Theology

In this painfully honest study, Appel describes the trials behind the early stages and the eventual success of the Theological Seminary of the Reformed Church in the United States. The first theological school of the German Reformed Church in America, the Theological Seminary opened in 1825. Appel analyzes the circumstances from 1817-1832.

Harnack’s classic lecture on the relationship between history and Christianity has stood the test of time. Both the concepts of personality and history are closely examined. Harnack asserts that historical criticism causes no real damage to authentic Christianity.

Three miniscule gospel codices held by the General Theological Seminary in New York are published in partial facsimile form, along with thorough collations and descriptions. Codices Gregory 669, 2324, and 2346 are included.

In the second century, well before the canonical gospels took their present form, Tatian wove from the four gospels and one or more Judaic-Christian gospels one harmonized account of the life of Christ, the Diatessaron. The Earliest Life of Christ is an English translation of the Diatessaron based on the Arabic version, itself a translation from the lost Syriac.

This book traces the history of American foreign missions of all denominations. Following a historical survey of the missionary activities, the author gives the biographies and works of twenty-nine men and women missionaries. Numerous portraits are included.

Tristram was among the earliest scholars to attempt a documentation of the physical landscape of the Holy Land. This study describes the geography, geology, meteorology, zoology, and botany of the land of the Bible, as experienced in the nineteenth century.

In the present climate of interest concerning the real Jesus, Case's 1927 study represents a vital contribution in the first quest for the historical Jesus. Often overlooked, this important volume is at last available to researchers in the current quest for Jesus, as well as those interested in the role of the Chicago School in that quest. Case avoids supernatural explanations as he deftly sketches the social contexts of what can be known of the historical Jesus.

This important volume remains a valuable aid to scholars seeking a basic knowledge of Eastern Orthodox rites. A selection of offices, especially those under theological controversy in their time, is presented in the original Greek with an English translation.

Brooke Foss Westcott, noted scholar on the canon of the New Testament, presented this series of devotional instructions as a result of a lecture series he delivered in 1880. Westcott applies his considerable knowledge to the eleven articles of the Apostles’ Creed as well as several broader subjects such as the ideas of religion, faith, divine fatherhood, the blood of Christ, and the communion of saints.

In this study concerning an important period in Sweden’s history, Anjou delivers a detailed account of the Reformation in that country. Beginning with the state of the Catholic Church in Sweden prior to 1520, Anjou traces the history of the Swedish Church up through the Council of Uppsala in 1593.

Bringing together into one volume the classic liturgical studies of C. E. Hammond and F. E. Brightman, this edition provides a valuable source of comparison on the liturgies of the church. Included in this edition are the complete text of Hammond’s “Antient Liturgies” and Brightman’s “Eastern Liturgies” from his two volume set “Liturgies Eastern and Western.”

The essays in this informative book were originally delivered as the Jowett Lectures for 1906. They address many critical issues regarding the historical veracity of the Gospels and represent the emerging interest in the historical Jesus that was the spirit of the times. Besides addressing the canonical Gospels, this volume also discusses Marcion and non-canonical gospels.

Commenting on an invaluable document that she personally found, Agnes Smith Lewis expresses her professional insights on this earliest extant version of the Syriac Gospels. This fourth century document, erased and written over, was discovered in the library of St. Catherine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai in 1892. In addition to discussing New Testament variants Lewis also addresses the issue of how science and biblical teaching might coexist.

Agnes Lewis was the discoverer of the Sinaitic Palimpsest, the oldest Syriac manuscript of the New Testament. Here she publishes her English translation of that text to make it available to Bible students who do not read Syriac. Included are the four canonical Gospels and a list of omitted words and phrases as well as interpolations into the Textus Receptus.

As a member of the Oxford Movement, Morris had a natural fascination with Eastern Christianity. Using his linguistic skills to translate select works of St. Ephrem into English, he chose those that would create an impact on his fellow Englishmen in the nineteenth century. These works are still treasured by western proponents of Eastern Christianity today.

This collection of fifteen Christmas tales from French and Spanish sources represents a variety of genres. In the style of the late nineteenth century holiday story, this work of fables and stories will set an appropriate mood for the holidays.

Trumbull’s tome was among the first to explore how looking at the Bible from the perspective of those in Palestine might influence the outlook of Western readers. In this volume Trumbull examines the social customs, religious practices, and basic concepts of those living in nineteenth-century Palestine to demonstrate how they bear upon modern understandings of the Bible.

This detailed study of the physical layout and traditions of the Holy Land and Syria contains an enormous amount of detailed information. For readers who wish to correct their vision of the actual physical geography of Syro-Palestine, this work remains a recommended source.

In this formidable study, Jastrow compares several aspects of the religious life of the Israelites and ancient Babylonias by comparison of their written texts. Among the topics examined are the creation and flood accounts, the concept of the Sabbath, and the ethics of both cultures.

Kraeling’s treatment of the ancient figure known as the "Anthropos” remains a challenging read even after several decades. Surveying Hellenistic, Gnostic, Manichean, Mandean, and Jewish sources, the author suggests a ubiquitous character known as the Anthropos was used in the New Testament to characterize aspects of Christ.

The original manuscript of the Arabic Improvement of the Moral Qualities was examined by Wise in order to prepare this edition. The text includes a copy of the original Arabic, a translation into English, and an essay on the place of Solomon ibn Gabirol in the development of Jewish ethics.

The first English biography of Saint Anselm, an eleventh century doctor of the church, this work has set the standard for works on the saint. Anselm became the Archbishop of Canterbury and led the English Catholic church through difficult political times.

Originally published as the Hibbert Lectures of 1887, this series of essays covers more than the title suggests. The work of an early explorer of Assyriology, this book traces many of the more familiar motifs and themes from ancient religion back to the ancient Babylonians.

Believing that a firm basis for understanding Jesus could be found in the sources of the Bible, Purinton undertook to justify such sources as Paul’s letters and the gospels as authentic source material for the life of Jesus. He examined all the books of the New Testament, but with the realization that not all of the Epistles add to our knowledge of who Jesus was. Purinton wished to make Jesus accessible by means of a scholarly study of his life, in this venture his book has few equals even today.

The work of the remarkable sisters Agnes Smith Lewis and Margaret Dunlop Gibson, this lectionary of what is now known as Christian Palestinian Aramaic, was re-edited in the light of two manuscripts from the Sinai, which they recovered, and from Paul de Lagarde’s Evangeliarium Hierosolymitanum. An important document for the textual criticism of the New Testament as well as for the early practice of the church, Lewis and Dunlap added to its value by composing this light “critical edition.” Presented in Syriac with English annotations to the Greek text of the Gospels, this useful study will be welcome by New Testament scholars and Syriac scholars alike.