Heretics And Heroes

The New York Times bestselling author of How the Irish Saved Civilization reveals how the innovations of the Renaissance and the Reformation changed the Western world. • “Cahill is our king of popular historians.” —The Dallas Morning News This was an age in which whole continents and peoples were discovered. It was an era of sublime artistic and scientific adventure, but also of newly powerful princes and armies—and of unprecedented courage, as thousands refused to bow their heads to the religious pieties of the past. In these exquisitely written and lavishly illustrated pages, Cahill illuminates, as no one else can, the great gift-givers who shaped our history—those who left us a world more varied and complex, more awesome and delightful, more beautiful and strong than the one they had found.

With growing popular interest because of television, movies, and books, unbelieving historians are teaching that the early church was filled with "lost scriptures", "church conspiracies," and even radical changes to the Bible itself. Most Christians have no idea how to respond to the questions they raise. This unique resource gives you a crash course on the most important people, events, and ideas of the earliest Christians following the New Testament period. In its pages, you'll discover what every believer should know about the early church ... and why.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A book in the best tradition of popular history—the untold story of Ireland's role in maintaining Western culture while the Dark Ages settled on Europe. • The perfect St. Patrick's Day gift! Every year millions of Americans celebrate St. Patrick's Day, but they may not be aware of how great an influence St. Patrick was on the subsequent history of civilization. Not only did he bring Christianity to Ireland, he instilled a sense of literacy and learning that would create the conditions that allowed Ireland to become "the isle of saints and scholars"—and thus preserve Western culture while Europe was being overrun by barbarians. In this entertaining and compelling narrative, Thomas Cahill tells the story of how Europe evolved from the classical age of Rome to the medieval era. Without Ireland, the transition could not have taken place. Not only did Irish monks and scribes maintain the very record of Western civilization -- copying manuscripts of Greek and Latin writers, both pagan and Christian, while libraries and learning on the continent were forever lost—they brought their uniquely Irish world-view to the task. As Cahill delightfully illustrates, so much of the liveliness we associate with medieval culture has its roots in Ireland. When the seeds of culture were replanted on the European continent, it was from Ireland that they were germinated. In the tradition of Barbara Tuchman's A Distant Mirror, How The Irish Saved Civilization reconstructs an era that few know about but which is central to understanding our past and our cultural heritage. But it conveys its knowledge with a winking wit that aptly captures the sensibility of the unsung Irish who relaunched civilization.

A magisterial cultural history, this book tells the story of the sixties revolution for freedom, self-expression, and high ideals--as it occurred not in the streets, but in business. Through a series of compelling stories, most never before told, Kleiner introduces readers to the visionary people who believed passionately that corporations could be the center not only of power, but of truth, freedom, and equality.

Orthodox science -- particularly in the medical profession -- has for centuries resisted change. It traces back at least as far as Socrates who was done to death for corrupting youth with his innovative ideas. In recent times, practically all the great advances in medicine have been made against a powerfully entrenched orthodoxy. Wayne Martin's book is about some of the men involved -- then and now: Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., who made physicians wash their hands; Louis Pasteur, who postulated the connection between bacteria and certain diseases; Frederick Banting, who discovered insulin; Jonas Salk, who solved the mystery of polio, to mention but a few. These men all braved the wrath of the medical establishment of their day. Heretics they were, but Heroes they became. Similarly, today a group of brave pioneers are fighting the same fight. They are, says the author, the heroes of tomorrow: Ernst Krebs, Jr., Evan Shute, Dean Burk, Denis Burkitt, Virginia Livingston and a dozen others, all of whose careers and findings are described here by a man who has pursued his topic for the past ten years.

A lively examination of the heretics who helped Christianity become the world’s most powerful religion. From Arius, a fourth-century Libyan cleric who doubted the very divinity of Christ, to more successful heretics like Martin Luther and John Calvin, this book charts the history of dissent in the Christian Church. As the author traces the Church’s attempts at enforcing orthodoxy, from the days of Constantine to the modern Catholic Church’s lingering conflicts, he argues that heresy—by forcing the Church to continually refine and impose its beliefs—actually helped Christianity to blossom into one of the world’s most formidable religions. Today, all believers owe it to themselves to grapple with the questions raised by heresy. Can you be a Christian without denouncing heretics? Is it possible that new ideas challenging Church doctrine are destined to become as popular as Luther’s once-outrageous suggestions of clerical marriage and a priesthood of all believers? A delightfully readable and deeply learned new history, Heretics overturns our assumptions about the role of heresy in a faith that still shapes the world. “Wright emphasizes the ‘extraordinarily creative role’ that heresy has played in the evolution of Christianity by helping to ‘define, enliven, and complicate’ it in dialectical fashion. Among the world’s great religions, Christianity has been uniquely rich in dissent, Wright argues—especially in its early days, when there was so little agreement among its adherents that one critic compared them to a marsh full of frogs croaking in discord.” —The New Yorker

The official book celebrating the 25th anniversary of SPIN magazine From its first issue in 1985, SPIN has cultivated a reputation for brilliant writing and broad musical coverage, including genres and artists long abandoned by its competitors. From punk to electronica, goth to gangsta rap, emo to garage rock, and hip-hop to indie rock, SPIN has covered it all and featured interviews with leading artists through every musical wave of the last 25 years. SPIN: Greatest Hits brings together some of the classic stories that have appeared in the magazine, each with a new introduction by the author offering historical perspective on the article. Compiles the best articles from well-known writers such as Chuck Klosterman, Jonathan Ames, Elizabeth Gilbert, and David Hajdu Features the best SPIN interviews with Lou Reed, Noel Gallagher, Chuck D, and other influential musicians Includes hilarious sidebars such as "Six Extreme Metal Bands That Could Be Mistaken for Flavors of Herbal Tea," "Six Misguided Attempts to Falsify Rock History," and more Packed with great writing and information spanning a quarter-century of iconic music and musicians, SPIN: Greatest Hits is an essential keepsake for music fans and lovers of pop culture.