This volume explores the rhetorical role that miracle discourse plays in the argumentation of the New Testament and early Christianity. The investigation includes both the rhetoric within miracle discourse and the rhetorical role of miracle discourse as it was incorporated into the larger works in which it is now a part. The volume also examines the social, cultural, religious, political, and ideological associations that miracle discourse had in the first-century Mediterranean world, bringing these insights to bear on the broader questions of early Christian origins. The contributors are L. Gregory Bloomquist, Wendy Cotter, David A. deSilva, Davina C. Lopez, Gail O'Day, Todd Penner, Vernon K. Robbins, and Duane F. Watson.

The People Who Doubted You Are In for the Shock of Their Lives Mitch Horowitz, “a cross between Aleister Crowley and Alan Watts” (Duncan Trussell), delivers this generation’s most literate and liberating self-help book in The Miracle Habits. Mitch shows how to foster a life of revolutionary self-direction through thirteen “Miracle Habits”—radical but workable commitments that allow you to “Spend for Power” (Habit 8), “Get Away from Cruel People” (Habit 6), “Rule In Hell” (Habit 13), and produce fortuitous events surpassing all expectation in career, creativity, relationships, charisma, and self-respect. “This book,” Mitch writes, “is about more than cultivating sanctioned notions of success or acceptance. It is not about being 10% happier, ‘good enough,’ or reorganizing your sock drawer. It is about fostering miracles. Not as a once-in-a-lifetime experience but as a recurring and natural part of life.” Washington Post: “Treats esoteric ideas and movements with an even-handed intellectual studiousness that is too often lost in today’s raised-voice discussions.” Paris Match: “Convincing...takes us far from naive doctrines.” David Lynch: “Mitch is solid gold.”

The Gospel according to St John, often regarded as the most important of the gospels in the account it gives of Jesus' life and divinity, received close attention from nineteenth-century biblical scholars and prompted a significant response in the arts. This original interdisciplinary study of the cultural afterlife of John in Victorian Britain places literature, the visual arts and music in their religious context. Discussion of the Evangelist, the Gospel and its famous prologue is followed by an examination of particular episodes that are unique to John. Michael Wheeler's research reveals the depth of biblical influence on British culture and on individuals such as Ruskin, Holman Hunt and Tennyson. He makes a significant contribution to the understanding of culture, religion and scholarship in the period.