An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity in Plain and Simple English (Translated)


Book Description

"An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity" is considered one of the greatest political satires ever written. The essay is as hilarious today as it was hundreds of years ago...if you can understand it! f you have struggled in the past reading the satire, then BookCaps can help you out. We all need refreshers every now and then. Whether you are a student trying to cram for that big final, or someone just trying to understand a book more, BookCaps can help. We are a small, but growing company, and are adding titles every month.




An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity


Book Description

An Argument against Abolishing Christianity By Jonathan Swift Satirist, was born at Dublin of English parents. Dryden was his cousin, and he also claimed kin with Herrick. He was a posthumous child, and was brought up in circumstances of extreme poverty. He was sent to school at Kilkenny, and afterwards went to Trinity College, Dublin, where he gave no evidence of ability, but displayed a turbulent and unruly temper, and only obtained a degree by "special grace." After the Revolution he joined his mother, then resident at Leicester, by whose influence he was admitted to the household of Sir William Temple at Moor Park, Lady T. being her distant kinswoman. Here he acted as secretary, and having access to a well-stocked library, made good use of his opportunities, and became a close student. At Moor Park he met many distinguished men, including William III., who offered him a troop of horse; he also met Esther Johnson (Stella), a natural daughter of Sir William, who was afterwards to enter so largely into his life. We are delighted to publish this classic book as part of our extensive Classic Library collection. Many of the books in our collection have been out of print for decades, and therefore have not been accessible to the general public. The aim of our publishing program is to facilitate rapid access to this vast reservoir literature, and our view is that this is a significant literary work, which deserves to be brought back into print after many decades. The contents of the vast majority of titles in the Classic Library have been scanned from the original works. To ensure a high quality product, each title has been meticulously hand curated by our staff. Our philosophy has been guided by a desire to provide the reader with a book that is as close as possible to ownership of the original work. We hope that you will enjoy this wonderful classic work, and that for you it becomes an enriching experience.







A Modest Proposal and Other Satires


Book Description

Brought together here in this volume is a classic collection of satirical works from Jonathan Swift, perhaps one of the greatest satirist in the English language. While Swift is probably best known for his novel "Gulliver's Travels," he was a brilliant satirist with a cutting wit and mastery of language. His skills with the pen, which made him both famous and feared by the powerful, can be seen in "A Modest Proposal." Swift's famous essay, originally published anonymously in 1729, suggests that the poor in Ireland could best solve their problems by selling their children as food to the rich. Swift's outrageous hyperbole was used as powerful social commentary and was directed at the rich and powerful and their heartless treatment of the poor and destitute. Also included in this collection is "A Tale of the Tub," a prose parody of the moral and ethical aspects of the English religious and political life of Swift's time, which was widely misunderstood and consequently damaging to his reputation. "A Modest Proposal and Other Satires" is a collection of nine essays in total which provide a representative selection of Swift's satirical gift. This edition in printed on premium acid-free paper.




Exposing Myths About Christianity


Book Description

Renowned historian, Jeffrey Burton Russell, famous for his studies of medieval history, sets the record straight against the New Atheists and other cultural critics who charge Christianity with being outdated, destructive, superstitious, unenlightened, racist, colonialist, based on fabrication, and other significant false accusations.




Christian Slavery


Book Description

Could slaves become Christian? If so, did their conversion lead to freedom? If not, then how could perpetual enslavement be justified? In Christian Slavery, Katharine Gerbner contends that religion was fundamental to the development of both slavery and race in the Protestant Atlantic world. Slave owners in the Caribbean and elsewhere established governments and legal codes based on an ideology of "Protestant Supremacy," which excluded the majority of enslaved men and women from Christian communities. For slaveholders, Christianity was a sign of freedom, and most believed that slaves should not be eligible for conversion. When Protestant missionaries arrived in the plantation colonies intending to convert enslaved Africans to Christianity in the 1670s, they were appalled that most slave owners rejected the prospect of slave conversion. Slaveholders regularly attacked missionaries, both verbally and physically, and blamed the evangelizing newcomers for slave rebellions. In response, Quaker, Anglican, and Moravian missionaries articulated a vision of "Christian Slavery," arguing that Christianity would make slaves hardworking and loyal. Over time, missionaries increasingly used the language of race to support their arguments for slave conversion. Enslaved Christians, meanwhile, developed an alternate vision of Protestantism that linked religious conversion to literacy and freedom. Christian Slavery shows how the contentions between slave owners, enslaved people, and missionaries transformed the practice of Protestantism and the language of race in the early modern Atlantic world.




Godless Fictions in the Eighteenth Century


Book Description

Although there were no self-avowed British atheists before the 1780s, authors including Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope, Sarah Fielding, Phebe Gibbes, and William Cowper worried extensively about atheism's dystopian possibilities, and routinely represented atheists as being beyond the pale of human sympathy. Challenging traditional formulations of secularization that equate modernity with unbelief, Reeves reveals how reactions against atheism rather helped sustain various forms of religious belief throughout the Age of Enlightenment. He demonstrates that hostility to unbelief likewise produced various forms of religious ecumenicalism, with authors depicting non-Christian theists from around Britain's emerging empire as sympathetic allies in the fight against irreligion. Godless Fictions in the Eighteenth Century traces a literary history of atheism in eighteenth-century Britain for the first time, revealing a relationship between atheism and secularization far more fraught than has previously been supposed.




Abolishing Christianity and Other Essays


Book Description

"In this new compendium of 11 outrageous essays and commentaries by the English language's greatest satirist, Swift reflects on the absurdity of organized religion, classical vs. modern literature, digressions, astrological predictions, and a host of other tantalizing topics. His classic tale, A Modest Proposal, which suggests solving the hunger problem by eating children, is also included."--BOOK JACKET.