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As arguably the most influential voice in American Catholicism, the vision that Scott Hahn offers in his works, read by millions of Catholics throughout the world, is one of the most formative in American Catholicism. His numerous books and public speaking engagements are shaping the American Catholic Church in a uniquely powerful manner. This work demonstrates that the Catholic vision that Hahn claims to be providing his audience is, in fact, always quite different from the one he actually presents. What he coins as Catholic faithfulness is instead a straightforward and damning Catholic fundamentalism. As this vision is delivered to millions of the faithful who look to Hahn as a trustworthy guide to an authentic life of Catholic faith, American Pope acts as a critical analysis of his work.
The term 'New Wave' conjures up images of Paris in the early 1960s: Jean Seberg and Jean Paul Belmondo, the young Jean-Pierre Leaud, the three protagonists of Jules and Jim capering across a bridge, all from the films of French filmmakers Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut. The impact of the French New Wave continues to be felt, and its ethos of shooting in real places, with non-professional actors and small crews would influence filmmakers as diverse as John Cassavetes and Martin Scorsese to Lars von Trier's Dogme 95 movement, all of whom sought to challenge the dominance of traditional Hollywood methods of both filmmaking and storytelling. But the French were not the only new wave, and...
** UPDATED NEW EDITION ** Andrei Tarkovsky is the most celebrated Russian filmmaker since Eisenstein, and one of the most important directors to have emerged during the 1960s and 70s. Although he made only seven features, each one was a major landmark in cinema, the most well-known of them being the mediaeval epic Andrei Rublev - widely regarded as one of the greatest films of all time - and the autobiographical Mirror, set during the Russia of Stalin's purges in the 1930s and the years of stagnation under Brezhnev. Both films landed Tarkovsky in considerable trouble with the authorities, and he gained a reputation for being a tortured - and ultimately martyred - filmmaker. Despite the harsh...
The Knights Templar were the most powerful military religious order of the Middle Ages. Formed to protect pilgrims in the Holy Land, they participated in the Crusades and rapidly gained wealth, lands and influence and were answerable to none save the Pope himselffirst bankers, and invented the modern banking system that is still in use today, and were also involved in exploration and engineering.
A lawyer and his investigator must discover why his client accused of a gruesome murder remains silent in this dark legal thriller. One freezing December night, the body of young, vulnerable, Lizzie Barnsley is found on the side of an isolated canal. When blood from her stiletto heel matches that on a wound on the head of Peter Box, police swiftly declare him the prime suspect in her murder. Criminal lawyer, Dan Grant, is called in to provide Peter Box’s legal defense, along with investigator, Jayne Brett. They need answers from Box—but he’s not talking. As they dig deeper into the case, they discover that this brutal slaying is just the latest in a series of deaths in the Northern tow...
The Black Death is the name most commonly given to the pandemic of bubonic plague that ravaged the medieval world in the late 1340s. From Central Asia the plague swept through Europe, leaving millions of dead in its wake. Between a quarter and a third of Europe's population died. In England the population fell from nearly six million to just over three million. The Black Death was the greatest demographic disaster in European history. Sean Martin looks at the origins of the disease and traces its terrible march through Europe from the Italian cities to the far-flung corners of Scandinavia. He describes contemporary responses to the plague and makes clear how helpless was the medicine of the day in the face of it. He examines the renewed persecution of the Jews, blamed by many Christians for the spread of the disease, and highlights the bizarre attempts by such groups as the Flagellants to ward off what they saw as the wrath of God. His book is a vivid and dramatic account of one of the great catastrophes of history.
Often alchemy is seen as an example of medieval gullibility and the alchemists as a collection of eccentrics and superstitious fools. In this Pocket Essential Sean Martin shows that nothing could be further from the truth. It is important to see the search for the philosopher's stone and the attempts to turn base metal into gold as metaphors for the relation of man to nature and man to God as much as seriously held beliefs. Alchemy had a self-consistent outlook on the natural world and man's place in it. Alchemists like Paracelsus and Albertus Magnus were amongst the greatest minds of their time and the history of alchemy is both the history of a spiritual search and the history of a slowly developing scientific method. Sir Isaac Newton devoted as much time to his alchemical studies as he did to his mathematical ones. This book traces the history of alchemy from ancient times to the 20th century, highlighting the interest of modern thinkers like Jung in the subject, and in the process covers a major, if neglected area of Western thought.
Gnosticism - derived from the Greek word gnosis, to know - is the name given to various religious schools that proliferated in the first centuries after Christ and, at one time, it almost became the dominant form of Christianity. Yet some Gnostic beliefs derive from the older Mystery traditions of Greece and Rome, and the various Gnostic schools came to be branded as heretical by the emerging Christian church. Indeed, although some Gnostic beliefs are close to mainstream Christianity Gnosticism also held that the world is imperfect as it was created by an evil god who was constantly at war with the true, good God; that Christ and Satan were brothers; that reincarnation exists; and that women...
“A one-stop guide for anyone truly interested in elevating their BBQ experience into a culinary work of art”—with 75 recipes that pair smoky goodness from the grill with the wines of the Pacific Northwest (San Francisco Book Review). Introducing a marriage between two unlikely characters—wood-fired food and well-chosen wines—brought you by the real-life marriage of a pitmaster and a sommelier. Ready to up your grilling game? This cookbook by a pitmaster and a sommelier will turn your backyard barbecue into the tastiest place to be—with recipes that celebrate smoked and grilled food (and the wines that pair best with them). Every region has its barbecue, grill, and smoking food tr...
Disease has plagued human civilisations throughout history, claiming more lives than natural disasters and warfare combined. The Black Death took the lives of one third of Europe's population in the fourteenth century. The conquest of the New World was accompanied by devastating waves of smallpox. The Industrial Revolution happened in a world blighted by the diseases of urbanisation and overcrowding, typhoid and cholera, typhus and TB. New diseases such as AIDS, Ebola, and COVID-19 present further challenges to medical science and healthcare. A Short History of Disease chronicles the historical and geographical evolution of infectious and non-infectious diseases, from their prehistoric origi...