogmatic idealism may offer the best antidote to the prevailing relativism and nihilism of the postmodern epoch. His ethical vision directs us toward a new way of building a more just and more peaceful world. Collecting sixteen of Schweitzer's most effective essays, this volume serves as a compelling introduction to this remarkable thinker and humanist.

Showing Lawrence's familiarity with biblical typology from both written and visual sources, Virginia Hyde explores its many ironic and paradoxical versions in his works. She demonstrates his use of typological precursors of Christ, such as Adam and David, Moses and Aaron, and his development of a coherent cosmology centered on the cross and the Tree of Life. These features often take on radically revisionist meanings when informed by Lawrence's interests in theosophy and occult lore. Hyde fully recognized Lawrence's intensely dynamic style and examines the ways in which he works creatively with his models. Hyde sheds new light on Lawrence's &"leadership&" views, linking them to patriarchal assumptions inherent in biblical typology. She utilizes manuscripts and sketches as well as his traditional works to show that a complex form of biblical symbolism affects both his form and content in unexpected ways. His symbols are often traceable to iconographic models with typological significance. The Risen Adam includes pioneering treatments of the first Quetzalcoatl, the 1923 version of The Plumed Serpent, so different in part from the final novel as to form a separate creative effort. Hyde also offers provocative new readings of The Rainbow, Women in Love, Aaron's Rod, &"The Border Line,&" The Plumed Serpent, David, The Man Who Died, Birds, Beasts and Flowers, and other works. The book is illustrated with artwork by Lawrence and with examples of the medieval and other iconography he knew.