He then examines the major themes of*the economy*society*religion*art, architecture and artefacts*language and literature*Arabhood and ArabisationThe volume is illustrated with more than 50 photographs, drawings and maps.

    Planned by one of the most renowned Byzantinists and Medievalists of the day, John B. Bury, it became the de facto standard by which all comprehensive period histories would be measured. Its impact on the field of medieval scholarship is every bit as great as Gibbon’s “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”.Volume One – The Christian Roman Empire and the Foundation of the Teutonic Kingdoms begins with the accession of Constantine to the Imperium and ends roughly with reign of Justinian in the East. It covers the migration of Germanic tribes into Roman territories. Significant attention is given the ecumenical church councils of the 4th Century, with particular emphasis on the Arian controversies.Volume Two – The Rise of the Saracens and the Foundation of the Western Empire covers the time period from roughly 500 CE to 814 CE. Beginning with Justinian, it also looks at the Frankish Merovingian dynasty, the Lombard Kingdom in Italy, the Restoration of the Imperium in Italy, and ends with the transition of power from the Merovingians to the Carolingians through Charlemagne’s reign. Chapters covering England and English institution and the conversion of the Celts. Finally, attention is given to the birth and spread of Islam and the growth of the Islamic Caliphate.Volume Three – Germany and the Western Empire covers the period from roughly 814 CE through the end of the first millennium. Beginning with the reign of Louis the Pious, it traces the decline of the Carolingian Empire and the foundation of the Capetian Dynasty. Attention is paid to the Holy Roman Empire in Germany through Henry III. The impact of the Norse Vikings on the political landscape is examined as is the development of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of England through the death of Edward the Confessor. Throughout the volume development of feudalism as a primary labor, land-owning, and social way of life is highlighted. Finally, the continued growth of the Western Caliphate is looked at.Volume Four – The Eastern Roman Empire focuses primarily on the Byzantine East from roughly 700 CE through the end of the Empire in 1483. The different dynasties (Isaurian, Phrygian, and Macedonian) receive their own chapters, and in-depth attention is paid to the struggle with the emerging Islamic Caliphate. The religious and political relationship with the West is considered and significant attention is paid to the Comneni and Fourth Crusade.Volume Five – The Contest of Empire and Papacy is concerned primarily with the century and a half from 1050 CE to 1200 CE. It looks at the surging political power of the Church and the corresponding growth of nations of Western Europe. The Holy Roman Empire and the Norman Invasion of England, the establishment of the Plantagenet Dynasty in Norman Britain, and the emergence of Monasticism and Scholasticism in the period receive attention.Volumes 6-8 were published after 1923 and are therefore not in the public domain. Plantagenet Publishing will not be able to make them available in this format.

    But it was not the first inquisition nor the last, as Cullen Murphy shows in this far-ranging, informed, and (dare one say?) witty account of its reach down to our own time, in worldly affairs more than ecclesiastical ones.” — Margaret O’Brien Steinfels, former editor, Commonweal The Inquisition conducted its last execution in 1826 — the victim was a Spanish schoolmaster convicted of heresy. But as Cullen Murphy shows in this provocative new work, not only did its offices survive into the twentieth century, in the modern world its spirit is more influential than ever. God’s Jury encompasses the diverse stories of the Knights Templar, Torquemada, Galileo, and Graham Greene. Established by the Catholic Church in 1231, the Inquisition continued in one form or another for almost seven hundred years. Though associated with the persecution of heretics and Jews — and with burning at the stake — its targets were more numerous and its techniques more ambitious. The Inquisition pioneered surveillance and censorship and “scientific” interrogation. As time went on, its methods and mindset spread far beyond the Church to become tools of secular persecution. Traveling from freshly opened Vatican archives to the detention camps of Guantánamo to the filing cabinets of the Third Reich, Murphy traces the Inquisition and its legacy. With the combination of vivid immediacy and learned analysis that characterized his acclaimed Are We Rome?, Murphy puts a human face on a familiar but little-known piece of our past, and argues that only by understanding the Inquisition can we hope to explain the making of the present.

    This book covers everything from choosing a sword, to warming up, to fencing. Full of set drills and clear descriptions, this book has been the standard work on the subject since it first came out in 2004. The second edition has been updated and revised.

    

    In this compelling first-person narrative she transports you into her world at the bedside in the maternity wards where childbirth dramas take place. In the challenging environment of urban clinics and crowded labor rooms the midwife strives to bring personalized care, dignity and a sense of empowerment to every patient. Like an updated U.S. version of "Call the Midwife," the British best seller and television series, this book describes some of the most unforgettable births, the most heartwarming -- and the rare heartbreaking -- experiences of her career. Memorable patients include Mia, a mentally ill woman whose stomach ache turns out to be a baby; teenager Shaniqua who breezes through birth despite her youth; and Jeremiah, a little boy born HIV-infected who captures the love of the entire staff. Through these stories, readers will gain insight into many variations in pregnancy and birth, and learn what is special about the midwifery approach to care. You may be surprised to learn how similar Cohen's patients' childbirth experiences were to your own, and where they differed.

    Once in a generation a historian will redefine his field, producing a book that demands to be read--a product of electrifying scholarship conveyed with commanding skill. Diarmaid MacCulloch's Christianity is such a book. Ambitious, it ranges back to the origins of the Hebrew Bible & covers the world, following the three main strands of the Christian faith. Christianity will teach modern readers things that have been lost in time about how Jesus' message spread & how the New Testament was formed. It follows the Christian story to all corners of the globe, filling in often neglected accounts of conversions & confrontations in Africa & Asia. It discovers the roots of the faith that galvanized America, charting the rise of the evangelical movement from its origins in Germany & England. This book encompasses all of intellectual history--we meet monks & crusaders, heretics & saints, slave traders & abolitionists, & discover Christianity's essential role in driving the Enlightenment & the age of exploration, & shaping the course of WWI & WWII.We live in a time of tremendous religious awareness, when both believers & non-believers are engaged by questions of religion & tradition, seeking to understand the violence sometimes perpetrated in the name of God. The son of an Anglican clergyman, MacCulloch writes with feeling about faith. His last book, The Reformation, was chosen by dozens of publications as Best Book of the Year & won the Nat'l Book Critics Circle Award. This inspiring follow-up is a landmark new history of the faith that continues to shape the world.

    By universal acclaim, this biography by G. K. Chesterton is considered the best appreciation of Francis's life--the one that gets to the heart of the matter.For Chesterton, Francis is a great paradoxical figure, a man who loved women but vowed himself to chastity; an artist who loved the pleasures of the natural world as few have loved them, but vowed himself to the most austere poverty, stripping himself naked in the public square so all could see that he had renounced his worldly goods; a clown who stood on his head in order to see the world aright. Chesterton gives us Francis in his world-the riotously colorful world of the High Middle Ages, a world with more pageantry and romance than we have seen before or since. Here is the Francis who tried to end the Crusades by talking to the Saracens, and who interceded with the emperor on behalf of the birds. Here is the Francis who inspired a revolution in art that began with Giotto and a revolution in poetry that began with Dante. Here is the Francis who prayed and danced with pagan abandon, who talked to animals, who invented the creche.

    It easily could have remained a sect of Judaism fated to have the historical importance of the Sadducees or the Essenes. In The Triumph of Christianity, Bart Ehrman, a master explainer of Christian history, texts, and traditions, shows how a religion whose first believers were twenty or so illiterate day laborers in a remote part of the empire became the official religion of Rome, converting some thirty million people in just four centuries. The Triumph of Christianity combines deep knowledge and meticulous research in an eye-opening narrative that upends the way we think about the single most important cultural transformation our world has ever seen—one that revolutionized art, music, literature, philosophy, ethics, economics, and law.

    

    Taken from President Monson's personal journal accounts over a 40 year span, Faith Rewarded is a great testimony of faith for the oppressed people of East Germany and those behind the iron curtain.

    It is different in a number of ways, all of which commend this volume to wide use by pastors whose task it is to introduce the members of their inquirers classes to an Orthodox way of life which will touch their lives in a full and complete way (Fr. Stanley Harakas). Chapters include: What We Believe About the One Apostolic Church, the Nicene Creed, Jesus, the Holy Trinity, the Divine Liturgy, Salvation, the Church Fathers, the Church Year, Symbols, the Sacraments, the Saints and the Theotokos, Life After Death, the Bible, Icons, Prayers for the Dead, and Prayer. Recently translated in Korean and Romanian.

    A. Scotti traces the defining event of a glorious epoch: the building of St. Peter's Basilica. Begun by the ferociously ambitious Pope Julius II in 1506, the endeavor would span two tumultuous centuries, challenge the greatest Renaissance masters--Michelangelo, Raphael, and Bramante--and enrage Martin Luther. By the time it was completed, Shakespeare had written all of his plays, the Mayflower had reached Plymouth--and Rome had risen with its astounding basilica to become Europe's holy metropolis. A dazzling portrait of human achievement and excess, Basilica is a triumph of historical writing.

    A rapturous guide through five major Ice Age sites” (Archaeology).   The cave art of France’s Dordogne region is world-famous for the mythology and beauty of its remarkable drawings and paintings. These ancient images of lively bison, horses, and mammoths, as well as symbols of all kinds, are fascinating touchstones in the development of human culture, demonstrating how far humankind has come and reminding us of the ties that bind us across the ages.   Over more than twenty-five years of teaching and research, Christine Desdemaines-Hugon has become an unrivaled expert in the cave art and artists of the Dordogne region. In Stepping-Stones she combines her expertise in both art and archaeology to convey an intimate understanding of the “cave experience.” Her keen insights communicate not only the incomparable artistic value of these works but also the near-spiritual impact of viewing them for oneself.   Focusing on five fascinating sites, including the famed Font de Gaume and others that still remain open to the public, this book reveals striking similarities between art forms of the Paleolithic and works of modern artists and gives us a unique pathway toward understanding the culture of the Dordogne Paleolithic peoples and how it still touches our lives today.   “Her vivid descriptions help readers visualize the Cro-Magnon man or woman painting the beautiful bison, horses, mammoths, and other symbols. [A] fine reading experience.” —Library Journal

    First Latin American. And a new pope who chose as his first act a simple request: please pray for me.The recent resignation of Pope Benedict XVI took the world by surprise and for good reason. More than 600 years had passed since a pope last left his post.Jorge Mario Bergoglio, now Pope Francis, is a man of prayer, a man of action, and a humble man who has always promoted others over himself. In fact, it was Bergoglio who bowed out of the running in the papal election of 2005 to facilitate the rise of Benedict XVI.However, the new pope faces a Catholic Church in crisis--a church that has lost the media pull of John Paul II and is still hounded by pedophile scandals and the filtration of documents from former papal administrations. His first year may not be an easy one, but neither this man nor the church itself has ever shied away from the challenges thrust upon them.Pope Francis is austere and simple but has vast theological training. He is a man of his time but one who also travels by subway and bus just like any other citizen. Tirelessly fighting poverty and marginalization, he is a beacon of hope for the poor, persecuted sectors of the church. Has a Catholic spring finally arrived after a very long winter?Francis is the complete biography of a humble man who has suddenly become one of the most powerful and influential men on the planet.