The volume is dedicated to the memory of Russian philologist and culturologist Michail F. Murianov and includes essays on various topics related to both the Eastern and Western European Christian tradition. Professor Murianov was intensely interested in the Slavonic Middle Ages and its relation to the Latin Church and Byzantium. Several primary source documents are published here for the first time, including Slavonic translations of texts where the original is no longer extant.

Arthur Vaschalde provides a brief survey and translation of a manuscript containing historical details about the Monastery of Rabban Hormizd in Iraq.

This volume provides an introduction and engagement with the major critical issues in the study of Luke-Acts. As the study of Acts has become, once again, one of the major areas of focus within New Testament scholarship, this collection of essays presents an orientation to the major issues of Luke-Acts study, while providing fresh scholarship by senior scholars. This holistic overture addresses fundamental questions such as authorship, dating, textual concerns, sources, speeches and literary form(s).

This book is an interesting and important contribution to the dialogue between the Churches in Ireland. It brings together theologians and pastors from two Christian traditions in Ireland – Catholicism and Presbyterianism – to explore the legacy of two significant figures, John Calvin and Ignatius Loyola. Calvin and Loyola, contemporaries in their student days at the University of Paris, in the turmoil of the Reformation subsequently chose different paths. The papers in this collection from a conference held in St Patrick’s College, Maynooth, put into relief the important values they held in common – a profound faith in Christ, a dedication to? his people in the community of the Church and to mission as they understood it.?

Drawing its title from the end of the Gospel according to John – ‘that we might have life in his name’ (Jn 20:31) – this book explores many and varied aspects of the new life that opened up in the event of Jesus Christ. The editors, both professors at St Patrick’s College, Maynooth, have gathered contributions for renowned scholars who believe the Christian life is one of faith and reason. What comes across in this work is how much a ‘thinking’ faith is essential for Christians and never more so than in a secularised age. But not only is it a ‘thinking faith’, it is also a life that seeks spontaneously to ‘communicate’ what it has seen and touched, heard and lived. The chapters of this book are clearly divided under headings that suggest a vivid interplay of life in the name of Christ, thought shaped by Christian faith and the missionary communication of the Gospel in today’s world. This book has been inspired by a number of factors. In recent times, with church scandals and the complex dynamics of secularisation, a serious crisis of the meaning of the Christian faith and of belonging to the Church has emerged. All of this calls for greater reflection on what Christian faith has to offer.

This book brings together a selection of well-known and popular poems, prayers and reflections that will provide the perfect starting point for group lessons or for private meditation. In reading these pieces, we are encouraged to deepen our spiritual and moral awareness and to develop positive Christian values and attitudes towards God, others and the natural world in which we live. Daily Joy is a wonderful celebration of God and faith.

In Breaking the Word – Reflections for the Year of Mark, Megan McKenna presents commentaries and reflections for the liturgical year of Mark. In her own inimitable style, the author reflects on readings for the Sundays and feast days of this year, accompanying the reader through the peaks and troughs of the biblical landscape and making scriptural connections to life that will challenge, uplift and sustain. Breaking the Word will be an invaluable as a resource for homilies, personal reflection or group study.

This collection of short case studies considers the issue of normatively in Judaism and Jewish identity. The questions of how and why certain aspects of Jewish life and thought come to be regarded as authoritative or normative, rather than inauthentic or marginal, have been and continue to be contentious ones. Topics include the philosopher Moses Maimonides, the composer Felix Mendelssohn, the self-perception of communal leadership in Manchester during the nineteenth- and twentieth-centuries, sermons of Jewish Reform rabbis during the Second World War, Orthodox rabbinic debate about war in general, representations of Jews in photographic exhibitions, the idea of Jewish music, and the academic study of Judaism itself.

The contributors have tried to reconstruct the mingling of two cultures, Greek and Italian, in sixteenth century Venice. This is examined through the medium of a single intricately carved wooden cross, executed by a Greek carver, with adaptations suitable to a member of the Latin church. We can identify the carver who made the cross and make some speculations about his life, and how he and his art are reflective of this hybrid culture. This type of cross seems to be for personal, rather than liturgical use, and it seems to be intended for private meditation on the Passion.

Moments: in innocent incidents and everday occurrences; in the words we use; in letters, text messages; in natural phenomena; in lines of poetry, anecdotes; in chance meetings; in the comings and goings of everyday life … Writer and broadcaster John Quinn’s new anthology, Moments, is a personal collection of words, events and observations that console, cheer, nourish, heal. Moments that are brief and often fleeting but, once caught and held, offer meaning to our lives and bear significance in their very simplicity, opening the door into what Yeats called ‘the rag and bone shop of the heart …’ The ‘moments’ contained within are drawn from John’s personal and professional life and, as a collection, they offer the reader opportunities to pause and reflect – little oases in our busy modern lives.

The Book of the Himyarites, given in Syriac and English translation, deals with the growth of Christianity in Arabia. The introduction provides details about the historical value of the work and its relationship to other related sources.

Veritas presents the Gospel of Mark. Beautifully illustrated, this special edition makes a wonderful addition to any church, school or parish centre. Also featured is the Lectio divina, an ancient way of praying with scripture and promoting communion with God.

This volume is part of a series of English translations of the Syriac Peshiṭta along with the Syriac text carried out by an international team of scholars. Childers has translated the Peshiṭta of Matthew, while Kiraz has prepared the Syriac text in the west Syriac script, fully vocalized and pointed. The translation and the Syriac text are presented on facing pages so that both can be studied together. All readers are catered for: those wanting to read the text in English, those wanting to improve their grasp of Syriac by reading the original language along with a translation, and those wanting to focus on a fully vocalized Syriac text.

A new English translation of the Syriac Peshitta along with the Syriac text carried out by an international team of scholars. Greenberg and Walter have produced an annotated translation of the Peshitta version of the Book of Isaiah, while Kiraz and Bali have edited the Peshitta text. The English translation and the Syriac text are shown on facing pages so that both can be studied together.

This work presents a putative reconstruction, testing the hypothesis that Islam is historically linked to Jewish Christianity. The argument takes the Qur’anic text to be a valid start-point for historical inquiry and reconstructs from biased views of Jewish Christianity the notion of an enduring Nasorean movement. The effective link between the Nasorean movement and the Meccan religious awakening is the preaching of the Qur’anic Prophet Shu’ayb in Midian, on the border of Arabia.

The Holocaust has provoked many different Jewish theological responses, yet upon closer inspection interesting commonalities can be observed between even seemingly antithetical thinkers. One of these common trends within Holocaust theology has been the rejection and replacement of traditional theodicies which explain and justify suffering, with responses centred on ideas of recovery, consolation and divine mystery. Another widespread, though largely unrecognized trend is use of Jewish mystical themes by Holocaust theologians. This study shows how the presence of Jewish mysticism can be explained, at least in part, by this post-Holocaust collapse of theodicy.