No detailed description available for "In Quest of Virgil's Birthplace".

Many Christians find the virgin birth a difficult doctrine and are not sure how to handle it. This book examines why that is by addressing the whole range of issues that arise - literary, historical and hermeneutical - from a perspective that takes seriously creedal confession and theological and ecclesiological concerns. incoln's investigation of the primary sources for the virgin birth leads him to consider the literary genre and distinctive characteristics of the New Testament birth narratives as part of ancient biography, and to reassess the likely historicity of the traditions that Matthew and Luke have in common. He then looks at how changes in our views of history and biology decisively affect any traditional understanding of the virgin birth, exploring what that means for the authority of Scripture and creed, and for our understanding of Christology.

Around 750 BC, the Assyrians put together Papyrus, ink, and the Aramaic language and alphabet to create an empire and a technological revolution, and humanity has been recording itself ever since. In 740, Isaiah, one of the first literate prophets, wrote about a King that would save his country which has carried down to the present day as every generation works out its own salvation in search of the Messiah.

It is easy to forget how deeply embedded in social hierarchy was the literature and learning that has come down to us from the early modern European world. From fiction to philosophy, from poetry to history, works of all kinds emerged from and through the social hierarchy that was a fundamental fact of everyday life. Paying attention to it changes how we might understand and interpret the works themselves, whether canonical and familiar or largely forgotten. But a second, related fact is much overlooked too: works also often emanated from families, not just from individuals. Families were driving forces in the production—that is, in the composing, editing, translating, or publishing—of countless works. Relatives collaborated with each other, edited each other, or continued the unfinished works of deceased family members; some imitated or were inspired by the works of long-dead relatives. The reason why this second fact (about families) is connected to the first (about social hierarchy) is that families were in the period a basic social medium through which social status was claimed, maintained, threatened, or lost. So producing literary works was one of the many ways in which families claimed their place in the social world. The process was however often fraught, difficult, or disappointing. If families created works as a form of socio-cultural legacy that might continue to benefit their future members, not all members benefited equally; women sometimes produced or claimed the legacy for themselves, but they were often sidelined from it. Relatives sometimes disagreed bitterly about family history, identity (not least religious), and so about the picture of themselves and their family that they wished to project more widely in society through their written works, whether printed or manuscript. So although family was a fundamental social medium out of which so many works emerged, that process could be conflictual as well as harmonious. The intertwined role of family and social hierarchy within literary production is explored in this book through the case of France, from the late fifteenth to the mid-seventeenth century. Some families are studied here in detail, such as that of the most widely read French poet of the age, Clément Marot. But the extent of this phenomenon is quantified too: some two hundred families are identified as each containing more than one literary producer, and in the case of one family an extraordinary twenty-seven.

This volume is the first in a series of the collected works of comparative mythologist Joseph Campbell. Editor Eugene Kennedy, a psychologist and former Catholic priest, presents previously unavailable essays and lectures of Campbell's which focus on the symbols and metaphors of the Judaeo-Christian tradition, including the virgin birth, the child as teacher, and the cross. Other topics include the purpose of myths, theological inquiry, and the experience of religious mystery. c. Book News Inc.