The Bible and the People

Lori Anne Ferrell (Yale University Press)

A cultural history of the Bible over the past thousand years, from ancient manuscript to the Gutenberg volumes, which discusses the Bible’s impact on readers over the centuries and how readers in turn made their mark upon the Bible.

The Legend of the Middle Ages

Remi Brague (University of Chicago Press)

Featuring a series of essays and an interview, which explore the relationships between Christian, Jewish and Muslim thinkers in the Middle Ages, this volume seeks to reconstruct this complicated and philosophically rich period, revealing its philosophical and theological nuances and its lessons for our own times.

The Pope’s Legion

The Pope’s Legion: The Multinational Fighting Force that Defended the Vatican
Charles A. Coulombe
(Palgrave Macmillan)

The story of the Papal Zouaves, a band of 20,000 Catholics, from France, Belgium, Spain, Ireland and Austria, who were summoned by the Pope in the 19th century to defend the Vatican City from attack, in the midst of the Italian Wars of the Risorgimento.

Grimoires

Grimoires: A History of Magic Books
Owen Davies
(Oxford University Press)

A story of magic spells including ancient Egypt, medieval sorcery, Scandinavian witchcraft, West African folk religion and the Santa Muerte cult prevalent among Mexico’s drug gangs. Also provides an insight into the history of religion, early science, publishing and censorship.

Saint Francis and the Sultan: The Curious History of a Christian-Muslim Encounter

John V. Tolan (Oxford University Press)

A study of the richly varied artistic responses to the meeting between Francis of Assisi and Sultan al-Malik al-Kamil in Egypt in 1219, from the thirteenth to the twentieth century, which provides and insight into the evolution of Western attitudes towards Islam and the Arab world over the past 800 years.

Islam’s War Against the Crusaders

W.B. Bartlett (The History Press)

A study of the Crusades from the Islamic point of view, which considers the effect of the crusades on the Holy Land and the response of the Muslim world to the invasions of European Crusaders.

God’s Crucible: Islam and the Making of Europe, 570-1215

David Levering Lewis (Norton)

An account of Islam’s collision with Dark Ages Europe and the ensuing political and cultural revolutions, from the fall of the Persian and Roman empires through to the rise of prophet Muhammad and the creation of Muslim Spain.

Two Faiths, One Banner: When Muslims Marched with Christians across Europe’s battlegrounds

Ian Almond (I.B. Tauris)

An insight into how, in Europe, in the heart of the West, Muslims and Christians were often comrades-in-arms and repeatedly formed alliances to wage war against their own faiths and peoples, which questions the popular notion of an unbridgeable chasm between the Islamic world and Christendom.

AD 381: Heretics, Pagans and the Christian State

Charles Freeman (Pimlico)

An account of the promulgation of a decree, in AD 381, by emperor Theodosius, which required his subjects to subscribe to a belief in the Trinity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Freeman provides a reassessment of the subsequent claims that the decree was based on a previous consensus reached by the Christian Church at the Council of Constantinople.

The Grail Quest and the World of Arthur

ed. Norris J. Lacy (Boydell & Brewer)

A collection of essays which discuss quest themes in Arthurian literature, especially the quest for the Holy Grail. Covering topics from the Grail of the Crusaders to female desire in the Arthurian legend, they focus in particular on the incompatibility of the Arthurian world and the Grail quest.

White Men’s God: The extraordinary Story of Missionaries in Africa

Martin Ballard (Greenwood World Publishing)

A history of the modern missionary movement to Africa placed within the wider social and political context, from early attempts by German and English Protestant missionary societies to set up missions in West Africa, to the work of a wide range of other societies in different parts of Africa.

The Cult of the Virgin Mary in Early Modern Germany

Bridget Heal

Cambridge University Press

A study of Marian veneration during Germany’s Reformation and Counter-Reformation, from 1500 to 1648, which questions the view that the Virgin simply disappeared from Protestant devotional life to become a figurehead for the Catholic Church’s campaign of religious reconquest.

SUMMARY: Fighting for the Cross: crusading to the holy land

Norman Housley
Yale University Press

The story of the experience of individuals who took part in the crusades, which considers the challenges of raising and transporting the combatants from Europe to the East and the complications presented by non-combatant pilgrims.