Did the universe start with a bang, or has it existed always? Was there a supernatural being behind it all, or just mindless forces? The beginning of things has forever tested the limits of curiosity, and such questions have both challenged atheists and inspired believers. Ancient cultures resorted to myth and symbolism to tell vibrant stories about human origins. Later civilizations added philosophical and scientific explanations: but these are not definitive. The nature and meaning of existence - the 'why' as much as the 'how' questions - are in the end mysterious.
In this lively and...

What did people really believe in the Middle Ages? Much of our sense of the medieval period has come down to us from the writings of the learned: the abbots, priors, magnates, scholastic theologians, and others who between them, and across Christendom, controlled the machinery of church and state. For G. R. Evans too much emphasis has been placed on a governing elite and too little on those-the great mass of the semi-literate and illiterate, and the emergent middle classes-who stood outside the innermost circles of ecclesiastical power, privilege, and education. Her book finally gives proper...

This volume contains the complete works of this important monastic theologian, friend and pupil of St Anselm, including a completely revised edition of his influential Disputatio Iudei et Christiani .