Product Description: To what extent did people think they could identify an 'obvious' sodomite before the construction of the homosexual as a type of person during the latter part of the nineteenth century? What role did secrecy and denial play in relation to the visual expression of same-sex desire before the term 'the closet' came into widespread use in the latter part of the twentieth century? And what, therefore, did sodomites/homosexuals/gays/queers look like in Britain in 1700, 1800, 1900 and 2000? Could they be spotted mincing down the street? Or were such as these just the flamboyant few whose presence conveniently drew attention away from the many others who wanted to appear 'normal'? These issues are not peripheral to the struggle of the last several decades for individual self-determination and self-expression...read more

Product Description: This study explains the rise of the Christian grandeur of great churches in late antiquity and the Middle Ages. From the fourth century churches were paid for in gold--and were often decorated with it--in apparent contradiction to Christ's message of poverty and simplicity...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: In early Victorian England there was intense interest in understanding the early Church as an inspiration for contemporary sanctity. This was manifested in a surge in archaeological inquiry and also in the construction of new churches using medieval models...read more

Product Description: This volume explores the connections between faith, the presentation of belief and the processes by which it is sold and consumed. The contributors have all been researching the way in which religion operates in a market culture and the degree to which one can use the notions of branding, advertising and marketing to understand missionary and revival activities...read more

Product Description: What can the past tell us about the future(s) of the body? The origins of this collection of papers lie in the work of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities which has been involved in presenting a series of international workshops and conferences on the theme of the cultural life of the body...read more