Jaroslav Jan Pelikan

"Two great theologians endeavor to restore the importance of Marian doctrine and devotion for the contemporary Church by offering a spiritually rich approach to Mariology. This effort brings into new relief the Marian contours of ecclesial faith. Ratzinger and von Balthasar show that Mary is both the embodiment of the Church, and the mother who co-operates in giving birth to the Church in the souls of believers."--Jacket.

The debates over teaching evolution and/or creationism in the public schools are striking evidence of the tensions between a biblical and a philosophical-scientific explanation of the origins of the universe and the human race. To make historical sense of such debates and those tensions, it is essential to put them into context. For most of the past twenty centuries, that context has been supplied by the relation (or "counterpoint") between two monumental texts: the Timaeus of Plato and the Book of Genesis. In What Has Athens to Do with Jerusalem? Jaroslav Pelikan examines the origins of this counterpoint. He reviews the central philosophical issues of origins as posed in classical Rome by Lucretius and then proceeds to an examination of each of the two texts with Plato representing Athens and Moses representing Jerusalem. He then follows the three most important case studies of the counterpoint - in the Jewish philosophical theology of Alexandria, in the Christian thought of Constantinople, and in the intellectual foundations of the Western Middle Ages represented by Catholic Rome, where Timaeus would be the only Platonic dialogue in general circulation. Pelikan's study leads to original findings that deal with Christian doctrine in the period of the church fathers, including the Three Cappadocians (Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nazianzus, and Gregory of Nyssa) in the East, and in the West, Ambrose, Augustine, and Boethius. All of these vitally important authors addressed the problem of the "counterpoint," and neither they nor these primary texts can become fully intelligible without attention to the central issues being explored here. What Has Athens to Do with Jerusalem? will be of interest to historians, theologians, and philosophers and to anyone with interest in any of the traditions addressed herein.

In this book, one of our greatest religious historians brings his vast knowledge of the history of biblical interpretation to bear on the question of constitutional interpretation.

Un fascinante estudio de la evolución de la Biblia, esta historia exhaustiva discute los primitivos textos hebreos, la aparición del Nuevo Testamento en griego, y la primera traducción al latín. Otros temas explorados incluyen la canonización biblica, su traducción a las lenguas contemporáneas, y la razón por la cual ciertos libros fueron adoptados por determinadas religiones y sectas.

The core of the Christian faith is pessimism about life and optimism about God, and therefore hope for life in God. These five chapters examine some of the forms that this pessimism about life and optimism about God took during the second and third centuries, as the Christian community began to reflect upon the implications of its message. They are based upon the though of five Church Fathers from those centuries: Tatian, Clement of Alexandria, Cyprian, Origen and Irenaeus. The titles of these essays are symbols taken from plane geometry because these five figures seem to summarize the several insights into "the shape of death" characteristic of these five Christian theologians.

His figure and teachings as reflected in the minds of many men.

"The Encyclopedia of Christianity is the first of a five-volume English translation of the third revised edition of Evangelisches Kirchenlexikon. Its German articles have been tailored to suit an English readership, and articles of special interest to English readers have been added. The encyclopedia describes Christianity through its 2000-year history within a global context, taking into account other religions and philosophies. A special feature is the statistical information dispersed throughout the articles on the continents and over 170 countries. Social and cultural coverage is given to such issues as racism, genocide, and armaments, while historical content shows the development of biblical and apostolic traditions. This comprehensive work, while scholarly, is intended for a wide audience and will set the standard for reference works on Christianity."--"Outstanding reference sources 2000", American Libraries, May 2000. Comp. by the Reference Sources Committee, RUSA, ALA.