A brilliant short history of the relationship between Europeans and the rest of the world.

Focuses on the practice of permanent sexual renunciation-continence, celibacy, and life-long virginity - in Christian circles from the first to the fifth centuries AD. This book questions how theological views on sexuality and the human body both mirrored and shaped the uneven relationships between men and women.

The Bible is among the world's most influential and important books - and the most controversial. But how did it become the book we know it to be? This title charts its evolution from oral tales via Hebrew texts, Greek, and Latin translations, to its many different forms, offering an insight into the history.

Part biography of a book and a man, part bibliographic and bibliophilic quest, this book is a captivating piece of writing, a testament to the power both of books and the love of books. Logging thousands of hours and thousands of miles, the author uncovers a treasure trove of material on the life of a book and the evolution of an idea.

The power and the glory of the Catholic Church, a 2000-year history.

In this volume in the Lives series, Garry Wills, Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer, provides an incisive account of St Augustine of Hippo, whose ideas profoundly influenced Christian theology.