A preeminent scholar explores the evolution of the Christian worldview and argues that it no longer offers a satisfactory vision for our democratic, multicultural society. This book is the culmination of a lifelong scholarly inquiry into Christian history, religion as a social institution, and the role of myth in the history of religions. Mack shows that religions are essentially mythological and that Christianity in particular has been an ever-changing...

Presents a panorama of religious life in the Soviety republics. Includes analyses and documents.

"This volume offers theoretical, historical, and jurisprudential perspectives on religious freedom, while examining what it may entail as an experience, a value, and a right. We start from the premise that the terrain of religious freedom never has been easy or smooth. Across societies, defending or contesting principles of religious freedom has required compromise, balancing, and wrangling with the law. On rocky ground-to continue the environmental...

"This book addresses the challenge of providing for the free exercise of religion without allowing religious exercise by some individuals and groups to impinge upon the conscientious convictions of others. State neutrality toward religion is impossible, because neutrality means inattention to religion for some, but leveling the playing field through accommodations or exemptions for others. Both formal and substantive neutrality have a place in addressing...

At the First Baptist Church of Maeby, Arkansas, the sins of the child belonged to the parents until the child turned thirteen. Sarah Jones was only eight years old in the summer of 1964, but with her mother Esther Mae on eight prayer lists and flipping around town with the generally mistrusted civil rights organizers, Sarah believed it was time to get baptized and take responsibility for her own sins. That would mean sitting on the mourners bench...

"Heroic Hearts: Sentiment, Saints, and Authority in Modern France examines how young women, authorized by a widespread cultural discourse that privileged public action over love and marriage, sought to change the world."--