Хотя прошли годы с тех времен, когда жили четырнадцать старцев Оптиной Пустыни, причисленных к лику святых, интерес к их личности не угасает. Все хотят знать, что сулит нам будущее? Ответ на этот вопрос содержится в «Пророчествах» преподобных Оптинских старцев, однако постичь их смысл не так-то легко.

The historical separation between Judaism and Christianity is often figured as a clearly defined break of a single entity into two separate religions. Following this model, there would have been one religion known as Judaism before the birth of Christ, which then took on a hybrid identity. Even before its subsequent division, certain beliefs and practices of this composite would have been identifiable as Christian or Jewish.In Border Lines, however, Daniel Boyarin makes a striking case for a very different way of thinking about the historical development that is the partition of Judaeo-Christianity. There were no characteristics or features that could be described as uniquely Jewish or Christian in late antiquity, Boyarin argues. Rather, Jesus-following Jews and Jews who did not follow Jesus lived on a cultural map in which beliefs, such as that in a second divine being, and practices, such as keeping kosher or maintaining the Sabbath, were widely and variably distributed. The ultimate distinctions between Judaism and Christianity were imposed from above by "border-makers," heresiologists anxious to construct a discrete identity for Christianity. By defining some beliefs and practices as Christian and others as Jewish or heretical, they moved ideas, behaviors, and people to one side or another of an artificial border—and, Boyarin significantly contends, invented the very notion of religion.

From the ruins of the ancient seaside city of Acco, to the small but archaeologically important town of Yokneam, Fifty Major Cities of the Bible provides readers with a comprehensive guide to the ancient cities that played a vital role in the world from which the Bible originated. Not only covering renowned cities such as Jerusalem and Jericho, the book also includes lesser known towns like Aroer, Beth-Zur and Gibeah, which have all provided their own valuable contributions to the way in which we now understand the biblical world.

Among the most beloved saints in the Catholic tradition, Francis of Assisi (c. 1181–1226) is popularly remembered for his dedication to poverty, his love of animals and nature, and his desire to follow perfectly the teachings and example of Christ. During his lifetime and after his death, followers collected, for their own purposes, numerous stories, anecdotes, and reports about Francis. As a result, the man himself and his own concerns became lost in legend.

I thank my colleagues at the Institute of Irish Studies, Queen’s University, Belfast: Dominic Bryan, Catherine Boone, Eamonn Hughes, Gillian McIntosh, Valerie Miller, and Joan Watson for their support during the preparation of this work. I also thank the staff of the Northern Ireland Political Collection of the Linen Hall Library, Belfast: Yvonne Murphy, Alistair Gordon, and Ross Moore for their ssistance. In addition to those mentioned above, Professors Richard English and Rick Wilford of the School of Politics, International Studies, and Philosophy at Queen’s University, Belfast, provided invaluable comments on some of the material. Several reference sources have been invaluable in the writing of this dictionary: the CAIN website, Northern Ireland: A Political Directory 1968–1999, Lost Lives, Interpreting Northern Ireland, the Northern Ireland Elections website, and Northern Ireland: A Chronology of the Troubles 1968–1999. I particularly thank the authors of these works: Martin Melaugh, Brendan Lynn, Fionnuala McKenna, Sydney Elliott, the late W. D. Flackes, David McKittrick, Seamus Kelters, Brian Feeney, Chris Thornton, David McVea, Nicholas Whyte, and my colleague Paul Bew for creating the essential works of reference mentioned above. Any serious researcher of the Northern Ireland conflict and peace process should refer to these sources for more detailed information on the Northern Ireland Troubles and peace process. Finally, thanks are also due to my editor, Jon Woronoff, for his help and patience in seeing this work through to completion.

Historical Jesus asks two primary questions: What does “historical” mean? and How should we apply this to Jesus? Anthony Le Donne begins with the unusual step of considering human perception — how sensory data from sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell are interpreted from the very beginning by what we expect, what we’ve learned, and how we categorize the world. In this way Le Donne shows how historical memories are initially formed. He continues with the nature of human memory and how it interacts with group memories. Finally, he offers a philosophy of history and uses it to outline three dimensions from the life of Jesus: his dysfunctional family, his politics, and his final confrontation in Jerusalem. This little book is ideal for those with no background in religious studies — even those with no faith — who wish to better understand who Jesus was and how we can know what we do know about him.

This book was effectively written over a period of many years. I began research into the life and teaching of Jesus, his Jewish environment, and fruitful methodology, by eading for a doctorate on aspects of the ‘Son of man’ problem at Durham University under Professor C. K. Barrett, whose extraordinary combination of learning and helpfulness with lack of bureaucracy or interference remains a model to which one can only aspire. My work on methodology, especially on the use of Aramaic to unravel and interpret accurate Gospel sources, and distinguish them from secondary material, was greatly facilitated by the award of a British Academy Research Readership 1994–96, when I worked on Aramaic sources of Mark’s Gospel and of the ‘Q’ material, and a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship 2001–4, when I worked on the ‘Son of man’ problem. I am also grateful to scholars who discussed with me over the years the many and diffi cult problems of method and detail which work on a life of Jesus has involved. I would particularly like to thank Dr R. D. Aus, the late Professor M. Black, Professor R. Bauckham, Professor G. J. Brooke, Professor B. D. Chilton, Professor J. A. Fitzmyer, Professor R. Kearns, the late Professor B. Lindars, Professor M. Müller, and Professor M. Wilcox. I would also like to thank members of the Aramaic Background and Historical Jesus seminars at SNTS, the Jesus seminar at meetings of British New Testament scholars, and an annual seminar ‘The Use of the Old Testament in the New’ now generally held at St Deiniol’s Library, for what I have learnt from them.

Love Between Women examines female homoeroticism and the role of women in the ancient Roman world. Employing an unparalleled range of cultural sources, Brooten finds evidence of marriages between women and establishes that condemnations of female homoerotic practices were based on widespread awareness of love between women. "An extraordinary accomplishment. . . . A definitive source for all future discussion of homoeroticism and the Bible."—Mary Rose D'Angelo, Harvard Gay & Lesbian Review "[Brooten's] convincing analysis . . . not only profoundly reshapes our understanding of the past, but it should also shape the way in which that past, particularly the early Christian texts with their immense normative weight, will be used for the future."—Anne L. Clark, Journal of Lesbian Studies "Love Between Women gives contemporary debates on sexuality a carefully delineated past. It boldly insists upon a different future, one informed by history but not tyrannized by it."—Susan Ackerman, Lambda Book Report "Fascinating, provocative and lucid. . . . Brooten has made a fundamental contribution to women's and gender studies, gay and lesbian studies, and classics."—Elizabeth A. Castelli, Women's Review of Books Winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Best Lesbian Studies Book, 1997

Anna Coreth's work appeared originally in 1959. Her interpretation focuses on the relationship of Catholic religious practices and symbols to the House of Habsburg from the Counter or Catholic Reformation until the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Coreth demonstrates how elements of religiosity and spirituality, particularly those surrounding the Catholic Eucharistic and Marian celebrations, became part of the Habsburg ruling style. She discusses the imperial house's dedication to these rituals and what the religious practices came to mean to individual members of the Habsburg monarchy, such as Rudolf I, Ferdinand I, II, and III, Maria Theresa, and Joseph II. Coreth demonstrates the Habsburg monarchy's devotion to specific Catholic rituals and how these rituals in turn acquired political significance. Moreover, Coreth also examines the links between this Habsburg religious style, on the one hand, and the institutional Catholic Church, popular piety, religious orders, and mainstream political developments. The book is an extremely rich source for early modern and modern Austrian history.

Much of this book was researched and written while I was resident in Vienna, Wolfenb€uttel, and Berlin, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank the scholars who helped to facilitatemy stays in these cities. I amgrateful to Martina Fuchs and Alfred Kohler for their friendly support during my time in Vienna, to Jill Bepler, for her years of kindness during my stays in Wolfenb€uttel, and to Claudia Ulbrich, for helping tome to get on myfeet in Berlin. I would also like to thank the following friends and colleagues who have answered questions, provided advice, or sent me unpublished chapters of their own work to help me on my way: Euan Cameron, Geoffrey Dipple, Martin Gierl, Kevin Gould, Mark Greengrass, Susan Karant-Nunn, Peter Marshall, Judith Pollmann, Penny Roberts, and Alexandra Walsham. I am also extremely grateful to the two readers who worked through the manuscript and provided me with such thoughtful and helpful reviews. None of these scholars, of course, is responsible for the views of this book or the errors that remain. Both at the beginning ofthis project and at the end the assistance provided by the Al exander vonHumboldt Foundation enabled me to undertake research in world-class libraries. It gives me great pleasure to record my appreciation in print for the generous help the Foundation offered during my time in Wolfenb€uttel and Berlin. And finally I would like to record my gratitude to the Queen’s University, Belfast for making it possible for me to live and work in two worlds.

In November 1999 the first protest movements that became associated with the anti-globalisation movement took place in Seattle, and came to be seen as the starting point for globalised resistance to neoliberal capitalism. Despite initial optimism, the following years have seen little substantial progress in formulating a coherent alternative to neoliberalism. This lack of an alternative has become particularly poignant in the aftermath of the recent credit crisis, where the neoliberal mandate that appeared to be in crisis in just 2008 has reinvented itself through the guise of a new era of austerity. In this timely book, Worth assesses the growing diversity of resistance to neoliberalism - progressive, nationalist and religious - and argues that, troublingly, the more reactionary alternatives to globalisation currently provide just as coherent a base for building opposition as those associated with the traditional left-wing anti-globalisation movements. Taking in a contrasting array of case studies from around the world - from the failures of the World Social Forum to the rise of Radical Islam, the re-emergence of the far-right in Western Europe to the startling impact of the Tea Party in the US - Worth shows that while a progressive alternative is possible, it cannot be taken for granted.

This is the first paperback edition of the enlightening Oxford University hardcover published in 2002. Glancy here situates early Christian slavery in its broader cultural setting, arguing that modern scholars have consistently underestimated the pervasive impact of slavery on the institutional structures, ideologies, and practices of the early churches - and upon the bodies of the enslaved. Her careful attention to the bodily experience of subjection and violation that constituted slavery makes this an indispensable book for anyone interested in slavery in early Christianity. Includes special chapters on Jesus and Paul.