The Spread of Christianity in the First Four Centuries: Essays in Explanation By William V. Harris (editor)
2005 | 192 Pages | ISBN: 9004147179 | PDF | 1 MB
The Spread of Christianity in the First Four Centuries: Essays in Explanation attempts to show how contemporary historical scholarship, or rather a selection of its exponents, views the perennial question why a new religion, indeed a new kind of religion, succeeded in subverting the other religions of the Roman Empire in the first three centuries and in the generations immediately following the 'conversion' of the usurper Constantine in 312.

David L. Weddle, "Sacrifice in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam"
English | ISBN: 0814764916 | 2017 | 272 pages | PDF | 2 MB
An examination of the practice and philosophy of sacrifice in three religious traditions In the book of Genesis, God tests the faith of the Hebrew patriarch Abraham by demanding that he sacrifice the life of his beloved son, Isaac. Bound by common admiration for Abraham, the religious traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam also promote the practice of giving up human and natural goods to attain religious ideals. Each tradition negotiates the moral dilemmas posed by Abraham's story in different ways, while retaining the willingness to perform sacrifice as an identifying mark of religious commitment. This book considers the way in which Jews, Christians, and Muslims refer to "sacrifice"-not only as ritual offerings, but also as the donation of goods, discipline, suffering, and martyrdom. Weddle highlights objections to sacrifice within these traditions as well, presenting voices of dissent and protest in the name of ethical duty. Sacrifice forfeits concrete goods for abstract benefits, a utopian vision of human community, thereby sparking conflict with those who do not share the same ideals. Weddle places sacrifice in the larger context of the worldviews of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, using this nearly universal religious act as a means of examining similarities of practice and differences of meaning among these important world religions. This book takes the concept of sacrifice across these three religions, and offers a cross-cultural approach to understanding its place in history and deep-rooted traditions.

Gary B. Ferngren, "Medicine and Health Care in Early Christianity"
English | ISBN: 0801891426 | 2009 | 264 pages | EPUB | 17 MB
Drawing on New Testament studies and recent scholarship on the expansion of the Christian church, Gary B. Ferngren presents a comprehensive historical account of medicine and medical philanthropy in the first five centuries of the Christian era.

Christianity's American Fate: How Religion Became More Conservative and Society More Secular by David A. Hollinger
English | October 11, 2022 | ISBN: 0691233888 | True EPUB/PDF | 216 pages | 0.8/8 MB
Tracing the rise of evangelicalism and the decline of mainline Protestantism in American religious and cultural life

Wrestling With God: Ethical Precarity In Christianity And International Relations By Cecelia Lynch
2020 | 305 Pages | ISBN: 1108483372 | PDF | 2 MB
Contrary to charges of religious "dogma," Christian actors in international politics often wrestle with the lack of a clear path in determining what to do and how to act, especially in situations of violence and when encountering otherness. Lynch argues that it is crucial to recognise the ethical precarity of decision-making and acting. This book contextualizes and examines ethical struggles and justifications that key figures and movements gave during the early modern period of missionary activity in the Americas; in the interwar debates about how to act vis-à-vis fascism, economic oppression and colonialism in a "secular" world; in liberation theology's debates about the use of violence against oppression and bloodshed; and in contemporary Christian humanitarian negotiations of religious pluralism and challenges to the assumptions of western Christianity. Lynch explores how the wrestling with God that took place in each of these periods reveals ethical tensions that continue to impact both Christianity and international relations.

Praying and Preying: Christianity in Indigenous Amazonia By Aparecida Vilaca
2016 | 330 Pages | ISBN: 0520289137 | EPUB | 6 MB
Praying and Preying offers one of the rare anthropological monographs on the Christian experience of contemporary Amazonian indigenous peoples, based on an ethnographic study of the relationship between the Wari', inhabitants of Brazilian Amazonia, and the Evangelical missionaries of the New Tribes Mission. Vilaça turns to a vast range of historical, ethnographic and mythological material related to both the Wari' and missionaries perspectives and the author's own ethnographic field notes from her more than 30-year involvement with the Wari' community. Developing a close dialogue between the Melanesian literature, which informs much of the recent work in the Anthropology of Christianity, and the concepts and theories deriving from Amazonian ethnology, in particular the notions of openness to the other, unstable dualism, and perspectivism, the author provides a fine-grained analysis of the equivocations and paradoxes that underlie the translation processes performed by the different agents involved and their implications for the transformation of the native notion of personhood.

End of Christendom and the Future Christianity (Christian Mission & Modern Culture) By Douglas John Hall
1997 | 69 Pages | ISBN: 1563381931 | PDF | 2 MB
Book by Hall, Douglas John

The Oxford Handbook of the Bible in Orthodox Christianity (Oxford Handbooks) edited by Eugen J. Pentiuc
English | August 9, 2022 | ISBN: 0190948655 | True PDF | 704 pages | 28.8 MB
The Oxford Handbook of the Bible in Orthodox Christianity investigates the various ways in which Orthodox Christian, i.e., Eastern and Oriental, communities, have received, shaped, and interpreted the Christian Bible. The handbook is divided into five parts: Text, Canon, Scripture within Tradition, Toward an Orthodox Hermeneutics, and Looking to the Future.

The Oxford Handbook of the Bible in Orthodox Christianity (Oxford Handbooks) edited by Eugen J. Pentiuc
English | August 9, 2022 | ISBN: 0190948655 | True EPUB | 704 pages | 6.6 MB
The Oxford Handbook of the Bible in Orthodox Christianity investigates the various ways in which Orthodox Christian, i.e., Eastern and Oriental, communities, have received, shaped, and interpreted the Christian Bible. The handbook is divided into five parts: Text, Canon, Scripture within Tradition, Toward an Orthodox Hermeneutics, and Looking to the Future.

Christopher A. Morrissey, "Christianity and American State Violence in Iraq: Priestly or Prophetic? "
English | ISBN: 1138736023 | 2018 | 158 pages | EPUB | 978 KB
The world continues to be threatened by non-state, religiously-rationalized violence. While some fail to the see the connections between the United States' intervention in the Middle East and this ongoing threat, the non-state perpetrators of terror consistently identify American meddling as one of their principle motivating grievances. What are the social and cultural roots of different religious positions on the war in Iraq?