This work places Herodotus' religious beliefs at the centre of his conception of history, but by seeing instances of scepticism and of belief in relation to one another redresses the recent emphasis on the centrality of ritual.

A new narrative history of medieval Christianity, spanning from A.D. 500 to 1500, focuses on the role of women in Christianity; the relationships among Christians, Jews and Muslims; the experience of ordinary parishioners; the adventure of asceticism, devotion and worship; and instruction through drama, architecture and art.

A study of the deity of the world's three dominant monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In a dynamic interplay between religion and society's ever-changing beliefs, values, and traditions, human beings' ideas about God have been transformed. Ideas about God have been molded to apply to the spiritual needs of the people who worship him in a particular place and time. The author explores and analyzes the development and progression of the various perceptions of God from the days of Abraham to present times--Adapted from book jacket.

A highly influential Sudanese reformist thinker, Mahmud Muhammad Taha is regarded as a product of a dual legacy rooted in mystical Islam on the one hand and in the tradition of modernity on the other. Publicly executed in 1985 folowing his conviction of apostasy, Taha offered distinctly original interpretations of the Qur’an and a radical theory of Islamic prayer. In Quest for Divinity, Mohamed Mahmoud presents an in-depth and balanced treatment of Taha’s controversial yet significant thought. The author’s ability to provide access to relevant literature in both Arabic and English offers readers a rare view of the considerable nuance in Taha’s thought. With rich detail Mahmoud explores Taha’s theories of human freedom and his social message, referred to as "the second message of Islam" with its emphasis on political, economic, and social equality. Taha’s embrace of modernity is further assessed relative to his position on science, law, and art-areas that have always attracted Muslim modernists. Quest for Divinity will attract attention to Taha’s compelling but little-known intellectual contribution as a seminal modern reformer of Islam. Such recognition is long overdue and will enrich the current debates on Islam and modernity.

Presents a major part of the extraordinary corpus of ancient Ife art in terra-cotta, stone, and metal, dating from the ninth to the fifteenth centuries.

This book is the precipitate of a conference convened in 1997 to explore concepts of divinity as both one and many in ancient Assyria, Egypt, Greece, and Israel. The five original and provocative essays that resulted engage issues as diverse as the advantages and disadvantages of polytheism; different concepts of deity held by these closely related societies; the possibility that plural nouns may denote singular beings and vice versa; the many definitions of monotheism; and how to decide whether an ancient author in referring to a god as one was characterizing that god as numerically singular, best in quality, or simply first to appear on the cosmic stage.