The journey in Egypt, the charming land
The journey in Egypt, the charming land

Author: Nguyen Quy Minh Hien

Publisher: Nguyen Quy Minh Hien

Published: 2015-06-12

Total Pages: 53

ISBN-13:

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… “Just ran out the dwarfish row of houses and a soiling wall of a dirty little market then I saw Giza desert with boundless sand and titanic pyramids. The reality of mythology and legends was showed in front of our eyes. Dazzling! Dizzy! Giddy! It was my real feeling at that time. Before that, I never had the same feeling when stood at other wonders. Suddenly felt that everyone’s life was so short. If could compare some tens years of everyone’s life with thousands years of pyramids then it seemed like a piece of stone under pyramid or a pinch of sand in desert. What was real meaning when sand and dust returned to dust and sand?”… …”Long time ago, I was charmed by films of Queen Cleopad and her two famous lovers in history. Could not estimate level of beauty and intelligence of Cleopad. A powerfull Roman King lost his throne and died for her, and then a talented Roman general was defeated in a battle, down and out by her too. What was real reason? Until visit Alexandria, the last battle of Cleopad royal dynasty, I could feel why.”… The journey in Egypt brought many interesting experiences and a special feeling. This book includes stories of my travel in Egypt, the charming land. It is not a guide-book to travel. The writing is my prayer for peace in the earth, finish bombs, children have many foods, nobody is poverty-stricken, everybody can travel. The book was a collection of my experience, impression and feeling of countries, regions where I visited. It included joy, worry, anxiety, surprise and disappointment, suddenness and interest…in Egypt. It was the feeling of pyramids in Giza desert, the impression of mysterious charms of Aswan, Luxor, Cairo, Alexandria… Please read all stories in this book “The journey in Egypt, the charming land”, image and feel…

Piety, Politics, and Power
Piety, Politics, and Power

Author: David D. Grafton

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2009-03-16

Total Pages: 312

ISBN-13: 1606081306

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From the time of Martin Luther's writing of On War Against the Turk in 1529 to American Lutheran military chaplains serving in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, Lutheranism has had a symbiotic relationship with Islam in the Middle East, framed across cultural and religious borders. There have been those who have crossed these borders to engage in mission and dialogue. In Piety, Politics, and Power, David Grafton examines the origins of the American Lutheran missionary movement in the Middle East, with a focus on its encounter with Muslims and the varied Lutheran theological responses toward Islam. The narrative is placed within historical contexts to provide an overarching background of Middle Eastern history and Christian-Muslim Relations. The survey covers Lutheran missionary communities in Persia, Iraq, Egypt, Lebanon, and Jerusalem and the West Bank, including the work of the Lutherans working for the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missionaries, the Anglican Church Missionary Society, the Lutheran Orient Mission, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Whether enthusiastic Pietists seeking the conversion of Muslims and Jews; cautious theologians in dialogue with Islam, Judaism, or Oriental Orthodoxy; or social activists working on behalf of refugees in Egypt and the West Bank, Grafton argues that these Christian missionaries were all enmeshed in the politics of the communities in which they lived, and either contributed to or suffered from the realities of Middle Eastern and international politics. Given the current reality of Pax Americana in the Middle East, the author asks the driving question about the role of American Lutheran missions and Lutheran-Middle Eastern Muslim dialogue in the age of American power in the Middle East.

The Norwegian-American Lutheran Experience in 1950s Japan
The Norwegian-American Lutheran Experience in 1950s Japan

Author: Kate Allen

Publisher: Lexington Books

Published: 2015-12-15

Total Pages: 333

ISBN-13: 1498524818

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Stepping Up to the Cold War Challenge: The Norwegian-American Lutheran Experience in 1950s Japan describes the events that led to the Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELC), an American Christian denomination, to respond to General MacArthur’s call for missionaries. This Church did not initially respond, but did so in 1949 only after their missionaries had been expelled from China due to the victory of communist forces on the mainland. Because they feared Japan would also succumb to communism in less than ten years, the missionaries evaded ecumenical cooperation and social welfare projects to focus on evangelism and establishing congregations. Many of the ELC missionaries were children and grandchildren of Norwegian immigrants who had settled as farmers on the North American Great Plains. Based on interview transcripts and other primary sources, this book intimately describes the personal struggles of individuals responding to the call to be a missionary, adjusting to life in Japan, learning Japanese, raising a family, and engaging in mission work. As the Cold War threat diminished and independence movements elsewhere were ending colonialism, missionaries were compelled to change methods and attitudes. The 1950s was a time when missionaries went out much in the same manner that they did in the nineteenth century. Through the voices of the missionaries and their Japanese coworkers, the book documents how many of the traditional missionary assumptions begin to be questioned.

Laws of the Land
Laws of the Land

Author: Tristan G. Brown

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2023-12-05

Total Pages: 360

ISBN-13: 0691246734

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A groundbreaking history of fengshui’s roles in public life and law during China’s last imperial dynasty Today the term fengshui, which literally means “wind and water,” is recognized around the world. Yet few know exactly what it means, let alone its fascinating history. In Laws of the Land, Tristan Brown tells the story of the important roles—especially legal ones—played by fengshui in Chinese society during China’s last imperial dynasty, the Manchu Qing (1644–1912). Employing archives from Mainland China and Taiwan that have only recently become available, this is the first book to document fengshui’s invocations in Chinese law during the Qing dynasty. Facing a growing population, dwindling natural resources, and an overburdened rural government, judicial administrators across China grappled with disputes and petitions about fengshui in their efforts to sustain forestry, farming, mining, and city planning. Laws of the Land offers a radically new interpretation of these legal arrangements: they worked. An intelligent, considered, and sustained engagement with fengshui on the ground helped the imperial state keep the peace and maintain its legitimacy, especially during the increasingly turbulent decades of the nineteenth century. As the century came to an end, contentious debates over industrialization swept across the bureaucracy, with fengshui invoked by officials and scholars opposed to the establishment of railways, telegraphs, and foreign-owned mines. Demonstrating that the only way to understand those debates and their profound stakes is to grasp fengshui’s longstanding roles in Chinese public life, Laws of the Land rethinks key issues in the history of Chinese law, politics, science, religion, and economics.