Книги. Художественная литература. Учебники и пособия.

Barbara J. King

What do Mickey Mouse, Ganesh, a leopard-skin pillbox hat, A Lion Called Christian, and the Aflac duck have in common? They all represent human beings' deeply ingrained connection to the animal kingdom. In Being With Animals, anthropologist Barbara King unravels the complexity and enormous significance of this relationship. Animals rule our existence. You can see this in the billions of dollars Americans pour out each year for their pets, in the success of books and films such as Marley and Me, in the names of athletic teams, in the stories that have entertained and instructed children (from The Cat in the Hat back to well before Aesop created his fables), in the animal deities that pervade the most ancient forms of religion (and which still appear in sublimated forms today), to the paintings on the cave walls of Lascaux. The omnipresence of animal beings in our lives--whether real or fictional--is something so enormous that people take often it for granted, never wondering why...

James Hider

At once a terrifying insight into the 'crack-cocaine of fanatical fundamentalism' and a blackly humorous narrative of a foreign correspondent's growing sense of bafflement and alienation Hider's voice is incisive and rich in the human detail that only first-hand experience bestows. An essential work for anyone wishing to understand the swirling machinations of Iraq, its people and its war James Hider offers a new voice in the literature of the Middle East: His is delightfully fresh and very funny. It takes a brave and confident writer to take on so many taboos but Hider does it with the confidence that comes from years in the field and from a deep, authoritative historical and cultural knowledge of Israel, Iraq and the region This sort of informed but subjective account of the frontlines of conflict in the Middle East is not simply rubbernecking, it's required reading Time Out.

John H. Hayes

2Rev Ed edition

Peryt Shou

This is a first-ever English language translation of Peryt Shou's profoundly influential treatise, Das Mysterium der Zentralsonne (1912). A direct line can be drawn between Shou's observations in this volume about the mysterious Central Sun of Theosophy and the later writings of Nazi occultists who have actively promoted the increasingly popular Black Sun mythos. The hidden wellspring of post-war Nazi occultism is revealed here for the first time. An informative preface, numerous explanatory footnotes and a detailed appendix on the Central Sun concept in Theosophy round out the book and render its text accessible to modern readers.

Julia Cameron

Through her revolutionary books and workshops, Julia Cameron has inspired thousands to pursue their creative dreams. A heartfelt book of empowering prayers and reflections for the soul in times of crisis and transformation. In this gift-sized book, Cameron shares beautiful prayers of empowerment followed by potent declarations and reflections on the nature of change and coping. They extend beyond affirmations to facilitate a powerful awakening of the potential of the human soul and to revitalize our abilities to transform our lives in the face of whatever the universe may put in our life's path. Transitions will help guide the soul and draw readers toward the source of their inner strength. Whether read in one sitting, or used over time, this is a book no thoughtful being will want to be without.

Granville Sewell

In this wide-ranging collection of essays on origins, mathematician Granville Sewell looks at the big bang, the fine-tuning of the laws of physics, and the evolution of life. He concludes that while there is much in the history of life that seems to suggest natural causes, there is nothing to support Charles Darwin's idea that natural selection of random variations can explain major evolutionary advances ("easily the dumbest idea ever taken seriously by science," he calls it). Sewell explains why evolution is a fundamentally different and much more difficult problem than others solved by science, and why increasing numbers of scientists are now recognizing what has long been obvious to the layman, that there is no explanation possible without design. This book summarizes many of the traditional arguments for intelligent design, but presents some powerful new arguments as well.

John H. Walton

This volume is a revised, updated, and expanded edition of a very popular tool for pastors, teachers, and students for the study of the Old Testament.

William G. Dever

Dever, professor of Near Eastern archaeology and anthropology at the University of Arizona, has excavated in the Near East for the past 35 years. In this book, he gives readers a cross-section of the world of Syro-Palestinian archaeology. As in an archaeological dig, there are some items here that nonexperts will find fascinating, but much of little interest. The book's title and subtitle are misleading: while the text does contain a helpful survey of the ways in which archaeology can (and cannot) illuminate the historicity of the Bible, this amounts to less than half of the total content. Most of the book is a lengthy argument with a group of scholars Dever calls "the Revisionists," who dismiss the idea that archaeological investigation of the Near East can provide any objectively useful data for reconstructing a history of the region. Dever is understandably opposed to such a view. This book therefore contains two different works: one is a helpful introduction to the world of...

Ivan Strenski

Religion. Power. Politics. Ideas and institutions that have been laden with a baggage of meanings picked up through the course of history – and which, unfairly or not, are often defined by these historic and social contexts. In this thought–provoking book, Ivan Strenski unpacks the central concepts and influences of religion, politics, and power, and provides a new theoretical framework to think about what they mean in today’s society. In addition to offering radical critiques of the religious and political perspectives of thinkers such as Talal Asad and Michel Foucault, Strenski moves beyond the theory in applying his intellectual framework to a variety of real–world issues, including insights into suicide bombers in the Middle East. Erudite and engaging, Why Politics Can?t be Freed From Religion provides a timely and highly original contribution to our understanding of these concepts. It tries to dislodge readers from conventional thinking about politics and religion,...

John Bowker

What does it mean to be religious? It means almost everything because religions deal with the whole of human life and death. For thousands of years people have searched for the meaning and truth of their own nature and of the universe, and religions, which deal with the whole of human life and death, are the result. Even the natural sciences were originally religious; only in the last 300 years have religion and science come apart as ways of exploration. We look at religions now as communities of people who share practices and beliefs (often in God or gods), who gather in special buildings for worship or meditation, and who live in special ways in the world. We know that more than three quarters of the world's population consider that they belong to a religion, however little or much they do about it. The great faiths explored and explained through interpretation of sacred texts, religious artefacts, paintings, and architecture. Learn about the central figures and...