The Book of Judith tells the story of a fictitious Jewish woman beheading the general of the most powerful imaginable army to free her people. The parabolic story was set as an example of how God will help the righteous. Judith's heroic action not only became a validating charter myth of Judaism itself but has also been appropriated by many Christian and secular groupings, and has been an inspiration for numerous literary texts and works of art. It continues to exercise its power over artists, authors and academics and is becoming a major field of research in its own right. The Sword of Judith is the first multidisciplinary collection of essays to discuss representations of Judith throughout the centuries. It transforms our understanding across a wide range of disciplines. The collection includes new archival source studies, the translation of unpublished manuscripts, the translation of texts unavailable in English, and Judith images and music.

How did the books of the Bible come to be recognized as Holy Scripture? After nearly nineteen centuries the canon of Scripture remains an issue of debate. Adept in both Old and New Testament studies, F. F. Bruce brings the wisdom of a lifetime of reflection and biblical interpretation to bear in addressing the criteria of canonicity, the canon within the canon, and canonical criticism.

The national directory addresses the dimensions and perspectives in the formation of deacons and the model standards for the formation, ministry, and life of deacons in the United States. It is intended as a guideline for formation, ministry, and life of permanent deacons and a directive to be utilized when preparing or updating a diaconate program in formulating policies for the ministry and life of deacons. This volume also includes Basic Standards for Readiness for the formation of permanent deacons in the United States, from the bishops' Committee on the Diaconate, and the committee document Visit of Consultation Teams to Diocesan Permanent Diaconate Formation Programs.

One of The Guardian’s “1,000 Books to Read Before You Die” This underrated classic of contemporary Irish literature tells the “utterly transfixing” story of a lonely, poverty-stricken spinster in 1950s Belfast (The Boston Globe) Judith Hearne is an unmarried woman of a certain age who has come down in society. She has few skills and is full of the prejudices and pieties of her genteel Belfast upbringing. But Judith has a secret life. And she is just one heartbreak away from revealing it to the world. Hailed by Graham Greene, Thomas Flanagan, and Harper Lee alike, The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne is an unflinching and deeply sympathetic portrait of a woman destroyed by self and circumstance. First published in 1955, it marked Brian Moore as a major figure in English literature (he would go on to be short-listed three times for the Booker Prize) and established him as an astute chronicler of the human soul. “Seldom in modern fiction has any character been revealed so completely or been made to seem so poignantly real.” —The New York Times

The Book of Judith has aroused a great deal of scholarly interest in the last few decades.This volume, the first full length commentary on Judith to appear in over 25 years, includes a new translation and a detailed verse-by-verse commentary, which touches upon philological, literary, and historical questions. The extensive introduction discusses the work's date and historical background, and looks closely at the controversial question of the book's original language. Biblical influences on the book's setting, characters, plot, and language are investigated, and the heroine, Judith is viewed against the background of biblical women (and men). The influence of classical Greek writers such as Herodotus and Ctesias on the work is noted, as are the interesting differences between the Septuagint and Vulgate versions of Judith.

"An accomplished essayist, playwright, and poet, Judith Sargent Murray (1751-1820) was America's first notable feminist. This brief study of her life and work takes a novel topical approach to provide a window on the gender issues that were being debated in the United States and Europe during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. In the first half of the book, nine thematic chapters examine Murray's experience of and pronouncements on marriage, motherhood, religion, women's education, writing, and the construction of gender in American society. The biography is followed by fifteen primary documents - letters, poems, and essays, many of which have never been published before - that give readers firsthand access to Murray's views. A chronology, a bibliography, and an index are also included."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved