Book exposing heretical breeding and other secrets of christianity.

Genealogical Fictions examines how the state, church, Inquisition, and other institutions in colonial Mexico used the Spanish notion of limpieza de sangre (purity of blood) over time and how the concept's enduring religious, genealogical, and gendered meanings came to shape the region's patriotic and racial ideologies.

How Jewish is Christianity? The question of how Jesus' followers relate to Judaism has been a matter of debate since Jesus first sparred with the Pharisees. The controversy has not abated, taking many forms over the centuries. In the decades following the Holocaust, scholars and theologians reconsidered the Jewish origins and character of Christianity, finding points of continuity. Understanding the Jewish Roots of Christianity advances this discussion by freshly reassessing the issues. Did Jesus intend to form a new religion? Did Paul abrogate the Jewish law? Does the New Testament condemn Judaism? How and when did Christianity split from Judaism? How should Jewish believers in Jesus relate to a largely gentile church? What meaning do the Jewish origins of Christianity have for theology and practice today? In this volume, a variety of leading scholars and theologians explore the relationship of Judaism and Christianity through biblical, historical, theological, and ecclesiological angles. This cutting-edge scholarship will enrich readers' understanding of this centuries-old debate.

Behind every important development in Catholic doctrine and practice since the beginning of the modern period have been debates about the interpretation of Christianity’s classic texts and traditions and their ideological and practical implications. Over the past century there have been breakthroughs in retrieving the origins of beliefs and practices, recovering the rich, myriad, and multifaceted literary forms, and recognizing the ways these venerable traditions have been received, applied, and negotiated in the lives of reading audiences with their contrasting worldviews. The essays in this volume by leading figures in Catholic theology suggest what might be called a “third naïveté” that blends deeply contextual interpretations with a critical theological analysis of the roles of power and grace in church and society. The abilities and skills to grapple with basic issues in hermeneutics and critical theory remain necessary and fundamental for Catholic theology. At stake is nothing less than how the good news of God’s salvation can be grasped and lived today. This volume provides a trustworthy map and compass for negotiating these debates and options. Contributors include: Sandra M. Schneiders, Francis Schüssler Fiorenza, Robert J. Schreiter, John E. Thiel, Dominic Doyle, Fernando F. Segovia, Andrew Prevot, Ormond Rush, Judith Gruber, Susan Abraham, Anthony J. Godzieba, and Bradford E. Hinze.

The Cambridge Edition of Early Christian Writings provides the definitive anthology of early Christian texts from ca. 100 CE to ca. 650 CE. Its volumes reflect the cultural, intellectual, and linguistic diversity of early Christianity, and are organized thematically on the topics of God, Practice, Christ, Community, Reading, and Creation. The series expands the pool of source material to include not only Greek and Latin writings, but also Syriac and Coptic texts. Additionally, the series rejects a theologically normative view by juxtaposing texts that were important in antiquity but later deemed 'heretical' with orthodox texts. The translations are accompanied by introductions, notes, suggestions for further reading, and scriptural indices. The third volume focuses on early Christian reflection on Christ as God incarnate from the first century to ca. 450 CE. It will be an invaluable resource for students and academic researchers in early Christian studies, history of Christianity, theology and religious studies, and late antique Roman history.

Classifying Christians investigates late antique Christian heresiologies as ethnographies that catalogued and detailed the origins, rituals, doctrines, and customs of the heretics in explicitly polemical and theological terms. Oscillating between ancient ethnographic evidence and contemporary ethnographic writing, Todd S. Berzon argues that late antique heresiology shares an underlying logic with classical ethnography in the ancient Mediterranean world. By providing an account of heresiological writing from the second to fifth century, Classifying Christians embeds heresiology within the historical development of imperial forms of knowledge that have shaped western culture from antiquity to the present.

This latest volume in the Bible and Women series examines ancient noncanonical Christian texts for what they reveal about women, their engagement with Scripture, and attitudes toward them in texts dating to the second to eighth century. Three sections include once-forgotten texts rediscovered in locations such as Nag Hammadi, those that have been in continuous use through the centuries, and works written by women that are traditionally excluded from discussions of noncanonical texts. Contributors Bernadette J. Brooten, María José Cabezas Cabello, Anna Carfora, Ute E. Eisen, Judith Hartenstein, Ursula Ulrike Kaiser, Karen L. King, Outi Lehtipuu, Heidrun Mader, Antti Marjanen, Silvia Pellegrini, Silke Petersen, Uwe-Karsten Plisch, Cristina Simonelli, Anna Rebecca Solevåg, M. Dolores Martin Trutet, and Carmen Bernabé Ubieta examine a range of texts, including noncanonical gospels and acts, poems, prophecy, and grave inscriptions.

Organized by heretical movements and texts from the Gnostic Gospels to The Book of Mormon, this book uses the work of James Joyce – particularly Ulysses and Finnegan's Wake – as a prism to explore how the history of Christian heresy remains part of how we read, write, and think about books today. Erickson argues that the study of classical, medieval, and modern debates over heresy and orthodoxy provide new ways of understanding modernist literature and literary theory. Using Joyce's works as a springboard to explore different perspectives and intersections of 20th century literature and the modern literary and religious imagination, this book gives us new insights into how our modern and “secular” reading practices unintentionally reflect how we understand our religious histories.

This compelling work is the most comprehensive and sophisticated account to date of the relationship between Hans Urs von Balthasar--a Swiss theologian and Catholic priest--and the German philosopher Georg Hegel. While underscoring the depth and breadth of Balthasar's engagement with the philosopher, author Cyril O'Regan argues that Balthasar is the most concertedly anti-Hegelian theologian of the 20th century. For him, it is essential to engage Hegel because of his corrections of sclerotic forms of premodern Christian thought, but even more importantly to resist and correct his systematic thought, which represents a comprehensive misremembering of the Christian thought, practices, and forms of life. An important and original work, this book addresses a topic that puts the possibility of an authentic postmodern theology at stake.