Death is taboo. Death is incomprehensible, inexplicable; and, yet, inevitable. The most ancient desire of humankind is to conquer death; we humans don’t see death as part of life. We want to play God, want to find a new direction in the eternal circle of life—or stop it altogether. After publishing Cluster (“one of the best science fiction novels published from a Hungarian author” - Köki Terminal Bookshop), in Stephen Paul Thomas’s new short story collection, we can look deeply into the problem that the whole of humankind wants to solve: How can we live longer? In eleven short stories, we follow the characters through different paths to prolong their own lives or the lives of others. For some of them, the soul is a separate entity (a thing that can live without the body); for others, this is impossible—they still live and die as before, in sickness and in old age, some in sacrifice for others. In the big race, in the fight for long life, we can see the picture of a big cataclysm; the collective death. But at its deepest level, this book is not about death. The stories—set in the same Colonial Universe as Cluster—about Life; they are a quest for answers about incurable sickness, about how to replace the body in a world where the soul is immortal. Can humankind alone kill Death? Do we need to prolong life—sometimes even to a pointless, meaningless degree? Why would we do that, why would we want to live longer than the stars? Even they stop shining one day.
In the near future, the world stands on the brink of another worldwide economic and social crisis. People look for understanding through occult practices, so that mediums and fortunetellers have become wildly successful in helping them escape reality. There are no more churches, and established religion is a thing of the past. Christians must now gather in secret. In this fragile era emerges Josh Heartley, a young boy with astounding prophetic abilities. Though Josh had a heart transplant in his early years, it doesn't slow him down. He is a light for everyone around him, and he can often tell future events with supernatural clarity. During an accident, Josh has a Near Death Experience and finds himself in the middle of a spiritual battle that goes back more than two thousand years. Dr Julie Bond, conducting a research study involving Josh, hopes to unlock the secret behind NDEs and their ties to the human soul. She soon suspects the key lies within this very special boy. Stephen Paul Thomas's thrilling novel is based on shocking real-world events of a thousand-years-long demonic occupation told through exciting storylines, unexpected twists, and many historical examples. "Thomas (Cluster, 2015) deftly paints a world in which Christians have been backed into a corner by the belief systems of other cultures—like that of Linda’s ancestral village in Central America—and by demons. These demons, including Karnelo, the “lust-addict spirit,” have been possessing people for hundreds of years, using human tools to instigate everything from the Inquisition to organized pedophilia. Thomas’ prose presents the complex story evocatively, as in the line “Linda’s chest rhythmically lifted and sank, like water in the mighty ocean, which kept its secrets in the dark deep.” - Kirkus Review
The world stands on the brink of another worldwide economic and social crisis. People look for understanding through occult practices, so that mediums and fortunetellers have become wildly successful in helping them escape reality. There are no more churches, and established religion is a thing of the past. Christians must now gather in secret. In this fragile era emerges Josh Heartley, a young boy with astounding prophetic abilities. Though Josh had a heart transplant in his early years, it doesn't slow him down. He is a light for everyone around him, and he can often tell future events with supernatural clarity. During an accident, Josh has a Near Death Experience and finds himself in the middle of a spiritual battle that goes back more than two thousand years. Dr Julie Bond, conducting a research study involving Josh, hopes to unlock the secret behind NDEs and their ties to the human soul. She soon suspects the key lies within this very special boy. Stephen Paul Thomas's thrilling novel is based on shocking real-world events of a thousand-years-long demonic occupation told through exciting storylines, unexpected twists, and many historical examples. If you read Frank Peretti's This Present Darkness, you will find this more eyeopening and shocking... all who would like to know more about the unseen battle must read this series! "Thomas (Cluster, 2015) deftly paints a world in which Christians have been backed into a corner by the belief systems of other cultures—like that of Linda’s ancestral village in Central America—and by demons. These demons, including Karnelo, the “lust-addict spirit,” have been possessing people for hundreds of years, using human tools to instigate everything from the Inquisition to organized pedophilia. Thomas’ prose presents the complex story evocatively, as in the line “Linda’s chest rhythmically lifted and sank, like water in the mighty ocean, which kept its secrets in the dark deep.” - Kirkus Review
Now the world stands on the brink of another big economic and social crisis. People look for understanding through occult practices, so that mediums and fortunetellers have become wildly successful in helping them escape from reality. No more churches and established religion, Christians now gather in hidden places. The story continues right after Book 1. Dark clouds are gathering around the Vatican. The economic and moral cataclysm has reached the Papal State. The Master, who’s behind the demonic forces and possessed by the demon of Authority, wants to save the Vatican State. Meanwhile we learn more about the origins and nature of Josh’s prophetic abilities. A psychiatrist claims that the boy is a reincarnation of his grandfather who was killed by a bullet through his heart, but Julie Bond, his doctor, finds out that she is facing with a lie of a familial spirit which followed Josh’s family through the generations. While the future of the Vatican hangs in the balance, John Levi, the cop investigating Josh’s accident and the TV-evangelist’s murder, uncovers strange evidence at the scene—Will’s dissected sentences, words, and characters from his Bible collection arranged into several new languages. The big puzzle starts to emerge from the supernatural revealing the movements of the demonic legions... The story continues in the Book 3. – World War S: In the Heart of Black Magic
Christians have always believed in the triune God, but they haven't always understood or used the doctrine of the Trinity consistently. In order to form a coherent view of trinitarian theology, it's important for Christians to have a working knowledge of the two legitimate models for explaining this doctrine: Classical – presenting a traditional view of the Trinity, represented by the Baptist theologian Stephen R. Holmes and the Roman Catholic theologian Paul D. Molnar. Relational – presenting the promise and potential hazards of a relational doctrine, represented by the evangelical theologian Thomas H. McCall and the Baptist philosopher Paul S. Fiddes. In this volume of the Counterpoints series, leading contributors establish their models and approaches to the doctrine of the Trinity (or, the relationship between the threeness and oneness of the divine life). Each expert highlights the strengths of his view in order to argue how it best reflects the orthodox perspective. In order to facilitate a genuine debate and to make sure that the key issues are revealed, each contributor addresses the same questions regarding their trinitarian methodology, doctrine, and its implications.
After thousands of years of spiritual warfare, the Vatican has turned a corner. It’s no longer the Church that buries its secrets in underground libraries and hides its failures behind the closed doors of its clerical institutions. It is now a real missionary church reviving its relationship with God. The new pope has radically changed the organization with a courage his predecessors never dreamed of possessing. The heroes of the previous book—Paul, Lylian, John, and Julie—travel to Africa to follow Josh’s prophetic dream to find the first African pope, Peter II. They are not alone in this quest; the demonic Legion of the Gadarenes and its allies, the witch masters of black magic, are hot on their heels.John and Julie meet a fetish dealer on the black market who knows where the new pope, “Africa’s Saint,” lives in solitude and leads a mission to help the needy. He offers to guide them to the village, but John doesn’t like the idea. Before a decision is made, the expedition takes a turn for the worse. A mudslide devastates their camp, and John can only hope that Julie survived the accident.Paul and Lylian cross the continent from another direction, following a local informant to find the “Holy Man,” but their task is no easier. If not for the help of angelic troops, they would have perished. Meanwhile, in Europe and the United States, a new religion is emerging. The Master and his maidservants—Salome Sue Richardson and Sidney Grimm—have inflated the new faith into a global religious institution with the help of the corrupt and powerful politician, Carl Millerbeck. This new religion opens a window into the future for anyone who cares to look... If you read Peretti's This Present Darkness you will find this series more exctiting and intriguing! Follow the demonic legion and the devotes fighting against the darkness thourgh the centuries!
In December 1945, at the base of cliffs that run along the Nile River near the modern-day town of Nag Hammadi, an Egyptian farmer discovered a sealed jar containing thirteen ancient Coptic codices. This discovery represented arguably the most significant manuscript discovery of the twentieth century for the study of the New Testament and Christian origins. Of all the texts found none has been more important than the Gospel of Thomas for our understanding of early Christianity. This classic book presents the best text and the best translation of Thomas in user-friendly form. Additional chapters provide a general introduction to the Gospel of Thomas and tell the fascinating story of that discovery itself by one who was directly involved in bringing this new Gospel to light. An annotated list "for further reading" completes the volume. This new edition features updated material which takes account of recent research on the gospel of Thomas. The translation has been refined at points, and the bibliographical material updated.
In December 1945, at the base of cliffs that run along the Nile River near the modern-day town of Nag Hammadi, an Egyptian farmer discovered, in a sealed jar, thirteen ancient Coptic codices containing more than fifty separate tracts. This discovery represented arguably the most significant manuscript discovery of the twentieth century for the study of the New Testament and Christian origins. Of all the texts in this Nag Hammadi Library, none has been more celebrated than the Gospel of Thomas--a Gospel that has played a crucial role in the newly emerging view of early Christianity as a very diverse phenomenon and in the recent revival of historical Jesus studies. Now, after more than fifty years of study, the best text and the best translation of Thomas are presented here in user-friendly form by the Berlin Working Group for Coptic Gnostic Writings, with Stephen J. Patterson and James M. Robinson. In addition, two essays have been included for persons who may be unfamiliar with this new Gospel or with events that led to its discovery and publication. The first, by Patterson, is a general introduction to the Gospel of Thomas as it appears fifty years after its discovery. The second, by Robinson, tells the fascinating story of that discovery itself by one who was directly involved in bringing this new Gospel to light. An annotated list ""for further reading"" completes the volume. Stephen J. Patterson is Associate Professor of New Testament at Eden Theological Seminary and author of The God of Jesus: The Historical Jesus and the Search for Meaning (Trinity Press). James M. Robinson is the former director of the Institute for Antiquity and Christianity, Professor Emeritus at The Claremont Graduate School, and editor of The Nag Hammadi Library.
Ancient-Future Bible Study incorporates contemporary study of the Bible with an experience of the church's most ancient way of reading Scripture, lectio divina. This time-honored practice consists of five basic movements: biblical study (lectio), reflection (meditatio), prayer (oratio), discernment (contemplatio), and contemplative action (operatio). In six clearly written volumes, bestselling author Stephen Binz helps readers study the Bible in a way that leads to spiritual transformation and brings them closer to God. Binz leads readers in a vivid study of key biblical characters, including Abraham, Paul, Peter, David, the women of the Torah, and the women of the Gospels. He shows all Christians who desire to have a transforming experience with the inspired Word of God how studying Scripture through lectio divina can enrich their discipleship. This ecumenical Bible study, designed for use by individuals or groups, includes questions for personal reflection and suggested action. Each volume includes leader's notes for guiding a study over the course of six sessions.
The essays collected in The Gospel of Thomas and Christian Origins offer a series new chapters in the history of Christianity's first century. Stephen J. Patterson, whose work on the Gospel of Thomas has circulated widely for more than two decades, argues that taking this new source seriously will require rethinking a number of basic issues, including the assumed apocalyptic origins of early Christian faith, the supposed centrality of Jesus' death and resurrection, and the role of Platonism in formulation of both orthodox and heterodox Christian theology.
Stephen Ellis search for answers to unexplained things began in 1979. While visiting San Francisco, one night an image of a girl appeared before him in his rooma girl he later found out had been murdered in that room one month earlier. Shaking-off the natural tendency to disbelieve what he saw, Ellis began to research material on ghosts. He found that many people had ghostly experiences, but none had logical explanations for them. Ellis began to find that valid explanations existed, but had often been concealed by those seeking personal gain or distorted by some religious dogma. Explaining the Unexplained offers a no nonsense look at questions concerning reincarnation to ESP to ghosts. Ellis offers realistic answers to questions and events that, until now, have lacked rational explanation. Explaining the Unexplained investigates the worlds most captivating mysteries and supports its views with strong, empirical and circumstantial evidence. If youre looking for answers, this book is a must read.
Death is taboo. Death is incomprehensible, inexplicable; and, yet, inevitable. The most ancient desire of humankind is to conquer death; we humans don’t see death as part of life. We want to play God, want to find a new direction in the eternal circle of life—or stop it altogether. After publishing Cluster (“one of the best science fiction novels published from a Hungarian author” - Köki Terminal Bookshop), in Stephen Paul Thomas’s new short story collection, we can look deeply into the problem that the whole of humankind wants to solve: How can we live longer? In eleven short stories, we follow the characters through different paths to prolong their own lives or the lives of others. For some of them, the soul is a separate entity (a thing that can live without the body); for others, this is impossible—they still live and die as before, in sickness and in old age, some in sacrifice for others. In the big race, in the fight for long life, we can see the picture of a big cataclysm; the collective death. But at its deepest level, this book is not about death. The stories—set in the same Colonial Universe as Cluster—about Life; they are a quest for answers about incurable sickness, about how to replace the body in a world where the soul is immortal. Can humankind alone kill Death? Do we need to prolong life—sometimes even to a pointless, meaningless degree? Why would we do that, why would we want to live longer than the stars? Even they stop shining one day.
The skybus raced haplessly towards its inevitable fate on the Mars New Home Colony. A cop saves the passengers from death . . . but this is only the beginning. Alex Sverlov regains consciousness in the middle of the Indian Ocean with his leg tied to an anchor rope . . . but this is only the beginning. A new world power arises. The New China Empire conquered Asia in two regional atomic wars and is taking its place on the world stage . . . but this is only the beginning. The M-epidemic starts to spread around the inhabited colonies in the Solar System . . . but this is still only the beginning of the story. In this stunning and intricate conspiracy SF novel, the main characters find themselves in the cluster of a Solar System-wide epidemic, while even more powerful physical and spiritual forces are pulling the strings of their lives behind the scenes. A new world, a new epidemic, but the conflicts are the same. You can only find out more about it if you place yourself into the middle of a cluster!
Revealing just how active and engaging science--and scientists--can be, this book profiles Morse, a noted wildlife photographer, and offers readers a closer glimpse into the vulnerable homes of bear, lynx, deer, bobcat, and all the dwellers of the woods. Full color.
National identity and liberal democracy are recurrent themes in debates about Muslim minorities in the West. Britain is no exception, with politicians responding to claims about Muslims' lack of integration by mandating the promotion of 'fundamental British values' including 'democracy' and 'individual liberty'. This book engages with both these themes, addressing the lack of understanding about the character of British Islam and its relationship to the liberal state. It charts a gradual but decisive shift in British institutions concerned with Islamic education, Islamic law and Muslim representation since Muslims settled in the UK in large numbers in the 1950s. Based on empirical research including interviews undertaken over a ten-year period with Muslims, and analysis of public events organized by Islamic institutions, Stephen Jones challenges claims about the isolation of British Islamic organizations and shows that they have decisively shaped themselves around British public and institutional norms. He argues that this amounts to the building of a distinctive 'British Islam'. Using this narrative, the book makes the case for a variety of liberalism that is open to the expression of religious arguments in public and to associations between religious groups and the state. It also offers a powerful challenge to claims about the insularity of British Islamic institutions by showing how the national orientation of Islam called for by British policymakers is, in fact, already happening.
Today, when many parents seem reluctant to have their children vaccinated, even with long proven medications, the Salk vaccine trial, which enrolled millions of healthy children to test an unproven medical intervention, seems nothing short of astonishing. In Selling Science, medical historian Stephen E. Mawdsley recounts the untold story of the first large clinical trial to control polio using healthy children—55,000 healthy children—revealing how this long-forgotten incident cleared the path for Salk’s later trial. Mawdsley describes how, in the early 1950s, Dr. William Hammon and the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis launched a pioneering medical experiment on a previously untried scale. Conducted on over 55,000 healthy children in Texas, Utah, Iowa, and Nebraska, this landmark study assessed the safety and effectiveness of a blood component, gamma globulin, to prevent paralytic polio. The value of the proposed experiment was questioned by many prominent health professionals as it harbored potential health risks, but as Mawdsley points out, compromise and coercion moved it forward. And though the trial returned dubious results, it was presented to the public as a triumph and used to justify a federally sanctioned mass immunization study on thousands of families between 1953 and 1954. Indeed, the concept, conduct, and outcome of the GG study were sold to health professionals, medical researchers, and the public at each stage. At a time when most Americans trusted scientists, their mutual encounter under the auspices of conquering disease was shaped by politics, marketing, and at times, deception. Drawing on oral history interviews, medical journals, newspapers, meeting minutes, and private institutional records, Selling Science sheds light on the ethics of scientific conduct, and on the power of marketing to shape public opinion about medical experimentation.
Visual Research Methods in the Social Sciences: Awakening Visions is an indispensable resource for students, researchers and teachers seeking to use visual sources in their research and understand how images work. This fully updated edition adds questions and activities for studies and many new images and models as well as additional exploration of social and theoretical contexts and examples of current visual and multimodal research. Due to the proliferation of image-centric social media and the growing potential for ‘fake news’, being able to critically assess media and other visual messages is more important than ever. For researchers embarking on visual research this book offers useful practical guidance and real-world examples from seasoned researchers exploring cultures as varied as: religious cults in Venezuela, the Beer Can Regatta in Darwin, Mapuche Indians in Chile and graffiti artists in Sheffield. It offers an integrated approach to visual research, building compelling case studies using a wide range of visual forms, including: archive images, media samples, maps, objects, video, photographs and drawings alongside traditional qualitative approaches. Examples of the visual construction of ‘place’, representations of social identities and different approaches to analysis are explored in the first section of the book, whilst the essays in the second section highlight the creativity and innovation of four leading visual researchers. This new edition will prove valuable for both experienced visual researchers and those embarking on visual research in the social sciences for the first time.
A groundbreaking history of digital design from the nineteenth century to today Digital design has emerged as perhaps the most dynamic force in society, occupying a fluid, experimental space where product design intersects with art, film, business, engineering, theater, music, and artificial intelligence. Stephen Eskilson traces the history of digital design from its precursors in the nineteenth century to its technological and cultural ascendency today, providing a multifaceted account of a digital revolution that touches all aspects of our lives. We live in a time when silicon processors, miniaturization, and CAD-enhanced 3D design have transformed the tangible world of cars and coffee makers as well as the screen world on our phones, computers, and game systems. Eskilson provides invaluable historical perspective to help readers better understand how digital design has become such a vibrant feature of the contemporary landscape. He covers topics ranging from graphic and product design to type, web design, architecture, data visualization, and virtual reality. Along the way, he paints compelling portraits of key innovators behind this transformation, from foundational figures such as Marshall McLuhan, Nam June Paik, and April Greiman to those mapping new frontiers, such as Jeanne Gang, Jony Ive, Yugo Nakamura, Neri Oxman, and Jewel Burks Solomon. Bringing together an unprecedented array of sources on digital design, this comprehensive and richly illustrated book reveals how many of the digital practices we think of as cutting-edge actually originated in the analog age and how the history of digital design is as much about our changing relationship to forms as the forms themselves.
Since its appearance nearly two centuries ago, crime fiction has gripped readers' imaginations around the world. Detectives have varied enormously: from the nineteenth-century policemen (and a few women), through stars like Sherlock Holmes and Miss Marple, to newly self-aware voices of the present - feminist, African American, lesbian, gay, postcolonial and postmodern. Stephen Knight's fascinating book is a comprehensive analytic survey of crime fiction from its origins in the nineteenth century to the present day. Knight explains how and why the various forms of the genre have evolved, explores a range of authors and movements, and argues that the genre as a whole has three parts – the early development of Detection, the growing emphasis on Death, and the modern celebration of Diversity. The expanded second edition has been thoroughly updated in the light of recent research and new developments, such as ethnic crime fiction, the rise of thrillers in the serial-killer and urban collapse modes, and feel-good 'cozies'. It also explores a number of fictional works which have been published in the last few years and features a helpful glossary. With full references, and written in a highly engaging style, this remains the essential short guide for readers of crime fiction everywhere!
The transatlantic slave trade played a major role in the development of the modern world. It both gave birth to and resulted from the shift from feudalism into the European Commercial Revolution. James A. Rawley fills a scholarly gap in the historical discussion of the slave trade from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century by providing one volume covering the economics, demography, epidemiology, and politics of the trade.This revised edition of Rawley's classic, produced with the assistance of Stephen D. Behrendt, includes emended text to reflect the major changes in historiography; current slave trade data tables and accompanying text; updated notes; and the addition of a select bibliography.
This study will be a key resource for scholars, teachers, and students in British literary studies, women's studies, and cultural history.--Stuart Curran, University of Pennsylvania "Internet Review of Books
In this work of interdisciplinary scholarship, Stephen A. Germic reveals how America's first parks, both urban and 'wilderness,' were created and organized to mitigate the most threatening social and economic crises in the nineteenth century outside of the Civil War. Germic analyzes the intentionally disguised relationship between the constructed 'nature' of Central Park, Yosemite, and Yellowstone and the expanding but crisis-prone capitalist state. American Green demonstrates how the fundamental function of these parks was economic and political—in the service of maintaining a consensus regarding national identity. The organization and control of 'natural' space, Germic argues, is inseparable from its function as a capitalist instrument. This instrumentalism served not only to define, constitute, and segregate social groups, but also to promote racial and ethnic identifications above those based on class interest. Providing a fresh insight into United States labor, cultural and environmental history, this book is an important contribution to our understanding of American parks and the complex meaning of American public space.
In Boston, Paul Revere etches out a humble living as a silversmith. Americans and British alike hail the exquiste artistry of his work. But when Paul's revolutionary friends, John Hancock and Samuel Adams pressure Revere to take a stand against British tyranny and join the Sons of Liberty, he worries that supporting the cause of revolution would mean losing his business and risking the safety of his family. Revere must make a choice to do what is easy, or to do what is right.
“The cinema isn’t a slice of life, it’s a slice of cake”—Alfred Hitchcock. “If you make a popular movie, you start to think where have I failed?”—Woody Allen. “A film is the world in an hour and a half”—Jean-Luc Godard. “I think you have to be slightly psychopathic to make movies”—David Cronenberg. This compendium contains more than 3,400 quotations from filmmakers and critics discussing their craft. About 1,850 film people are included—Buñuel, Capra, Chaplin, Disney, Fellini, Fitzgerald, Griffith, Kael, Kurasawa, Pathé, Sarris, Schwarzenegger, Spielberg, Waters and Welles among them. The quotations are arranged under 31 topics such as acting, animation, audience, budget, casting, critics, costume design, directing, locations, reviews, screenwriting, special effects and stardom. Indexing by filmmakers (or critics), by film titles and by narrow subjects provides a rich array of points of access.
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