Bücher der Reihe Cambridge Library Collection - Religion

Specialising in optics and the motion of fluids, physicist George Gabriel Stokes (1819-1903) was Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge for over fifty years, President of the Royal Society, Master of Pembroke College and the most prominent religious scientist of his age. First published in 1893, Natural Theology contains the text of ten lectures he gave at Edinburgh. Stokes favoured the design argument for the existence of a Christian god, arguing against Darwinism. He believed the Bible to be true, though at times metaphorical. The lectures move from substantive observations on cosmology, electricity, gravity, ocular anatomy and evolution through to non sequiturs regarding providential design, human exceptionalism, the supernatural, spiritual immortality, and Christ's dual materiality and divinity. Fossilising a moment of impending shift in the history of ideas, these lectures highlight an intellectual dissonance in the Victorian scientific establishment.

In this two-volume set published in 1902, the writings of colonial American missionary David Brainerd help detail his life story and religious work amongst the Native Americans. Volume 2 contains Brainerd's journal retelling his missionary work with native peoples, together with correspondence and other religious writing.

In 1593 documents for a sequel to the Puritan work Parte of a Register were collected, but never published. Edited by the ecclesiastical historian Albert Peel (1886-1949) this study contains a list of these manuscripts, which provide valuable evidence of the concerns of the early Puritan movement in England.

Between 1878 and 1902, Constance E. Plumptre championed some of the most fascinating philosophical theories of the Victorian age. Volume 1 of her history of Pantheism (1878) tackles periods and theories as diverse as Brahminism and Scholasticism to provide an erudite but accessible introduction to Oriental, Greek and modern Pantheism.

In this lively three-volume account first published in 1843, the British adventurer and agent of the Bible Society, George Henry Borrow, describes his travels in Spain during the 1830s distributing the scriptures. The book's mixture of exotic travelogue and anti-Catholic sentiment proved very popular with early Victorian readers.

This is a two-volume translation by Clement Huart (1854-1926), a leading French Orientalist, of a fourteenth-century Persian text recording the lives of the founders of the order of whirling dervishes. Published in 1918-22, it provides fascinating insights into the origins of this branch of Islamic mysticism.

George Augustus Selwyn (1809-78) was the first Anglican bishop of New Zealand, and later bishop of Lichfield. His ministry helped to shape the form of the Anglican Communion and the relationship of the colonial churches to the Church of England. This 1879 biography was written by his chaplain.

This survey (1889) by an Oxford professor of Sanskrit presents the history, philosophy and practice of Buddhism in the context of other South Asian traditions. It broke new ground in the Western understanding of Buddhism, and remains of interest to historians of religious studies, Victorian Orientalism, and the British Empire.

In 1593 documents for a sequel to the Puritan work Parte of a Register were collected, but never published. Edited by the ecclesiastical historian Albert Peel (1886-1949) this study contains a list of these manuscripts, which provide valuable evidence of the concerns of the early Puritan movement in England.

This 1924 volume broke new ground by considering a collection of fragments of Manichaean texts that had been recently discovered in Turkestan. It describes the dualistic form of Christianity that thrived during the fourth and fifth centuries, and remains important for those studying heterodox movements in early Christianity.

This is a two-volume translation by Clement Huart (1854-1926), a leading French Orientalist, of a fourteenth-century Persian text recording the lives of the founders of the order of whirling dervishes. Published in 1918-22, it provides fascinating insights into the origins of this branch of Islamic mysticism.

This is volume 1 of William Ward's four-volume study of the religion and culture of West Bengal where he served as a missionary in the early nineteenth century, in its 1817 third edition. It describes and categorises Hindu deities and objects of worship, celestial, terrestrial, animate and inanimate.

The Religions of the World and Their Relations to Christianity (1847) collects F. D. Maurice's lectures from a series established by the philosopher Robert Boyle. This key work of early comparative theology analyses the 'main characteristical principles' of the major world religions: Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism and Christianity.

Indian Wisdom, first published in 1875, reflects the growing interest of Victorian Britain in South Asian culture and literature. Monier Williams, Professor of Sanskrit at Oxford, describes Hindu philosophy, customs and law. He also outlines the character and content of Sanskrit literature, which he compares with the poetry of Homer.

George Smith (1833-1919) published several popular books of missionary biography including this two-volume Life of Alexander Duff (1879). Duff, a Scottish Presbyterian missionary in India, was an influential educationalist who believed that successful evangelisation and modernisation depended on the education, in English, of India's upper-caste elite.

This 1889 biography by the Jesuit Richard F. Clarke covers the career of Charles Lavigerie (1825-1892), French cardinal, Primate of Africa, and founder of the White Fathers, up to 1888. It describes his early life, his missionary work in Africa, and focuses especially on his campaign against slavery.

In this 1817 book John Liddiard Nicholas tells the story of a five-month journey from New South Wales to New Zealand in the company of Samuel Marsden, who established the first Christian mission to the Maoris. Volume 1 outlines and highlights the relationships he himself developed with the Maoris.

Charles Christian Hennell (1809-1850) was a theological writer best known for his association with George Eliot. First published in 1838, this volume contains Hennell's deconstruction of the Bible to separate the historical character of Jesus from later myths. Hennell's 1839 work Christian Theism is also included in this volume.

Strauss' highly controversial The Life of Jesus applied strict historical methods to the gospel narratives and caused scandal by concluding that all miraculous elements were mythical and ahistorical. Volume 1 introduces the idea of 'de-mythology' and applies modern historical methods to the narratives of Jesus' birth and early life.

Presented in the form of a series of biographical essays, this 1845 history of Hebrew women traces a continuity from the biblical matriarchs to the Jewish women of Aguilar's own generation. Volume 1 focuses on the women of the Old Testament, starting with Eve and concluding with Hannah.

Presented in the form of a series of biographical essays, this 1845 history of Hebrew women traces a continuity from the biblical matriarchs to the Jewish women of Aguilar's own generation. Volume 2 continues with Old Testament and Talmudic heroines and concludes with a section on modern Jewish women.

Missionary Labours and Scenes in Southern Africa (1842) is an autobiographical account of missionary activity among the Tswana people of South Africa by the Scottish missionary and linguist Robert Moffat. It attracted a wide Victorian readership and became a classic narrative of missionary activity in Africa.

In this short, posthumous volume, published in 1902, the distinguished Cambridge scholar Fenton John Anthony Hort (1828-1892) discusses the role of philosophy in the early Christian period. The book focuses on Clement of Alexandria and contains the Greek text and English translation of Book 7 of his influential Miscellanies.

This volume contains the Short Journal, the Itinerary Journal, and the Haistwell Journal of George Fox (1624-1691), the founder of the Religious Society of Friends. It was first published in 1925 to mark the tercentenary of Fox's birth. It is a key source for the origins of the Quaker movement.

This account of the radical ideas of George Fox, the founder of Quakerism, his travels through Europe, the West Indies and America was compiled from documents dictated by Fox himself. First published in 1952, it provides an intimate insight into the life and trials of a seventeenth-century religious reformer.

A commentary written by the revered Assyrian bishop Isho'dad of Merv, an influential figure in the Eastern Church in the ninth century. Covering the gospels, this English translation was first published in 1911 by pioneering scholar Margaret Gibson and is a fascinating glimpse into the theology of its time.

A commentary in Syriac on the gospels of Matthew and Mark, written by the revered Assyrian bishop Isho'dad of Merv, an influential figure in the Eastern Church in the ninth century. First published in 1911 by pioneering scholar Margaret Gibson, this is a detailed interpretation of the first two gospels.

A commentary in Syriac on the gospels of Luke and John, written by the revered Assyrian bishop Isho'dad of Merv, an influential figure in the Eastern Church in the ninth century. First published in 1911 by pioneering scholar Margaret Gibson, this is a detailed interpretation of the first two gospels.

A commentary in Syriac and English on Acts and the epistles of James, Peter and John, written by the revered Assyrian bishop Isho'dad of Merv, an influential figure in the Eastern Church in the ninth century. Translated and first published in 1913 by pioneering scholar Margaret Gibson.

A detailed and incisive commentary in Syriac on the Epistles of Saint Paul, written by the revered Assyrian bishop Isho'dad of Merv, an influential figure in the Eastern Church in the ninth century. Edited and first published in 1916 by pioneering New Testament scholar Margaret Gibson.