Description:283 illustrations.For nearly two thousand years Christian themes have inspired or influenced our culture and way of life. And yet, in the second half of the twentieth century, the Old and New Testaments, the symbols and the saints of Christianity, its history and teachings and the institutions of the Christian Churches are to an increasing extent unfamiliar to a secularized society. Biblical sayings and quotations have passed into everyday speech, yet their context has been forgotten. The key to many of the world’s greatest plays and paintings, operas and epics has been all but lost.In a single, comprehensive volume, Professor Metford solves the problem. In over 1700 articles spanning the whole field — from the Whore of Babylon to the Immaculate Conception, from the Garden of Eden to the Destruction of Sodom — he details Christian lore (the learning and background knowledge which underpins Christian culture) and legend (the historical, traditional or symbolic content of Christianity, without pre-judgment of its veracity).