Christianity is a way of life centered on the person, life, teaching, death, and resurrection of Jesus the Christ. As a religious way of life, Christianity is multifaceted, involving numerous beliefs and practices. This book explores many of the varied facets of the Christian faith, including its foundations in the story of Israel, the person of Jesus, the early Christian community, and the sacred text called the Bible. In turn, Robinson's book examines Christianity's core doctrines, ethical norms, and worship practices, rounding out the study by considering four key contemporary challenges faced by Christian believers--namely, the problem of evil, the relationship of Christianity to other religions and to science, and the role of women in church and society. Among the strengths of this book is that it addresses these multiple features of Christianity in a single volume: it is aptly titled Christianity: A Brief Survey.

A new volume to replace The Short History of the Catholic Church (Burns&Oates) - now severely out of date.

The Republic of Suriname, located in northern South America has a rich and diverse history going back several centuries. This has seen the introduction of Christianity and the establishment and creation of many church denominations. To date, major theological works have failed to provide correct, balanced and informative dialogue on the history of Christianity and its developments in Suriname. In response to the lack of information available to the academic world this publication aims to provide a survey of the history, a summary of the works of theologians and a guide to reliable sources about Christianity in Suriname. Through overviewing the history of the major denominations in Suriname and focusing on some major issues surrounding Christianity the author delivers a unique single volume for both the general reader and a starting point for further research.

This first volume of the series “Dynamics in the History of Religions” reviews the opening conference of the "Käte Hamburger Kolleg” at the Ruhr-University Bochum. The first section concentrates on the formation of what later come to be termed "world religions" through inter-religious contact, the second part focuses on the significance of interreligious contacts also during their expansive phase. Methodological problems of multi-perspective research and especially the lack of a general religious terminology are discussed in the third chapter, while the final papers outline various aspects of secularization and (re-)sacralisation in the age of globalisation as an effect of multicultural contacts in a world wide web of religious interferences. Contributors include: Marion Steinicke, Volkhard Krech, Peter Wick, Victor H. Mair, Heiner Roetz, Patrick Olivelle, Jens Schlieter, Guy Stroumsa, Sarah Stroumsa, Nikolas Jaspert, Michael Lecker, John Tolan, Eun-jeung Lee, Michael Lackner, Stephen C. Berkwitz, Sven Bretfeld, Lucian Hölscher, Jan Assmann, Robert Ford Campany, Russell McCutcheon, Tim H. Barrett, Francesca Tarocco, Ronald M. Davidson, Markus Zehnder, Aslam Syed, Marion Eggert, Peter Schalk, Peter Beyer, Ian Reader, José Casanova, Heinz Georg Held.

Q and the History of Early Christianity presents a wide-ranging examination of the key issues in Q studies. After seeking to establish the existence of Q, Christopher Tuckett proceeds to analyze the characteristic features of the Q material. He explores not only what we can learn about the possible 'theology' of Q, but also what we can learn about the social situation of the Christians who valued and preserved this material. Tuckett provides discussions of John the Baptist in Q, the eschatology and Christology of Q, the nature of the polemic in Q. An attempt is made to determine how far Q is a 'wisdom' text; and how far Q reflects 'cynic' iceas.

For millennia, messianic visions of redemption have inspired men and women to turn against unjust and oppressive orders. Yet these very same traditions are regularly decried as antecedents to the violent and authoritarian ideologies of modernity. Informed in equal parts by theology and historical theory, this book offers a provocative exploration of this double-edged legacy. Author Jayne Svenungsson rigorously pursues a middle path between utopian arrogance and an enervated postmodernism, assessing the impact of Jewish and Christian theologies of history on subsequent thinkers, and in the process identifying a web of spiritual and intellectual motifs extending from ancient Jewish prophets to contemporary radicals such as Giorgio Agamben and Slavoj Zizek.

The volume will consist of a series of interpretative studies of Locke’s philosophical and religious thought in historical context and consider his contributions to the Enlightenment and modern liberal thought.