Since the beginning, the angels have always been there, protecting us and keeping balance in the world. They have always guarded the earth by protecting the veil, the boundary that separates the reality of the living from the realms of the afterlife. It is a sacred duty they will do anything to uphold, even live in secret among us. In a future controlled by the oppressive hierarchy and constantly being infiltrated by supernatural forces from beyond, a group of angels work to preserve balance in a world where the helpless and weak pray for a miracle. It is an era of trial for all beings, the era of a purgatory dynasty.

An examination of medieval Chinese Buddhist thanatonic practices. Bridging area studies and the history of religions, Teiser explores the concerns, practices and beliefs of 9th- and 10th-century Chinese Buddhists.

This book is a volume in the Penn Press Anniversary Collection. To mark its 125th anniversary in 2015, the University of Pennsylvania Press rereleased more than 1,100 titles from Penn Press's distinguished backlist from 1899-1999 that had fallen out of print. Spanning an entire century, the Anniversary Collection offers peer-reviewed scholarship in a wide range of subject areas.

The first full-length study of sixteenth-century Spanish attitudes towards death and the afterlife.

Translation and facing text of an important female-authored work from the late middle ages.

Describing Dante's second stage in his arduous journey to redemption, Purgatory features a host of unforgettable scenes and characters, and arguably some of the best poetry to be found in the Divine Comedy. The gloom, torments and evils of Hell have been left behind, but Dante's ascent of Mount Purgatory towards Paradise remains fraught with obstacles, not least the burden of his own mortality and his human passions.Purgatory is presented here in a new verse translation by acclaimed poet and prize-winning translator J.G. Nichols. Also included are the original Italian text, extensive notes and a critical apparatus focusing on Dante's life and works.