By Edward Muir (NHC Fellow, 1992–93) The comprehensive 2005 study of rituals in early modern Europe argues that between about 1400 and 1700 a revolution in ritual theory took place that utterly transformed concepts about time, the body, and the presence of spiritual forces in the world. Edward Muir draws on extensive historical research to … Continued
By Akasha Gloria Hull (NHC Fellow, 1994–95) From the last part of the twentieth century through today, African-American women have experienced a revival of spirituality and creative force, fashioning a uniquely African-American way to connect with the divine. In Soul Talk, Akasha Gloria Hull examines this multifaceted spirituality that has both fostered personal healing and functioned … Continued
Edited by Eleonore Stump (NHC Fellow, 1999–00) and Norman Kretzmann (NHC Fellow, 1992–93) It is hard to overestimate the importance of the work of Augustine of Hippo and its influence, both in his own period and in the subsequent history of Western philosophy. Many of his views, including his theory of the just war, his … Continued
By Norman Kretzmann (NHC Fellow, 1992–93) The Metaphysics of Theism is the definitive study of the natural theology of Thomas Aquinas, the greatest of medieval philosophers, written by one of the world's most eminent scholars of medieval thought. Natural theology is the investigation by analysis and rational argument of fundamental questions about reality, considered in relation … Continued
By Muhammad Qasim Zaman (NHC Fellow, 2000–01) From the cleric-led Iranian revolution to the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan, many people have been surprised by what they see as the modern reemergence of an antimodern phenomenon. This book helps account for the increasingly visible public role of traditionally educated Muslim religious scholars (the `ulama) … Continued
By Perez Zagorin (NHC Fellow, 1978–79) The religious persecution and intellectual intolerance of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries compelled many heterodox groups and thinkers to resort to misdirection, hidden meaning, secrecy, and deceit. In this highly unusual interpretation, Perez Zagorin traces the theory and practice of religious leaders, philosophers, intellectuals, and men of letters who … Continued
Edited and translated by Frederick S. Paxton (NHC Fellow, 2006–07) Around the year 840, Liutbirga, the adopted daughter of a noble Saxon widow, asked to be walled into a cell in a church at one of the family's cloisters for religious women. She spent the last thirty years of her life in her cell, doing … Continued
By Jaroslav Folda (NHC Fellow, 1988–89; 1998–99; 2006–07)
By Stanley Hauerwas (NHC Fellow, 1992–93) God knows it is hard to make God boring, Stanley Hauerwas writes, but American Christians, aided and abetted by theologians, have accomplished that feat. Whatever might be said about Hauerwas—and there is plenty—no one has ever accused him of being boring, and in this book he delivers another jolt … Continued
By Andrea Frisch (NHC Fellow, 2004–05) By juxtaposing representations of the French civil war past as they appear (and frequently overlap) in historiography and tragedy from 1550-1630, Andrea Frisch tracks changes in the ways in which history and tragedy sought to 'move' readers throughout the period of the wars and in their wake. The book … Continued