Beth Richards writes: "My poetry probably reflects the inside image of my thoughts-sometimes very deep thoughts. I write from the heart and sometimes when I'm in a reflective mood my poetry is serious and somewhat philosophical " This collection of poems is a result of Beth's suggestion to Charles Muller that they produce a book that combines their gifts. Beth says: "Charles and I have led two very different lives, and it shows in our writing-hence the title Worlds Apart. Apart from having been born in different hemispheres, we are two very different people, but we appear to be kindred spirits in many ways. (Both born under the star sign of Leo!)" The poems by Charles Muller are perhaps more startling, with jagged images and sentences that cut like broken glass, sometimes exposing the raw nerves of life. Many of these were composed in the context of Apartheid South Africa and recall the violence and injustices of those times. Beth and Charles are also artists, and the cover depicts a painting by each of the poet-paintings that highlight their contrasting worlds.
The contributors to this little volume are – or were – remarkable people whom the Lord had touched in one way or another, manifesting His divine love and miraculous power. It was the editor's own unexpected experience of the Lord's power and presence that, in 1984, changed his life and caused him to forsake his academic career in South Africa and move to the United Kingdom where he could obey his mission to write. It was also that remarkable experience of His power that made him seek out others whom the Lord had touched – while he was still living in South Africa. This little book is the result of that quest.
This volume makes available in English the seminal treatises in Korea's greatest interreligious debate of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. On Mind, Material Force, and Principle and An Array of Critiques of Buddhism by Confucian statesman Chŏng Tojŏn (1342–1398) and Exposition of Orthodoxy by Sŏn monk Kihwa (1376–1433) are presented here with extensive annotation. A substantial introduction provides a summary and analysis of the philosophical positions of both Neo-Confucianism and Buddhism as well as a germane history of the interactions between these two traditions in East Asia, offering insight into religious tensions that persist to this day. Translator A. Charles Muller shows how, from the time Confucianism and Buddhism met in China, these thought systems existed, along with Daoism, in a competing relationship that featured significant mutual influence. A confrontative situation eventually developed in China, wherein Confucian leaders began to criticize Buddhism. During the late-Koryŏ and early-Chosŏn periods in Korea, the Neo-Confucian polemic became the driving force in the movement to oust Buddhism from its position as Korea's state religion. In his essays, Chŏng drew together the gamut of arguments that had been made against Buddhism throughout its long history in Korea. Kihwa's essay met Neo-Confucian contentions with an articulate Buddhist response. Thus, in a rare moment in the history of religions, a true philosophical debate ensued. This debate was made possible based upon the two religions' shared philosophical paradigm: essence-function (ch'e-yong). This traditional East Asian way of interpreting society, events, phenomena, human beings, and the world understands all things to have both essence and function, two contrasting yet wholly contiguous and mutually containing components. All three East Asian traditions took this as their underlying philosophical paradigm, and it is through this paradigm that they evaluated and criticized each other's doctrines and practices. Specialists in philosophy, religion, and Korean studies will appreciate Muller's exploration of this pivotal moment in Korean intellectual history. Because it includes a broad overview of the interactive history of East Asian religions, this book can also serve as a general introduction to East Asian philosophical thought.
Like James Joyce's character, Stephen Daedalus, Denton searches deeply into his soul, seeking to communicate and understand the consciousness of his race. Questioning his reason for living, Denton preaches the Gospel to prisoners in Pretoria Central Prison. The author's blending of narrative and stream of consciousness, interspersed with poetic epiphany, captures the complex climate of Denton's spiritual journey. The author writes on a high, dramatic level, never in danger of losing the tension of a conflict that leads his character away from a fundamentalist belief in Christian doctrine to a wider acceptance of Christ and salvation through grace. AUTHOR BIO: Humphrey Muller, MA (Wales), PhD (London), DLitt (OFS), DEd (SA), was Professor and Head of the Department of English at the University of the North in South Africa for ten years. He is the author of numerous academic textbooks and literary studies. In 1988 he left his academic career to move to Scotland to devote more time to creative writing.
A Defining Moment in the Life of the Church Even before the terrible revelations of sexual misconduct and the cover-up that allowed such atrocities to continue happening, the Catholic Church was in trouble. With a devout but aging congregation giving way to a generation of so-called lapsed Catholics, the spiritual vitality and significance of the church had seemed, in the context of modern American society, to be ebbing away. Then when the scandal hit, even true believers were pitched into an all-out crisis of faith. It was at this low point that a fiercely committed group of Catholics emphatically said, Enough! This book tells their inspiring story, the story of Voice of the Faithful, a grassroots organization formed to give the laity a voice in making their church a more effective spiritual and social force. The group came to realize that the underlying cause of the cover-ups and the failure of the church to adopt many needed changes is the abuse by some in the hierarchy of the excessive power they hold. For too long, average Catholics have been disenfranchised. Now, with the growing success of Voice of the Faithful, there is finally a legitimate forum for the laity. As James E. Muller and Charles Kenney show in this urgent call to action, history is on the side of those who would stand up and be heard.
1984 proved to be a seminal year in the lives of my family because it triggered my decision to move permanently from the country of my birth-South Africa-to Scotland. There was something magical about the remote Scottish glen where we spent the year, some ten miles south of Oban, in Argyle. In contrast to the gathering political storm clouds and tensions in South Africa, my sabbatical year in the Bragleenbeg glen that cradled the still waters of Scammerdale Loch that reflected the open sky and the green hills around, all speckled with white dots of sheep, was like a breath of fresh air, and we breathed freely. We realised we needed to find a new direction in life, though my obsession with acquiring a Roll-Royce Silver Shadow was probably more of an obstacle than a blessing! The musings that follow convey our progress and experiences in the ensuing years, and these include memories of the eleven years running a small hotel in the Scottish Borders, a sea voyage to Australia, life in the Great Glen of Scotland and on the wild coastline of Sutherland, followed by the short sojourn in Fife before we settled in the Central Belt of Scotland. - Charles Muller.
Harry Denton is a middle-aged professor who leaves his secure post at a London university on account of the sense of failure and embarrassment caused by his wife Anne's mounting debts. An inheritance left to him by his father enables him to start a new life by buying a small hotel in the Scottish Borders. But in this new context his marriage to Anne proves to be just as hopeless and loveless. He escapes through flights of fancy, frequently contemplating suicide, and becomes obsessed with one of his guests-Eleanor. Although, ironically, she comes across as a pretty simpleton married to an uncouth double-glazing salesman, she expresses the thinking which, in time, will transform Denton's life. The ruins of a twelfth-century Augustinian Abbey in the Scottish Borders play a significant role in the initial evocation of atmosphere, providing the fantasy of a 'time-gate' to the past.
Have Anything You Really Really Want! is a thought-provoking study about the power of positive thinking and the Christian faith. It follows the authors own personal journey of faith and discovery as he details how his Christian faith unleashed a positive powerin the attainment of personal, even material goals (including the acquisition of university degrees and a Rolls Royce!), but more significantly in the realisation of far-reaching goals: the discovery of his wife and ultimately the transition from university professor in South Africa to successful hotel-owner in Scotland. An important lesson in the experience of mid-life change is seen in the close dependence on Gods love and boundless supply for all needs, material and spiritual. From establishing an objective, working out a strategy, and using faith and initiative, this detailed thesis explores the essential principles for personal success and achievement and guides the reader step-by-step through the practical process of attaining his or her goals. In the final analysis, however, it asks whether it is the individual, or the invisible hand of Providence, which engineers the successeven to the extent of changing ones original goals, and changing oneself in the process.
Destiny and time are the themes of this novel. Can we really alter time? Would we or could we change any details of our lives if we had the opportunity to go back in time? Michael Grant, who flirts with suicide, is given this opportunity. The ending may be surprising!
The moral purpose of Charles Kingsley's novels is pronounced because he was a preacher, and more specifically, a teacher. He was above all a preacher of stirring didactic sermons. It is the didactic content of his writings-in his sermons, his novels, and his essays on natural theology-which is the study of this work. One forgets that Kingsley was not, in the first instance, a social and political reformer. As a preacher, and as a writer, he was pre-eminently a teacher. He was not an evangelical preacher, yet the Christian gospel was at the heart of his teachings and his moral exhortations. This work attempts to look at the Christian message that was the inspiration behind his socio-religious gospel. Writing at the time of Charles Darwin, Kingsley saw no reason to lose his sound Christian faith with the emergence of Darwin's theory of evolution. Instead, he could accept it as a means to a divine end, another example of how Providence might bring about the Kingdom of God on earth.
Describes various commonly used methods of initial factoring and factor rotation. In addition to a full discussion of exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and various methods of constructing factor scales are also presented.
The book honours the Rev. Dr. Robert A Kolb, retired Director of the Institute for Mission Studies and Missions Professor in systematic theology at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, and perhaps the leading authority on the development of "Wittenberg Theology" in the English-speaking world. At the same time, his teaching and writing, which continues without flagging, has emphasized the importance of translating and retranslating the historic Lutheran faith in terms that address contemporary issues and contemporary people. In this volume, colleagues and co-workers address and push forward Kolb insights into the history of the Reformation era and on the impact of those Reformation issues (and quarrels) on the life of the church in the world today. With contributions by Charles Arand, L'ubomir Batka, Amy Nelson Burnett, Irene Dingel, Mary Jane Haemig, Scott Hendrix, Erik Herrmann, Werner Klän, David Lumpp, Mark Mattes, Daniel Mattson, Richard Muller, Paul Robinson, Robert Rosin, and Timothy Wengert.
A must-have book about investments ! UCITS funds today represent a major share of European funds. The European directives started with UCITS I in the mids 1980s, and have been amended up to UCITS IV in 2009, to be followed soon by a UCITS V package. In its first part, this book is summarizing the evolution and features of these successive sets of European regulations. Among others, it covers the UCITS eligible assets, the key parties involved in UCITS funds operations, their reporting and information requirements, taxation and many other useful related subjects, to give a short but useful understanding of the UCITS world.Beside the UCITS IV directive is entering into the risk management fiel, wich is materialized by the issue of a key document entitled Risk Measurement and the Calculation of Global Exposure and Counterparty Risk for UCITS (the famous ref. 10-788 Guidelines of the Committee of the European Securities Regulators "CESR"). The Guidelines require some technical skills: the second part pf this book reproduces the CESR's Guidelines, punctuated with comments and prerequisites of quantitative finance, to help for a better understanding of the content and significance of this UCITS IV objective. This book will give you the best keys to invest, avoiding many financial risks.
Perched on a steep, wooded hillside west of Dunedin in a South Island rainforest in New Zealand is Waipori Falls Village. The "reflections" in this volume were inspired by living in the splendid isolation of this remote village surrounded by a scenic reserve. Perhaps that's why I was there - to rediscover my balance, to get things into perspective. There in the magical isolation of Waipori we could reflect upon life, on our experiences in the different parts of the world where we have lived, finding our way again after so much wandering. After our combined Waipori reflections, there are my reflections back in Clashnessie, my one-time home in the Highlands of Scotland, followed by my reflections during the summer of 2008, which I spent "on the edge of the sea" in Nova Scotia. The book encompasses the three locales, and all the reflections, wherever they are set, have been inspired by my time in Waipori, which began the whole process. -Charles Muller
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