Product Description: This volume attempts to put the clergy in the context of the issues and debates of the nineteenth century, treating the social history of the clergy, the repeated attempts to reform it, and the impact of these reforms on the structure and outlook of rank-and file parish clergy...read more

Authoritative, thorough, and approachable, this book brings together, for the first time in one volume, the history of the Amish, one of America's most intriguing people. Written by one of the foremost scholars in the field and revised and updated to include a look at how the Amish continue to thrive and grow, despite change, tragedy, and the media’s constant fascination with their community. The Amish, one of America's most intriguingly private, unique, and often misunderstood religious communities, have survived for 300 years! How has that happened? While much has been written on the Amish recently, little has appeared about their history. This book brings together for the first time in one volume a thorough history of the Amish people. From their beginnings in Europe through their settlement in North America, the Amish have struggled to maintain their beliefs and traditions in often hostile settings. Now updated, the book gives an in-depth look at how the modern Amish church continues to grow and change. It covers recent developments in new Amish settlements, the community’s conflict and negotiation with government, the Nickel Mines school shooting, and the media’s constant fascination with this religious people, from reality TV shows to romance novels. Authoritative, thorough, and interestingly written, A History of the Amish presents the deep and rich heritage of the Amish people. Dozens of illustrations and updated statistics.

Product Description: This extraordinary history of the Bruderhof shows how its commitment to religion, family, and community has enabled it to maintain its way of life since its inception over ninety years ago. Although Yaacov Oved identifies social tensions in the movement, he still considers it to be a shining example of communal stability...read more

Product Description: In her final book, acclaimed journalist Penny Lernoux takes up the inspiring story of the Maryknoll Sisters. In a popular, fast-moving style, she recounts the history of an extraordinary community of women religious and their efforts - over 75 years - to remain faithful both to the gospel and to the signs of the times...read more

Product Description: Hearts on Fire is the inspiring story of the Maryknoll Sisters, updated to mark the centenary of their founding in 1912. Through the voices of the Sisters themselves, Penny Lernoux draws a loving portrait of a community in constant transition and shows how in their process of growth and conversion they left an indelible mark on the church and the world...read more

Product Description: Women, Art, and Spirituality: The Poor Clares of Early Modern Italy situates the art made between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries for the Franciscan nuns in its historical and religious contexts. Evaluating its production from sociological and intellectual perspectives, this study also addresses the discourse among spirituality, devotional practices, and aesthetic attitudes as formalized in the construction and decoration of the women's convents and in their didactic literature...read more

The Roman Catholic organization known as Opus Dei seems to attract either virulent criticism or extravagant praise. It has been attacked as a "secret society," an "ecclesiastical mafia," and a cult that promotes bizarre ascetic practices, enslaves its members by mind-control techniques, and intimidates detractors through personal attacks and character assassination. But it has many powerful allies, especially in the Vatican. Indeed, Pope John Paul II is a staunch supporter of Opus ("The Work") and of its founder, the late Monsignor Escriva' de Balaguer, whose controversial beatification attracted 200,000 followers to St. Peter's Square in 1992. Drawing on dozens of interviews with members and former members--including priests, educators, doctors, Jesuits, and insiders connected with the Vatican Curia--and mining Opus Dei's own literature for clues, Joan Estruch provides the first authoritative portrait of this elusive organization. He begins with a fascinating look at the founder of Opus Dei, uncovering much information not found in the official biographies of Escriva'. He examines, for instance, the question of Escriva''s many name changes, his initially negative reaction to Vatican II (a reaction Opus now denies), his fondness for aristocratic refinements and honors, and his petition to become a member of the nobility. The founder of Opus Dei emerges as a complex, enigmatic figure, ambitious and impulsive, but also a man of extraordinary sincerity. Estruch also sheds much light on the origin and evolution of this influential and controversial movement. He reveals that, contrary to the official version, Opus Dei was not founded in 1928, but in 1939 and its birth was closely linked with the establishment of Franco's regime. And he also points out that the Jesuits--the arch-enemies of Opus Dei--were actually the model that initially inspired Escriva'. If their relations have been marked by confrontation and conflict, Estruch contends, it is due to their similarities more than their differences. Saints and Schemers traces Opus Dei's remarkable evolution from a local diocesan movement in Madrid to an international movement with 75,000 highly disciplined members in positions of power and influence throughout the world. First published in Spain in 1993, this volume offers the most reliable source of information on Opus, its history and ideology, and its current role in the Church. It will fascinate anyone curious about this mysterious organization as well as those interested in the influence of the Catholic Church in contemporary affairs and the history of modern Spain.

Product Description: The Kievan Caves Monastery was for centuries the most important Ukrainian monastic establishment. It was the outstanding center of literary production, and its monks served throughout the territory of Rus' as bishops and monastic superiors...read more

Product Description: The Making of Nurse Professionals: A Transformational, Ethical Approach is a philosophical inquiry into the current state of educating nurses in ethics and professional identity formation. The authors propose a visionary, grounded framework for the transformation of students into nurse professionals that is inclusive of virtue ethics and character development...read more

Product Description: Every week, more and more people walk away from the church—not because they don’t believe but because church has become irrelevant to their lives. Not God but church.  In Change Your Church for Good, Pastor Brad Powell rekindles hope for the future...read more

Product Description: According to the received history, the Cistercian order was founded in Cîteaux, France, in 1098 by a group of Benedictine monks who wished for a stricter community. They sought a monastic life that called for extreme asceticism, rejection of feudal revenues, and manual labor for monks...read more

Product Description: The twenty-seven papers published here represent a selection of those delivered at the Fourth International Conference on the Military Orders in 2005. Architecture, archaeology and the part which the orders played in Europe are well represented, along with work on northern and eastern Europe...read more

Product Description: Although this book focuses primarily on the United Methodist Church, it also discusses the young clergy of other denominations. The author's focus is on the falling number of young clergy and the impact this is having throughout the church.

A leading Anglican writer, and expert on both Benedictine as well as Celtic spirituality, examines the deep wisdom contained within the Rule of St. Benedict, and finds the guidebook for daily living to be a program for spiritual life in a materialistic world as relevant to contemporary society as it was for the sixth century monks, for whom it was originally written.

Presents the life of the nineteenth-century orator, best known for his support of the abolition of slavery and the suffrage of women, as well as his friendships with some of the century's most famous writers, such as Henry Thoreau, Mark Twain, and Walt Whitman. Reprint. 12,500 first printing.

Product Description: The church is the hope of the world when it's working right...and therein lies the problem. Most aren't. This has led both Christians and non-Christians to give up on the church entirely; it has led many others to give up on all existing churches-and maybe even start new ones...read more

Product Description: The monastic life was of central importance in the Middle Ages. In one sense, monasteries were cut off from the world; in another, they forged vital links with it. This is a study of the regional growth of monasticism between 1069 and 1215, in what was the largest county in England...read more

Product Description: Describes Nazi persecutions of the Jesuit order during the Third Reich and the fates of many Jesuits in Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, the Baltic States, Russia, Rumania, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Italy, the Low Countries, and France...read more