This is the only book that addresses the relations between religion, Protestant missions, and empire building, linking together all three fields of study by taking as its starting point the early eighteenth century Anglican initiatives in colonial North America and the Caribbean. It considers how the early societies of the 1790s built on this inheritance, and extended their own interests to the Pacific, India, the Far East, and Africa. Fluctuations in the vigor and commitment of the missions, changing missionary theologies, and the emergence of alternative missionary strategies, are all examined for their impact on imperial expansion. Other themes include the international character of the missionary movement, Christianity's encounter with Islam, and major figures such as David Livingstone, the state and politics, and humanitarianism, all of which are viewed in a fresh light.

Horsley brings his skills to bear on the questions concerning religious rhetoric and empire-building. How do the teachings of Jesus affect our understanding of the uses of power? How can we understand the invocation of God in modern political rhetoric? These questions and more are explored.

The inspiration for this volume comes from the work of its dedicatee, Brent D. Shaw, who is one of the most original and wide-ranging historians of the ancient world of the last half-century and continues to open up exciting new fields for exploration. Each of the distinguished contributors has produced a cutting-edge exploration of a topic in the history and culture of the Roman Empire dealing with a subject on which Professor Shaw has contributed valuable work. Three major themes extend across the volume as a whole. First, the ways in which the Roman world represented an intricate web of connections even while many people's lives remained fragmented and local. Second, the ways in which the peculiar Roman space promoted religious competition in a sophisticated marketplace for practices and beliefs, with Christianity being a major benefactor. Finally, the varying forms of violence which were endemic within and between communities.

This book is the first to investigate the role of religious conversion in the long history of Russian state building, with geographic coverage from Poland and European Russia to the Caucasus, Central Asia, Siberia, and Alaska.

The Religion of Empire: Political Theology in Blake's Prophetic Symbolism is the first full-length study devoted to interpreting Blake's three long poems, showing the ways in which the Bible, myth, and politics merge in his prophetic symbolism. In this book, G. A. Rosso examines the themes of empire and religion through the lens of one of Blake's most distinctive and puzzling images, Rahab, a figure that anchors an account of the development of Blake's political theology in the latter half of his career. Through the Rahab figure, Rosso argues, Blake interweaves the histories of religion and empire in a wide-ranging attack on the conceptual bases of British globalism in the long eighteenth century. This approach reveals the vast potential that the question of religion offers to a reconsideration of Blake's attitude to empire. The Religion of Empire also reevaluates Blake's relationship with Milton, whose influence Blake both affirms and contests in a unique appropriation of Milton's prophetic legacy. In this context, Rosso challenges recent views of Blake as complicit with the nationalism and sexism of his time, expanding the religion-empire nexus to include Blake's esoteric understanding of gender. Foregrounding the role of female characters in the longer prophecies, Rosso discloses the variegated and progressive nature of Blake's apocalyptic humanism.

In Christianity, Empire and The Spirit, Néstor Medina uncovers the interwoven cultural processes that influence how people understand reality, express faith, and think about God. Countering Eurocentric theological articulations, he proposes that the Spirit is at work in the cultural.

A major advance in Jesus studies and a critique of oppression. Horsley focuses his attention on how Jesus' proclamation of the kingdom of God relates to Roman and Herodian power politics.