The British and Foreign Bible Society was established in 1804, at the onset of an era of unprecedented Protestant missionary expansion across the globe. Because the foundational pillar of Protestantism is "Sola Scriptura" (the Bible alone is the final authority for faith and practice), the first objective of Protestant missions was making the Bible available globally. The Bible Society had a limited focus (it would publish the text of the Scriptures alone, without any accompanying notes or comments) but an unlimited vision (it aimed to publish Bibles in every language possible). It was a massive, privately funded, nondenominational Christian organization that asked one essential question when contemplating whether or not to engage with a particular nation: "Do the people there have Bibles in their mother tongue that they can read for themselves?" In its first one hundred years, the British and Foreign Bible Society translated, printed, or distributed Scriptures in an astounding 412 of the world's languages-an average of four new languages per year. Remarkably, the Albanian language became a focus of the BFBS was early as 1816, just twelve years after the BFBS was established. Albanian was approximately the twentieth project the BFBS undertook. When the BFBS entered Albanian history, there was no Albanian Bible or New Testament available to the people. This is almost incredible when considering the many centuries of Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christian influence in Albanian territories. The publication of an Albanian New Testament in 1827 was a triumph for the Albanian people and became a standard text for foreign linguists studying Albanian, putting the language on the world's linguistic map. Between 1827 and 1908 alone, the British and Foreign Bible Society printed approximately 55,000 copies of the Albanian Scriptures, in both Gheg and Tosk, in twenty-seven unique editions. The society translated and published all the books of the New Testament and several books from the Old Testament. Perhaps more significantly, they took the initiative to distribute the books among the Albanian people, amidst extremely harsh circumstances and the opposition of religious and political leaders. Each year the BFBS printed a detailed annual report about its work all over the world. The information in the reports was intended to be a condensed summary of the Society's work, as reported by its workers. The Albanians were first mentioned in the 1817 report and were mentioned in nearly every successive report until 1955. This resource is a compilation of material, extracted from the annual reports, about Albania and the Albanians, but it also contains information about other nations insofar as such information assists readers to understand the context and progress of the Albanian work in the context of the Ottoman Balkans.Because the BFBS began its work for the Albanian Bible at the beginning of the nineteenth century and continued working intensely until the communist era, its reports are useful as a running historical commentary and chronology of Albanian conditions predating the Albanian National Awakening and extending well beyond Albania's emergence as an independent nation. As demonstrated by the lengthy index in the back of this book, the extracts herein contain information about a wide breadth of topics and will serve historians and linguists as a fascinating reference work. This book's primary value, however, is to readers who wish to understand the long and adventurous story of how the Albanians received and started reading the Bible in their own dialect, and how something so simple became so significant to Albania's national cause.

All too often Albania has been considered a relatively minor player in late-19th and early-20th century history. By contrast, this book highlights the significance of this nation and the Albanian question at this time through a detailed analysis of the relationship between Albania, Britain and the Ottoman Empire from 1876 to 1914. Making use of a wide range of archival source materials – some of which are published here in English for the first time – this book explores British foreign policy towards the development of the Albanian national movement and parallel demise of the Ottoman Empire. In doing so it illuminates the objectives of the British government, as well as shining a spotlight on the public opinion of both the British people towards Albanian nationalism and on the reaction of the Albanians towards the British diplomatic position. By looking through such a unique lens, here Daut Dauti is able to provide fresh insight into why the Albanians were not supported by the Great Powers in their national quest in the way that other Balkan countries were and draws significant new conclusions on British, Balkan and Ottoman relations. As such, this nuanced study is vital reading for all scholars interested in modern Albanian history, turn-of-the-century British international relations and the fall of the Ottoman Empire more broadly.

Given the degree of popular fascination with Gnostic religions, it is surprising how few pay attention to the one such religion that has survived from antiquity until the present day: Mandaism. Mandaeans, who esteem John the Baptist as the most famous adherent to their religion, have in our time found themselves driven from their historic homelands by war and oppression. Today, they are a community in crisis, but they provide us with unparalleled access to a library of ancient Gnostic scriptures, as part of the living tradition that has sustained them across the centuries. Gnostic texts such as these have caught popular interest in recent times, as traditional assumptions about the original forms and cultural contexts of related religious traditions, such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, have been called into question. However, we can learn only so much from texts in isolation from their own contexts. Mandaean literature uniquely allows us not only to increase our knowledge about Gnosticism, and by extension all these other religions, but also to observe the relationship between Gnostic texts, rituals, beliefs, and living practices, both historically and in the present day.

Does the idea of Biblical Prophecy seem ... well, laughingly absurd, galactically improbable? Good! It's supposed to seem that way. In fact, for Biblical prophecy to work properly, its readers have to be highly skeptical. Biblical prophecy requires, even promotes uber-skepticism at times to evoke the intended response in its readers. The credibility of its message, that its words were authored by God, gains increased potency as the highly improbable happens again and again. When the absurdly improbable actually occurs, over and over, in documented, historically verifiable situations, our fundamental assumptions are challenged. We are confronted with the possibility that, on a truly foundational level, everything we thought we knew may really be wrong or radically incomplete. That's what Biblical prophecy is about on a macro level. That's its big idea. Biblical prophecies also seek to warn about particularly important slices of future history. Not because that future can be changed, but so it can be met with integrity and intact faith. This book is obviously focused on those Biblical prophecies involving the Antichrist's rise to power. By using careful time honored traditional methods of Biblical investigation, we'll have a serious and sober look at what the Scriptures really say about this future world ruler. There are also some new discoveries that many would find surprising, even shocking. Now, that's a lot to swallow all at once. That the future is knowable on some level, and that it's going to be so horrible. Why would anyone want to believe this could happen? Deep down, I don't want to believe it. It's so much easier to reject it, than to allow it to threaten your whole frame of reference. That tug of war, that vague unease, that's supposed to happen too. It's Biblical prophecy doing its thing. It takes a lot of guts to consider ideas that have the power to explode your comfortable world view. If you decide to read this book, remember, it's ok to be skeptical. It's absolutely required for a healthy mind. But resist the awful temptation to reject out-of-hand. Aside from being an addictive and lazy habit, it just may deprive you someday of knowing that wonderful excruciating panic of having your mind blown open.

Why We Read Fiction offers a lucid overview of the most exciting area of research in contemporary cognitive psychology known as "Theory of Mind" and discusses its implications for literary studies. It covers a broad range of fictional narratives, from Richardson s Clarissa, Dostoyevski's Crime and Punishment, and Austen s Pride and Prejudice to Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, Nabokov's Lolita, and Hammett s The Maltese Falcon. Zunshine's surprising new interpretations of well-known literary texts and popular cultural representations constantly prod her readers to rethink their own interest in fictional narrative. Written for a general audience, this study provides a jargon-free introduction to the rapidly growing interdisciplinary field known as cognitive approaches to literature and culture.