Medjugorje Revisited: 30 Years of Visions or Religious Fraud? investigates the alleged visions of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Medjugorje, looking at their origins, and their impact on the Catholic Church. It is an expanded, revised and updated version of Understanding Medjugorje, which was published in 2006. Since then there have been important new developments, including the formation of an International Commission to investigate the alleged visions. Millions of people have visited Medjugorje, even though it has received no official Church approval. Medjugorje Revisited focuses on the transcripts of the original tapes of the visionaries made in June 1981, and the credibility of the visions and the visionaries, demonstrating the serious problems involved in accepting Medjugorje as genuine. It also examines the role of theologians, and the Hercegovina Franciscans, in promoting Medjugorje, and its tangled historical and religious background, as well as its links with the Charismatic Renewal, In sum, it examines all the relevant evidence about Medjugorje, and concludes that, despite some "good fruits," it bears all the hallmarks of a vast religious fraud.

In June 1981, six young Croatians in the village of Medjugorje, in the former Yugoslavia, reported that the Virgin Mary had appeared to them. The Medjugorje visionaries say that Mary has returned every day since then, bringing them important messages from heaven to convey to the world. Throughout history, people have reported encountering extraordinary religious experiences-apparitions of the Virgin Mary, visions of Jesus Christ, weeping statues and icons, the stigmata, physical healings and miracles, and experiences of the afterlife-and interpreted them as supernatural in origin. Scholars have often tried to reinterpret such experiences, including those described by the great mystics like Francis of Assisi, Catherine of Siena, and Teresa of Avila, into natural or psychopathological categories, such as hysteria, hallucination, delusion, epileptic seizures, psychosis, the workings of the unconscious mind, or fraud. Are such reductionist explanations valid? Over the past three decades the Medjugorje visionaries have been subjected to extensive medical, psychological, and scientific examination, even while undergoing their visionary experiences. Daniel Klimek argues that the case of Medjugorje affords a rare opportunity to understand a deeper dimension of extraordinary religious phenomena. Presenting and analyzing the scientific studies on the visionaries in juxtaposition with the major scholars and debates surrounding religious experience, Klimek concludes that a multidisciplinary approach grants a more holistic and deeper understanding of such extraordinary religious experiences.

Understanding Medjugorje is an in-depth investigation into some of the most surprising, but also most influential, spiritual phenomena to have affected modern Catholicism. Millions of people have visited the site of the alleged visions of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Medjugorje, despite the fact that they have received no official Church approval. Understanding Medjugorje will help readers to understand how important Church figures, including Pope John Paul II and Cardinal Ratzinger-now Pope Benedict XVI-have actually viewed Medjugorje. It also looks at the role of influential priests and theologians in promoting Medjugorje, and the tangled historical and religious background to the visions. Similarly, it deals with the links between the visions, the Charismatic Renewal, and the worldwide Medjugorje movement, as well as looking at how Medjugorje compares with Fatima, and what the successive local bishops of Mostar have said about it. The degree of trustworthiness of the visions and the visionaries is also assessed, as is the real significance of the Medjugorje "good fruits," and the reasons why it has been so incredibly popular.

Medjugorje Complete: The Definitive Account of the Visions and Visionaries looks at the alleged visions of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Medjugorje, their origins, and their impact on the Catholic Church. It is an expanded, revised, and updated version of two previous works, Understanding Medjugorje and Medjugorje Revisited, published in 2006 and 2011 respectively. Medjugorje Complete focuses on the transcripts of the original tapes of the visionaries made in June 1981. It also looks at the credibility of the visions and the visionaries, demonstrating serious problems in accepting Medjugorje as genuine. It also examines the role of theologians and the Hercegovina Franciscans in promoting Medjugorje, and its tangled historical and religious background, as well as its links with the Charismatic Renewal. In sum, it examines all the relevant evidence about Medjugorje, and concludes that, despite some "good fruits," it does not appear to be genuinely supernatural. If you want to know the truth about Medjugorje, then-forty years after the story began-Medjugorje Complete offers the definitive account.

Spanning over 2,000 years, this study looks at the complex relationship between Jewish and Catholic thought from a social and historical perspective. Examining different significant moments for both religions throughout the centuries, this book analyzes and explains the conflicts that have arisen between the two religions since their beginnings.