In 1850, Samuel Nelles, a well-educated Methodist minister, was selected to resuscitate the debt-ridden and declining Victoria University. As principal, and later as president and chancellor, he fought against shortsighted government educational policies while making the school into one of the premier universities in Canada. A true academic, Nelles believed in the importance of testing assumed laws, dogmas, and creeds. However his pursuit of intellectual inquiry was always guided by a rational faith in God, as well as the expectation of the future greatness and goodness of humanity. Faithful Intellect expands the reader's understanding of many of the key intellectual, religious, and political concerns of nineteenth-century English Canada while providing an essential contribution to the study of Canada's system of higher education.

Fergus Kerr, OP is one of the foremost Catholic theologians of his generation. His works are widely read by specialists and students in the UK, North America and across the world. His 'Theology after Wittgenstein' is regarded as a seminal work in philosophical theology. His 'After Aquinas: Versions of Thomism' and 'Twentieth Century Catholic Theologians' are two of the finest student-focussed introductions to their topics currently available. The essays in this collection cover the two key areas of Kerr's contribution: the relationship between theology and philosophy, focusing particularly on Thomism; and twentieth century Catholic thought. These themes provide the volume's coherence. A key strength of this volume lies in the stature of its contributors. These include the Canadian Catholic philosopher and Templeton-laureate Charles Taylor, Stanley Hauerwas, John Milbank, David Burrell and Denys Turner. A number of younger contributors, representing the influence of Kerr over several generations, are also represented.

Do various members of the church--regardless of their generation, gender, race, sexual orientation, country of origin, and whatever their doubts are about official church teachings and policies--have any role in determining, safeguarding, and assessing the authentic teaching and praxis of the faith of the church? This has always been a haunting question in the life of the Christian church, though only recently acknowledged, because of the long-standing role of male clergy of European descent with a Eurocentric outlook who held hierarchical offices and determined official doctrines and moral and disciplinary codes. There have been controversies that bear on these matters over the course of the church's history. But it has only been over the last fifty years that the question has received increasing attention among Roman Catholics in terms of the baptismal anointing of the Spirit that bestows the gift of the sense of the faith on individuals and the collective sense of the faithful. This gift provides discerning skills to recognize, receive, and imaginatively and practically apply the living faith in history and society. This book explores these issues from historical, sociological, systematic and theological ethical perspectives, infused by the contributions of world Christianities.

By the early twentieth century, there were close to two hundred American missionaries working in the Middle East and Eastern Europe. They came in droves as early as 1830, organizing hundreds of schools, hospitals, printing presses, and seminaries. Until now, the missionaries' sources and perspectives have dominated discussions of this moment in history, but the experiences of the Ottoman authorities are just as, if not more, revealing of an increasingly tense relationship between Christianity and Islam. An enthralling narrative of how locals made sense of American religious activity in the Ottoman Empire, Faithful Encounters examines the relationships between the authorities who managed the empire from the capital city of Istanbul, provincial agents who carried out the capital's orders, and the missionaries who engaged with them. Exploring a wide range of untapped sources – from imperial ministries, security forces, and local petitions to international reports and missionary collections – Emrah Sahin traces the interactions of the Ottoman authorities, focusing on the viewpoints and manoeuvres they adopted to monitor and conquer the missionary presence at a time of turbulent public and political upheaval. Offering a comparative context from which to reconsider recent cultural relations in the region, Faithful Encounters is not only a history of Christian and Muslim relations. It is a lesson about a failing mission in a failing empire, with stunning relevance to the looming religious and ethnic crises of today.

In Defense of the Faithful-The Scriptural Truth of Catholicism was written as an aggressive defense of the Catholic Faith. It explores the foundations and historic origins of Catholic doctrine from an evangelical, fundamentalist, and reformed Protestant point of view. It offers the teachings of the Church in common language then defends the position with scriptural quotations from throughout the Holy Bible. It then quotes the Catechism (formal teaching doctrine) of the Catholic Church offering a factual presentation of what the Church actually teaches rather than what many people think it teaches. In doing so it is critical not only of Protestantism but some aspects of Catholicism (in practice) as well. It credits and praises both groups of Christians as being believers dedicated to Jesus and the Trinity while pointing out the mutual failures of both groups. It is a thought provoking examination of Catholic doctrine, practice, theology, and ethics from a biblical viewpoint and is not afraid to point fingers at all parties involved in greater Christianity.

This new study focuses on the critically neglected area of Rossetti's devotional poetry and her prose, offering a critical intervention in the feminist construction of an important Victorian woman poet.

The civil rights and black power movements expanded popular awareness of the history and culture of African Americans. But, as Stephen Hall observes, African American authors, intellectuals, ministers, and abolitionists had been writing the history of the black experience since the 1800s. With this book, Hall recaptures and reconstructs a rich but largely overlooked tradition of historical writing by African Americans. Hall charts the origins, meanings, methods, evolution, and maturation of African American historical writing from the period of the Early Republic to the twentieth-century professionalization of the larger field of historical study. He demonstrates how these works borrowed from and engaged with ideological and intellectual constructs from mainstream intellectual movements including the Enlightenment, Romanticism, Realism, and Modernism. Hall also explores the creation of discursive spaces that simultaneously reinforced and offered counter narratives to more mainstream historical discourse. He sheds fresh light on the influence of the African diaspora on the development of historical study. In so doing, he provides a holistic portrait of African American history informed by developments within and outside the African American community.

What do Christianity and librarianship have in common? Netherlands Prime Minister and theologian Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920) was among the first in the modern era to attempt to rejoin the dichotomy of sacred vs. secular study when he said, "no single piece of our mental world is to be hermetically sealed off from the rest." Over the years a number of publications have followed Kuyper's lead yet little has been written on the subject since Greg A. Smith's notable Christian Librarianship (2002). Building on Smith's work, this volume seeks to bridge the sacred/secular divide with an exploration of how Christianity and the gospel are manifested through the profession of librarianship.

One of the most celebrated scriptures in the world, the Bhagavad Gita continues to intrigue, inspire and illumine the human mind. Comprising 700 verses in 18 chapters, sage Vyasa’s stupendous piece of work is a powerhouse of Upanishadic wisdom. Using a backdrop of Arjuna’s moral dilemma and despair, perennial existential conflict is resolved by unravelling the nature of the Self, nature of God, and the various ways of realizing the ultimate truth. In this concise yet pithy commentary, enlightened master Anandmurti Gurumaa puts forth the essence of the verses in a contemporary style relatable in modern times. All scientific advances in the outer world notwithstanding, the human quest for meaning and purpose of life entail that the Gita continues to be as relevant, even in the 21st century. The master speaks from first-hand experience of the truth unfolded in the Gita. The commentary thus pulsates with profound clarity removing all shreds of ambiguity and confusion making it a wonderful reference book for not only the metaphysical but also everyday material life.