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For centuries, scripture and theology were the focus of prodigious amounts of scholarship and publishing. Enlightenment philosophy and science, anthropology, ethnology and the colonial experience all brought new perspectives, lively debates and heated controversies to the study of religion and its role in the world, many of which continue to this day. This series explores the editing and interpretation of religious texts, the history of religious ideas and institutions, and not least the encounter between religion and science.

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253 results in Cambridge Library Collection - Religion

Page 5 of 13

A Narrative of the Visit to the American Churches
  • By the Deputation from the Congregation Union of England and Wales
  • Volume 2
  • Andrew Reed, James Matheson
  • Published online:
    05 February 2013
    Print publication:
    23 February 2012
    First published in:
    1835
  • Andrew Reed (1787–1862) was a Congregational Minister and one of the leading philanthropists of his day, fund-raising for and founding a number of orphanages and asylums. In 1834, he and fellow Congregational Minister James Matheson (1766–1840) were sent to the Congregational churches of the United States, in order to promote peace and friendship between the two communities. This two-volume 1835 work consists of thirty-nine letters in which the authors recount their journey, and their meetings with their fellow Congregationalists. They visited a large number of cities, mostly on the Eastern Seaboard, and made one excursion to Canada. Volume 2 tells of the many different communities that Reed and Matheson encounter in America, and the focus is mostly on theological and educational issues. They approve of female academies, asking rhetorically, 'why should not our daughters, equally with our sons, possess the advantages, which these institutions … so readily supply?'.

Fragments of Philo Judaeus
  • Edited by J. Rendel Harris
  • Published online:
    05 February 2013
    Print publication:
    02 February 2012
    First published in:
    1886
  • The scholar and philosopher Philo Judaeus born around 25 BCE in Alexandria, blended his knowledge of Jewish law and scripture with his command of Greek philosophy in his influential works, ensuring that he became a subject of intellectual enquiry in his own right. However, James Rendel Harris (1852–1941), a biblical scholar, palaeographer and Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge, thought Philo too 'slenderly prized' in Britain. Harris intended this collection, published in 1886, to bring together surviving fragments of Philo's work. In a detailed introduction, he explains the complicated tasks involved in identifying and classifying these ancient texts, and also points out that this volume is intended to provide a basis for future research on Philo. The fragments are presented in their original Greek, most of them accompanied by a Latin translation. Harris provides notes throughout, and the book continues to offer a valuable resource for biblical and philosophical scholarship.

Catalogue of the Syriac MSS. in the Convent of S. Catharine on Mount Sinai
  • Compiled by Agnes Smith Lewis
  • Published online:
    05 February 2013
    Print publication:
    23 February 2012
    First published in:
    1894
  • The sisters Agnes Lewis (1843–1926) and Margaret Gibson (1843–1920) were pioneering biblical scholars who became experts in a number of ancient languages. Travelling widely in the Middle East, they made several significant discoveries, including one of the earliest manuscripts of the Four Gospels in Syriac, a dialect of Aramaic, the language probably spoken by Jesus himself. Their chief discoveries were made in the Monastery of St Catherine on Mount Sinai. This work is a list of the monastery's manuscripts in Syriac, compiled by Agnes Lewis in 1893 and first published in 1894. Written in English and Modern Greek for use as a tool for scholars and for the monks themselves, this fascicule provides a careful document of the monastery's Syriac pages, their physical state and content. This text will be of great interest to Syriac scholars and those interested in Middle Eastern monastic and broader Christian history.

Pistis Sophia
  • A Gnostic Gospel
  • Edited and translated by G. R. S. Mead
  • Published online:
    05 February 2013
    Print publication:
    08 March 2012
    First published in:
    1896
  • George Robert Stow Mead (1863–1933) was for twenty-five years a prominent member of the Theosophical Society and worked closely with its founder, Helena Blavatsky. He was fascinated both by eastern religions and by western esotericism, including gnosticism, and published widely in these areas. Pistis Sophia, an important, probably second-century, text preserved in a Coptic manuscript, presents complex gnostic teachings in 'gospel' format, as having been addressed by Jesus Christ to his disciples after the resurrection. This translation, based on a Latin version published in 1851, appeared in 1896 and was the first English version of a major gnostic work. The book also includes passages from the Books of the Saviour found in the same manuscript. Mead's introduction discusses the origin of the texts and highlights their difficulty. It also describes the upsurge of scholarly interest in Gnosticism in the mid-nineteenth century and the mysterious history of the manuscript itself.

Ecclesiasticus: The Greek Text of Codex 248
  • Edited with a Textual Commentary and Prolegomena
  • Edited by John Henry Arthur Hart
  • Published online:
    05 February 2013
    Print publication:
    16 February 2012
    First published in:
    1909
  • Ecclesiasticus is a religious work, written in Hebrew in the second century BCE by the Jewish scribe Jesus ben Sirach. Although it was not accepted into the Hebrew Bible and the original version is lost, its Greek translation is found in the Septuagint. The focus of this study by Cambridge scholar J. H. A. Hart (1876–1952) is on the Greek text of Ecclesiasticus from a fourteenth-century codex, written in a miniscule cursive hand. First published in 1909, the book contains the text in transcription, based on the work of Charles Taylor, who had previously published a study of the text. Hart next investigates its relationship to surviving fragments of the Hebrew version, and the results of his research are included in his textual commentary. He provides a thorough analysis of the Greek translator's prologue and compares variant Greek versions of the work. Hart's edition remains of use to biblical scholars today.

The Wisdom of Solomon
  • In the Revised Version with Introduction and Notes
  • Edited by J. A. F. Gregg
  • Published online:
    05 February 2013
    Print publication:
    26 January 2012
    First published in:
    1909
  • Although much about this apocryphal book of the Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) is unknown, it remains an influential and much-studied work. J. A. F. Gregg (1873–1961), who was educated at Christ's College, Cambridge, and later became Church of Ireland archbishop of Dublin and then of Armagh, gives an extensive introduction to his edition of the English version, published in the 'Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges' series in 1909. He examines the complicated problem of dating the text, as well as the question of its original language and possible author, concluding this was most likely a Jewish person from Alexandria, at some time after the second century BCE, and not King Solomon himself. The text itself examines many aspects of wisdom, from its inherent nature to its role in the protection of Israelites. Gregg provides notes throughout, making this volume a detailed guide to an important piece of sacred writing.

The Old Testament in Greek According to the Septuagint
  • Volume 3, Hosea – 4 Maccabees, Part 2
  • Edited by Henry Barclay Swete
  • Published online:
    05 December 2012
    Print publication:
    22 April 2010
    First published in:
    1894
  • Volume 3 of The Old Testament in Greek According to the Septuagint, edited by the Cambridge scholar Henry Barclay Swete (1835-1917), was first published in 1894. It contains the books from Hosea to 4 Maccabees with the Psalms of Solomon as an appendix. Swete set an important precedent for later editors by using an actual manuscript text as the edition's base. He selected the fourth-century Codex Vaticanus, which is still widely considered to contain the earliest and most valuable form of Septuagint text; many later editors have followed suit. Where Vaticanus was defective the text was supplemented by Codex Alexandrinus or another important uncial manuscript. A critical apparatus contains the readings of eleven manuscripts for the Prophets and Maccabees, three for the Psalms, and five minuscules for the Psalms of Solomon. The edition's clarity helped it become one of the most widely used versions of the Septuagint.

Man and the Universe
  • A Study of the Influence of the Advance in Scientific Knowledge upon our Understanding of Christianity
  • Oliver Lodge
  • Published online:
    05 December 2012
    Print publication:
    22 December 2011
    First published in:
    1909
  • The physicist Sir Oliver Lodge (1851–1940) made significant contributions to the study of electrons, electromagnetic waves, X-rays, radio and telegraphy, earning him the Rumford Medal, the Faraday Medal and, in 1902, a knighthood. In addition to serving as President of the Physical Society, Lodge succeeded F. W. H. Myers as President of the Society for Psychical Research, an organisation devoted to the study of paranormal phenomena. In this work, first published in 1908, Lodge discusses the controversy between science and faith, showing how the self-sufficient laws of 'orthodox science' may be reconciled with the divinely ordered universe of 'orthodox religion'. Immensely popular from the moment of its publication, the book reached its twenty-first printing in 1928. This sixth edition of 1909 conveys the full scope of Lodge's ambitious project, including his treatments of evolutionary science, church reform and the immortality of the soul.

Conference on Missions Held in 1860 at Liverpool
  • Including the Papers Read, the Deliberations, and the Conclusions Reached
  • Published online:
    05 December 2012
    Print publication:
    08 December 2011
    First published in:
    1860
  • Published in 1860, this book is the detailed record of the conference on Christian missions that was held in Liverpool in that year. Edited by the conference secretaries, it includes the papers submitted to the meeting and the conclusions drawn at the conference. The delegates were missionaries, directors and secretaries of missionary societies, and church representatives from across Britain. The meeting was a way to share ideas on all aspects of missionary work from recruitment and training through to dealing with the challenges missionaries faced in practice. The book has a complete index of the subjects discussed, which included the implications of the Indian Mutiny of 1857; female education; fundraising; and an assessment of the role of medical missions in China and Japan. It also includes a bibliography of written material on Christian missions available at the time of publication.

The Old Testament in Greek According to the Septuagint
  • Volume 3, Hosea – 4 Maccabees, Part 1
  • Edited by Henry Barclay Swete
  • Published online:
    05 December 2012
    Print publication:
    22 April 2010
    First published in:
    1894
  • Volume 3 of The Old Testament in Greek According to the Septuagint, edited by the Cambridge scholar Henry Barclay Swete (1835–1917), was first published in 1894. It contains the books from Hosea to 4 Maccabees with the Psalms of Solomon as an appendix. Swete set an important precedent for later editors by using an actual manuscript text as the edition's base. He selected the fourth-century Codex Vaticanus, which is still widely considered to contain the earliest and most valuable form of Septuagint text; many later editors have followed suit. Where Vaticanus was defective the text was supplemented by Codex Alexandrinus or another important uncial manuscript. A critical apparatus contains the readings of eleven manuscripts for the Prophets and Maccabees, three for the Psalms, and five minuscules for the Psalms of Solomon. The edition's clarity helped it become one of the most widely used versions of the Septuagint.

Memoir of the Life and Episcopate of George Augustus Selwyn, D.D.
  • Bishop of New Zealand, 1841–1869, Bishop of Lichfield, 1867–1878
  • Volume 2
  • H. W. Tucker
  • Published online:
    05 November 2012
    Print publication:
    15 December 2011
    First published in:
    1879
  • This two-volume biography of George Augustus Selwyn (1809–78), the first Anglican bishop of New Zealand, after whom Selwyn College, Cambridge, was later named, was published in 1879. Selwyn was ordained in 1834 and served as curate at Windsor; in 1840, when New Zealand was declared an independent British colony, he was chosen as first bishop of the newly established diocese. The declared aim was to develop an Anglican organisation for the growing European settlement, while resisting too much state control, and by 1857 Selwyn had drafted a constitution for the Church of New Zealand which led eventually to disestablishment. A staunch defender of indigenous rights, he travelled widely throughout New Zealand and the Pacific islands, and subsequently played a leading role in the first Lambeth Conference. In Volume 2, H. W. Tucker describes Selwyn's later ministry, the effect of the Maori Wars, and his final years as bishop of Lichfield.

Memoir of the Life and Episcopate of George Augustus Selwyn, D.D.
  • Bishop of New Zealand, 1841–1869, Bishop of Lichfield, 1867–1878
  • Volume 1
  • H. W. Tucker
  • Published online:
    05 November 2012
    Print publication:
    15 December 2011
    First published in:
    1879
  • This two-volume biography of George Augustus Selwyn (1809–78), the first Anglican bishop of New Zealand, after whom Selwyn College, Cambridge, was later named, was published in 1879. Selwyn was ordained in 1834 and served as curate at Windsor while tutoring at Eton; in 1840, when New Zealand was declared an independent British colony, he was chosen as first bishop of the newly established diocese. The declared aim was to develop an Anglican organisation for the growing European settlement, while resisting too much state control, and by 1857 Selwyn had drafted a constitution for the Church of New Zealand which led eventually to disestablishment. A staunch defender of indigenous rights, he travelled widely throughout New Zealand and the Pacific islands, and subsequently played a leading role in the first Lambeth Conference. In Volume 1, his former chaplain, H. W. Tucker, describes Selwyn's early life, ordination and first decade in New Zealand.

Testimonies
  • Volume 2
  • J. Rendel Harris
  • Assisted by Vacher Burch
  • Published online:
    05 November 2012
    Print publication:
    22 December 2011
    First published in:
    1920
  • In this two-volume work, J. Rendel Harris (1852–1941) fundamentally shaped Biblical scholarship in the twentieth century, arguing for the existence of a 'first known treatise on Christian theology', antedating the New Testament. A palaeographer, Harris examined recurring textual corruptions of Old Testament passages in early Christian writers and surmised an underlying collection, which he called the 'Testimony Book'. The book, Harris believed, collected Biblical testimonia - passages prophesying Christ - in order to prove the legitimacy of the new Christian faith. These arguments against Judaic theology marked, in Harris's opinion, the beginnings of the Christian written tradition. Volume 2 (1920) seeks to demonstrate how the New Testament relied upon the 'Testimony Book', by examining Galatians, Hebrews and other letters and gospels. 'The starting point of the modern study of the use of the Old Testament in the New', this is a work of enduring importance to religion scholars.

Memoirs of the Life and Labours of the Rev. Samuel Marsden of Paramatta, Senior Chaplain of New South Wales
  • And of his Early Connexion with the Missions to New Zealand and Tahiti
  • J. B. Marsden
  • Published online:
    05 October 2012
    Print publication:
    08 November 2011
    First published in:
    1858
  • The Revd Samuel Marsden (1765–1838) was an influential religious figure in Australia, New Zealand and Tahiti. Educated at St John's College, Cambridge, and having spent time in Australia as a missionary to convicts and aborigines, from 1814 until his death he worked as a missionary to the Maori in New Zealand. First published in 1858, this biography, which uses Marsden's own letters and memoirs by friends and colleagues to explore his life and work, was edited by the historian J. B. Marsden (1803–70) who was not in fact related to his subject. Vivid and anecdotal, the work reveals Marsden's strong religious beliefs and his dedication to the welfare of the war-torn native peoples, even though his activities were not always popular. The editorial commentary sets Marsden's work within a social and historical context, and the study concludes with some appendixes documenting his lasting influence on New Zealand and Tahiti.

The Lives of Father Joseph Anchieta, of the Society of Jesus: the Ven. Alvera von Virmundt, Religious of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre, and the Ven. John Berchmans, of the Society of Jesus
  • Sebastiano Berettari, Caspar Peter Lull, Nicholas Frizon
  • Published online:
    05 October 2012
    Print publication:
    17 November 2011
    First published in:
    1849
  • This book first appeared in 1849, during the renaissance of English Catholicism that followed the 1829 Relief Act. It contains three anonymous translations of early modern biographies. The first, published in Latin in Cologne in 1617 by Sebastiano Berettari (1543–1622), and translated here from an Italian manuscript version of 1670, focuses on the Jesuit missionary to Brazil Joseph Anchieta (1534–97), praising his 'talent and diligence in human affairs' and his 'heroic virtues'. The second, based on Caspar Peter Lull's account published in both Latin and German in 1682, briefly describes the life of the nun Alvera of Virmundt (1617–49) as a model of female piety full of 'virtue and perfection'. The third is devoted to the Belgian Jesuit John Berchmans (1599–1621), remembered as a 'holy young man', and is translated from an 1826 Paris edition of a text published in 1706 by Nicholas Frizon (d. 1737).

Les saints des derviches tourneurs
  • Volume 1
  • Edited and translated by Clément Huart
  • Published online:
    05 May 2012
    Print publication:
    19 January 2012
    First published in:
    1918
  • Clément Huart (1854–1926) studied Middle Eastern languages and served as a French diplomat for twenty years before becoming Professor of Persian at the Ecole des Langues Orientales in Paris. This two-volume French translation (1918–22), published as part of a larger series on Islamic hagiography, focuses on the medieval founders of the Mevlevi order of whirling dervishes, whose main centre, Konya, Huart had visited twenty years earlier. The fourteenth-century Persian text is preserved in several manuscripts, and Huart's translation follows an early seventeenth-century manuscript from his private collection. Huart regards the text as providing evidence primarily about the intellectual and moral contexts of the origins of the dervishes' mystical movement rather than about strict historical facts, but also points to the relevance of its treatment of dreams, prophecies, apparitions and paranormal phenomena to modern researchers of hypnosis and psychosis. The translation is accompanied by explanatory notes.

Les saints des derviches tourneurs
  • Volume 2
  • Edited and translated by Clément Huart
  • Published online:
    05 May 2012
    Print publication:
    19 January 2012
    First published in:
    1922
  • Clément Huart (1854–1926) studied Middle Eastern languages and served as a French diplomat for twenty years before becoming Professor of Persian at the Ecole des Langues Orientales in Paris. This two-volume French translation (1918–22), published as part of a larger series on Islamic hagiography, focuses on the medieval founders of the Mevlevi order of whirling dervishes, whose main centre, Konya, Huart had visited twenty years earlier. The fourteenth-century Persian text is preserved in several manuscripts, and Huart's translation follows an early seventeenth-century manuscript from his private collection. Huart regards the text as providing evidence primarily about the intellectual and moral contexts of the origins of the dervishes' mystical movement rather than about strict historical facts, but also points to the relevance of its treatment of dreams, prophecies, apparitions and paranormal phenomena to modern researchers of hypnosis and psychosis. The translation is accompanied by explanatory notes.

On the Use and Abuse of Literary and Ecclesiastical Endowments
  • Thomas Chalmers
  • Published online:
    05 May 2012
    Print publication:
    22 December 2011
    First published in:
    1827
  • Scottish minister and social reformer Thomas Chalmers (1780–1847) is famous as the leader of the group of 470 ministers who left the Church of Scotland in 1843 to found the Free Church of Scotland, and as the author (in 1834) of the first Bridgewater Treatise (also reissued in this collection). Along with his theological interests, Chalmers was deeply concerned with educational reform in schools and universities. In 1827 he published this paper on university endowments, asserting that it was the state's responsibility to support religious and educational institutions, because churches, schools, and universities maintained the nation's Christian principles and character. Chalmers argued that only endowed national establishments were capable of ensuring the religious and moral well-being of the individual. In addition to his appeal for university endowments, he also advocated (unusually for his time) the extension of full civil rights to dissenters and Catholics.

Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa
  • including a Sketch of Sixteen Years’ Residence in the Interior of Africa
  • David Livingstone
  • Published online:
    05 April 2012
    Print publication:
    02 November 2010
    First published in:
    1857
  • This absorbing narrative by the world famous explorer and Christian missionary, David Livingstone, (1813–1873) was first published in 1857 after the President of the Royal Geographical Society asked Livingstone to give a series of public lectures on his travels in Africa. The book was a great success, but Livingstone reportedly said 'I think I would rather cross the African continent again than undertake to write another book'. Livingstone's book describes in careful detail his travels and work in parts of southern and central Africa previously unknown to Europeans. It distils the experiences and observations of sixteen years during which Livingstone bravely faced the challenges of climate, terrain and tropical disease, travelling in a small group and adopting a non-confrontational approach to the local populations. The book makes fascinating reading for anyone interested in Africa's indigenous peoples, their customs and languages, animal and plant life, geology, and mineralogy.

The New Testament in the Original Greek
  • Volume 2, Text
  • Edited by Brooke Foss Westcott, Fenton John Anthony Hort
  • Published online:
    05 April 2012
    Print publication:
    02 October 2010
    First published in:
    1881
  • The publication in 1881 of The New Testament in the Original Greek, by the Cambridge scholars Brooke Foss Westcott (1825–1901) and Fenton John Anthony Hort (1828–1892), marked the culmination of twenty-eight years of work and revolutionised the theory and methods of New Testament textual criticism. The editors broke with tradition and reconstructed a critical text based on the third-century uncial manuscripts Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus, paving the way for future editions. Westcott and Hort's claim to reconstruct the 'original text' may seem extravagant today; but according to Bruce Metzger theirs was the 'most noteworthy critical edition of the Greek Testament ever produced by British scholarship'. This second volume contains the reconstructed text. Readings that the editors thought were possible contenders for the original are printed in the margin; other readings, judged to be of value but appearing later, are given in the appendix.

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