This is another great allegorical story by this gifted writer. Every Christian should thrill again as he or she reads this allegory of their experience. For in the days of our unbelief did we not yield allegiance to the Devil, and did we not seek to avoid looking into the face of Emmanuel? Were we not all children of wrath with the rest of them, by our self-love being held captive by the prince of the power of the air. Eph. 2:1. This book is no classic by accident. It speaks to the soul of every honest saint of God. Despite the fact that its theme is not a popular one, it is so true to Christian experience that it has been printed and reprinted for three centuries. Anyone who has not read it is the poorer for it. For it is a picture of the struggle of the saints against temptation and doubt, against pride and false security, against sloth, etc. We are sinners saved by grace, but the body of death remains (Rom. 7:24). Bunyan (1628-1688) is without doubt the most famous of the Baptists. He is known to have preached to thousands from a hilltop. On one of these occasions John Owen went to hear him, coming away with unstinted praise for the humble, yet powerful, preacher of righteousness.

Four years after John Bunyan released his instantly popular journey allegory The Pilgrim's Progress, he published The Holy War--a battle allegory and companion volume. His first book explores salvation of the individual Christian; the second portrays the battle for sanctification. While Christian struggles with questions about assurance of salvation, the collective Mansoul labors with the challenges of being led by and filled with the Holy Spirit. The Pilgrim's Progress focuses on the individual's struggle against sin; The Holy War portrays the Church in a corporate struggle against systemic evil. Bunyan wrote that The Holy War originates in "the same heart, and head, fingers and pen" as The Pilgrim's Progress. Both books present separate dimensions of Bunyan's spiritual journey. Taken together, the journey allegory and the battle allegory capture the full range and depth of the biblical message that consumed Bunyan's imagination. He credits his own salvation to these two things: The grace of God and tenacious, continual, holy warfare. The Holy War is testimony to a spiritual battle he fought, and won. This edition provides annotations that clarify Bunyan's first edition language and message for readers in a post-Puritan world.

Edition and English translation of eye-witness account of Third Crusade, with emphasis on Richard the Lionheart. The Estoire de la Guerre Sainte, an early example of vernacular chronicle, by the Norman poet Ambroise, presents an eye-witness account of the Third Crusade (1188-92) in a highly-polished rhetorical style. Central is the character of Richard the Lion Heart, Ambroise's hero, but the narrative is also enlivened by short anecdotes, sometimes heroic and sometimes more down-to-earth, about other participants. It depicts clearly the privations and sufferings of the ordinary crusaders, whether at the siege of Acre or on the march, and provides both a detailed record of events and a personal perspective on the Islamic warriors and their leaders, in particular Saladin and Saphadin. Ambroise also shows remarkable knowledge of contemporary weapons of war, such as siege engines and types of ship. This, the first new edition of the Estoire since 1897, offers text and prose translation into English. Detailed notes identify most of the participants and clarify literary, biblical and historical allusions, while the introduction looks at historical, literary and philological aspects of the poem and assesses its significance as literary artefact and historical record, setting it in context and bringing forward new evidence about the identity of the poet. Dr MARIANNE AILES is Lecturer at Wadham College, University of Oxford, and Honorary Research Fellow at Reading University; MALCOLM BARBER is Professor of History at Reading University.

This book traces the process through which authors like Spenser, Shakespeare, and Milton adapted, rewrote, or resisted romance, mapping a world in which new cross-cultural contacts and religious conflicts demanded a rethinking of some of the most fundamental terms of early modern identity.

Written by well-established critic Edmund Gosse, this 1898 work traces the history of English literature from Chaucer to Tennyson.

Surveying the period from the rise of Islam in the early seventh century to the present day, Just Wars, Holy Wars, and Jihads is the first book to investigate in depth the historical interaction among Jewish, Christian, and Muslim ideas about when the use of force is justified. Grouped under the three labels of just war, holy war, and jihad, these ideas are explored throughout twenty chapters that cover wide-ranging topics from the impact of the early Islamic conquests upon Byzantine, Syriac, and Muslim thinking on justified war to analyzing the impact of international law and terrorism on conceptions of just war and jihad in the modern day. This study serves as a major contribution to the comparative study of the ethics of war and peace.

Communion with God, or in full, "Of communion with God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost each person distinctly, in love, grace, and consolation; or, the saints' fellowship with the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost unfolded," is John Owen's finest devotional treatise. This work expounds "the most glorious truth that believers may have distinct communion with the three persons Father, Son, and Spirit," and being addressed to the "Christian reader" is simpler than much of Owen's theology. (Unabridged. Includes all footnotes.)

W. E. Best is a Baptist pastor and an excellent teacher of the Bible. The author chose this title (not to sin) to describe the Christ because it expresses the divine truth that Christ could not sin for the reason that as God He was perfectly holy, and as man He was perfectly holy. "Holiness is far more than the absence of sin; it is positive virtue. The Lord Jesus could not sin because the days of His flesh meant only addition of experience, not variation of character. Holy humanity was united to Holy Deity in one indivisible Person, the impeccable Christ." It could not be otherwise, else, the holy Deity would have been defiled by any unholiness in the human flesh. This book slays completely Satan's lie which says that Christ was human, therefore, He "could have sinned, but did not." Yes, He was "tempted (tried) in all respects according to [our] likeness, apart from sin." However, the trial, or test, was to demonstrate His perfect holiness, that regardless of stress or trial, it was impossible for Him to sin. In short but powerful sentences, the author comprehends the mysterious and marvelous Person who is the Christ. He covers such pregnant subjects as The Eternal Son of God; The Son Declares the Father; The Mystery of Godliness; The Incarnation; the Virgin Birth; Christ's Human Nature; Christ's Human Soul; Christ's Human Growth; Christ's Baptism; Christ's Temptation; Christ's Impeccable Life; The God-approved Man; Christ's Prayer Life; The Drawing Power of Christ; Christ's Discriminating Message; Christ's Miracles; Christ's Death; Christ's Headship; and, Christ's Kingship.