Bücher veröffentlicht von The Lutterworth Press

The Middle Ages, in our cultural imagination, are besieged with ideas of wars, tournaments, plagues, saints and kings, knights, lords and ladies. In his era-defining work, Inventing the Middle Ages, Norman Cantor shows that these presuppositions are in fact constructs of the twentieth century. Through close study of the lives and works of twenty of the twentieth century¿s most prominent medievalists, Cantor examines how the genesis of this fantasy arose in the scholars¿ spiritual and emotional outlooks, which influenced their portrayals of the Middle Ages. In the course of this vigorous scrutiny of their scholarship, he navigates the strong personalities and creative minds involved with deft skill.Written with both students and the general public in mind, Inventing the Middle Ages provided an alternative framework for the teaching of the humanities. Revealing the interconnection between medieval civilisation, the culture of the twentieth century and our own assumptions, Cantor provides a unique standpoint both forwards and backwards. As lively and engaging today as when it was first published in 1991, his analysis offers readers the core essentials of the subject in an entertaining and humorous fashion.

C.S. Lewis¿s enlightened, foundational respect for the Jews as God¿s chosen people is a feature in much of his apologetic and theological writing. Although as a boy and young man Lewis reflected much of the implicit anti-Semitism inherent in the public-school-educated Edwardian establishment, this was replaced by deep respect when he became a Christian. Later on, Lewis¿s understanding was much enhanced by his wife, Joy Davidman (m. 1956); born to American Jewish parents, she was an adult convert to Yeshua Ha Mashiach - Jesus Christ - and Lewis referred to her as a Jewish Christian.A Hebraic Inkling examines in depth this Jewish-Hebrew influence in Lewis¿ life and works. Analysing some of his key writings in theology, philosophy, literature and apologetics, his rigorous stand against anti-Semitism and affinity for Jewish literature and culture is outlined, as well as his vision of how Christians are enfolded into the chosen people. This respect and affinity extended to Lewis¿ own family; when one of Joy¿s children sought to return to his mother¿s birth-faith, Lewis moved all to accommodate his wishes and raise him as a Jew, after Joy¿s untimely death.

The late twentieth century saw charities grow from timid service deliverers into major providers with campaigning teeth. What caused this? How did they gain confidence and strength? In this fascinating history, examined through the eyes of RNIB from 1970 to 2010, Ian Bruce examines the internal drivers and the external socio-political environment that allowed and encouraged this explosion. Bruce¿s experience of leading a charity at the forefront of this change, and his participation in the wider charity sector for fiftyyears as both activist and academic, gives him an unsurpassed understanding of what happened and why. His first-hand knowledge will speak to charity workers as well as academics, covering themes such as the rise of beneficiary power against patronising providers; the change from welfare to rights; the shift from the medical to the social model of disability; and the adoption of social welfare and business professionalisms such as Strategic Planning and Charity Marketing. Today¿s charities have much to learn from the successes and mistakes of this dynamic period.

The Industrial Revolution provided the greatest increase in living standards the world has ever known while propelling Britain to dominance on the global stage. In Forging Modernity, Martin Hutchinson looks at how and why Britain gained this prize ahead of its European competitors. After comparing their endowments and political structures as far back as 1600, he then traces how Britain, through better policies primarily from the political Tory party, diverged from other European countries. Hutchinson¿s Harvard MBA allows a unique perspective on the early industrial enterprises - many successes resulted from marketing, control systems and logistics rather than from production technology alone, while on a national scale the scientific method and commercial competition were as important as physical infrastructure. By 1830, through ever-improving policies, Britain had built a staggering industrial lead, half a century ahead of its rivals. Then the Tories lost power and policy changed forever. In his conclusion, Hutchinson shows how changes welcomed by conventional historians caused the decline of Industrial Britain. Nevertheless, the policies that drove growth, ingenuity and rising living standards are still available for those bold enough to adopt them.

This book invites readers into Tolkien¿s world through the lens of a variety of philosophers, all of whom owe a rich debt to the Neoplatonic philosophical tradition. It places Tolkien¿s mythology against a wider backdrop of Catholic philosophy and asks serious questions about the nature of creation, the nature of God, what it means to be good, and the problem of evil. Halsall sets Tolkien alongside both his contemporaries and ancient authors, revealing his careful use of literary devices inspired by them to craft his own ¿mythology for England.¿

The great Victorian Christian author George MacDonald is the well-spring of the modern fantasy genre. In this book Colin Manlove offers explorations of MacDonald's eight shorter fairy tales and his longer stories At the Back of the North Wind, The Princess and the Goblin, The Wise Woman, and The Princess and Curdie. MacDonald saw the imagination as the source of fairy tales and of divine truth together. For he believed that God lives in the depths of the human mind and ¿sends up from thence wonderful gifts into the light of the understanding.¿ This makes MacDonald that very rare thing: a writer of mystical fiction whose work can give us experience of the divine. Throughout his children¿s fantasy stories MacDonald is describing the human and divine imagination. In the shorter tales he shows how the imagination has different regions and depths, each able to shift into the other. With the longer stories we see the imagination in relation to other aspects of the self and to its position in the world. Here the imagination is portrayed as often embattled in relation to empiricism, egotism, and greed.

We cannot really love anybody with whom we never laugh, and this is true of our relationship with God. Thomas Aquinas spoke of the sin of having too little laughter as well as the danger of having too much, while Martin Luther said, ¿If yoüre not allowed to laugh in heaven, I don¿t want to go there.¿ Having a sense of humour is essential for maturity in faith and holiness, but sadly, the role that laughter plays in life and spirituality have often been neglected.Laughter and the Grace of God restores laughter to its central place in Christian spirituality and theology by examining its role in Scripture and highlighting its presence in unexpected places, including the story of Abraham and the formation of the covenant, and the tragedy of Job. Laughter can be found in the incarnation, the resurrection, and even the crucifixion ¿ Jesus is himself the great laugh-maker ¿ and it is nothing less than a participation in the life and love of God.

In this engaging and practical book Mark Pike and Thomas Lickona show how C.S. Lewis' wisdom for nurturing good character, and his much-loved Chronicles of Narnia, inspire us to virtue. Drawing upon the Judeo-Christian virtues of faith, hope and love and 'Narnian' virtues such as courage, integrity and wisdom, they present an approach to contemporary character education validated by recent research. An introduction to C.S. Lewis' thought on character and faith is followed by practical examples of how to use well-known passages from the Narnia novels as a stimulus for rich character development at home and in the classroom.

The Final Days of Jesus is not only a book about religion, but also of Roman history. The events which took place during the Passover of 33 AD may have changed the course of the entire western world, but it is important to recognise that our understanding of them have been shaped by almost two thousand years of faith, studies and oral and written tradition. For the people of the time however, the significance of Jesus's final days remained largely unacknowledged. Mark Smith, a classical historian and an expert storyteller, vividly depicts the final days of Jesus, writing with a keen focus on historical fact: what really happened, and who was involved? Pontius Pilatus is typically considered to be one of the most justly hated men of Christian history, but was he really a despicable tyrant, or was he just a man with a lack of foresight, constrained in a difficult situation, trapped between the Roman law and higher political powers? Who were Annas and Caiaphas, High Priests of Jerusalem, and how did they become embroiled in the decision to crucify an obscure teacher from Nazareth? This book compellingly explores the role which politics played in the execution of the "e;King of the Jews"e;.

A biography of Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh, based on published and unpublished materials, interviews with surviving contemporaries and the author's own experience as a pupil of Russian emigres, of life in the Soviet Union and of the Russian Patriarchal Church in London.

A helpfully concise commentary on Paul's letter to the early Christians in Rome, which the Apostle wrote just a few years before the outbreak of Nero's persecution. Keener examines each paragraph for its function in the letter as a whole, helping the reader follow Paul's argument. Where relevant, he draws on his vast work in ancient Jewish and Greco-Roman sources in order to help modern readers understand the message of Romans according to the way the first audience would have heard it. Throughout, Keener focuses on major points that are especially critical for the contemporary study of Paul's most influential and complex New Testament letter.

The story of Richard Aldington, outstanding Imagist poet and author of the best selling war novel, Death of a Hero (1929), takes place against the backdrop of some of the most turbulent and creative years of the twentieth century. Vivien Whelpton provides a remarkably detailed and sensitive portrayal of the writer from early adolescence. His life as a stalwart of the pre- war London literary scene, as a soldier, and in the difficult aftermath of the First World War is deftly rendered through a careful and detailed analysis of the novels, poems and letters of the writer himself and his close circle of acquaintance. The complexities of London's Bohemia, with its scandalous relationships, social grandstanding and incredible creative output, are masterfully untangled, and the spotlight placed firmly on the talented group of poets christened by Ezra Pound as 'Imagistes'. The author demonstrates profound psychological insight into Aldington's character and childhood in her nuanced analysis of his post- war survivor's guilt, and consideration of the three most influential women in his life: his wife, the gifted American poet, H.D.; Dorothy Yorke, the woman he left her for; and Brigit Patmore, his brilliant and fascinating older mistress. Richard Aldington: Poet, Soldier and Lover vividly reveals Aldington's warm and passionate nature and the vitality which characterized his life and works, concluding with his triumphant personal and literary resurrection with the publication of Death of a Hero.