According to Song, the Christian faith is deeply rooted in storytelling: stories are the most basic mode of human communication and, in the same idea, the Christian Bible is fundamentally a story. Though, Song regrets the fact that Christians, and above all Christian theologians, so often fail to express their faith in term of stories. Christian theology is most often expressed in terms of concepts, ideas, and systems. Following the conviction that this is the most appropriate way to express our faith, the proposal of this book is to speak of Christian faith and theology through stories rather than systems and texts.

"These are stories of magical lyricism, contemporary in their exploration of the obsessions of girls and young women, mythic in their scope and mystery. Remarkable." -- Joyce Carol Oates Lyrical, intimate, and incisive, Tell Me Who We Were explores the inner worlds of girls and women, the relationships we cherish and betray, and the transformations we undergo in the simple act of living. It begins with a drowning. One day Mr. Arcilla, the romance language teacher at Briarfield, an all-girls boarding school, is found dead at the bottom of Reed Pond. Young and handsome, the object of much fantasy and fascination, he was adored by his students. For Lilith and Romy, Evie and Claire, Nellie and Grace, he was their first love, and their first true loss. In this extraordinary collection, Kate McQuade explores the ripple effect of one transformative moment on six lives, witnessed at a different point in each girl’s future. Throughout these stories, these bright, imaginative, and ambitious girls mature into women, lose touch and call in favors, achieve success and endure betrayal, marry and divorce, have children and struggle with infertility, abandon husbands and remain loyal to the end.

An expert on early Christianity reveals how the early church invented stories of Christian martyrs—and how this persecution myth persists today. According to church tradition and popular belief, early Christians were systematically persecuted by a brutal Roman Empire intent on their destruction. As the story goes, vast numbers of believers were thrown to the lions, tortured, or burned alive because they refused to renounce Christ. But as Candida Moss reveals in The Myth of Persecution, the “Age of Martyrs” is a fiction. There was no sustained 300-year-long effort by the Romans to persecute Christians. Instead, these stories were pious exaggerations; highly stylized rewritings of Jewish, Greek, and Roman noble death traditions; and even forgeries designed to marginalize heretics, inspire the faithful, and fund churches. The traditional story of persecution is still invoked by church leaders, politicians, and media pundits who insist that Christians were—and always will be—persecuted by a hostile, secular world. While violence against Christians does occur in select parts of the world today, the rhetoric of persecution is both misleading and rooted in an inaccurate history of the early church. By shedding light on the historical record, Moss urges modern Christians to abandon the conspiratorial assumption that the world is out to get them.

The Best British Detective Books: 270+ Murder Mysteries, Crime Stories & Suspense Thrillers is a monumental anthology that showcases the breadth and diversity of British detective fiction. Encompassing over 270 narratives, this collection spans a variety of literary styles, from the deductive reasoning of Sherlock Holmes to the ingeniously plotted psychological mysteries that characterize early 20th-century British literature. The anthology does not only entertain but serves as a pivotal study in the evolution of detective fiction, highlighting seminal works that have shaped the genre. Each story, carefully curated, stands as a hallmark of the narrative intrigue and complexity for which British detective stories are renowned. The contributing authors, including luminaries such as Arthur Conan Doyle and G.K. Chesterton, hail from a vibrant period in literary history, marked by the burgeoning of detective fiction as a genre. Collectively, their backgroundsa blend of journalism, medicine, and literaturereflect the interdisciplinary origins of detective storytelling. Their works, aligned with the cultural and intellectual currents of the late Victorian and Edwardian eras, offer insights into the societal anxieties and moral dilemmas of their time. This anthology thus not only enriches the reader's appreciation of detective fiction but also offers a lens through which to view historical and cultural shifts. Inviting both aficionados and newcomers to the genre, this collection offers a unique opportunity to dive into the rich tapestry of British detective literature. Through its comprehensive scope, the anthology promotes an understanding of the genre's development while fostering an appreciation for the artistry and ingenuity of its authors. Readers are encouraged to explore this collection for both its scholarly value and its sheer entertainment, discovering the timeless appeal of mysteries that continue to captivate and intrigue audiences worldwide.

"As . . . newer approaches [to biblical criticism] become more established and influential, it is essential that students and other serious readers of the Bible be exposed to them and become familiar with them. That is the main impetus behind the present volume, which is offered as a textbook for those who wish to go further than the approaches covered in To Each Its Own Meaning by exploring more recent or experimental ways of reading." „from the introduction This book is a supplement and sequel to To Each Its Own Meaning, edited by Steven L. McKenzie and Stephen R. Haynes, which introduced the reader to the most important methods of biblical criticism and remains a widely used classroom textbook. This new volume explores recent developments in, and approaches to, biblical criticism since 1999. Leading contributors define and describe their approach for non-specialist readers, using examples from the Old and New Testament to help illustrate their discussion. Topics include cultural criticism, disability studies, queer criticism, postmodernism, ecological criticism, new historicism, popular culture, postcolonial criticism, and psychological criticism. Each section includes a list of key terms and definitions and suggestions for further reading.

Dealing with the most translated work of German literature, the Tales of the brothers Grimm (1812-1815), this book discusses their history, notably in relation to Denmark and subsequently other nations from 1816 to 1986. The Danish intelligentsia responded enthusiastically to the tales and some were immediately translated into Danish by a nobleman and by the foremost Romantic poet. Their renditions remained in print for a century and embued the tales with high prestige. This book discusses translators, approaches, and other parameters such as copyright, and changes in target audiences. The tales’ social acceptability inspired Hans Christian Andersen to write his celebrated fairytales. Combined, the Grimm and Andersen tales came to constitute the ‘international fairytale’.This genre was born in processes of translation and, today, it is rooted more firmly in the world of translation than in national literatures. This book thus addresses issues of interest to literary, cross-cultural studies and translation.