This wide-ranging historical survey provides an indispensable resource for those interested in exploring, teaching, or studying English spirituality. In two stand-alone volumes, it traces the history from Roman times until the year 2000. The main Christian traditions and a vast range of writers and spiritual themes, from Anglo-Saxon poems to late-modern feminist spirituality, are included. These volumes present the astonishing richness and variety of responses made by English Christians to the call of the divine during the past two thousand years.
The Remembered Dead explores the ways poets of the First World War - and later poets writing in the memory of that war - address the difficult question of how to remember, and commemorate, those killed in conflict. It looks closely at the way poets struggled to meaningfully represent dying, death, and the trauma of witness, while responding to the pressing need for commemoration. The authors pay close attention to specific poems while maintaining a strong awareness of literary and philosophical contexts. The poems are discussed in relation to modernism and myth, other forms of commemoration (such as photographs and memorials), and theories of cultural memory. There is fresh analysis of canonical poets which, at the same time, challenges the confines of the canon by integrating discussion of lesser-known figures, including non-combatants and poets of later decades. The final chapter reaches beyond the war's centenary in a discussion of one remarkable commemoration of Wilfred Owen.
Love's Mysteries reflects powerfully on our fundamental limitations as creatures of flesh and bone, and what our experiences of grief, loss, and fragility tell us about God. Rachel Mann explores what happens when our bodies are under pressure, suggesting that the precariousness of life might be where we most authentically encounter God.
With the growing, renewed attention to the art of preaching, this timely collection from the influential Littlemore Group of theologians explores the role of this vital ministry in today's Church. Experienced contributors from a wide range of backgrounds - catholic, evangelical and liberal – weave together theology, anecdote and reflection on practice as they share their passion for preaching. Each one is noted for their attentiveness to the poetry of the spoken word in preaching, and the practical challenges and pitfalls of this central activity of public worship. Chapters include: • The Joy and Terror of Preaching • The Power of Language • Localizing the Gospel • Attentiveness to the Word • The Sermon as Sacrament • Genres of Preaching Contributors include Rachel Mann, Paula Gooder, Donna Lazenby, Sr Judith SLG, Edmund Newey, Anderson Jeremiah and Joel Love.
The complete lyrics from cultural icon and bestselling author Nick Cave, spanning his entire career to date, with a new foreword by Andrew O'Hagan From Nick Cave's writing for The Birthday Party, through highly acclaimed albums like Murder Ballads, Henry's Dream, DIG, LAZARUS, DIG!!! and Ghosteen, this is a must-have book for all fans of the dark, the beautiful and the defiant - for all fans of the songs of Nick Cave. 'The greatest living songwriter' NME 'A glowing wire, a mainline to meaning ad feeling and art' New Yorker 'Nick Cave is a true lyrical master. He can conjure empathy and hope out of thin air, light out of darkness' Cillian Murphy 'His lyrics - so rich in the toils of love, so committed to memory and everlasting presence - are the best-made of his generation' Andrew O'Hagan 'A poetic craftsman' Will Self 'Alternative rock legend' Billboard 'Cave's genius rings loud and clear' Evening Standard Cover art by Aleksandra Waliszewska
Christian churches in recent decades have taken some steps in their practices of liturgy and worship toward acknowledging the graced dignity of human variety. But who is still excluded? What pernicious norms still govern below the surface, and how might they be revealed? How do texts, gestures, and space abet and enforce such norms? How might Christian assemblies gather multiple expressions of human difference to propose through Christian liturgy patterns of graced interaction in the world around them? Liturgy with a Difference gathers a broad range of international theologians and scholars to interrogate current practices of liturgy and worship in order to unmask ways in which dehumanizing majoritarianisms and presumed norms of gender, culture, ethnicity, and body, among others, remain at work in congregations. Together, the chapters in this collection call for a liturgical practice that recognizes and rehearses the vivid richness of God’s image found in the human community and glimpsed, if only for a moment, in liturgical celebration. They point a way beyond mere inclusion toward a generous embrace of the many differences that make up the Christian community. With contributions from Rachel Mann, Teresa Berger, Susannah Cornwall, Miguel A. DeLa Torre, Edward Foley, W. Scott Haldeman, Michael Jagessar, Bruce T. Morrill, Kristine Suna-Koro and Frank Senn. Foreword by Ann Loades.
Fierce Imaginings is one of the most searching and original books written about the impact of the First World War on the faith and the myths of the UK. Recent events have reinforced the sense that we run back to our mythology pretty readily when we feel anxious and at sea, desperately dusting off the stereotypes and the legends that seem to offer reassurance. The importance of this exceptional book is that it helps us see how the rituals of memory can work in a way that is anything but reactionary or repressive. They take us 'in search of the human', to use an evocative phrase from these pages: a search with some contemporary urgency.
The first volume to be published in the new 21st-Century Oxford Authors series presents all of the surviving writings of Isaac Rosenberg (1890-1918): poetry, plays, prose works, and letters. The book also provides a commentary giving details of the composition and publication of the poems and plays and throws light on the people, places, and incidents described in both these and the letters. An introduction places the collection in context and a chronological table describes the main events of his life. There are also examples of his paintings and drawings. Although best known as a war poet, most of Rosenberg's work pre-dates the war. The son of Jewish immigrants from Lithuania, he grew up in London's East End. Financially impoverished, he nevertheless lived in a society that valued artistic creativity - among his friends were Mark Gertler and David Bomberg. He was a painter as well as a poet, and studied at the Slade School of Art. He knew many of the leading poets of the day, and his letters, in particular those to Edward Marsh and Gordon Bottomley, throw fascinating light on his own poetic creativitiy and the response to his work of those around him. In both his letters and prose works we find an insightful commentator on both poetry and painting. Though never a member of any movement, he was aware of the issues that preoccupied the artistic circles of his day. His artistic independence gives both power and insight to his work.
