This book provides a new glimpse of the Reformation from the viewpoint of ordinary Catholics negotiating a treacherous course between salvation and damnation, sovereign and pope, and faith and social position. Employing an interdisciplinary methodology, this work opens a window onto the daily realities faced by ordinary believers and the clergy who attempted to provide realistic opportunities for Catholics to remain Catholic in Protestant England. Lisa McClain challenges traditional views that Catholicism in the Reformation period should resemble late-medieval Catholicism or post-Tridentine...

In South Asia, the period between 1100 and 1300 CE was a particularly prolific time for theorists from India's three main indigenous religions - Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism - to articulate their views on the face-to-face gift encounter. Their gift theories shaped a cosmopolitan sensibility that shared ethical and aesthetic values that reached across regional, sectarian, and religious boundaries. This book explores the ethical and social implications of unilateral gifts of esteem, offering a perceptive guide to the uniquely South Asian contributors to theoretical work on the gift. For...

First published in 2006. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Demonstrating the power religious language, ideas, and institutions had in shaping progressive reform in Pittsburgh, this cross-disciplinary study addresses significant debates in the fields of Progressive-Era political history and American religious history, while telling the story of an industrial city in a crucial era of change.

The 19th century was a period of intense religious conflict across Europe, as people confronted the major changes brought out by modernity. In its analysis of the Zurich conflict, 'Liturgy Wars' offers a strategy for understanding the links between theology, ritual and socio-politics.

This book examines how an elite group of traditionists, historians and theologians shaped Muslims' perceptions of their prophet, their community and their behavior by retelling and interpreting the story of Muhammad's ascent to heaven (the mi'raj).

Through compelling personal stories and in rich detail, McClain reveals the give-and-take interaction between the institutional church in Rome and the needs of believers and the hands-on clergy who provided their pastoral care within England. In doing so, she illuminates larger issues of how believers and low-level clergy push the limits of official orthodoxy in order to meet devotional needs.