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America has experienced three seismic shocks, say Robert Putnam and David Campbell. In the 1960s, religious observance plummeted. Then in the 1970s and 1980s, a conservative reaction produced the rise of evangelicalism and the Religious Right. Since the 1990s, however, young people, turned off by that linkage between faith and conservative politics, have abandoned organized religion. The result has been a growing polarization--the ranks of religious conservatives and secular liberals have swelled, leaving a dwindling group of religious moderates in between. At the same time, personal interfaith ties are strengthening. Interfaith marriage has increased while religious identities have become more fluid. Putnam and Campbell show how this denser web of personal ties brings surprising interfaith tolerance, notwithstanding the so-called culture wars.

American Grace is based on two of the most comprehensive surveys ever conducted on religion and public life in America. It includes a dozen in-depth profiles of diverse congregations across the country, which illuminate how the trends described by Putnam and Campbell affect the lives of real Americans.

Nearly every chapter of American Grace contains a surprise about American religious life. Among them:

- Between one-third and one-half of all American marriages are interfaith;

- Roughly one-third of Americans have switched religions at some point in their lives;

- Young people are more opposed to abortion than their parents but more accepting of gay marriage;

- Even fervently religious Americans believe that people of other faiths can go to heaven;

- Religious Americans are better neighbors than secular Americans: more generous with their time and treasure even for secular causes--but the explanation has less to do with faith than with their communities of faith;

- Jews are the most broadly popular religious group in America today.

American Grace promises to be the most important book in decades about American religious life and an essential book for understanding our nation today.

A crucial book for historians of the biblical period and for students of the Bible, "I Chronicles" is to be neither accepted as a faithful narrative of the Davidic period nor dismissed as a fanciful, imaginative re-creation of that history. It must be taken as an important clue to the biblical process. For here we find the Bible quoting itself--sometimes directly, sometimes in paraphrase.

Professor Myers meticulously analyzes important aspects of the Chronicler and his work--his method of composition, his conviction that to rebuild the nation of Israel one had to restore and strengthen her traditional religion, his significantly post-Exilic perspective. The book also examines the vast literature on Chronicles to find what it yields toward a better understanding of the Chronicler and a fuller appreciation of his work. Finally, it compares--in exhaustive detail-- "I Chronicles" with the other books in the Bible to which it is parallel. The volume Professor Myers has produced is no less than a definitive treatment of the subject.

James Pritchard's classic anthologies of the ancient Near East have introduced generations of readers to texts essential for understanding the peoples and cultures of this important region. Now these two enduring works have been combined and integrated into one convenient and richly illustrated volume, with a new foreword that puts the translations in context.

With more than 130 reading selections and 300 photographs of ancient art, architecture, and artifacts, this volume provides a stimulating introduction to some of the most significant and widely studied texts of the ancient Near East, including the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Creation Epic (Enuma elish), the Code of Hammurabi, and the Baal Cycle. For students of history, religion, the Bible, archaeology, and anthropology, this anthology provides a wealth of material for understanding the ancient Near East.

Kelly Donahue-Wallace surveys the art and architecture created in the Spanish Viceroyalties of New Spain, Peru, New Granada, and La Plata from the time of the conquest to the independence era. Emphasizing the viceregal capitals and their social, economic, religious, and political contexts, the author offers a chronological review of the major objects and monuments of the colonial era.

In order to present fundamental differences between the early and later colonial periods, works are offered chronologically and separated by medium--painting, urban planning, religious architecture, and secular art--so the aspects of production, purpose, and response associated with each work are given full attention. Primary documents, including wills, diaries, and guild records are placed throughout the text to provide a deeper appreciation of the contexts in which the objects were made.

'Not for the timid, this brilliant book calls for nothing short of the overthrow of patriarchy itself.' --The Village Voice

In this groundbreaking and authoritative study, Chloë Starr explores key writings of Chinese Christian intellectuals, from philosophical dialogues of the late imperial era to sermons and micro blogs of theological educators and pastors in the twenty-first century. Through a series of close textual readings, she sheds new light on the fraught issues of Chinese Christian identity and the evolving question of how Christianity should relate to Chinese society.