Drawing on both archaeological and historical evidence, Stark is able to provide hard statistical evidence on the religious life of the Roman Empire to discover the following facts that set conventional history on its head:
By analyzing concrete data, Stark is able to challenge the conventional wisdom about early Christianity offering the clearest picture ever of how this religion grew from its humble beginnings into the faith of more than one-third of the earth's population.
New accounts of early Christianity are everywhere. A book claiming that Jesus got married, fathered children, and died of old age has sold millions of copies. Bookstores are bursting with 'new,' more 'enlightened' scriptures said to have been wrongly suppressed by the early church fathers. Often referred to as Gnostic gospels, these texts purport to have been written by a variety of biblical characters—Mary Magdalene, St. James, St. John, Shem, and even Didymus Jude Thomas, self-proclaimed twin brother of Christ. Meanwhile, a group calling itself the Jesus Seminar receives national media attention each year as it meets to further reduce the 'authentic' words spoken by Jesus to an increasingly slim compendium of wise sayings.
But is any of this true? How can we know? Presumably, by assembling and evaluating the appropriate evidence. Unfortunately, far too many historians these days don't believe in evidence. They argue that since absolute truth must always elude the histo ... read full excerpt from Cities of God ebook
Microsoft Reader is the first product to include ClearType™ display technology. ClearType greatly improves resolution on LCD screens to deliver a print-like display. Microsoft Reader also pays strict attention to the traditions and benefits of good typography. It offers a clean, uncluttered layout; ample margins; proper spacing, leading and kerning; plus powerful tools for book marking, highlighting and annotation.
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Operating System: Microsoft Windows 98 platforms, Microsoft Windows NT4 SP6, Microsoft Windows 2000 platforms, Microsoft Windows XP, and Microsoft Windows Me. Processor: Pentium 75 or higher microprocessor Memory: 16 MB RAM Hard Disk: Approximately 19 MB free hard drive space (Microsoft Reader is 3.6 MB, but additional hard disk space is required for installation) Browser: Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 with Service Pack 1 or higher
MS Reader for Pocket PC
Operating System: Pocket PC 2002 / 2003 Memory: 2.236 MB free RAM Additional Software: Microsoft ActiveSync® 3.5 or later
MS Reader for Tablet PC
Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition - Microsoft Reader for Tablet PC will not work on any other operating system or device.
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