"The Forgotten Gospels" shows how the creation of the canon that we now take for granted excluded many important, informative and illuminating writings about the life, death and teachings of Jesus. Here are texts newly translated from their original Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Slavonic and Coptic, and accompanied by clear, concise explanations of their origins and relevance. Together, they form a supplement to the New Testament that will set the record straight. The materials have survived in fragments and snippets, some only discovered in modern times (the Gospel of Thomas turned up in 1945), others via the writings of early Christians. Many will challenge: the gospel of the Hebrews introduces an alternative account of the resurrection; Clement of Alexandria writes of and quotes from a secret gospel of Mark; Celsus claims that Mary had an adulterous affair with Panthera and the result was Jesus - all will be of intense interest. No text of any consequence from the earlier period relating to the historical Jesus has been omitted. They provide one last, unexpected window onto his life and teachings.

Altars are powerful symbols, fraught with meaning, but during the early modern period they became a religious battleground. Attacked by reformers in the mid-sixteenth century because of their allegedly idolatrous associations with the Catholic sacrifice of the mass, a hundred years later they served to divide Protestants due to their re-introduction by Archbishop Laud and his associates as part of a counter-reforming programme. Moreover, having subsequently been removed by the victorious puritans, they gradually came back after the restoration of the monarchy in 1660. This book explores these developments, over a 150 year period, and recaptures the experience of the ordinary parishioner in this crucial period of religious change. Far from being the passive recipients of changes imposed from above, the laity are revealed as actively engaged from the early days of the Reformation, as zealous iconoclasts or their Catholic opponents - a division later translated into competing protestant views. Altars Restored integrates the worlds of theological debate, church politics and government, and parish practice and belief, which are often studied in isolation from one another. It draws from hitherto largely untapped sources, notably the surviving artefactual evidence comprising communion tables and rails, fonts, images in stained glass, paintings and plates, and examines the riches of local parish records - especially churchwardens' accounts. The result is a richly textured study of religious change at both local and national level.

"Cannibalism and Human Sacrifice" is an unsparing record of the barbaric and grisly phenomenon of cannibalism, the practice of which has been recorded throughout history in almost every part of the world. Garry Hogg gives an enthralling account of the primitive customs reported by travellers and anthropologists amongst the peoples of the Pacific Islands, South America, Africa, Indonesia and many more places besides. This is a fascinating study of these instances of cannibalism and ritualistic human sacrifice, revealing how they were often an accepted part of a community's social order, motivated by religious, magical and superstitious beliefs. The author explores the gruesome reality of cannibalism in all its horrific detail, as a means of understanding what has, in the past, been a somewhat neglected subject.

Acts of Giving examines the issues surrounding donation - the giving of property, usually landed property - in northern 'Christian' Spain in the tenth century, when written texts became very plentiful, allowing us to glimpse the working of local society. Wendy Davies explores who gives and who receives; what is given; reasons for giving; and the place of giving within the complex of social and economic relationships in society as a whole. People gave land for all kinds of reasons - because they were forced to do so, to meet debts or pay fines; because they wanted to gain material benefits in life, or to secure support in the short term or in old age. Giving pro anima, for the sake of the soul, was relatively limited; and gifts were made to lay persons as well as to the church. Family interests were strongly sustained across the tenth century and did not dwindle; family land was split and re-assembled, not fragmented. The gender and status of donors are key themes, along with commemoration: more men than women took steps to memorialize, in contrast to some parts of western Europe, and more aristocrats than peasants, which is less of a contrast. Donation as a type of transaction is also examined, as well as the insights into status afforded by the language and form of the records. Buying and selling, giving and receiving continued in the tenth-century as it had for centuries. However this period saw the volume of peasant donation to the church increasing enormously. It was this which set the conditions for substantial social and economic change.

Based on perhaps the richest surviving archive of witchcraft trials to be found in Europe, The Witches of Lorraine reveals the extraordinary stories held within those documents. They paint a vivid picture of life amongst the ordinary people of a small duchy on the borders of France and the Holy Roman Empire, and allow a very close analysis of the beliefs, social tensions, and behaviour patterns underlying popular attitudes to witchcraft. Intense persecution occurred in the period 1570-1630, but the focus of this book is more on how suspects interacted with their neighbours over the years preceding their trials. One of the mysteries is why people were so slow to use the law to eliminate these supposedly vicious and dangerous figures. Perhaps the most striking and unexpected conclusion is that witchcraft was actually perceived as having strong therapeutic possibilities; once a person was identified as the cause of a sickness, they could be induced to take it off again. Other aspects studied include the more fantastic beliefs in sabbats, shapeshifting, and werewolves, the role of the devins or cunning-folk, and the characteristics attributed to the significant proportion of male witches. This regional study makes a vital contribution to historical understanding of one of the most dramatic phenomena in early modern Europe, and to witchcraft studies as a whole, as well as illuminating related topics in social and religious history.

"What happens when we die? Does the light just go out and that's that - the million-year nap? Or will some part of my personality, my me-ness, persist? What will that feel like? What will I do all day? Is there a place to plug in my laptop?" The bestselling author of "Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers" now trains her considerable humour and curiosity on the human soul, seeking answers from a varied and fascinating crew of contemporary and historical soul-searchers: scientists, schemers, engineers, mediums, all trying to prove (or disprove) that life goes on after we die. Electromagnetic hauntings, out-of-body experiences, ghosts and lawsuits: Mary Roach sifts and weighs the evidence in her hilarious, inimitable style.