Search results for ""Intellect""

Silencing the Sea follows Palestinian poets' debates about their craft as they traverse multiple and competing realities of secularism and religion, expulsion and occupation, art, politics, immortality, death, fame, and obscurity. Khaled Furani takes his reader down ancient roads and across military checkpoints to join the poets' worlds and engage with the rhythms of their lifelong journeys in Islamic and Arabic history, language, and verse. This excursion offers newfound understandings of how today's secular age goes far beyond doctrine, to inhabit our very senses, imbuing all that we see, hear, feel, and say. Poetry, the traditional repository of Arab history, has become the preeminent medium of Palestinian memory in exile. In probing poets' writings, this work investigates how struggles over poetic form can host larger struggles over authority, knowledge, language, and freedom. It reveals a very intimate and venerated world, entwining art, intellect, and politics, narrating previously untold stories of a highly stereotyped people.

Read more less

November is Sean O’Brien’s first collection since his widely celebrated The Drowned Book, the only book of poetry to have won both the Forward and T. S. Eliot prizes. November is haunted by the missing, the missed, the vanished, the uncounted, and the uncountable lost: lost sleep, connections, muses, books, the ghosts and gardens of childhood. Ultimately, these lead the poet to contemplate the most troubling absences: O’Brien’s elegies for his parents and friends form the heart of this book, and are the source of its pervasive note of départ. Elsewhere – as if a French window stood open to an English room – the islands, canals, railway stations and undergrounds of O’Brien’s landscape are swept by a strikingly Gallic air. This new note lends O’Brien’s recent poems a reinvigorated sense of the imaginative possible: November shows O’Brien at the height of his powers, with his intellect and imagination as gratifyingly restless as ever.

Read more less

This collection of essays features important Roman women who were active in politics, theatre, cultural life and religion from the 1st through the 4th centuries. The contributors draw on rare documents in an attempt to reconstruct the lives and accomplishments of these exceptional women, a difficult task considering that the Romans recorded very little about women. They thought it improper for a woman's virtues to be praised outside the home. Moreover, they believed that a feeble intellect, a weakness in character and a general incompetence prevented a woman from participating in public life. This investigation encounters a number of idiosyncratic personalities. They include the vestal virgin Claudia; Cornelia, a matron; the passionate Fulvia; a mime known as "Lycoris"; the politician Livia; the martyr and writer Vibia Perpetua; a hostess named Helena Augusta; the intellectual Hypatia; and the saint Melania the Younger. Unlike their silent female counterparts, these women stood out in a culture where it was terribly difficult and odd to do so.

Read more less

In The Dominion of the Dead, Robert Pogue Harrison explores the many places where the dead cohabit the world of the living - the graves, images, literature, architecture, and monuments that house the dead in their afterlife among us. This elegantly conceived work devotes particular attention to the practice of burial. Harrison contends that we bury our dead to humanize the lands where we build our present and imagine our future. Through inspired readings of major writers and thinkers such as Vico, Virgil, Dante, Pater, Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Rilke, he argues that the buried dead form an essential foundation where future generations can retrieve their past, while burial grounds provide an important bedrock where past generations can preserve their legacy for the unborn. A profound meditation on how the thought of death shapes the communion of the living, and a work of enormous scope, intellect, and imagination, this book speaks to all who have suffered grief and loss.

Read more less

An artist in her late twenties awakens one morning to a deep drone in her right ear. She is diagnosed with Sudden Deafness, but is offered no explanation for its cause. As the specter of total deafness looms, she keeps a record of her year - a score of estrangement and enchantment, of luck and loneliness, of the chance occurrences to which she becomes attuned - while living alone in a New York City studio apartment with her dog. Through a series of fleeting and often humorous encounters - with neighbours, an ex-lover, doctors, strangers, family members, faraway friends, and with the lives and works of artists, filmmakers, musicians, and philosophers - making meaning becomes a form of consolation and curiosity, a form of survival. At once a rumination on silence and a novel on seeing, The Hearing Test is a work of vitalizing intellect and playfulness which marks the arrival of a major new literary writer with a rare command of form, compression, and intent.

Read more less

Our twice-yearly daylight savings holiday, in which we faithfully, collectively adjust our clocks, is purely human tampering with the calendar. Yet, it is a practice that is embedded in nature’s principles, even as we exact more sunlight for ourselves in an over-organized, technological world. Mirroring this dichotomy, Michael Krüger brings us The Seasonal Time Change, a collection of poems where an exacting eye is cast on nature. The poet’s perspective is observant, stringent, and very human, bringing both intellect and emotion to the page. Translated by Joseph Given, the verses are in turn scrutinizing, wistful of the brutality of nature, and rejoicing in the simple wonder of life. ​Bearing witness to Krüger’s interactions with renowned poets and artists through his time as director of Hanser publishing house, proximity and relationships are ongoing themes in this volume. Together, the poems remind us of our own mortality and of the finiteness of nature, but also our need for celebration even—perhaps especially—in times of darkness.

Read more less

1588. In the height of her power is the legendary Elizabeth Tudor, history's most enigmatic queen. She is the virgin with many suitors; the victor of the Armada who hated war; the jewel-bedecked woman always pinching pennies. Elizabeth's flame-haired cousin, Lettice Knollys, is her bitter rival. In love with Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, and mother to the Earl of Essex, the mercurial nobleman who challenged Elizabeth's throne, Lettice has been intertwined with Elizabeth since childhood. This is a story of two women of fierce intellect and desire: one trying to protect her country and throne; the other trying to regain power and position for her family. Their rivalry soon involves everyone close to Elizabeth – from the famed courtiers who enriched the crown to the legendary poets and playwrights. And, for Elizabeth, to be married to her people meant she must rule as much with her heart as with her head . . .

Read more less

The most distinguished Chinese journalist of the past fifty years, Liu Binyan has earned the sobriquet "China’s conscience." Between 1956 and 1987, there were nine years during which the Communist Party of China allowed Liu to write the truth as he saw it. Expelled from the Party in 1957, later re-admitted and expelled again, he has lived in exile since 1988. He has continued indefatigably to read, think, and write about his beloved China: the saga of its modern history, the moral wasteland of its present condition, and its place in the global order. In Two Kinds of Truth Liu reflects on these issues and turns his incisive intellect to such topics as the unseen consequences of the Cold War, the roots of global terrorism, and whether "socialism with a human face" is possible. This volume reprints the 1983 collection People or Monsters? and offers four new essays and a lengthy interview with Perry Link.

Read more less

What is the relationship between intelligence and sex? In recent decades, studies of the controversial histories of both intelligence testing and human sexuality in the United States have been increasingly common - and hotly debated. But rarely have the intersections of these histories been examined. In "Gentlemen's Disagreement", Peter Hegarty enters this historical debate by recalling the debate between Lewis Terman - the intellect who championed the testing of intelligence - and pioneering sex researcher Alfred Kinsey, and shows how intelligence and sexuality have interacted in American psychology. Through a fluent discussion of intellectually gifted onanists, unhappily married men, queer geniuses, lonely frontiersmen, religious ascetics, and the two scholars themselves, Hegarty traces the origins of Terman's complaints about Kinsey's work to show how the intelligence testing movement was much more concerned with sexuality than we might remember. And, drawing on Foucault, Hegarty reconciles these legendary figures by showing how intelligence and sexuality in early American psychology and sexology were intertwined then and remain so to this day.

Read more less

'Symbolising' - i.e., representing through the use of media - is a more elementary, more foundational activity than the self-conscious use of the intellect. Its exploration is central to this investigation of the transformation of the pre-exilic Yahweh religion into the monotheism of the post-exilic period. That transformation was triggered by a new constellation of key media in the pre-exilic and exilic periods: writing, images, and money. The central objective is to understand how their use contributed to a decisive increase in abstraction in representation and led to changes in the conceptualisation of divine presence and its representation that ultimately resulted in the transition from monolatry to monotheism. In this study, Joachim Schaper explores neglected areas of Judahite material culture and contributes to an in-depth reconstruction of Judah's religious history in its most important epoch, and thus of one of the key developments in the religious history of humanity.

Read more less

Amid the 18th century’s golden generation that included his companions Adam Smith, Samuel Johnson and Edward Gibbon, Burke’s controversial mixture of conservative and subversive theories made him first a marginal figure, and finally a revered theorist – a hero of the Romantics. He warned of the effects of British rule in Ireland, the loss of the American colonies, and most famously, he foresaw the disastrous consequences of revolution in France. This he predicted, would trigger extremism, terror and the atomisation of society – a profound analysis that continues to resonate today.In this absorbing new biography Conservative MP Jesse Norman gives us Burke anew, vividly depicting his dazzling intellect, imagination and empathy against the rich tapestry of 18th century Europe. Burke’s wisdom, Norman shows, applies well beyond the times of empire to the conventional democratic politics practised in Britain and America today. We cannot understand the defects of the modern world, or modern politics, without him.

Read more less

'It is Hustvedt's gift to write with exemplary clarity of what is by necessity unclear.' Hilary Mantel, GuardianFeminist philosophy meets family memoir in a fresh essay collection by the award-winning essayist and novelist Siri Hustvedt, author of the bestselling What I Loved and Booker Prize-longlisted The Blazing World. Siri Hustvedt's relentlessly curious mind and expansive intellect are on full display in this stunning new collection of essays, whose subjects range from the nature of memory and time to what we inherit from our parents, the power of art during tragedy, misogyny, motherhood, neuroscience, and the books we turn to during a pandemic. Drawing on family history as well as her own life and experiences, she examines the porousness of borders of all kinds in a masterful intellectual journey that is at once personal and universal. Ultimately, Mothers, Fathers, and Others reminds us that the boundaries we take for granted-between ourselves and others, between art and viewer-are far less stable than we imagine.

Read more less

SUMMARY IN SPANISH: Cuaderno de entretenimiento y actividades en españ ol para niñ os de 6 y 7 añ os, segundo de primaria, con juegos pensados para desarrollar la curiosidad y mejorar el intelecto, la comprensió n lectora y la concentració n de los niñ os. Hay una multitud de juegos divertidí simos que sirven para pasarlo genial a la vez que se aprende. Los ejercicios permiten:• Buscar diferencias entre ilustraciones.• Buscar personajes iguales entre multitudes.• Jugar a encontrar palabras.• Jugar a laberintos.• Identificar imá genes pintá ndolas de un color u otro.• ¡ Y muchos juegos má s! LIBRO ESCRITO ORIGINALMENTE EN ESPAñ OL._________________________________________SUMMARY IN ENGLISH: Activity and entertainment book in Spanish for children aged 6 and 7, second grade, with games designed to develop curiosity and improve children's intellect, reading comprehension and concentration. There’ s a lot of enjoyable games that give kids a great time while they learn. The exercises allow to:• Find differences between illustrations.• Find repeated characters among crowds.• Play finding words.• Play mazes.• Identify images by painting them one color or another.• And many more games!ORIGINALLY WRITTEN IN SPANISH.

Read more less

While we know of Ahriman from Persian mythology, Rudolf Steiner spoke of him as an actual, living spiritual entity. This being, he said, works to embed people firmly into physicality, encouraging dull, materialistic attitudes and a philistine, dry intellect. In these extraordinary lectures Steiner, in rare prophetic mode, talks about an actual incarnation of Ahriman on the earth and the potential consequences. Just as Christ incarnated in a physical body, so would Ahriman incarnate in the Western world - before 'a part' of the third millennium had passed. Steiner places this incarnation in the context of a 'cosmic triad' - Lucifer, Christ and Ahriman. Ahriman will incarnate as a counterpoint to the physical incarnation of Lucifer in the East in the third millennium BC, with the incarnation of Jesus Christ in Palestine as the balancing point between the two. Over the period during which Steiner developed anthroposophy - a speaking career that spanned two decades and more than six thousand lectures - he referred to the idea of Ahriman's incarnation only six times. These six lectures, together with an additional supporting excerpt, are reproduced in their entirety, and under one cover, for the first time.

Read more less

The visually arresting and often misunderstood octopus has long captured popular imagination. With an alien appearance and an uncanny intellect, this exceptional sea creature has inspired fear in famous lore and legends—from the giant octopus attack in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea to Ursula the sea witch in The Little Mermaid. Yet its true nature is more wondrous still. After decades of research, the authors reveal a sensitive, curious, and playful animal with remarkable intelligence, an ability to defend itself with camouflage and jet propulsion, an intricate nervous system, and advanced problem-solving abilities. In this beautifully photographed book, three leading marine biologists bring readers face to face with these amazingly complex animals that have fascinated scientists for decades. From the molluscan ancestry of today’s octopus to its ingenious anatomy, amazing mating and predatory behaviors, and other-worldly relatives, the authors take readers through the astounding life cycle, uncovering the details of distinctive octopus personalities. With personal narratives, underwater research, stunning closeup photography, and thoughtful guidance for keeping octopuses in captivity, Octopus is the first comprehensive natural history of this smart denizen of the sea.

Read more less

In this final edition of his classic study of St. Thomas Aquinas, Etienne Gilson presents the sweeping range and organic unity of Thomistic philosophical thought. The philosophical thinking of Aquinas is the result of reason being challenged to relate to many theological conceptions of the Christian tradition. Gilson carefully reviews how Aquinas grapples with the relation itself of faith and reason and continuing through the existence and nature of God and His creation, the world and its creatures, especially human beings with their power of intellect, will, and moral life. He concludes this study by discussing the life of people in society, along with their purpose and final destiny. Gilson demonstrates that Aquinas drew from a wide spectrum of sources in the development of his thought-from the speculations of the ancient Greeks such as Aristotle, to the Arabic and Jewish philosophers of his time, as well as from Christian writers and scripture. The Christian Philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas offers students of philosophy and medieval studies an insightful introduction to the thought of Aquinas and the Scholastic philosophy of the Middles Ages, insights that are still revelant for today.

Read more less

The Rothko Chapel home to 14 monumental modernist paintings by the pioneer Abstract Expressionist Mark Rothko is an interfaith sacred space dedicated to global human rights, art, and spirituality, located in Houston. The Chapel was founded in 1971 by arts patrons and philanthropists Dominique and John de Menil, who placed their utmost faith in Rothko s vision to express the profound, the miraculous, and regard for the sanctity of the human spirit in this oasis for the intellect and the spirit. Through photographic testimony and the insights of scholars, this large-format volume gives an intimate look at this sacred space, where visitors seek solace and inspiration within this truly ecumenical sanctuary featuring Rothko s iconic paintings. Pamela Smart discusses the spiritual side and Stephen Fox puts the architecture in the context of Houston. The Chapel has been reworked within an expanded campus to enhance the experience for its many visitors. As viewers sit in stillness or move about the Chapel s serene octagonal enclosure, the reinstalled skylight better reveals the nuances of Rothko s powerful panels and allows for better connection to the outdoors as conditions shift, such as when clouds pass above.

Read more less

The Gun That Starts the Race, alternately like a David Lynch film or an episode of The Simpsons, finds the uncanny in the everyday, surprise you, make you laugh and weep (sometimes simultaneously) with recognition at the fleeting spark of our existence. Many of these poems are like archaeological sites between the sturm und drang of people's fleeting dramas, exploring in language playgrounds recently vacated, graves recently inhabited, basements and dark corners where life and death goes on without us.From free-verse lyrics to masterful sonnets, Norman's poems weld form and content together organically. They neither baffle nor condescend. Blending an effortless style to surprising metaphors, and striking images with a restless, roving intellect, they try to get to the bottom of things, while never satisfied there it is no false bottom. Here, Bolsheviks play tennis with Marxist rules; crows, maggots, and spiders go about their business, oblivious to our sufferings; and the Mole Men of Zug break into song.In The Gun that Starts the Race, Peter Norman gives us a world that lives and breathes and endures, and of which we are only a temporary part.

Read more less

Millions of Christians believe that prayer is the breath of the soul, on which depends the quality of their spiritual life. The reality, however, is that genuine prayer is something we need to learn repeatedly. We share the helplessness of the disciples who asked Jesus, ‘Lord, teach us to pray’ (Luke 11:1). This volume focuses on the praying of Jesus Christ in the New Testament. The Seven Prayers of Jesus investigates his prayers in their literary and socio-historical context, and points to their theological significance and relevance for today. Laszlo Gallusz hopes that this work will not only provide a fresh biblical perspective on the prayers of Jesus but also become a source of inspiration for our own prayer lives. ‘Dr Gallusz’s . . . engagement with Scripture shows his mastery of the biblical topic. Yet he also writes with the heart of a pastor, applying his insights to the life of the individual Christian and also that of the church. This book will enrich the intellect and nurture the spirit of all those who read it. I recommend it wholeheartedly.’ Laurence A. Turner, Principal Lecturer Emeritus in Old Testament, Newbold College, Bracknell, UK

Read more less

For years, parents worldwide have asked beloved author Sally Clarkson how she and her husband have ignited a love for learning and a deep faith in their children. They want to know how the Clarksons launched their children to live such flourishing lives as adults. Awaking Wonder is Sally's answer to those questions. This book is 36 years in the making and provides a deep dive into Sally's most profound legacy: guiding her four children into a wonder-filled life. If you feel exhausted, ill equipped, or unsupported in your journey as a parent, you will find relief in this book. Awaking Wonder will inspire, delight, provide laughter, and bring tears through the heartfelt stories of four lively children and the wondrous life they grew up in together. Journey with Sally toward · cultivating wonder all around you · understanding how to open your children's minds to the beauty scattered throughout the universe · laying a foundation for a robust faith in God · nurturing your children to develop their capacity for intellect, faith, and relationships If you long for a holistic approach to parenting and education, this is the book you've been waiting for.

Read more less

This book examines systematically both the theoretical and practical issues that have characterized the discipline over the past two centuries. Some of the historically most consequential mistakes in archaeology are dissected and explained, together with the effects of the related controversies. The theoretical basis of the discipline is deliberated in some detail, leading to the diagnosis that there are in fact numerous archaeologies, all with different notions of commensurability, ideologies, and purposes. Their various perspectives of what archaeology is and does are considered and the range of views of the human past is illuminated in this book. How humans became what they are today is of profound importance to understanding ourselves, both as a species and individually. Our psychology, cognition, diseases, intellect, communication forms, physiology, predispositions, ideologies, culture, genetics, behavior, and, perhaps most importantly, our reality constructs are all the result of our evolutionary history. Therefore the models archaeology—especially Pleistocene archaeology—creates of our past are not just narratives of what happened in human history; they are fundamental to every aspect of our existence.

Read more less

In a career that ranged over a turbulent era in European history, William Blake (1757-1827) produced one of the most singular and intense body of works in the history of art. Neglected and misunderstood in his lifetime, his extraordinary paintings, poetry and prints now enjoy an international reputation. Technically innovative, strikingly original, and highly personal in their symbolism, his images are both powerfully immediate in their effects and challenging in their complexity. His visual interpretations of the Bible, the poetry of Milton and of Dante, and his unique 'illuminated books', demonstrate a fervid invention and a searching intellect that have entranced generations of admirers. "The Blake Book" provides a thorough introduction to the life and work of this complex figure and draws on the vast array of contemporary scholarship, providing a clear-headed overview of Blake's writings and paintings.Exploring the context of his art and life, his symbolism, techniques and critical reputation, and presenting his own writings on art and artists, "The Blake Book" is the essential guide to this extraordinary figure.

Read more less

As Joe Biden has shown us all, the best is yet to come. Here are the stories of the inspiring, inventive, and brave things people have achieved in later life. With a foreword by Michael Whitehall, late bloomer par excellence.With life comes perspective, wisdom, judgement and depth. You are as likely to change the world after middle age as you were before it - and perhaps more likely to change it for the better. From the well known to the unsung, each entry tells the story of how older age was no barrier to impressive feats of intellect, creativity and daring. Ranging from Alexander Fleming, Stan Lee and Baroness Trumpington, to Whina Cooper and the bestselling novelist Mary Wesley who didn't write her first novel until she was 71, and William Ivy Baldwin who tightrope walked across a canyon at 82. Here is a celebration of the amazing things we humans have shown to be possible in later life. A gift book for late bloomers, baby boomers, and beyond; and an inspiring picture of the possibilities and potential that older age holds.

Read more less

Award-winning author Duncan Tonatiuh brings to life the story of a Mexican-American war hero Jos. de la Luz S.enz (1888–1953)—or Luz—believed in fighting for what was right. Although he was born in the United States, he and his family experienced prejudice because of their Mexican heritage. When World War I broke out, Luz volunteered to join the fight. Because of his ability to quickly learn languages, he became part of the Intelligence Office in Europe. However, despite his hard work and intellect, Luz often didn’t receive credit for his contributions. Upon his return to the US, he joined other Mexican-Americans whom he had met in the army to fight for equality. His contribution, along with others, ultimately led to the creation of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), which is the oldest Latino civil rights organization. Soldier for Equality is based in part on Luz’s diary during the war. It includes a biography of Luz’s later years, an author’s note, a timeline, a bibliography, and an index.

Read more less

"I have assumed a great deal in the selection of the poems from such a large and various number, making them a discourse unavoidably my own as well as any Olson himself might have chosen to offer. I had finally no advice but the long held habit of our using one another, during his life, to act as a measure, a bearing, an unabashed response to what either might write or say". (Robert Creeley). A seminal figure in post-World War II literature, Charles Olson has helped define the postmodern sensibility. His poetry embraces themes of empowering love, political responsibility, the wisdom of dreams, the intellect as a unit of energy, the restoration of the archaic, and the transformation of consciousness - all carried in a voice both intimate and grand, American and timeless, impassioned and coolly demanding. In this selection of some 70 poems, Robert Creeley has sought to present a personal reading of Charles Olson's decisive and inimitable work - 'unequivocal instances of his genius' - over the many years of their friendship.

Read more less

CBC BOOKS CANADIAN POETRY COLLECTIONS TO WATCH FOR IN SPRING 2023Feminist poems both serious and absurd that question our obsession with productivity instead of with care. Continuity Errors questions the privileging of work and productivity over rest and care from an ecological and feminist perspective. Written before and immediately after the birth of her first child, these poems try to imagine the future her son will inherit. Encounters with an unusual cast of characters – including lonely cryptids, unrepentant grifters, and persistent ghosts – provide incomplete answers, and while the continuity errors keep multiplying around her, Wright pauses to consider whether our devotion to innovation is keeping us stuck."Catriona Wright's Continuity Errors is a book of snaking moves and sneaking intellect, a book of style and fortitude and sass. Wright's always sharp and often eerie interrogations lead us through a world of cryptocurrency, grunt work, predictive policing, extinction, haute cuisine, billboard ads, smoke breaks, breast pumps; these are poems for our moment of onslaught and bewilderment that, having had the world forced down their throats, spit back." – Natalie Shapero, author of Popular Longing

Read more less

Sydney Brenner was born in South Africa and educated at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (Medicine and Science). He then moved to Oxford and received a D.Phil in 1952, before joining the MRC Unit in the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge in 1956. His various accomplishments include serving as the Director of MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, founding the Molecular Science Institute in Berkeley, holding the position of Distinguished Professor at the Salk Institute, La Jolla. And during his last years, Sydney Brenner played a key role in shaping research and development in the biomedical sector in Singapore as A*Star Senior Fellow.He was one of the greatest biologists of the 20th century and was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2002 for his pioneering work in the field of molecular biology. He was also known for his boundless curiosity, sharp intellect and courage to speak with clarity and characteristic wit as evident in this delightful book which is a compilation of the columns that he wrote for Current Biology in the late '90s.

Read more less

This book on rare books, holographs and historical artifacts in a single collection is a treasure in itself. With generous portions of passages paired with pictures and tastefully spiced with comments, this book is a feast to the intellect. I commend this book as an aperitivo for starters and a digestivo for the sated. Bon Appetit to all guests! Adoor Gopalakrishnan, India, Writer & Filmmaker, Recipient of India's highest film honour: Dadasaheb Phalke Award; Winner: British Film Institute Award; French honour: Commander of the Order of Arts & Letters About the Book Book of Books is a box of literary delights. Illustrated throughout, it provides a guided tour of rare books, manuscripts and historical artifacts in a single collection. The reader is invited to explore and enjoy carefully chosen pearls that dangle from the strands of Time. The theme runs across cultures and centuries from both East and West with excerpts from the works of many great authors including Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Omar Khayyam, Rabindranath Tagore and Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, and such notable figures as Abraham Lincoln and Mahatma Gandhi.

Read more less

How can we understand God's revelation to us? Throughout the church's history, theologians have often answered this question by appealing to a doctrine of illumination whereby the Holy Spirit shapes our knowledge and understanding of Scripture. Without denying the role of the Holy Spirit or the cognitive role of illumination, Ike Miller casts a broader vision of divine illumination and its role in the Christian life. In his constructive approach, Miller argues for a fully trinitarian view of illumination that forms not just our intellect, but also appeals to the affections and encourages our ethical action. In order to develop this theology of illumination, Miller explores both Augustine's and Karl Barth's readings of the Gospel and Epistles of John, including Barth's previously untranslated lectures on the Gospel of John. In the light of his careful study of both the Johannine literature and the theologies of two giants from Christian history, Miller contends for a doctrine of illumination whereby we are enabled to know God and participate in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Read more less

Read the definitive essay collection from the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Adversary, dubbed 'France's greatest writer of non-fiction' (New York Times)'The most exciting living writer' Karl Ove KnausgaardOver the course of his career, Emmanuel Carrère has reinvented non-fiction writing. In a search for truth in all its guises, he dispenses with the rules of genre. For him, no form is out of reach: theology, historiography, reportage and memoir - among many others - are fused under the pressure of an inimitable combination of passion, curiosity and intellect that has made Carrère one of our most distinctive and important literary voices today.97,196 Words introduces Carrère's shorter work to an English-language audience. Featuring more than thirty extraordinary texts written over an illustrious twenty-five-year period of Carrère's creative life, the book shows a remarkable mind at work. Spanning continents, histories, and personal relationships, 97,196 Words considers the divides between truth, reality and our shared humanity, exploring remarkable events and eccentric lives, including Carrère's own.* A New York Times Notable Book *

Read more less

To refer to the private life of Charles II is to abuse the adjective. His personal life was anything but private. His amorous liaisons were largely conducted in royal palaces surrounded by friends, courtiers and literally hundreds of servants and soldiers. Gossip radiated throughout the kingdom. Charles spent most of his wealth and his intellect on gaining and keeping the company of women, from the lowest sections of society such as the actress Nell Gwyn to the aristocratic Louise de Kerouaille. Some of Charles' women played their part in the affairs of state, colouring the way the nation was run. Don Jordan and Michael Walsh take us inside Charles' palace, where we will meet court favourites, amusing confidants, advisors jockeying for political power, mistresses past and present as well as key figures in his inner circle such as his 'pimpmasters' and his personal pox doctor. The astonishing private life of Charles II reveals much about the man he was and why he lived and ruled as he did. The King's Bed tells the compelling story of a king ruled by his passion.

Read more less

In ""The Encyclical Fides Et Ratio"", Pope John Paul II called upon teachers of philosophy ""to recover, in the flow of an enduringly valid philosophical tradition, the range of authentic wisdom and truth."" ""Understanding Our Being"" responds to this call with a much-needed introduction to speculative philosophy.Written as an undergraduate textbook, ""Understanding Our Being"" treats central topics about our knowledge of being, the being of the natural world, and, via the latter, being as such. It then treats the special character and implications of our human, personal being - in particular, our intellect, free choice, and reason-conditioned sociality. Finally, it considers God as Source and End of being and it discusses the ""problem of evil"" and the nature of religious faith.In addition to presenting essential elements of the ""perennial"" philosophy, as developed in the tradition of Thomas Aquinas (especially as interpreted by Jacques Maritain and others), this book discusses contemporary challenges to the critical realist approach. These include scientism, historicism, and nihilism, as well as religious fideism. The author also encourages students to think for themselves, and he offers them resources to do so, via questions for reflection at the end of each part, a comprehensive bibliography, and a glossary of key philosophical terms.

Read more less

Plato of Athens (c 429-347 BC) is the earliest European thinker whose thoughts on politics survive to any great extent. His work, contained in The Republic, the Statesman, the Laws and the unfinished Critias, amongst other works, has made major contributions to the agenda of Western Political thought and its content. [In The Republic, Plato’s preoccupation was the concept of the just individual and the just state.] His view that intellect and political authority should be correlated has been a major theme of political thought down the centuries, influencing both authoritarian and egalitarian attitudes to government and democracy. In his later work Plato’s concern shifted from the question of justice to questions of the competence of rulers, which in The Statesman he treated as of the first importance, and eventually to the role of law and a mixed constitution, along with religion, in guaranteeing political order.The papers in this authoritative selection explore various aspects of Plato’s thought including social structure, education, freedom, property, the status of women, human motivation and racism in addition to his views on law, reason and justice. The vast array of topics covered shows how Plato’s work adumbrates many of the concerns of political thought up to the present day and indeed is still relevant in our modern age.

Read more less

This book examines the role of one of the most charismatic leaders of the opposition to the Nazis within Germany. Adam von Trott zu Solz was a boy when Germany was defeated militarily in 1918 and in his youth witnessed its economic collapse. He was studying at Oxford University when Hitler came to power in 1933 and was convinced that opposition to the Nazis must come from within Germany and not outside it. Hitler enjoyed enormous support as the economy improved and, after 1939, as the German armies ravaged at will through Western Europe. Yet von Trott, by now a senior official in the Foreign Office, travelled frequently to Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey to talk with British and American contacts, pleading unsuccessfully for recognition of the resisters. In July 1944 he was one of the leaders of the group which attempted to assassinate Hitler. Refusing all offers to smuggle him out of Germany -- 'I shall take the blame for everything' -- he was executed on 26 August, aged only 35. Based on extensive research and talks with some of those who knew him, this book details the life of a man of brilliant intellect who refused to compromise his conscience and sacrificed himself in a noble cause.

Read more less

Master and Commander meets A Game of Thrones and Pirates of the Carribean. Rapid-paced high fantasy with all-out combat on the high seas, and a canny young woman who faces the hidden threats of an imperial court. Yet the key to defeating a sorcerous enemy may lie with a wild rogue and the slave of a maniac. For centuries the Drehhu have ruled every continent, brutally enslaving the human inhabitants. Now after endless wars the human empires of Ophion, Velesa, and Modjal have pushed the inhuman enemy back to their heartland and unite in a final, massive assault. Alastor Nevelon and his son Crespin set sail against the Drehhu, and they have their own secret weapons. Yet Alastor is forced to send his daughter Chrysanthe to the capitol city Ophion Magne as a “token” of his loyalty to the emperor. He instructs Chrysanthe to use her considerable intellect to discover what plots may be afoot, even as she enters a place where courtly manners hide murderous intent. As nations collide the true key to defeating the Drehhu may lie in a remote mountain stronghold, with a wild rogue known as Hound and Ammolite, the young slave of a sorcerer more ancient than any nation—whose loyalties remain threateningly unknown.

Read more less

For five decades, Gerald Stern has been writing his own brand of expansive, deep-down American poetry. Now in his nineties, this “sometimes comic, sometimes tragic visionary” (Edward Hirsch) engages a lifetime of memories in his poems, blending philosophical, wide-ranging intellect with boisterous wit. Memory unites the poems in Blessed as We Were, which reach back through seven collections written over almost two decades. Stern explores casual miracles, relationships, and the natural world in Last Blue (2000); offers a satirical and redemptive vision in Everything Is Burning (2005) and Save the Last Dance (2008); meditates on the metamorphosis of aging in In Beauty Bright (2012); and captures the sensual joys of life—even when they are far in the past—in the wistful love poems and elegies of Galaxy Love (2017). The volume concludes with over two dozen new poems that combine the metaphysical with the domestic, from the passage of time and the cost of love to the profound banality of cardboard and its uses. With his characteristic exuberant, oracular voice animating every line, Stern reminds us why he is one of the great American poets, one who has long “been telling us that the best way to live is not so much for poetry, but through poetry” (New York Times Book Review).

Read more less

The human race is all too pre-disposed to think in terms of us and them. Europeans have always laid claim to the Ancient Greeks they are our Greeks, our ancestors but their legacy reaches further than we could ever imagine. Their influence stretches from the Japanese to the Cossacks, from Ancient Rome to Indonesia. In this path-breaking new volume, the great French historian Marcel Detienne focuses on Eurocentric approaches which have trumpeted the Greeks and their democratic practices as our ancestors and the superiority of the Western tradition to which they gave rise. He argues that such approaches can be seen as narrow-minded and often covertly nationalistic. Detienne advocates what he calls comparative anthropology which sets out to illuminate the comparisons and contrasts between the beliefs, practices and institutions of different ancient and modern societies. Detienne aims to put the Greeks in perspective among other civilisations and also to look afresh at questions of political structure, literacy, nationhood, intellect and mythology. The work of Marcel Detienne has made an enormous impact on our thinking about the Greeks in areas such as rationality, literacy and mythology, and in this new volume he challenges once again our conception of the Greeks and their impact on the modern world.

Read more less

Jacques Maritain was one of the most profound and far-ranging thinkers in the wave of Thomism that gained momentum after World War I and crested just before Vatican II. His career makes manifest the intellectual, cultural, and spiritual liveliness of the pre-Conciliar period, and his thought is crucial to our understanding of the Church today. Art and Prudence highlights the social, political, and aesthetic achievements of the great French Catholic intellectual. In this collection of essays Ralph McInerny portrays Maritain as a devoted Thomist, convinced that faith could never be divorced from reason and that reason without faith was shallow and devoid of meaning. His eclectic tastes and penetrating intellect led him to scrutinize many topics, and although McInerny concedes that he cannot discuss all of Maritain 's ideas, he shows their inherent unity and underlying current of devotion. Taking as a starting point Maritain's Art and Scholasticism, Mclnerny investigates a number of Maritain's ideas. He explicates Maritain's paradoxical defense of the United Nations Universal Declaration on Human Rights, as well as the philosophical ramifications of the dispute over the common good. In addition, Mclnemy discusses Maritain's deployment of Thomistic doctrines into surprising new applications and pays tribute to the man as the best Thomistic writer on art in this century.

Read more less

Over the course of a distinguished career, critic Leo Bersani has tackled a range of issues in his writing, and this collection gathers together some of his finest work. Beginning with one of the foundations of queer theory - his famous meditation on how sex leads to a shattering of the self, "Is the Rectum a Grave?" - this volume charts the inspired connections Bersani has made between sexuality, psychoanalysis, and aesthetics. Over the course of these essays, Bersani grapples with thinkers ranging from Plato to Descartes to Georg Simmel. Foucault and Freud recur as key figures, and although Foucault rejected psychoanalysis, Bersani contends that by considering his ideas alongside Freud's, one gains a clearer understanding of human identity and how we relate to one another. For Bersani, art represents a crucial guide for conceiving new ways of connecting to the world, and so, in many of these essays, he stresses the importance of aesthetics, analyzing works by Jean Genet, Caravaggio, Proust, Pedro Almodovar, and Jean-Luc Godard. Documenting over two decades in the life of one of the best minds working in the humanities today, "Is the Rectum a Grave? and Other Essays" is a unique opportunity to explore the fruitful career of a formidable intellect.

Read more less

USA Today BestsellerNew York Times bestselling author Lorraine Heath pens another richly satisfying romance in her Sins for all Seasons series.She’s looking for a nobleman to wed…Though born out of wedlock, Fancy Trewlove is determined to fulfill her mother’s wish that she marry into nobility. Fancy’s keen intellect and finishing school manners make her the perfect wife for any gentleman—if he’s willing to overlook her scandalous lineage. But Fancy’s plans are thrown into chaos when an intriguing commoner begins visiting her bookshop—and she finds herself unable to stop thinking about him.He’s looking to escape his title…Widowed just a year ago, the reclusive Matthew Sommersby, Earl of Rosemont, has been besieged by women hoping to become his next wife. Desperate for anonymity, he sheds Society life to search for the peace that eludes him. Fancy’s shop is his one refuge, until the night their passion erupts into a kiss that nearly leads to her ruin—and leaves both longing for much more. Together, they discover an unlikely love…As Fancy finds herself torn between her family’s expectations and her growing feelings for Matthew, secrets are exposed—secrets that force Fancy to question if she can trust her heart’s desire...

Read more less

How have our emotions shaped the course of human history? And how have our experience and understanding of emotions evolved with us? We humans like to think of ourselves as rational creatures, who, as a species, have relied on calculation and intellect to survive. But many of the most important moments in our history had little to do with cold, hard facts and a lot to do with feelings. Events ranging from the origins of philosophy to the birth of the world’s major religions, the fall of Rome, the Scientific Revolution, and some of the bloodiest wars that humanity has ever experienced can’t be properly understood without understanding emotions. In A Human History of Emotion, Richard Firth-Godbehere takes readers on a fascinating and wide-ranging tour of the central and often under-appreciated role emotions have played in human societies around the world and throughout history – from Ancient Greece to Gambia, Japan, the Ottoman Empire, Britain, and beyond. Drawing on psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, art and religious history, A Human History of Emotion vividly illustrates how our understanding and experience of emotions has changed over time, and how our beliefs about feelings – and our feelings themselves – profoundly shaped us and the world we inhabit.

Read more less

One of our best contemporary writers explores the tension between science and religion and reveals how our concept of mind determines how we understand and value human nature and human civilization In this ambitious book, acclaimed writer Marilynne Robinson applies her astute intellect to some of the most vexing topics in the history of human thought—science, religion, and consciousness. Crafted with the same care and insight as her award-winning novels, Absence of Mind challenges postmodern atheists who crusade against religion under the banner of science. In Robinson’s view, scientific reasoning does not denote a sense of logical infallibility, as thinkers like Richard Dawkins might suggest. Instead, in its purest form, science represents a search for answers. It engages the problem of knowledge, an aspect of the mystery of consciousness, rather than providing a simple and final model of reality.By defending the importance of individual reflection, Robinson celebrates the power and variety of human consciousness in the tradition of William James. She explores the nature of subjectivity and considers the culture in which Sigmund Freud was situated and its influence on his model of self and civilization. Through keen interpretations of language, emotion, science, and poetry, Absence of Mind restores human consciousness to its central place in the religion-science debate.

Read more less

**WINNER OF THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL WRITING****WINNER OF THE ELIZABETH LONGFORD PRIZE FOR HISTORICAL BIOGRAPHY***Book of the year: The Times, Sunday Times, New Statesman, Spectator, Evening Standard*'Outstanding . . . We still live in the society that was shaped by Clement Attlee' Robert Harris, Sunday Times'The best book in the field of British politics' Philip Collins, The Times'Easily the best single-volume, cradle-to-grave life of Clement Attlee yet written' Andrew RobertsClement Attlee was the Labour prime minister who presided over Britain's radical postwar government, delivering the end of the Empire in India, the foundation of the NHS and Britain's place in NATO. Called 'a sheep in sheep's clothing', his reputation has long been that of an unassuming character in the shadow of Churchill. But as John Bew's revelatory biography shows, Attlee was not only a hero of his age, but an emblem of it; and his life tells the story of how Britain changed over the twentieth century. Here, Bew pierces Attlee's reticence to examine the intellect and beliefs of Britain's greatest - and least appreciated - peacetime prime minister. This edition includes a new preface by the author in response to the 2017 general election.

Read more less

*From the star of CUNK ON EARTH - BBC's landmark mockumentary, now on Netflix!*'This book is great because it covers everything in existence apart from the 95% of stuff not worth bothering with' Philomena Cunk, star of Charlie Brooker's Weekly Wipe, Moments of Wonder and Cunk on Earth, Cunk & Other Humans'Essential reading for these slipshod times' Al MurrayOnce in a blue moon, a book comes along that changes the world. The Origin of Species. War and Peace. 1984. The World According to Danny Dyer. And now, Cunk on Everything: The Encyclopedia Philomena, by Philomena Cunk.Philomena Cunk is one of the greatest thinkers of the 21st century, and in Cunk on Everything she turns her attention to our biggest issue: why are there so many books? Wouldn't it be better if there was just one? This is that book - an encyclopedia of ALL HUMAN KNOWLEDGE, from sausages to Henry of Eight to Brush Strokes to vegetarian sausages. Read it, and you'll never have to read another book again.'This is a book' Philomena Cunk'Never contact me again' Professor Rupert Delgado, MBE'Cunk for PM' Rachel Riley'. . . book . . .' Guardian'Truly the intellect for our baffling times' The Times'This book is absolutely stupid' The Pool

Read more less

The poetry of Muriel Rukeyser confronts the turbulent currents of 20th-century history, as it explores with depth and honesty the realms of politics, sexuality, mythic imagination, technological change, and family life. She was a social activist of unwavering commitment, a tireless experimenter who opened fresh forms and fresh subject matter in modern American poetry, and a writer who was constantly testing her own limits in a life’s work of extraordinary scope.“She refused to compartmentalize herself or her work,” writes editor Adrienne Rich, “claiming her right to intellect and sexuality, poetry and science, Marxism and myth, activism and motherhood, theory and vision. . . . She was one of the great integrators, seeing the fragmentary world of modernity not as irretrievably broken, but in need of societal and emotional repair.” This new selection provides an indispensable introduction to her adventurous and prolific work.About the American Poets ProjectElegantly designed in compact editions, printed on acid-free paper, and textually authoritative, the American Poets Project makes available the full range of the American poetic accomplishment, selected and introduced by today’s most discerning poets and critics.

Read more less

Mike Brearley was one of England's greatest cricket captains. He thrice won the Ashes, including the unforgettable series of 1981, when his leadership helped England to snatch victory from defeat. Yet there was nothing inevitable about his rise. A spell out of the game in his mid-20s stymied his progress and when he returned full-time to captain Middlesex, his innovative approach found little favour with the old guard. In this first-ever biography of Brearley, award-winning cricket writer Mark Peel reveals how Brearley overcame his critics to lead Middlesex to four county championships and two Gillette Cup wins. His rise to the England captaincy was fast, but his unrivalled leadership skills contrasted with his repeated failures with the bat. Away from cricket, Brearley possessed a range of cultural interests along with a sharp intellect, which saw him achieve eminence as a psychoanalyst. Drawing on interviews with friends and team-mates, Peel assesses the many facets of this complex man to explain his phenomenal success as a leader.

Read more less

The Retrospective Muse showcases the celebrated work of Froma I. Zeitlin. Over many decades, Zeitlin's innovative studies have changed the field of classics. Her instantly recognizable work brings together anthropology, gender studies, cultural studies, and an acute literary sensibility to open ancient texts and ideas to new forms of understanding. A selection of her luminous essays on topics still timely today are collected for the first time in a volume that shows the full range and flair of her remarkable intellect. Together, these illuminating analyses show why Zeitlin's work on ancient Greek culture has had an enduring impact on scholars around the world, not just in classics but across multiple fields. From Homer to the Greek novel, from religion to erotics, from myth and ritual to theatrical performance, she expounds on some of the most important works of ancient writing and some of modernity's most significant critical questions. Zeitlin's writing still sheds light on the durable aspects of classics as a discipline, and this book encapsulates her achievement.

Read more less

Ada Lovelace, the daughter of Lord Byron was born in 1815 just after the Battle of Waterloo, and died aged 36, soon after the Great Exhibition of 1851. She was connected with some of the most influential and colourful characters of the age: Charles Dickens, Michael Faraday, Charles Darwin and Charles Babbage. It was her work with Babbage that led to her being credited with the invention of computer programming and to her name being adopted for the programming language that controls the US military machine. Ada personified the seismic historical changes taking place over her lifetime. This was the era when fissures began to open up in culture: romance split away from reason, instinct from intellect, art from science. Ada came to embody these new polarities and her life heralded a new era: the machine age.Reissued to coincide with the bicentenary of Ada's birth, The Bride of Science is a fascinating examination of an extraordinary life offering devastating insight into the seemingly unbridgeable gulf between art and science, the consequences of which are still with us today.

Read more less