"The Council of Nicaea in 325 AD marked the beginning of a new era in Christianity. For the first time, doctrines were organized into a single creed. The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers did most of their writing during and after this important event in Church history. Unlike the previous era of Christian writing, the Nicene and Post-Nicene era is dominated by a few very important and prolific writers. In Volume IV of the 14-volume collected writings of the Nicenes and Post-Nicenes (first published between 1886 and 1889), readers will find Augustines writings defending the Catholic church against the Manichaeans and the Donatists. Manichaeanism was a religion developed in Persia by the prophet Mani. According to this religion, creation has two parts: darkness and light. Light is God and has ten attributes. Opposing this, and coeternal with it, is darkness and its five attributes. Saint Augustine was originally a Manichaean, so his defense of Christianity against this religion comes from a deep understanding of its nature. Donatists were a group of believers who refused to forgive those who had renounced their faith during a time of persecution, which caused a schism in Christianity. In opposing these men, Augustine attempted to mend the rift. Those with an interest in ancient religions will find Augustines writings on Manichaeanism one of the most important historical records of that religions practices."

A work entitled the "Book of Giants" figures in every list of the Manichaean "canon" preserved from antiquity. Both the nature of this work and the intellectual baggage of the third-century Persian prophet to whom it is ascribed remained unknown to scholars until 1943, when fragments of several Middle Iranian versions of the Book of Giants were published by W. B. Henning. Twenty-eight years later, at Qumran, J. T. Milik discovered several copies of a fragmentary Aramaic work which is unquestionably the precursor of the later Manichaean recension. One other important work, Mani's "autobiography," the so-called Cologne Mani Codex, was brought to scholarly attention in 1970 with evidence that Mani spent his youth among the Elchasaites, a Judeo-Christian sect that observed the Sabbath, strict dietary laws, and rigorous purification practices. Although leading Orientalists of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries have consistently stressed the Iranian component in Mani's thought, Reeves argues, in the light of evidence drawn from the above-mentioned discoveries and from a rich panorama of other textual sources, that the fundamental structure of Manichaean cosmogony is ultimately indebted to Jewish exegetical expansions of Genesis 6:1-4. Reeves begins with an examination of the ancient testimonies about the contents of Mani's Book of Giants. Then, using documents from Second Temple Judaism, classical Gnostic literature, Christian and Muslim heresiological reports, Syriac texts, and Manichaean writings, he provides a detailed analysis of both the Qumran and Manichaean rescensions of the work, demonstrating additional interdependencies and suggesting new narrative arrangements. He addresses a series of quotations from an unnamed Manichaean source found in a paschal homily of the sixth-century Monophysite patriarch Severus of Antioch and a narrative from Thoeodore bar Konai. In sum, Reeves demonstrates that the motifs of Jewish Enochic literature, in particular those of the story of the Watchers and Giants, form the skeletal structure of Mani's cosmological teachings, and that Chapters 1 to 11 of Genesis fertilized Near Eastern thought, even to the borders of India and China.

This open access book argues, from a detailed consideration of the Christian Scriptures, that God intends that sin occur. It swims against the tide of current thinking in philosophy of religion, arguing for an unfashionable conclusion. The book begins by considering the history of views on the question, paying particular attention to the Reformed or Calvinistic tradition. The heart of the book is a detailed examination of key passages from the Christian Scriptures that, it is argued, show that God does intend that sin occur. It also discusses in detail two alternative views that could be used to reinterpret these texts, one view that God intends only that the substratum of the sinful action occur, not the sin itself, and the other that God acts because a sin will occur but not intending that that sin occur. The book argues that these interpretative strategies, even when combined together, do not produce a plausible interpretation of the texts adduced.

St. Augustine and Roman law are the two bridges from Athens and Jerusalem to the world of modern law. Augustine's almost eerily modern political realism was based upon his deep appreciation of human evil, arising from his insights into the human personality, the product of his reflections on his own life and the history of his times. These insights have traveled well through the ages and are mirrored in the pages of Aquinas, Luther and Calvin, Reinhold Niebuhr, and Hannah Arendt. The articles in this volume describe the life and world of Augustine and the ways in which he conceived both justice and law. They also discuss the little recognized Augustinian contributions to the field of modern hermeneutics - the discipline which informs the art of legal interpretation. Finally, they include Augustine's valuable discussion of church/state relations, the law of just wars, and proper role and limits of coercion, and the procreative dimensions of marriage. The volume also includes an extremely useful, definitive bibliography of Augustine and the law, and will leave readers with an increased appreciation of the contributions which Augustine has made to the history of jurisprudence. No one can read Augustine and these articles on his view of the law without taking away a new view of the law itself.

This installment in a series on science and technology in world history begins in the fourteenth century, explaining the origin and nature of scientific methodology and the relation of science to religion, philosophy, military history, economics and technology. Specific topics covered include the Black Death, the Little Ice Age, the invention of the printing press, Martin Luther and the Reformation, the birth of modern medicine, the Copernican Revolution, Galileo, Kepler, Isaac Newton, and the Scientific Revolution.

A splendid piece of scholarship on a major twentieth-century thinker often overlooked. / This book presents an original scholarly analysis of the work of political theorist Hannah Arendt, focusing on an area hitherto ignored: the ways in which Augustine s thought forms the foundation of Arendt's work. Stephan Kampowski here offers readers a valuable overview of central aspects of Arendt s thought, addressing perennial existential and philosophical questions at the heart of every human being.

Everything in the Bible—and in the Catholic Church—starts with the Book of Genesis. The Greek word genesis means "beginning", and this inspired text reveals to us not only our origins, but our purpose, our meaning, and God's plan for mankind. Yet Genesis can be daunting, especially given the scientific discoveries of the last few centuries. Stephen K. Ray, author of Crossing the Tiber, breaks down this sacred and profoundly influential book, wrestling with the complex intersection of history and theology. Thoroughly Catholic in his approach, Ray is unafraid to draw from sources of all kinds: from Jewish and Protestant commentaries, from archaeology, from geography, and even from modern literature. Genesis: A Bible Study Guide and Commentary uncovers the excitement and drama of this ancient narrative, so often ignored or misunderstood. In Ray's reading, the Book of Genesis is a shout of joy: "We can know where we came from! We can know who we are! We can know our destiny! And we are not alone in the universe!"

Givenness and Revelation represents both the unity and the deep continuity of Jean-Luc Marions thinking over many decades. This investigation into the origins and evolution of the concept of revelation arises from an initial reappraisal of the tension between natural theology and the revealed knowledge of God or sacra doctrina. Marion draws on the re-definition of the notions of possibility and impossibility, the critique of the reification of the subject, and the unpredictability of the 'event' in its relationship to the phenomenology of the gift. This work begins and ends in the concept of revelation, thus addressing the very heart and soul of Marion's theology, concluding with a phenomenological approach to the Trinity that rests in the Spirit as gift. Givenness and Revelation enhances not only our understanding of religious experience, but enlarges the horizon of possibility of phenomenology itself.

Health Care. Finance reform. The future of Catholic schools. Caring for the elderly. Abortion. Abuse scandals in the church. Business management, the economy, and the very welfare of our society. Confronted with a storm of issues, all of which call for their attention and concern, contemporary Catholics often find themselves confused and uncertain, and even at odds with each other, when trying to apply their faith to the realities of the world they live in. One Faith, Many Faithful provides numerous essays or "short takes" that tackle the wide range of matters of concern to Catholics, but does so in a spirit of complete faithfulness to Catholic teaching and tradition. The collection is divided into four parts: "Religion and Ethics," "Business and Politics," "Education and Family" and "People and Ideas." William J. Byron, SJ, applies and explains principles of Catholic social teaching throughout the book, which offers the reader clarity and concise exposition of the issues that are troubling the contemporary Catholic mind. This book is for all Catholics who want to move beyond the limited scope of contemporary debates and actually apply the ancient principles of their faith to difficult issues. Book jacket.

The aim of this book is to explore antagonism towards, and acts of violence against, English Bibles in England and Scotland (and, to a lesser degree, Ireland) from the English Civil War to the end of the eighteenth century. In this period, English Bibles were burnt, torn apart, thrown away and desecrated in theatrical and highly offensive ways. Soldiers and rebels, clergymen and laymen, believers and doubters expressed their views and emotions regarding the English Bible (or a particular English Bible) through violent gestures. Often, Bibles of other people and other denominations were burnt and desecrated; sometimes people burnt and destroyed their own Bibles. By focusing on violent gestures which expressed resentment, rejection and hatred, this book furthers our understanding of what the Bible meant for early modern Christians. More specifically, it suggests that religious identities in this period were not formed simply by the pious reading, study and contemplation of Scripture, but also through antagonistic encounters with both Scripture itself and the Bible as a material object.