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Author : Sarah C. Humphreys Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA Page : 410 pages File Size : 19,21 MB Release : 2004-09-30 Category : History ISBN : 0199269238
Gods are supernatural, and strange. Human attempts to understand them are entangled with the effort to understand all human experience. In contrast to the long-standing dismissal of religion as conservative and traditionalistic, S. C. Humphreys argues that ancient Athenians thought about their rites as well as celebrating them.
This book is the powerful story of an amazing woman who converts to Catholicism at Harvard University, marries her college sweetheart and joyfully welcomes several children. After some successful forays into pro-life activism in New England, Ruth Pakaluk is struck with breast cancer and dies at the young age of forty-one. Ruth's story is told primarily through her humorous, sparkling and insightful letters, through which her realistic cheerfulness shines. A biographical sketch by her husband, Michael Pakaluk, fills in the needed background information, while a collection of her talks on abortion and on being a Catholic wife and mother round out the volume. Ruth Pakaluk exemplified the powerful integrity of someone who lives what she believes. She was steadfastly committed to Christ and to the culture of life, and this commitment was manifested in her consistent affirmation of life in her family, in her society and even in the face of her own death. Peter Kreeft, Professor of Philosophy and widely published author, referred to Ruth Pakaluk as the best and most effective and inspiring pro-life speaker he had ever heard. She was so renowned as a pro-life debater in New England, that eventually Planned Parenthood spokeswomen refused to spar with her in public. The forceful logic of her arguments was made even more compelling by the strength of her personality. All of Ruth's virtues - her love as a devoted wife and mother, her zeal for the truth and her hope while battling a terminal illness - offer inspiration and encouragement to anyone striving to put Christian faith into action.
The Strangeness of Gods combines studies of changes in modern interpretations of Greek religion with studies of changes in Athenian ritual. The combination is necessary in order to combat influential stereotypes: that Greek religion consisted of ritual without theological speculation, that ritual is inherently conservative. To re-examine the evidence for Greek rituals and their interpretation is also to re-examine our own preconceptions and prejudices. The argument presented by S. C. Humphreys tries to bring Greek texts closer to the `classic' texts of other civilizations, and religion, as a form of speculative thought, closer to science. Her studies of Athenian rituals put this emphasis on changing interpretations into practice, showing that the Athenians thought about their rites as well as celebrating them.
Coralee Harper struggles for justice for her dead brother and her own sanity in Depression-era rural Arkansas. In 1926 in rural Green County, Arkansas, where cotton and poverty reign, young Coralee Harper hopes for a family and a place in her community, but when her brother Buddy is killed by a powerful sheriff, she can't recover from his death or the injustice of his loss. When she begins to spot her dead brother around town, she wonders--is she clairvoyant, mistaken, or is she losing her mind? What Coralee can't fathom is that there are forces at work that threaten her and the very fabric of the town: Leroy Harrison, a newly minted, ambitious lawyer who makes a horrible mistake, landing him a judgeship and a guilty conscience for life; an evangelical preacher and his flock of snake-handling parishioners; the women of the town who, along with Coralee's own mother, make up their own kind of jury for Coralee's behavior; Sheriff Wiley Slocum who rules the entire field, harboring dark secrets of his own; and finally, Coralee's husband Earl, who tries to balance his work at the cotton gin with his fight for family and Coralee's life. When Coralee ends up in a sanity hearing before Judge Leroy Harrison, the judge must decide both Coralee's fate and his own. The chain of events following his decision draws him more deeply into the sheriff's far-reaching sphere of influence, and reveals the destructive nature of power, even--and especially--his own.
“One of the best collections I’ve ever read. Every single story is a standout.”—Roxane Gay WINNER OF THE CHAUTAUQUA PRIZE • LONGLISTED FOR THE STORY PRIZE • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR • Refinery29 • BookRiot “Fuses science, myth, and imagination into a dark and gorgeous series of questions about our current predicaments.”—Anthony Doerr, author of All the Light We Cannot See A dystopian tale about genetically modified septuplets who are struck by a mysterious illness; a love story about a man bewitched by a mermaid; a stirring imagining of the lives of Nigerian schoolgirls in the aftermath of a Boko Haram kidnapping. The stories in All the Names They Used for God break down genre barriers—from science fiction to American Gothic to magical realism to horror—and are united by each character’s brutal struggle with fate. Like many of us, the characters in this collection are in pursuit of the sublime. Along the way, they must navigate the borderland between salvation and destruction. NAMED A MUST-READ BOOK BY Harper’s Bazaar • Entertainment Weekly • AM New York • Reading Women AND A TOP READ BY Elle • Fast Company • The Christian Science Monitor • Bustle • Shondaland • Popsugar • Refinery29 • Bookish • Newsday • The Millions • Asian American Writers’ Workshop • HelloGiggles “Strange and wonderful . . . delightfully unexpected.”—The New York Times Book Review “Completing one [story] is like having lived an entire life, and then being born, breathless, into another.”—Carmen Maria Machado “Captivating.”—NPR “Gripping.”—Los Angeles Review of Books “[A] remarkable debut . . . Sachdeva is seemingly fearless and her talent limitless.”—AM New York “This phenomenal debut short-story collection is filled with stories that bring the otherworldly to life and examine the strangeness of humanity.”—Bustle “So rich they read like dreams . . . They are enormous stories, not in length but in ambition, each an entirely new, unsparing world. Beautiful, draining—and entirely unforgettable.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Startling stories center the bodies, memories, myths, and relationships of Asian American women in “a voracious, probing collection, proof of how exhilarating the short story can be” (The New York Times Book Review, Editors’ Choice)—from the National Book Award “5 Under 35” honoree and author of Bestiary “Wise, energetic, funny, and wild, Gods of Want displays a boundless imagination anchored by the weight of ancestors and history.”—Kali Fajardo-Anstine, author of Sabrina & Corina and Woman of Light WINNER OF THE LAMBDA LITERARY AWARD • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, NPR, Them, Book Riot In “Auntland,” a steady stream of aunts adjust to American life by sneaking surreptitious kisses from women at temple, buying tubs of vanilla ice cream to prepare for citizenship tests, and hatching plans to name their daughters “Dog.” In “The Chorus of Dead Cousins,” ghost-cousins cross space, seas, and skies to haunt their live-cousin, wife to a storm chaser. In “Xífù,” a mother-in-law tortures a wife in increasingly unsuccessful attempts to rid the house of her. In “Mariela,” two girls explore one another’s bodies for the first time in the belly of a plastic shark, while in “Virginia Slims,” a woman from a cigarette ad comes to life. And in “Resident Aliens,” a former slaughterhouse serves as a residence to a series of widows, each harboring her own calamitous secrets. With each tale, K-Ming Chang gives us her own take on a surrealism that mixes myth and migration, corporeality and ghostliness, queerness and the quotidian. Stunningly told in her feminist fabulist style, these are uncanny stories peeling back greater questions of power and memory.
This ground-breaking and provocative book presents new and astonishing interpretations of ancient history, mythology and world religions that will call many established beliefs into question. In Gateway of the Gods, author Craig Hines invites readers to reconsider preconceived notions concerning Biblical theology in light of recent scientific discoveries and inquiries concerning the nature of the universe. This fascinating exploration reveals a number of ideas that have been suppressed and obscured behind layers of symbolism and misguided propaganda for thousands of years... until now. Why is it that so many world cultures share details of an event when fallen angels descended upon the earth and fathered hybrid offspring called the Nephilim? Is it possible that these beings used "gateway" technology housed within pyramids and holy temples to travel between the heavenly and earthly realms? Do the latest advances in theoretical physics lend credibility to the idea that otherworldly beings might reside in dimensions parallel to our own? Do the recorded voices of the "dead," known as Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP), indicate that we may be able to communicate with these other realms? Was a secret message embedded within ancient texts that could only be revealed after we have attained the knowledge and technology necessary to understand it? Does this message offer a solution to the approaching environmental disaster that scientists warn will be more devastating to human civilization than any others in recorded history? Drawing from a variety of historical sources and years of meticulous research, the author weaves together a compelling argument involving a range of seemingly disparate topics that when considered together, formulate a radically new narrative concerning the history and destiny of the human race.
The Scent of the Gods tells the enchanting, haunting story of a young girl's coming of age in Singapore during the tumultuous years of its formation as a nation. Eleven-year-old Su Yen bears witness to the secretive lives of "grown-ups" in her diasporic Chinese family and to the veiled threats in Southeast Asia during the Cold War years. From a child's limited perspective, the novel depicts the emerging awareness of sexuality in both its beauty and its consequences, especially for women. In the context of postcolonial politics, Fiona Cheong skillfully parallels the uncertainties of adolescence with the growing paranoia of a population kept on alert to communist infiltration. In luminous prose, the novel raises timely questions about safety, protection, and democracy--and what one has to give up to achieve them. Ideal for students and scholars of Asian American and transnational literature, postcolonial history, women's studies, and many other interconnected disciplines, this special edition of The Scent of the Gods includes a contextualizing introduction, a chronology of historical events covered in the novel, and explanatory notes.
A number of "strange gods" have arisen in recent years in the way that man perceives the world around him and his own self in relation to the one true God. Mother Mary Francis, PCC, deftly dethrones each strange god in turn, while at the same time giving the reader an inimitable view of what a monastic cloister is like -- from the inside. All lovers of her book "A Right to be Merry" will find this sequel most delightful, as well as packed with spiritual wisdom and insight.